Class Guide to arena's! Pro's and cons of every class and stragetes for each

[Unscrupulous]

Mists of Pandaria patch 5.1 Landfall is upon us and I have decided to put together a guide of every class and its place / viability in arenas. This guide will cover team comps, arena guides and of course guides for every class. It may take a few days for me to get everything I want up here so please bear with me while I complete this project.

Emphasis on this is a Work in progress
Up next will be warriors

Sorry about any mistakes so far, been writing these on the fly and are far from complete, pulling info from skillcapped, and arena junkies along with my own info. Please comment on any mistakes It will be greatly appreciated. I play a Hpally and a Frost Mage so I do not have as much experience with these other classes in pvp and am pulling from other resources.

2s Comps

Every season the easiest way to cap conquest each week without losing any of your all important 3s rating is to do 2s. These are fast pace, quick thinking matches where less team coordination and more cc is required to win. The two basic comps in any arena are dps + healer or all dps. In 2s either way is perfectly viable although from previous experience I tend to lean towards double dps.

When playing double dps keep in mind that you will need to watch your health closely to call for your partner to off heal you or to use a healthstone. There is nobody there to save you so play defensive, pop your CD's without hesitation if you think you are being focused because with double dps you are essentially along healing wise. The better comps for double dps at the moment are

1. Feral + Rogue
2. Mage + Lock
3. Mage + Warrior
4. Warlock + Shadow Priest
5. DK + Feral

These are some of the more well known comps out there and if played well can go far beyond a simple weekly cap team. There are also a few comps that should be avoided if possible, because of the lack of similarity between the two classes.

1. Elemental shaman + DK
2. Elemental Shaman + Rogue
3. WW Monk + Shaman
4. WW Monk + Lock

These comps do not carry much power in 2s because of the lack of available CC, take the WW Monk + Shaman for instance, while the monk can stun for a few seconds you can easily trinket a stun have them in a fear and nuke his partner before he even knows what happened because of the CD's on many of his stuns including the panda racial ability.

Mage in 2s

Mages have been notorious for being left unerfed for a very long time in pvp and at the moment are in a very good place in 2s. With plenty of CC,

1. Deep freeze
2. Polymorph
3. Ring of Frost
4. Coutnerspell
5. Cone of Cold
6. Pet Freeze
7. Frost Nova

You almost always have a way to keep an enemy away from you, stunned or silenced. My personal favorite is a deep freeze into a sheep into a frost nova and then drop a ring of frost onto them and once it expires have my partner fear them all the while nuking his partner.

Another strength of mages in 2s is their ability to start out stealthed using invisibility coupled with being able to use pet freeze without breaking stealth leads to a very powerful opener, sheeping the healer or the stronger of the 2 and then nuking + deep freeze the main target forcing a trinket early by the healer or forcing him to blow all his CD's when the sheep wears off which if it does your partner should have available CC to let you finish the job. When playing a mage, always remember that you have ice block available for when you are being hit very hard, it will grant you invulnerability and if you spec into cold snap you should reset its CD while in the block so that you do not waste the Global later during a fight.

Talents for a mage, are the same for 2s and 3s but depending on the comp you are facing they can differ slightly.
Commonly used talents are

1. Ice Flows - great for kiting melee
2. Ice Barrier - The best shield by far in the game
3. Ring of Frost - Keep a target CC'd even longer
4. Cold Snap - ability to get two ice blocks
5. Frost Bomb - Very strong when it explodes on a deep freezed target
6. Incanter's Ward - Another shield, what more can you ask for

Advantages to playing a mage

1. Kiting is amazing
2. Lots of CC
3. Good defensives
4. Huge Burst
5. Viable with most comps

Disadvantages to playing a mage

1. Squishy once CD's are gone
2. Alot of mages out there
3. Hard to think of many reasons :P

Basic Rotation

1. To be insterted soon

When picking your 2s partner a mage is paired well with a warlock for fear and sheep as great CC's, with a boomkin for fantastic burst and excellent silences, mages also run well with any healer although paladins and resto druids are very strong this season and should be taken first over a priest. Keep in mind that when playing with a healer you will always find yourself looking for that extra dps to down your kill target because it is just you. A good clean kill will come from coordinating your CC's with your healer such as having your Hpally line up a stun right after you sheep so that you have as much time as possible to hit your main target. Also sheeping / peeling off the healer will be required to let your healer stay focused on you and not on himself.

Druids in 2s

Druids have been put in a good place healing and dps wise this expansion and have risen to some very high rankings because of this. Some of the good 2s comps for druids are

1. RDdruid + Warrior
2. Boomkin + Mage
3. Feral + Rogue
4. Feral + Warrior
5. Resto Druid + Warlock or Mage

All of these comps rely on the druids ability to play multiple rolls, keeping cyclones up when necessary, getting a stun on a target through displacer beast + pounce and of course keeping his partner alive. If you chose to play boomkin keep in mind that while you can put out a ton of damage, it is best to roll with a mage because of Symbiosis giving you mirror images. While druids have fewer CC's then other classes you have

1. Cyclone
2. Roots
3. Solar Beam
4. Tyfoon
5. Disorenting Roar

Druids also have another great ability, Symbiosis, here is a complete breakdown of what you get from every other class as a boomkin


Balance gets -

Death Knight - Anti-Magic Shell
Hunter - Misdirection
Mage - Mirror Image
Monk - Grapple Weapon
Paladin - Hammer of Justice
Priest - Mass Dispel
Rogue - Cloak of Shadows
Shaman - Purge
Warlock - Unending Resolve
Warrior - Intervene

Balance Gives-

Death Knight
Blood - Might of Ursoc (15%)
Frost / Unholy - Wild Mushroom: Plague

Hunter
Dash

Mage
Healing Touch (10s cd)

Monk
Brewmaster - Survival Instincts (25%/6s)
Windwalker - Bear Hug
Mistwalker - Entangling Roots

Paladin
Holy - Rebirth
Retribution - Wrath
Protection - Barkskin (10%/6s)

Priest
Discipline / Holy - Cyclone
Shadow - Tranquility (usable in shadowform)

Rogue
Growl

Shaman
Elemental / Enhancement - Solar Beam
Resto - Prowl

Warlock
Rejuvenation

Warrior
Arms / Fury - Stampeding Shout
Protection - Savage Defense (2min cd)


While druids do not have as much of a chance to keep an ememy off them, with abilities such as shape-shifting which makes your immune to being sheeped, your ability to survive against mages increases dramatically. Abilities such as Feral Charge and Dash allow you to close the gap between you and your enemy much faster than melee classes such as paladins.

The suggested specs for a druid of each class are as follows

Reso

1. Displacer Beast - Allows for fast jumping behind a healer and pounce for a stun
2. Nature's Swiftness - Allows for instant healing touch or a instant cyclone on a target
3. Typhoon - Bit of a ranged interrupt also useful for blowing people off a bridge
4. Incarnation - Allows for tree form, a must have
5. Mighty Bash - A stun, who dosent want a stun?
6. Natures Vigil - 20% larger heals

Boomkin

1. Wild Charge - Jump to your partner to escape
2. Nature's Swiftness - Instant finisher or heal or cyclone
3. Typhoon - Bit of a ranged interrupt also useful for blowing people off a bridge
4. Incarnation - More Powerful moonkin form
5. Mighty Bash - Another stun
6. Nature's Vigil - More dps = more wins

Kitty

1. Displacer Beast - Stun from a prowl pounce
2. Nature's Swiftness - Instant cyclone
3. Typhoon - Know people off bridges, interupt
4. Incarnation - More powerful cat form
5. Mighty Bash - Stun
6. Nature's Vigil - More dps!

How to deal damage as a Boomkin

Balance Druids have the ability to deal damage in a few different ways, almost like Shadow Priests but better Our two ways of dealing damage are Direct, and Spread.

Direct: *The best eclipse to be in when you want to deal high single target damage to a target is Lunar. Make sure your kill target has both Moonfire and Sunfire on it. Use your on-use trinket > Starfall then cast Starfire. If you get a Shooting Star proc use the instant Starsurge right after you cast Starfire for a large amount of burst.

Spread: The goal is to get Moonfire and Sunfire on every target you can as well as pets. This is because A. all targets are now taking damage which is making their healer either dispel or heal more and B. More Dots means more [Shooting Star] procs. Use your on-use trinket coupled with Starfall with everyone DoTed for large spread pressure. Either eclipse will help

When playing a druid it is important to remember that you are focusing on one roll. It is fine that you can do melee, ranged and heal but trying to learn all 3 at one time can be challenging. I suggest picking the one you like the best and sticking to it, because at the moment every druid spec is pvp viable with resto being ahead.

Pros

1. Flexable
2. Stealth to start fights
3. High burst when uniterupted
4. HoT's so less casting while healing
5. Undispellable CC
6. Lots of defensives

Cons

1. Often focused

When picking your 2s partner a druid is paired well with a mage because of the amount of CC's, and with a warrior for fantastic burst and excellent pressure. If you run feral running with a healer is advisable because the fights may take a little bit of wearing down but when running boomkin running with a class such as a mage or lock or warrior or ret pally with very high burst is fantastic. Keep in mind that when playing with a healer you will always find yourself looking for that extra dps to down your kill target because it is just you. A good clean kill will come from coordinating your CC's with your healer such as having your Hpally line up a stun right after you cyclone so that you have as much time as possible to hit your main target. Also stunning / silencing is invaluable when keeping pressure off of your healer!


Deathknights (Thank's to Storm301)

Comps to play:
DK + Any healer
DK + Frost Mage
DK + Warrior
DK + Feral

Comps to avoid:
DK + Any class or player that can't survive well on their own. If you are both fairly self sufficient you will have a lot more success.

Spec's to play:

Frost
Pro's - Very high sustained dps, good burst all the time, amazing burst if RNG is in your favor.
Con's - Very easy to kite, and when you're being kited you're practically useless

Unholy
Pro's - High burst when using cooldowns, much higher dps than frost when people are kiting you. diseasing and line of siting a caster team can actually become part of your strategy.
Con's - Lower sustained dps than frost. "better at kiting/not being kited" is all relative. it's better than other specs, but you'll still be the most easily kited class in the game.

Blood (lol)
Pro's - you'll 1v2 teams at lower ratings
Con's - you won't break 1500

Talents:
Tier 1 - It's a tossup I use Unholy blight, but I could see how Plague leech could be useful if used correctly to get in that one last hit for a killing blow.
Tier 2 - Lichborne, If you know you're going to be focused you can save up the runic power to do some beast healing, or you can pop it when you're going in for the kill on a lock,priest, or warrior team, and stop them from peeling you with a fear.
Tier 3 - Chillblains, Basically you now chains of ice when you howling blast, and you completely immobilze them when you chains of ice
Tier 4 - Death Pact, it's the only one thats useful in PVP or PVE in any situation
Tier 5 - Blood Tap - I know that Runic Empowerment procs the most sustained dps, but in PVP it's all about the burst. being able to save up for 1 extra obliterate will make the difference when you go in for the kill. Especially when you're hitting for 40k even on the most geared players.
Tier 6 - Remorseless winter, This is one of the most important parts of my killshot.

Basic strategy:
1.) Always keep everything slowed/rooted as often as you can. Both so that you can stay on the target, and so the targets will stay off your partner if you're with a range/healer. With chillblains this is as simple as just howling blasting occasionally.
2.) Go into self healing mode if you're being focused.
3.) Be ready to peel with death grip + chains of ice if your partner is being focused.
4.) Against a 2 dps team you will want to use your CC mostly defensively and try to win the battle of attrition
5.) Against a healer team you will want to use your CC early so the healer trinkets (and bubbles if it's a pally). next time around you'll go in for the kill:
Chains of ice -> remorseless winter -> Go ahead and mind freeze if they heal right here -> Soul Reaper right now is a good idea -> Strangulate the next heal -> Any stuns/CC your partner has -> Mind freeze should be up again -> They're dead unless their partner is a pro at peeling.

Priest's

In the current season, if you want to seriously pvp, go shadow. While disc was fun to play in Cata and holy was crap. Disc has been shot in the face and while holy is kinda viable its not really viable above 1500 due to your lack of defensive CD's so this guide will focus mainly on shadow

Talents

1. Psyfiend - Swap it with Void Tendrils if you want, both are equally good
2. Phantasm - Remute snares and immune for 3 sec is amazing
3. From Darkness, Comes Light - Free mind spikes that do not clear dots!
4. Angelic Bulwark - 20% HP auto cast shield
5. Divine Insight - Free instant cast cooldown resetting mind blast!
6. Halo - Get enemies out of stealth, compressed in arenas so it will hit often

Comps to play:

1. Spriest + Lock
2. Spriest + DK
3. Spriest + Resto Druid
4. Spriest + Mage
5. In 3s Godcomp is Resto druid, Frost mage Spriest

Just somebody with survivability and CC

What to avoid, running with a teammate who can not survive long enough to dot up both targets and start to put out pressure. Such as an elemental shaman or a WW Monk

When running as a Spriest you do not have insane burst, instead surviving long enough to build up dots and line up CD's is the key to a fight. Always remember that in a tight spot you have dispersion to survive a team focusing you. Also when fighting melee using your Psychic Horror will disarm them allowing you to have some time to yourself while he has no weapon. During a burst on your partner a silence can be invaluable and a correctly placed physic fear can separate the opposing team to different parts of the map allowing you to freely cast on the target while they partners are on the other side of the arena.

Pros

1. Survivability and huge off heals
2. Long term pressure
3. Dots and more dots
4. Silences and fears all the time
5. Disarm
6. Short cooldown on all defensives

Cons

1. Dots can be dispelled
2. Dispersion, if misused can break the match
3. Not many stuns
4. Burst comes after working up for a bit with dots

All in all the Spriest is in a fantastic place right now and is in high demand for 3s. If you are playing a priest this is the spec to go for pvp atm!


Paladins Holy and Ret

As always in arenas paladins will be running holy or ret, any paladin running prot will not be getting very far , because of the lack of pressure that a prot pally can put out.

Holy -

Talents

1. Pursuit of Justice - Constant movement speed increase
2. Repentance - ranged stun
3. Sacred Shield - Place it to migate damage on a focus target
4. Clemency - able to use hand of freedom twice
5. Divine Purpose - Procs in a row can be fantastic
6. Holy Prism - Single target heal, better than having to time a hammer or keep your team in your aoe

Rotations with Holy Shock (HS) whenever it is off CD.

Our healing is based off our Holy Power (HP) and mana conservation to do this I use Beacon of Light (BoL) on the main tank and Holy Light as much as possible (spamming it to no end) the reason is the beacon target receives 100% of the heal on top of your target, your heal just doubled in its efficiency on top of being a mana conservation. Divine Light should only be used on your beaconed target as this will generate 1 HP (there are one off situations where another person needs a DL).

Our Strengths

Holy Pally's real strength lies in being a reactionary healer, we see something happen and fix it, we are provided with such strong single target heals that we are often relied on as tank healers. With the change in MoP with HP we are much more versatile once we adapt to the changes, if you have noticed that resto shamans are coming out on top over your heals it is because you are missing the key point: HP is more then a instant burst of healing with EF, use your holy power when there is massive AoE damage going out with LoD, we have enough normal healing spells that are high single target as is to not worry about burst damage too much with HP.

Our weaknesses:

Holy Pally's biggest downfalls are mana conservation and raid positioning, I have touched on why mana is such a huge issue with the cost of spells, but I want to talk about how to counteract this, HP, our abilities are based around HP and should be utilized as much as possible, Holy Shock (HS) should be used every time it is up (even if there isn't anyone to heal), Holy Radiance (HR) generates a HP also but is expensive, Divine Light (DL) and Flash of Light (FoL) both generate a HP when used on a beaconed target, Crusader Strike if you are in melee and need HP for LoD you can rack it up quickly with multiple abilities.

Always remember that Holy Shock is not just a burst single target heal, it is also an AoE heal if used after a HR

Retribution

Talents

1. Long Arm of the Law - near 100% uptime great gap closer
2. Fist of Justice - Stun
3. Selfless Healer - Added burst heals in tight situations
4. Clemency - great dot cleave counter
5. Divine Purpose - controlled burst
6. Holy Prism - Burst oriented

Edited by Vanguardy on 9/18/12 5:02 PM (PDT)



Trinkets
Unless you're human obviously you would use the trinket that removes all impairing effects.
For your second trinket, I recommend the on use + resilience trinket. On demand burst, PvP Power and high resil. How great!

General Arena Tips

Ret is a very strange spec, it's place in arena is rather vague. We have good burst damage during wings, but outside of that we're a bit gimped. We have INSANE off heals and good support, but we're also incredibly easy to CC as a melee class which throws everything off.
As a ret pally, you always have to remember you ARE NOT a warrior. You need to watch your partners the entire game. Do not waste your extremely insane off heals, freedom, BOP, Sac. You are a support class that can burst once every 2 minutes! In an arena match my eyes are on my party screen the most.
If you are playing with a DK or Warrior or Rogue, be considerate about your freedom. In 3s, I almost NEVER freedom myself. You can cleanse most of your roots, and my death knight can kill people around 2 times faster than me, why would you freedom yourself.

Rotation - in progress


Warlocks - in progress

Warlocks have been called overpowered since MoP came out, demonology can survive for a extremely long time also allowing for high pressure after building up power

I have not had a ton of time lately so I posted this video that I will be pulling info from when I have a chance




Monks - in progress

Warriors - in progress

Shamans - in progress

Hunters - in progress

Rogues - in progress

[Ravnie]

Heart of the Wild for resto does NOT give bigger heals.

[Storm301]

Very nice guide so far. I'll add in my 2 cents on playing a DK in 2's (1500-1800 rating +/-, it is very difficult to get passed that on a DK though, of course I could just be bad, but I have been on 2k+ teams with other classes in previous seasons)

FYI: This guide is mostly for someone who wants an easier time capping their conquest every week. I would recommend choosing another class if you're shooting for 2200.

Comps to play:
DK + Any healer
DK + Frost Mage
DK + Warrior
DK + Feral
(For 3v3 take any of the above DPS comps and add a healer)

Comps to avoid:
DK + Any class or player that can't survive well on their own. If you are both fairly self sufficient you will have a lot more success.

Spec's to play:

Frost
Pro's - Very high sustained dps, good burst all the time, amazing burst if RNG is in your favor.
Con's - Very easy to kite, and when you're being kited you're practically useless

Unholy
Pro's - High burst when using cooldowns, much higher dps than frost when people are kiting you. diseasing and line of siting a caster team can actually become part of your strategy.
Con's - Lower sustained dps than frost. "better at kiting/not being kited" is all relative. it's better than other specs, but you'll still be the most easily kited class in the game.

Blood (lol)
Pro's - you'll 1v2 teams at lower ratings
Con's - you won't break 1500

Talents:
Tier 1 - It's a tossup I use Unholy blight, but Plague leech could be useful if used correctly to get in that one last hit for a killing blow.
Tier 2 - Lichborne, If you know you're going to be focused you can save up the runic power to do some beast healing, or you can pop it when you're going in for the kill on a lock,priest, or warrior team, and stop them from peeling you with a fear.
Tier 3 - Chillblains, Basically you now chains of ice when you howling blast, and you completely immobilze them when you chains of ice
Tier 4 - Death Pact, it's the only one thats useful in PVP or PVE in any situation
Tier 5 - Blood Tap - I know that Runic Empowerment procs the most sustained dps, but in PVP it's all about the burst. being able to save up for 1 extra obliterate will make the difference when you go in for the kill. Especially when you're critting for 40k even on the most geared players.
Tier 6 - Remorseless winter, This is one of the most important parts of my killshot.

Basic strategy:
1.) Always keep everything slowed/rooted as often as you can. Both so that you can stay on the target, and so the targets will stay off your partner if you're with a range/healer. With chillblains this is as simple as just howling blasting occasionally.
2.) Go into self healing mode if you're being focused.
3.) Be ready to peel with death grip + chains of ice if your partner is being focused.
4.) Against a 2 dps team you will want to use your CC mostly defensively and try to win the battle of attrition
5.) Against a healer team you will want to use your CC early so the healer trinkets (and bubbles if it's a pally). next time around you'll go in for the kill:
Chains of ice -> remorseless winter -> Go ahead and mind freeze if they heal right here -> (Soul Reaper right now is a good idea) -> Strangulate the next heal -> (Pop lichborne if either of them could potentially fear you) -> Any stuns/CC your partner has -> Mind freeze should be up again -> They're dead unless their partner is a pro at peeling.

Bottom Line: DK's are one of the strongest in pvp when you get time to dps, but we're also one of the easiest in the game to kite. Our killing CC rotation is almost a guaranteed kill, as long as you can get your opponent to use their cooldowns first. It's very easy to play a DK to nearly the best of it's ability, but unfortunately many of your wins/losses will often be decided by how well the other team handles you, and not by how well you play.

Also by 1800 rating every team will know how to make you useless.

[Unscrupulous]

Sorry about any mistakes so far, been writing these on the fly and are far from complete, pulling info from skillcapped, and arena junkies along with my own info. Please comment on any mistakes It will be greatly appreciated. I play a Hpally and a Frost Mage so I do not have much experience with these other classes and am pulling from other resources

[MiloMcSpunkins]

Thanks man! Good to have all the info piled up here. +rep

[morrisamyu]

I play a Hpally and a Frost Mage so I do not have much experience with these other classes and am pulling from other resources

[Unscrupulous]

Monks - in progress

Warriors - in progress

Shamans - in progress

Hunters - in progress

Rogues - in progress

If you know one of these classes well please contact me to we can improve this guide, any classes I have up currently are also open to improvement

[Bonifacio]

This is great for a arena virgin like me! Keep updating it!

[Kester]

Best guide i ever readed! Made a user to comment on it. Great job man!