For me, the Tolkien universe in general is my favorite.  Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series comes in second, with Stephen R. Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle rounding out my top three. 

My two favorites are listed already.

I've yet to actually read the Tolkien books, too boring.  The melodramatic movies that took forever didn't aid my views either.

I've only read the first three, but the Runelords series by David Farland were off to an excellent start.  Memory Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams is also first rate.  The Belgariad and Malloreon series by David Eddings are badass too, lots of good ones out there.

I'd have to go with WOT for top though.  There are very few minds that can keep track of so many characters and put that many twists into a plot without getting lost.

Dragonlance does count as epic as far as I know. The whole series spans many books and there is a lot of offshoots to dig throught hat are directly connected to the main story.

Has anyone read the Shannara series? I've only read one and it didn't make much sense to me. The Wheel of Time looks fun enough.

Does the Star Wars expanded universe count?

George R R Martin's Dragonbone chair series.

Of course, hardly anything comes close to the Leabhar Gabala (the Book of Conquests) and the Tain Bo Cualngé, the Eddas or the Mahabharata...

Elric of Melnibone is pretty cool, but All of Moorcock series are the same.  So if you read Elric don't bother with Corum, or any of the other 5 or 6.  His standalone stuff was good though.

I would have to say Tolkien is my favorite.

Aren`t these two different things? The Dragenbone chair series is from Tad Williams (His Shadowmarch series is good, too!) And George R.R.Martin is famous for his Song of Ice and Fire (Which is really awesome!!! My favourite!). HBO has the rights for Song of Ice and Fire  and is working on a pilot movie!!! Juhuuu!

Ursula Le Guinn's Earthsea Quintet.

 Though I guess my favourite would have to be Discworld

I'd second Earthsea and Discworld.

Wheel of Time I'm not so keen on: it has some interesting ideas, but repeated and padded out too much. Make too many characters, give each of them one personality trait, one annoying quirk or habit, and one special power. Run through all possible combination in which they might interact to fill 13 books of sodding Naieve tugging her stupid braid. Not epic, relentlessly mundane.

Discworld isn't really epic fantasy, is it?  Even though it's awesome.

Raymond E Feist, The Riftwars Saga. The strongest competitor for top position along with the Tolkien middle earth books.

Now there's no point in continuing this thread. (I'm joking ofcourse, but the fact of the Riftwars Saga remains )

The Legend of Zelda video game series.

Star Wars is Science Fiction.

Gotta say the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan is epic.

Do you have any idea if there is a published version of the Leabhar Gabala?

I haven't read a ton of epic fantasy series, but WOT definately is my favorite.  Definately looking forward to the completion of the series next year!