Dreadnaughts in EQOA - because 40 people running around a frozen lake kititng while avoiding deadly AoE was a blast
Isle of Dread in EQOA - Not a boss per say, but mobs on this island were scary even with 2 groups, but the pay out was huge for killing them.
Lady Vox in EQOA- Getting that epic wand quest done on my Enchanter felt so rewarding :)
striderida1 said:Dreadnaughts in EQOA - because 40 people running around a frozen lake kititng while avoiding deadly AoE was a blast
Isle of Dread in EQOA - Not a boss per say, but mobs on this island were scary even with 2 groups, but the pay out was huge for killing them.
Lady Vox in EQOA- Getting that epic wand quest done on my Enchanter felt so rewarding :)
I have never played EQOA, I will have to look those fights up online :)
I think a lot of raid bosses leave an impression, or at least hopefully they do. One or two tank and spank fights are expected and are good benchmarks for how a raid performs. But end game bosses should provide unique and interesting challenges to a raid party. Thought should be placed into forcing synergy between the party members and forcing players to take on additional roles like the need for additional off-tanks or for healers to DPS during a burndown cycle. Anything that makes you look at your character in a different way.
Myabe I am nostalgic, but Kael'thas from WoW is one of my favorites. There were several different phases that could catch you off guard. It took several wipes to discover a strategy on the best way to deal with the mobs. There was extra need to pre-plan the event detailing placement, priority targets, and timing. You didn't just walk in there and see what happened. There were obvious cycles to work around and random issues like mind control that had to be dealt with on the fly. Quick reactions from each player were also important in the final phase. As an off-tank I found the experience not only engaging and rewarding, but also enjoyable.
That being said I am sure the dev team has all sorts of evil ideas for boss fights.
I have a few favorites. Arthas from WoW because it was fun to do with friends. However, most of my raiding experience comes from SWTOR and FFXIV...so I'll post a few fights here:
Soa in the Eternity Vault (SWTOR): Mechanically fun, challenging fight for unprepared groups. He would crush the floor, and you'd have to follow the debris down to the next floor, avoiding AoEs. At the ground floor, he would spawn a shield which could only be removed by falling debris, and the tanks had a few seconds to position him under these.
Also in Eternity Vault was the Puzzle boss. Essentially, you had to match up two different columns to the correct "piece" of the puzzle. Every time you spun a row, adds would spawn. Every time a segment was locked in and correct, elite adds would spawn. This one was certainly interesting. SWTOR had other raids, but I think EV was the best of them.
FFXIV: There was the three original binding coil of bahamuts (1st, 2nd, Final) which had some really great bosses. Each coil was essentially divided into "Turns" which was basically your group and a boss mob (or some adds and a boss mob, or in the case of t4, fighting progressing waves of adds against a timer). Turn 5 was great, a mechanically challenging fight even to this day with overgearing it (People still die/wipe at level 60 in the level 50 raids!). 2nd Coil Turn 4 (Colloquially called Turn 9/T9) was another great mechanically fight (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_lnPoQNu7w). Then you had t10-13, man these were some good fights. T11 and 12 especially had some really fun mechanics: t11's boss became immune, and summoned 3 adds which had to be kept separate (2 tauntable, 1 roaming) and would tether group members together. If these members spread too far, they would die. If they got too close to another tethered group, they'd die. T12 was a great fight having to down adds in certain positions, as when they were resurrected (Phoenix boss), they would buff anything near them. Man I miss the Coils of Bahamut, the new raid, Alexander Gordias (Savage) is just annoying and not really as fun as the Coils.
Rathe Council - EQ1 (Planes of Power expansion) Picture here
Played this as an enchanter with a raid group that was barely geared enough to complete it. This encounter required me to keep multiple council members mezzed for about 30 minutes solid, which caused me to run into mana issues. Raid leader responded by dedicating a necro to mana-pump me until the counter was over. We finally completed it after the 4th attempt. Victory was never so sweet or hard-fought. Most memorable raid of all time.
Plane of Time - EQ1 (Planes of Power expansion) Picture Here
The entire zone was memorable for me. More so than any other expansion, by far. As if one full-strength raid boss wasnt enough, how about two at a time? The Zek Brothers gave us no end of headaches! Mind you, being on the cutting edge of the raid scene back in the day, we had to figure this encounter out the old fashioned way: Learn by doing.
Enraged X-83 - Vanguard Picture Here
My guild spent the more time working on this encounter than any other fight in APW. A pretty straight forward gear-check, but we always seemed undergeared.
Single group:
Drahga Shadowburner - WoW, heroic Grim Batol. Best single group fight in the game imho, and so tough, they made it optional to completing the instance.
Darkmaster Gandling - WoW, original Scholomance. One of the best designed single group fights ever.
Raid:
Aaryonar - EQ1, Temple of Veeshan. The Aary fight was one of the best gear/skill check encounters in MMO history. Guilds would farm East and West ToV for weeks getting geared/skilled up, and Aaryonar would then be everyone's introduction to North ToV. It's hard to describe the feeling of beating Aaryonar.
Cazic Thule - EQ1, Plane of Fear. If you went through the Fear portal in vanilla or Kunark era EQ1, you know why I picked this, and if you didn't, I can't explain it.
Innoruuk - EQ1, Plane of Hate. If you ported into Hate in vanilla or Kunark era EQ1, you know why I picked this, and if you didn't, I can't explain it.
The raid that dropped the final piece of your Epic 1.0 - EQ1, Ruins of Kunark expac. If you got an epic 1.0 during Kunark (maybe Velious), you know why I picked this, and if you didn't, I can't explain it.
Full disclosure - many old threads on this forum got archived off, but in lots of the ones where Kilsin asks a very specific question, I had a bad habit of going way the heck off the topic. With that said...
[kilsin]@Pyye - everyone gets the timesink of raids and all the bummers to it. Got it. But of all those timesinks, which raid boss was particularly memorable? And if raiding sucked so bad, and single group play is your bag, what group or even solo kill was particularly memorable?[/kilsin]
Sorry Kilsin, I had to. :D
Venjenz said:Raid:.
Cazic Thule - EQ1, Plane of Fear. If you went through the Fear portal in vanilla or Kunark era EQ1, you know why I picked this, and if you didn't, I can't explain it.
This would be mine - I've never experienced any raid in any game after that was more punishing/challenging/frightening. So it may have not been my "favorite," but by far it was the most memorable. And, in all honesty, I don't know if I could handle the PoF "break in" again.
Venjenz said:Full disclosure - many old threads on this forum got archived off, but in lots of the ones where Kilsin asks a very specific question, I had a bad habit of going way the heck off the topic. With that said...
[kilsin]@Pyye - everyone gets the timesink of raids and all the bummers to it. Got it. But of all those timesinks, which raid boss was particularly memorable? And if raiding sucked so bad, and single group play is your bag, what group or even solo kill was particularly memorable?[/kilsin]
Sorry Kilsin, I had to. :D
I am not sure what was posted but yes, I tend to ask very specific questions to get specific answers and avoid negative discussions, if someone doesn't like raiding, they can pass this thread by without troubling themselves, as this question is just to engage memories of group/raid encounters that were considered memorable in a good way ;)
I don't expect everyone to like everything I post but if they see something they don't like and just ignore it for a few days then I am sure they will see something they do like and can join in on soon enough :)
3 come to mind.
1. PoFear. and usually this is many folks first raid. real nail biter, and the death touches!. one nice thing, the only nice thing, was the bevy of turmoil warts that dropped from the hard trash mobs. They were throwing things (like shirukens or throwing daggers) and were so disgustingly awful they were great. I mean if you threw these warts at something, they got pissed!. ice give-aways, too.
2. I liked the Vishmitar dragon fight. Getting cursed and having to find the wadering shade to hail in order to get cured, and trying to beat the other person that saw it too! the panic. - many were cursed at the same time and the shades would pop up in random areas, you had to chase them down to get back to the fight. And the creatured you could make spawn to refill your mana- it was almost balletic seeing all the casters continually genuflecting their own arcane mysteries in this long fight.
3. I forget exactly, but the raid had to tackle numerous mini bosses, while the monster band played and sang a song. Through out the hard fight- everyone switching targets on leaders command, locking down adds, the monster players would call a player name at random and the player would have leave their fight to run to the band and sing the verse that the monster band left off at. It was never the same verse- and they had four or five songs they sung during the fight, each with about 8 verses, one of these verses would be the random selection that they would call you to recite and if you failed- it got harder. More monsters came in. You really had to DPS, keep with the targeting and sing! on command. Sometimes they would call you twice i a row.
My most memorable raid from EQ1 was Lady Vox. Only got to try and kill her once and never actually did kill her. She bugged out and got stuck in a wall above the entrance and the raid wiped over and over and over again. But, the time spent buffing before the raid and everything we did getting ready for it was a lot of fun. I was pulling with my monk and had never been in the area before so it was a real challenge to try and learn quickly. I do wish it had gone better but it might not have been as memorable :) The other memorable part was my dad had gotten home from work when I was starting the raid, gone to bed at some point, and had gotten up to go to work the next day to find that I was pulling corpses out of Lady Vox's room. He was not pleased. Good times.
Scrago said:The other memorable part was my dad had gotten home from work when I was starting the raid, gone to bed at some point, and had gotten up to go to work the next day to find that I was pulling corpses out of Lady Vox's room. He was not pleased. Good times.
Ah yes... I am all too familiar with this!
EQ 1 - Plane of Fear, with Cazic-Thule as the final boss. Initial break into PoF was a challenge. DT golems were a nice touch.
EQ 1 - Luclin - Vyzh'dra the Cursed - AoE makes your people charmed by him. Resistance checks on rarely used resists.
EQ 1 - Kunark - Plane of Sky. Fighting on islands that hang in the air, if you fall down to the previous island you go splat, if you wall down all the way you fall in the sea near Freport... now that was cool. Oh, and Bazzt Zzzt!
EQ 1 - PoP - RZTW fight. Complex, multi-stage, made much easier by dire charm aas. Would be better if it was redesigned w/o charming.
EQ 1 - Sontalak - relatively simple compared to those I mentioned before, but a good test of overall readiness.
EQ 1 - Plane of Water - Coirnav - fighting under water is fun :)
EQ 1 - Plane of Earth - Rathe Council - perfect crowd control.
WoW - Molten Core - Ragnaros - there's something cool about fighting an enormous fire elemental :)
Vanguard - Ancient Port Warehouse - gnomes and their mechainventions were fun for a while. Pity there weren't more zones of that level
I would have to say almost all of VG's raiding was overly awsome. I loved the general Vicus fight in apw especially when we first beat him while I was in Ordos Draconum. Loved the 5-16 man raid through the Griffon Quest (best fling mount quest ever). I even liked all the overland raid mobs. Sorry VG lover here.
Probably Avatar of Mischief in EQ2 (T7) since it took hell of a long time beeing able to kill it.
First and only time (T7) it was killed on our server.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OB7W_S4x4Y
For me it what made raids memorable was when it was something that required multiple groups all performing simultaneous tasks in order to defeat the encounter. Raids where it was 1 tank in a corner with a bunch of clerics chaining complete heal while everyone else just mashed buttons were, frankly, boring as hell.
Many of the raids in Ssra Temple, or in Planes of Power and Gates of Discord all required these types efforts and it is an approach I hope to see more of in the future. Nothing is worse than feeling like you're just a body in a raid.
Scrago said:My most memorable raid from EQ1 was Lady Vox. Only got to try and kill her once and never actually did kill her. She bugged out and got stuck in a wall above the entrance and the raid wiped over and over and over again. But, the time spent buffing before the raid and everything we did getting ready for it was a lot of fun. I was pulling with my monk and had never been in the area before so it was a real challenge to try and learn quickly. I do wish it had gone better but it might not have been as memorable :) The other memorable part was my dad had gotten home from work when I was starting the raid, gone to bed at some point, and had gotten up to go to work the next day to find that I was pulling corpses out of Lady Vox's room. He was not pleased. Good times.
For me that was PoF. A weeks prep. for 12 groups of 6. 72 of us all buffed and ready to go. Wiped in 15 minutes. :)
Practice makes perfect. We did eventually run the Plane. Started Friday night and finished up early Sunday morning. My husband wasn't pleased ;)
Aethor said:EQ 1 - Plane of Fear, with Cazic-Thule as the final boss. Initial break into PoF was a challenge. DT golems were a nice touch.
EQ 1 - Luclin - Vyzh'dra the Cursed - AoE makes your people charmed by him. Resistance checks on rarely used resists.
EQ 1 - Kunark - Plane of Sky. Fighting on islands that hang in the air, if you fall down to the previous island you go splat, if you wall down all the way you fall in the sea near Freport... now that was cool. Oh, and Bazzt Zzzt!
EQ 1 - PoP - RZTW fight. Complex, multi-stage, made much easier by dire charm aas. Would be better if it was redesigned w/o charming.
EQ 1 - Sontalak - relatively simple compared to those I mentioned before, but a good test of overall readiness.
EQ 1 - Plane of Water - Coirnav - fighting under water is fun :)
EQ 1 - Plane of Earth - Rathe Council - perfect crowd control.
WoW - Molten Core - Ragnaros - there's something cool about fighting an enormous fire elemental :)
Vanguard - Ancient Port Warehouse - gnomes and their mechainventions were fun for a while. Pity there weren't more zones of that level
I don't see Plane of Sky on your list. That is my favorite above all other in the first months of EQ.
Wiz. pull to the first island. Which was a sort of safe staging zone, but no talking allowed at all. Say would trigger the mobs on other floating islands and could wipe you before you got started. Then you cleared each floating isle getting the key to the next. That one was anohther Fri nite to Sun morning run. And the final end: jumping off the top isle being sure not to hit anything on the way down, and you plopped right into the bay of Freeport. Not a particullary good place for a DE to land.
Loved that one.
Lord Nagafen was my first raid in Eq and winning The Cloak of Flames was very memorable.
Did all the raids through Planes of Power but Lord Nagefen was where it started.
I didn't get into what I consider real raiding until World of Warcraft. I did some of the Master Level Raids in Dark Age of Camelot but almost all of them was just 100-200 people zerging to boss. There was no challenge to it at all because if you had enough people you just auto attacked until it died.
Two of my favorite fights were in Wrath of the Lich King and Yogg Saron (Alone in the Darkness achievement where you had zero Watchers helping you! It was insanity!).
To a lesser extent as I felt the fight was less mechanially complex but that epic feeling was there was Spine of Deathwing in Cataclysam expansion as you were attempting to peel plates off a giant dragon while he was in the air was sure something to experience!
