Raids are the capstone activity for serious PvE players in World of Warcraft. Over the years, efforts have varied wildly in quality with each passing expansion, and some stand clearly over their immediate peers.
In the modern version of the game, raids still play a huge role, with the Race to World First a major part of the WoW calendar. Essentially functioning as long dungeons designed for larger groups, players have been conquering vast halls since the game’s earliest iterations.
From Molten Core and Onyxia’s Lair to Abberus and Amirdrassil, raids have also advanced significantly in the mechanical challenge they present to players. As a result, this list will objectively look at the experience each raid offers players to decide which are the best ever.
Read on for Dexerto’s 10 greatest World of Warcraft raids of all time.
Complete list of the 10 best raids in WoW history
Firelands
The raid that spawned a thousand transmogs, Firelands, kicks off this list thanks to its solid aesthetic, cool loot, and solid boss encounters. Though they have since become a source of amusement for many, the armor pieces on offer were genuinely some of the most memorable in the game when the raid was released during Cataclysm.
As part of the broader expansion, the aesthetic of the raid felt appropriate, and there was some excellent game design under the hood. Taking on one of the game’s most iconic villains for a second time was a real highlight, and there are no objectively poor encounters. The trash is also populated well and doesn’t feel like boring filler between boss fights.
Antorus, the Burning Throne
Legion was an impressive expansion for raids overall, and though Antorus was not the very best during that period, it does deserve a place on this list. The primary thing it had going for it was the intangible, as the appearance of Sargeras and the Titans felt like a watershed moment for the game’s more expansive lore.
That said, Antorus was an exciting, fun raid that felt well-paced overall. It was also objectively hard mechanically, particularly for the time, with Eonar the most challenging encounter by some distance. It also came at a time when number scaling was at its zenith, and although it wasn’t for everyone, dealing hundreds of millions of points of damage was peak power fantasy.
Castle Nathria
Coming in an otherwise dreadful expansion, Castle Nathria really would have been an impressive offering in any release. Sire Denathrius had been woven into the story well, and fighting him as the culmination of this raid made a lot of sense. Along the way, encounters like the Council of Blood made for a nice throwback to raids from earlier expansions.
The raid’s real strength was in its overall aesthetic and design. The vast halls and terraces of the Castle are some of the grandest in WoW’s history, with the Venthyr/Revendreth being the most visually impressive of the four mini-factions introduced in Shadowlands.
Siege of Orgrimmar
From the outset, sieging the Horde capital sounds like a brilliant theme for a raid. And so it turned out to be as the Siege of Orgrimmar was not afraid to experiment with what raids could be. Where so many had felt very linear in the past, SoO managed to capture the feeling of dungeons like The Culling of Stratholme, and it was all the better for it.
Releasing as the conclusion to the Mists of Pandaria expansion, Siege of Orgrimmar is the most cinematic raid in the WoW’s history by a mile. There are few more memorable final encounters than taking on Garrosh, and the way the raid was set up gave it the widest variety of boss encounters and flavors ever.
Blackrock Foundry
The best raid in the Warlords of Draenor expansion embodied everything that the poor release was supposed to have going for it. The rough-around-the-edges, Mordor-like creations of the Orcs serve as a foreboding setting.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Every boss encounter works as part of the broader ethos behind the raid. Additionally, it rewarded some of the most memorable pieces of gear in the history of the game, making it a favorite haunt of transmog hunters ever since. As a package, few raids are more complete than Blackrock Foundry.
Icecrown Citadel
The most iconic raid in the history of World of Warcraft is not the best ever, but it is relatively close. We recently deemed the Wrath of the Lich King expansion as the greatest in the history of the storied MMO, and Icecrown Citadel played a massive part in that. Though it somehow isn’t the best of the expansion, there is still so much to like.
The vast scale of the place is the first thing that players are likely to notice, and advancing through it with the forces of good works very well, narratively speaking. The boss fights are good, and there are some lovely variations on a theme in Valithria Dreamwalker and the Gunship Battle. It recently came back to prominence thanks to WotLK Classic, and players have a chance to enjoy it all over again.
Karazhan
Heading all the way back to the Burning Crusade, we have Karazhan. Though there may be some out there who prefer the bright, ethereal halls of the Sunwell, Karazhan has far stronger encounters and level design (with the exception of the chess nonsense before Prince Malchezaar.)
To a man (or woman), every boss in the raid has memorable gameplay loops and, at the time, they presented a significant challenge to even more experienced and well-geared groups. Add to that a striking overall design that would influence many later instances, and Karazhan deserves its spot high up on this list.
Throne of Thunder
If, for some bizarre reason, Lei Shen was the only boss in the entire raid, there would still be a strong argument for including it in this list. Happily, that’s not the case, and there are twelve further encounters to back it up, all of which are spectacular.
The overall theme of the raid is as striking as it is memorable, with the entire location designed to make the player feel small and insignificant. There is a reason that this was inserted into the debate for best raid ever when it was released, and there have been very few since that have rivaled its all-around quality.
The Nighthold
There really is something magical about The Nighthold. Arriving in the Legion expansion, it carries the essence of the Nightborne brilliantly, their ancient magic seemingly pouring out of every stone. Few raids in the game have such a distinct artistic direction, and this one is all the better for the clarity of thought that clearly went into its design.
Underneath all that there is a genuinely impressive execution of everything raids are supposed to be. Challenging encounters, tough mechanics to get to grips with, and sweet loot at the end. Though it might have been overshadowed by the story’s culmination in Antorus and Tomb of Sargeras, The Nighthold is easily the best of the three.
Ulduar
Simply the best raid ever produced by Blizzard, Ulduar has absolutely everything going for it. As an enormous Titan complex, it features plenty of WoW’s most intimidating race. Then, it tasks players with taking on the madness of the Old Gods, and Yogg-Saron is objectively one of the most perfectly executed boss encounters of all time.
Hugely appreciated by the community when it was released during the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, little has been done to dent those memories. Additionally, it is arguably the raid that is most ahead of its time, introducing mechanics that would set the standard for years to come and paving the way for the competitive raiding scene of today.