Which end raid boss is your favorite and why?

There are currently 39 raids in World of Warcraft with an end boss. I have not counted Baradin Hold or Vault of Archavon because those don’t have specific end bosses. That’s a lot of bosses to work through — a lot of mechanics to remember and absorb. From Ragnaros to Jaina, we’ve seen so much. I have to tip my hat to the developers who dip backwards into what they’ve created and bring it forward with changes — and to the creation of some new attack we’ve not faced before.

Today’s topic is “Which end boss is your favorite and why?”

Usually, I leave the topic for the end of the article but I want you to think about which encounter you like the best. I divvied up the bosses into two — admittedly personal — categories: Beat-’em-up and multi-stage. Beat-’em-up was just that. Although there are mechanics you have to dodge, the fight is — more or less — kill them quickly. Sartharion in The Obsidian Sanctum is an example of this. Multi-stage is just what it entails. There are multiple stages to get through before the boss is downed. Kil’jaeden in Tomb of Sargeras is an example. Many of the bosses I put in one category could fit in the other or be placed in both Beat them up and Multi-stage. This was just for analysis.

There is a small subset of both of these into which I put five bosses: Ragnaros in Molten Core; C’thun in Temple of Ahn’Qirag; Kil’jaeden in Sunwell Plateau; Argus in Antorus, the Burning Throne; Yogg-Saron and Algalon in Ulduar. I call these the “Reveal Bosses” because they enter the fight in a very dramatic fashion. My favorite of these bosses is Algalon the Observer.

Why is this my favorite? It was unlike anything I’d experienced prior. I can still remember the shivers I got the first time Ragnaros appeared in Molten Core, but I don’t think that compares — visually or in the fight — to Algalon. I remember the awe at opening the door for the first time and walking into this space. The opening sequence of the fight shown above is still — to my mind — the best ever done. I died more times than I should probably admit because I was attempting to look around to see if there were constellations I could identify. It can be argued that Yogg-Saron is the final boss of Ulduar because you don’t have to do Algalon — like Sinestra in The Bastion of Twilight and Ra-Den in Throne of Thunder. But I feel they can stand as the end of the raid. Yes, we’re all tired of Rhonin’s speech in Old Dalaran, but when the sky goes dark as the fountain activates, I’m filled with a large sense of nostalgia. Some raids I don’t care if I haven’t been there in years. Ulduar I will run every week and not just because I don’t have Mimiron’s Head.

Now that I have you thinking, which end raid boss is your favorite and why?