Many bosses have long tormented the heroes in World of Warcraft. But 5 of them survived more attempts than all others.
Throughout the history of World of Warcraft, numerous boss fights have led to exciting races for the “World First.” However, balancing a final boss is quite a complex matter. Some raid bosses held up against several hundred attempts, while others had to give up the digital spoon after just a few dozen attempts.
The strongest final bosses could withstand the onslaught of professional guilds for many hundreds of attempts.
Note that in this list, the “number of attempts” refers to the value that the first guild needed to defeat the boss. If we were to total all attempts of all major guilds during this time, the number would be significantly higher. Furthermore, we always talk about the strongest available variant of the bosses – that is, heroic or mythic.
Rank 5: Archimonde
Expansion: Warlords of Draenor
Raid: Hellfire Citadel
Number of Attempts: 472
First Kill by: Method
Archimonde was not only the final boss of Hellfire Citadel, but also the last boss of the expansion “Warlords of Draenor.” With him ended the rather inglorious history of this addon, but the fight was one of the most challenging of all time.
Not only were there numerous phases and many additional enemies to defeat, but the raid coordination had to be exact as well. However, this was infused with a nasty amount of RNG – as it was randomly decided who was hit with a debuff and to whom it jumped. If the wrong players were affected here, it could directly mean a wipe.
Rank 4: Ragnaros
Expansion: Cataclysm
Raid: The Firelands
Number of Attempts: over 500
First Kill by: DREAM Paragon
The fall of Ragnaros took place in a time when the races for the “World First” kill were not as publicly conducted as they are today. The current progress was not or only very limited streamed, and the documentation of all attempts also hadn’t taken place back then.
Therefore, estimating the second fight against the Firelord is quite difficult, but the statement of “over 500 attempts” was made.
Ragnaros was laughed at by the community back then. The Firelord specifically received feet for the high difficulty boss fight, which fueled a lot of memes at the time.
Rank 3: Garrosh Hellscream
Expansion: Mists of Pandaria
Raid: Siege of Orgrimmar
Number of Attempts: 638
First Kill by: Method
The time of the Siege of Orgrimmar is considered the greatest content drought in the history of World of Warcraft and at the same time it was one of the hardest and longest raids ever.
Not only was the path to Garrosh paved with 13 other bosses, but the fight against the Warchief himself was divided into several phases with different locations. Guilds often only fought their way a few seconds into a new phase to achieve minimal progress.
No wonder that the Orc chief could only be judged after 638 attempts and Method claimed victory.
Rank 2: Kil’jaeden
Expansion: Legion
Raid: The Tomb of Sargeras
Number of Attempts: 654
First Kill by: Method
The Tomb of Sargeras was the “middle” raid of the Legion expansion and was well received by players, as they could earn re-releases of popular tier sets – in high resolution.
However, Kil’Jaeden, the commander of Sargeras, proved to be a particularly tough fight. This was not only due to the high damage and the many overlapping abilities, but also because of some nasty push mechanics that required reactions in fractions of a second if one didn’t want to fly off the platform. Accordingly, Method could only defeat this boss after 654 attempts.
Demon hunters had an easy time here, as they could simply fly back to the platform while other classes were catapulted into the afterlife. Therefore, this fight is also still seen by many in their minds as the “demon hunter end boss.”
Rank 1: Uu’nat
Expansion: Battle for Azeroth
Raid: Crucible of Storms
Number of Attempts: 731
First Kill by: Pieces
No boss lasted as long as Uu’nat. The harbinger of N’Zoth proved to be the longest-lasting boss to date when judged purely by the number of attempts required.
However, it should be noted that the race for the “World First Kill” of Uu’nat was virtually non-existent. The raid was merely a “mini-raid,” consisting of two bosses, and many of the big guilds were taking a break to prepare for the subsequent patch.
Nonetheless, this did not change the fact that Uu’nat proved to be extremely resilient, drove guilds en masse into madness, and could withstand 730 attempts before the guild Pieces managed to deliver the killing blow and complete N’Zoth’s trial.
Why this list? We already have a list of the 7 toughest end bosses that have survived the longest in World of Warcraft. However, the time was the decisive factor there, not the number of attempts that a boss needs. Since professional guilds today play much more efficiently and purposefully, achieving many dozens of attempts per day, a direct comparison with the past is only difficult. Therefore, we decided on an independent list that only considers the number of attempts.
Which of these lists you ultimately find more meaningful is up to you.
