I know you said villains but… I’m just gonna list my favorite bosses because I feel like my favorite villains [Old Gods and Azshara] were shafted and not given the justice I think they deserved… SO…
Nexus-Prince Shaffar
His voice makes my bloodflow increase to certain areas of my body. He has such… fascinating things to show me…
Magister’s Terrace KaelThas
His death-monologue is just so damn great. MY DEMISE ACCOMPLISHES NOTHING. THE MASTER WILL HAVE YOU. YOU WILL DROWN IN YOUR OWN BLOOD! THE WORLD WILL BURN! REEEEEEEEEEEE!
Deathwing
I really enjoyed crawling on his back. I like his lava tentacles. I like fighting him while hes literally inside the Maelstrom. Then, he exploded. It was pretty glorious.
Talon King Ikiss – “pretty trinkets!” I loved the Arakkoa and sympathized with them even in BC. Their heroes and villains are all compelling.
Hakkar the Soulflayer – a well designed boss with great raid themes. He was one of the first end bosses I got to see and just feels memorable to this day. Don’t know much about his motivations or plans, but I kind of want him to succeed anyways.
Karazhan had a lot of great villains/bosses, it’s hard to choose just one. Nightbane was both sympathetic and sinister, Shade of Aran you felt bad for until he blew up your raid, Medivh and his darn cheating…
I really enjoyed C’thun, Yogg’saron, and the old gods back in pre-Cata days; they were probably my favorite villains at one point. Now they just feel overexposed and non-threatening, a huge disappointment for me.
I thought he was the best villain. Great build up, I didn’t like that guy at all. Not sure if the movie had any influence or not but he was a great bad guy to not like.
1.) Deathwing - he was the main boss of my first expansion. And I loved how he was a threat at all times, just showing up and burning everything to the ground.
2.) Cho’Gal - i always found every plot involving him entertaining, especially when they argued with each other.
3.) Thunder King - i just love mogu, and he was the legendary super mogu.
The rest
And way at the absolute bottom is Illidan, the literal worst character in the game
Nefarian. I enjoy any villain that has a dry, witty sense of humor and Nefarian is the snarkiest WoW character I’ve ever seen.
Arthas. the quintessential WoW villain, the one that had the most build up, the one whose story we played through. Arthas was one of the best villains ever made.
Deathwing. A giant, armor plated dragon with lava for blood. What’s not to love?
illidan - not only a char i love and a complex story, but the best boss fight blizz has ever done imo.
gul’dan- so sinister, so damn evil, and so AWESOME. hard to put it any other way hes the palpatine of wow, and his mythic version of his nighthold fight was the second best fight they’ve ever done imo.
the lich king- a well developed and awesome villain that mocks you non stop, enough said. however, i found his fight a big letdown, cause although the rp was good and the setting felt right, something felt off about this fight lacking all the npcs that wanted him dead. slyvanas just waited downstairs? jaina too? and saurfang? and muradin? hmmm seems the only one that cared enough to show up was tirion and he spent the whole fight in a block of ice (okay that part was funny i’ll admit).
#3 - Garrosh Hellscream - Warchief of the Horde
In a world where so many villains are magically magic’ed into being magically evil, it’s refreshing to have just… a bad guy. A genuine, all natural, no corruption, black hearted monster highlighting how sometimes it’s not demons or dragons or eldritch squiggly things, but people who are the worst possible things we can hope to fight.
#2 - Gul’dan - Lord of the Shadow Council
The absolute apex Warlock, the ultimate mortal felcaster, and the only truly good thing to come out of Warlords of Draenor (minus maybe Khadgar), this may not have been the “real” Gul’dan, but it was close enough for my money. Impressively powerful, marvelously evil, and a genuinely vile antagonist all around, Gul’Dan almost made WoD worth it.
… Okay, not really, but he’s still awesome.
#1 - Arthas Menethil - the Lich King
I mean, obviously. Any other choice is a markedly lesser evil. The ultimate weapon of the Burning Legion - created to do what they could not, one so powerful and canny even they failed to control it. How do you measure up against something like that?
Gul’dan was cool and all, but he died via Illidan of all wretched characters. One who would have been better off staying dead after Arthas gutted him in the RTS.
Arthas as the Lich King is easily the top archvillain we have faced. My only fear is they’ll bring him back due to the Shadowlands, when it would be really nice to have a character who belongs in hell, stay there for once in all high fantasy fiction, damn it all.
