What is my favorite raid dungeon?

This is entry number 6 1/2 in theΒ 30 days of WarCraft series of articles.

What is my favorite raid dungeon in all of Azeroth? Well… I’d have to say…

Karazhan.

Karazhan is my favorite WoW raid instance for a variety of reasons…

First off, it was my foray into raiding.

All throughout vanilla, you’d have had to force me at gunpoint to get me into raiding. The concept of scheduling hours of WoW playtime, talking with other gamers over Ventrilo, and getting excited about fighting over random shiny purple things, seemed way too geeky hardcore for me. I couldn’t imagine getting that structured and serious about the game… no way… not me.

This, coming from a guy who fought his way to Rank 10 during vanilla.Β  πŸ™„

Anyway… one evening while the guild was off adventuring in Kara, I received an invite so that I could come in and loot the chest from the chess event. There was a fine pair of hunter boots in there that no one needed, so they asked if I wanted in on the spoils. I accepted, they summoned me to the instance and I looted the boots. My first ever epic PvE loot… I was pretty smitten with those boots – let me tell ya.

I signed up for the next run because I didn’t want to have negative DKP — I at least had to contribute to the next run and settle my bill. Well, that was it… once I started running Kara I became extremely fond of raiding.

Karazhan has some of the most colorful and exciting fights in all of WoW — period. The place was hard too! When Karazhan opened its doors it was much more difficult than the WotLK version of Naxx. Our guild blew threw Naxx relatively quickly compared to how long we spent learning and mastering the fights in Kara.

Karazhan was just masterfully conceived. The pinnacle of WoW dungeon excellence.

As for my favorite fights in there…

Moroes – A very difficult early fight, and one that required excellent strategy, communication and teamwork.

Prince Malchezaar – I was over the moon when he gave me his bow after we downed him for the first time — this coming after a previous week’s gallant efforts, culminating in a wipe at 1%. Those are tough to take by the way. This fight was rough, especially if we had bad luck with the infernals.

The Opera Event – Like, holy s**t that was fun..! I absolutely loved getting to that part, then hoping for the Big Bad Wolf. Of course, he never did give me his gun. πŸ™ Regardless, all of those fights were awesome.

Oh, and man… did I just love using that worgen totem…

Well, Kara’s my favorite — which dungeons do you guys like? πŸ™‚

10 thoughts on “What is my favorite raid dungeon?”

  1. Currently, I’m really into the Amirdrassil raid in World of Warcraft. It’s visually stunning and keeps me engaged. Admittedly, the tactics haven’t changed much, as the developers haven’t updated them in a while. Nevertheless, stepping into this raid immediately transports you into the expansion’s world. The only downside is its difficulty, leading many players to seek assistance, such as Amirdrassil boost(https://wowvendor.com/shop/wow/buy-wow-pve-raid-boost/amirdrassil-the-dreams-hope/). I’ve used this service myself, and it allowed me to focus on enjoying the raid rather than struggling to defeat each boss. Overall, it was a positive experience for me.

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  2. Kara was by far the best raid ever designed by Blizzard. I ran a few vanilla raids, but they were just. too. complicated. I don’t mean the fights, those were bad enough, but co-ordinating or even getting 40 people was a fking nightmare.

    Running Kara was like a breath of fresh air. The raid was so well designed, the atmosphere perfect. I even enjoyed the idea of effectively re-keying (getting the urn for Nightbane, a really fun fight), because that gave meaning to going back into heroics. By the time we were doing the starter 25 mans and getting our “Naru” titles, we were also doing heroics for badge gear to help prepare for SSC and TK.

    I loved all the BC raids, they felt like real places, not a series of adjacent rooms with stuff to kill that has afflicted most raids in Wrath, Cataclysm and MoP. Maybe the SSC/TK fights (with the exception of loot reaver) were not too much fun, but the atmosphere and detail has never been repeated.

    I notice that every now and then a call for a Kara rebirth is made on the WoW forums. This is both a great and terrible idea. A better idea would be to open up Kara’s crypts and create a mini 2-3 boss raid for us nostalgics. Oh and an LFR version of Kara for level 70-72. Introducing raiding with Kara is probably the best way to get new people hooked, gives them a break from the level grind and gives us nostalgics something to look forward to with our alts.

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  3. Kara 100%. Still love that place and my squeals of joy over vent when I got Sunfury were legendary in my old guild. Still the best bow in the game.

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  4. Kara by far, with Ulduar coming in second. I’m one of the few that while I would LOVE a revamp of Kara, I kinda hope they don’t bother as they can only ruin the experience. Sometimes things were just done so well, you can’t ask for a sequel.

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  5. Vanilla – Blackwing Lair. Dragons, dragons and more dragons. I loved the place. Our Guild first Nefarian kill… I still remember the screams in vent when he died.

    That instance that will not be named…
    Exalted with the Violet Eye nearly twice over. Never, not once, did a ranged weapon drop for me in that instance. No Gun. No Bow.
    For that reason that instance is on my hate list. πŸ™‚

    Heroic Atramedes is closing in on the same hate. 14 Heroic kills. No boots.

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  6. Kara or Ulduar? Kara or Ulduar? Kara or Ulduar?

    I guess at this point I’m going to go with Kara but only because I’ve actually made it to the end of that one. I REALLY want to get to the Yogg fight and experience the different visions but until I can solo the place I think I’m SOL. =P

    Kara is one of the only places I’ve been in where so many different singular words can still fittingly describe the place. Creepy. Beautiful. Whimsical. Challenging. Fun!

    Yeah….for now its Kara.

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  7. Karazhan is by far my favourite. I’ve played WoW since Vanilla and there isn’t any 5-man or raid that got close to the fun I had running through that castle.

    During Vanilla WoW, Shadowfang Keep was my absolute favourite. All those Worgens and ghosts running around; the atmosphere of the place was amazing. But when I first set foot in Karazhan, I was totally blown away. The atmosphere was pretty similiar to SFK but the fight mechanics were SO MUCH BETTER!

    I honestly think Blizzard couldn’t create a raid that was as close to perfection as Karazhan. Very well balanced fights, mechanics were great, some tricky pulls, a random boss encounter that was amazing and a VERY random, slightly frustrating at times, but always fun chess game. I’ve ran through every raid and 5-man WoW has to offer. In my opinion, the raids of Burning Crusade were the best. Even the most experienced guilds had some rough times in almost every raid instance. I miss the time when you needed skill and a strong strategy over everything else for each and every raid encounter…Nowadays, all that matter is your gear iLvl…

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  8. My favorite Raid Dungeon is hands down Ulduar. After getting my both my 10 and 25 man drakes it’s a lot less fun to slough through it, but it’s still my favorite.

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