[heading]Sleeper[/heading]
Everquest was known, among other things, for its tacitly hellish raid bosses. The dragon, Sleeper Kerafym, is probably one of the three most difficult bosses in MMO history. He could be found in The Sleeper?s Tomb, guarded by four ancient dragons. Once those dragons died, Kerafym woke up ? and he was in a very, very bad mood. He would travel through multiple zones all across the world, slaughtering everyone and everything in his path.
He was originally designed to be unkillable ? but Sony Online Entertainment underestimated the tenacity (and skill) of their player-base. Several guilds on a server known as Rallos Zek banded together to take him down, leading to one of the biggest dick moves in the history of MMORPGs:
The GMs interfered and snatched victory out of the hands of the players, claiming the encounter was ?bugged.? Eventually, they realized their mistake, and reset the encounter- at which point the players promptly took him down and etched their names into legend.
[heading]Razorgore and Vaelastrasz[/heading]
Guess what? More dragons! Back before C?thun in World of Warcraft, Razorgore and Vaelastrasz were some of the nastiest bosses to be found in the game- I?ve grouped them as one boss because they?re fought in such close proximity to one another. Vael was one of the original DPS checks in the game (players were hit with a debuff that would kill them if they didn?t take her down in time), while Razorgore remains one of the most unique bosses in WoW- one player had to control him to destroy all the eggs in his room, while the others needed to keep mobs from hitting him or the controller. If Razorgore dies before the eggs are broken, the whole raid goes with him.
[heading]Cazic Thule[/heading]
Cazic Thule was another of the toughest bosses in Everquest, at least when he first released. That shouldn?t come as any surprise, though- he is a god, after all. First and foremost, before players even considered challenging him, they needed to clear out the entire Plane of Fear, or he?d call every mob that hadn?t been taken down to his aid. To make matters worse, some mobs in the plane randomly teleported players to their death, while Thule himself had several instakill abilities?in addition to hitting like a freight train.
Oh, and when he spawned, he?d cause the entire zone to respawn.
[heading]Innoruuk, The Prince of Hate[/heading]
Innoruuk is the Prince of hate, and another god of the Everquest universe. In the Plane of Hate, there was a good chance he might teleport to a raid party and take down the whole group out with an instant kill spell. The actual fight against him looks to be a pretty standard ?tank and spank? affair (though his attacks do tend to shred through an unprepared party in seconds), but just getting to him is enough of a challenge that he makes the list.
[heading]Deathwing[/heading]
We?ll round out the list with one more dragon?sort of. Deathwing is the penultimate boss of the Cataclysm expansion, and a more epic boss has not yet been seen in WoW. Not only do you fight him over the course of several different instance, but the battle against his final form, The Madness of Deathwing, feels positively apocalyptic. Oh, and if you don?t beat him in 15 minutes, he?ll deal 1,500,000 damage to all players ? basically, he?ll bring about the apocalypse.
Do you folks have any other bosses you?d like to see on this list? The Lich King comes to mind, as do a few of the bosses from Naxxramas in WoW.