Boss Boss is a quite general phrase used for several special types of mob s . The following boss types exist : Characteristics . A common characteristic for all bosses is that they have a unique name and appear only once in the game . Bosses are harder to kill than the " normal " elite mob of the same level , and almost all bosses are immune to Crowd Control , though some may be susceptible in accordance with their intended mechanics ( such as Roar in Karazhan for example ) . Bosses usually have their own special loot tables . Nearly all BoP rare and epic items in the game stem from boss kills . Bosses are usually divided into three classes of difficulty : The normal bosses are the most common variety . Every instance features several bosses ( usually 3 - 5 for a 5 man instance ) . Normal bosses typically have special abilities that require a unique set of tactics to overcome . Mini - Boss es are usually found only in instances . Good examples are Gatewatcher Gyro - Kill and Gatewatcher Iron - Hand in the Mechanar - they both hit hard and need a concentrated effort of the party , but are still not as dangerous as a real boss . Minibosses , while tougher than normal elites , don ' t have the complex special abilities that regular bosses do . Minibosses usually have smaller loot tables than other bosses . Skull bosses . Skull type bosses are the hardest mobs to kill in WoW . Their level is not displayed as a number , but as a death ' s head sign . When hovering your mouse over such a mob , the tooltip will read " Level ? ? ( Boss ) " . These bosses have a " dynamic " level - when a numeric level is required for some calculation , they are considered to be 3 levels above the player character involved in that calculation . That is , if both a level 60 warrior and a level 65 druid both tank the same skull type boss , the boss will make crushing blows on the warrior as if it was 63 , and on the druid as if it was 68 . Similarly , the boss will resist their respective powers as a 63 - and 68 - level creature would . The first skull type boss that a player may fight with in PvE used to be Pyroguard Emberseer in Upper Blackrock Spire , but as of Patch 3 . 3 . 0 this mob is now an ordinary level 60 Elite ; The Beast in the same dungeon is still a skull boss , however . There are also some skull type bosses that a usual player can not fight with , e . g . Nessy in the Deeprun Tram . There is some evidence that with the Patch 3 . 0 . 2 changes certain skull - type bosses , such as King Varian Wrynn and the Grandmaster ' s Training Dummy are in many ways considered level 83 mobs . Level 70 players have observed that they do far less damage and hit very infrequently compared to what would be expected for their gear , and Crushing Blows ( which can now only be inflicted by a monster 4 or more levels higher than you ) have been reported . Similarly , there are reports that old world skull - type bosses behave like level 63 mobs even when attacked by a level 80 player . The very high incidence of spell misses from these bosses , when casting spells against the player , is consistent with a mob that is considerably lower level than the player is . In the battlegrounds , skull boss type mobs can also be found . Alterac Valley , for example , features Vanndar Stormpike and Drek ' thar as skull - type end bosses . Boss Fight . The culmination of PvE are the raid level boss fights . Bosses in 5 man instances can be very tough and challenging , and may cause many wipes , but the raid bosses are designed to be a real challenge . They may take several evenings to learn , some may appear to be impossible to kill at first . Coordination and discipline of the whole raid are required , frequently one error by the least of the raid members may immediately cause a wipe . Many boss fights consist of different phases , where raid members have to pay attention to different aspects of the fight . There are three archetypes of boss fights : Raids must develop an understanding of these three types , and players must be aware not to confuse one with the other . Particularly the difference between a battle for survival and a DPS race is sometimes small . Still it ' s an important difference whether the damage dealers should put their priority on killing the boss , or on their own survival . Of course , whenever this question comes up , the answer is always " survival first " , because dead = 0 DPS , but that insight seems sometimes hard to learn . External links . f