Lifedrain
Veteran
With WOTLK Classic coming to an end, its time to say farewell to what turned out to be one of the best metas for premading.
225+ guild v guild 19 Premades in Wrath, almost all of which were shout-casted and ranked with its own Elo system.
Uniquely the only expansion I can think of where all 3 top guilds played from start to finish and each held the top spot at one point.
Unlike TBC where health was too high & damage too low for any meaningful mid game, Wrath had heavy emphasis on the opener of the game, a variety of transitions, and plenty of natural splits. High dmg, high mobility and low health made things less forgiving in this meta, and lead to constantly tense games.
As such my list is almost entirely through the lens of 10v10 guild v guild premades.
Best of List:
Multi-Classer: Nature (Resto Druid/Warlock/Priest)
A true multi-classer and the only one to play 3 different classes in multiple premade series. As good as he was on Lock and Priest, Nature was distinctly the best Resto Druid in GSC's double druid comp due to his synergy with Lucas & Buns, and how well he shifted gears from peeling, healing, and Secondary FC'ing as needed.
HM - Juan (Lock/Mage), Mass (Mage/Sham), Whyrl (Lock/Sham)
Druid - Darkchewie & Buns
Buns - On any class, HB's leadership & concise comms elevate his entire team, but on an FC druid, it made him irreplaceable.
Buns often slipped out of certain death situations by leading nearby players to help him survive while simultaneously assuring his offense they can stay fully focused on killing EFC.
Chewie - Confident, vocal, and the most polished FC by the end of the expansion. Great instinctive decision-making which made a HUGE difference in the absence of hunters leading FC's this meta. Once Chewie started overriding calls, leading his support, and controlling the pace of the game, he rarely died- even in the high pressure situations.
Edge - Chewie
HM - Yogi (Made every do or die pressure jump in premades with ease, when all other team's FC's failed in similar situations and got capped on)
Shaman - Vet & Zovv
Vet - Easily the most consistent Shaman in Wrath and the one with the best comms. Great at calling out opportunities, creating looks by pressuring EFC, and an solid asset on defense all in one. Kept numerous plays alive with reliably clutch Vet repicks, while equally clutch returns secured caps for his team.
Zovv - Despite being forced to play druid in the second half of wrath, I can't see Zovv as anything but a Shaman. The most polished shaman by far, as well as the most aggressive. Uniquely a great tactician, and deserves credit for Goat Mountain's success at countering GSC's opener, and briefly making it to the top in the middle of the expansion.
I had a lot of fun with Zovv, but my brain is going with Vet.
Edge - Vet
HM- Bacteria, Water (PPgodx), Partygirl
Rogue - Saxx & Nukkz
Saxx - Just an absolute beast, and the main reason the Rogue class even got a spot in premades this meta. While other teams struggled to use rogue effectively, Saxx would set up sandwich kills on EFC with his hunters & shamans, pick flag when an enemy team played heavy defense in the opener, or simply stay in stealth for extended periods to punish teams that lose track of him with a panic inducing ambush on low HP EFC, or get a classic Saxx flag pass ninja.
Nukkz -The most skilled 19 Rogue I've seen since I came back to twinks in 2019. Clutch, Ego-free, and always ready to make a play. Just an all around ideal teammate in premades. Putting him in the conversation with Saxx might be unthinkable to some, but without question, he is THAT good. Premade after premade, he just kept making big game changing plays.
Edge - Nukkz
HM -Karma
Priest - Powerlol
Many priests have clutch heals and great dispells, but no other priest played around CC classes as well as Powerlol. Always paying attention and
avoiding getting CC'd by putting himself behind a friendly hunt/mage/lock when LOS wasn't available, which put whoever was trying to CC him out of position for even trying. Really forced me to get creative, because there is nothing I hate more than an enemy priest running around freely.
HM- Floot, Sonny, Augi, Kozi, Tiptoe
Warlock - Reff/Redfins (Grizzle)
Clever, Unpredictable, and always up to something. A lot of FC's died prematurely when they lost track of Redfins and ended up on the receiving end of one of his big gambles.
Possibly the most fun person to play with as well- always vibing in comms, and encouraging high risk aggression.
HM - Flummy (Yowza)
Hunter - Mizurugi (Anatomyz/Kashiwazaki)
Objectively the most impactful Hunter in terms of leadership and individual gameplay. Through comms, Kashi made the team more cohesive, freed up team mates to do what they are best at, and vastly improved the mid game to the point where transition kills happened even against teams with good transition defense. Individually he was as great at torturing enemies as he was on mage in 2019, now with the damage and mobility of Wrath Hunter. Intentionally killing, holding hostage, or just knocking a key enemy out of position, frequently made getting returns possible.
HM- Ezeron, Dan, Stabilt, Grubz (Great comms, massive leap from previous expansion)
Warrior - N/A
Paladin - N/A
Mage - Lifedrain/LDmage. Duh.
The most obnoxious Polys, the most dismissive Novas.
SO many repicks denied, caps secured, and offenses throttled off the back of useful comms & being at the right place at the right time.
No one was more annoying, and no mage contributed more to winning a gulch. So who could even compare?
Well...
There is ONE person...
Lucas
My respect for this guy outweighs even the love I have for myself. Easily one of best players at 19.
In early Wrath, Lucas was the primary reason why Buns always slipped out of so many dangerous situations alive, enabling his team to stay aggro
and seize massive momentum swings (often resulting in reversal caps). It wasn't the same for GSC in his absence, and upon his return I always made it a point for my team to make it difficult for him to go under the radar and derail our offense.
Edge- Lucas
Best guild - TBD
What a redemption story. The only team to stay Horde (disadvantaged faction) the entire expansion, and to firmly come out on top after surviving growing pains
that should have killed the guild multiple times over. Special shoutout to Bacteria, Nukkz, Whyrl, Stabilt, and Sonny for joining the team last summer when we needed it most,
as well as Kashi & Ezeron for joining in the final stretch to cement the teams spot at the top with a meaningful 3 series wins vs Goat Mountain, and 3 series ties & 5 Series wins vs GSC.
HM - Gurubashi Surf Club (GSC). The most dominant guild for the majority of the expansion. Their signature double druid comp gave them a lot of advantages- easier flag pick, freed the team to be constantly aggressive, and chain capping quickly anytime they did cap.
Biggest disappointment - Spacebar
For the second straight expansion Spacebar had a team geared and ready to premade at the start of the Wrath, but didn't end up playing.
This time at least a game was scheduled vs GSC with the requested healer limit agreed to, before getting cancelled.
Oh well. At least it was fun playing with Mass & Drew.
===============Bonus================
Best guild name - HQC (the guild, not the player), <Honestly Quit Crying>
Best Casting Duo - Pizza & HB
Most Miserable to play against - GSC Double Mage Double Druid AKA the GSC Gluetrap
Best Hate-Hate Rivalry - Zovv & Chewie, possibly Zovv & Wondy
Most satisfying sheep to drop a campfire on - Powerlol
Most active guild - Golden Twinkies.
I'm not sure why a social guild even exists in the historically most vile subset of WoW, but GT has been alive and constantly 10 stacking the entire expansion.
HM - Warlords of Warsong. Sike. Daboo still owes Roguenine a Shadowfang.
====================================
GL in Cata.
225+ guild v guild 19 Premades in Wrath, almost all of which were shout-casted and ranked with its own Elo system.
Uniquely the only expansion I can think of where all 3 top guilds played from start to finish and each held the top spot at one point.
Unlike TBC where health was too high & damage too low for any meaningful mid game, Wrath had heavy emphasis on the opener of the game, a variety of transitions, and plenty of natural splits. High dmg, high mobility and low health made things less forgiving in this meta, and lead to constantly tense games.
As such my list is almost entirely through the lens of 10v10 guild v guild premades.
Best of List:
Multi-Classer: Nature (Resto Druid/Warlock/Priest)
A true multi-classer and the only one to play 3 different classes in multiple premade series. As good as he was on Lock and Priest, Nature was distinctly the best Resto Druid in GSC's double druid comp due to his synergy with Lucas & Buns, and how well he shifted gears from peeling, healing, and Secondary FC'ing as needed.
HM - Juan (Lock/Mage), Mass (Mage/Sham), Whyrl (Lock/Sham)
Druid - Darkchewie & Buns
Buns - On any class, HB's leadership & concise comms elevate his entire team, but on an FC druid, it made him irreplaceable.
Buns often slipped out of certain death situations by leading nearby players to help him survive while simultaneously assuring his offense they can stay fully focused on killing EFC.
Chewie - Confident, vocal, and the most polished FC by the end of the expansion. Great instinctive decision-making which made a HUGE difference in the absence of hunters leading FC's this meta. Once Chewie started overriding calls, leading his support, and controlling the pace of the game, he rarely died- even in the high pressure situations.
Edge - Chewie
HM - Yogi (Made every do or die pressure jump in premades with ease, when all other team's FC's failed in similar situations and got capped on)
Shaman - Vet & Zovv
Vet - Easily the most consistent Shaman in Wrath and the one with the best comms. Great at calling out opportunities, creating looks by pressuring EFC, and an solid asset on defense all in one. Kept numerous plays alive with reliably clutch Vet repicks, while equally clutch returns secured caps for his team.
Zovv - Despite being forced to play druid in the second half of wrath, I can't see Zovv as anything but a Shaman. The most polished shaman by far, as well as the most aggressive. Uniquely a great tactician, and deserves credit for Goat Mountain's success at countering GSC's opener, and briefly making it to the top in the middle of the expansion.
I had a lot of fun with Zovv, but my brain is going with Vet.
Edge - Vet
HM- Bacteria, Water (PPgodx), Partygirl
Rogue - Saxx & Nukkz
Saxx - Just an absolute beast, and the main reason the Rogue class even got a spot in premades this meta. While other teams struggled to use rogue effectively, Saxx would set up sandwich kills on EFC with his hunters & shamans, pick flag when an enemy team played heavy defense in the opener, or simply stay in stealth for extended periods to punish teams that lose track of him with a panic inducing ambush on low HP EFC, or get a classic Saxx flag pass ninja.
Nukkz -The most skilled 19 Rogue I've seen since I came back to twinks in 2019. Clutch, Ego-free, and always ready to make a play. Just an all around ideal teammate in premades. Putting him in the conversation with Saxx might be unthinkable to some, but without question, he is THAT good. Premade after premade, he just kept making big game changing plays.
Edge - Nukkz
HM -Karma
Priest - Powerlol
Many priests have clutch heals and great dispells, but no other priest played around CC classes as well as Powerlol. Always paying attention and
avoiding getting CC'd by putting himself behind a friendly hunt/mage/lock when LOS wasn't available, which put whoever was trying to CC him out of position for even trying. Really forced me to get creative, because there is nothing I hate more than an enemy priest running around freely.
HM- Floot, Sonny, Augi, Kozi, Tiptoe
Warlock - Reff/Redfins (Grizzle)
Clever, Unpredictable, and always up to something. A lot of FC's died prematurely when they lost track of Redfins and ended up on the receiving end of one of his big gambles.
Possibly the most fun person to play with as well- always vibing in comms, and encouraging high risk aggression.
HM - Flummy (Yowza)
Hunter - Mizurugi (Anatomyz/Kashiwazaki)
Objectively the most impactful Hunter in terms of leadership and individual gameplay. Through comms, Kashi made the team more cohesive, freed up team mates to do what they are best at, and vastly improved the mid game to the point where transition kills happened even against teams with good transition defense. Individually he was as great at torturing enemies as he was on mage in 2019, now with the damage and mobility of Wrath Hunter. Intentionally killing, holding hostage, or just knocking a key enemy out of position, frequently made getting returns possible.
HM- Ezeron, Dan, Stabilt, Grubz (Great comms, massive leap from previous expansion)
Warrior - N/A
Paladin - N/A
Mage - Lifedrain/LDmage. Duh.
The most obnoxious Polys, the most dismissive Novas.
SO many repicks denied, caps secured, and offenses throttled off the back of useful comms & being at the right place at the right time.
No one was more annoying, and no mage contributed more to winning a gulch. So who could even compare?
Well...
There is ONE person...
Lucas
My respect for this guy outweighs even the love I have for myself. Easily one of best players at 19.
In early Wrath, Lucas was the primary reason why Buns always slipped out of so many dangerous situations alive, enabling his team to stay aggro
and seize massive momentum swings (often resulting in reversal caps). It wasn't the same for GSC in his absence, and upon his return I always made it a point for my team to make it difficult for him to go under the radar and derail our offense.
Edge- Lucas
Best guild - TBD
What a redemption story. The only team to stay Horde (disadvantaged faction) the entire expansion, and to firmly come out on top after surviving growing pains
that should have killed the guild multiple times over. Special shoutout to Bacteria, Nukkz, Whyrl, Stabilt, and Sonny for joining the team last summer when we needed it most,
as well as Kashi & Ezeron for joining in the final stretch to cement the teams spot at the top with a meaningful 3 series wins vs Goat Mountain, and 3 series ties & 5 Series wins vs GSC.
HM - Gurubashi Surf Club (GSC). The most dominant guild for the majority of the expansion. Their signature double druid comp gave them a lot of advantages- easier flag pick, freed the team to be constantly aggressive, and chain capping quickly anytime they did cap.
Biggest disappointment - Spacebar
For the second straight expansion Spacebar had a team geared and ready to premade at the start of the Wrath, but didn't end up playing.
This time at least a game was scheduled vs GSC with the requested healer limit agreed to, before getting cancelled.
Oh well. At least it was fun playing with Mass & Drew.
===============Bonus================
Best guild name - HQC (the guild, not the player), <Honestly Quit Crying>
Best Casting Duo - Pizza & HB
Most Miserable to play against - GSC Double Mage Double Druid AKA the GSC Gluetrap
Best Hate-Hate Rivalry - Zovv & Chewie, possibly Zovv & Wondy
Most satisfying sheep to drop a campfire on - Powerlol
Most active guild - Golden Twinkies.
I'm not sure why a social guild even exists in the historically most vile subset of WoW, but GT has been alive and constantly 10 stacking the entire expansion.
HM - Warlords of Warsong. Sike. Daboo still owes Roguenine a Shadowfang.
====================================
GL in Cata.
