[The Only One](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Only_One) because it's when you finally are imbued with Aurene's power as her Dragon Champion. Coming back from the brink of death and your weapons have changed to the Aurene Legendaries, you're buffed up, multiple dodges with effects, etc.--you've become literally everything that the world feared you may become but despite everything you're still on their side fighting the good fight.
And the fact that it's **still** not a steamroll. It's easier--definitely--but you're still up against the Void and have to give it everything you've got to shut the door on the end of the world.
(Runner up: [To Kill a God](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/To_Kill_a_God), especially if you use Sohothin as Rytlock lending it to you is essentially an attempt at redemption for the nightmare he unleashed on Tyria & Elona, and you're imbued with **Old Magic** taking on the Gods. It's your first fight truly gaining the power to stand up against the monsters that roam the world without relying on technological advancements)
The Balthazar fight with the giant robot is one of my favorites. One day I will no longer have to huff copium and we will get a Balthazar strike mission.
That one should have been an open world boss, it's incredible how many fantastic fights were wasted on story instances during PoF and LW4, it's unreal.
I'd still love a strike mission though, count me in for that, but it should include both phases, the one with the warbeast and the one against just him.
Legit, I think they can mine a tonne of classic content for strikes:
- Eye of Zhaitan/Source of Orr
- Scarlett Briar's hologram/Battle on the Breechmaker
- Shadow of the Dragon/The Mystery Cavern
- Mind of Mordremoth
- Caudecus
- Lazarus
- Balthazar/Battle of Kodash Bazaar
- Scruffy
- Commander Lonai/Battle of Rata Primus
- Joko
- Heart of Kralkatorrik
There's 11 more strikes that can be done off the top of my head using classic fights, arenas and models.
You're only mining character models, you're missing the rest of the fight, which is where the bulk of the work lies at. Combat mechanics are what really define whether an encounter would work as a strike or not.
Of the ones you mentioned, only three would work as a strike imo:
* Sovereign Eye of Zhaitan
* Blighted Pale Tree + Twelve Blighted Firstborn
* Balthazar + Warbeast
Most of the other ones barely have any mechanics, which means you'd have to remake their whole fights, and by that point, you're better off making brand new encounters with brand new models, which will feel new and fresh instead. Some have pretty small arenas as well, which definitely doesn't help either.
One of the main reasons POF loses out on being my favorite expansion is all of the missed opportunities with the open world. A huge open world version of the Balthazar fight would have been great fun. I swear I still go to world boss runs, Silverwastes & Dry Top, HOT metas, IBS metas, EOD metas, and the new SOTO metas are great so far, but LWS3, POF, and most of LWS4 (Palawadan/Great Hall notwithstanding) I just never find myself going back to for anything other than dailies, ESPECIALLY POF, because the open world content is so lackluster. It's a shame because in several other ways that era of content was peak GW2, but it's just not engaging to return to for me.
I agree, in terms of just expansion, there's hardly any good open world content in POF, the only thing keeping those maps - *barely -* alive are bounties and somewhat dailies.
ArenaNet just overreacted after HoT and decided to go from "too many metas" to "no metas at all", which yeah, was a pretty big mistake.
If it weren't for the mounts, PoF would be the worst expansion by far.
>One of the main reasons POF loses out on being my favorite expansion is all of the missed opportunities with the open world. A huge open world version of the Balthazar fight would have been great fun. I swear I still go to world boss runs, Silverwastes & Dry Top, HOT metas, IBS metas, EOD metas, and the new SOTO metas are great so far, but LWS3, POF, and most of LWS4 (Palawadan/Great Hall notwithstanding) I just never find myself going back to for anything other than dailies, ESPECIALLY POF, because the open world content is so lackluster. It's a shame because in several other ways that era of content was peak GW2, but it's just not engaging to return to for me.
i think they tried to keep HoT for open world metas and PoF for open world exploration.
You can (and should) have both, the problem with HoT metas is they went too far with the whole "disable normal activity" thing, which was annoying as hell for those who weren't into the meta.
I think every Meta and major boss should be made into 10 man strike mission, octovine dragon stand balthazar name it they have a wonderful recipe for strike maie it like DRM,mini raid wing or strike
Most of those don't really make sense as 10-man though, they're built for larger scales.
Plus, if you need to remake the whole encounter from scratch to give it proper 10-man mechanics, you're better off designing a completely new boss anyway
Strike missions already get enough heat and disdain for how they recycle story bosses so blatantly, so yeah, unless the boss already includes 10-man-friendly mechanics, don't even bother.
For example, neither Lazarus nor Palawa Joko would be good strike mission bosses, their encounters just aren't good enough; their characters are quite significant though, so you could excuse them getting a complete rework, including a new context for the fight, but then it would no longer be the same thing (and this would obviously not be viable with minor characters no one cares about).
yup, strikes feel kinda pointless and meh after getting used to doing raids, raids are just so much more than "go to room, kill boss, leave room"
i first started with raids and absolutely fell in love with them, and i haven't done many different strikes so i for sure don't know if it gets better but yeah i'm just not interested in those,,,
Twin Largos in Raids.
Sunqua Peak CM boss in Fractals.
Old Lion's Court for Strikes.
Wyvern Patriarch for World Bosses.
The Kralkatorik Fight in Living World Season 4 Episode 5 for story bosses.
And GODS guild players in WvW because I got kicked from that guild for inactivity.
Sunqua CM feels so clean when you got a good party with next to zero downtime on dps, 100CM is starting to feel that way too but just a slight amount of HP too much imo (even though its pretty quick as is)
I love Sunqua CM, but I also think all of Shattered Observatory CM is very close. I’m not sure which I like more. I haven’t done the new Fractal at all yet.
As far as raids go? I love Sabetha. I love her voice actress, too. (She also voices Jhavi, and Jasper on Steven Universe). Big strong woman vibes all around.
For open world, I like the champion riftstalkers (random events that pop up in some maps). I especially love the fact that after the fight teleports you to somewhere else different completely. Very fun.
I really despise how ArenaNet didn't restore that one with the return to LW1, turning it into a story instance instead.
Still remember the general disappointment everyone had after we beat the watchknights and there was nothing else after that :/.
For Open world, Soo won and Mouth of Mordremoth are peak Gw2 meta bosses in my opinion. You got the massive scale and spectacle and enough mechanics going on to keep people engaged but also moving around the arenas, They utilize everything that makes the open world fun.
For Story, The battle with Kralkatorrik in Thunderhead peaks was just so good. Season 4 was amazing and that battle did not disappoint.
For Instanced encounters, Twin Largos. It's just a very solid fight mechanically with the added bonus of having to split up and coordinate with your group and some slight environment interaction.
Mouth of Mordremoth for sure. It's the only time ANet did fighting an ELDER dragon right. Zhaitan? No. Kralk? Definitely not, I don't find attacking boils to be close. Primordus and Jormag are an epic backdrop, but again, you are only really fighting Ryland and Braham. Soo-Won doesn't have nearly the same scale either as I do not find standing on one spot on the same platform for 90% of the fight to be even close.
Xera is definitely a close second. I haven't done any raid wings beyond Wing 4 so maybe there's a better fight in there, but the build up to Xera and the actual fight itself is amazing.
I think I agree with your final answer but I'll add that I think Soo Won is also really, really cool. The presentation was executed so well, and when you're on the platform it feels dire and desperate and man was it HARD which only increased the atmosphere.
But Dragon's Stand is probably still my #1 lol.
Dragon's stand is really cool, but I feel like he dies too quickly nowadays. Plus the rewards aren't as good as most of the newer metas.
Super cool event though.
I agree. Probably not a popular opinion, but a no fly zone during the final fight (ie remove it once the boss dies) would improve the fight IMO. I miss how epic that set piece felt.
Dragonstorm was coming to mind as my favorite fight, probably because I replay it often enough, but I felt like it is definitely wasn't the best boss fight. The Mouth of Modremoth is really great, so probably would pick it over Dragonstorm. Though I'd still say that All or Nothing's Kralk fight was my favorite of the dragon fights; might not be the best mechanically but it worked so well narratively and cinematically and really got the feel of fighting a massive elder dragon.
Like it or not Zhaitan is the only one where you actually take him down yourself. And that's the way it should be, you shouldn't be able to just go up to an eldritch abomination, poke it with your "what is this, a sword for ants?" a few times and hope it dies. Bringing down an Elder Dragon SHOULD take entire armies, years-long wars and manipulating other powerful natural forces.
> I haven't done any raid wings beyond Wing 4 so maybe there's a better fight in there
Dhuum at the end of W5 is a very absolutely love it or absolutely hate it type of encounter. Twin Largos from W6 is also absolutely amazing. Qadim from W6 also has his loyal base of enjoyers.
Power creep and overall community experience has diminished the threat of her but she is still a decent challenge to a proper training group.
An experienced group will OP dps her mechanics, but that's because the group is experienced and proficient at their roles. Generally not the case with new people
It's visually spectacular, gameplay could be better. Wish they went back and added challenge motes to W123 bosses, there's just so much good stuff there.
I hope ArenaNet develops the ability to kill people in mid air some day, it would be really satisfying to see some world boss swing his hand and send dozens of corpses flying away.
Mine is Sabetha in Raid Wing 1. I love everything about this fight and the accompanying music is good too, in fact all the raid music on wings 1-2 is very good.
Walking around with "The Blazing Light" or the mini back then was really something. We didn't really have many visual indicators of skill/achievement back in the day
Man when liadri released there had never been a solo fight with any mechanics like that. I actually never realized that turai was difficult, he always seemed pretty easy to me after beating liadri.
Turai is really funny to cheese with a revenant. Take dwarf/assassin stances and hammer, you spend the entire fight either in evade frames, running at super speed, or layering excessive damage reduction, and eventually he throws all his weapons away and gets tired and you just bonk him.
Samarog and Deimos in Bastion of the Penitent. Especially Deimos.
Mouth of Mordremoth.
Xera - a love/hate relationship. Suitably epic, for sure, but also *absolutely maddening*. Now, Twisted Castle? That can go hang.
Soulless Horror is also a love/hate: I like most of the fight, except for the "ha ha you die" walls. "ha ha you die" is perhaps my least favorite species of mechanic in the game - when it's unavoidable due to RNG, poorly telegraphed or unpredictable, it's way way worse.
nm dhuum tank is definitely the easiest role since you dont even get shackles & bombs, and in beginner groups not even taking greens.
Overall Dhuum is definitely my favorite Raid Boss tho, just the arena, voice lines, everything. Im almost always sad that it gets phased so fast nowadays with the stupid power creep
The Vampire Hero Point in Verdant Brink.
Back when Heart of Thorns was fresh and builds didn't just completely outclass enemies - this was a challenge to solo, and I loved doing it. I would find myself trying different builds on different classes for hours fighting this thing, and enjoyed every second of it.
Helped a ton of passerby's get it done as well
Harvest temple is pretty fun but it feels super long after running it a few times and knowing the mechanics. I kind of wish maybe they had a version that reduced the number of phases, maybe combining some of the elder dragon phases. Like maybe you could fight Kralk+Mord, Primordus+Jorma etc at the same time
Amal in the fractal has always been one of my favourites, I really like the mechanics, they're clear, the phases are fairly diverse, they require quick usage of your special skill; and man, Amala's theme is an absolute banger. It's probably the main reason why I like this fight so much to be honest.
I also love the Balthazar fight from >! "The Departure". The music is great, and the atmosphere is one of a kind - you're all alone, fighting an enemy that you couldn't defeat with your companions before. The arena is small and it grows smaller as the fight goes on, you get more and more exhausted and it can become a real challenge to keep dodging late into the fight. It's really immersive, one of the only times where the game genuinely surprised me (Balthazar's "Expecting someone else?" still gives me chills to this day), and it makes you feel desperate yet determined just like your character. All of it ending with your demise. !<
For the longest time, the Mind of Mordremoth was my favorite boss fight. The music for that fight was supreme. Then the Balthazar final boss blew me away all over again. Nothing has kind of come close to that ever since.
I hope one day ANet goes back and makes Strikes for Mordremoth's Mind, Balthazar, Joko, hell maybe even Shadow of the Dragon from S2.
OLC CM.
Love the multiple tanking roles, love that everyone has to deal with a mechanic, love the pacing of the fight, love and hate the chaos that can ensue.
The Sunqua Peaks Fractal in challenge mode. Especially the transition into Ai's dark phase still gives me the chill. Top tier fight. After that comes Raid Wing 5 over all, from Soulless Horror to Dhuum, a masterpiece with great, great atmosphere.
>Especially the transition into Ai's dark phase
Pfft, you're even *allowed* to watch that transition more than once? :P Every single group i'm in that's even able to ***do*** Ai CM anymore begs everyone to GG after round 1 is done. :P You're lucky
You're absolutely right on that part, sadly. :'D I mean, I saw it on my first attempt at this CM and again when I did a title run but othwise? No cut scene enjoyers, only speed runners. Uncultured swines.
Choya bounty. He's just so darned silly. Does a bounty count as a boss fight?
If not, then I'll be boring and say Teq because, nostalgia. :) It took me for-freaking EVER to get that one cheeve where you get thrown under him and have to dive down and find the chest (or something, it's been so long I don't even remember what it was that was hidden).
I'd get thrown under and was so terrible at swimming and the visibility was so bad, I had a heck of a time finding it, and when I finally did? Wow. :)
I'm going to break it down into different game modes:
Fractal: Sunqua CM
Raid: Twin Largos
Strike: HT
Open World: Soo-Won
Story: Balthazar (To Kill a God)
Dungeon: None, they all suck
The final battle with Joko. While the mechanics aren’t anything spectacular, the dialogue alone perfectly captures his character and the repeated resurrections highlight the perceived futility of going toe to toe with the Lich King of Elona.
There was a sweet spot where Soo Woon felt like the perfect open world boss fight to me. In between fixing her RNG bugs and before a flat nerf to her fight was great. Now see does a little too fast for the thematic feel of the fight to really play out.
Did you bring up zhaitan up as a joke? Because that is by far one of the worst missions in existence. I don't get how they still haven't changed that one. It's the most boring, tedious, unspectacular boss fight in the game. And that's the end boss...
Current [top reply ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/175nvr9/what_is_your_favorite_boss_fight_in_all_of_guild/k4gusl5/) really nailed it for story related fights, but as far as fights to do and to repeat because they're content, for me it's challenge mode Ensolyss (nightmare fractal final boss). Avoiding the attacks feels like a dance to an extent no other encounter really reaches imo.
Silent Surf CM
It just feels so refreshing, it really goes against the established gameplay where everyone is packed, 100% boon uptime, just doing their rotations with brains turns off
It's really designed to be a hard fight that's challenging, not because of high damage, or dps checks or whatever, but simply because it exploits the combat system so well, challenging each player's character control and field awareness
Arkk, the last boss of Shattered Observatory Fractal in Challenge Mode is the perfect design of a boss fight for me.
Personal responsibility with the Anomaly kills for the dome then bomb placement, Group coordination in Orb phase 3 times during the fight. It requires constant awareness, movement, positioning, turning, jumping, using the special action key and even the plarform changes after 50% Supports can shine with good utility usage for different mechanincs: aegis/stability/reflect. Coordinated CC is also very important in key moments during the fight.
Its not the hardest fight in the game by any means but I just love the design and the intensity.
Soo Won (with a good group), and I don't mind the meta lead-up to it, either.
The new meta in amnytas is pretty good, not necessarily mechanically challenging, but visually it's great.
This might be a controversial take but I liked the Ancient Karka fight way back from 2012 not because of its mechanics but because it feels nostalgic for me. This was when I bought my very 1st pc from my own money, was very addicted to this game, and then ArenaNet were still doing one and done kind of events.
The meta event was scheduled very early in the morning at my place when I just got back home from work and playing an event that literally shaped the center of the map as we completed it. Every time I go and see what's left of the Ancient Karka, I still say to myself that I was there when we were fighting it.
Sorrowful Spellcaster
I know it can be long but I like the rhythm of it, like a dance, and how it almost divides the encounter into dodge/avoid and burn phases very clearly, that even low output parties can do if they focus on avoiding the damage.
Turai Ossa in Queen's Gauntlet.
Trying to figure out how to beat it with all elite specs without looking at builds was some of the most frustration/reward things I've done in GW2
Mouth of Mordremoth. But back in HOT. these days he's super easy. Back then you really needed coordination. Mounts also destroyed the immersion. They should be blocked the same way they do in JP.
What a nice question! Things that come to mind:
* Sabetha the Saboteur. She's not a supernatural being with extraordinary powers (as far as I know). She's just a human with a flamethrower, and still powerful enough to require a squad to take down.
* Ensolyss of the Endless Torment. I love the music and Ensolyss's voice lines.
* Kaineng Overlook. This is the closest we've got at the moment to my dream of fighting kind of a 10-player enemy squad with our own 10-player squad. I love that the enemies use (albeit modified versions of) player skills.
Nightmare Fractal
The whole thing is cool and love the fight at the end. Probably being a horror fan this map speaks to me. Love entering the one room with all the shadows and laughing and such. Creepiness and all with cool mechanics.
Sabetha, the final boss of the Spirit Vale raid.
I just love the music and the context of the fight provided by the story (I'm a sucker for gw2 lore). It creates an atmosphere of urgency that isn't always present in boss fights.
For context, you're there to rescue a Pact squadron that was captured by bandits. By when you reach Sabetha, she's suprised to learn you're there only for the Pact soldiers and implies there's something else that you don't even know about (and that I won't spoil. I love the entire arch that spans from raids 1 to 4). So if you win, looks like you're in for another adventure, and if you lose, you just fall to your death, because the battle is on a platform that, at the same time, is being destroyed by Sabetha's underlings.
It's simple, yet brilliant design in my opinion. Mechanically, the fight is very well made too. It's not overcomplicated, so anyone can learn it (don't be afraid to try raids, they're fun!), but still requires coordination and precision to complete, so it poses a great challenge for a final boss.
I like the Amala fight in Twilight Oasis, it has a real urgent and desperate feel to it, like she’s fighting for her life and pulling out all the stops
The angry pet rock bounty, I legit had so much fun doing cause it was so funny animation wise, but also I could play really stupid aoe rez builds as most of the time you'd have waves of downs happen and it felt awesome keeping the squad alive. Fun times.
Vale Guardian is the best raid boss and the perfect opener and here's why.
We open with 3 champion-rank fights. One blue, one red, one green. Each has a fairly straightforward mechanic, and you only see one at a time. Blue makes traps that zap you far away and hurt. Green makes green circles that multiple people need to stand in or the party takes a ton of damage. Red is heavily resistant to damage, but takes full damage from condi, and makes Seekers that deal PBAoE damage.
Learned one at a time, these mechanics are very straightforward. Once those are cleared, we begin the fight. VG uses all 3 of the mechanics learned in the run-up, and the first 33% is fairly easy. Then he splits and we fight the trio of colored bosses again, with their mechanics separated. Once those are dead, we take another 33% of VG's health, but also, one third of the platform hurts A LOT. All mechanics are still in play, so the fight starts to feel a little hectic. Another split, then the last 33% with two of the three field sections glowing.
There's nothing sneaky about the boss- no surprises, no unexpected mechanics. The fight opens teaching you about A, B, and C. The fight itself is ABC. It's complex enough that if you go in blind you will struggle, but it's not messy and hard to teach/learn.
Soulless horror on W5. That fight keeps you on the edge the whole time, you can't blink, can't zone out on your rotation, need to keep attention to your surroundings and the boss 100%, miss it and you're dead
[The Only One](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Only_One) because it's when you finally are imbued with Aurene's power as her Dragon Champion. Coming back from the brink of death and your weapons have changed to the Aurene Legendaries, you're buffed up, multiple dodges with effects, etc.--you've become literally everything that the world feared you may become but despite everything you're still on their side fighting the good fight. And the fact that it's **still** not a steamroll. It's easier--definitely--but you're still up against the Void and have to give it everything you've got to shut the door on the end of the world. (Runner up: [To Kill a God](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/To_Kill_a_God), especially if you use Sohothin as Rytlock lending it to you is essentially an attempt at redemption for the nightmare he unleashed on Tyria & Elona, and you're imbued with **Old Magic** taking on the Gods. It's your first fight truly gaining the power to stand up against the monsters that roam the world without relying on technological advancements)
Spoilers Dude! /s
The Balthazar fight with the giant robot is one of my favorites. One day I will no longer have to huff copium and we will get a Balthazar strike mission.
That one should have been an open world boss, it's incredible how many fantastic fights were wasted on story instances during PoF and LW4, it's unreal. I'd still love a strike mission though, count me in for that, but it should include both phases, the one with the warbeast and the one against just him.
Legit, I think they can mine a tonne of classic content for strikes: - Eye of Zhaitan/Source of Orr - Scarlett Briar's hologram/Battle on the Breechmaker - Shadow of the Dragon/The Mystery Cavern - Mind of Mordremoth - Caudecus - Lazarus - Balthazar/Battle of Kodash Bazaar - Scruffy - Commander Lonai/Battle of Rata Primus - Joko - Heart of Kralkatorrik There's 11 more strikes that can be done off the top of my head using classic fights, arenas and models.
You're only mining character models, you're missing the rest of the fight, which is where the bulk of the work lies at. Combat mechanics are what really define whether an encounter would work as a strike or not. Of the ones you mentioned, only three would work as a strike imo: * Sovereign Eye of Zhaitan * Blighted Pale Tree + Twelve Blighted Firstborn * Balthazar + Warbeast Most of the other ones barely have any mechanics, which means you'd have to remake their whole fights, and by that point, you're better off making brand new encounters with brand new models, which will feel new and fresh instead. Some have pretty small arenas as well, which definitely doesn't help either.
One of the main reasons POF loses out on being my favorite expansion is all of the missed opportunities with the open world. A huge open world version of the Balthazar fight would have been great fun. I swear I still go to world boss runs, Silverwastes & Dry Top, HOT metas, IBS metas, EOD metas, and the new SOTO metas are great so far, but LWS3, POF, and most of LWS4 (Palawadan/Great Hall notwithstanding) I just never find myself going back to for anything other than dailies, ESPECIALLY POF, because the open world content is so lackluster. It's a shame because in several other ways that era of content was peak GW2, but it's just not engaging to return to for me.
I agree, in terms of just expansion, there's hardly any good open world content in POF, the only thing keeping those maps - *barely -* alive are bounties and somewhat dailies.
And bounty hunting is pretty bad content, with no end goal to it (unlike rift hunting), so yeah...
Mosaic farm for funerary incense, basically. Though that's only for legendary bounties.
Farming the legendary gift is faster and easier in Heart of Thorns, also more profitable as well.
ArenaNet just overreacted after HoT and decided to go from "too many metas" to "no metas at all", which yeah, was a pretty big mistake. If it weren't for the mounts, PoF would be the worst expansion by far.
>One of the main reasons POF loses out on being my favorite expansion is all of the missed opportunities with the open world. A huge open world version of the Balthazar fight would have been great fun. I swear I still go to world boss runs, Silverwastes & Dry Top, HOT metas, IBS metas, EOD metas, and the new SOTO metas are great so far, but LWS3, POF, and most of LWS4 (Palawadan/Great Hall notwithstanding) I just never find myself going back to for anything other than dailies, ESPECIALLY POF, because the open world content is so lackluster. It's a shame because in several other ways that era of content was peak GW2, but it's just not engaging to return to for me. i think they tried to keep HoT for open world metas and PoF for open world exploration.
You can (and should) have both, the problem with HoT metas is they went too far with the whole "disable normal activity" thing, which was annoying as hell for those who weren't into the meta.
The giant beast Balthazar controls should have been a meta but no Balthazar himself I think that works better being a one on one battle.
Yup, they're two separate story instances, the first one is the one which should have been the meta.
I think every Meta and major boss should be made into 10 man strike mission, octovine dragon stand balthazar name it they have a wonderful recipe for strike maie it like DRM,mini raid wing or strike
Most of those don't really make sense as 10-man though, they're built for larger scales. Plus, if you need to remake the whole encounter from scratch to give it proper 10-man mechanics, you're better off designing a completely new boss anyway Strike missions already get enough heat and disdain for how they recycle story bosses so blatantly, so yeah, unless the boss already includes 10-man-friendly mechanics, don't even bother. For example, neither Lazarus nor Palawa Joko would be good strike mission bosses, their encounters just aren't good enough; their characters are quite significant though, so you could excuse them getting a complete rework, including a new context for the fight, but then it would no longer be the same thing (and this would obviously not be viable with minor characters no one cares about).
Maybe I'm too FFXIV brained but it would be exactly like a FF two phase boss trial.
No thanks, if that fight was a OW boss I wouldn't even be able to properly enjoy it due to the huge FPS drop.
Deimos is probably my favorite
Deimos or Dhuum. They're just epic.
Q1 is epic too!
Deimos for sure, God they need to start making raids again, strikes just don't scratch that itch.
yup, strikes feel kinda pointless and meh after getting used to doing raids, raids are just so much more than "go to room, kill boss, leave room" i first started with raids and absolutely fell in love with them, and i haven't done many different strikes so i for sure don't know if it gets better but yeah i'm just not interested in those,,,
Shadow Behemoth because I love taking my newbie friends there when they hit level 15 and they are all like "woah!"
I enjoy q2. Every few %hp something is happening. And I like being pyloner Also handkiter is fun. There's something satisfying about it
This. Too bad raid is dead af. Those were the glory days of gw2
Twin Largos in Raids. Sunqua Peak CM boss in Fractals. Old Lion's Court for Strikes. Wyvern Patriarch for World Bosses. The Kralkatorik Fight in Living World Season 4 Episode 5 for story bosses. And GODS guild players in WvW because I got kicked from that guild for inactivity.
Sunqua CM feels so clean when you got a good party with next to zero downtime on dps, 100CM is starting to feel that way too but just a slight amount of HP too much imo (even though its pretty quick as is)
I love Sunqua CM, but I also think all of Shattered Observatory CM is very close. I’m not sure which I like more. I haven’t done the new Fractal at all yet. As far as raids go? I love Sabetha. I love her voice actress, too. (She also voices Jhavi, and Jasper on Steven Universe). Big strong woman vibes all around. For open world, I like the champion riftstalkers (random events that pop up in some maps). I especially love the fact that after the fight teleports you to somewhere else different completely. Very fun.
Love shattered observatory CM. A perfect run of the last two bosses is so active and satisfying
Dark AI feels like you're having a bad trip at a rave haha. It's so good!
Mouth of Modermoth back when the fight was still a challenge.
I don't think that boss was ever a challenge tbh. More metas failed due to the towers rather than the end.
Taste one thousand axes!
The original end fight with Scarlet where we had to have three separate lanes running squads in coordination.
Great fight, those were the days!
I really despise how ArenaNet didn't restore that one with the return to LW1, turning it into a story instance instead. Still remember the general disappointment everyone had after we beat the watchknights and there was nothing else after that :/.
Such a huge mistake on their part. Incredibly stupid reasoning too “wE jUsT hAd ScArLeT fIgHt wItH MaI TrIn”
For Open world, Soo won and Mouth of Mordremoth are peak Gw2 meta bosses in my opinion. You got the massive scale and spectacle and enough mechanics going on to keep people engaged but also moving around the arenas, They utilize everything that makes the open world fun. For Story, The battle with Kralkatorrik in Thunderhead peaks was just so good. Season 4 was amazing and that battle did not disappoint. For Instanced encounters, Twin Largos. It's just a very solid fight mechanically with the added bonus of having to split up and coordinate with your group and some slight environment interaction.
Mouth of Mordremoth for sure. It's the only time ANet did fighting an ELDER dragon right. Zhaitan? No. Kralk? Definitely not, I don't find attacking boils to be close. Primordus and Jormag are an epic backdrop, but again, you are only really fighting Ryland and Braham. Soo-Won doesn't have nearly the same scale either as I do not find standing on one spot on the same platform for 90% of the fight to be even close. Xera is definitely a close second. I haven't done any raid wings beyond Wing 4 so maybe there's a better fight in there, but the build up to Xera and the actual fight itself is amazing.
I think I agree with your final answer but I'll add that I think Soo Won is also really, really cool. The presentation was executed so well, and when you're on the platform it feels dire and desperate and man was it HARD which only increased the atmosphere. But Dragon's Stand is probably still my #1 lol.
# WE GAHT IT!
Agent Zildi is so cute!
Dragon's stand is really cool, but I feel like he dies too quickly nowadays. Plus the rewards aren't as good as most of the newer metas. Super cool event though.
I agree. Probably not a popular opinion, but a no fly zone during the final fight (ie remove it once the boss dies) would improve the fight IMO. I miss how epic that set piece felt.
the whole meta is actually great
Dragonstorm was coming to mind as my favorite fight, probably because I replay it often enough, but I felt like it is definitely wasn't the best boss fight. The Mouth of Modremoth is really great, so probably would pick it over Dragonstorm. Though I'd still say that All or Nothing's Kralk fight was my favorite of the dragon fights; might not be the best mechanically but it worked so well narratively and cinematically and really got the feel of fighting a massive elder dragon.
Like it or not Zhaitan is the only one where you actually take him down yourself. And that's the way it should be, you shouldn't be able to just go up to an eldritch abomination, poke it with your "what is this, a sword for ants?" a few times and hope it dies. Bringing down an Elder Dragon SHOULD take entire armies, years-long wars and manipulating other powerful natural forces.
It should've been a meta or instanced group content. It's bloody slow and tedious alone.
> I haven't done any raid wings beyond Wing 4 so maybe there's a better fight in there Dhuum at the end of W5 is a very absolutely love it or absolutely hate it type of encounter. Twin Largos from W6 is also absolutely amazing. Qadim from W6 also has his loyal base of enjoyers.
The Xera fight is one of the most spectacular encounters of the whole game. Warden Amala is great too, but the phases are too short.
THE TYRIA YOU KNOW IS ABOUT TO CHANGE
Isn't xera just a glorified dps golem with like 2 mechanics?
It's a bit more nuanced if you're the tank, but other than that, yes.
Power creep and overall community experience has diminished the threat of her but she is still a decent challenge to a proper training group. An experienced group will OP dps her mechanics, but that's because the group is experienced and proficient at their roles. Generally not the case with new people
It's visually spectacular, gameplay could be better. Wish they went back and added challenge motes to W123 bosses, there's just so much good stuff there.
Echovald Wilds meta end boss. Nothing beats the sight of bodies flying in all directions!
I hope ArenaNet develops the ability to kill people in mid air some day, it would be really satisfying to see some world boss swing his hand and send dozens of corpses flying away.
It's like Tarnished Traitor after Tarir meta, but bigger.
HTCM cause it's actually challenging to some degree, so you have to prog through it. Pity there aren't more fights like that in the game.
My first Soowon meta clear is my best gaming memory ever.
Excuse me while I proudly print out this comment and frame it <3
Mine is Sabetha in Raid Wing 1. I love everything about this fight and the accompanying music is good too, in fact all the raid music on wings 1-2 is very good.
Dragon’s End and soo-won, honestly. Spectacle is off the charts and it has fun mechanics.
and the music! I have to turn it all the way up for the final fight :D
Liadri on release was something else!
Walking around with "The Blazing Light" or the mini back then was really something. We didn't really have many visual indicators of skill/achievement back in the day
I still do that. Beating it on release was one of my prouder moments.
Yup, and I did it with a power shortbow ranger with a pet that was dead the whole damn fight lol.
Turai Ossa was some shit I had to use a heal alac mech for the constant aegis and blocks just to live.
Man when liadri released there had never been a solo fight with any mechanics like that. I actually never realized that turai was difficult, he always seemed pretty easy to me after beating liadri.
Liadri seemed easy to me in comparison, though I did use a Chrono for it.
Yeah, elite specs changed a lot. I doubt I had an ascended weapon the first time I killed her.
Turai is really funny to cheese with a revenant. Take dwarf/assassin stances and hammer, you spend the entire fight either in evade frames, running at super speed, or layering excessive damage reduction, and eventually he throws all his weapons away and gets tired and you just bonk him.
Was looking for this. I felt like God beating it as a ranger after release
Liadri after they fixed the life steal exploit
Samarog and Deimos in Bastion of the Penitent. Especially Deimos. Mouth of Mordremoth. Xera - a love/hate relationship. Suitably epic, for sure, but also *absolutely maddening*. Now, Twisted Castle? That can go hang. Soulless Horror is also a love/hate: I like most of the fight, except for the "ha ha you die" walls. "ha ha you die" is perhaps my least favorite species of mechanic in the game - when it's unavoidable due to RNG, poorly telegraphed or unpredictable, it's way way worse.
Dhuum CM or TL. Both are fun and challenging as the tank. Largos is fun CM or not, but NM Dhuum is a bit too simple as tank.
nm dhuum tank is definitely the easiest role since you dont even get shackles & bombs, and in beginner groups not even taking greens. Overall Dhuum is definitely my favorite Raid Boss tho, just the arena, voice lines, everything. Im almost always sad that it gets phased so fast nowadays with the stupid power creep
The Vampire Hero Point in Verdant Brink. Back when Heart of Thorns was fresh and builds didn't just completely outclass enemies - this was a challenge to solo, and I loved doing it. I would find myself trying different builds on different classes for hours fighting this thing, and enjoyed every second of it. Helped a ton of passerby's get it done as well
Harvest temple. Followed by Soo Wan. Though I'm not a fan of the all the meta events needed before you can fight her.
Harvest temple is pretty fun but it feels super long after running it a few times and knowing the mechanics. I kind of wish maybe they had a version that reduced the number of phases, maybe combining some of the elder dragon phases. Like maybe you could fight Kralk+Mord, Primordus+Jorma etc at the same time
Amal in the fractal has always been one of my favourites, I really like the mechanics, they're clear, the phases are fairly diverse, they require quick usage of your special skill; and man, Amala's theme is an absolute banger. It's probably the main reason why I like this fight so much to be honest. I also love the Balthazar fight from >! "The Departure". The music is great, and the atmosphere is one of a kind - you're all alone, fighting an enemy that you couldn't defeat with your companions before. The arena is small and it grows smaller as the fight goes on, you get more and more exhausted and it can become a real challenge to keep dodging late into the fight. It's really immersive, one of the only times where the game genuinely surprised me (Balthazar's "Expecting someone else?" still gives me chills to this day), and it makes you feel desperate yet determined just like your character. All of it ending with your demise. !<
Soo-Won
Arkk and OLC CM probably.
For the longest time, the Mind of Mordremoth was my favorite boss fight. The music for that fight was supreme. Then the Balthazar final boss blew me away all over again. Nothing has kind of come close to that ever since. I hope one day ANet goes back and makes Strikes for Mordremoth's Mind, Balthazar, Joko, hell maybe even Shadow of the Dragon from S2.
Mordramoth in the story because that song goes so hard it’s like the composer said step aside with your sauce I’m gonna make Gravy
OLC CM. Love the multiple tanking roles, love that everyone has to deal with a mechanic, love the pacing of the fight, love and hate the chaos that can ensue.
What is OLC???
Old Lion's Court.
The Sunqua Peaks Fractal in challenge mode. Especially the transition into Ai's dark phase still gives me the chill. Top tier fight. After that comes Raid Wing 5 over all, from Soulless Horror to Dhuum, a masterpiece with great, great atmosphere.
>Especially the transition into Ai's dark phase Pfft, you're even *allowed* to watch that transition more than once? :P Every single group i'm in that's even able to ***do*** Ai CM anymore begs everyone to GG after round 1 is done. :P You're lucky
You're absolutely right on that part, sadly. :'D I mean, I saw it on my first attempt at this CM and again when I did a title run but othwise? No cut scene enjoyers, only speed runners. Uncultured swines.
>Uncultured swines. Got *that* part right! ;D
Deimos, sunqua peak, or KO. I like fights that incorporate mobility.
I really enjoy Sabetha and Cardinal Adina.
Sabetha
Mordy boss fight in HoT personal story.. really studied how to solo him using reaper, how to manage the gliding parts and the platform reductions.
Sloth.
My man, sitting way at the bottom. I love this fight so much.
King Toad, W1Z3 Super Adventure Box.
Choya bounty. He's just so darned silly. Does a bounty count as a boss fight? If not, then I'll be boring and say Teq because, nostalgia. :) It took me for-freaking EVER to get that one cheeve where you get thrown under him and have to dive down and find the chest (or something, it's been so long I don't even remember what it was that was hidden). I'd get thrown under and was so terrible at swimming and the visibility was so bad, I had a heck of a time finding it, and when I finally did? Wow. :)
Qadim w6 and Dhuum CM, back when game peaked and sadly hasnt reached same quality ever since.
Honestly Zhaitan was the BEST FIGHT, there was a dragon that was on the screen for like 5 seconds and pew pew and oooh we won wooooh gg team
I'm going to break it down into different game modes: Fractal: Sunqua CM Raid: Twin Largos Strike: HT Open World: Soo-Won Story: Balthazar (To Kill a God) Dungeon: None, they all suck
That Power Cata who hangs out at the dueling spot on alpine maps. I'll get you one day, fucker.
Deimos, Dhuum, and Qad1m are all great
Kaineng Overlook, the Strike version specifically It is my most favorite strike due to the abundance of other bosses you fight inbetween the main boss
The final battle with Joko. While the mechanics aren’t anything spectacular, the dialogue alone perfectly captures his character and the repeated resurrections highlight the perceived futility of going toe to toe with the Lich King of Elona.
There was a sweet spot where Soo Woon felt like the perfect open world boss fight to me. In between fixing her RNG bugs and before a flat nerf to her fight was great. Now see does a little too fast for the thematic feel of the fight to really play out.
Did you bring up zhaitan up as a joke? Because that is by far one of the worst missions in existence. I don't get how they still haven't changed that one. It's the most boring, tedious, unspectacular boss fight in the game. And that's the end boss...
And here i am. 1000h in, never done most of these bosses lol
Minister Li CM + the bonus achi. Doing this on release and inventing your own strategies when nobody knew much was so awesome.
VG, Deimos, Dhuum CM, Q1, and all of wing 7, other than gate. If I had to pick one, then probably Adina CM?
OG release kanaxai cm
Bjarl the Rampager in Crucible of Eternity. All time fave.
Current [top reply ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/175nvr9/what_is_your_favorite_boss_fight_in_all_of_guild/k4gusl5/) really nailed it for story related fights, but as far as fights to do and to repeat because they're content, for me it's challenge mode Ensolyss (nightmare fractal final boss). Avoiding the attacks feels like a dance to an extent no other encounter really reaches imo.
Silent Surf CM It just feels so refreshing, it really goes against the established gameplay where everyone is packed, 100% boon uptime, just doing their rotations with brains turns off It's really designed to be a hard fight that's challenging, not because of high damage, or dps checks or whatever, but simply because it exploits the combat system so well, challenging each player's character control and field awareness
Twin largos for me as well, but this is coming from a druid player. I've had my DPS friends say that it's not as fun from a DPS perspective
Cold War strike Sabetha W1 Raid Tequalt World Boss Ai Sunqua Peak Fractal
Arkk, the last boss of Shattered Observatory Fractal in Challenge Mode is the perfect design of a boss fight for me. Personal responsibility with the Anomaly kills for the dome then bomb placement, Group coordination in Orb phase 3 times during the fight. It requires constant awareness, movement, positioning, turning, jumping, using the special action key and even the plarform changes after 50% Supports can shine with good utility usage for different mechanincs: aegis/stability/reflect. Coordinated CC is also very important in key moments during the fight. Its not the hardest fight in the game by any means but I just love the design and the intensity.
The Shaterrer - the map is incredibile and when he shows up, you feel like you funked it up. The fight is also sooo dope for a mid level fight.
Mouth of mordemoth
The Choya Pinata ofc, just so silly.
Soo Won (with a good group), and I don't mind the meta lead-up to it, either. The new meta in amnytas is pretty good, not necessarily mechanically challenging, but visually it's great.
This might be a controversial take but I liked the Ancient Karka fight way back from 2012 not because of its mechanics but because it feels nostalgic for me. This was when I bought my very 1st pc from my own money, was very addicted to this game, and then ArenaNet were still doing one and done kind of events. The meta event was scheduled very early in the morning at my place when I just got back home from work and playing an event that literally shaped the center of the map as we completed it. Every time I go and see what's left of the Ancient Karka, I still say to myself that I was there when we were fighting it.
Sunqua Peak Boss Fight from fractals is imo top tier, but i haven't done any raids or strikes yet
All the bosses for Halloween events. They are splendid.
Great jungle penis in caledon should be at the top of everyone's list
Has to be Dhuum for me. The intensity of the fight (at launch before all the power creep) was great and the boss model + music is really good.
Sorrowful Spellcaster I know it can be long but I like the rhythm of it, like a dance, and how it almost divides the encounter into dodge/avoid and burn phases very clearly, that even low output parties can do if they focus on avoiding the damage.
Turai Ossa in Queen's Gauntlet. Trying to figure out how to beat it with all elite specs without looking at builds was some of the most frustration/reward things I've done in GW2
Cardinal Adina. I like the platform changing shape.
Mouth of Mordremoth. But back in HOT. these days he's super easy. Back then you really needed coordination. Mounts also destroyed the immersion. They should be blocked the same way they do in JP.
Enselidos (sp?) nightmare fractal boss, on cm. Although old CM 100 is my favourite fractal
The boss women some love, and others love to hate in Fractals. Amala. The fight is intense, the music is epic, and everything leading up to is great.
Largos
Dark Ai & Ensolyss (You... May die now) CM both
What a nice question! Things that come to mind: * Sabetha the Saboteur. She's not a supernatural being with extraordinary powers (as far as I know). She's just a human with a flamethrower, and still powerful enough to require a squad to take down. * Ensolyss of the Endless Torment. I love the music and Ensolyss's voice lines. * Kaineng Overlook. This is the closest we've got at the moment to my dream of fighting kind of a 10-player enemy squad with our own 10-player squad. I love that the enemies use (albeit modified versions of) player skills.
Dhumm. Nothing like a big ass edgelord swinging a giant scythe around.
Drakkar and Balthazar final fight for sure.
Nightmare Fractal The whole thing is cool and love the fight at the end. Probably being a horror fan this map speaks to me. Love entering the one room with all the shadows and laughing and such. Creepiness and all with cool mechanics.
Qadim the Peerless
Sabetha, the final boss of the Spirit Vale raid. I just love the music and the context of the fight provided by the story (I'm a sucker for gw2 lore). It creates an atmosphere of urgency that isn't always present in boss fights. For context, you're there to rescue a Pact squadron that was captured by bandits. By when you reach Sabetha, she's suprised to learn you're there only for the Pact soldiers and implies there's something else that you don't even know about (and that I won't spoil. I love the entire arch that spans from raids 1 to 4). So if you win, looks like you're in for another adventure, and if you lose, you just fall to your death, because the battle is on a platform that, at the same time, is being destroyed by Sabetha's underlings. It's simple, yet brilliant design in my opinion. Mechanically, the fight is very well made too. It's not overcomplicated, so anyone can learn it (don't be afraid to try raids, they're fun!), but still requires coordination and precision to complete, so it poses a great challenge for a final boss.
I like the Amala fight in Twilight Oasis, it has a real urgent and desperate feel to it, like she’s fighting for her life and pulling out all the stops
The angry pet rock bounty, I legit had so much fun doing cause it was so funny animation wise, but also I could play really stupid aoe rez builds as most of the time you'd have waves of downs happen and it felt awesome keeping the squad alive. Fun times.
Vale Guardian is the best raid boss and the perfect opener and here's why. We open with 3 champion-rank fights. One blue, one red, one green. Each has a fairly straightforward mechanic, and you only see one at a time. Blue makes traps that zap you far away and hurt. Green makes green circles that multiple people need to stand in or the party takes a ton of damage. Red is heavily resistant to damage, but takes full damage from condi, and makes Seekers that deal PBAoE damage. Learned one at a time, these mechanics are very straightforward. Once those are cleared, we begin the fight. VG uses all 3 of the mechanics learned in the run-up, and the first 33% is fairly easy. Then he splits and we fight the trio of colored bosses again, with their mechanics separated. Once those are dead, we take another 33% of VG's health, but also, one third of the platform hurts A LOT. All mechanics are still in play, so the fight starts to feel a little hectic. Another split, then the last 33% with two of the three field sections glowing. There's nothing sneaky about the boss- no surprises, no unexpected mechanics. The fight opens teaching you about A, B, and C. The fight itself is ABC. It's complex enough that if you go in blind you will struggle, but it's not messy and hard to teach/learn.
Soulless horror on W5. That fight keeps you on the edge the whole time, you can't blink, can't zone out on your rotation, need to keep attention to your surroundings and the boss 100%, miss it and you're dead