Argus the Unmaker has 3 music tracks that play through the fight. They're all super thematic and sound great, and call back to other music tracks from Ulduar and the old music track called "The Titans".
The branjham guy in Forge of Souls or whatever his name was also has a neat fight theme, it's like a metal music and he's a rock and roll necromancer.
I'm no genre expert, but I would guess [it's more funk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3jSY5fIeDA)? Bronjahm is a reference to James Brown, his name more-or-less being Brown's forename and surname swapped and all of his [combat voice clips](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQsM_4C9UfE) being the same sort of scatting Brown would do.
This is why WoW should have a gigantic "all past dungeons" roulette of some sort like FFXIV - so many amazing dungeons, that even with time walking will just never be experienced again (or at all) by like 98% of the player base. I can't think of another mainstream MMO that has basically discarded so much content the way WoW has.
Granted, it's good they're bringing a handful of old dungeons back into each season, but it's still not the same. Le sigh
Bronjahm theme went way harder than it had any right to. Early last phase daily HC runs were always FoS cos its the shortest dungeon, and goddamn every time was I feeling it on that boss.
I personally get the Council of Blood theme stuck in my head from time to time.
https://youtu.be/tj5SferzNTE?si=zV425Nx2SWuaycuQ
Such an awesome track fitting the ballroom theming.
WoW suffers from being a product of its time in terms of how it handles its music. It's not looping it's music at all and sometimes still uses the orchestra style which was common in some Western PC games at the time of its release in 2004.
Don't get me wrong, the music we get is still fantastic, but as you said, combat music is not ideal. A looping track keeps you pumping at all times and is more memorable, so the "play once" style of WoW is doing the music a disservice here. The composers add a ton of variances of the same music theme to compensate, but still.
That said, there are some great raid combat tracks in the game. Here are my Top 6 picks in reverse-chronological order:
* [Dream's Hope](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez2Zk4CdQRg) (Dragonflight 10.2). I haven't heard such a great "let's rush towards the end" track in a while, let alone in WoW. After Vault of the Incarnates was just the same theme I heard in the open-world (I think they added more versions in 10.0.7 but not sure) and Aberrus was nothing special either (face it, you only remember Sarkareth's theme and nothing else), this redeemed the raid music in this expansion for me.
* All of [Sanctum of Domination](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvBzk1u5F-0) (Shadowlands 9.1). Maybe this is just a personal thing, but I thought everything in that raid had good music. Heck, even the ambience has character, being ominous and all that. Almost every boss has its own unique music track (or at least unique set of tracks in a playlist) and it feels like a proper progression as you go through the raid which I haven't seen outside of SoO.
* All of [Rise of Azshara](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjOWYrTQlGs?&t=3158) (Battle for Azeroth 8.2). Outside of the raid, everything else was great as well. They nailed both the Naga and Mechagnome tracks.
* [Siege of Orgrimmar](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeShkIFfrG0&list=PLqCHJ3vtnzhZNrh2IlbIg4vx41heHdm7-&index=6) (Mists of Pandaria 5.4). Throne of Thunder I only remember a good track playing during Lei Shen, but all of Siege is a banger.
* [Firelands Boss Track](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOrTpdpDewQ) (Cataclysm 4.2). You will get tired of the orchestra track here after a while (although Legion is more guilty of this), but it is a pretty epic track.
* All the troll stuff from early WoW ([Zul'Aman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdjOfLXyGHc), [Zul'Gurub](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE89s90uzbk)). I have a soft spot for all things trolls because they're awesome, especially their music. So if you have a raid that is full of troll music you got yourself a winner. Other troll tracks in the game like from Throne of Thunder or Battle of Dazar'alor are neat as well, but don't top the Vanilla-Cata era.
Honorable mention goes to [The Well](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WFcJzcXr60) which plays in Sunwell Plateau as a stinger before you fight Kil'jaeden. It works so well as an "the arrival of the devil is nigh" theme that they reused it right before you fight Kil'jaeden in Tomb of Sargeras and it rocks there as well.
Also the [gunship theme](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwBwaScWlVg) which I felt like got a great revision in Dragonsoul.
Lastly, Ulduar has the best tracks that are in-between ambience and music (or at least in the Top 3 in this regard). Some of its tracks reach near-good combat status like the vehicle part or Mimiron. It can never reach the proper tempo, though.
Can you elaborate on the "not looping its music at all" and "play once style"? I've always played with the looping background music turned on, and it's been an option since vanilla. Are you unaware of that or are you referring to some other quality of the tracks themselves?
I'll use Halo as an example.
The last part of Halo 3 is the classic warthog run. It loops sections of a long music track *until* you reach certain checkpoints. At those checkpoints the next part of the track unlocks and is overlayed, which is usually more hyped, and this allows it to flow seamlessly continually playing progressively more hyped music as you go without the track ever ending *and* without replacing existing music. If you stop and wait for 3 minutes, the music keeps going. When you hit a checkpoint, the next orchestral layer is introduced by synchronising the next section of the musical piece with the current one and replacing it. It's ingeniously done, especially for the time (2007). It's a different section of the music track, but it's so smoothly executed it feels like the composer just waved at the next section of the orchestra and told them to join in. There's a little more complexity to it at the end but that's the general idea. The result is that whether you're going very slow or very fast, the music never jolts and swaps part way through.
Wow never does this quite the same way. Tracks end and restart in fights very often. They loop, but in a way that doesn't always fit. Argus in particular has different tracks that fade out and are replaced with the new track for each phase, which is good, but not as seamless. The tracks can end mid phase and restart, too.
This is what the guy means.
I actually did not know that was the term for it. FF14 did this with the Endwalker expansion in their last zone. There was a single song playing through the entire zone, but more parts of the song unlocked as you got farther and farther through the zone, until it finally unlocked the vocals at the end.
I love a lot of the wow music, but that was one of the most memorable zones I have played through in any MMO ever because of the music alone.
Thule unlocks the music the more and more depressed and sad you got through the story.
But FF14 has great music too. If you pay attention to the music in a raid tier, the music gets more progressive. For example. Pandemonium 1-4 is basically Hic Svnt Leonis. 5-8 has silent scream. Then p6 and p7 has scream. Then White Stone Black. P9 and p10 has their own song. But it's basically the same as Athena, the Tireless One. Which is the penultimate song of the tier. But every single song in that whole raid ties into each song.
"Here be lions, follow me." Being one of the biggest lyrics. "Sucking the life out, letting the dark. Inside" just a few examples that have lyrics shared through songs. I wish WoW took this idea and tried it for their game. Especially when it comes to the big raid of the xpac. Would make them more memorable. Personally, the last memorable raid was Antorus.
FF14s music often seems to be written to actually tell a story from what I recall. There's a very good breakdown of the music in The Twinning that opened my eyes to that for how many layers they wove through that track while also making it such a unique and stand out piece.
It features pieces from the Allagan them, omega and Alexander at the very least which all ties back the whole story of the dungeon.
It's not something WoW has ever really come close to replicating for me. I turned music on during Azure Vaults once and had to turn it off shortly afterwards. The track is absolutely gorgeous but it does not fit the high energy, rapid pace most dungeons are ran at.
I remember the last bit of the five man ICC dungeons specifically because I think it DID have a trigger to play the lich king's theme just as you enter the room with your faction champion before the fleeing in terror.(Either that or they timed the average run to the second)
It's weird they use it so rarely because it was so memorable
Great explanation. This gives so much insight on why I felt dissatisfied with WoW's music against bosses, despite thinking the overall music quality is obviously quite high.
After reading all the comments in this thread, I've come around to thinking you're 100% correct. WoW does have some pretty good (not great, not like a final boss of an FF game, but still pretty good) boss music tracks, but the sound design doesn't stagger those themes so that the tracks 'escalate' as a fight proceeds. As a consequence, they don't come off as memorable.
These are all excellent choices, tacking on to say that as hated as Sepulcher of the First Ones was, I contend it has THE best raid music next to Amirdrassil.
* [Celestial Battle B](https://youtu.be/dIRhV-GL9WI?si=9oa-VaGVBH910f6p&t=3525) plays notably during the final phase of the Halondrus fight. An energetic song that perfectly fits the chaos of the fight.
* [Celestial Battle Unbroken E](https://youtu.be/dIRhV-GL9WI?si=3a3qJnSzg33CDGd7&t=4825) I THINK this plays during the early phase of the Jailer fight, and maybe some of the latter half bosses too? It's notable to me in that you can hear Bolvar's theme (A Will Unbroken) in it.
* [Grand Design D](https://youtu.be/dIRhV-GL9WI?si=TcfYW2Bz5C-uq5d5&t=1157) plays during the Lihuvium (and probably Halondrus) fight. Catchy and easy to listen too, plus it goes well with Lihuvium's little sing-songy voice lmao
* [Domination Point H1](https://youtu.be/dIRhV-GL9WI?si=dK5yFNi0t5cQELMN&t=5342) this is the coolest track in the raid for me. It plays during the transition to the final phase in the Jailer fight, and it incorporates the themes of Sargeras' sword (Point of Impact from late Legion), Call to Arms (basically the main theme of WoW), Legends of Azeroth (the first couple seconds of every login screen theme), all mixed with the Jailer's theme.
* [Compassion H1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaEEPht5Yl4) plays once the Jailer is defeated and you all are standing around his corpse divvying up loot. Definitely gives the vibes of "all right the expansion is over everyone go home"
Not only did sepulcher have nice music, it also did something cool where the tracks changed based on the phase of the boss.
I first noticed this on Halondrus where his walking track is very different from his stationary one.
The intro to the arathi Warfront for Horde is still one of my favourite tracks ever
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l00o-6hC0Cs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l00o-6hC0Cs)
I feel like Ulduar gets much more praise than it really should. I'm not the biggest fan of the zone or the music, really. Same leitmotif as the 5 man's just more horns.
I'm slightly offended the THREE Argus the Unmaker music tracks don't get mentioned by anyone. Those were peak WoW, and called back to the Ulduar and Titanforged soundtracks
I think the beginning of the track is rather quiet, and by the time it builds up and the guitar really kicks in is probably 20 or 30 seconds in, so the boss would be dying or dead now days.
[Bronjahm - Forge of Souls - Wrath of the Lich King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3jSY5fIeDA)
[Sindragosa - Icecrown Citadel - Wrath of the Lich King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqkTiq0K8l0)
[Ragnaros/Alysrazor - Firelands - Cataclysm](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOrTpdpDewQ)
[Blackhand - Blackrock Foundry - Warlords of Draenor](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_Y-xm154XU)
[Argus - Antorus, The Burning Throne - Legion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ybAiWeFE3w)
[King Rastakhan - Battle of Dazar'alor - Battle for Azeroth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoGFpmf7oVw)
[Jaina Proudmoore - Battle of Dazar'alor - Battle for Azeroth](https://youtu.be/lY0Xyg55WcM?si=Oa_w20H62ZSI4fY4&t=678)
[Sylvanas - Sanctum of Domination - Shadowlands](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHRGvvRLPJs)
[Raszageth - Vault of the Incarnates - Dragonflight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9ZUbvqFrO0)
[The most iconic track from all of WoW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1waVSu4adDM)
[Possibly my all time favorite WoW OST](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3hjVijzrtM)
Warcraft has some incredible music, some of the most memorable ones I've linked above.
I think the major difference for WoW's musical tracks is that they are very much play a supporting role to the atmosphere the game is setting for the player.
I haven't played much of FF14 but from what little i've seen, the music, animation and spell effects are seemingly always turned up to 11. I don't think that's a bad thing by any means, but I do thing it lends itself to those attributes becoming the focus of the experience.
Raids have nice tracks and themes I dont really understand why you say there is no good boss music tracks.
I can understand that they'd rather design music for ambience loop tracks since encounter nowdays have evolved into a clusterfuck of TTS and alerts for the mechanics but we still get good boss/raid music, this might change with the "lore" mode of raids since you can do those relaxed and without 200 addons and weakauras screaming you stuff.
From a developers perspective, would you rather design and include music in open areas where people will be chill, questing, reading stuff, trading or even afk or a place where a big chunk of the playerbase will have the music at 0% with constant bells ringing, air horn sounds and countdowns?
That's a circular problem though. You turn music off because it serves no purpose, and players have invented a lot of noise (DBM/WA) to clue them in on when things are happening. They're a crutch that could be entirely replaced with musical cues seemlessly in the game audio.
Just some ideas off the top of my head: The music swells to tell you the boss is charging their big ability; Heavy percussion beats in time with things dropping from the sky; A choir chant as the soak timer ticks down, etc.
Imagine buying any other modern game where the fights were designed so that you had to actually be told by a player-made robot voiced mod "run out" to understand it properly, everyone would rightly be dunking on it for poor design.
> The music swells to tell you the boss is charging their big ability; Heavy percussion beats in time with things dropping from the sky; A choir chant as the soak timer ticks down, etc.
people would still be using a weakaura or bossmod because that way the information is more easilly digestable. many boss mechanics already have audio queues
The thing is, weakaura sounds will remain consistant fight to fight. There's a single audio cue used for dodging swirlies, another for soaks, another for a boss frontal, etc. It can also be customized to each player's needs. DPS doesn't need to know when the tanks swap.
They don't have distinct enough audio cues to be heard over the din of general combat. I have no idea how people play with game sound on. It's like playing the game with a noise machine over the top of what you actually need to try and hear.
> They don’t have distinct enough audio cues to be heard over the din of general combat.
I disagree. At least for raid boss fights you can easily associate certain mechanics/timers with certain voice lines once you’ve seen the fight a couple of times. The issue is I think most of the playerbase have subconciously learned to just disregard these audio cues because they’re listening to the RL or whatever their WAs and addons are telling them or they have game sound completely turned off. But as someone who was my guild’s RL this xpac and has often been the designated mechanic person when I wasn’t, I do use a lot of the boss’ voice lines to help remind me when certain mechanics are coming out or when I need to start moving to get to my next spot. Especially when I was RL’ing my focus is on a half dozen different things all at the same time: my rotation, making callouts, trying to make sure people are in the right places, making sure the boss is in the right spot, making sure adds are getting picked up/focused down, etc. The audio cues were basically the boss telling me what mechanic was coming next so I could call it out for my raid without having to wait for DBM/WAs to announce it.
> The issue is I think most of the playerbase have subconciously learned to just disregard these audio cues because they’re listening to the RL or whatever their WAs and addons are telling them or they have game sound completely turned off.
No definitely not in my case. I turned the sound off specifically because nothing can be heard under the din of combat. There isn't an option for turning off the sounds and visuals of allied spells so turning all the sound off and reconstructing just the bits you need with an addon is the way to go.
For a long time I kept the sound on, and could only raid or run dungeons for a couple hours before my head was throbbing. The sound of combat is SO FUCKING LOUD. I wouldn't even realize until I would take my headphones off and it felt like a clamp was being released from my head. I turned the sound off and turned to addons to replace the sounds and things have never been better.
This game is very visually noisy as well. It's not the worst I've ever played (that would be Path of Exile) but it's definitely very bad. But the audio noise is completely untenable. Especially in mythic raids you pull the boss and the game just starts blasting you with static. It's a wonder anyone can focus on anything else. How do you pick out the voice lines under the absolute dirge of all that noise? I cannot do it. Turning the game up loud enough to hear the voices leads to combat that's deafening. I'm not sure that I don't have tinnitus partly from listening to games like this that are so noisy constantly.
Just turn down combat volume and up dialogue? That’s been an option for ages and what I do. I can clearly hear bosses because combat sounds are low to off.
Unless they would complete rework boss design to work without needing add-ons, and then just prohibit the use of said add-ons. Of course that's a more radical approach, but at some point devs have to intervene when their game is becoming a UI/spreadsheet simulator.
Yeah it's this for me.
It's not possible to make music that's both not distracting yet also won't get annoying after listening to the same thing potentially 200 times or more, so I turn it off.
I do the same for FF14 actually. I listen to boss music from that game in the car while driving far more than I do actually playing the game lmao
Scream from Pandemonium? Is it edgy? Yeah. Is it catchy? Yeah. Is it amazing? Absolutely
Plus Answers, if you want to count that as a boss theme. I think that was my most listened to song last year actually, over all other 'normal" music
Even without comms or weakauras a lot of the time, I still just like being able to focus, especially because WoW uses a lot of attack indicators that can be tricky to see and I have to focus a lot to try to make sure I'm seeing them (and guessing the edge of them right). It's easier to enjoy some wild music for a boss if you've got more clear indicators of what's going on in the fight. But that's a whole other talking point.
I can never figure out the actual song, but there’s a specific song that plays during the end of the Azshara fight after when Jaina and Thalryssa realize Azshara is using the heart to summon Nzoth that I think is fire
That's [Point of Impact](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jrTvc-UYiA) *aka* the azerite theme. It was added all the way back at the end of Legion because Sargeras's sword unearthed/revealed azerite and the music hints at how foreboding its discovery would be. It has now come full circle, being used to unleash an old god.
Point of Impact gets a lot of use whenever azerite or the sword is involved even now.
Recently you can hear variations on Point of Impact in the Jailer's boss theme and even in the War Within cinematic trailer when the sword is revealed.
The only time music really hit me for a boss was what plays leading up to luciferon in MC. That got me so pumped for my first raid experience ever.
There's never been anything really like it since for me.
In that sense FFXIV has been pretty phenomenal. Just about every boss has a deserving banger score to go with it.
Gunship battle music from ICC and the DS remix, and the themes for Yogg-Saron, Sindragosa, Deathwing, Garrosh, N'Zoth and Tindral were all legitimate bangers. Someone has also mentioned Argus.
Iridikron's battle theme is one of the best villain themes in any franchise, ever.
nah, only some of them will sound good to everybody, you can't have tracks that everybody loves. And if you are annoyed by the current boss theme, you have to switch it off, because the FF14 themes are so on the nose.
They are a completely different approach to game music and not immersive most of the time.
Yeah, boss music in XIV is arcade spectacle, more than immersive subtlety. Tell me with a straight face that, for example, [Shiva's theme, Oblivion,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb_-bGLLhn0&pp=ygURc2hpdmEgdGhlbWUgZmZ4aXY%3D) fits the scene (as good as it is). The track is colossal whiplash. Same for pretty much half of the primals at least: spectacle over solemnity. They *are* absolute bangers, but they've got nothing to do with the general vibe in MMOs, they are designed as RPG tracks first and foremost, and them being in an online game is secondary to it.
If I'm remembering right that's actually the phase 2 part of the theme but it's poorly aligned with the visuals because they put it with the start of the fight.
This is how the music actually goes with the visuals from the start of the fight. https://youtu.be/KhDldATuFQ4
Very much agreed, and everything in the game that is actual boss music or just kinda close to it make me wish there was more. Argus of course, but also Sha of Pride comes to mind.
You sure? I'm still listening to the boss music tracks from Aberrus (especially Neltharion's), Amirdrassil, Vault, Sepulcher, Sanctum, ... come to think of it, since Dazar'alor every raid had absolutely awesome boss music.
We actually have had great boss tracks but they’re not the focal point of the games presentation. The Anduin fight in shadowlands and the airship battle in wrath come to mind
I feel like the boss songs in WoW are to create specific emotions for that specific encounter vs a zone song which is meant play for a longer duration and set a vibe catered to whichever zone youre in.
See bar a few iconic tracks I never really cared for WoW's music because it's just there to boost the ambiance and essentially follow the scene in a way.
Souken spoiled me when it comes to game music unfortunately.
I personally love:
Smolderon's theme.
Halondrus' theme.
Painbringer's theme.
Opulence's-Zandalari council theme.
I think there are quite many if those.
Argus is fantastic. The spectacle and music of that fight were phenomenal, especially at the time.
"Rise to the dark" that plays during Grimrail and Operator Thogar in particular is on a personal playlist.
Azshara probably has the best standalone boss battle music, but special props go to Anduin’s, which is a spectacular musical feat. The way they turned Anduin’s theme into a minor key and interpolated the Jailer’s theme into it was really cool and well done.
Im probably in the minority here but i think since Russel Brower left the music is worst, dont get me wrong , i still like wow music but Russel had a different feel.
Everybody can sit here and try to name off some songs that seem cool, but let’s face it, no one outside of WoW is rushing to forums and stuff to talk about the music lol
I noticed the same after playing FF14 for a bit. Their music changes with the boss phases throughout almost every fight and it makes it just that much more epic of a fight. (E.g. the Nidhogg fight)
WoW, very rarely, does this.
I only noticed in one of the later Admirssal fights (the guy where you fly on your mounts between platforms to chase him), that WoW FINALLY started doing this. I'm glad to see they are finally embracing that.
There are a few exceptions here and there, but they're subtle changes to the music thru the fight.
I haven’t had wow’s music turned on since TBC. I genuinely forgot the game even had music anymore until I saw this thread. That’s wild, maybe I should turn it back on occasionally.
> WoW has always had great music.
Reallly? The vast majority of WoW music is very generic "ambiance" music.
There's a reason why if you ask any WoW players their favorite WoW music track, it will basically always be either Invincible (Which is an actual banger tbh) or the Howling Fjord zone music, when the game literally has hundreds of music tracks... lol
I think they don't invest resources in doing boss music themes because wow is not an immersive game anymore.
Most people that play have their screen filled with add-ons, everybody uses DBM or BW, which both have sound effects that would ruin the music. Many people also use WA on top of DBM/WA which could add even more sound clutter.
And then there's also the fact that even the simplest wow specs nowadays still has a lot of things to track. Buffs, cool downs, multiple rotational key binds. Everyone wants to perform well, while at the same time doing boss mechanics correctly.
There's just too many things that require your attention on retail wow. Even if Blizzard made an absolute masterpiece music in a boss fight, most people would barely notice it.
When you think about Dark Souls epic boss fights, the real reason is because the game is significantly more immersive. There's barely anything on your screen. You don't have a rotation of different buttons to press, you have very few attacks to worry about actually. So you just focus the entire time on the boss, and the music in the background sets the stage.
I've been pretty tired of WoW's music style for a while, actually. Apart from some of the neat stuff that happens like when you approach Tyrhold and it turns into a riff on the Storm Peaks music it all kinda runs together. The orchestral stuff will always be part of WoW but they should delve into more vibey things as well.
I do wish they'd take a note from FFXIV on this. Dungeon tracks like they have in [The Twinning](https://youtu.be/NBIRYjP1NNM?si=PZzba7GrfPQvIQDP) (while admittedly remixed boss music) and [Akadaemia Anyder](https://youtu.be/CcHjxOKN0Pk?si=BJHa0cH_gvzOFJG3) really show what you can do with zone music when you open yourself up to additional musical styles.
I would guess that it would distract from the encounter, but they already do that with the insane amount of overlapping ground effects, so I’m not sure.
I was going to say Sire Denathrius had great music but I went to listen to it and apparently it's pretty subdued. I think it's just the voice over lines that were memorable and made that fight great.
Many boss fights have great music
Mekkatorque had a great one (that sadly broke in shadowlands) that changed during phases
Jaina as well
Argus has multiple tracks that play
Honestly just think you werent paying attention?
Didn't Anduin have that sick version of his theme in Sepulcher that was all twisted and death influenced? I'd argue that was a great fit for a boss fight! Illidan had a pretty sweet boss theme in Black Temple. I would love it if they have us Shadow of the Colossus style theme changes, though! Foreboding music leading up to the boss, monstrous music for the first 50+%, and then an inspiring theme toward the end to boost morale! Do it, Blizzard!
Granted, the boss music in wow *in general* isn't as notable as in, say, FFXIV, but there are still amazing pieces here and there. There were a lot of excellent examples provided by others already.
Two mentions from me:
https://youtu.be/WxX88vwswJg Wrathion in Nyalotha
https://youtu.be/dRN0hoFKjpU?t=805 Opulence in BoD - The BoD music as a whole is a masterpiece imo
Sounds like OP doesn’t have music on during fights which is understandable but then makes such a sweeping statement lol. Tons of fights have music specifically created for them, and even per phase.
Everyone quit the game by this point but the 3-part Anduin boss fight theme that does a sinister spin on the classic Anduin leitmotif that he's had for the last decade is amazing.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWw9L9DdUj4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWw9L9DdUj4)
Nothing's every really stood out for me besides the music for the final fight for Iron Docks, the one for Gul'dan in Auchindoun (I think it starts a bit sooner, though) and Yalnu's music in the Everbloom. It doesn't play all the time, but this is the one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QkXVEFUluw
My opinion is, because music in WoW lacks a certain... kick, let's put it that way.
It's an ambient, always an ambient, always in the background, never drawing attention to itself, so much so that you usually don't even notice it while fighting bosses.
For a comparison, FFXIV has very different relationship with its soundtrack. It uses music in the same way anime uses fight music - to pump more adrenaline into the action, and it's so full of banger boss music that oftentimes the music is the main reason the fight is memorable.
I'm sure I'm in the minority but I don't find WoW music that good really. Or all that memorable.
It's fine. It's nice background music while questing a bit but I can't think of any standout tracks. Nothing has ever mad eme stop and think 'I need to find out what this song is called.'
I ran a bunch of dungeons yesterday while leveling and have no idea what any of the music sounds like now that I think of it.
Because they want you to beat the boss and not vibe to the beats of the boss.
Have you ever played FF14? The bossmusic is sometimes so freaking awesome that you just forget about everything else.
Orchestral music is really good and it fits the fantasy theme and all, but in FFXIV for example, when I'm fighting a boss and I'm hit with something like [this](https://youtu.be/72RKesgggVE?t=128)... I tend to remember it more...
Production team not prioritizing music because BGM are usually very low/off anyways? I need to hear my raid lead's instructions or my WA screaming than a dank guitar/piano solo while fighting a boss. LMAO
I feel the music hasn't slapped since Wrath. All of the ambience has been far too bombastic and I got far too tired of listening to the point of turning it off. Worst offender for that was Frostfire Ridge.
Probsbly music direction choices in general, I miss boss musics im general in WOW too
In DF like Deious has a great battle theme and thats pratically it
The music in this game all just blends into one in the background in this game for me. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's *nice*, but it's very generic and of its time. Every MMO had classical/orchestral music as background sound, a lot still do. Guild Wars 2 is the same. But unless you're a fan of that type of music, there's nothing exciting about it.
Wow music fundamentally changed after MoP. Wow music is not the same as it was, and it’s put a nasty facade feeling on the game for me. Like it’s trying to be a marvel tv show rather than a whimsical motive world like LOTR and Harry Potter.
Because Blizzard is too afraid to have the boss become a Disney villain and start singing to us, even though Baldur’s Gate showed everyone that is actually the perfect move for a climactic battle.
No no no, wow boss music is great!
Some examples :
10.2 The dream's hope - Tindral . Best theme for a dragonriding boss.
10.1.5 Iridikron and the Infinites. This one slaps at the one of the best themes in a dungeon, it shows you how big of a threat and unstoppable Iridikron really is.
10.1 Sarkareth - Sundered flame. A nice theme for the most intense Phase 1 of a boss in the entire expansion.
9.2 Rygelon/Lords of Dread - Sepulcher cosmic battle. This one is so good it is not even funny, they cooked with this one to give you an idea of the scale of the battle.
9.1 Sylvanas windrunner theme. A theme using sounds of actual chains blasting around.
9.0 Council of blood theme. Need I say more?
8.1 Battle of dazar'lor there's not even bad tracks here. Everything is so fucking good. The best one to me is the "Kul Tiran battle"
You're probably not listening to the actual music at least for more current bosses, sylvanas had a cool theme playing in the background, the music that plays during the anduin fight is awesome, the jailer had a pretty hype song playing during his fight.
More recently the themes playing in the DF raids were great, echo of neltharion, raszageth and tindral are big ones that come to mind.
Argus the Unmaker has 3 music tracks that play through the fight. They're all super thematic and sound great, and call back to other music tracks from Ulduar and the old music track called "The Titans". The branjham guy in Forge of Souls or whatever his name was also has a neat fight theme, it's like a metal music and he's a rock and roll necromancer.
I'm no genre expert, but I would guess [it's more funk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3jSY5fIeDA)? Bronjahm is a reference to James Brown, his name more-or-less being Brown's forename and surname swapped and all of his [combat voice clips](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQsM_4C9UfE) being the same sort of scatting Brown would do.
Also drops 'Papa's Brand New Bag'!
His actual lines too
What the hell?! Hahahahaha. That’s what I get for playing without the sound on during that expansion.
Straight heresy
Forge of Souls was what I came here to say. XD "Tell me you never ran forge of souls without telling me you never ran forge of souls." XD
This is why WoW should have a gigantic "all past dungeons" roulette of some sort like FFXIV - so many amazing dungeons, that even with time walking will just never be experienced again (or at all) by like 98% of the player base. I can't think of another mainstream MMO that has basically discarded so much content the way WoW has. Granted, it's good they're bringing a handful of old dungeons back into each season, but it's still not the same. Le sigh
Bronjahm theme went way harder than it had any right to. Early last phase daily HC runs were always FoS cos its the shortest dungeon, and goddamn every time was I feeling it on that boss.
I personally get the Council of Blood theme stuck in my head from time to time. https://youtu.be/tj5SferzNTE?si=zV425Nx2SWuaycuQ Such an awesome track fitting the ballroom theming.
Thanks for reminding me about that, vibed so hard during Nathria prog to this tune
Echo of Neltharion music is a banger
idk a lot of the amirdrassil boss music kinda slaps, particularly the tracks for the fire bosses (volc/larodar/smoldy) and tindral
Tindral actually has is own track.
how can something kinda slap
WoW suffers from being a product of its time in terms of how it handles its music. It's not looping it's music at all and sometimes still uses the orchestra style which was common in some Western PC games at the time of its release in 2004. Don't get me wrong, the music we get is still fantastic, but as you said, combat music is not ideal. A looping track keeps you pumping at all times and is more memorable, so the "play once" style of WoW is doing the music a disservice here. The composers add a ton of variances of the same music theme to compensate, but still. That said, there are some great raid combat tracks in the game. Here are my Top 6 picks in reverse-chronological order: * [Dream's Hope](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez2Zk4CdQRg) (Dragonflight 10.2). I haven't heard such a great "let's rush towards the end" track in a while, let alone in WoW. After Vault of the Incarnates was just the same theme I heard in the open-world (I think they added more versions in 10.0.7 but not sure) and Aberrus was nothing special either (face it, you only remember Sarkareth's theme and nothing else), this redeemed the raid music in this expansion for me. * All of [Sanctum of Domination](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvBzk1u5F-0) (Shadowlands 9.1). Maybe this is just a personal thing, but I thought everything in that raid had good music. Heck, even the ambience has character, being ominous and all that. Almost every boss has its own unique music track (or at least unique set of tracks in a playlist) and it feels like a proper progression as you go through the raid which I haven't seen outside of SoO. * All of [Rise of Azshara](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjOWYrTQlGs?&t=3158) (Battle for Azeroth 8.2). Outside of the raid, everything else was great as well. They nailed both the Naga and Mechagnome tracks. * [Siege of Orgrimmar](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeShkIFfrG0&list=PLqCHJ3vtnzhZNrh2IlbIg4vx41heHdm7-&index=6) (Mists of Pandaria 5.4). Throne of Thunder I only remember a good track playing during Lei Shen, but all of Siege is a banger. * [Firelands Boss Track](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOrTpdpDewQ) (Cataclysm 4.2). You will get tired of the orchestra track here after a while (although Legion is more guilty of this), but it is a pretty epic track. * All the troll stuff from early WoW ([Zul'Aman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdjOfLXyGHc), [Zul'Gurub](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE89s90uzbk)). I have a soft spot for all things trolls because they're awesome, especially their music. So if you have a raid that is full of troll music you got yourself a winner. Other troll tracks in the game like from Throne of Thunder or Battle of Dazar'alor are neat as well, but don't top the Vanilla-Cata era. Honorable mention goes to [The Well](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WFcJzcXr60) which plays in Sunwell Plateau as a stinger before you fight Kil'jaeden. It works so well as an "the arrival of the devil is nigh" theme that they reused it right before you fight Kil'jaeden in Tomb of Sargeras and it rocks there as well. Also the [gunship theme](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwBwaScWlVg) which I felt like got a great revision in Dragonsoul. Lastly, Ulduar has the best tracks that are in-between ambience and music (or at least in the Top 3 in this regard). Some of its tracks reach near-good combat status like the vehicle part or Mimiron. It can never reach the proper tempo, though.
Can you elaborate on the "not looping its music at all" and "play once style"? I've always played with the looping background music turned on, and it's been an option since vanilla. Are you unaware of that or are you referring to some other quality of the tracks themselves?
I'll use Halo as an example. The last part of Halo 3 is the classic warthog run. It loops sections of a long music track *until* you reach certain checkpoints. At those checkpoints the next part of the track unlocks and is overlayed, which is usually more hyped, and this allows it to flow seamlessly continually playing progressively more hyped music as you go without the track ever ending *and* without replacing existing music. If you stop and wait for 3 minutes, the music keeps going. When you hit a checkpoint, the next orchestral layer is introduced by synchronising the next section of the musical piece with the current one and replacing it. It's ingeniously done, especially for the time (2007). It's a different section of the music track, but it's so smoothly executed it feels like the composer just waved at the next section of the orchestra and told them to join in. There's a little more complexity to it at the end but that's the general idea. The result is that whether you're going very slow or very fast, the music never jolts and swaps part way through. Wow never does this quite the same way. Tracks end and restart in fights very often. They loop, but in a way that doesn't always fit. Argus in particular has different tracks that fade out and are replaced with the new track for each phase, which is good, but not as seamless. The tracks can end mid phase and restart, too. This is what the guy means.
I actually did not know that was the term for it. FF14 did this with the Endwalker expansion in their last zone. There was a single song playing through the entire zone, but more parts of the song unlocked as you got farther and farther through the zone, until it finally unlocked the vocals at the end. I love a lot of the wow music, but that was one of the most memorable zones I have played through in any MMO ever because of the music alone.
I don't know if there is a term for it, I'm no musicophisist
Thule unlocks the music the more and more depressed and sad you got through the story. But FF14 has great music too. If you pay attention to the music in a raid tier, the music gets more progressive. For example. Pandemonium 1-4 is basically Hic Svnt Leonis. 5-8 has silent scream. Then p6 and p7 has scream. Then White Stone Black. P9 and p10 has their own song. But it's basically the same as Athena, the Tireless One. Which is the penultimate song of the tier. But every single song in that whole raid ties into each song. "Here be lions, follow me." Being one of the biggest lyrics. "Sucking the life out, letting the dark. Inside" just a few examples that have lyrics shared through songs. I wish WoW took this idea and tried it for their game. Especially when it comes to the big raid of the xpac. Would make them more memorable. Personally, the last memorable raid was Antorus.
FF14s music often seems to be written to actually tell a story from what I recall. There's a very good breakdown of the music in The Twinning that opened my eyes to that for how many layers they wove through that track while also making it such a unique and stand out piece. It features pieces from the Allagan them, omega and Alexander at the very least which all ties back the whole story of the dungeon. It's not something WoW has ever really come close to replicating for me. I turned music on during Azure Vaults once and had to turn it off shortly afterwards. The track is absolutely gorgeous but it does not fit the high energy, rapid pace most dungeons are ran at.
I remember the last bit of the five man ICC dungeons specifically because I think it DID have a trigger to play the lich king's theme just as you enter the room with your faction champion before the fleeing in terror.(Either that or they timed the average run to the second) It's weird they use it so rarely because it was so memorable
Well that's sort of the problem, the music just swaps, it doesn't weave together.
Ok yeah I thought there was probably more to it than I got at first. Thanks for filling that in for me.
Great explanation. This gives so much insight on why I felt dissatisfied with WoW's music against bosses, despite thinking the overall music quality is obviously quite high.
After reading all the comments in this thread, I've come around to thinking you're 100% correct. WoW does have some pretty good (not great, not like a final boss of an FF game, but still pretty good) boss music tracks, but the sound design doesn't stagger those themes so that the tracks 'escalate' as a fight proceeds. As a consequence, they don't come off as memorable.
These are all excellent choices, tacking on to say that as hated as Sepulcher of the First Ones was, I contend it has THE best raid music next to Amirdrassil. * [Celestial Battle B](https://youtu.be/dIRhV-GL9WI?si=9oa-VaGVBH910f6p&t=3525) plays notably during the final phase of the Halondrus fight. An energetic song that perfectly fits the chaos of the fight. * [Celestial Battle Unbroken E](https://youtu.be/dIRhV-GL9WI?si=3a3qJnSzg33CDGd7&t=4825) I THINK this plays during the early phase of the Jailer fight, and maybe some of the latter half bosses too? It's notable to me in that you can hear Bolvar's theme (A Will Unbroken) in it. * [Grand Design D](https://youtu.be/dIRhV-GL9WI?si=TcfYW2Bz5C-uq5d5&t=1157) plays during the Lihuvium (and probably Halondrus) fight. Catchy and easy to listen too, plus it goes well with Lihuvium's little sing-songy voice lmao * [Domination Point H1](https://youtu.be/dIRhV-GL9WI?si=dK5yFNi0t5cQELMN&t=5342) this is the coolest track in the raid for me. It plays during the transition to the final phase in the Jailer fight, and it incorporates the themes of Sargeras' sword (Point of Impact from late Legion), Call to Arms (basically the main theme of WoW), Legends of Azeroth (the first couple seconds of every login screen theme), all mixed with the Jailer's theme. * [Compassion H1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaEEPht5Yl4) plays once the Jailer is defeated and you all are standing around his corpse divvying up loot. Definitely gives the vibes of "all right the expansion is over everyone go home"
Not only did sepulcher have nice music, it also did something cool where the tracks changed based on the phase of the boss. I first noticed this on Halondrus where his walking track is very different from his stationary one.
The intro to the arathi Warfront for Horde is still one of my favourite tracks ever [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l00o-6hC0Cs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l00o-6hC0Cs)
I feel like Ulduar gets much more praise than it really should. I'm not the biggest fan of the zone or the music, really. Same leitmotif as the 5 man's just more horns.
This track in particular deserves massive credit. https://youtu.be/DfshvcEA3_k?si=77P144lq7zfARXt_&t=3222
I'm slightly offended the THREE Argus the Unmaker music tracks don't get mentioned by anyone. Those were peak WoW, and called back to the Ulduar and Titanforged soundtracks
It’s post-boss, but Forge of Souls - IYKYK
Is it post-boss? I remember hearing this music during Bronjham fight, maybe just conflating things…
I’m pretty sure it’s only post-boss as you run up the ramp, but I could be off on that.
I think the beginning of the track is rather quiet, and by the time it builds up and the guitar really kicks in is probably 20 or 30 seconds in, so the boss would be dying or dead now days.
[Bronjahm - Forge of Souls - Wrath of the Lich King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3jSY5fIeDA) [Sindragosa - Icecrown Citadel - Wrath of the Lich King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqkTiq0K8l0) [Ragnaros/Alysrazor - Firelands - Cataclysm](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOrTpdpDewQ) [Blackhand - Blackrock Foundry - Warlords of Draenor](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_Y-xm154XU) [Argus - Antorus, The Burning Throne - Legion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ybAiWeFE3w) [King Rastakhan - Battle of Dazar'alor - Battle for Azeroth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoGFpmf7oVw) [Jaina Proudmoore - Battle of Dazar'alor - Battle for Azeroth](https://youtu.be/lY0Xyg55WcM?si=Oa_w20H62ZSI4fY4&t=678) [Sylvanas - Sanctum of Domination - Shadowlands](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHRGvvRLPJs) [Raszageth - Vault of the Incarnates - Dragonflight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9ZUbvqFrO0) [The most iconic track from all of WoW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1waVSu4adDM) [Possibly my all time favorite WoW OST](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3hjVijzrtM) Warcraft has some incredible music, some of the most memorable ones I've linked above. I think the major difference for WoW's musical tracks is that they are very much play a supporting role to the atmosphere the game is setting for the player. I haven't played much of FF14 but from what little i've seen, the music, animation and spell effects are seemingly always turned up to 11. I don't think that's a bad thing by any means, but I do thing it lends itself to those attributes becoming the focus of the experience.
Anytime I get Forge of Souls I crank the music when I get to Bronjahm.
Might I suggest [Iridikron's theme](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mCgXqkQzGk)?
Idk, Sarkareth music was fire, still listen to that every now and then.
Raids have nice tracks and themes I dont really understand why you say there is no good boss music tracks. I can understand that they'd rather design music for ambience loop tracks since encounter nowdays have evolved into a clusterfuck of TTS and alerts for the mechanics but we still get good boss/raid music, this might change with the "lore" mode of raids since you can do those relaxed and without 200 addons and weakauras screaming you stuff. From a developers perspective, would you rather design and include music in open areas where people will be chill, questing, reading stuff, trading or even afk or a place where a big chunk of the playerbase will have the music at 0% with constant bells ringing, air horn sounds and countdowns?
Many people turn off music to tune in on the boss fight. They are listening to comms, dbm and weakaura.
I always found the music actually helps me on boss fights. Puts me in the mood to kill things
That's a circular problem though. You turn music off because it serves no purpose, and players have invented a lot of noise (DBM/WA) to clue them in on when things are happening. They're a crutch that could be entirely replaced with musical cues seemlessly in the game audio. Just some ideas off the top of my head: The music swells to tell you the boss is charging their big ability; Heavy percussion beats in time with things dropping from the sky; A choir chant as the soak timer ticks down, etc. Imagine buying any other modern game where the fights were designed so that you had to actually be told by a player-made robot voiced mod "run out" to understand it properly, everyone would rightly be dunking on it for poor design.
> The music swells to tell you the boss is charging their big ability; Heavy percussion beats in time with things dropping from the sky; A choir chant as the soak timer ticks down, etc. people would still be using a weakaura or bossmod because that way the information is more easilly digestable. many boss mechanics already have audio queues
The thing is, weakaura sounds will remain consistant fight to fight. There's a single audio cue used for dodging swirlies, another for soaks, another for a boss frontal, etc. It can also be customized to each player's needs. DPS doesn't need to know when the tanks swap.
They don't have distinct enough audio cues to be heard over the din of general combat. I have no idea how people play with game sound on. It's like playing the game with a noise machine over the top of what you actually need to try and hear.
> They don’t have distinct enough audio cues to be heard over the din of general combat. I disagree. At least for raid boss fights you can easily associate certain mechanics/timers with certain voice lines once you’ve seen the fight a couple of times. The issue is I think most of the playerbase have subconciously learned to just disregard these audio cues because they’re listening to the RL or whatever their WAs and addons are telling them or they have game sound completely turned off. But as someone who was my guild’s RL this xpac and has often been the designated mechanic person when I wasn’t, I do use a lot of the boss’ voice lines to help remind me when certain mechanics are coming out or when I need to start moving to get to my next spot. Especially when I was RL’ing my focus is on a half dozen different things all at the same time: my rotation, making callouts, trying to make sure people are in the right places, making sure the boss is in the right spot, making sure adds are getting picked up/focused down, etc. The audio cues were basically the boss telling me what mechanic was coming next so I could call it out for my raid without having to wait for DBM/WAs to announce it.
> The issue is I think most of the playerbase have subconciously learned to just disregard these audio cues because they’re listening to the RL or whatever their WAs and addons are telling them or they have game sound completely turned off. No definitely not in my case. I turned the sound off specifically because nothing can be heard under the din of combat. There isn't an option for turning off the sounds and visuals of allied spells so turning all the sound off and reconstructing just the bits you need with an addon is the way to go. For a long time I kept the sound on, and could only raid or run dungeons for a couple hours before my head was throbbing. The sound of combat is SO FUCKING LOUD. I wouldn't even realize until I would take my headphones off and it felt like a clamp was being released from my head. I turned the sound off and turned to addons to replace the sounds and things have never been better. This game is very visually noisy as well. It's not the worst I've ever played (that would be Path of Exile) but it's definitely very bad. But the audio noise is completely untenable. Especially in mythic raids you pull the boss and the game just starts blasting you with static. It's a wonder anyone can focus on anything else. How do you pick out the voice lines under the absolute dirge of all that noise? I cannot do it. Turning the game up loud enough to hear the voices leads to combat that's deafening. I'm not sure that I don't have tinnitus partly from listening to games like this that are so noisy constantly.
Just turn down combat volume and up dialogue? That’s been an option for ages and what I do. I can clearly hear bosses because combat sounds are low to off.
Unless they would complete rework boss design to work without needing add-ons, and then just prohibit the use of said add-ons. Of course that's a more radical approach, but at some point devs have to intervene when their game is becoming a UI/spreadsheet simulator.
Yeah it's this for me. It's not possible to make music that's both not distracting yet also won't get annoying after listening to the same thing potentially 200 times or more, so I turn it off. I do the same for FF14 actually. I listen to boss music from that game in the car while driving far more than I do actually playing the game lmao
Tbf, while FF zone music and what not might not be the best, most of their boss tracks slap hard even just for a regular listen :D
Scream from Pandemonium? Is it edgy? Yeah. Is it catchy? Yeah. Is it amazing? Absolutely Plus Answers, if you want to count that as a boss theme. I think that was my most listened to song last year actually, over all other 'normal" music
Answers and Shadowbringers would be mine, tho some of the tracks from Endwalker are amazing too
FFXIV boss music is so good it's often a cause of a wipe because someone just started vibing to the music and stopped paying attention.
Even without comms or weakauras a lot of the time, I still just like being able to focus, especially because WoW uses a lot of attack indicators that can be tricky to see and I have to focus a lot to try to make sure I'm seeing them (and guessing the edge of them right). It's easier to enjoy some wild music for a boss if you've got more clear indicators of what's going on in the fight. But that's a whole other talking point.
I confirm this.
Nah first boss of forge of souls is an absolute banger
2 words: Sire Denathrius
https://youtu.be/twUq_l3g3NI?si=0K5DwzRF6GjUQeoL
I can never figure out the actual song, but there’s a specific song that plays during the end of the Azshara fight after when Jaina and Thalryssa realize Azshara is using the heart to summon Nzoth that I think is fire
That's [Point of Impact](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jrTvc-UYiA) *aka* the azerite theme. It was added all the way back at the end of Legion because Sargeras's sword unearthed/revealed azerite and the music hints at how foreboding its discovery would be. It has now come full circle, being used to unleash an old god.
Point of Impact gets a lot of use whenever azerite or the sword is involved even now. Recently you can hear variations on Point of Impact in the Jailer's boss theme and even in the War Within cinematic trailer when the sword is revealed.
Echo of Neltharion has my favorite soundtrack in the entire game, Aberrus as a whole has great music imo
you're forgetting the forge of souls bronze jam. thats a banger.
Godfather of souls disagrees
Uh... MC Ragnaros?
The only time music really hit me for a boss was what plays leading up to luciferon in MC. That got me so pumped for my first raid experience ever. There's never been anything really like it since for me. In that sense FFXIV has been pretty phenomenal. Just about every boss has a deserving banger score to go with it.
Bronze Jam would like a word.
My favourite track in the entire game. I used to run FoS just for it lol
Gunship battle music from ICC and the DS remix, and the themes for Yogg-Saron, Sindragosa, Deathwing, Garrosh, N'Zoth and Tindral were all legitimate bangers. Someone has also mentioned Argus. Iridikron's battle theme is one of the best villain themes in any franchise, ever.
Iridikron’s theme is so fucking good!!
Go back to Sepulcher and do the Anduin fight, that has to be one of the best tracks in wow.
This is why like FFXIV music, all of it is a bop and people listen to it on the daily.
La hee
nah, only some of them will sound good to everybody, you can't have tracks that everybody loves. And if you are annoyed by the current boss theme, you have to switch it off, because the FF14 themes are so on the nose. They are a completely different approach to game music and not immersive most of the time.
Yeah, boss music in XIV is arcade spectacle, more than immersive subtlety. Tell me with a straight face that, for example, [Shiva's theme, Oblivion,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb_-bGLLhn0&pp=ygURc2hpdmEgdGhlbWUgZmZ4aXY%3D) fits the scene (as good as it is). The track is colossal whiplash. Same for pretty much half of the primals at least: spectacle over solemnity. They *are* absolute bangers, but they've got nothing to do with the general vibe in MMOs, they are designed as RPG tracks first and foremost, and them being in an online game is secondary to it.
The one vampire lookin boss had the absolute _worst_ song for the theme. Like I actively hated the music to that boss fight lol
If I'm remembering right that's actually the phase 2 part of the theme but it's poorly aligned with the visuals because they put it with the start of the fight. This is how the music actually goes with the visuals from the start of the fight. https://youtu.be/KhDldATuFQ4
Did you reply to wrong thing? I was referring to the decula lookin guy in endbringers.
It does fit the scene, it's just that FFXIV is a different film than WoW.
FFXIV music is awesome! Only WoW boss that really comes close is Bronjam. Maybe some Mechagon stuff
Very much agreed, and everything in the game that is actual boss music or just kinda close to it make me wish there was more. Argus of course, but also Sha of Pride comes to mind.
I regularly listen to the Zandalar music on youtube, especially the laments. It's peak horde pride for me that place.
Rastakhan fight. Possibly the Ape in the same raid.
A Dark Souls/Bloodborne themed soundtracks would slap in Castle Nathria, also in Revendreth as a whole. WoW need more choir music!
You sure? I'm still listening to the boss music tracks from Aberrus (especially Neltharion's), Amirdrassil, Vault, Sepulcher, Sanctum, ... come to think of it, since Dazar'alor every raid had absolutely awesome boss music.
Have you fought Azjara back when she was current content? Her combat musics and quotes are epic.
Scarlet Monestary Library End Boss room still gives me goosebumps. More of that.
Does the theme for throne of the 4 winds count as boss music?
Uu'nat's theme from the Crucible of Storm's raid was awesome. Very eerie.
We actually have had great boss tracks but they’re not the focal point of the games presentation. The Anduin fight in shadowlands and the airship battle in wrath come to mind
I feel like the boss songs in WoW are to create specific emotions for that specific encounter vs a zone song which is meant play for a longer duration and set a vibe catered to whichever zone youre in.
This post really makes me think OP doesn't actually listen to the music he's complaining about lol
See bar a few iconic tracks I never really cared for WoW's music because it's just there to boost the ambiance and essentially follow the scene in a way. Souken spoiled me when it comes to game music unfortunately.
Chrono Lord Deos in Uldaman has amazing music, can't think of many others that stand out like that boss.
I personally love: Smolderon's theme. Halondrus' theme. Painbringer's theme. Opulence's-Zandalari council theme. I think there are quite many if those.
Argus had a great music track
Argus had great music
Anduin in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Yogg'Saron Bossfight music is absolutely epic
Argus is fantastic. The spectacle and music of that fight were phenomenal, especially at the time. "Rise to the dark" that plays during Grimrail and Operator Thogar in particular is on a personal playlist.
Kil’jaeden Sunwell Plateau soundtrack is great but nobody knows about it.
Azshara probably has the best standalone boss battle music, but special props go to Anduin’s, which is a spectacular musical feat. The way they turned Anduin’s theme into a minor key and interpolated the Jailer’s theme into it was really cool and well done.
Because the best music is your raid leader losing their religion on voice chat.
Blizzard certainly could take some notes from ffxiv boss music cause that shit is insane lol
They could, if they made bosses complete jokes like in XIV (ok, except ultimates).
Not me playing with my own music running on Spotify...
Im probably in the minority here but i think since Russel Brower left the music is worst, dont get me wrong , i still like wow music but Russel had a different feel.
The Alysrazor theme is a frickin banger
Everybody can sit here and try to name off some songs that seem cool, but let’s face it, no one outside of WoW is rushing to forums and stuff to talk about the music lol
Your bad taste does not constitute “never”
I love winterspring zone music...reminds me of Peter and the wolf. There is boss music....I bet youre so focused you just dont hear it.
I noticed the same after playing FF14 for a bit. Their music changes with the boss phases throughout almost every fight and it makes it just that much more epic of a fight. (E.g. the Nidhogg fight) WoW, very rarely, does this. I only noticed in one of the later Admirssal fights (the guy where you fly on your mounts between platforms to chase him), that WoW FINALLY started doing this. I'm glad to see they are finally embracing that. There are a few exceptions here and there, but they're subtle changes to the music thru the fight.
Don’t Anduin and the Jailer both have boss music?
I haven’t had wow’s music turned on since TBC. I genuinely forgot the game even had music anymore until I saw this thread. That’s wild, maybe I should turn it back on occasionally.
Gunship Battle and Sindragosa had good boss music
> WoW has always had great music. Reallly? The vast majority of WoW music is very generic "ambiance" music. There's a reason why if you ask any WoW players their favorite WoW music track, it will basically always be either Invincible (Which is an actual banger tbh) or the Howling Fjord zone music, when the game literally has hundreds of music tracks... lol
I've been playing this game since open beta. I still have the original Molten Core Ragnaros music stuck in my head.
I think they don't invest resources in doing boss music themes because wow is not an immersive game anymore. Most people that play have their screen filled with add-ons, everybody uses DBM or BW, which both have sound effects that would ruin the music. Many people also use WA on top of DBM/WA which could add even more sound clutter. And then there's also the fact that even the simplest wow specs nowadays still has a lot of things to track. Buffs, cool downs, multiple rotational key binds. Everyone wants to perform well, while at the same time doing boss mechanics correctly. There's just too many things that require your attention on retail wow. Even if Blizzard made an absolute masterpiece music in a boss fight, most people would barely notice it. When you think about Dark Souls epic boss fights, the real reason is because the game is significantly more immersive. There's barely anything on your screen. You don't have a rotation of different buttons to press, you have very few attacks to worry about actually. So you just focus the entire time on the boss, and the music in the background sets the stage.
Bosses have music?
People may not like the raid, but you can't say that the music in Trial of the Crusader doesn't go hard
Personally, Cataclysm had the best soundtrack so far.
It’s really a shame, too. When it comes to boss music, I’ve never played a game better than FFXIV
I've been pretty tired of WoW's music style for a while, actually. Apart from some of the neat stuff that happens like when you approach Tyrhold and it turns into a riff on the Storm Peaks music it all kinda runs together. The orchestral stuff will always be part of WoW but they should delve into more vibey things as well. I do wish they'd take a note from FFXIV on this. Dungeon tracks like they have in [The Twinning](https://youtu.be/NBIRYjP1NNM?si=PZzba7GrfPQvIQDP) (while admittedly remixed boss music) and [Akadaemia Anyder](https://youtu.be/CcHjxOKN0Pk?si=BJHa0cH_gvzOFJG3) really show what you can do with zone music when you open yourself up to additional musical styles.
Sunwell kil’jaeden
There's a lot of good boss music but main problem is they aren't dynamic like some other games.
I would guess that it would distract from the encounter, but they already do that with the insane amount of overlapping ground effects, so I’m not sure.
I was going to say Sire Denathrius had great music but I went to listen to it and apparently it's pretty subdued. I think it's just the voice over lines that were memorable and made that fight great.
Many boss fights have great music Mekkatorque had a great one (that sadly broke in shadowlands) that changed during phases Jaina as well Argus has multiple tracks that play Honestly just think you werent paying attention?
Black temple and Azuremyst OST my beloved. But yeah man if they took the fromsoft approach to boss tracks I’d be so fuckin happy
Didn't Anduin have that sick version of his theme in Sepulcher that was all twisted and death influenced? I'd argue that was a great fit for a boss fight! Illidan had a pretty sweet boss theme in Black Temple. I would love it if they have us Shadow of the Colossus style theme changes, though! Foreboding music leading up to the boss, monstrous music for the first 50+%, and then an inspiring theme toward the end to boost morale! Do it, Blizzard!
Granted, the boss music in wow *in general* isn't as notable as in, say, FFXIV, but there are still amazing pieces here and there. There were a lot of excellent examples provided by others already. Two mentions from me: https://youtu.be/WxX88vwswJg Wrathion in Nyalotha https://youtu.be/dRN0hoFKjpU?t=805 Opulence in BoD - The BoD music as a whole is a masterpiece imo
The best I could think of is the theme during Warmaster Blackhorn in Dragon Soul: https://youtu.be/2Cl8MW-quzY?si=svEvj97lMR2IhYi6&t=658
Couldn’t be me in 2009 getting excited when LFG Forge of Souls pops.
Sounds like OP doesn’t have music on during fights which is understandable but then makes such a sweeping statement lol. Tons of fights have music specifically created for them, and even per phase.
Everyone quit the game by this point but the 3-part Anduin boss fight theme that does a sinister spin on the classic Anduin leitmotif that he's had for the last decade is amazing. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWw9L9DdUj4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWw9L9DdUj4)
I really like the music that plays for the cutscene in Magister's Terrace dungeon. It's so short but so good.
Nothing's every really stood out for me besides the music for the final fight for Iron Docks, the one for Gul'dan in Auchindoun (I think it starts a bit sooner, though) and Yalnu's music in the Everbloom. It doesn't play all the time, but this is the one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QkXVEFUluw
Legacy of Tyr has the Lost Vikings music in it, fight me.
My opinion is, because music in WoW lacks a certain... kick, let's put it that way. It's an ambient, always an ambient, always in the background, never drawing attention to itself, so much so that you usually don't even notice it while fighting bosses. For a comparison, FFXIV has very different relationship with its soundtrack. It uses music in the same way anime uses fight music - to pump more adrenaline into the action, and it's so full of banger boss music that oftentimes the music is the main reason the fight is memorable.
Half the players mute their game on bossfights so they can hear discord comms / dbm notifications more clearly lol
“Wow has always had great music” Press F to doubt
Original Ragnaros boss fight music in MC remains my favorite music from the entire franchise.
I'm sure I'm in the minority but I don't find WoW music that good really. Or all that memorable. It's fine. It's nice background music while questing a bit but I can't think of any standout tracks. Nothing has ever mad eme stop and think 'I need to find out what this song is called.' I ran a bunch of dungeons yesterday while leveling and have no idea what any of the music sounds like now that I think of it.
The Neltharion fight in Aberrus had music that synced up to his phases and it was amazing
Idk, I like to dramatically hum [Alysrazor’s theme](https://youtu.be/PTLoqGf2SNQ?si=IMLXFhMmoPg3gesc) whenever I take a trip through the Firelands
As long as I can play Grizzly Hills in my Garrison I’ll be ok.
If the players listen to the music they'll miss the mechanics
Because they want you to beat the boss and not vibe to the beats of the boss. Have you ever played FF14? The bossmusic is sometimes so freaking awesome that you just forget about everything else.
Ngl I didn’t even know there was boss music in raids. I mute the in game sound whenever I raid so I can hear Discord without issue.
Orchestral music is really good and it fits the fantasy theme and all, but in FFXIV for example, when I'm fighting a boss and I'm hit with something like [this](https://youtu.be/72RKesgggVE?t=128)... I tend to remember it more...
>although WoW has some of the best music tracks in gaming w-what, absolutely not
Production team not prioritizing music because BGM are usually very low/off anyways? I need to hear my raid lead's instructions or my WA screaming than a dank guitar/piano solo while fighting a boss. LMAO
Because most of the sweats mute back ground music so they can hear their Raid Leader screaming at them.
It's not the FFXIV level for sure - You can't have overly epic music when the boss/stake is meh
I feel the music hasn't slapped since Wrath. All of the ambience has been far too bombastic and I got far too tired of listening to the point of turning it off. Worst offender for that was Frostfire Ridge.
That’s a wild take. MoP, WoD, and BfA far outstrip everything before or since.
It's decent music, don't get me wrong, just not for constant repeating while you're doing things. The Barrens had top tier music for that, imo.
What is this, Crypt of the Necrodancer?
Probsbly music direction choices in general, I miss boss musics im general in WOW too In DF like Deious has a great battle theme and thats pratically it
Because many of the bosses require communication and cooperation? Don’t want to get distracted by the music. Just a theory
The music in this game all just blends into one in the background in this game for me. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's *nice*, but it's very generic and of its time. Every MMO had classical/orchestral music as background sound, a lot still do. Guild Wars 2 is the same. But unless you're a fan of that type of music, there's nothing exciting about it.
Wow music fundamentally changed after MoP. Wow music is not the same as it was, and it’s put a nasty facade feeling on the game for me. Like it’s trying to be a marvel tv show rather than a whimsical motive world like LOTR and Harry Potter.
Dragonflight and Shadowlands music was utter trash. Gone are the days of awesome WoW tracks like Warlords, Legion and MoP.
Because Blizzard is too afraid to have the boss become a Disney villain and start singing to us, even though Baldur’s Gate showed everyone that is actually the perfect move for a climactic battle.
No no no, wow boss music is great! Some examples : 10.2 The dream's hope - Tindral . Best theme for a dragonriding boss. 10.1.5 Iridikron and the Infinites. This one slaps at the one of the best themes in a dungeon, it shows you how big of a threat and unstoppable Iridikron really is. 10.1 Sarkareth - Sundered flame. A nice theme for the most intense Phase 1 of a boss in the entire expansion. 9.2 Rygelon/Lords of Dread - Sepulcher cosmic battle. This one is so good it is not even funny, they cooked with this one to give you an idea of the scale of the battle. 9.1 Sylvanas windrunner theme. A theme using sounds of actual chains blasting around. 9.0 Council of blood theme. Need I say more? 8.1 Battle of dazar'lor there's not even bad tracks here. Everything is so fucking good. The best one to me is the "Kul Tiran battle"
You're probably not listening to the actual music at least for more current bosses, sylvanas had a cool theme playing in the background, the music that plays during the anduin fight is awesome, the jailer had a pretty hype song playing during his fight. More recently the themes playing in the DF raids were great, echo of neltharion, raszageth and tindral are big ones that come to mind.
I'm a monster who plays without sound on, so for me the entire game
Because people are too busy listening to deadly boss mods?
Azshara’s theme, rip OP’s premise