What has been your favorite raid?

We’re a day into the Battle of Dazar’alor and it feels like a really solid raid. My team got halfway through in our first night. We’ve had lots of fun figuring out the new fights, like which gem buff you want on Opulence. Sadly nobody got their hands on the best pair of fist weapons ever — but there’s always next week! It got me thinking on what my all-time favorite raid has been. I’ve been raiding consistently since the end of Ulduar, so there’s a long list to choose from. Looking back it’s easy to toss out the big show stoppers like Icecrown Citadel, Antorus the Burning Throne, or Siege of Orgrimmar — but I think my favorite has to be Dragon Soul.

For me, it’s all about the memories. My guild was created about two-thirds of the way through Dragon Soul with the goal of tackling the harder content in a 10 man roster. We had an uphill battle for sure, some of those fights were no joke when you got further up the tower. I was raiding on my Holy Paladin at the time and loved the mechanics the Dragon Soul bosses. Hagara Stormbinder and making a chain of raiders to connect lightning towers. Ultraxion and the major healing buffs you got from the Dragon Aspects that let you solo heal by blanketing the raid in your strongest hitting heals with no chance of running out of mana.

Slowly but surely we made it onto the Spine of Deathwing. It took a long few raid weeks but eventually, we managed to not fall off. After winning we vowed that we’d never do it again, choosing to extend until the end. The final battle against Deathwing didn’t take as long, luckily our strategy of throwing Paladins at the problem eventually worked. We blinded him with the light. On September 23, 2012, we cured his Madness — just two days before the release of Mists of Pandaria. Of course, that was the night we had to pug a healer and they won the mount. I’m still playing with that Paladin to this day, and never ever will I let him forget that he won it.

Dragon Soul will always have that special place in my heart. It solidified that we were capable of doing the hardest content, and had put together a great team of players to play with. What’s your favorite raid? Are you interested in taking on the major figures like Illidan, Arthas, and Gul’dan? Is there a raid that you loved the mechanics in more than any other, or the armor sets?