Arena Class Combinations

  The Basics

 As teams win or lose they gain or lose rating, each week on a Wednesday this rating rewards a certain amount of points which can be spent on items. How many points you get not only depends on your teams rating but also which bracket that team is in (Note that from patch 2.4, the number of arena points you get is determined by your personal rating within the team). For example, a 2v2 team with a 2000 rating will get 802 points while a 5v5 team will get 1055. I'm sure most players were already aware of this but I thought I'd just refresh your memory or help clear it up for newbies to world of warcraft.

 So What's the best Arena Class combination?

 Technically, no class is better than another. However, it is clear that some classes are considered more useful than others but which class that is largely depends on which bracket you're talking about.

 Below are some of the most popular class combinations for each bracket:

2v2

- Mage, Rogue - Dependent on both having good gear and teamwork to coordinate crowd control, but the burst damage can be insane and is one of best counters to the Warrior and Druid combo above.

- Warrior, Paladin - It's a match made in heaven, having a paladin eliminates pretty much all of a warriors shortcomings, make him hard to crowd control with spells like Cleanse and blessing of freedom. Combined with a paladins survivability and immunes and this one is fantastic.

- Druid, Warlock - Both having good survivability, the druids healing is great complement to the warlocks DoT's and to its drain life and Soul link (If demonology specced).

  Obviously there are many more setups which will work very well given the right players. These are the most common and the ones that you are most likely to face.

3v3

- Druid, Warlock, Warrior - Arguably the strongest combination in the game. When facing a team like this be prepared for a long match. With a lot of sustained damage, not just nuking at the start.

- Retribution Paladin, Warrior, Resto Shaman - A rare combination but a powerful one none the less. The windfury gives a huge damage boost to the Dps while the opposition has trouble killing any one target as they all have high survivability. Healers beware the fatal hammer of justice as it's ussually followed by every member of the team blowing their cooldowns to nuke you.

- Rogue, Druid, Warrior - Once again a powerful combination with rogues now having quite high survivability. Very high Dps from this setup but it can have problems against a paladin, where Blessing of Protection will yield both DPS classes useless.

- Rogue, Mage, Priest - Ouch. The most common combination and one of the most difficult to face. Be prepared not only for some serious nuking at the start but throughout the game, as this team can drop anyone at anytime in about 6secs, if the healer gets feared. You've just got to try and survive as once the mage starts running out of mana the team will weaken.

 For 3v3 there are way too many combinations to mention. So I mentioned what teams I had the most success in. You will find a warrior in most 3v3 teams but the mortal strike debuff isn't crucial.

5v5

 For 5v5 most class combinations will work providing there is balance. Ussually, 2 healers, 1 Dps/utility, 1 Dps and a warrior. I specifically say Warrior not because I am one but because you've got a  97% chance to come up against one in 2000+ rated teams.

 The 3 least utilized classes in 5v5 are Druids, shamans and warlocks. Druids and shamans are great in lower brackets but 5v5 gets more use from classes with a clearly defined role, not hybrids. Warlocks are not very popular because unlike most classes they have no direct way of saving themselves and so will often be the first target for a team (A mage has iceblock for example).

 Read this and decided you need to re-roll? Is your class not giving you satisfaction anymore? Make sure you check out our leveling guides section for reviews on all the best guides.