Ok I know this is *pure* theorycraft as nobody knows what the next talent tiers will uncover, but in the spirit of a bit more "fun" since there are quite a lot of very serious threads up here at the moment, I thought I'd chuck this out there.

What do you think will be your favoured/standard groups in 2v2 Arena PvP? I know you'll get 4 spots, so stick 4 classes up if you have to, but I'm really trying to think of what the hardest 2 man team to beat will be.

I'm looking forward to rolling with shaman/hunter - but I can imagine a lot of teams not leaving home without a mage or lock for their CC.

Guess we'll see whether multi-shaman teams are as good as they have proved in PvP up to this stage.

Warrior/Paladin, or for that matter Anything/Paladin will be a pretty tough combo to beat.

Paladin + mage

:)

I'm pretty sure there is going to be a ton of new abilities and this will change your perception totally on class value in arena teams. Bloodlust?

Yeah, this is pure theorycraft since all the classes will be changing in nontrivial ways, but it's still a potentially entertaining discussion.

Shaman + Soul Link warlock would be really unpleasant to face.

Edit: How about we offer some explanation instead of just listing pairs. Per the above, yeah, paladin + any heavy DPS class will be nasty, because at least for some period of time, you can't stop the paladin from keeping the DPS class up while he bursts down one of the opposition. Forcing the paladin to pop his bubble early will pretty much be the key there.

I like shaman+lock because they're both quite hardy, and have a lot of tools at their disposal. Between grounding, spell lock, devour, and earth shock, they can cause casters serious problems. The shaman has great burst healing, and if he's endgame-geared can have around 7k armor. The warlock has the CC you'd need, and can have dots ticking away the opponents' life during what will most likely be a protracted fight.

With the competition in the 2v2 Arena, I think CC will be very handly.

So Mage/High DPS class should do well.

However, 2 Shaman should be tough to beat, since they can counter a lot of stuff.

With 2v2 bracket, basically 4 people that don't suck should do very well, no matter what the class is.

Today ?
Paladin/Warrior will best most groups. Only warlock/warlock, Mage/Shaman or Mage/Mage would seriously trouble Paladin/Warrior. Shaman/Warrior is similar but the bubble is just too good, especially because in 2v2 the "assist train" as such is not going to punish slow paladin heals as badly.

Expansion ?
Who knows, warrirors could be in for a severe nerf, paladin roles may totally change.
If paladins reamain a tank/healer combo they will still be the perfect partner for a durable dps class.

Edit:
Expanded as per Gurgthok's Edit.
If you are in a dedicated pairing you can ensure that the opponents first heal will always be met by stun/intercept or pummel unless under natures swftness. Between 2 class fear breaks, clense, and BoF the warrior cant really be stopped from interrupting the heal except possibly with deathcoil. Then the paladin stun can kick in effectively denying your opponent up to 10second of healing and at least 4/5 seconds. finally the warrior throws on intmidating shout to paralize the victim for another 3-5seconds. The partner will have to either target the paladin, in which case he can bubble, or the warrior which feed the warrior rage. 7-10 seconds is a LONG time in pvp to burst down someone as a warrior, even with 7k armor with the paladin able to drop some controled burst damage along with the warrior its going to be hard to survive.

With a shaman/lock combination it would probably read something like:
Warrior charge, bezerker rage, pummel first heal. Once the pummel is in stun the second heal spell or when NS is cast, the shaman will probably trinket but has still lost 2-3seconds, when you throw on the warrior fear to paralize. the warlock cant really do anything about this except deathcoil the warrrior.

What is going to kill a paladin/warrior pairing is if you interrupt the paladin heal while having the ability to burst down the warrior, this is where a Shaman/Shaman, Mage/Mage or a Shaman/Mage conbination will really shine.

yeah druid and a paladin will drain a lot of dps from your opponents before refreshing your mana and health :)

If we're sticking to 2v2, i think a soullink warlock and a feral/resto druid would be quite hard, esp with a felhunter out.

Would be nice of they added stormcrow form at level 70 :)

Yeah, mage+mage matches up favorably against most groups. If they lack enough "outs" against CC, that's a win right there. Against other groups the mages could pop timers and just burst one of the two down instantly, making the rest fairly easy cleanup.

I haven't PvP'd on my priest much, but given the existence of NS, & the amount of +healing gear available to a top shammy/druid these days I find it hard to see a spot for a priest in 2 man. Interesting that not one of these first few posts has picked priest.

Ouch. Swiftmend + the Defensive Plate class, that would be painful to DPS them down. Medium dps + Highest defense. Weak against Shadow Priest/Mages though.

However SL Lock + Shaman, has High dps and Good defense, might be weak against 2 Warriors.


I guess it matters how much dps/defense you want, and it is good you can have 4 players in your team, so you could change up your 2 fighting depending on what you enemy has in his team.

I've always had a lot of fun running with a Priest or a Pally in current BGs. I suspect in 2v2 the Pally will be a lot more useful.

Although, the thought of a Lock + Shammy combo is pretty interesting. I wasn't so hot for the horde-pally/alliance-shammy additions at first, but this might make it all alright.

Edit: Adding a little explanation to the Lock + Shammy idea. I suspect I might be biased because I've never had the chance to play on the same team as a Shammy, but as a lock, I know that I have, as a lock, a lot of options in PVP, not just different specs, but a lot of utility, and I really enjoy taking on other casters/healers. From my experience on the receiving end, Shammy also have a lot of utility, and can cause a lot of trouble for mele classes.

2 fire mages...rolling ignites...PoM Pyroblasts...

And then theres frost mages and our novas/iceblocks/shatter.

Although i think against comparably skilled and equipped teams, 2 players of the same class, or at least the same spec, would have a hard time against hybrid combos

In a 2-man I would think the priest would have to be shadow to provide more utility to the team with silence and blackout. Priest + Mage should be alright.

i think its related alot to the fact that priests are pretty squishy... altho a priest who could land a mind control might make a fight interesting ;)

There's a similar thread on the FoH forums and someone said that their guild did extensive testing of this with level 60s and the clear winner was warrior + paladin.

We had a serverwide 2v2 tournament and a Rogue/Priest team won, actually. Granted, the rogue had a Thunderfury, which makes a large difference versus plate classes.

ha yeah there's the #1 ability I've been neglecting in PvP :rolleyes:

It is difficult to see what gets past 2 mages unless a pally shield manages to get up in just enough time to spoil all their cooldowns, in which case suddenly the tables are turned.

If you're a two-mage team you obviously don't try to burst down the paladin first. :P

The tricky matchup for two mages would be paladin+frost mage. That one doesn't end well for the two mages, I think.

Paladins will probably be quite strong in 2v2, where as Judia said there won't usually be enough DPS to burn a target down through Paladin heals.

C/p-ing from a post I made in my realm forums:
I am actually kind of curious how they will handle profession items, particularly engineering and potions. You can do a hell of a lot if you're willing to spend the gold on mass consumables - a lot like raiding, actually. The other grey area is in outside buffs; full Greater Blessings + Hakkar/dragonhead buffs + Soulstones on every team member before each game, plzkthx.

The two big losers as far as an arena format goes would seem to be Priests and Rogues. Both classes are quite fragile and aren't much better than more durable counterparts at their respective roles. As a Priest for whom the arena format is a dream come true, this is kind of frustrating, but I'll wait to see more about expansion abilities before I start planning my reroll. I'd do anything for Divine Shield as 41 Holy.

I think the goal will be stacking your team in order to produce lopsided matchups. Lots of Mages+Warlocks for heavy Magic CC; Warriors+Priests for Fear-based CC; Mages/Shamans/Locks for heavy magical burst; Windfury+Warriors/Rogues for heavy melee burst. The already mentioned Felhunter Locks + Shadow Priests for total caster denial. It just remains to be seen which stacked setup will be the least weak to other stacked setups.

How do you "test" pvp?

Paladin / Warrior - In their current form this would be one extremely difficult combination 2 mages could however beat it out, 2 warlocks even (who would have thought !).

Farstrider : No one picks a priests (at least not me (alliance)) because shamans are the anti-christ when it comes to priest. A well played Shaman will easily over come a well played priest in most situations (shaman running out of mana, <3 feedback for it's help, would be the only out for us) in a group situation it's even worse.

Also, Shaman / SL-Warlock would probably be the end all be all. Self-Rez / Soul-Stone 2x Hstones, your not going to be able to kill that. Shamans have the burst healing capabilities of a druid, and the fast heals that are as powerful as a priests with twice the armor. I don't see much that could counter that.