I think at least one of the important things that ties the most favorite raids together (Ulduar, BT, AQ40, Naxx, Sunwell, Karazhan, BWL, and ICC - not listed in order, but certainly the best of the crop) is the way they build up to the final boss with a real sense of place. A journey that climaxes at the last encounter.
Ulduar - down the shattered stairway to face Vezax, and then Yogg-Saron in the pit you can see from above most of the instance
Black Temple - up the stairs to the temple summit, fighting Illidan in the open air on plane with lots of room to maneuver, along with the pretty epic council fight right before that.
AQ40 - sort of in a class of its own with how expansive it is, needing the bug mounts to get around, and then finally peering into C'Thun's room cautiously so you don't get immediately fried.
Naxx - Having to port up there (or fly in the Wrath version), then clearing out all the different quarters. Climaxes with porting up to the two final chambers with the last two bosses on a tier of their own. For design, this is sort of the quintessential dungeon.
Sunwell Plateau - Lots of neat stuff here, don't recall exactly, but it's pretty epic to go down the stairs into Kil'jaeden's room, which is unlike anything else in the game, completely covered in red cloth.
Karazhan - no comment here, as I haven't experienced it personally, but I'm sure it's similar from what I've read.
Blackwing Lair - Plenty of memorable moments, but storming Nefarian's throne room, with the view off to the side, the pillars, etc. And just the fight itself is one of the most mechanically interesting in the game (though easily overpowered with gear and level nowadays)
Icecrown Citadel - Similar to Naxx in that you have the different sections, and then you port up to the Lich King, sitting on his throne at the very peak of the citadel in the open air. Just an epic location.
It's interesting to read a post like this, because to me while the atmosphere is definitely key, the boss fights themselves are what I will remember the most, and shape my opinions of the instance more than anything.
Karazhan was just epic, it was 10 man, it was fucking easy after the first month or two of BC (It got nerfed hard many times early on. The first version of Nightbane? an absolute terror, good times), but the MECHANICS of the bosses were incredibly unconventional and innovative, and the atmosphere is THICK.
Zones like that are the perfect raids for all players imo.
Then you can take it the extreme angles to really decide what kind of content suits you more I think. You've got the extremely atmospheric zones like AQ, which had mostly simple boss mechanics (complex at the time, but this was before mechanics were matured. I'd say PARTS of Aq, and then all of Naxx, that's where modern raiding mechanics came to life), It's memorable because of the boss quotes, animations, graphics, the mounts, the epic scope, etc.
On the far end, you can look at ToC. A zone that had interesting boss mechanics, but ABSOLUTELY SHIT stale graphical design, no trash, no zone design to speak of at all. I think it's a bit unfair to compare to AQ perhaps in the sense that AQ mechanically is far better than ToC is atmospherically. But, in the end, the bosses here were actually pretty cool on heroic, despite the fact that everyone hated the zone.
I guess you could say the atmosphere is definitely hugely important to most of the playerbase, if not all of it (Just look at how reviled toc is), but now I'm trying to think of the zones in this sort of scale.
I guess it may even go beyond that, I mean technically MC is 'atmospheric' in the sense that it perfectly represents what it is supposed to be, it isn't confusing and it's straightforward, but that's also boring because what it's supposed to be is a cave. Does that mean it's highly atmospheric? idk...I think unique art has to count somewhere here I guess. I mean what do people remember from MC? Ragnaros, the UNIQUE boss in the middle with the badass dialogue, animations, and room design (the spiral, though still a cave, is immediately recognizable and awesome). think of ICC, this is a zone FULL of 'unique' art, but most of it is sterile looking as well, because it's so repetetive. Yeah, LK's platform is memorable, and a few other setpieces, but it was a common complaint at the time to hear about how underwhelming the design of the zone was even though the bosses were fun...
I suppose I'm rambling. But I'd be interested in kinowing just how Gaf ranks all zones I guess. Maybe I'll set up a template for curiosity's sake idk.
What would be important rankings? Atmosphere, inclusive of graphics/audio/music/storyline? or is that too broad? Bosses (creativity), trash (pacing/density/creativity), difficulty?
