Your Joy Ride To Gladiator - The Best Comps For Your Class

Hello everybody!

Before we start with the interesting stuff I want to introduce myself real fast.
My name is Tehseus and I play a Retribution Paladin on the German Server Aegwynn. I am the guild leader of the biggest European pvp guild piRATS and you may have seen one of my movies at WCM.


As the end of Season 7 is drawing closer there once again appears the well known question: Which lineup would be best to push for Gladiator?
I will tell you from my personal experience what I believe are currently the best lineups to play for your spec. I will only cover 3v3 because obviously 2v2 doesn't reward Gladiator anymore and 5v5 is pretty much a mess since Wotlk.




Warrior


TSG (Warrior/Dk/Healer)

The most popular melee cleave-lineup of Wotlk is still one of the best choices for a Warrior. The brute force of DK/Warrior combined are every Priest's worst nightmare. Strangulate into Bladstorm is sometimes enough to drop somebody on the enemy's team not to mention the DK/Warrior's peeling abilities are also godlike.

You should play this comp with a Paladin healer if possible because you want dispells and freedoms, but a druid also gets the job done.
RMP, Meleecleave and 2Heal lineups are good match ups for TSG, the one thing you should be careful with is Caster cleave.

Summa summarum, this is probably the best comp to play if you don't like cheesy Double healer-lineups.


Double Heal (Warrior/Healer/Healer) aka Skill Cleave

The safest lineup for a Gladiator title. Even though its not as good as it used to be at the end of s6 you can still outlast basically everything playing with Holy pala/Resto shaman. With Disc priest instead of Shaman its even cheesier, considering you have double dispell and manaburn on top of offensive dispells. You can probably even ad a druid to the rooster as long as you keep one dispeller in.

Sum: If you want to see you skill increase radically try this comp, it's magical!


WLD (Warrior/WarLock/Druid)


Being one of the most FOTM lineups back in BC, this lineup still gets the job done in s7. Because you have no dispell (except 1 debuff with Felhunter every 8 seconds) or freedom, this lineup requires more skill then most of the other ones. You need to be on top of your game with spellreflects, focus intervene/charge/pummel to play it to its full extend.
You can also play the comp with Holypaladin, but because this is more of an outlast comp. Druid definitely works better. Against CC Teams paladin lacks in the lategame.

Sum: If you want to do something for your title and have a great warlock, do it!


Some more good lineups Warrior/Ret/Druid, Warrior/Ele/Pala, Warrior/Enhancementshaman/Druid, etc...
Note:  I won't cover Protwarriors in this blog considering most pvpers don't have the gear to play this spec anyway.





Rogue


RMP (Rogue/Mage/Priest)

The unarguable most popular lineup of all time is still the best way to go as a Rogue. The synergy of these 3 classes is nowhere to be found in any other lineup. MLG Anaheim was won by Buttonbashers and with RMP being one of the lineup with the highest skill cap the Koreans proved that Skill>All after all.
On live servers RMP is nowhere as dominant where it used to be but thats mostly because you need awesome team play to succeed.

Sum: If you have skilled mates and good team play go for it!


RLS (Rogue/Warlock/Shaman)

Fairly good lineup with great burst! A bloodlusted warlock/rogue can really rip somebody apart in seconds. The weak point of this lineup is the enemy team zerging the shaman. With no defensive cooldowns and no HoS a Shaman is blown up easily by any decent cleave or RMP.

Sum: If Rogue Lock know how to support give it a shot!


Rape is legal in Texas (Rogue/Ret/Priest)

This comp is by no means an outlast-comp.  You really need to kill something quickly or the Rogue will run out CDs. Pull the momentum on your side right away or it may and bad. Priest/Warlock/Warrior zerg recommended!

Sum: You need a good Ret, then the zergfest can begin!


All in all rogue is probably one of the weaker classes right now and I can't really think of another lineup worth mentioning. I've heard about Rogue/Feral/Priest being decent but I haven't faced this comp on high ratings lately. Instant cyclone/blind combo sounds deadly tho.






Death Knight


Shadowcleave (DK/Warlock/Druid)

A lineup with amazing outlast capability. DK/Warlock both deal lots of DoT damage, combined with the amazing peels from warlock and DK this comp is the best one when it comes to long games. Once the Dots start rolling the enemy healer will struggle to keep up with the pressure and with a well placed strangulate the games can even end rather fast sometime. Dumping runic power in Unholy presence with Death coils can be scary as well.

Sum: Great combo, probably the only real Caster cleave counter. Considering the amount of Caster cleaves playing on live servers right now definitely a great combo to choose!


PHD (Paladin/Hunter/DK)


Great combo with amazing burst. Good against RMP and Melee cleave, and not even that bad against Caster cleave either.
With freedom on DK this lineup just destroys Mages almost as bad as Beast cleave.

Sum: If you can find a good hunter this is definitely one of the best lineups you can play!


TSG (Warrior/DK/Healer)

^^^ See comp description above.






Hunter


Beast cleave (BM-Hunter/Enhancement- Shaman/Paladin)

This lineup is commonly known as THE faceroll lineup. With HoF on Shaman and BW on Hunter you got two bloodlusted DDs going crazy on a target with  4 pets assisting them. If the enemies can survive the bloodlust phase and outlasts the Paladins CDs you might be in trouble but thats not likely to happen most of the time.


Hunter/Ret/Healer

Sick burst is only one of the things that makes this lineup great. When you play with a Shaman you have grounding/shock which is great against Caster cleave when you also have the Hunter tunnel one cloth wearer as MM.
You can also replace the Shaman with a Priest or a Druid. With a Priest you have double dispell which is great against certain lineups. With a Druid you have more outlast power and more CC if your druid knows how to cyclone.


Hunter/Warlock/Healer

This lineup brings pretty hard burst to the table considering the Hunter is MM and the Warlock Destro. You can play this line-up with every healer, preferable you wanna go with Paladin or Druid tho.


PHD (Paladin/Hunter/DK)

Same as above.


I can also imagine Hunter/Feral/Healer doing well, but I haven't faced this lineup yet.






Mage


RMP (Rogue/Mage/Priest)

^^^ See comp description above.


Caster cleave (Caster/Caster/Healer)

The strongest kind of lineup currently playing on live servers is without a doubt Caster cleave. It has (apart from maybe Shadowcleave) no hard counter, has amazing control, stupidly sick burst and even great outlasting potential.
A Mage can play a number of good Caster cleave lineups, the best are: Mage/Warlock/Shaman, Mage/Ele/paladin and Mage/Warlock/Druid. You could basically replace every healer of this lineups with another one and it would still be good.

Sum: If you wan't to play THE FOTM lineup of s7 go for it, CC dominates right now!


Correct me if I'm wrong but I think apart of these Mage has no really viable comp to go for glad. Maybe Feral/Mage/Priest





Warlock


Shadowcleave (Warlock/DK/Druid)

^^^ See comp description above.


RLS (Rogue/WarLock/Shaman)

^^^ See comp description above.


WLD (Warrior/WarLock/Druid)

^^^ See comp description above.


Castercleave (Warlock/Caster/Healer)

Same as above, best line ups are: Lock/Mage/Shaman, Lock/Ele/Pala.






Priest (Disciplin)


RMP (Rogue/Mage/Priest)

^^^ See comp description above.


Castercleave (Caster/Caster/Cleave)

Same as above, best comps are: Mage/Warlock/Priest, Mage/Ele/Priest.


Doubleheal (Pala/Warrior/Priest)

Same as above.


There are many other comps a priest can play highrated, however I feel those 3 are the best atm.






Priest (Shadow)


Castercleave (Shadow/Caster/Healer)

Well I have rarely seen Shadowpriest Caster cleaves lately, but I am sure they also work.


Shadowplay (Shadow/Afflilock/Shaman)

Popular comp back in TBC, not close to as good as it used to be but still decent. Pretty insane DoT pressure if your Shaman survives long enough.

Sum: You'd rather want to play Caster cleave, good Afflis are almost as rare as good Shadows.


I can't think of more decent shadow combos. I faced an Shadow/Rogue/Holypala Team on 2500 some weeks ago, but I am not sure of how good the combo really is.





Druid (Resto)


Shadowcleave (Dk/Warlock/Druid)

^^^ See comp description above.


Castercleave (Caster/Caster/Druid)

^^^ See comp description above. The best one for sure is Warlock/Mage/Druid.


TSG (Warrior/Dk/Druid)

^^^ See comp description above.


There are some more viable comps for a druid to play, however I feel these are the best.




Druid (Feral)


Daanzka Cleave (Feral/Mage/Priest)

Yiska wrote about this lineup being pretty good. I never faced it so I can't really say much about it but it sure sounds good on paper. Massive CC with instant cyclones, sheeps, fears and CS/bearcharge/bash sounds good.


Feral/Rogue/Priest

I also haven't played against this one for some them, but I can imagine Rogue and Feral just destroying cloth. With blind/instant cyclone and fear you have solid CC to + rogue and druid both receive 20 % extra healing which helps the priest keeping up.


Also feral surely has some more viable comps, but I believe these 2 are best atm.






Druid (Balance)


To be honest I haven't seen a Moonkin in arena for ages, at least not at high rating, but I think thats more because of there just are very few good Moonkins out there.
There would surely be some Caster cleave lineups in which Moonkin would to very well, such as Mage/Moonkin/Shaman,  Moonkin/Warlock/Shaman or Moonkin/Warlock/Paladin.










Shaman (Resto)


Castercleave (Caster/Caster/Shaman)

Same as above, best one would definatly be Mage/Lock/Shaman.


RLS

Same as above.


Doubleheal (Shaman/Paladin/Warrior)

Same as above.


Ret/Shaman/Hunter

Same as above.





Shaman (Enhancement)


Beastcleave (Enhanc./Bm-Hunter/Paladin)

^^^ See comp description above.


Warrior/Druid/Enhanc.

This combo is almost as deadly in terms if dmg output as Beast cleave. The Warrior is easily CCed here tho.



 






Shaman (Elemental)


Castercleave (Ele/Caster/Healer)

^^^ See comp description above. By far the easiest way to go.


Ele/Warrir/Pala

Pretty solid comb. It has great burst with bloodlusted Shaman and Warrior, and also great defense against melees (Tripple heavy armor).





Paladin (Holy)


Caster cleave

Same as above. Best one: Paladin/Ele/Mage.


PHD

Same as above.


TSG

Same as above.






Paladin (Retribution)


Ret/Hunter/Heal

Same as above.


Ret/Rogue/Priest

Same as above.


Ret/Warrior/Druid

Now this lineup is stronger than most people probably give it credit for. You can basically beat everything with it if you play it right. I played it to 2600 with relative ease this season, and it really has some great offense as well as outlast potential. The burst you can pull off is also pretty insane with Bladestrom/Wings combined, no priest will survive that even with PS up.

One spec that is also quiet common lately is Prot ret. You can basically play the same comps as with ret, the only difference is that you loose a little DPS, but gain 30 sec HoJ, Silence and more reliable burst.

Sum: Funny zerg combo which has a lot of potential. If you have a good Warrior and Druid you should definitely try this one.



I hope you liked my first attempt of writing a blog.
I want to add that I won't write here regularly, but you might hear from me from time to time!