Top 10 Gimmicky Boss Fights

[@brandoncastellano1858]

Kinda surprised Karazhan chess event wasn’t on here as it was never duplicated and it was definitely different.

[@mfsoab]

Came here to say the same. If chess event isn't the pinnacle of gimmicky then I don't know what is. Yeah it's not a classical bossfight, but it is one. Would have expected it to be a honorary mention at least

[@Gebirges]

But it's not really a fight you use your character on?

[@brandoncastellano1858]

@@Gebirges neither is flame leviathan.

[@Gebirges]

@@brandoncastellano1858 that's why he's not on the list

[@mfsoab]

@@Gebirges He never specified criterias. Boss fight is boss fight, no matter what and how.

[@LimitMaximum]

Spine of deathwing/maybe madness dark inquisitor xanesh Opulance chess boss kara Ryolith BRF train boss mekkatorque Amber shaper

[@dont_care1591]

With how advance the raid mechanics in later expansion are, it boggles the mind how some players still argue that vanilla raids are the best raids mechanic wise lol.

[@xHiyami]

more mechanics doesn't automatically = better.

[@jeffagain7516]

I'd suggest it plays on the idea that at the time, we had to be able to coordinate a large group so efficiently in order to do what had to be done. Getting 10 people to coordinate their attacks, debuffs, healing, CC, special procs, etc is not quite the challenge it took to get 25 or 40 people to do the same thing.

[@danmoore1427]

​@@jeffagain7516this man even in 25man getting people to not be dumb is hard

[@GylleneGott]

Tank n' Spank is best boss mechanic

[@KEHEffC]

Honestly, Tarragrue has been one of my favourite fights in years. It's so simple, but the addition of the anima powers made the fight so fun week after week, trying to see how high you could get those numbers to go.

[@dookinater9756]

Always a good day when Hiru uploads

[@dookinater9756]

@@endersteave9_71 i looked it up and i am really sorry for his fans and family RIP Techno

[@BlufootGaming]

Id argue that, while Immersius is pretty gimmicky, its just a less gimmicky version of Viscidus from AQ40. Not only did it have the split into adds to actually progress the boss like Immersius, but it also had to be frozen by 200 frost attacks then shattered with physical damage to cause that split. Still a really great video though!

[@Adam-082]

I loved animus simply for the fact that it was super chaotic and one mistake would cascade to hilarity and death lol

[@Neurotik51]

You didn't progress on it on heroic then...might be the worst progression experience I've ever had except heroic rag. Not the longest (that goes to rag) but definitely the most annoying. Used to dread rekilling it each week because it was so easy for it to just take 10x as long as it needed to lol

[@GeekyPrincess74907]

The amount of comments saying they’re surprised one fight or another wasn’t mentioned really puts into perspective how many fights have “strange” mechanics. Could easily make a top 20 and still miss some! Great video! 😁

[@arcadebit1551]

BRF could make a whole episode on its own. Hans'gar and Franzok with the conveiour belts and stomps, The Blast Furnace (maybe), Operator Thogar with his trains and Blackhand. All kinda fitting the Industrial theme resulting in some gimmicks. Kargath Bladefist, Shadowlord Iskar, Mistress Sasszine, Maiden, Essence of Eonar, Argus, Opulence, Mekkatorque all had something unique/gimmicki. Some I hated, like Iskar and Mekkatorque. For Hans'gar and Franzok I always increased dialogue sounds :)

[@CerisePinkBird]

Should have had a mention of the Twin Consorts, a fight where you have to draw pictures to get buffs from the celestials.

[@andromidius]

I still don't truly know what that mechanic is, despite doing that boss many times. We always had the same person do it, and he'd never mess up. I was and still am blissfully unaware.

[@peppis3408]

Man your videos have a weird taste to attract me to watching them non stop all day Keep up the good work

[@zodwraith5745]

Oh god Azshara. Was SO proud to be in the server first team to down her back in the day cause it was such an absolute nightmare fight.

[@Neomagam]

Eonar????? I'm surprised you mentioned other add-focused fights without including the one where you fight off waves of adds like a tower defense game and half the raid goes onto a spaceship

[@devastator6570]

Seeing new videos from your channel always makes me happy Hiru! Did you do a top ten Worst Final Bosses? I can't remember if you did, but I'd love to see that video. For example, even though I enjoyed fighting the Jailer, I was really disappointed with the fight. It was all in one room, and while I feel it was supposed to be like Argus, it was NOTHING like Argus, still my favorite end boss. You could include bosses like Malygos, which I hated doing back in Lich King.

[@Xokoy]

It's an oldie, but the Shade of Aran was pretty gimmicky. He would teleport you to the centre of the room randomly and slow you to the point where you would spend several seconds walking to get to the edge of the room. If you failed to make it in time, he would throw you up into the air and the fall damage from the way down would kill you unless you had a way to slow your fall. He also had an ability that would draw a circle around everyone in the party, and anyone who would move would explode their circle and deal massive (at the time) AoE damage. I played a warlock and if I remember right, that AoE was enough to one-shot me. Also, same raid, there was the Opera which had several fights, some were weirder than others. And also the chess fight and Moroes Now that I think about, Karazhan in general was just filled to the brim with really weird fight mechanics save for like 2 or 3 bosses.

[@travelbyfire8474]

Also Shade of Aran couldn't be tanked and if you did it pre 2.1 you basically needed a warlock for banish/fear because those water elementals shit on you so hard.

[@MafiaCow01]

"Boogie down!" "Your spastic gyrations sicken me!" Love those lines

[@robertlupa8273]

That fight puts the "dance" in "safety dance"

[@varlak9061]

i loved that fight, i just adore the idea of a boss mechanic being to just break it down mid fight

[@docmercy3660]

No Lord Rhyolith? I love the idea of kicking his kneecaps to control his movement to weaken him

[@That_kind_of_orc]

Great one bro like always💯

[@worldofwarcraftgod]

The Terrague caught me off guard

[@Caladryus]

Was expecting Dark Inquisitor Xanesh to have made this list, with the football mechanic being extremely gimmicky

[@Drekulviin]

Do you think we gonna see the return of Onyxia in Dragon flight ? The first raid boss to be downed not be in a dragon expansion doesn't make sense to me.

[@drthompson65]

I’m still in therapy due to some of these fights.

[@brandol75]

in cordana's hide phase, while you have to have elune's light to get close to hert in order to be revealed, spectral sight can show her location then the bearer of the light get close to her to be attacked.

[@zakeeros1663]

I'am surprised you didn't mention the Amongus phase from Lords of Dread and to a lesser extent the rings of runes from Fatescribe Roh-Kalo. Either way, good video! Edit: and Argus The Unmaker.

[@TheEiric]

I was expexting fate scribe as well, also the maiden from tomb of sargeras

[@Pr0xRESOLUTE]

among us???

[@zakeeros1663]

1:20 at least on the groups I did this fight, they always left Frieda for last. But I don't know much because I barely did that raid on heroic at that time.

[@lobscotch8802]

Same on my end, it'd always be Frieda: trying to find the one DPS-able add out of the entire lot was just too obnoxious for most guilds so we kill Stavros second instead :p

[@TheAlexR96]

Yay an upload! Finally, I will be able to fall asleep

[@ujai5271]

I wouldn't say "Top 10", because it is kind of hard to quantify the gimmicky-ness of an encounter (unless you explain your methodology before getting into the list, an dwho wants to hear that). Other than that, I enjoyed this video and would love to see more of them.

[@andrewkinnee2936]

I expected The Chess Event and the PvP fight in ToGC. Great list, though!

[@kyleirvin8171]

Woah woah woah, the Chess event is iconic as the hardest fight in TBC

[@Bigmike1717]

I always appreciate your top 10 videos. Thanks for sharing.

[@19Szabolcs91]

I'd add Prophet Skitra from Ny'alotha which creates personalized illusions - everyone sees a few copies of the boss spread around the room, and the one that everybody can see it the real one. Really fun whether with proper communications or the chaos that ensued on LFR. :D

[@DarkMage501]

Well they weren't quite personalized, there were only 2 sets of illusions per raid.

[@19Szabolcs91]

@@DarkMage501 Oh really? Well, that's slightly less chaotically interesting, but the gimmik point still stands.

[@VotEtoPizdets]

I loved the Malygos boss fight. LK was the greatest expansion to date. I started early BC and fell in love with the game. LK and cata were excellent. But LK had amazing raid mechanics and the lore was beyond reproach. I feel like LK offered all types of players an opportunity to enjoy the content from any angle.

[@cedgalvi]

I love watching your vids while I'm eating dinner

[@halsti99]

its weird how all of these are either some of my favourite bosses, or i absolutely hated them. No middle ground.

[@deployed246]

Desolate Host and Queen Azshara being on this list while Lord Rhyolith and Alysrazor aren't is a bit of a head scratcher for me. For Desolute Host, while it is the most complex version of the "split the party" mechanic, it is not a gimmicky one. It was old before Legion and was actually used twice in that Tomb of Sargeras. Most of these, however, only affect their immediate surroundings and were mostly get in, cleanse yourself, get out, but the Malygos encounter in Sunwell Plateau was pretty much the first version of this gimmick, and I would argue that Gara'jal was more difficult due to RNG. I wish I could remember Halion Phase 3 better, but I think that fight also had abilities that would cross the two environments. Queen Azshara was just a overwhelming ballache. Stand in the thing to mitigate the effect is the closest to a gimmick for that fight, and it was done in two very unique ways, but compared to steering Rhyolith and pilotwinging behind Alysrazor while DPSing her are much more gimmicky to me. If "gimmicky for its time" is the criteria, then Razorgore would also deserve to be ahead of other choices as not only was it the first boss fight to use wow's "delightful" vehicle combat system, it was also the first (and still only?) boss first that causes a wipe if you kill the boss too fast. But to counter my own shit piling, yeah, pretty much every raid has something gimmicky, and how many players are affected by the gimmick is probably a more important metric that the two mandatory priests for Razuvious or the eight tanks for the Four Horsemen.

[@dima10656]

In our guild raid I was the one in charge of directing Lord Rhyolith. You have awakened some terrifying memories in me.

[@gabrielrochel2832]

I miss your videos every day aaaaa

[@marioribeiro3623]

Operathor thogar (Train fight), the gimmick isn't really complex but it's a very unique encounter.

[@robertlupa8273]

I've never really played WoW (not counting leveling my Warlock to free trial level cap), yet I still think Thogar is one of the coolest fights ever.

[@thecount2629]

Not unique but something intresting is the safety dance mechanic which has been used twice now. Heigen the Unclean in Naxx and Soulrender Dormazin in SoD.

[@lukaslefevre8007]

it has been used many other times and i am even fairly certain that heigen wasnt even the first

[@WolfoftheDM]

Last time I was this early, i still played wow! Still love these videos though

[@iriswaldenburger2315]

Wait what??? When did they introduce that anima power reset tower in Sanctum of Domination?!?!?!?

[@Gebirges]

Did you ever do a Top 10/Worst 10 Council Bosses?

[@G.A.N.]

I'am surprised you didn't mention the Lootship from ICC in Wotlk, now that is really just free loot and running around wondering what is going on and when it all gonna end even.

[@Barvyon]

AQ40, Viscidus needed to hit him with frost skills in order to freeze him, and then hit him as fast as you can before he melted, it was super gimmicky.

[@miroslavzaric5976]

The big heart thing from EN where you had to dps certain adds near the boss so he would get hit with nightmare burst so you could advance to the second stage. Not that complicated but its worth mentioning.

[@someguy3508]

Malygos is one of my favorite fights. It's very unique

[@pandamaster1138]

Damn what a nice day. Friday and a wow video.

[@Tranzzform]

Lady Vashj, old school with the throw mechanic and the must bring a hunter part lol

[@Leopoldshark]

Teron Gimmickfiend: I was the first, you know. For me, the wheel of gimmicks has spun many times.

[@luksp96]

No Alysrazor from Firelands? First one that comes to mind when someone mentions a raid boss with a gimmick, one of the most fun and unique fights they've ever made. Surprised there isn't any really old bosses, usually you put them in these lists, like maybe the first couple of gimmicky bosses in Razorgore and Vael in BWL. Thinking about it, there's so many bosses in wow that can be considered gimmicky, there's multiple of them in basically every raid Blizz releases.

[@iain-duncan]

Both the chess event and the flame leviathan event are MUCH more unique than a good chunk of those on this list

[@dotsandboxesmaster3885]

Spoils of Pandaria...I mained mage. There was always a box that would break open, decide it was my time, and one shot me. I never actually figured that one out.

[@diddydoodat6764]

Surprised N'zoth wasn't on the list

[@kessy628]

Good list, though I'm surprised only Iron Maidens was there for BRF and HFC fights. Iskar, Blast Furnace, Oregorger, etc were all pretty gimicky (most of the time in a good way) imo. Also, Lords of Dread in Sepulcher is probably one of the most gimicky fights I've seen in a long time (though arguably less than Tarragrue I'll give you that).

[@dylanstlaurent9280]

btw you have the best content on youtube. right to point, and accurate. Not like Belluar, that guy literally f****** blows

[@spookyplaguedoctor5714]

My sick day has been made better!

[@Molagmal]

What's the name of that boss in Firelands where you have to dps his feet?

[@asheranna]

I was working on my legion class mount recently and went to do desolate host which I'd never done, I only started playing WoW in 2020. It kept despawning which was annoying... but it was the two phase thing that I wasn't aware of that made it almost impossible. I finally figured it out with the help of some videos.

[@MF-Productions]

Hey that "2nd war" video u did. Was fucking amazing. Top tier video content.

[@AlexSaheli]

Azshara fight was fishing amazing, esp last phase

[@alexithymia6288]

You can kinda see the progression in MoP and going into WoD, up until current content even, that Blizzard is/was designing insanely mechanical fights to try to fight back against more and more people using WeakAuras to cheese every mechanic without having to think much about it. Some of those fights, especially Azshara, are completely ridiculous and I honestly don't think they'd be cleared by many folks outside of hardcore raiders without using WeakAuras.

[@23skiddsy6]

I'm surprised Eonar didn't make the list. Its another one that doesn't have an actual boss, but is a tower defense game instead.

[@jesuisbon]

that boss with the eye you had to pass around in HFC was pretty gimmicky imo

[@mikeover1644]

Tower Defensive boss in Argos?

[@aliciamee3875]

First boss was with it for hearing: Your gyrations sicken me!

[@velanar32onyt81]

Great video as always What music is used in dark animus?

[@RazanaArcclaw]

This is all music from the patch 9.2. So all of them can be found within the patch 9.2 playlist for wow music.

[@LIZARDONFIRE]

To be honest i love the dance phase. It was so fun not going to lie

[@AsbestosMuffins]

loved the safety dance on castle nyrothia

[@Loddimo]

I dont think you know the definition of safety dance

[@Borringtrolling]

Flame leviathan, football boss in ny'lotha, chess game in kara, spine of deathwing, eonar and imonar in antorus.

[@dreamermagister8561]

Wait, u raided as a moonkin back in MoP?

[@vidadyerfer3205]

I would mention the boss fight mechanic of G'Huun in Uldir

[@Pumkin932]

Whether it's people complaining about vehicle combat or underwater combat- its alarming just how many people are incapable of playing through it yet play video games at all. Never had a problem figuring out up, down, left, and right. It's like these people would be completely useless and confused if they hung upside down on monkey bars. They would go insane and need someone to help them down.

[@InOzWeTrust]

Top 5 Gimmicky fights. Top 5 complicated boss encounters I'm claiming are gimmicky but really just swamped with mechanics.

[@Cyber-Rain]

Love the desolate host fight as a sub rogue. Funneling eviscerates and death from aboves into the boss.

[@Oxfordbroski]

Great video! Would love to see another top 10 if this with the sheer volume of gimmicks that are available

[@onadaTotihotiH]

I normally don't like making comparisons to FFXIV, but Dark Animus is giving me intense Jagd Doll PTSD, if you know, you know

[@toreole]

Ngl i loved council of blood, even when my guild at the timed wiped like 80 times more than necessary

[@IanKinshott]

Freak content keep up the good work

[@IanKinshott]

Sorry it didn’t let me spell great sorry 😿

[@darkness9538]

Have you thought about updating the top 10 worst bosses?

[@shestewa6581]

I actually quite liked Mythic Iron Maidens. Progress was painful at first but once you worked it out it felt like a really fun choreographed dance. Immerse us was my first mythic (it was still heroic back then) boss and I was not prepared for how aware I had to be. The ptsd realising how much stuff I had to do while being responsible for keeping an entire section of the raid alive on my own was hard, especially when atonement would heal anybody on any side of the room.

[@darkphase7799]

Ruby sanctum with the raid split in 2, half in like the shadow phase

[@Infernoblade1010]

Surprised Dreamwalker wasn't on here. Super unique and gimmicky "fight"

[@Desmonid]

Azshara was my first cutting edge... good memories Great video man

[@user-uq4gr5nl5o]

The Cordana fight was nerve-wracking but still fun.

[@PlantTube.]

Kinda supprised that Nzoth wasnt on here

[@MatthewTheUntitled]

Im gonna guess the #1 is that fight with line up addon cuz people couldn't figure it out

[@zerocopy8407]

I think siege had a lot of gimmicky bosses. I hated malkorok so much back in the day. Siegecrafter and galakras were gimmicky too

[@sidamakidtinman814]

History of Rogue finishing moves please! And History of Night elf racials please!

[@leithgorias7067]

Immerseus was an amazing fight, what are ya'll even on about? Plus, Council of Blood, Queen Azshara, and The Tarragrue weren't actually that bad. Karazhan Chess Event, Siegecrafter Blackfuse, Spine of Deathwing, Gothik the Harvester, Icecrown Gunship Battle, Beth'tilac, Lord Rhyolith, Alysrazor, Magmaw, Nefarian's End, Sha of Pride, Galakras, Yogg-Saron, Tortos, Ji-Kun, Durumu the Forgotten...there are so many other bosses that would have made more fitting additions to the list.

[@FutayuriShironeko]

I don't know why, but I never found Azshara's fight to be annoying or boring and I progged it 4 separate times as all 4 different roles. It might be my lore nut brain-gasms for iconic and badass characters clouding my perception of annoyance, but I truly loved both HC and M Azshara, whilst I only liked Sylvanas' fight, due to P2 having trivial mechanics being only dmg check for P3 enrage. Nevertheless Sylv P1 and P3 were fucking badass before capped shards with dps push near the end being quite close. Call me a contrarian, but I can't help but loved Azshara's fight.

[@vladsavenco9609]

The spine of Deathwing? That annoyed the hell out of me.

[@Phenest76]

Tanking and making blood monster explode near connective tissue to blow off iron scales all the while trying not go get thrown off not gimmicky enough for you?

[@bensmith5402]

Feel like nzoth could have had a space on here too, i actually really liked it but thats just me :D

[@fengraf1120]

so many missed opportunities here and a lot of straightforward but annoying fights on the list. Retitle it to fights that made your raid leader sigh heavier than usual and you'd have nailed it.

[@eliasrivas5073]

I thought it ws a herthstone video until it started

[@JKMYST]

there was nothing "gimmicky" about iron maiden's especially considering you could 2 man flame leviathan when it was current.

[@brandoncastellano1858]

“At number 8 we have the fight in Vault of the wardens…” FUCK THAT FIGHT!

[@SkimoStories]

1:42 "Deal obscene amounts of damage" bro obscenity means like.. taboos. Pornography is obscene, jokes about sex are obscene. It is not just a synonym for 'insane' just because it kinda sounds like it.

[@sappho7278]

Every single boss from Cataclysm

[@alexboiiii]

I wouldn’t call Iron Maidens very gimmicky. They’re probably not even in the top 3 most gimmicky bosses in Blackrock Foundry. Hanzgar and Franzok, Oregorger, and Blast Furnace come to mind. Also like others have pointed out, not having the Chess Event on here is a sin

[@davidburke5876]

how about xanesh? soccer boss?

[@savantharionhive9877]

Hey Hiru, love your content and I find myself constantly watching it. Here is a video idea (hope you don't have content like this already) - the history of Paladins and why it's Blizzard's favourite class and is always overpowered and just their favourite kid. Or why were shamans almost never useful as DPS but rather a utility class, which sounds dumb for people controlling the elements (when they should be overpowered as shown when Thrall just nuked Garrosh while cheating xD)