THE Boss

A recent post over on WoWInsider got me thinking about who I considered to be the most epic raid boss in WoW. I thought well that is too easy, it's .., and then it hit me it wasn't as clear cut as I thought. The boss had to have certain qualities, a good story, a good fight and more importantly good memories, which as I didn't complete all content in all expansions rules out some bosses/raid content.

So after some thought I came up with a short list and I eventually came up with a winner but it was so close I have made it into a top 5. I'm sure there will be some you disagree with but as this is MY list that is very obvious. and rather than just give a list I'll give you a little bit of my reasoning why I believe my list is right.

Before I delve into the list I'll make you aware of my raid progression within each expansion:

• Vanilla - Molten Core, Zul'Gurub, Blackwing Lair and Ahn'Qiraj 20 fully cleared. Ahn'Qiraj  40 upto the Twin Emperors (7/9), Naxxramas trash only;
• Burning Crusade - Karazhan, Gruul/Magtheridan, Tempest Keep, Serpentshrine Cavern cleared, Hyjal Summit (to Azgalor 4/5) and Black Temple to Gurtogg Bloodboil (5/9). Never set foot in Sunwell Plataeu.
• Wrath - All cleared except Sindragosa heroic, Lich King Heroic and Halion heroic;
• Cataclysm - All normal modes cleared;

5: Cho'gall

Cho'Gall

The only entry from Cataclysm. The lore of this dude and the story build up in Twilight Highlands questing helped a ton to get him onto my list. He is the main protagonist of the storyline there. Besides that the fight with him in Bastion of Twilight was awesome too as it was hard, fun and required skill, co-ordination and high outputs from DPS and healers.

The fight also has great memories as my guild at the time, Saturday Knight Fever, managed to kill him before the nerf and was our finest moment in Cataclysm raiding. The team of guys and gals out that night were top notch and definitely our top 10 raiders at the time.


4: Gruul

Gruul

This fight got in the list mainly because of the memories. It was the start of something big for my guild, Deadwood. We had made a breakaway from a good guild gone  bad and had recruited some fine players to increase our numbers from 10 man Kara runs to 25 man raiding and the elation of all 25 present that night on  Teamspeak is something that will stay with me forever.

The fight was a technical one, requiring positional awareness and awesome DPS. The story was present through the questing through Blade's Edge Mountains too and that gave you the "I want to kill this guy" feeling.


3: Nefarian 1.0

Nefarian 1.0

Every nerd loves dragon slaying and that certainly didn't hinder this guys progress onto my list. He may not have been my first WoW boss kill or indeed the first dragon but he was my first end boss that I wasn't boosted through and that made the difference for me between Nefarian, Onyxia 1.0 and Ragnaros 1.0 for getting onto the list.

The fight had it all epic dragon? Check. Hard as nail? Check. Make you bring your A game? Check. Interesting mechanic? Hell yeah, who didn't love class calls and being sheeped into a giraffe or a cow?

Of course the adds, the voice acting ("Let the games begin" is my favourite) and Nefarian bouncing all over hurling shadow bolts all made the fight epic.


2: Lich King

The Lich King

The Lich King, needs no introduction for 99.9% of WoW players I'm sure. The fight was, and still is, the hardest fight I have done in Warcraft and I don't believe that we will ever get another boss harder than him.

I spent 2 months wiping on him after killing Sindragosa often 3 nights a week. For me that is reason enough to get this guy a spot on the list. He also had a great backstory, and probably is teh most lore filled boss we have ever and will ever encounter in Warcraft and not making him number 1 on this list was really tough but there is still one boss I consider more epic.

It was also a very good time in my WoW "career" and I was with a great bunch of folks in Immersion when I got the kill. It was just a shame that killing him signalled the end of that guild as a 25 man raiding guild.


1: Lady Vashj

Lady Vashj

The story from the questing in Zangarmarsh led up to the fight, we even had 3 instances feeding into the overall story as well.providing us with a damned good reason to go kick her ass.

On top of that the fight itself was a real corker, it all starts with the opening of the bridge then a tank and spank phase, adds phase where everyone had to be on top form, coordination between the group was paramount and EVERYONE had a role to play as well as their usual tank/heal/DPS duties. then the finale is a DPS race with a soft enrage timer caused by spore bats dropping acid patches on the ground. People experiencing teh fight now have no idea of how fun and challenging the fight was.

The memory was also one I'll never forget, Deadwood had been trying to kill her for several weeks and had come close always failing just before entering the 3rd phase then one glorious day, that just happened to be my birthday, we blasted into phase 3 and on our first attempt at that phase took her down! The next week we repeated the kill and it was documented by our main tank in the video below.