Wrath of the Lich King is just nine days away; so close you can almost smell it. But with the magic SK-Gaming’s crystal ball, we can do so much more than smell it. Ladies and gentlemen, sit back, relax, and look deep inside as The Zechs Files comes over all clairvoyant.

We have had the pleasure of seeing a tournament with the new spells and abilities, but there have been so many changes since then. There are doubtlessly plenty more to come before we can consider arenas competitive again as well, so where do we all stand? Will we really see triple ret dominate season five? Or will RMP continue to be the answer to, well… everything? Only time will tell. Time doesn’t fill column inches (or should that be pixels?), however.

So while we wait for him to catch up, we’ll take a look into the future. This week I decided to look at one of the most successful comps of recent months: WLD

Former Glories

Time was when this setup was the king of synergy. It landed esports its first real female star and it stretched the term ‘flavour of the month’ to bursting point. Alongside RMP, WLD was probably the closest WoW has to a default setting.

But you will probably have noticed my use of tense. The 3.0 tournament I mentioned earlier saw Fnatic – arguably the best exponents of the WLD set-up – flop miserably. Now I’ll grant you, it may have been a blip, a one-off, a product of un-tested changes. Maybe.

The play style of WLD is very much ‘let the other guys die of exhaustion/boredom.’ I don’t need to tell anyone that that style is rather difficult to pull off in the current climate. With damage scaled to 80 but defence still at 70, teams built around outlasting their opponents are not having much success. When I was researching this yesterday, the top five teams on the SK ranking were all damage-based.

The Warlock

Looking forward, though, I think this is a composition that can stay at the top. It may require a few changes, though. Firstly, warlocks have been changed dramatically. While Soul Link/Siphon Life is still an option, it isn’t as durable as it once was. This forces ‘locks into some difficult but intriguing choices.

Do you stick with what you know and hope the druid can keep you up through the insane burst damage? Do you go felguard – assuming that metamorphosis is more or less useless for competitive play for that bit of extra survivability? Do you join the burst party and go destruction? For the first time since arenas began, this seems like a viable option. Chaosbolting through iceblock sounds like fun, if nothing else.

Then there’s affliction. This spec is close to my heart, and it’s what I’m currently playing[1]. Haunt isn’t amazing, but with all the DoT’s an affliction ‘lock has, it’s a very interesting alternative to burst damage. On top of that, it takes a brave priest to dispel with unstable affliction in the mix, meaning they have to try and heal through it – maybe drain wars aren’t dead after all! With improved drains and siphon life, affliction is a little more durable than destruction, but it still needs a good healer to keep you alive against those pesky rogues.

The Warrior

From the warrior’s perspective, little has changed with regards to WLD. Bladestorm is a very good ability, when timed right. Although the deathwish nerf weakens the damage output somewhat, there are enough new toys in arms to make up for it. I haven’t seen anything that suggests warriors will be especially different in wrath from what they are now.

Like a lot of players, I was hoping we might see fury become viable in arenas at last. Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case. Although it's a lot of fun in battlegrounds (pewpew whirlwind!), it hasn't caught up with the utility of mortal strike.

The jury is apparently still out on sudden death, but for what it’s worth, I think it’s an incredibly good talent. It lends itself more to a burst orientated team, but no comp would say no to 6k executes out of nowhere, would they?

The Druid

As for our furry friend, the druid, I have to admit my ignorance. My own druid is only 49, and the one I used to play with in season 3 (hi, Tash!) quit months ago. One interesting option at 80 is restokin with swiftmend. With the upcoming healing touch glyph, druids will have a much better chance against the burst that currently dominates at 70.

The changes to druids seem very complicated to an outsider. The addition of healing touch as mainstay spell could change the style of healing druids completely. Although I expect the current levels of burst damage to be reduced by the time we all hit 80, druids have struggled with it in the past, before it was through the roof. Although resto druids are having a hard time of it right now, I think that by the time the game has balanced out, druids will still be top of the tree (if you’ll excuse the pun).

There is another option, which could be huge fun to play. I’m not sure how successful it would be, but triple burst has the potential to be a really fun comp. Destro lock/MS warrior/balance druid could put out some pretty insane numbers if given the chance.

Still, assuming that burst is toned down by resilience and hp at 80, the traditional WLD should continue as a force to be reckoned with. Although there are some changes to the play style, they are welcome ones. I expect WLD and RMP to be as powerful as they were through seasons 2, 3 and 4 and we’ll take a look at the latter of the two in next week’s Zechs Files.

[1]I must confess, though, that I’ve only logged into my ‘lock about four times since the patch.