Most Fun Raid Encounter You Have Had

Amathe

I think mine was the Plane of Hate in Everquest. It was my first real raid and that place scared hell out of me.

It also presented the possibility of a drop for my epic (Ranger, Earthcaller). Note I said possibility lol.

It further was my first experience of being attacked from the moment you entered the raid instance. Yikes!

Kyleran

Fun.....raid encounter..... not sure these terms actually go together.  

Scot

Everything in gaming not just MMOs has to be "fun" now Kyleran, where have you been?

Cryomatrix

I think i raided once in WoW and hated it. Felt like a stressful job. I did enjoy dungeons in neverwinter. It was fun tanking and doing well to defeat the boss.

KalebGrayson

Back in Burning Crusades in WoW, my wife and I had just started raiding in Karazhan and Gruuls Lair, but the most fun moment by far was when we defeated Lady Vashj.  We had been working on that boss forever and I remember it so well.  Someone recorded it in our guild and as the boss finally died, everyone started screaming and cheering in Ventrillo.  It was amazing and so much fun.  I remember that fight being very difficult.  I was a Discipline Healer back then.  I also have very fond memories of defeating the Lich King in WoW for the first time.  I had made a guild with my best friend Abe.  We recruited mostly random folks in Dalaran, taught many to raid, geared them up, and then enjoyed a really fun raid (Icecrown Citadel).  I was tanking on my Unholy Death Knight back then.  SO MUCH FUN!!!

Panther2103

Even though this isn't technically a raid encounter, I would have to say any of the original Destiny's raids. It's not an MMORPG either, but those raid encounters were insane. You have a lot of precise platforming while taking down bosses, or stealth sections through mazelike areas. It was refreshing feeling compared to most MMORPG raid fights, while still retaining a lot of the position requirements, gearing up, and rotational fights that normal MMORPG's had. I would have to say it's probably the most memorable raiding I've had in a game. 

Other than that I would have to say the whole ICC raid in WoW was one of my favorites as well. 

Tamanous

Raid and fun. 

Hmm, nope. Not 2 words I connect together often unless the word "not" is thrown in there too.

MidPrincess

Back in the BC days of WoW, pretty much any of the Kara raids my old guild and I used to do.  Tuesday nights, up til 1 am; we had it on farm like many other raiding guilds and took full advantage.  We were all adults and we all got along, and with generally half of us tipsy by the time we even started, we had a blast.  There wasn't any stress or worry; we were so good at what we were doing that we could have people AFK and still win those fights.  Most of the night was spent laughing and joking, and counting up the loot when we were done.  I miss it.

Kyleran

Scot said:

Everything in gaming not just MMOs has to be "fun" now Kyleran, where have you been?

Just more misuse of the meaning of words again.

There are raids I've enjoyed running  (BWL WOW) and felt a sense of accomplishment when my guild mastered it.

But at no point was it ever "fun", as someone mentioned,  it was a lot of work preparing for, organizing and executing and as a healer I took every guildmate's death or raid wipe personally.

These days I avoid raiding,  don't care for the stress or general nastiness it can become. 

Amathe

The fact that something requires preparation, a time investment, a willingness to learn strategy and tactics, concentration and focus, and presents challenges and setbacks, does not mean it cannot also be "fun" - for some of us anyway. If you didn't enjoy your raids, sorry to hear. Personally I enjoy a challenge and don't hand wring over it. 

Kyleran

Amathe said:

The fact that something requires preparation, a time investment, a willingness to learn strategy and tactics, concentration and focus, and presents challenges and setbacks, does not mean it cannot also be "fun" - for some of us anyway. If you didn't enjoy your raids, sorry to hear. Personally I enjoy a challenge and don't hand wring over it. 

Ah, you aren't paying attention,  I said I enjoyed raiding, it just wasn't fun.

Its OK, many don't understand the difference.

hallucigenocide

they're all pretty fuzzy to me since raiding isn't really something i enjoy unless casual.
but i've had some fun times in Zul'Aman when it was new and some other times in various raids in SWTOR when they opened.. all while drunk(and the rest of the guild aswell). just some wild "let's check it out" moments

DijonCyanide

A drought of time ago in original EQ I still remember vividly my first Nagafen followed by my first Lady Vox raids.  Good times, good game for the time, & good community!

Scot

Amathe said:

The fact that something requires preparation, a time investment, a willingness to learn strategy and tactics, concentration and focus, and presents challenges and setbacks, does not mean it cannot also be "fun" - for some of us anyway. If you didn't enjoy your raids, sorry to hear. Personally I enjoy a challenge and don't hand wring over it. 

We are not having a pop at you here, its just the word "fun" is so over used in gaming. As you point out it is about the challenge, the achievement.

For some players in the guilds I have been in it was a social activity first and foremost. For me it was about the achievement first, then rewards and social second.

So the best raid I have played in was The Rift of Nûrz Ghâshu in Lotro, that was about the guild and the MMO as much as it was about the raid.

nerovergil

i never play que raid, but i play wvw gw2 raid, its organic and fun

usually 20 players is the guild members and 20 more is pugs. 40 man raid, fighting castle lord, fighting pvp enemy 40 man..super funn!! gw2 need more alpine type wvw maps!!!

cheyane

Temple of Veeshan Everquest.

OP I agree with you Hate scared me too when I did it the first time. Even porting people there as a wizard was bad it could kill you but I think they removed that possibility by moving the mobs at that port in.

cameltosis

The Rift of Nurz Ghashu in LotRO, the final boss, the Balrog Thaurlach. 

I absolutely loved that raid. I'd done some raiding in SWG (geonosian labs, death watch bunker and corvette) and also raided Helegrod in LotRO, but the release of the Rift was when I came into my own as a raider. 

I took over raid leading when the new raid was launched. I built up our raid team pretty much from scratch. It was a 12 man raid, but as we were a mid-tier guild I think our raid team was about 25-30 people strong to account for everyone's time scales. For a lot of people in my guild, they hadn't done much raiding before. So, what happened is that over the months that we were learning the raid, we all became quite close and very supportive. 


This culminated in the Balrog fight. The fight itself was epic, tons of stages, each stage very different to each other. There was a whole separate boss fight half way through, there was even a little puzzle bit too. When you finally got to fight the balrog himself, it felt great! He was so huge! I had tons of fun learning the fight and all the stages but our first kill was just epic. The fight lasts about 30 minutes, but the final 10 seconds were the hardest so the tension really mounted. We were all so happy with the kill. Afterwards most of us went to the Prancing Pony and drank for a while which was also good fun. 


I think what made this boss more enjoyable than any other I've experienced is:

• Visuals - A balrog is just awesome, very iconic for Lord of the Rings
• Length - took about 30 minutes so felt like a real battle, not just your usual 5 minute manic burn
• Variety - in addition to the balrog, there was a mini boss plus tons of adds of different varieties. Some adds morphed into more deadly things too if you weren't careful. 
• Different types of challenge - you had to have good knowledge to remember all the stages. You had to have a lot of player skill so you could react quickly to all the possible difficulties. You needed good gear and builds to survive certain stages. There were bits that acted like enrage timers, so perfect rotations were needed too. Above all, you needed excellent teamwork as LotRO was highly class interdependent back then plus the tactics required a lot of coordination. 

There is also one boss from WAR that I want to mention: the Bile Lord. Not a raid boss, not even a good boss, but a boss that actually made me laugh out loud. At one point, the boss eats you and the fight continues inside his stomach!