Least Favorite Heroic Encounters

With WotLK coming to its end I look back at what I consider to be some of the most annoying battles.  I will try to look at all encounters as I viewed them from the first time I saw them.  Not how they are now after doing them 100 times or out gearing them.

Most Hated Heroic Bosses
HertalVolazj in AN-OK (as a DPS) - Oh my god, this is this boss of nightmares when you first hit 80 and are going into this instance.  Back when I first hit 80 I did my best to be able to do at least 1500 DPS in a heroic before I entered it. (wish all people did that, I see sub 1K DPS all the time) Sad part is, not everyone was like that and even the top DPS back then was only 2200 DPS at most meaning that all fights took longer. 

This fight became really long back then and when you go into insanity and have to fight your team mates it gets really hectic.  Most people never grasped the concept of kill the healer first either.  The first time I was in this instance I had to use every single trick I could think of.  Traps, kiting, turning the pets growl on, herbalism heal, pot, you name it. 

This fight, although I did hate it, was really a wake up call.  It was saying, okay you are now 80, do you think you are ready?  You think you have skill playing your class?  Then try doing this dungeon in quest greens and prove it.  I would say that doing this one boss in quest greens is more difficult then doing raids undergeared.

Tribunal of Ages from HoS (as a tank) - I have yet to meet a boss I hated tanking.  Some I might have disliked and of those this one was the one I disliked the most.  Lots of running around and mobs all over the place.  Add to that a flaming fire under your butt that always seems to like to follow me where ever I go no matter what role I am playing and it makes this one annoying.  If you have a Gnome DK that can only pull 600 DPS like I did the first time I tanked it, it makes it all the more difficult.

The amazing part is I have been in randoms and come across people in all ICC 25 and better gear that still can not do this fight effectively.  Some times it leaves you scratching your head wondering how the hell these people get gear like that.  They are so stupid they probably can not chew gum and walk at the same time.

The Lich King from HoR (as a healer) - The gauntlet at the beginning of HoR?  A cake walk as long as you do not have a group of retards.  The escape at the end, even with skilled players, even with high DPS, it gets really stressful.  Not amazingly hard to heal but extremely annoying to heal. I could imagine that with more instant heals it would be easier but on my priest it got a little stressful for me. 

I still wonder how the hell I finished it.  I was the only one that made it to the end alive.  I needed to go back and revive everyone else.  How exactly does a Disc Priest beat 3 mobs with the King just inches away from them?  Luck.  Pure and simple. Thank god for the shadow fiend being immune to the Kings damage pulse, it was capable of going right through the king to get to the one caster that was behind him.

And now for some... Honorable Mentions.

Ahn'Kahar Spell Flinger - They might only be trash mobs in AN:OK but no matter what I am in this instance as I hate them.  Tank, Healer, DPS, you name it.  These mobs are the death of more people then anything else in the game I am sure.  Their Shadow Blast hits for 80% of maximum health.  This means that a tank with 50K health that normally would only need a HoT on them in randoms can get hit for 40K in one shot.  Yes, a 40K hit from a heroic mob.  Those stupid over geared tanks that decide to pull whole rooms and grab 2 or 3 of them at once means instant death.  There is no healer that could keep them up for that sort of damage.  Not even if it was 1 tank and 4 healers in there would be be able to survive 3 of them doing the Shadow Blast at the same time. 

As a healer I hate that tanks pull more then 1 at a time and that DPS never seem to target them.  As a tank I hate that I mark them and make sure to pull only one at a time and the DPS still do not attack the skull and always seem to draw another pack into the fight so now we have to deal with 2 of them, both of which the DPS do not seem to target.  As a DPS I hate them because it is my job to get them down before they cast that and if they do get it off I take it as my fault.

The Oculus - The instance as a whole is no fun.  It is not hard at all, even back when gear was not so good.  It is just annoying as all hell.  When will Blizzard get the point that vehicle battles suck major moose cock?  Hell, it is not the battle even that I find annoying.  It is the having to fly all over the place and deal with that useless crap to go from mob pack to mob pack.  If the instance was just a straight fight through and you just mounted the dragons at the end for the last battle the annoyance factor of this instance would drop 95% instantly.  I personally do not mind the end battle so much but I do hate the having to fly all over the place to get to the end.

Those dragons you pass always seem to sit and watch you and wait for someone to dismount before they attack them.  Again, just an annoyance.  The whole thing was poorly thought out and poorly designed and over all a bad game play decision.  No, I've never dropped out when I got it as a random.  It is not a hard instance but I also never went into it on my own.  Until the randoms where added and I was thrown in there I had never even considered stepping foot into there and if it were not for randoms I most likely would never have stepped into it unless it was just to get the achievements and that would be it.

The funny part of this list is that even so much later in the game, after doing them a 100 times and after out gearing them those three of my most hated encounters are still the three worst as I see it.  Any encounter, even at the appropriate gear level is doable but some even with high gear you will have problems with sometimes with people that just do not understand them.