The Scourge is overrated

[darkoms]

I pondered a little about the Scourge threat in the Wotlk and came to the conclusion that the Warcraft community greatly overestimates the threat of the undead army.

People really overestimate the Scourge and its threat to Azeroth very, very much. Arthas just attacked at the right moment. No one from the powerful of the world considered the Lich King such an important threat to be distracted from other matters. In fact, the red, green, and bronze teamed up to stop the blue dragons, and not undead (although there are a couple of dragon quests in the game just to oppose the Scourge), and the wild gods did not have to be resurrected urgently to stop the terrible Lich King, as in Cataclysm, because the Nightmare was much more dangerous than the Scourge.

The Alliance and the Horde are weakened by the war in Outland, the red dragons (and some others) fight the blue, the greens along with the wild gods, the ancients and Malfurion fight the Nightmare, the bronze fight the infinity dragons, the titan-forged and Keepers subdued by Yogg-Saron. In fact, even when the Lich King resurrected Galakrond, Alexstrasza was worried about mortals and said that if Galakrond was resurrected, mortals would have problems. She felt no threat to herself personally and decided to continue to fight Malygos.

The Chronicles said that the defeat of Kel'thuzad greatly interfered with the strategy of the Lich King, but fortunately the Alliance and Horde were distracted by Malygos. Then he was nearly killed at the Wrathgate, but the Legion (well, the servants of the Legion) and the Alliance and Horde saved him and had to be distracted by stopping Varimathras, whose activities Sargeras personally monitored (maybe he wanted to make a new invasion of Azeroth?) and then the Alliance and the Horde went to fight with Yogg-Saron.

Even with all these parallel wars, the Alliance and the Horde defeated the Scourge (even if the Lich King allowed it, but if he could destroy the weakened Alliance and the Horde, he would have done it. Conclusion? Even after all these wars, the Scourge could not to defeat the Alliance and the Horde).

Ha, to some extent he even helped Azeroth, because he lured the Alliance and Horde to Northrend, where they defeated the Old God, who otherwise could have been hiding even longer. Ironically, during the Wrath of the Lich King, the Lich King and his Scourge were the smallest threats to the world.
What do you think?

[yoma]

I think my eyes just had aneurysms. Paragraphs are your friends.

Embrace them.

[TigTone]

Looking back on it, it was one of the “weaker” world threats.

Hindsight is 20/20.

I blame blizzard for their poor writing. lore wise if the scourge was released at full force it would be a high level world threat.

[Shelly]

I think you vastly underestimate the threat of the Scourge.

They can and do transform the living - even through just combat with them. We know this from the Redpath questline in EPL as well as what happened to Sylvannas.

They can transform the long dead - resurrecting dragons in Icecrown and Dragonblight, bringing forth Vrykul and giant corpses as well.

Their army is unstoppably huge and held at the foot of icecrown. Maybe you don't remember questing back in WotLK but there were a few daily ones where you'd be just north of Dalaran and the entire reason you had flight is that there's a huge ravine literally teeming with the undead that would straight up wreck your day.

So we have an army that gets bigger with each person they defeat. An army that corrupts everything around it where even wounds can transform powerful heroes into servants of the scourge. An army that can swarm over, kill and reanimate whatever they'd like including dragons.

If you play a DK in Legion the entire reason you get your artifact weapon and become an agent of the Lich King is so he doesn't unleash the undead scourge upon the planet to destroy everything and thus stop the Legion.

The Scourge is far less an army and far more a natural disaster. You cannot defeat it any more than you could defeat a hurricane.

[darkoms]

I think you vastly underestimate the threat of the Scourge.

They can and do transform the living - even through just combat with them. We know this from the Redpath questline in EPL as well as what happened to Sylvannas.

They can transform the long dead - resurrecting dragons in Icecrown and Dragonblight, bringing forth Vrykul and giant corpses as well.

Their army is unstoppably huge and held at the foot of icecrown. Maybe you don't remember questing back in WotLK but there were a few daily ones where you'd be just north of Dalaran and the entire reason you had flight is that there's a huge ravine literally teeming with the undead that would straight up wreck your day.

So we have an army that gets bigger with each person they defeat. An army that corrupts everything around it where even wounds can transform powerful heroes into servants of the scourge. An army that can swarm over, kill and reanimate whatever they'd like including dragons.

If you play a DK in Legion the entire reason you get your artifact weapon and become an agent of the Lich King is so he doesn't unleash the undead scourge upon the planet to destroy everything and thus stop the Legion.

The Scourge is far less an army and far more a natural disaster. You cannot defeat it any more than you could defeat a hurricane.

The most powerful beings of Azeroth did not regard the Scourge as a significant threat and were busy with other things
What what what? Bolvar's Scrourge can stop the Legion? Really?

[Aurabolt]

I think you vastly underestimate the threat of the Scourge.

They can and do transform the living - even through just combat with them. We know this from the Redpath questline in EPL as well as what happened to Sylvannas.

They can transform the long dead - resurrecting dragons in Icecrown and Dragonblight, bringing forth Vrykul and giant corpses as well.

Their army is unstoppably huge and held at the foot of icecrown. Maybe you don't remember questing back in WotLK but there were a few daily ones where you'd be just north of Dalaran and the entire reason you had flight is that there's a huge ravine literally teeming with the undead that would straight up wreck your day.

So we have an army that gets bigger with each person they defeat. An army that corrupts everything around it where even wounds can transform powerful heroes into servants of the scourge. An army that can swarm over, kill and reanimate whatever they'd like including dragons.

If you play a DK in Legion the entire reason you get your artifact weapon and become an agent of the Lich King is so he doesn't unleash the undead scourge upon the planet to destroy everything and thus stop the Legion.

The Scourge is far less an army and far more a natural disaster. You cannot defeat it any more than you could defeat a hurricane.

This x1000.

Hence why Bolvar referred to himself as "The Jailor of The Damned": All he can do is contain the Scourge. If he could've ended the Scourge with a snap of his fingers when he became the new LK, he would have without hesitation. That's why they have "contained for now" status like the Legion has "Dealt with for now" status so...yeah.

[darkoms]

Do you really believe that the Scourge could defeat the Aspects and the wild gods if they really decided to fight the Scourge?

[Th3Scourge]

No I'm not

[Alvito]

Looking back on it, it was one of the “weaker” world threats.

Hindsight is 20/20.

I blame blizzard for their poor writing. lore wise if the scourge was released at full force it would be a high level world threat.

It was death for everything that encountered it. They couldn't blow up the planet or other wacky things that we have seen since, but all in all dead is dead so the other stuff is just over kill. Hell it isn't even just death it is death than damnation.

[gutnbrg]

if we hadnt won everything would be dead....i dont get what u mean

[darkoms]

if we hadnt won everything would be dead....i dont get what u mean

Of course, because the Aspects would not have a chance against the Lich King...

[Shelly]

The most powerful beings of Azeroth did not regard the Scourge as a significant threat and were busy with other things
What what what? Bolvar's Scrourge can stop the Legion? Really?

The most powerful beings on Azeroth are routinely mind controlled, killed, resurrected or so completely caught up in their own machinations that they are unable to see other threats.

The dragon aspects each only really care about their own domains, which is why Alexstraza shows up at the Wrathgate. Meanwhile we have a green dragon jailed in ICC being changed into the undead, two reanimated blue dragons - sindragosa and saphiron, DKs track down and reanimate the remains of a powerful red dragon for their mount in Legion, multiple other undead drakes such as rhymefang and their brother, tons of undead whelps.

The mogu - which was truly the first army of the Titans/Keepers on Azeroth weren't in Northrend and are so caught up in their short term power struggles they aren't really a threat to anyone. Meanwhile they have freed themselves from the curse of flesh by reanimating their spirits into statues and constructs which puts them at a distinct disadvantage when you're dealing with an army that can control spirits and the undead.

The keepers are all sticking purely to their domains, excepting Odyn who at the time is literally locked away in another plane of existence by Helya. So it's not like he could do anything until he came up with the idea of using living agents to defeat Helya and break the lock.

The wild gods aren't as big a deal as you make them out to be, but you are also aware of Razorfen Downs right? Where the Quillboar are attempting to resurrect the wild boar god aggra-whatever with the help of the Scourge? The wild gods are absolutely a target for the corruption of the Scourge, not only could they be killed and resurrected into service but they could also be wounded and fall into a dark corrupted undeath.

The Scourge is legitimately one of the deadliest forces on Azeroth. If you did the fire mage artifact weapon quest you know that there are still adventurers foolish enough to attempt entry into Icecrown and the price they pay for this folly is not only death but undeath.

The only thing holding this tide back is a burn victim wearing a fancy helmet, and no, I'm not talking about Darth Vader.

[LarryWithTheWeatherReport]

The Scourge are by far the greatest and most powerful threat we ever faced, second to only the Legion and that's only because of Sargeras and Argus. If you don't count those two than I would actually put the Scourge as a bigger threat to us than the Legion since the former has all their forces on Azeroth already while the latter have their forces spread across space and time. Not only are the Scourge nearly numberless but one of their most important traits is raising those they killed. The Lich King alone is already one of the mightiest beings in the lore with only a handful of characters being stronger in 1v1 combat.

Keep in mind, the Scourge had a whole expansion but even still the Lich King was actually holding back as he was planning to lure the greatest heroes of Azeroth into the frozen throne where he again toyed with them until he sees them as worthy and decide to one shot all of them without effort. Strong characters being raised by the Scourge don't just become mindless zombies. They become even stronger, far stronger. And even with the deus ex plot pull of the Light helping us win, we still have no hope because had Bolvar not contain the Scourge than Azeroth would had still been doomed.

[Skirdus]

The Scourge's main strength is that they can raise the dead from just about anything: humans, orcs, dragons, giants. Doesn't matter. You take that away, the Scourge is pretty much nothing. But with it? Their power is comparable to the Legion, who - while technically infinite - does not actively turn their fallen enemies into the undead.

[MrSaggins]

Well the Scourge kind of murdered the northern half of a continent.

[Kwento]

The most powerful beings of Azeroth did not regard the Scourge as a significant threat and were busy with other things
What what what? Bolvar's Scrourge can stop the Legion? Really?

Yeah... Chronicle mentions both Legion and Old Gods being rather nervous about the Scourge, saying that if the undead win, their plans are in jeopardy.

[Lord Pebbleton]

Since WoW presents bigger and bigger threats as end bosses, the scourge now isn't as intimidating, but it surely isn't overrated. It was just presented as a devastating force, both in Warcraft 3 and Vanilla.
In Warcraft 3 it was utterly unstoppable and kingdoms fell. You saw it, you played it. In Vanilla you have the desolated Plaguelands that remind you of what the Scourge can do. Also Stratholme.

You learn to fear and respect them. They may not be the strongest, but they knew where to hit, and it shows.
Sadly the intimidating force went away with WotLK because we discovered that in all those years they still had not overrun the continent.

For example, N'zoth in comparison is shit. We never saw anything from him, we just got told what he did. He was behind Deathwing, he was behind the Sundering, he was behind the naga, etc. But he wasn't there. Being told something is not the same as seeing it. If you found Stratholme empty and a dude ran up to you and told you "The Scourge did this in an epic duel between demons and humans!" without letting you play it, that would feel like crap. Same thing.

[ArenaDk]

Only a handful is stronger ? You know every one stronger than Lei shen easy beats the LK? And Lei shen is only on Wild god level.

LK is really really really low power wise. Hell the deathlord is stronger during legion

[Kolvarg]

What do you think?

I think the lore itself is not consistent enough to draw such conclusions, much less from in-game events.

[ArenaDk]

If they were the smallest threats in the world, no one would bother about it and yet, we had armies from both factions and pretty much everyone else uniting to defeat Lich King. That is how small threat he is.

And yet wrathgate was the worst that happend to both army’s. Also the army’s fought on like 5 fronts. Wow the scourge was so strong