Best of Season 6
April 26, 2009 by Hodzy · 2 Comments
As always, with a new arena season comes new “cookie cutter” comps. This season, almost underway for a week has already seen the power of priests buffs and other class nerfs. Rogues are doing amazingly well, considering almost all other classes got
nerfed and they got a few minor buffs it puts them as one of the top classes this season.
Hunters and Warlocks make this section of the post. Warlocks didn’t get completely nerfed since destruction does a lot of damage and has survivability. Warlocks can no longer kill someone in a fear, have undispellable dots, and continually do damage out of line of site. You will still see some unstable affliction locks, but the population in top 100 will definitely decline. Hunters also took some heavy nerfs to survival. Playing with a hunter, they will be forced to wear raid gear to get their damage high enough to get a kill in. I expect both these classes to get some kind of mid season buffs.
2v2 Arena Tactics:
Priest / Rogue- This is the new paladin/dk comp. 44% of the top arena teams (sk-gaming.com 4/25) are running this comp. This comp did well last season if the rogue could wear full raid gear to burn
down a dk. Now, with all other classes nerfed and priests get huge survival/mana efficiency buffs this comp will probably be the majority of the 2v2 bracket until a future content patch.
Druid / Warrior- Warriors got huge buffs this season to arms including some nasty overpower changes that dominate healers. This team won’t be at its glory days of Burning Crusade arena but it will definitely be more popular this season in the higher ratings.
3v3
Arena Tactics:
Paladin / Warrior / Death Knight- I’m not sure how well this comp will do later on in the season, but with everyone running melee cleave teams this one is pretty good. I have seen a lot of these teams at high ratings, if the paladin can coordinate his CC along with a warriors fear this team can be pretty deadly.
Mage / Priest / Rogue- Ever since season two this team has been a dominate comp. This season with almost all other classes nerfed and priest are buffed, they will definatly dominate. On sk-gaming this comp already takes #1 in popularity for 3v3 bracket. The team has heavy CC and turns the game into a 3v2, combined with amazing controlled burst from both the rogue and the mage makes this a very strong comp.
Positioning in Arena
Positioning is the difference betwe
en a good player and a great player in arena. If you have ever watched one of the pro players PvP video and think you are doing everything they are doing, look at where they stand. PvE and PvP are alike in this aspect, except in PvE you can be told where to stand since the encounters are limited by an AI. With the new patch release, RMP returning to possibly the strongest they have ever been, positioning will be huge in 3v3 this coming season.
Preparing for switches (RMP):
What I usually like to do is focus the mage, then you can see the CC target which is the first sign of a switch. I’m
a shaman, so I end up shocking/grounding the mage anyway but the best positioning against RMP is hugging a pillar. Watch the mage’s target, if you start getting dispelled by the priest or the mage starts casting a Frost Bolt, the rogue will come on you shortly. If you think a switch is coming, stay out of line of site. A full kidney shot from a rogue combined with a shatter combo from a mage can usually finish most healers off if they don’t have a trinket. If you can keep out of LOS
from the mage you can usually cost them the game by countering the switch. Have your teammates try to CC the rogue and decrease the burst from the mage.
Playing Aggressively:
It’s true that this is important, for some comps a healer being aggressive is more important then others. When your team is going for a kill and need the healers help make sure it is well coordinated. Going out in the open to land a fear bomb or CC a healer is great but don’t let it cost you the game. Make sure that you are making the other team play defensive and don’t leave yourself out in the open if your team fails. Remember with the way arena burst is right now, one mistake will likely cost you the game.
