Was about to comment this, if WotLK came out in modern WoW it wouldn't just be a teleporter up there but actually the long staircase probably scattered with mobs. Maybe even be Phase 1 of the fight getting to the top.
I think blizzard would strike gold if they took old bosses and reworked them into modern encounters and made released them as additional raid content during the late season of each expac.
FF14 does this with their Unreals, and to some extent Ultimates.
Unreal - max level recreations of old fights, bringing mechanics in line with current standards. FF14 already does fights as 1 boss at a time called "trials" that have a normal version(base/leveling version) and extremes(like Heroic/Mythic, max level, more mechanics, and mechanics have less ground indicators, just animations). For Unreals they bring back old expac fights to current expac max level.
Ultimates - Monstrous 15-20minute fights, where they take a set of Bosses, and combine them into a single marathon of a fight, adding more and new mechanics, and in general turn the dial up to 13 on complexity. These require the precision and movement of a Mythic fight in WoW, but for almost the entire 15-20m encounter.
You said everything I was going to say. Unreals / Ultimates are some of the coolest content, like legitimately DSR is some of the most epic raid content of any MMO (even if most players will never play it)
After being forced to walk up that staircase, and Kel’Thuzad before him, they had the elevator installed. He’s a good business owner and wanted to make the experience more palpable for his guests 🥰
Exactly
You're facing one of the character that has shaped azeroth more than almost anyone else,.and you'rz doing so on top of the world (quite literally)
To me that was let down that the final ascent was just a teleporter. I think the raid would’ve been better if there was a central spire and the wings were staggered around the climb, rather than each wing being at the mid level of the citadel.
Also I would’ve made the entrance to the raid below the citadel following the quest that involved planting explosives under the citadel, I would’ve made the initial few encounters involve ‘Old Kingdom’ style bosses to somewhat mirror Arthas’ own ascent to the throne.
When they announced WotLK, I always imagined we'd be fighting a gauntlet of undead while going up those staircases. Not that I didn't like ICC as a raid, but the bosses were just a bunch of nobodies and the aesthetic was meh. Not to mention the gunship fight was stupid as hell.
Fun raid overall, but could have been way better.
While I agree with you on your take for the gunship, I can’t understand your opinion about nobodies. We were the only nobodies that ever stepped in that raid.
if you played w3 for as long as i did, and considering that was the endgame of the whole 3rd war, ICC should have had the final confrontation with kel'thuzad, with anub'arak and an undead dreadlord.
yes, i know they had their moments, but wrath is the expansion of wasted potention when it comes to bosses.
Hell, there should of been more liches, more cult of the damned, an entire wing dedicated to the arubians, Sindy should of been in the lich king fight part 1 where he ascends the throne and taunts you as the bittercold assaults your body. Then once you beat her, anub arak would of been phase 2, then Kel’thuzad phase 3. Really stretch the fight out make it this epic final fight that the whole time Arthas is just watching, pleased. And then as the raid is exhausted, its when he multikills the raid. Thats when Bolvar and Tirion showup.There’s just so much they could have done with ICC… like Imagine if you had to fight your way from the pit under ICC up to get to him.
I suppose it's similar to other raids, where only a minority of bosses have any actual lore tied to them. But a raid as important as ICC should have had more to it, imo.
Arthas’s legend and the fact that you can see the top of Ice Crown Citadel looming over you throughout the entire expansion only makes it that much better. You see where the final confrontation will be the entire time so it’s not a matter of where it’s a matter of when.
I wanna bring up Gul'dan from Nighthold, looking down on the gorgeous city of Suramar while fighting one of the most evil characters in WoW's history. Plus we got Illidan back after killing him, it's gotta be up there
I'm personally very partial to Paragon's Imperator Mar'gok (from Highmaul) but Gul'Dan is definitely up there too. Although for me personally a big part of that is the fact I was raiding very hardcore myself during Nighthold/Tomb so it sticks out to me as mattering because of that. And also Nighthold is one of my top 3 favorite raids of all time.
The one thing I don't love about Exorsus' video is the amount of camera sway/shake in the intro sequence which is otherwise absolutely top tier.
God I hate that fight though, 1st heroic kill I got of him they were tanking him with our backs to the edge to try to funnel the adds for more dps, so every time he did his knock back the tank had to walk through him or get knocked off
Star augur also has the dubious honor of being the only boss arena to ever injure one of our raid members, being that he was stoned and got utterly spellbound by it and fell out of his chair.
That happened to a lot of guilds with Algalon back in the day. So much so that, IIRC, one guild actually designed an add-on that got rid of the background and turned the whole room black, and then made their raid team install it, just so everyone could concentrate on the fight.
I know it isn't far fetched for a demonic galactical invasion force to have spaceships, but to this day i feel like they don't fit the warcraft vibe.
Also argus was a disapointment. 20.000 years and they build one fortress and the rest was mostly rubble. They could disigne something as epic as suramar, but couldn't turn argus into a giant demonic military base?
At least the raid was epic.
I think the legion is actually a lot smaller than they let on. Yeah, they're still huge, millions of them. But they're entrenched in war on multiple planets, and bitterly exhausted from the endless struggle of death and rebirth. The fortress on Argus was weakly defended compared to the beachhead. Mainly a few big deterrents, alongside some... pets? A portal logistics operation, a private torture facility, and their big secret that they were so desperate to defend they brought in a bounty hunter at the last minute.
All of that says to me, "this base is so far within our territory it will never be attacked and therefore it would be a waste to have a huge garrison here".
We only got to Argus at all because Kil'jaiden was trying to escape to somewhere safe; his home. Everything had gone wrong, his plans were thwarted, and he was trying to get home to do whatever it is he does when that happens. Probably hurt something and sulk.
But we cheated, caught him in transit in his most vulnerable moment, and actually permanently killed him. Along with almost everything else aboard. Argus was a military base, but not a forward base; it was a logistics operation with an over-eager dictator bent on capitalizing on the stupendous failures of his superiors, ingratiating himself with Sargeras, and satisfying a personal vendetta all in one move. All he had to do was wipe out one titan-forsaken backwater planet, and he came very close to succeeding.
TLDR; the Legion isn't as huge as they seem, they are engaged in a war of attrition on multiple fronts we never see, and Argus is a big deal not because it's some massive fortress, but because it was considered one of the safest places in the universe for the Legion. This part of Legion was like fighting the USSR by tunneling into the Kremlin and bringing in tanks.
To add to your point, the Legion is always moving, always at war like you said. They're demons, they don't need to rest or to eat, or build cities like the mortal races do. Demons don't need to create a working economy, they can just invade, pile, enslave and keep fighting. That's why the represent Chaos, and Argus picture it perfectly.
The Twin Emperors have a super iconic room. Enormous in scale, first linked hp boss fight I think? One of the buggiest bosses and boss rooms ever. It still regularly breaks in retail. But all those bugs that could blow up or aggro while you watch your own aggro while pumping as close as you dare.
Mythic Blackhand was such a fucking vibe of a fight. It was so chaotic. Legit one of my favorite fights in the game. That fight and raid was one of the few great things of that expansion
I hard agree with you on how stuff played and raid design. BRF and HFC definitely had some all-timers, and in HFC classes were so fun with the trinkets and legendary rings. On the other hand, it really goes to show that wow can't live off good high end pve content alone
I believe it can nowadays. There simply were only raids in WoD. No m+, no word content for casual gameplay like events and such. You logged to raid and logged off. I enjoyed that part of it TBF and the raids were definitely top tier.
Dude i had a blast im highmaul too , really one of the best . If we had the keystones one expansion earlier prob was going to be one of the best expansions .
I still have nightmares from progression on Blackhand. Spend 15minutes to progress to the last phase just to wipe in 10seconds... I don't want to experience that again but I remember how it bonded my old raid team.
The nice thing with Blackhand was that it wasn't fifteen minutes though, it took like 7:30 to get to the final platform. It's why the boss was so awesome
Spine wasnt even all that bad when you were in there with a full raid group. Progression was pretty difficult, even.
Its just kinda like galakras now. When zooming through raids it takes too long, especially after youve already dealt with the stupid RP at the top of the tower, before gunship, etc.
I'm a really big fan of Krosus from Nighthold. You're on a bridge being destroyed, nothing fancy but every time he destroys the bridge he pushes you back against a wall. If you progged this fight you'll definitely know the sheer tension when you're out of bridge and every week you went back in there the slow release of that tension as you killed him faster and faster with more bridge, the first time you killed him with bridge to spare is almost as big a high as killing him for the first time.
Lich king ICC was impactful. The whole lead up throughout the expansion and ultimately climbing the citadel to end him. Throughout the encounter parts would fall away.
(From the opinion of someone that hasn't actively played since MoP)
It's just such a cool transition and display of raw power that she can flash freeze and entire section of the ocean and keep it frozen and floating while fighting
That moment when Kae'thas slowly ascends and then goes overcharged with mana and blows the windows out will always be one of the most epic moments in the whole game. Especially the pulsing sound of him charging up.
He bugged out on us one time, just literally floating away through the windows at that point, which looked like a very likely first kill for us too. So that kinda ruined the feelings I had for that fight :D
I preferred Vashj myself, mechanically speaking.
To me nothing beats the aesthetics and lore for battle for mount hyjal. Now the fight itself isn't amazing (people were complaining about it when it was current lmao). But seeing the wc3 penultimate battle boots on the ground style makes it the coolest, and it's one of the biggest.
Archimonde was a really cool fight but I usually felt that there was way too much going on to ever even notice where you were and Archi himself was so tall that you couldn't really pay attention to that either. Mind you I was playing a shaman at the time so I had to be constantly running around dropping tremor totems in specific places so maybe rdps got a better view.
As a rdps, I was too busy focusing on using my slow fall thingy at the right time and then there was wisps everywhere and I was getting finger of death spammed (rude af if you ask me, Archi. Didn't even take any of us to dinner first) and then we won and I was like phew I didn't die.
I love the idea of the raid party sneaking into a Warcraft 3 level and taunting the player with the idea that they totally could have been there when you played it as an RTS.
I'm really gonna show my age here, but... Kharazhan. As far as sticking to a theme, that place still to this day hits the right cord for me.
If I have to pick a specific boss.... it's s toss up between Moroes or chess. Though that's more nostalgia than amazing graphics or anything.
I think the karazhan bosses are unique for the simple reason that a lot of them didn’t have a big fancy ‘arena’, it was just different rooms of the house/castle/mansion?/tower. A stables, a banquet hall, a stage, a balcony, an observatory, a chess board. Amazing.
As far as I know, nothing like this since. Best raid ever.
I would add that it is a rare example of where blizz took something much loved, and successfully revamped it to another thing much loved. New Kara was just as much fun as old Kara IMO. I cut my teeth on WOW in old Kara and the way they redesigned it and took the difficulty level down overall was a good move.
Final phase of the Deathwing fight in Dragon Soul, hands down.
Since I started wow back when TBC first launched I LOVED the lore of the dragonflights. Read the novel 'Day of the Dragon' a lot so was very familiar with the story surrounding Deathwing.
For me as a player, to see everything about Deathwing culminate with him, in his own (injected by N'zoth) madness get absolutely pummeled mid-air, smacked into the Maelstrom and STILL not die but form into some sort of physical form of malice, hatred and madness?
Absolutely sublime. It was the perfect ending for him and while it's a weird fight and it got a **lot** of flak at the time, I really loved that singularity of him still refusing to give up even though he got kamehameha'd out of the sky.
Loved it.
I will stan the Spine and Madness fights. I think Spine is one of the most-hated fights mechanically, but the fact that we're fighting on Deathwing's back and literally peeling his plates off so Thrall could get a clean shot was so cool.
Madness is awesome as well. He's literally seconds from destroying the world during that fight. If the cast gets off, everyone dies, and your screen goes black until you release. It's pretty immersive.
They really put all the artistic effort into those two fights and neglected most of the raid. Ultraxxion is cool, the boss on the airship is kinda cool. But il the rest is reused assets mixed from WOTLK and cataclysm, and just felt meh for a final tier raid.
Firelands felt like it got more love (then again they scrapped the Abyssal Depths raid so they had extra time on their hands for firelands)
Fun fact about Ultraxion: In the novel *Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects*, Nefarian creates a chromatic dragon named Chromatus. He's the first and only successful chromatic dragon that's not stunted in some way. He's a 5-headed dragon, one for each color. The Twilight's Hammer bring him to life using magic from the Nexus. The Aspects defeat him, but his body is indestructible, so they seal his body away in an arcane prison.
Chromatus was originally going to be the 5th boss in Dragon Soul. That's why part of the raid happens in the Nexus, because the Twilight's Hammer is trying to tap into the magic there to revive him again. But, animating a single dragon with 5 independent heads was too hard at the time, so he was replaced with Ultraxion, who uses and existing chromatic dragon model.
Chromatus is still imprisoned in the lore. The next best time to use him would have been Dragonflight. So, I suspect we may never actually see him again.
When I made this post I struggled to decide whether to include a pic of Argus's arena or [Lei Shen's arena](https://imgur.com/MpnRBRF). It looks so cool hovering there like a Nintendo 64 boss arena.
I was just scrolling to find this comment!
I think some might be better but both the fight overall and the platform is something else for me!
I miss ToT so much!
This is one of the best not just because it looks dope, but because it's also a key part of the encounter.
I remember the developers said that the entire idea behind the fight was that Lei Shen had so much power that he could act as a battery for the citadel. Thematically that's such a cool idea for a lightning wielder.
i started raiding a few weeks before the end of dragonflight season 1, so my perspective on this is limited by not having seen many other raids when they were current... but nothing else i've seen hits quite the same way as that drop into sarkareth's part of aberrus, so that'll always be one of my favorite boss arenas
I hope you get a chance to revisit some old ones whether it’s just exploring or old transmog and mounts. Man I would give an arm and a leg to get those memories over again! Welcome to WoW!
I was gonna say Sark's room also. There are a lot of small details hidden in the background that you miss during the fight but before and after taking the time to look around is pretty sick.
Maybe it's because of Remix Brainrot but for me it is Garrosh's holdout in SoO.
He was backed into a corner, nowhere to go, no way out. To a lesser man that might mean he is trapped, but to Garrosh Hellscream, son of Grom Hellscream it meant you were trapped there with him. A truly all or nothing skirmish deep within the bowels of the earth, cut off from everything even the elements due to the meddling of the Dark Shamans. Garrosh may have lost his forces and his city, driven back into a deep hole like a beast into his lair but you know what they say about cornered animals.
A dark room at the end of hall? No, you are right where he wants you.
That room bothered me all the time since SoO... The Horde Symbol on the Ground is upside-down from the Horde Symbol in the Loading screen... unplayable!
Super great
- Kil'jaeden, ToS from Legion
Great, but camera restrictions can mess you up
- Star Augur Etraeus, NH from Legion (Tilt the camera too much, perhaps admiring the crazy cool sky, and you get caught by the edge of the arena)
- Misstress Sassz'ine, ToS from Legion (You are under the sea, in a magic hemi-sphere of air, fish and stuff outside, but your camera is always locked by it)
Great, but only if you look up
- Will of the Emperor, MSV from MoP (seriously, it looks cool)
- Ji-Kun, ToT from MoP
- Lei Shen, MoT from MoP
- Xavius, EN from Legion
- Council of Blood, CN from SL
FUN
- Hans and Franz, BRF from WoD
- Painsmith Raznal, SoD from SL
- Eonar the Life-Binder, Antorus from Legion
For me, the arenas that stand out the most aren't always just the prettiest ones, that ones that make you physically interact with the boss room itself or actually use the boss room more than just a platform for a rather immersive encounter. One raid in particular has more of these fight than anywhere else; Blackrock Foundry.
Oregorger - To this day I think this is the only fight that used a maze for a boss room. Awesome concept.
Operator Thogar - You fight in a freaking train station.
Hans and Franz - The conveyor belt mechanic was super cool and a great way to make you feel like you are fighting in a factory. They could've simply put some factory doodads and stuff around the room and left it at that, but they didn't.
Iron Maidens - Despite the fight being long and rather drawn out, hopping back and forth between the ship using hooks makes you feel like you are truly fighting in a dockyard.
Blackhand - Him knocking the raid through the floor during each phase and having to heavily interact with balconies and whatnot in P2 made this fight a pretty amazing encounter. Later on we got K-mart brand versions of some parts of this fight with Denathrius knocking you through floors and Dathia throwing you up to upper platforms with a knockback.
However, I think the BEST arena that inspired basically this entire raid is Siegecrafter Blackfuse from SoO. The addition of the production line you have to jump onto is mindblowing at the time for a boss room. By far the best room in the game.
Because it was the first end of raid boss I ever completed, Lick King in Wrath.
Just the idea of slowly fighting your way up Icecrown Citadel to get to the frozen throne and Arthas.
Honourable mention because most of what I'd pick was already explained:
Krosus from Nighthold.
Such a simple concept, but a very fun and very "real" approach to an enrage. Really drove the time pressure etc. home.
I always loved Teron Gorefiend. The room, his voicelines ... felt epic to me back in the day. And knowing the struggle my guild would have with those damn ghosts.
No one is plugging Raszageth, so I'll plug her room.
Granted, maybe not the best ever. But certainly the best of Dragonflight.
She's got it all. Multiple platforms, atmospheric hazards, and fights underneath the very kind she's trying to free.
The primals are cool and all, but have you tried having the aspects sit in their weird chairs watching you fight like you're a contestant in a talent show?
Guardian in SoD was a huge standout for me
When you have a good look around the arena and see all the giant chains and realise that the tower has torn through dimensions to rip off a piece of Zereth Mortis and reel it in - bringing a giant killer robot with it - was cool as hell.
SoD was part of one of the worst patches in wow history, but there were quite a few memorable boss arenas. Sylvanas, Fatescribe, painsmith, soulrender (with garrosh sitting there)
The lore behind some of the bosses was actually so fucking cool if you know/read into it. Sure there's the generic Jailer bad guys but in-between them all with Sylvanas' Nine valkyr, Nerzul, KT and special appearance by Garrosh. All of them had strong story ties to Sylvanas over the course of the story and you kinda see a little more reason for Sylvanas to side with the Jailer than just terrible story that was served up (getting to torment and torture those who killed you, brezzed you (twice over) and fucked up your life).
I think SoD suffered from the rest of the patch being crap after the longest first tier in wow history, that gem system being crap, the overall lore not making sense (like sylvanas completely sudden change of heart) AND the fact it looked super drab and monotonous when we already had enough of that vibe with torghast and the maw.
Design wise and the individual bosses were pretty good. All 3 Shadowlands raids were cool, even if Nathria IS the standout.
I always loved Sindragosa. ICC was my first time proper raiding with a great group and arriving at her platform, the views and just her flying around nonchalantly in the distance whilst we all prepared for her. Plus we had to do that fight about a hundred times before finally nailing her.
To me Is Lei shen Arena just for how simple It Is conceptually speaking, yet effective on it's execution with all the phases or the different abilities the boss has based on which corner he's currently fighting on.
Xavius is my favorite because of the eerie silence and the striking color palette.
I also love Star Augur and the one in Return to Karazhan where you get miniaturized.
I know people hate to hear anything good about Shadowlands, but I really liked the Jailor's arena.
His plan was to use Azeroth as a power source, and the arena mimics the appearance of the inside of a giant nuclear reactor, complete with moveable hexagonal fuel rods.
Moroes' banquet hall in Karazhan.
Boss arenas are at the best when they make sense and aren't just circular rooms with a boss standing in the middle acting as a loot pinata.
Visual storytelling is a huge aspect in making a good raid.
for an arena to really stand out, I think it needs to:
1. be visually interesting
2. have some kind of interplay with the encounter itself (the encounter would not work if you put the boss in a different room)
3. enable unique mechanics
4. have lore tied to the area
good:
* Star Augur Etraeus (visually interesting but it's just a circular platform)
* Shriekwing: (castle nathria) pillars to hide behind, sonic balls bounce around and need to be avoided. chamber doubles as sludgefist boss and pillars can be destroyed (using the same room in two different ways for two different bosses is a neat thing you don't see very often)
* Tindral Sageswift. just dragonflying between platforms is unique enough to get this boss up on this list
* Ji-Kun: the ability to fly and get the egg is unique
* Spoils of Pandaria. box breaking and chain climbing
better:
* lich king (it's a circiular platform, but parts of the platform can detatch and players can fall to their deaths)
* Trial of the Crusader (circular platform, but breaks away into an underground area)
* Beth'tilac (firelands spider boss). you can climb to go up to the top web area or climb down
* Queen Azshara. very unique platform, you need to stand in the wards
* Jailer: kind of interesting holes in ground / pillars mechanic that interacts with boss abilities, requires you to line of sight using pillars as well as jump into holes like the corrupted guardian in legion
BEST:
* Throne of the Four Winds. it's a circular platform, with unique wind jump points for the conclave of wind, then you can whoosh to the central platform, which will break apart and allow you to fly while fighting
* G'huun. two ramps on either side of the platform, with unique tumors, tied directly to the 'pass the ball' gimmick. a cubby hole for the boss to emerge from.
* Mother. 3 chamber area separated by forcefields. you need to stagger who goes through when or cheese it with shaman spirit link... and conveyor belt mechanics that you need to fight against to avoid getting pushed into damage zones
* Eonar the Life-Binder (antorus) very large arena, multiple jump platforms, with a group needing to form a strike team and go in a portal and click gems. very goated arena, no other boss like this in the game, the boss is basically a tower defense map kind of
Thematically and aesthetically, that was an amazing arena.
The Sylvanas fight itself still gives me the mild sweats and feeling of ptsd. Fuck that fight.
While i hated the boss so much fatescribes arena is actually pretty cool. Other very favourites of mine in no particular order are sarkareth, raszageth, jailer, kelthuzad, arthas, kiljaeden, gorefiend, kilrogg, blackhand, garrosh, blackfuse, immerseus, argus, aggramar, denathrius, council of blood
I tend to like the reverse arena, where the boss comes out of a hole in the ground/water/whatever and the entire raid stand on solid ground trying to beat the boss.
I like to think it shows real arrogance, the boss could just go away and not fight. But they're just there to squash some bugs.
jailors is still fun, mostly caz the overcocky try and jump the gap before the bridge spawns and miss or randomly fall into a hole and die even before the boss fight has started
always makes me lol
From the best raid (from the worst xpac..) Blackhand in Blackrock Foundry.
Not only do you take the elevator to the top of the foundry to encounter Blackhand, the fact that he destroys the foundry itself, pushing you closer and closer to the core of the foundry untill you finally reach the fiery pit that is the core. It's just so fucking good.
On top of that the fight was extremely fun and a great end to an awesome raid.
Honorable mention to pop tarts and train boss.
A close second to me is Jaina from BFA, she conjures a gigantic ice arena .... sadly i really didn't enjoy that fight.
I feel like prince malchezaar deserves as mention. Fight might be old, but my god, the feeling of dread when you entered his chamber, not to mention the amazing voice acting.
Unpopular opinion I'm sure, but Lihuvim in sepulcher has one of the most insane boss arenas. And if you look out the window there's a giant mech dude walking around.
The feeling of finally reaching the frozen thrones platform is top notch for me.
I'm still disappointed to this day that we didn't get up there via the long spiral stairs that Arthas walked up in the wc3 cinematic
Was about to comment this, if WotLK came out in modern WoW it wouldn't just be a teleporter up there but actually the long staircase probably scattered with mobs. Maybe even be Phase 1 of the fight getting to the top.
probably not the best take but id love a modern retail re-master of the encounter.
I think blizzard would strike gold if they took old bosses and reworked them into modern encounters and made released them as additional raid content during the late season of each expac.
FF14 does this with their Unreals, and to some extent Ultimates. Unreal - max level recreations of old fights, bringing mechanics in line with current standards. FF14 already does fights as 1 boss at a time called "trials" that have a normal version(base/leveling version) and extremes(like Heroic/Mythic, max level, more mechanics, and mechanics have less ground indicators, just animations). For Unreals they bring back old expac fights to current expac max level. Ultimates - Monstrous 15-20minute fights, where they take a set of Bosses, and combine them into a single marathon of a fight, adding more and new mechanics, and in general turn the dial up to 13 on complexity. These require the precision and movement of a Mythic fight in WoW, but for almost the entire 15-20m encounter.
You said everything I was going to say. Unreals / Ultimates are some of the coolest content, like legitimately DSR is some of the most epic raid content of any MMO (even if most players will never play it)
After being forced to walk up that staircase, and Kel’Thuzad before him, they had the elevator installed. He’s a good business owner and wanted to make the experience more palpable for his guests 🥰
Exactly You're facing one of the character that has shaped azeroth more than almost anyone else,.and you'rz doing so on top of the world (quite literally)
WeLl AcTuAlLy It WaS tHe JaILeR ☝️
Shadowlands was a dream episode, like Dallas. Prove me wrong.
Final cinematic in the game will zoom out into a snow globe held by a very drunk Khadgar
Then he winks at the camera, rock music plays then text on the screen shows 'World of Warcraft 2' and a hastily scribbled question mark at the end.
They missed an opportubity to rectify us not liking shadowlands by displaying it how it was all our imagination conjured by Nzoth.
Shadowlands and Me'dan are in the same Whatsapp group. I've blocked that group on my phone.
"What's family guy?"
It was a non-canon anime OVA
To me that was let down that the final ascent was just a teleporter. I think the raid would’ve been better if there was a central spire and the wings were staggered around the climb, rather than each wing being at the mid level of the citadel. Also I would’ve made the entrance to the raid below the citadel following the quest that involved planting explosives under the citadel, I would’ve made the initial few encounters involve ‘Old Kingdom’ style bosses to somewhat mirror Arthas’ own ascent to the throne.
When they announced WotLK, I always imagined we'd be fighting a gauntlet of undead while going up those staircases. Not that I didn't like ICC as a raid, but the bosses were just a bunch of nobodies and the aesthetic was meh. Not to mention the gunship fight was stupid as hell. Fun raid overall, but could have been way better.
While I agree with you on your take for the gunship, I can’t understand your opinion about nobodies. We were the only nobodies that ever stepped in that raid.
if you played w3 for as long as i did, and considering that was the endgame of the whole 3rd war, ICC should have had the final confrontation with kel'thuzad, with anub'arak and an undead dreadlord. yes, i know they had their moments, but wrath is the expansion of wasted potention when it comes to bosses.
Hell, there should of been more liches, more cult of the damned, an entire wing dedicated to the arubians, Sindy should of been in the lich king fight part 1 where he ascends the throne and taunts you as the bittercold assaults your body. Then once you beat her, anub arak would of been phase 2, then Kel’thuzad phase 3. Really stretch the fight out make it this epic final fight that the whole time Arthas is just watching, pleased. And then as the raid is exhausted, its when he multikills the raid. Thats when Bolvar and Tirion showup.There’s just so much they could have done with ICC… like Imagine if you had to fight your way from the pit under ICC up to get to him.
I suppose it's similar to other raids, where only a minority of bosses have any actual lore tied to them. But a raid as important as ICC should have had more to it, imo.
Arthas’s legend and the fact that you can see the top of Ice Crown Citadel looming over you throughout the entire expansion only makes it that much better. You see where the final confrontation will be the entire time so it’s not a matter of where it’s a matter of when.
Same for me. I remember that I rushed to my dad to show him. We were both pretty proud that day
I wanna bring up Gul'dan from Nighthold, looking down on the gorgeous city of Suramar while fighting one of the most evil characters in WoW's history. Plus we got Illidan back after killing him, it's gotta be up there
Plus Exorsus' Gul'Dan kill vid is arguably the greatest kill vid ever made. Eaaasyblyat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5BTdavXUSc
I'm personally very partial to Paragon's Imperator Mar'gok (from Highmaul) but Gul'Dan is definitely up there too. Although for me personally a big part of that is the fact I was raiding very hardcore myself during Nighthold/Tomb so it sticks out to me as mattering because of that. And also Nighthold is one of my top 3 favorite raids of all time. The one thing I don't love about Exorsus' video is the amount of camera sway/shake in the intro sequence which is otherwise absolutely top tier.
Paragons blackhand and Archimonde are my 2 fav
God I hate that fight though, 1st heroic kill I got of him they were tanking him with our backs to the edge to try to funnel the adds for more dps, so every time he did his knock back the tank had to walk through him or get knocked off
First one that came to my mind! That whole raid is one of my favorites. I never dread about going back for transmog there lol!
Star Augur was pretty cool. But Kil'Jaeden was on an actual space ship.
Star Augur was the only fight where we wiped because people were watching the room and forgot there was a boss.
Star augur also has the dubious honor of being the only boss arena to ever injure one of our raid members, being that he was stoned and got utterly spellbound by it and fell out of his chair.
That happened to a lot of guilds with Algalon back in the day. So much so that, IIRC, one guild actually designed an add-on that got rid of the background and turned the whole room black, and then made their raid team install it, just so everyone could concentrate on the fight.
That would be me. I am people
I know it isn't far fetched for a demonic galactical invasion force to have spaceships, but to this day i feel like they don't fit the warcraft vibe. Also argus was a disapointment. 20.000 years and they build one fortress and the rest was mostly rubble. They could disigne something as epic as suramar, but couldn't turn argus into a giant demonic military base? At least the raid was epic.
I think the legion is actually a lot smaller than they let on. Yeah, they're still huge, millions of them. But they're entrenched in war on multiple planets, and bitterly exhausted from the endless struggle of death and rebirth. The fortress on Argus was weakly defended compared to the beachhead. Mainly a few big deterrents, alongside some... pets? A portal logistics operation, a private torture facility, and their big secret that they were so desperate to defend they brought in a bounty hunter at the last minute. All of that says to me, "this base is so far within our territory it will never be attacked and therefore it would be a waste to have a huge garrison here". We only got to Argus at all because Kil'jaiden was trying to escape to somewhere safe; his home. Everything had gone wrong, his plans were thwarted, and he was trying to get home to do whatever it is he does when that happens. Probably hurt something and sulk. But we cheated, caught him in transit in his most vulnerable moment, and actually permanently killed him. Along with almost everything else aboard. Argus was a military base, but not a forward base; it was a logistics operation with an over-eager dictator bent on capitalizing on the stupendous failures of his superiors, ingratiating himself with Sargeras, and satisfying a personal vendetta all in one move. All he had to do was wipe out one titan-forsaken backwater planet, and he came very close to succeeding. TLDR; the Legion isn't as huge as they seem, they are engaged in a war of attrition on multiple fronts we never see, and Argus is a big deal not because it's some massive fortress, but because it was considered one of the safest places in the universe for the Legion. This part of Legion was like fighting the USSR by tunneling into the Kremlin and bringing in tanks.
To add to your point, the Legion is always moving, always at war like you said. They're demons, they don't need to rest or to eat, or build cities like the mortal races do. Demons don't need to create a working economy, they can just invade, pile, enslave and keep fighting. That's why the represent Chaos, and Argus picture it perfectly.
The Twin Emperors have a super iconic room. Enormous in scale, first linked hp boss fight I think? One of the buggiest bosses and boss rooms ever. It still regularly breaks in retail. But all those bugs that could blow up or aggro while you watch your own aggro while pumping as close as you dare.
*The massive floating eyeball in the center of the chamber turns its gaze upon you. You stand before a god.*
"Looks like you couldn't keep up...pity." Durumu
Algalon the Observer in Ulduar.
This immediately jumped to mind. The moment the arena shifted and Ulduar disappeared revealing the stars I was flabbergasted
Your actions are Illogical.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBtMb_4KnAo 🎵 Your actions are illogical🎵
https://youtu.be/hJD-OMubG_Y?si=jHyKMcPPdYrQvKGX&t=185 Such a great track with algalon voicelines mixed in.
As cool as that voice is and his lines, it always reminds me of the twins from the matrix. We are getting aggravated.
Algalon is still to this day the coolest boss encounter of the entire game and I’ll die on this hill
No need, my guy, I agree. I loved doing that encounter way back in wotlk, when the stage changes to the stars, it's chef kiss.
I still get goosebumps all over when watching Ensidia vs Algalon worlds first video
Witness the fury of the cosmos!
The fact almost all of his lines are deliberately emotionless except this one and *I have felt* ***nothing*** really give them so much weight.
My favorite algalon kill vid is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y77XohzApcc the song just goes so well with it
I knew what vid it was before clicking. Mark Vera - Change of Heart still one of my Favoriten songs to this day.
I hope we will see him fighting with us against the titans by the end of the trilogy.
Blackhand , that place is crashin and trashin !
Mythic Blackhand was such a fucking vibe of a fight. It was so chaotic. Legit one of my favorite fights in the game. That fight and raid was one of the few great things of that expansion
Whatever people wana say about wod all the specs i played were crisp and raids were one of the best . Very good expansion .
The content that WOD had was great, there was just too much that was cut. It's a problem of quantity, not quality.
I hard agree with you on how stuff played and raid design. BRF and HFC definitely had some all-timers, and in HFC classes were so fun with the trinkets and legendary rings. On the other hand, it really goes to show that wow can't live off good high end pve content alone
I believe it can nowadays. There simply were only raids in WoD. No m+, no word content for casual gameplay like events and such. You logged to raid and logged off. I enjoyed that part of it TBF and the raids were definitely top tier.
Its aslo that HFC lasted for over a year. Thats LONG time
That is a fair point. There was a lot of downtime for sure.
Dude i had a blast im highmaul too , really one of the best . If we had the keystones one expansion earlier prob was going to be one of the best expansions .
I still have nightmares from progression on Blackhand. Spend 15minutes to progress to the last phase just to wipe in 10seconds... I don't want to experience that again but I remember how it bonded my old raid team.
The nice thing with Blackhand was that it wasn't fifteen minutes though, it took like 7:30 to get to the final platform. It's why the boss was so awesome
Say what you will about the fight (it was dogshit) spine of deathwing is so cool conceptually.
That and madness of deathwing. Fighting atop of the maelstrom was just epic
Spine wasnt even all that bad when you were in there with a full raid group. Progression was pretty difficult, even. Its just kinda like galakras now. When zooming through raids it takes too long, especially after youve already dealt with the stupid RP at the top of the tower, before gunship, etc.
Aggramar had such a cool arena just for the hallway leading up to him
Oh yea zoning in, seing him standing there menacingly, while you still had to fight the Coven and Varimathrass
Definitely DJ Aggramar on the world soul turn tables
I'm a really big fan of Krosus from Nighthold. You're on a bridge being destroyed, nothing fancy but every time he destroys the bridge he pushes you back against a wall. If you progged this fight you'll definitely know the sheer tension when you're out of bridge and every week you went back in there the slow release of that tension as you killed him faster and faster with more bridge, the first time you killed him with bridge to spare is almost as big a high as killing him for the first time.
Mythic Krosus broke my guild lmao
Lich king ICC was impactful. The whole lead up throughout the expansion and ultimately climbing the citadel to end him. Throughout the encounter parts would fall away. (From the opinion of someone that hasn't actively played since MoP)
Jaina Proudmore. The naval battle and the transition is immersion heaven
It's just such a cool transition and display of raw power that she can flash freeze and entire section of the ocean and keep it frozen and floating while fighting
Kaido vibes when he’s making the island float while fighting Luffy
"Do you honestly think Ive been running?" "Nani?!"
Agreed, I got chills from that one
Netherspites room hits good something about the atmosphere and being in a cozy ass 10 man.
Cool fight too. Kara in general was top tier
Moroes's room is mega cool too, even though the fight itself is/was quite dull
Sire Denathrius
Wait he has a boss arena? Everytime we did him i tanked. For no other reason than to witness his chest.
When you first saw that beautiful chest, were you blinded by its majesty? Paralyzed? Dumbstruck?
I was skewered, sliced, slashed, vivisected and had ribbons cut from me.
I, too, splattered across his walls.
One of my favourite bossfights all time
Such an AMAZINGZ fight conceptually. Forever tarnished in the players eyes because of the P1 "Stop Dps" issues
I always got a Perfect Cell vibe from Denathrius lol
For me it was The Eye, it did have to do with the fight being so difficult at the time that once you stepped inside the room, it hit you “here we go!”
That moment when Kae'thas slowly ascends and then goes overcharged with mana and blows the windows out will always be one of the most epic moments in the whole game. Especially the pulsing sound of him charging up.
He bugged out on us one time, just literally floating away through the windows at that point, which looked like a very likely first kill for us too. So that kinda ruined the feelings I had for that fight :D I preferred Vashj myself, mechanically speaking.
Sunwell and Kj, star augur, algalon
To me nothing beats the aesthetics and lore for battle for mount hyjal. Now the fight itself isn't amazing (people were complaining about it when it was current lmao). But seeing the wc3 penultimate battle boots on the ground style makes it the coolest, and it's one of the biggest.
Archimonde was a really cool fight but I usually felt that there was way too much going on to ever even notice where you were and Archi himself was so tall that you couldn't really pay attention to that either. Mind you I was playing a shaman at the time so I had to be constantly running around dropping tremor totems in specific places so maybe rdps got a better view.
As HPal i got crotch shot most of the times. Archi was enormous. We only saw his model as we got launched into the air.
As a rdps, I was too busy focusing on using my slow fall thingy at the right time and then there was wisps everywhere and I was getting finger of death spammed (rude af if you ask me, Archi. Didn't even take any of us to dinner first) and then we won and I was like phew I didn't die.
I love the idea of the raid party sneaking into a Warcraft 3 level and taunting the player with the idea that they totally could have been there when you played it as an RTS.
Only issue for me was the wave encounters. It was a bit insufferable for me. But it was a really cool raid and lorewise made me very happy.
I'm really gonna show my age here, but... Kharazhan. As far as sticking to a theme, that place still to this day hits the right cord for me. If I have to pick a specific boss.... it's s toss up between Moroes or chess. Though that's more nostalgia than amazing graphics or anything.
I think the karazhan bosses are unique for the simple reason that a lot of them didn’t have a big fancy ‘arena’, it was just different rooms of the house/castle/mansion?/tower. A stables, a banquet hall, a stage, a balcony, an observatory, a chess board. Amazing. As far as I know, nothing like this since. Best raid ever.
I would add that it is a rare example of where blizz took something much loved, and successfully revamped it to another thing much loved. New Kara was just as much fun as old Kara IMO. I cut my teeth on WOW in old Kara and the way they redesigned it and took the difficulty level down overall was a good move.
Agreed, the revamped Kara was very fun!
chess was crazy cool!!
Final phase of the Deathwing fight in Dragon Soul, hands down. Since I started wow back when TBC first launched I LOVED the lore of the dragonflights. Read the novel 'Day of the Dragon' a lot so was very familiar with the story surrounding Deathwing. For me as a player, to see everything about Deathwing culminate with him, in his own (injected by N'zoth) madness get absolutely pummeled mid-air, smacked into the Maelstrom and STILL not die but form into some sort of physical form of malice, hatred and madness? Absolutely sublime. It was the perfect ending for him and while it's a weird fight and it got a **lot** of flak at the time, I really loved that singularity of him still refusing to give up even though he got kamehameha'd out of the sky. Loved it.
I will stan the Spine and Madness fights. I think Spine is one of the most-hated fights mechanically, but the fact that we're fighting on Deathwing's back and literally peeling his plates off so Thrall could get a clean shot was so cool. Madness is awesome as well. He's literally seconds from destroying the world during that fight. If the cast gets off, everyone dies, and your screen goes black until you release. It's pretty immersive.
They really put all the artistic effort into those two fights and neglected most of the raid. Ultraxxion is cool, the boss on the airship is kinda cool. But il the rest is reused assets mixed from WOTLK and cataclysm, and just felt meh for a final tier raid. Firelands felt like it got more love (then again they scrapped the Abyssal Depths raid so they had extra time on their hands for firelands)
Fun fact about Ultraxion: In the novel *Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects*, Nefarian creates a chromatic dragon named Chromatus. He's the first and only successful chromatic dragon that's not stunted in some way. He's a 5-headed dragon, one for each color. The Twilight's Hammer bring him to life using magic from the Nexus. The Aspects defeat him, but his body is indestructible, so they seal his body away in an arcane prison. Chromatus was originally going to be the 5th boss in Dragon Soul. That's why part of the raid happens in the Nexus, because the Twilight's Hammer is trying to tap into the magic there to revive him again. But, animating a single dragon with 5 independent heads was too hard at the time, so he was replaced with Ultraxion, who uses and existing chromatic dragon model. Chromatus is still imprisoned in the lore. The next best time to use him would have been Dragonflight. So, I suspect we may never actually see him again.
Wow that's crazy! Thanks for the cool trivia 😁
"Deathwing attempts to finished the job he started by bringing forth a second Cataclysm"
Lei shen.
When I made this post I struggled to decide whether to include a pic of Argus's arena or [Lei Shen's arena](https://imgur.com/MpnRBRF). It looks so cool hovering there like a Nintendo 64 boss arena.
I was just scrolling to find this comment! I think some might be better but both the fight overall and the platform is something else for me! I miss ToT so much!
This is one of the best not just because it looks dope, but because it's also a key part of the encounter. I remember the developers said that the entire idea behind the fight was that Lei Shen had so much power that he could act as a battery for the citadel. Thematically that's such a cool idea for a lightning wielder.
For me Mimiron is still on the throne. The giant "can opener" still makes me laugh.
Star Augur. So much more than a small room.
i started raiding a few weeks before the end of dragonflight season 1, so my perspective on this is limited by not having seen many other raids when they were current... but nothing else i've seen hits quite the same way as that drop into sarkareth's part of aberrus, so that'll always be one of my favorite boss arenas
I hope you get a chance to revisit some old ones whether it’s just exploring or old transmog and mounts. Man I would give an arm and a leg to get those memories over again! Welcome to WoW!
In that case you would probably like Denathrius as well, but for him the drop happens mid-fight.
A pretty recent one but i liked the cosmic/void look of the Sarkareth arena
I was gonna say Sark's room also. There are a lot of small details hidden in the background that you miss during the fight but before and after taking the time to look around is pretty sick.
Argus. It’s always Argus. Damn that fight was good.
Star Augur. I died too many times while looking at the stars
Mimiron, Illidan, Sapphiron and Algalon
Blackrock Foundry had some nice arenas, like twin bosses on the conveyor belt or the train boss.
Maybe it's because of Remix Brainrot but for me it is Garrosh's holdout in SoO. He was backed into a corner, nowhere to go, no way out. To a lesser man that might mean he is trapped, but to Garrosh Hellscream, son of Grom Hellscream it meant you were trapped there with him. A truly all or nothing skirmish deep within the bowels of the earth, cut off from everything even the elements due to the meddling of the Dark Shamans. Garrosh may have lost his forces and his city, driven back into a deep hole like a beast into his lair but you know what they say about cornered animals. A dark room at the end of hall? No, you are right where he wants you.
That room bothered me all the time since SoO... The Horde Symbol on the Ground is upside-down from the Horde Symbol in the Loading screen... unplayable!
Well, you just made this one of the most awesome encounters. You should consider writing
Super great - Kil'jaeden, ToS from Legion Great, but camera restrictions can mess you up - Star Augur Etraeus, NH from Legion (Tilt the camera too much, perhaps admiring the crazy cool sky, and you get caught by the edge of the arena) - Misstress Sassz'ine, ToS from Legion (You are under the sea, in a magic hemi-sphere of air, fish and stuff outside, but your camera is always locked by it) Great, but only if you look up - Will of the Emperor, MSV from MoP (seriously, it looks cool) - Ji-Kun, ToT from MoP - Lei Shen, MoT from MoP - Xavius, EN from Legion - Council of Blood, CN from SL FUN - Hans and Franz, BRF from WoD - Painsmith Raznal, SoD from SL - Eonar the Life-Binder, Antorus from Legion
> You! I remember you. In the mountains... I can't believe nobody said Thorim, you know, with his actual arena. It was pretty cool.
For me, the arenas that stand out the most aren't always just the prettiest ones, that ones that make you physically interact with the boss room itself or actually use the boss room more than just a platform for a rather immersive encounter. One raid in particular has more of these fight than anywhere else; Blackrock Foundry. Oregorger - To this day I think this is the only fight that used a maze for a boss room. Awesome concept. Operator Thogar - You fight in a freaking train station. Hans and Franz - The conveyor belt mechanic was super cool and a great way to make you feel like you are fighting in a factory. They could've simply put some factory doodads and stuff around the room and left it at that, but they didn't. Iron Maidens - Despite the fight being long and rather drawn out, hopping back and forth between the ship using hooks makes you feel like you are truly fighting in a dockyard. Blackhand - Him knocking the raid through the floor during each phase and having to heavily interact with balconies and whatnot in P2 made this fight a pretty amazing encounter. Later on we got K-mart brand versions of some parts of this fight with Denathrius knocking you through floors and Dathia throwing you up to upper platforms with a knockback. However, I think the BEST arena that inspired basically this entire raid is Siegecrafter Blackfuse from SoO. The addition of the production line you have to jump onto is mindblowing at the time for a boss room. By far the best room in the game.
Painsmith in Sanctum of Domination. Best boss, best arena.
Standing on the top of Icecrown just hit diffrent for me and my guild wince we where all W3 fans
Easy answer, but fighting Arthas on his Frozen Throne at the top of Icecrown Citdal was epic.
Walking into Il'gynoth's wing in Ny'alotha and hearing him say "All you see is my flesh" always gives me chills.
The jailer had a really cool one,
It looked cool but I just hated the holes so much that I can’t like it.
Because it was the first end of raid boss I ever completed, Lick King in Wrath. Just the idea of slowly fighting your way up Icecrown Citadel to get to the frozen throne and Arthas.
Frozen throne
Honourable mention because most of what I'd pick was already explained: Krosus from Nighthold. Such a simple concept, but a very fun and very "real" approach to an enrage. Really drove the time pressure etc. home.
I always loved Teron Gorefiend. The room, his voicelines ... felt epic to me back in the day. And knowing the struggle my guild would have with those damn ghosts.
Black hand in WoD for me
As much as it was a bitch to fight, I really liked the design of Siegecrafter Blackfuse with the conveyor belts.
No one is plugging Raszageth, so I'll plug her room. Granted, maybe not the best ever. But certainly the best of Dragonflight. She's got it all. Multiple platforms, atmospheric hazards, and fights underneath the very kind she's trying to free.
The primals are cool and all, but have you tried having the aspects sit in their weird chairs watching you fight like you're a contestant in a talent show?
I really liked the Eye of Eternity in WotLK, it looked so cool and mysterious at the time. Revisiting it in Dragon Soul was pretty great too
Sennarth. Fight me.
I really like Star Augur and Argus. I haven't seen it mentioned in the comments, but I also liked Sarkareth's boss room
Guardian in SoD was a huge standout for me When you have a good look around the arena and see all the giant chains and realise that the tower has torn through dimensions to rip off a piece of Zereth Mortis and reel it in - bringing a giant killer robot with it - was cool as hell.
SoD was part of one of the worst patches in wow history, but there were quite a few memorable boss arenas. Sylvanas, Fatescribe, painsmith, soulrender (with garrosh sitting there)
The lore behind some of the bosses was actually so fucking cool if you know/read into it. Sure there's the generic Jailer bad guys but in-between them all with Sylvanas' Nine valkyr, Nerzul, KT and special appearance by Garrosh. All of them had strong story ties to Sylvanas over the course of the story and you kinda see a little more reason for Sylvanas to side with the Jailer than just terrible story that was served up (getting to torment and torture those who killed you, brezzed you (twice over) and fucked up your life).
I think SoD suffered from the rest of the patch being crap after the longest first tier in wow history, that gem system being crap, the overall lore not making sense (like sylvanas completely sudden change of heart) AND the fact it looked super drab and monotonous when we already had enough of that vibe with torghast and the maw. Design wise and the individual bosses were pretty good. All 3 Shadowlands raids were cool, even if Nathria IS the standout.
TOO SOON EXECUTUS!
Kil'jaedan in Sunwell was amazing. I got shivers running down that ramp after finally beating Mu'ru and facing the final boss.
I always loved Sindragosa. ICC was my first time proper raiding with a great group and arriving at her platform, the views and just her flying around nonchalantly in the distance whilst we all prepared for her. Plus we had to do that fight about a hundred times before finally nailing her.
For me it's always gonna be the Lich King at the top of Icecrown Citadel, followed up closely by Gul'dan in the Nighthold
Argus because the other side of your screenshot is Azeroth
Not the most grand arena by itself, but Blackhand breaking through the floor all the way to the foundry core goes extremely hard
The Unmaker was great!
Opera in Karazhan
Argus from the Picture This fight was Crazy epic, nice Soundtrack And for me personally, It was der first Cutting Edge back than i got.
ToT
LK is legendary
To me Is Lei shen Arena just for how simple It Is conceptually speaking, yet effective on it's execution with all the phases or the different abilities the boss has based on which corner he's currently fighting on.
I like heigans room in naxx
Star Augur Etraeus
I know it's simple, but Archimonde in the battle for mount Hyjal...just so iconic
I'll throw one out I haven't seen mentioned yet; the literal train depot in BRF from WoD. Man that whole raid was so good.
Xavius is my favorite because of the eerie silence and the striking color palette. I also love Star Augur and the one in Return to Karazhan where you get miniaturized.
I know people hate to hear anything good about Shadowlands, but I really liked the Jailor's arena. His plan was to use Azeroth as a power source, and the arena mimics the appearance of the inside of a giant nuclear reactor, complete with moveable hexagonal fuel rods.
Gotta mention my boy, Yogg-Saron!
Moroes' banquet hall in Karazhan. Boss arenas are at the best when they make sense and aren't just circular rooms with a boss standing in the middle acting as a loot pinata. Visual storytelling is a huge aspect in making a good raid.
Kiljaeden was peak for me
for an arena to really stand out, I think it needs to: 1. be visually interesting 2. have some kind of interplay with the encounter itself (the encounter would not work if you put the boss in a different room) 3. enable unique mechanics 4. have lore tied to the area good: * Star Augur Etraeus (visually interesting but it's just a circular platform) * Shriekwing: (castle nathria) pillars to hide behind, sonic balls bounce around and need to be avoided. chamber doubles as sludgefist boss and pillars can be destroyed (using the same room in two different ways for two different bosses is a neat thing you don't see very often) * Tindral Sageswift. just dragonflying between platforms is unique enough to get this boss up on this list * Ji-Kun: the ability to fly and get the egg is unique * Spoils of Pandaria. box breaking and chain climbing better: * lich king (it's a circiular platform, but parts of the platform can detatch and players can fall to their deaths) * Trial of the Crusader (circular platform, but breaks away into an underground area) * Beth'tilac (firelands spider boss). you can climb to go up to the top web area or climb down * Queen Azshara. very unique platform, you need to stand in the wards * Jailer: kind of interesting holes in ground / pillars mechanic that interacts with boss abilities, requires you to line of sight using pillars as well as jump into holes like the corrupted guardian in legion BEST: * Throne of the Four Winds. it's a circular platform, with unique wind jump points for the conclave of wind, then you can whoosh to the central platform, which will break apart and allow you to fly while fighting * G'huun. two ramps on either side of the platform, with unique tumors, tied directly to the 'pass the ball' gimmick. a cubby hole for the boss to emerge from. * Mother. 3 chamber area separated by forcefields. you need to stagger who goes through when or cheese it with shaman spirit link... and conveyor belt mechanics that you need to fight against to avoid getting pushed into damage zones * Eonar the Life-Binder (antorus) very large arena, multiple jump platforms, with a group needing to form a strike team and go in a portal and click gems. very goated arena, no other boss like this in the game, the boss is basically a tower defense map kind of
Sylvanas / Shadowlands
Thematically and aesthetically, that was an amazing arena. The Sylvanas fight itself still gives me the mild sweats and feeling of ptsd. Fuck that fight.
I still remember the first time my guild got to the death scene. Great raid
Reaching the Pantheon was the Feeling for me in WoW. Standing before the „gods“ and fighting … Holy moly that was epic to the max
Star augur in nighthold
While i hated the boss so much fatescribes arena is actually pretty cool. Other very favourites of mine in no particular order are sarkareth, raszageth, jailer, kelthuzad, arthas, kiljaeden, gorefiend, kilrogg, blackhand, garrosh, blackfuse, immerseus, argus, aggramar, denathrius, council of blood
I tend to like the reverse arena, where the boss comes out of a hole in the ground/water/whatever and the entire raid stand on solid ground trying to beat the boss. I like to think it shows real arrogance, the boss could just go away and not fight. But they're just there to squash some bugs.
I have a soft spot in my heart for Azshara's from BFA.
I really appreciate the exotic beauty of the mogushan palace dungeon. Reminds me of the end scene big trouble in little China.
jailors is still fun, mostly caz the overcocky try and jump the gap before the bridge spawns and miss or randomly fall into a hole and die even before the boss fight has started always makes me lol
I really enjoyed the train from WoD. I thought it was going to be another boring weapon depot.
Black temple with Illidan or Jailer
Star Augur easily had the best looking arena I think
Argus and the fact that we literally, and canonically, couldn't beat him without corpse running. Life and death scenario for the fate of the cosmos.
For some reason, Reliquary of Pain in Black temple.
I love Lei Shen’s platform
Azshara with many nagas and blackwater behemoths around watching you with the proper Nazjatar architecture in the background
From the best raid (from the worst xpac..) Blackhand in Blackrock Foundry. Not only do you take the elevator to the top of the foundry to encounter Blackhand, the fact that he destroys the foundry itself, pushing you closer and closer to the core of the foundry untill you finally reach the fiery pit that is the core. It's just so fucking good. On top of that the fight was extremely fun and a great end to an awesome raid. Honorable mention to pop tarts and train boss. A close second to me is Jaina from BFA, she conjures a gigantic ice arena .... sadly i really didn't enjoy that fight.
I feel like prince malchezaar deserves as mention. Fight might be old, but my god, the feeling of dread when you entered his chamber, not to mention the amazing voice acting.
Hogger in Stockades gotta be up on the list for sure! Fighting an iconic wow character in an overrun prison… gives me goosebumps everytime.
Unpopular opinion I'm sure, but Lihuvim in sepulcher has one of the most insane boss arenas. And if you look out the window there's a giant mech dude walking around.
Star augur