Thank God it's not Jasi day. I think we could all use a little less diarrhea of blogging from some has-been that doesn't even play the game anymore. Wait, a has-been has to have actually been good previously. I should probably change that to "never-was."

Anyways, last Monday, I began a series of "Best of Class" articles that wrote about some of the best players from their respective classes in regards to WoW arena. Tonight's article concludes this series. I wish I could have done it last week, but Gameriot cracked the whip on Ming and pulled out the contract clause, stating that he didn't write an article in 3 days and that he was legally bound to or some crap. In any case, I have a lot of other material that I wish I could cover sooner rather than later, but it'll have to wait.

With that said, tonight's final article in this series includes the classes of Druid, Hunter, and Warrior. Please remember that these lists DO NOT include EU players as I don't have enough knowledge about them and there is only so much research that I can do on EU players. They were not left out because I don't feel that they are incredible; only because it would be doing a lot of them an injustice if I tried to include them, as well. I would also like to preface by saying that although there are several very high-rated druids this season and/or last, they probably won't be included based off ratings alone as druid is often one of the most rerolled classes due to its simplicity of learning and faceroll status.

So without wasting anymore time, on to the nominees.

Druid:

Hafu of Tichondrius - The biggest Wang in gaming today, Hafu originally played on Bleeding Hollow server and made a name for herself with a warrior named Kasumi, mainly from this video that they made featuring them playing rated 3v3 matches with only two players. Her popularity (read: drooling fanboys) only increased after moving to Tichondrius during season two. Fast forwarding to today, Hafu already has a tournament win under her belt after their first place finish at MLG Orlando, as well as a more recent third place finish at ESL Germany.

Hafu's 3v3 team also manages to be the highest rated 3v3 in the world right now by a rather large margin, and despite BG9's gradual decline over the last months, one can't deny the fact that it's still an impressive accomplishment. While there are very very few successful WoW arena players out there, Hafu has consistently strived to be the best both on ladder and on LAN. And while she may use an excessive amount of PvE gear on tournament realms, she has very little of it to fall back on in live play, making her success all that much more impressive.

With her success has always been asterisks, however. Although I have played with her myself on several occasions and think that she is quite skilled, many people feel that she is carried in most situations, especially when mentioning the success of her fnatic LAN team (Glick, Hafu, Rhaegyn). Many people feel that Hafu's play has been less than impressive and that she often positions herself poorly in matches allowing for a certain bad chain of events to happen (such as fear chains on her). Although Glick's play has been stellar and Rhaegyn continues to be the king of RNG, is it really enough to overshadow Hafu's skill as a player, or are all of the skeptics just prepubescent teenage nerds with a strong case of jealousy?

Sodah of Detheroc - Another example of a player shining without the use of PvE gear, Sodah has become even more successful during this season as opposed to last when playing (read: held back by) Sonydigital. With the addition of Happyminti to GotGame's roster and alongside Venruki, Sodah has finally been able to show what he's really capable of both online and on LAN.

Sodah made his first big splash at MLG Orlando (with his druid/rogue/rogue comp) with several upsets in the tournament, including knocking our team out of the tournament. Despite being sent to the loser bracket in the very first round, they stormed through the loser's bracket knocking out team after team until the loser bracket finals when Team EG (then known as Frag Dominant) knocked them out of the tournament. Despite losing a bit earlier at MLG San Diego, many people attribute (read: blame) the results on Sonydigital's poor play rather than anything from the other three.

Sodah has been relatively quiet (so to speak), and has often let his results do the talking for him. That being said, when doing research on Sodah (as I do for everyone listed), I found this video during the search. After actually bothering to stream it, I really have to ask if that was A) really Sodah, B) a horrible joke if so, and C) what were you thinking? That said, everyone makes a bad video from time to time (I should know, right? lolol), so it's really nothing much to take away from him. The only other thing people really question when it comes to Sodah is if his success would continue to be as dominant in a more competitive battlegroup than Shadowburn.

Vorrent of Laughing Skull - Although formerly from Dragonmaw and before that, Smolderthorn, Vorrent played with a wide variety of players and been at the top ratings with almost all of them. Of which included the golden child himself, Zecks, and ironically, Vorrent has recently transferred to Laughing Skull server now to play with the other MoB TurtleForce member, Ohnoes.

Vorrent's success has not gone entirely un-noticed, as he was even offered a spot on Team Pandemic's roster for MLG, but he declined it for his own RL reasons apparently. Whether or not he is eventually going to replace Caal for Pandemic's new lineup with Ohnoes and Kintt remains to be unseen, but such a move would be far from surprising at this point. Vorrent is one of the few remaining "free agent" druids out there, and has an extensive résumé to accompany him; notably having consistent first rank teams in BG1 Reckoning all of season three and season four.

Although Vorrent has not released any PvP videos or anything of that nature, he's been spotted in some, including Hoodrych 3 featuring less than stellar play. In fact, Hoodrych and GC playing on other people's shaman/warrior characters apparently have an impressive win-loss record against Vorrent back on Reckoning, to the point where they forced him to re-roll his 2v2 charter to make it look less embarassing. I think this is particularly noteworthy as I don't feel shaman/warrior counters druid/rogue when the rogue has PvE gear, especially as dreamstate spec. Was he just used to farming bads on Reckoning and now on Vindication, or is he really a top druid?

Late edit: I received a hilarious recording of Vorrent's team playing against Annihilatex and Chances found here; not so suprisingly, Annihilate gets absolutely embarassed. Grats dude.

Spoh of Tichondrius - Ah Spoh, I still remember 2-manning that first boss in Shadow Labs for that stupid Idol of the Emerald Queen for him since he was too lazy to get it himself previously. Despite being a lazy bastard in more ways than I can count (especially farming honor gear), I can say from experience that his skills as a druid are top notch in almost every aspect. You don't really need to take my word for it, though, as his tournament team made up of himself, Azael, and Zyz have a 1st place tournament finish (MLG San Diego) as well as a 3rd place finish (MLG Orlando) now with more success surely to come.

Spoh has come a long way from his roots on Warsong and Dark Iron, where he practically invented the ultimate 5v5 turtle comp running paladin, paladin, resto druid, warrior, warrior on his team named "THE CHALLENGE," and he seems to be continuing this trend with his current 5v5 team now, as well.He's also improved by leaps and bounds with LAN play, too, as he previously showed little to no success with MoB TurtleForce, often running questionable (polite term) 3v3 comps such as paladin, feral druid, rogue and threw away the tournament to Pandemic after having a commanding lead in the finals at Dreamhack.

Spoh has often thought of playing feral competitively online, and many people tend to believe he is much better at playing feral than he is at playing resto; while many others think the exact opposite: that he should never touch feral and should always play as resto. Despite the controversy on which spec the public thinks he can play at a higher level, his skills are undeniable and there is a reason that many druids feel that he is the best druid to play the game.

Honorable mentions: Innate of Zul'jin, Chumpjohn of Tichondrius, Atara of Frostmourne, Caal of Tichondrius, Bani of Mannoroth, Secretive of Tichondrius, Furioni of Medivh/Sen'jin.


Hunter:

Megatf of Archimonde - One of the most vocal members of the hunter community, Megatf had been forum banned a while back and a very large controversy erupted over it all with many hunters taking his side against Blizzard and proclaiming how unfair it was to censor one of the best hunters in arena today for speaking his mind.

Being one of the least represented classes in arena for every single season now, Megatf still maintains impressive team ratings across all three brackets. Originally coming from Frostmane, and later moving to Dragonmaw where he played with Chances and reached first place across the board, he then began playing on Tichondrius where he didn't seem to accomplish much for whatever reason, but has recently made his comeback this season on his new server, Archimonde.

Although he has released a few videos in the past, one of the more humorous and yes, less noticed ones, was him playing as priest/hunter 2v2 naked in this video. Albeit his opponents wern't the brightest bulbs, but it's a good laugh nonetheless. Despite his success and popularity in the community, and despite tremendous efforts of him trying to capture an end-of-season first rank title, he hasn't been able to do so for the last two arena seasons. Will season four be his lucky season or is he not as good as many people tend to think?

Hamchook of Mal'Ganis - Hamchook became most famous after the big controversy at WSVG Toronto involving the use of his scorpion pet. After losing to SK Gaming starting out, Hamchook's team "Yea We Lift" proceeded to eliminate every single team in the loser's bracket until seemingly getting to the finals with Evil Geniuses. However, their previous opponent, MoB Turtle Beach, apparently filed a complaint for using an unauthorized pet.  After a lot of delegation, Yea We Lift was ultimately forced into playing a rematch against MoB Turtle Beach, using a bear pet. Despite the pet change, Yea We Lift was the favorite to win after seeing the performance from both sides in the previous series. However, MoB Turtle Beach, for whatever reason, was given a chance to change their class comp to shaman/paladin/warrior to counter-comp YWL and proceeded to 3-0 them. The match can be viewed here.

Even though I admittedly don't know much else about Hamchook other than the fact that he performed exceptionally well on a TR team with Nick from Mal'Ganis running (druid/ret paladin/hunter; whatever happened to that team?), several people that I know that play on Stormstrike with and against him, as well as some guildmates that are playing in the ESL online tournament with him, have nothing but good things to say about him. He hasn't been overly welcoming of the spot light, but many people suggest that the best has only yet to come from him.

Hammura of Kel'Thuzad - Although he has transferred back to his old battlegroup of Nightfall, Hammura made his biggest splash playing with CAPSLOCKCREW on both Nightfall and more recently, Bloodlust, earning the title of Merciless Gladiator in season two from the 5v5 bracket. He, like many other once-great players, have gone ultra casual now, and rarely plays the game anymore.

The fact that he plays less should not take any credit away from him, however, as he has proven in the past that he is one of the most skilled hunters in both 3v3 and 5v5. Being one of the more quiet players on the CLC roster, Hammura's performance was often over-shadowed by Inactive or Clicker's "social displays." Regrettably, I don't have much in the way to prove that Hammura is as good as I say he is other than the fact that I have played against him running both 2346 and trifecta triple melee, but I'd wager to say that anyone who has ever fought against him on BG9 can attest to what is said here. The only unfortunate part is him deciding to quit the game when hunters were already lacking a true figure to look up to for arena.

Honorable mentions: Reznap of Tichondrius, Plops of Tichondrius, Rammyz of Cho'gall (lol carried by legendaries)

Warriors:

Noktyn of Tichondrius - Noktyn's popularity mainly began during season one of arena when he and his 5v5 team, "Power Trip," was absolutely dominating BG9. One of the only videos released from his point of view was his movie of the first week of qualifiers from the Blizzard tournament which ultimately ended up to be a joke because of the amount of disqualified players from being eligible to play. Noktyn's success continued long after season one, as Team Pandemic, as they were later known, held the top rank in 5v5 for much of season two, and still remains a competitive force even all the way up to today.

Online success is probably what Noktyn least cares about, however, and Pandemic's reign of being undefeated in the era of WSVG shows that their online success was obviously no fluke. Although bowing out early at MLG San Diego, as well as WWI Paris, they put up an impressive run in the loser's bracket at MLG Orlando before getting knocked out just before the consolation finals. Many people attribute that to the lack of experience the team had with Teeb, however. More specifically, as Noktyn told me, "you might as well not even come to these tournaments unless you have an amazing RMP or an amazing druid." I think that statement is more true than most people would care to admit and it's rather unfortunate that we may not seem more from Noktyn and Sck from Pandemic with their recent switch to supporting Kint's new team with Ohnoes and Caal.

Although he honestly does not care enough to attain the high ratings and such needed to be "eFamous" on those ever-so-important SK-100 rankings, anyone that has played against him since the first season of arena should know that he is a top caliber player. That said, many people also question why Pandemic has been close to a non-factor after the WSVG era ended. Had teams caught up and gotten better overall, was it the loss of Kintt that hurt Pandemic the most, or was it because paladin/priest/warrior that allowed Pandemic to feature their best three players (skc/kintt/noktyn) was no longer the juggernaut it used to be?

Hoodrych of Kil'Jaeden - I only say Kil'Jaeden here because that's where his main home was, and I've purposely left out an armory link because he literally does not own his own WoW account any longer. That doesn't mean he no longer plays the game, however, as I personally play often with him turning WoW from a game into a rather lucrative business as you can see here. Yep, getting people weapons and shoulders can be quite profitable for a minimal amount of effort and time.

Just because "The Boss" himself doesn't have an account anymore also doesn't mean anything can be taken away from his achievements and skill. Having released only three pvp videos (HR1, HR2, and most recently HR3), Hoodrych has tended to stay relatively quiet in the grand scheme of things throughout his play and success in arena.

He has also come quite a long way from where he was during the first two seasons of arena where he as the feature of many embarassing losses against other teams such as his paladin/paladin/warrior team losing to Xantims' 3dps team several times in Xantims 5. I also vividly remember playing against his Avant Garde 2346 team (where he replaced Welfarelol) in mirror matches and holding an incredibly lop-sided record against them where we gibbed him almost every single game. That said, if I could pick one person for "most improved player" he would be it, as he has improved by leaps and bounds since then.

With an impressive showing at both MLG San Diego and MLG Orlando thus far, and already stating that he has no interest in playing the game any longer, this leaves his last LAN showing at Boston where the Blizzard TR qualifying teams will compete for the finals. Will Hoodrych, Didy, and Greenranger step up to the plate there and take home the gold or will Hoodrych spend too much time playing Quake Live to practice for the tournament?

Rhoz of Zul'jin - After a huge success during season two of arena and earning Merciless Gladiator title from the 3v3 bracket in Ruin Battlegroup running the not-so-common comp of druid/mage/warrior, Rhoz disappeared for a while from the arena scene during season three after transferring to BG9 where they had less than stellar results and often showcased in other people's PvP videos such as mine often showing many mistakes made by Rhoz's team. However, both he and Innate have come back strong this season by returning to Ruin and holding top rankings for each bracket.

Rhoz has released his own video but stays relatively quiet in the arena scene yet still maintains to be one of the top warriors currently playing today. Although I'm not a fan of his spec in the slightest (3/3 heroic strike, 3/5 2h spec over anger management, 2/2 blood frenzy instead of capping rngstring?), he still seems to get the job done and does it well.

The only real question marks that arise when mentioning Rhoz stem from his TR performance (or lackthereof), as well as the results he produced (or lackthereof) when transferring to BG9. Was he just in a slump at the time and making his comeback now or does he just happen to be a Ruin superstar?

Inactive of Tichondrius - As easy as it would be for me to exclude him from this list for the amount of **** that he has talked in the past to me and my teammates, it would not be an accurate listing if I were to leave him out. Originally playing a rogue and later rerolling a warrior, Inactive has proven to be one of the best arena warriors to play the game today.

Although he has only really only released one main video, it is a good enough representation of his skills as a warrior in 5v5, where he tends to exploit every weakness possible of a team with timely swaps, peels, and going defensive. His 5v5 team, CAPSLOCKCREW, played against ours as well as the other top competition on BG9 during season two and prevailed as the top ranked team when the season ended. Although he plays the game much less now, especially after disappointing finishes on both TR's and without a nerd sponsor to send him to events for free, Inactive still remains one of the best warriors even up to this date.

Speaking of TR's, however, many people often point fingers different directions when they talk about CLC's lack of success on the TR's. Some claim it was due to Kyx's poor play, some claim it was because Crysalid plays the PMR style poorly, while others suggest that Inactive simply is not as good on rogue as he is at warrior. While his lack of success playing a rogue and his trash talking don't help his PR any (in terms of sponsorships and the like, at least), they're really nothing to hold against him in terms of being a very capable and skilled warrior.

Serennia of Korgath - Because I'd never hear the end of it if I didn't put myself up to the vote (lol no balls, etc), I'll go ahead and humor that notion, but I'll spare everyone the ego stroking and sum it up quick: lol bad warrior, carried by pve gear, carried by spoh, carried by neilyo, clicker, back peddler, nothing without mace stun, pve nerd, bad bad bad, etc.

Honorable mentions: Acid of Illidan, Alexandra of Laughing Skull, Hannibal of Tichondrius, Mesmerized of Frostmourne, Rhaegyn of Tichondrius, Onyxx of Blackrock, Kenchow of Tichondrius

Dishonorable mentions: Joobei of Blackrock, Annihilatex of Dragonmaw, Swifty of Darkspear


And there you have it, the conclusion of my "Best of Class" series. I'll have the final results for who won each category in my next article. So stay tuned and try not to vomit too much over the next few articles courtesy of "Jasi days."