Totally, completely, and utterly agree. May be the best raid in WoW outside of AQ. Design, voice, art, encounters; everything was an absolutely smashing success.

3rded

100% agreed

I'll call your statement and raise you "best raid instance of WoW."

IMO New Naxx was 100 times better than Ulduar and ICC (never saw old Naxx). Either way, none of the Wrath raids were as enjoyable for me as Kara was. Granted Kara was the first raid I was ever in, but even compared to the other BC raids, it just seemed more epic.

@Weeie

Dont just post dumb stuff. Tell us why you think so.

As for me, ulduar was the most fun ive had in WoW besides the gunship battle.
The first time for that one was amazing.

Honestly? I agree with Matthew. Ulduar was #2 for me, I like ICC SO much more. Since I played Warcraft III, I have always wanted to take on Arthas, make him pay for all the misery he has caused Azeroth.

(Spoilers for people who haven't been in ICC yet) You enter his stronghold, and the first thing you see in front of you, is a gigantic, monstrous, floating skeleton-like being.

You then face a Lich that has become the new ruler of the Cult of the Damned, and you take her on, stopping her from creating new Cultists. You then run into the opposing faction, racing them to the top of the Citadel. After scaring off the opposing faction, you see him. Draenosh Saurfang, having had his soul stripped from him at the Wrathgate, now you have to fight him and kill him yourself, as his mind and soul belongs to who? Arthas.

You enter the Citadel proper, and you have the choice of going forward, left or right. By going left, you find two horrible creations of the lead Professor of the Scourge, the one who has been creating all the plagues that you have encountered in Northrend. Going forward, you enter the Crimson Halls, to find the Queen of the San'layn resurrecting and empowering the three main Princes of the San'layn, ones you thought you had killed, you must now fight at the same time.

You then find the Queen herself, Lana'thel, and while she corrupts your blood and attempts to turn you into a San'layn yourself, she still falls. You finally go to the right of the originally hallway, into the Frostwing Halls, you aid Argent Crusaders and the Champion of the Ebon Blade to destroy what some say is the strongest Val'kyr yet. You enter a large room, to find a Green Dragon being corrupted by the Scourge.

You aid her in healing her wounds, and you continue on. You find Sindragosa's Lair, mother of all Frostwyrms, former consort of Malygos. You destroy two of her strongest children, Spinestalker and Rimefang, to which she becomes enraged and attempts to freeze the very flesh off your bone, but she again is no match for you.

Finally, you climb to the top of the Citadel, to the Frozen Throne. Tirion issues the attack on Arthas, to which he becomes frozen in a block of ice. As you battle Arthas, he eventually grows tired of you, and ends your life quickly. As he begins to raise you as his storngest champions, Tirion uses the Light to shatter the frost tomb he was imprisoned in.

He destroys Frostmourne, releasing all the souls Arthas has collected over the years, and his father, Terenas, appears, resurrecting the "Champions of the Light". As you resurrect, you finally finish off Arthas, and, as Yogg-saron said in Ulduar: "No king rules forever."

THAT is why I like ICC way more, the Scourge has always been my favorite faction in the game, and finally being able to face off against Arthas and his strongest minions has made me one happy camper.

TL;DR: ICC is awesome because I've always wanted to kill Arthas, and I finally get to do so.

Ulduar will easily top the list of best raid of the Wrath cycle (Unless Ruby Sanctums one boss wonder is somehow mind blowing... Doubtful). It had everything we liked from classic and BC raiding while topping the few things we liked from Wrath release raiding.

It had the mystery, it had lore, it had epic boss fights, and hard modes that were well designed. The HM's weren't just "Flick a switch" or "Enter a different instance" they gave you control over *if* you wanted to do them while radically altering the fight mechanics (most of the time). My favorite HM to this day is the Iron Council "I Choose You, Steelbreaker".

Vanilla best raid: AQ
BC best raid: Karazhan
Wrath best raid: Ulduar

agree. I kind of wish TOC had come before Ulduar. Once the there were better and easier to get upgrades, my guild bailed on running it.

@ Corrupted: 'I agree. I kind of wish TOC had come before Ulduar. Once the there were better and easier to get upgrades, my guild bailed on running it.'

When Ulduar was released in April, we were still gearing from Naxxramas. Then I took a long summer brake with no WoW, and when I came back, everyone was already raiding ToC. I have never seen more than 4 bosses of Ulduar, and really hope to find a PUG nowadays, just to enjoy scenery and fights.

I would have done WoTLK: Toc first (you are prepared to fight the scourge by the Horde/Alliance), then Naxxramas. After it, just ICC, and keep Ulduar for the next expansion (to have a reason to go back to Northrend).

@Sargenus

I would almost agree, except for one thing: encounter design.

Ulduar pushed EVERY member of the raid to perform well. With the exception of Arthas and Sindragosa, the tanks can mostly sleep through Icecrown. Especially the lower spire.