Shadowlands Raid Bosses Tier List

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Hey guys! With Dragonflight coming up I thought this would be the perfect time to go over every boss from Shadowlands, all the way from Castle Nathria to Sepulcher of the First Ones, creating a Shadowlands Raid Bosses Tier List. Hope you enjoy!
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Introduction & Rules: 0:00​​
Eye of the Jailer: 1:41
Artificer Xy'mox (Castle Nathria): 4:25
Artificer Xy'mox (Sepulcher): 5:36
Dausegne: 6:46
Anduin: 8:30
Fatescribe Roh-Kalo: 12:40
Guardian of The First Ones: 14:38
Halondrus: 17:45
Shriekwing: 18:24
Hungering Destroyer: 18:57
Huntsman Altimor: 20:20
The Jailer: 22:08
Kel'Thuzad: 24:16
Sire Denathrius: 26:03
Lady Inerva Darkvein: 27:40
Lihuvim: 28:59
Lords of Dread: 31:17
Painsmith Raznal: 34:07
Prototype Pantheon: 35:03
Remnant of Ner'zhul: 35:34
Rygelon: 38:31
Skolex: 41:05
Sludgefist: 42:19
Soulrender Dormazain: 43:41
Stone Legion Generals: 45:24
Sun King's Salvation: 48:36
Sylvanas: 49:15
Tarragrue: 50:35
Council of Blood: 52:48
The Nine: 53:44
Vigilant Guardian: 54:51
Revising The List: 55:38
Castle Nathria: 57:18
Sanctum of Domination: 57:46
Sepulcher of The First Ones: 58:25
#maximum​​ #liquidmaximum

[@ChoppersRevenge]

Sanctum also definitely suffered from its theme. We were all sick of the Torghast optics months before this raid even came out.

[@cameronharvey4746]

This is so clear from looking at the list of bosses too. Look at the icon for all of the sanctum bosses lol. Just various steel shapes with a blue soul essence inside them somehow.

[@James-kv3ll]

Sire was one of my favorite raid fights ever. Such a cool boss, a fantastic spectacle, and a fun fight.

[@nebojsavidic4764]

+

[@daveyjonesx]

+

[@Kassadin10]

I showed restraint. Even courtesy. And yet, to continue to provoke my wrath. Very well, you shall have it! I AM Revendreth!!!

[@Torcalie]

Crawl to me on your knees.

[@danlorett2184]

Honestly HATED it. Mostly because Blizzard's servers are garbage and it is probably the WORST FIGHT EVER to have any lag on. Oh you lagged for 1-2 seconds? GG you're dead. Like every time. Lag was the real boss.

[@jaredkerzner9789]

I’m biased, because CN was my first CE, but denathrius was such a banger kill for me because as an ele shaman I was necrolord with the cheat death soulbind, and I was the only member of my raid alive on our kill and it will always be one of my favourite wow memories forever because it was such an epic moment for me, on top of being my first CE

[@crounos]

i got that experiance from fate scribe after the thingy exploded the raid because necrolord is baller

[@canyegane2406]

what is a CE

[@liquiddnb1305]

@@canyegane2406 cutting edge, killing the final boss of a raid on mythic mode before the next raid tier comes out.

[@zealot2147]

I’m a scrub, and I had a similar thing on AOTC. I was in a group, on disc, and we were slow pushing him to p3 with 1 add still up I think. It wasn’t my group. I yelled “just lust now”. One of the people questioned it and I just said “we wipe if we don’t phase and lust resets anyway, so just lust right now”. And you know what? We killed him. I felt so good for taking the initiative and we secured the kill ez mode

[@nevrast-1]

"I can tell you half of my guild would tell you that halondrus was their favorite fight the've ever progressed" The other half was ranged :D

[@Kylora2112]

I can jam with Nathria being one of the best modern raids. Great lore, great aesthetic, no offensively terrible bosses (other than bugs on SLG), and a really satisfying conclusion to the story. It's up there with Nighthold, Eternal Palace, and Dazar'alor.

[@nebojsavidic4764]

i can only agree with this. denatrius was one of the very, very good and cool last boss fights in a while

[@ablueduck1]

even outside of modern raids, it was a banger for sure. Especially for the first raid of the expansion.

[@Kylora2112]

@@ablueduck1 Oh yeah, it's in the same tier as Ulduar, Throne of Thunder, and Blackwing Lair.

[@Kytrion]

And the music was great

[@danlorett2184]

You're smoking crack. Maybe Sire is a cool fight, and mythic Sludgefist was cool. Everything else was either completely forgettable or awful. And mythic SLG is up there with spine of deathwing for the worst fights ever. The fight just didn't work and it took them months of constant fixes that causes problems themselves to get it into a state where you could actually just kill it consistently without bullshit timing wipes you had no control over.

[@Warraxbaa]

I know you looked from a mythic perspective but as someone that only pushed aotc this expansion, I wouldn't change most of those for heroic either. Excellent video!

[@Javier-il1xi]

I returned to WoW after an almost 2 year break and fought Halondrus on LFR and thought it was the most fun Ive had fighting a boss like ever . I just wanna fight him on heroic

[@DiasWowES]

it is fun indeed, killed on mythic this week shit was fun af

[@SapoQLxd]

I always look forward killing halondrus with my low ilvl alts on lfr

[@jnolantx]

Absolutely agree (as an AOTC raider) with Max that it's in the running of the best boss of all time. Well worth getting to play it on Heroic if you still have the opportunity.

[@dirusj4006]

Yeah even on LFR the fight is a blast. Something about the sounds it makes puts it on tip for me. I think LFR is actually a decent way to judge a lot of fights. Just looking at Max's ranks can tell you how likely I am to fall asleep doing a fight in LFR. Halondrus and Sire are fun regardless of difficulty while fights like lady inerva I only did for transmogs.

[@brandonbarker6009]

The way you describe Anduin is exactly how I felt with Blackwing's Bane before all the nerfs, felt so good especially as a shaman before they got their buffs

[@johannesdatblue4164]

they made a good job on xymox, both fights were different and similar alltogether, i think they nailed it. it felt new and familiar, which it should, i mean its still the same guy :)

[@mypupismup]

As a shaman healer, Guardian of the First Ones was one of the funnest fights all expansion. So much healing, so much mastery coming through 😂

[@FAMIB]

I also loved that fight as a Shaman healer.

[@puuremungo6513]

As a Disc main: Super banger

[@TothBalesz]

Tanking it was such a blast too. Immuning the Obliderates, getting ballsy and have a dps take a Sunder. Pushing healers and raid cds to their limits when the Purging Protocols came. It was so good.

[@davidwagner1040]

I rememeber nathria xy'mox as extremely stressful because i played warlock and had to run across the whole room twice for circle and gateway before every pull and wasn't even done when ready checks came

[@Duck-xs4oe]

Don't recall ever enjoying a final boss of a raid tier more than Denathrius It was such an awesome fight, and it was awesome to "re-live" it through the Fated raids Castle Nathria was incredible, personally disliked Sepulcher overall, with a few exceptions (Rygelon, Halondrus, I thought Skolex was okay too..)

[@greenhousejakett]

I played in method during Sanctum and we actually figured out the GUID thing for Ner’Zul during testing but we couldn’t figure out a WA for it

[@lilmissnorti]

KT also had the most confusing dungeon journal entry that did not reflect what the fight was actually about. Pretty sure we one-shot this yolo'ing it because the journal was so confusing.

[@johannesdatblue4164]

Loved anduin :)

[@poro9084]

i would put kaelthas more up, but that is because i always like bosses where healer have specific mechanic to do (and not only dispell or die)

[@ludzkipan1650]

So basically bosses we got world firsts on are S, and the bosses we got fked on by competition are C because food and hotels sucked, I like that guy.

[@AnEnragedCat]

hell yeah

[@Orthane]

Sire Denathrius imo should be a fight that Blizzard takes notes from. I am so sick of fights like Sylvanas that are over 10 minutes long and have multiple insta wipe mechanics in the last phase. Phase 1 and 2 of Sylvanas were so painfully boring that I ended up quitting the game just because of her.

[@Torcalie]

New tier list dropped, we eating bois

[@Maddawg1984]

On Soul Render the way we killed him. One of our Tanks swapped from his Brewmaster to his DK for Slappy Hands to stack the adds I was playing Warlock and on this fight I went Affliction Sew the Seed spam Decaying Soul Sachel build I had all my other dps hard focus boss all fight and not worry about adds other then passive Cleave. I held CDs for the add spawns put Agony on the adds got PI and nuked the adds super fast basically by myself with machine gun seed spam almost all my DPS was add seed it was great had alot if fun on that boss.

[@dracotoy]

Anduin was an s tier fight plagued by f tier tuning

[@Unitos_]

Too much going on, and the shadowy imagine adds we SO unnecessary.

[@Darkstar574]

Def need a nother one of these things

[@Nr4747]

I know it isn't counted for this list, but Sun King was completely broken for larger raid sizes initially. If you had close to 30 people in your raid, you simply couldn't soak the flame strikes without causing a wipe because even if everyone except the main tank soaked, everybody would take like 300%+ HP damage in 4 seconds - and it happened way too frequently to save the raid with Spirit Link etc. You had to let the affected people die - or hope they had Ice Block etc. - and that is just really counter-intuative and bad, especially for normal raids. The fixed the borked scaling after week 2, IIRC.

[@razien9941]

49:20 that line made me laugh so hard, cause its so true ! the holy trinity of dogshit lmao

[@supergaga1712]

Shadowlands would be one of the best raiding xpac ever if the raid art/theme wasn’t just so…grey and torghasty. There was at least one all time banger boss per raid, if not 2.

[@TayzerLazerGames]

Sire denathrius is a top 3-5 best final boss ever. This isn't opinion it's just fact, where you want to put it yourself is fine. But the thematics, voicelines, mechanics, balance and pretty much everything was spot f***ing on. For me it's lei shen, sire, blackhand, guldan & (insert other one, can't think of another one that really stuck with me)

[@TothBalesz]

Idk what the hell are you talking about, Guardian was a really fun fight. We had the best tank mechanic in the entire expansion, that we could approach in so many different ways. It was up to our team composition how many Purging Protocols our healers could take. Sure the batteries could have been more interesting but it was still a good fight, with an awesome soundtrack.

[@fulltimeshitposter3643]

im still furious i was promised Castle Dracula and got no vampires at all only thematic boss was the dance that was a banger

[@Etzlo1]

Sire is the best boss by virtue of Remornia being fucking awesome

[@anda3487]

GUID thing was used by pieces aswell btw

[@Lamestreet1]

Halondrus was so much fun

[@thomaskruger547]

painsmith was for sure s tier in the beginning to watch :D you have to use wl portals in the air that part was amazing ;) (to watch!!!! ) :D

[@drewkg14]

Sepulcher lives Rent free in maxs mind

[@OxbowC]

I only did heroic this xpac(guild issues), but the only fight I really disagree with is Sylvanas. As a tank and melee player, P1 is so turbo ass on Heroic. P3 was the only fun phase for those two roles imo. Having to play a boring fight for 15 minutes to get to the fun part makes that fight C at most for me. I fully acknowledge it's better on mythic though

[@seafoodsalad3356]

very wrong about sylvanis fight - absolute dogshit as well - the fact it forces you to be in there as long as possible as opposed to transitioning on your own time of on the group merit

[@legacy_moments]

Nathria was a masterpiece.

[@anthaguz]

That intro LOL

[@Switch72nd]

Loved Castle Nathria the most by far. One of my favorites behind Ulduar and the original Karazhan.

[@Kryptic712]

At 10:40 max notes despair a few hours after anduin and that he didn’t want to go into it, but I’m confused, what happened?

[@Number69]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZmGUhZmwq9dpnpI 20:13 in this video he goes into it (max's take on the rwf - great video)

[@maximdecimus2258]

It’s so hard to rate Nathria and Sanctum high because of all the non raid crap in the game. Unchangeable covenants, loot starvation, domination shards.

[@erichall090909]

I’m biased. I did a ton of Sanctum and I was amazing at it on my holy priest so many high 90s but I quit after that. And if I could describe the rage I had when I saw how much holy priests went up the charts after that i screamed lol. Like I was already demolishing charts and now I don’t even play

[@samuelyoung3491]

Has to have the fun factor

[@decoak1241]

Sanctum is def underrated. Only because of its Torghast theme. Most likely bias from the player base and hating Torghast itself

[@patrick2657]

Some Sepulcher bosses are hard to rate because it was almost 2 raids crammed into one. I think Blizz was trying something with the not tested hard bosses at the end but . To me Halondrus was a second last boss and Anduin was a final boss I would still have them S Tier but the 3 bosses after idk.

[@thedragonreborn6978]

I feel same they are combined the two raids into one

[@okbucket]

It's almost like Max forgot what he said about rating bosses in context. Anduin would've been a great end boss, but he's inappropriate for a mid-raid boss.

[@firedrake110]

Need to add a new tier at the bottom for the Jailer to sit in, fuck that fight and the cinematic it rode in on

[@tristansmeets6086]

Lei Shen is the best Second to last boss of all time and there's no debate

[@liangdar9675]

I agree with everything except with two things. First Fatescribe in C, absolutely hated this fight on progression and it got a lot worse during farm before it got better. Most of the mechanics including the mythic mechanic were pretty boring and uninspired. The rings had potential but by simply being able to just always go one way they lost all of it and the damage stops were atrocious. The fight has no redeeming qualities from a mechanics standpoint. Also just going to throw in that on lower difficulties it's an awful boss to pug. For me that is definitely a D tier boss. Vigilant guardian on the other side while definitely a D tier boss in lfr/normal/heroic is fine in mythic. With the boss spawning instantly always having something to hit salvages the fight for me. And while I wouldn't call it a banger it's a somewhat fun add fiesta for me. It's at the least in the same category as shriekwing I'd say I even enjoyed it more than shriekwing.

[@kreatine957]

Only reason I would rate halondrus lower is because outside of mythic that boss was no challenge and wasnt even that great. denathrius on the other hand will always be fun cause all players had to do things right.

[@mattbrown5872]

Is Halondris better than Lei Shen?

[@micasreynhamar6946]

So i like how anduin works but man i couldnt give it S it killd my hc guilds raid team

[@ImTheMiddlBITCHxO]

Waiting for everyone to look for the right anima powers on taragrue was so annoying.. also I've only seen sylvanas in heroic and her P1 and obviously P2 were absolut dogshit..

[@thewalrus45]

I feel Jailer should be a a B, it's not an amazing fight but it's higher than a mid tier fight and Sylvanas should also be a B. The intermission in that fight is just too fucking long and boring even if the other phases are great. Terragrue is a weird one in that yeah I agree with A, it's not a complex boss, it's not a hard boss. But goddamn is it a FUN one. Just finding out what batshit insane builds you could put together and meming around with the anima powers? Was never a boss I was bored reclearing.

[@jacobtafoya2462]

I will forever hold that the best "First Boss of Raid" is Abyssal Commander Sivarra. That boss would have been a banger is a wing capper.

[@connorrigg1132]

100% agreed She was an incredible fight. I always looked forward to that fight on any difficulty

[@zebulonbare326]

Need a swamp ass tier for Prototype Pantheon. Fuck that fight.

[@lendial]

its hard to beat sludegist and xymox.

[@Schwanken]

Mythic Council burnt me out on raiding. After we killed it I stopped raiding all together and havmt raided since x) I've missed out on the last boss kill on both mythic ghuun and jaina in BFA. Mythic raiding is just too hard for my taste, and the progress is brutal.

[@beastrace81]

Nathria rules. I can't agree with SotFO being an A though lol

[@jeromevent4548]

max really forgot huntsman existed

[@kasper1241]

The most common strat used for the add phase of Eye of the Jailer was simply to outrange the the adds once you hit 5 stacks.

[@leaflotus6726]

Don't want them to bring back SotFO but halondrus would always be a great returning fight for like some time dragon shenanigans

[@ThaDarkSavior]

halondrus cant come back. every raid has that one boss that is basically the instance's janitor. Who knows why youre fighting them, but the boss sure has no idea. and that was halondrus. An incredible boss, but its literally not even a character. Hopefully Dragonflight just delivers with some incredible raid bosses of its own. Id love to fight a giant Trogg or Ogre that just smashes stuff in the next raid. I can picture it now, Pure ST with bursts of huge AOE dmg, and some really goofy voicelines. After seeing how great Nathria and most of SOD was, i believe blizzard can do it again.

[@Paulmacellaro]

@@ThaDarkSavior giant trogg that just smashes stuff is basically azerothian sludge fist

[@ThaDarkSavior]

@@Paulmacellaro i mean, thats what sludgefist was meant to be

[@chumbaman777]

Sylvanas was the worst boss to ever exist for a heroic progression guild. Nothing was challenging about that fight until P3 and it was super, super long. Left our guild with doing 2 days worth of attempts where 80% of the time we just sat there waiting to get to P3. F that boss. Stupidest crap ever.

[@stitchloverboy]

haha the echo comment is so true! biased asf

[@Drakshl]

Vigilant heroic is striaght to F. Mythic vigilant was kinda fine (probably a B), maybe a bit too hard for a first boss but that's about all

[@scorpiowarrior7841]

Vigiliant heroic isn't even a boss. It's trash with a mini boss.

[@Unitos_]

We 7 shot mythic Guardian, and probably could have 3 shot it if just 1-2 immune class players got their shit together faster for soaks.

[@ninjanikstudios2280]

As a person who plays WoW for fun, story, and does only LFR and occasionally normal raids (because im casual) Nathria is one of the best raids for me and sanctum is absolutely the worst raid ever imo. Nathrias theme and boss fight designs for me are amazing. Sun king and hungering destroyer are the only ones I'm not a fan of, because as a warrior main healer fights arent fun and i found hungering destroyer to be boring. Denathrius is absolutely the best character in the expansion and one of the best fights. Council of Blood was super interesting with playing DDR halfway through and Sludgefist was super fun all the way through. Altimor was a fun introduction back into raid fights. Sanctum started decent, has one of my favorite fights in Painsmith and immediately went down. Sylvanas is easily my least favorite fight ever. Never in my life of playing this game have I had this many issues in LFR on any boss. Sylvanas' Phase 2 is the most annoying thing ive ever seen in this game. Phase 3 is mediocre for me and Phase 1 is amazing. Guardian Fatescribe and Kelthuzad are all just frustrating fights (although i have a soft spot for raid leading in Guardian and Kelthuzad) and the last 4 bosses ruin the whole raid for me. I loved Torghast but we did not need a raid for Torghast. Sepulcher was kinda mid for me. Bosses like Lihuvun and Rygelon made me love the place. Halondrus was annoying in the best way possible. Bosses like Vigilant Guardian and Pantheon and the Jailer made me frustrated because of being a bad annoying or just unfun. Especially Vigilant Guardian. As a person whos been playing since Pandaria, who peaked in Legion, and left halfway through BFA and the beginning of Shadowlands, this expansion didn't suck for me and its raids were really fun. Apart from Sanctum...

[@corksterx1]

I am shook that you rated Sylvanas an "A" lol. For me she is the worst boss in the worst raid of the expansion. Sanctum might be my least favorite raid ever.

[@Zoniex]

Jailer at C is cap. That boss has some annoying mechanics, but overall great difficulty, really fair fight, idk it felt really good to me. Maybe not S but solid A tier

[@ciaranm3083]

Truth. I get the explanation that Jailer is a C for them cause they went through hell on that boss, but I thought it was one of the best fights of the xpac

[@Nightxcloud]

Xymox is like a c becuase as a dh I’m force to do raid chores

[@PsychedelicArchaea]

TL DW?

[@schwegburt3002]

Sylvanas had some okay mechanics but that fight draaagggged. I and pretty much everyone I've talked to hated how long that fight got. P1 intermission, why the fuck did they have so many Rives? It legit got boring but could get people 1 shot. That and P2's swiss cheese bridges sucked. Sure, most folks ran across them just fine but we all know "Those" players who would slip through the holes 1 in 5 times thus bricking a few attempts each night. I'm sure the top 10 guilds never saw that issue but say as a CE raider, holy crap just too many attempts sputtered due to 1-2 falling off the edge.

[@twistystarfish315]

Made my work way less borning

[@RG7620]

Anduin is totally D tier, because reasons(Arthas).

[@Cafe_TTV]

WORLD FIRST

[@truckinggamerdude]

No way huntsman was better than mother. Mother was a banger 2nd boss. Best raid this xpac was sanctum. Castle 2nd, sepulcher 3rd. However, sepulcher did have the best boss in halondrus

[@stevensaddler5530]

I hate holondrus and rygolon lmao didn’t find it mechanically fun

[@peterparkerspiderman7875]

the comment on 31:00 is soo spot on. You look sour AF max..this is not what I am used too from you..bit sad, lovely video otherwise.

[@riddert4966]

Sanctum ruined raiding for me lol. It made me start raiding in FFXIV.

[@Nemesis0405]

As a rank 870 CE player it's crazy how much different my list would have been.

[@realicepick285]

Painsmith is the best boss ever

[@heedlessthievery]

for real my favorite fight ever, my whole guild hates it though and I'm not sure if they believe me that I like it. (we're an AotC guild)

[@adachilordofthelettuce9732]

I can definitely say that Castle Nathria was the only highlight for me as a raider in Shadowlands, I absolutely hated the entire theme of Sanctum and Sepulcher. Lore wise... i'm not even gonna open that can of worms, i'll just say Denathrius doesn't deserve to be in such a bad story expansion.

[@kasper1241]

Your polls are flawed. When the result is close between B and C you should also consider how many votes went into A and D. Votes into A should count towards B when comparing B and C. For example with the Jailer, A had a lot more votes than D. Meaning if you compared A+B vs C+D then A+B would have won. Therefore Jailer should have been placed in the B category. Now I know this doesn't really matter but I have some kind of OCD with these things and it annoys me in polls when people disregard votes just because the are not placed in the most popular choices.

[@frecklefart66]

no fuckin SHOT KTZ is a lower teir fight than sylv lol what fuckin twilight zone shenanigan's!?

[@Malacine]

I personally thought Blizzard trying to make Anduin basically Arthas 2.0 was an insult to the legacy of the Lich King. If I had my way, his fight would have ended with us removing his head from his shoulders.

[@Weathers2284]

Am I the only one that thinks sludgefist is like a C tier boss?

[@VividVoid]

I agree, I thought Sludgefist was just okay. I don’t get his popularity.

[@pownsamdi888]

it triggers me mildly that he is pronouncing Lihuvim wrong lol.

[@relhaz4326]

30:42 This is actually why I dont like raiding in WoW. Theres like 100 people (completely made up number of course) that actually play the game and everyone else is just following the strat. aka I should find a guild who goes in blind

[@Smatawow]

lol

[@tailee7020]

This was interesting at the end. Cause for me Castle was the worst raid of the expansion Lol.

[@nx_s]

This is a B tier list.

[@micasreynhamar6946]

Dont think i could disagree more with a ranking but as a hc only player for context sylvanes is by far the worst raid boss of the expansion like p1 fills like one of thos mini bosses ther ar in raids and p2 was just killing trash and the p3 was a good fight with a 8 min respawn time

[@ThePrayable]

Yeah. Heroic and below slyvanas is boring slugfest. But the mythic version, specially at the start of prog, it blew your mind how much stuff is happening. P2 was still kinda boring, but by far alot better than heroic

[@lunalane]

Irrelevant video as soon as he ranked sylvannas as a while saying p1 and p3 were the best end boss phases ever. What a shitshow.

[@az9498]

Sorry too busy playing classic to care.

[@keithb6344]

It’s ok, you can watch it in 3 weeks when you are done with classic. 😀

[@filipmanov8951]

rating sylvanas A is not ok man, the only reason you rate it as an A is because you progressed it when you didnt have to stop dps every single pull and i rly dont see why everybody loves anduin so much, imo it kinda sucks its B at best