Shamans commune with their ancient ancestors and command the primal elements.
For a shaman, there is no dark alley. Locks mean nothing. You can’t bodyguard a barrage of heat, flash freezing, razor-like rain, etc.
Warlock and Druid deserve to be high on the list of scary. Death Knights deserve to be a lot lower than people think. A walking corpse in heavy armor that has a preference for causing slow, preventable death. I wouldn’t be happy to see one, but it won’t haunt me.
Shaman are slaves to the elements, one false word and the Shaman is a bread vendor in Stormwind.
Oh please basic campfire can I toss a fireball or two?
You ever heard of Anthrax? Death Knights. The men atop their dark flying horses with metal wings piercing the sky at supersonic speeds dropping anthrax are the real Death Knights.
That’s only if you can find and catch the Druid in the first place. Remember, Druids can turn invisible just as Rogues can, not to mention the other forms.
The Zombie Apocalypse, while threatening and deserves an honorable mention, is limited by how zombies function. They’re still using human flesh, and if I know anything it’s that we kinda suck when it comes to defenses and offenses as a human being. It’s why we evolved to use tools. Take those away and we’re not as tough as you would hope.
That’s where Demons make a difference. Fel-infused otherworldly beings of both winged and non-winged variety being summoned by a singular guy will do more than zombies, by a lot.
Plus, Zombies are scary, but Instant Bears will always be scarier.
The only real scary shamans were the ones sitting atop a pyramid in south america forcing men to kill each other, eat their hearts, and sacrifice their daughters for some rain. Thankfully we’ve grown past that and now they dance around a campfire wearing face paint
You make this mention about tools, but remember that most wars have been won because of overwhelming numbers. The Soviets didn’t have German technology, but they could just throw bodies and bodies at them until they closed the distance. That’s more apocalyptic than anything in this world.