Who do you think is the best villain in Warcraft?

[Muxtar]

This should be with poll included.

Arthas all the way for me. Then Garrosh as 2nd place, and Sargeras as 3rd.

[Progenitor Aquarius]

Gul'dan and the Jailer. I hate them both the most. There is also someone else coming to my mind, Lady Ashvane. I love how she ended up in a perfect place for someone like her.

[OwenBurton]

Obviously Arthas -- he was honestly just an average human, a good man and a good person trying his best to the right thing in an impossible situation. Someone we can all arguably relate to.

[korijenkins]

Arthas is the obvious answer. Dude literally had an RPG devoted to his story and was one of the most present villains in any expansion, but not in a way that felt overbearing.

I remember the devs citing that as a reason they felt Cataclysm was weaker; Deathwing's lack of presence in the zone questlines.

[Shadowferal]

Arthas had the best arc. And ignoring the recent...shit, he had the best ending.

- - - Updated - - -

Arthas is the obvious answer. Dude literally had an RPG devoted to his story and was one of the most present villains in any expansion, but not in a way that felt overbearing.

And you felt that constant threat. It was almost chilling.

[Soon-TM]

It was almost chilling.

I see what you did there

[masterjc]

I think this is Kil'Jaeden. Previously, he seemed to me like a typical typical supervillain from comics, but I absolutely fell in love with this character after the audiodrama The Tomb of Sargeras and 7.2. He is not some typical villain like Archimonde, who constantly kills subordinates for the slightest mistakes, KilJaeden actually gives second chances if he sees efforts and does not do everything to get even more power, he is really trying to save the universe from the Void (and at the same time he believes that there is no other way, since it is pointless to fight against Sargeras) and he even shows some kind of mentoring wisdom when he directs Gul'dan to open a portal for the Legion and explains some things to him, while Archimonde would just start screaming ''SUBMIT OR DIE, DUMM WORM''. He's really a pretty deeply written character (I think the best in the Legion expansion) and he has some remorse for his actions.

I also like Azshara because even in her endless arrogance and disregard for the lives of ordinary elves, she does not completely give a damn about her entourage, for they protected their Highborne from Mannoroth and tried to save them from the flood and she was really upset when she thought that she had failed her servants in the Warbringers. She's actually a pretty typical villain with no super plans (she just wants more power), but I think she's really chrismatic with all her arrogance and the fact that sometimes she pretends to be kind and affectionate.

UPD. I knew that people would talk about Arthas, although I do not understand what is special about him. He's really chrismatic (only thanks to his voice acting) and has a decent design (typical Dark Lord), but otherwise his story is just the story of Darth Vader.

for all reasons above KJ seems for me as most uncompetent villain
he gives second chance +more power to everyone who fails him. and even after everyone backstab him after gaining extra powers, he still repeats same mistake over and over again

Ner'zhul - failed. captured and tormented. upgraded with moer power - new mission -backstabs and owerthrows legion - costs huge victory
repeat same with Illidan
gul'dan
au gul'dan...

and so on


still he is pretty interesting one


Sargeras was one of most interesting as he is not just evil. he has some reasoning behind his bad motives and he understands that he is bad. even he might be mislead by nathrezim lies

Gul'Dan - absolute evil. he is so egoistic maniac doesnot think twice to get more power and betrays absolutely everyone. AU gul'dan betrayed
KJ but returned back. it wa sexplained interestingly in audiobook

Garrosh -while his character had several flaws in story (sometimes muh honor, sometimes dumb as rock om bottom of river) he still manages be interesting villain

Kel'Thuzard - while simple character,he still managed to become one of the most iconic villains and faces of warcraft

c'thun - while one of the least developed characters - entering twing enoerirs chamber and big floating eye looks at you.
you stand before a god
was cool scene

Edwin VanCleef -running around human zones and gathering fragments of his story was amazing stuff. piece by piece you get who he is and he is not bad guy. he was betrayed and decided vengeance. pity for him

Prince Thoterdim or whatever of Dire Maul
nice prince who feeds followers to demon so he stays immortal forewer. and when you realise that at first whole city was feeding on demon and now only bunch of shel'drelar remain, because in the end all became victim to demon. it was nice

Lei Shen - nice character. wish he had more story in-game

archmage arugal - not so well developed but also interesting and iconic guy

Loken -he played us nicely whole time

wish I could say same for grand magistrix elisande she was so undeveloped and left lots of unanswered questions

Xavius - just he had to be killed over and over again for so many times (WOTA, Stormrage, Legion)

[Wilfire]

My man Drakuru still best villain Warcraft 2021 clickbait

[Arikara]

let's go with Arthas as the obvious answer

out of the WoW original characters, Garrosh was an excellent villain. The problem with Garrosh is that they tied him to one of the two playable factions, which caused irreparable faction identity damage, as a bunch of fools now think he was the best thing ever.

[kranur]

Arthas wins because he had a proper build up.

[AcidicSyn]

In all of warcraft, so not just WoW?

(MU) Blackhand, (MU) Gul'dan, & Lich king (Ner'zul)

[Orby]

Gul'Dan from Warcraft: Orcs and Humans and Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness. Not the alternative one.

also Yogg Saron I loved how he was presented in WotLK. Just this unseen forced you never see and only see his influence but know he's around... I frikkin loved that. The build to his appearance in Uldaur was also so good. I love the build.

[McNeil]

Arthas obviously. He is one of the few characters who actually had a proper story arc, and everything he has done has shaped up the game to be as good as it once was. His campaigns in WC3 were the best ones by far and WotLK is also the best expansion. Even the Scourge themed Hearthstone expansion is their best.

Honorable mentions go to:

Guldan (MU), the OG bad guy who also managed to be quite menacing in the movie. He was evil for the sake of being evil and just wanted all the powers for himself, going as far as trying to rob Sargeras of his power. The guy represents evil itself in a mortal form.

Kil'jaeden, who used to be the Satan of WoW and orchestrated almost everything that appened during all the wars. Corrupted the orcs who invaded Azeroth, planned Legion invasions, turning even more races and has succesfully lead invasions until we got to Legion... where he kind of just died on a spaceship.

Garrosh, a villain who is not interested in destroying the world or anything, but just wanted the best for his people and was willing to take all kind of routes to make it so. He left quite a mark within the Horde and turned Thrall into a pussy in return.

[draugril]

Pre-Cataclysm Deathwing.

[Soon-TM]

Arthas wins because he had a proper build up.

But so did Ner'zhul or Garrosh. And that's what today's Blue Man is sorely lacking btw.

[Triceron]

Gonna throw up my personal favourite 'Misunderstood' Villain too, since he never makes any list.

Algalon, for straight up being a boss. No frills or gimmicks, just doing his job.

"Hmm, fleshy beings. Products of curse of flesh. Welp, time to re-originate the world"

[loras]

I think this is Kil'Jaeden. Previously, he seemed to me like a typical typical supervillain from comics, but I absolutely fell in love with this character after the audiodrama The Tomb of Sargeras and 7.2. He is not some typical villain like Archimonde, who constantly kills subordinates for the slightest mistakes, KilJaeden actually gives second chances if he sees efforts and does not do everything to get even more power, he is really trying to save the universe from the Void (and at the same time he believes that there is no other way, since it is pointless to fight against Sargeras) and he even shows some kind of mentoring wisdom when he directs Gul'dan to open a portal for the Legion and explains some things to him, while Archimonde would just start screaming ''SUBMIT OR DIE, DUMM WORM''. He's really a pretty deeply written character (I think the best in the Legion expansion) and he has some remorse for his actions.

I also like Azshara because even in her endless arrogance and disregard for the lives of ordinary elves, she does not completely give a damn about her entourage, for they protected their Highborne from Mannoroth and tried to save them from the flood and she was really upset when she thought that she had failed her servants in the Warbringers. She's actually a pretty typical villain with no super plans (she just wants more power), but I think she's really chrismatic with all her arrogance and the fact that sometimes she pretends to be kind and affectionate.

UPD. I knew that people would talk about Arthas, although I do not understand what is special about him. He's really chrismatic (only thanks to his voice acting) and has a decent design (typical Dark Lord), but otherwise his story is just the story of Darth Vader.

I like those picks.
Garrosh too really worked for me, even if some weirdos yell about him being good.
Kael and Illidan i liked as well, as villains, with paranoia and corruption driving Illidan mad (in tbc) and Kael suffering from despair, addiction and corruption as well.

Honestly WoW has plenty of great villains, though in some cases one will have to not be a cynical ass to appreciate them.

[Powerogue]

Archimonde for best grand entrance.

TREMBLE MORTALS, AND DESPAIR. DOOM HAS COME TO THIS WORLD.

Though actually really leaning AU Gul'dan. His short was masterwork.

[Burneracc]

Gul'dan and basically all of the Shadow Council's top brass. Also the Old Horde in general. I wish horde would go back to its demon worshipping ways...

[Wigermo]

The nathrezim, corrupting and scheming everywhere they can.

Also how did they even get their demon paws on frostmourne and the helm of domination and take it from shadowlands>azeroth. And why does Denathrius look like a nicer dreadlord, legs, horns he even got a dreadlordish name.

Their plots go so deep, they probably behind this whole expansion to.