Nothing beats the Atheon Encounter.

After that, most of VoG. The only part of VoG I kind-of-don't-like is the Conflux defense, because it's essentially an auto-scroller. There's literally nothing you can do to speed up the fight, you're just waiting on enemy spawn timers.

Honourable mention goes to the Abyss in CE (minus the end bit, which also suffers from waiting-on-timers-itis)

Edit: Although, the conflux phase does provide an opportunity for a fresh team to familiarize themselves with the arena's geometry, without too much pressure. Still wish it could be sped up a bit.

I started typing my own list, then realized it was virtually identical to yours.

Go team! :D

Here are my favorites:

Vault of Glass:
1- Exploring the incredible size of the area. I did not expect it to be nearly as large as it was, and I'm still impressed when I think about it today. That being said, none of the fights really blew my hair back; they were all pretty standard raid faire as I expected from my WoW days.

Crota:
1- The abyss with a full group running it all at once (instead of cheesing it with invisibility) was sooooooo fun. Incredibly awesome experience.

Kings Fall:
1- Opening up the Warpriest's door. That's an incredibly well done bit of mayhem. Lots of fun. I still enjoy trying to snipe the knights up top before my teammate can.
2- You know, the opening sequence where you open up the portal is a lot of fun too.
3- The Tombship jumping puzzle, all except for that one really hard jump.
4- I guess I should put a boss in this list. Out of all the bosses I think I like the Warpriest the best.

I agree with your list here! Though I should add: There are no hard jumps on the jumping puzzle. I know exactly where you think there's a hard jump. Don't jump at all there. Just move to the back left of the ship you're on and let that other one fly right by (it's going from left to right, yeah?). Jump on the *next* ship (which moves from right to left).

I think it's surprising I don't really love any of the boss encounters from Kings fall.

Except warpriest? I think the golgoroth fight has neat mechanics, but the oryx fight is awful imo. I don't like any FPS encounter where there's no room for a single player to be a hero and save the day if someone else makes a single mistake.

VoG: Everything but the Gorgon maze. Also if I'm in a group where people want to stay up top during Oracles/Confluxes. That is very not fun.

Crota's End: Shotgunning the Swordbearer during the bridge encounter, for lulz. Everything else is almost too easy to be enjoyable.

King's Fall: The jumping puzzles. I also very much enjoy the chaos that Sisters can be with a subpar group.

In no particular order:

- The entire Templar's Well section. Especially when done without hiding or intentionally wiping or sniping Oracles from some distant ledge. It's fun and chaotic and requires a group to each individually do well and watch each others backs. Plus, its more or less just pure Destiny combat. No invincible enemies or over leveled beat downs. Either your group is good at Destiny or they die. I like it when things are simple like that.

- The Lantern and Bridge sections of Crota's End. Yes, both of these have mechanics that significantly change normal Destiny gameplay, but again, when done without cheese, these can be a bunch of chaotic heroics inducing fun. Having to double back through the Darkness to rescue a fallen comrade during the lanterns or having to improvise and take up a hive sword and hope you can kill the far swordbearer quickly enough is a lot of fun. Had some great last second saves and defeats in both of those sections. Plus, the bridge section kinda made up for all the death vs Atheon where a group of three relic-o-phobic players would get transported and proceed to not accomplish anything. Having everyone run the sword and having the sword not be too exotic made it a fun teamwork encounter.

- The War Priest. As opposed to the Relay of Doom before it and the Sisters and Oryx after it, the War Priest Challenge is a bit more free form and survival related. Plus it has some neat teamwork moments with everyone not shooting the ads and hiding during the correct moments. Golgy is a bit similar I suppose, but I always feel like I'm contributing more to the War Priest fight than I ever manage to do to Golgy...

My least favorite is probably the Relay of Doom. Its combat isn't particular challenging. Its execution isn't particularly challenging. And yet... one single death, even on normal mode, almost always spells a wipe. There's no chance to recover. No chance for thrilling heroics. You either do it right or you do it again. (Almost) no exceptions.

This is a cheat and a suck-up but every bit of the raids have been fun with the right people. (youse guys, mostly)

I wouldn't call them my favorite but these are the parts that still get my blood pumping because I haven't mastered them and may never:

• The jumping puzzles.
  
• Wielding the sword against Crota.
  
• Going through the gate when you first get inside Atheon's room.
  
• Grabbing the aura at any time.
  
• Grabbing the relic at any time.

Can you see a pattern? I don't like being the point person, but maybe I should work on that. The one exception is that I like taking the gaze from Golgoroth. Already discussed.

Now that I think about it more:

I do love the bridge puzzle. It's perfect, and would definitely be my favorite if we weren't fighting the damn hive. Sick of those mofos.

Also, I love the "white spaces" of the raids. VoG did the best job of this. Crota the worst.

And the maze was kind of an anti-encounter. I loved it, too, and how it made us move as a group and watch out for each other. The Abyss put a nice spin on it, but wasn't as unnerving.

Kerm

VoG:

I really like the part before Atheon where you have to go through the portals to bring back the relics. Communication and teamwork are the keys to success, or at least they were when we were all new and weaker than the max level. This goes double for when you get to Atheon and three get warped and three stay behind. I thoroughly enjoyed those portal parts.

CROTAAAAA:

I really like the bridge encounter, but I'm a bit torn on if I like the lanterns more. Those lanterns at the start are just plain and simple fun. THE DARKNESS is weighing you down, there are treasure chests to be found, enemies are all over, holes abound, and sometimes only one person makes it through. It's just good times.

Oryx:

War Priest is fun, but I enjoy Golgoroth the most. Aside from being a massive bullet sponge, the mechanics of the encounter (especially with Hard Mode/Challenge Mode) are just a lot of fun to me. I still enjoy doing Golgoroth, whereas the War Priest is just something that I want to rush through and get over with (mostly bored). Granted, both are definitely way better than the completely easy and worthless Sister encounter.

Not to be too cheeky, but:

- The initial entrance past the threshold and through Trials of Kabr
- The opening the the door to the Vault proper
- The Abyss run, and more importantly passing through the light
- The Pendulum Room and Tomb Ship Rooms
- The Wall of Plungers, including the final ascent and first entrance to Daughters.

My favorite actual combat encounter is The Bridge in CE, when done proper. It is mechanically demanding, but is also a nice balance between teamwork (Totems) and heroics (Sword) and ensures everyone is involved. I think it is the most balanced raid encounter so far.

The other big thing which is more removed from encounters themselves is how the overall structure of CE and KF both reflect the Hive "keep what you kill" mentality, and that you are calling a challenge to the owner of the Realm. The increasing challenge to reach the boss, and the parallels between Deathsinger and Daughters is awesome, especially given that they are the last step before the Raid boss. The similar mirroring with VoG makes the lore inside me warm and fuzzy, when you realize that the Gatekeepers fulfill the same purpose for Aetheon, after this challenge to their dominion over the Vault.

And even though they aren't my favorite thing in the raid, Aetheon is my favorite VoG encounter, especially if everyone is comfortable with the Relic. It leaves you with a great sense of accomplishment, and as many people like to point out, can involve nice saves from people who are in the present.

For KF, Oryx is actually my favorite encounter. It is a defined challenge, with specific rules. Challenge mode is actually my overall preference, even. I think it is that of all the fights, it reminds me of old game bosses, with telegraphed attacks from a giant enemy and highlighted weakspots to attack. It may be mechanically less forgiving than the Y1 raids, but it just tugs at something that I really enjoy in boss encounters.