My main is a PVE resto Druid. I'd prefer Feral, but my guild needs healers more. When specced for it I'm a good to great tank or a decent to good healer in PVE... but I am simply awful at PVP. I just don't have the right attitude to be successful in the Arena as a healing Druid - I'm an aggressive player that likes to get in faces, hold attention and kill . My interface isn't good for it either - I can't recommend using mouseover grid as an arena healing technique to anyone, but I need it to raid and won't switch back and forth every time I queue. Hence my rating has reached the dizzy heights of 1550 despite having a rogue partner that made gladiator in season 3.

Feral spec being what it is I'm going to retire my Druid from PVP and level another character for the purpose. The new one will be solely for PVP, so won't be getting any raid gear and likely no badges.

In order of importance:
Does well in arena 2v2 with a weak to average player.
Does well in other arena sizes.
Does well partnered with a mage of similar standard.
Group desirability while in PVP spec
Farming ability while in PVP spec
Performance in Battlegrounds
Speed of levelling


Which class and race do you recommend I level?

Generally, there is no way out for you, whatever you level.

Without a decent interface, without a willingness to switch around, both technique and mindset, for Arena as opposed to raiding, you will not succeed.

I don't get the impression he wants to be "successful" in arenas, just wants to be the least worst given his skill/dedication level.

I don't really play enough different classes as to say which are least skill dependant to do averagely well, but I find my warrior to be pretty straightforward to play in pvp (not that I claim to be good), and with a arms/prot hybrid build you'd be able to tank well enough for 5 man groups, farm, etc.

The main criteria on your list that warrior doesn't make is being a good teamed with a mage, since warriors do best teamed with a healer, and can be quite weak without some kind of supporting partner.

Other than Warrior the other choice might be Rogue, but I've never played one, and I get the impression they are quite "skill dependant" and fiddly / twitchy to play, so might not be suitable for you.

Time for a post that will piss off a lot of people, probably. Anyways, I've played every class and most specs in this game, and have been able to get at least positive ratings on all of them, if that matters.

Warrior. You can probably get to 1800 without ever switching out of berserker stance... stance dancing is the only 'hard' part of playing a warrior in arena. Whatever skillfulness there is to playing a warrior is all based around tactical mastery, timing spell reflects, intervenes, and just generally knowing when to turtle up- but those are honestly only needed when fighting very good opponents. That said, there are plenty of bads who don't spec into tactical mastery, stay in berserker stance for entire matches and get high ratings anyway. That means you end up pressing about 5 buttons ever: Hamstring, Mortal Strike, Whirlwind, Pummel, and Intercept. It is not difficult. And if you die, just blame your healer, it's not your fault you stayed in berserker stance for that shatter combo.

Warlock. Don't get me wrong, the class has a lot things to get control over, a lot of micro management, huge complexity, but the ease comes from the downright boring simplicity of the SL/SL spec and most importantly, the complete lack of 'bad choices' they have. People joke about warlocks face rolling to victory, but of all the classes, they have the most leeway in choosing what to actually cast, and if they fuck up, no big deal, the spell that cast instead was probably 90% as effective in achieving their goal.

Rogue. Quite hard to master, but a good choice for people who may get overwhelmed with choices, I guess. Every page in the spell book has less than 1 page or skills and no more. I think assassination has like 7 abilities or something silly low like that. You can barely fill 2 hotbars, and after you blow your cooldowns (while very impotant strategy wise), there is very little left for you to do besides build up combo points and use finishing moves. All the skill in playing a rogue comes from timing your cooldowns, though.

While every class is very very difficult to master, the class that you can do the best with the least is warriors by far. Be an orc warrior with a mace and you will just win matches on the strength of mace stun + random procs.

Feral druid? not many skills to use, if you get below 50% go bear and dont worry about cyclone, it takes away from your dps... Anyone else think this thread is about to die?

One other suggestion, if you're willing to take the time to build it (and deal with the irritation of logging when switching roles) is to make a UI for PvE, and one for PvP. Duplicate your original WoW file, label the shortcut from the original PvE, and the shortcut from the dup PvP. Then start working on your interfaces for each.

It's not a perfect solution, but if you actually don't feel like rerolling, it's one way to think about.

I'd suggest not going warrior. Yes they're easy to play at a mediocre level but they fail at your other questions. Terrible group utility as PVP spec and will have difficulty finding groups. Does not partner with a mage well at all. Fun enough in BGs and easy to farm with but honestly not the best at either unless you have a healer, and for farming a warlock with healer is better.

Warlock I'd say is perfect except for the fact that I absolutely detest solo BG PVP with an SL/SL warlock. It's a spec that relies on a healer to be good, and while it is workable in solo PVP it's not really any fun because kills take forever, multiple melee on you means you cast dots and wait for death, and a healer on the opposing side means you do a whole lot of damage to a bunch of people but don't kill anyone.

I think rogue might be the answer as you can easily just mash your hemo button while keeping up shiv and stunning when you can. When my rogue was new and BGing with friends they'd just tell me what target they wanted to focus and I'd CS+KS on it and they'd burn it down. Easy to do and effective nomatter how bad you are. You'll get cockblocked pretty quickly if you can't play a rogue well because timing is very important, but for killing bads it's hard to go wrong. You bring sap and dps to a group, solo farming is easy as pie, and solo BGs are never more fun than as a rogue. They also work well with a mage. They and warlocks are probably the best teammates for a mage at low skill levels.

Don't go warrior, you said you want to be good with a mage, they are not. Easy grind? One of the worst in my opinion. You suck at everything without a healer, and the same goes for arena. People who say that you can stay perma-berserk-stance up to 1800 must have their glad druid friend helping. If you, as I, have a fresh to the game druid, its frustrating to depend so much on someone not as skilled, while you can't help at all with your close to zero group utility.

While the Mage+Rogue comp has long-term potential, it simply requires too much coordination for two players with mediocre skills. It is going to be very frustrating with all the botched openners sending the Rogue to stunned/sapped/blinded/horrored/feared/snared/rootedforeverland.

I would probably go with a BM Hunter. For DPS zerging to mediocre Arena success it is the better (easier, less frustrating) choice with low to average skills; the PvE ability and group desirability are far superior to that of a ShS Rogue; and the BM Hunter performs much better at lower gear levels.

I think a human rogue meets your criteria the best. Rogues pair with damn near any class fairly well in 2s. They fit into a good variety of 3s comps, and 5s is a pretty dead bracket right now so I wouldn't worry too much about that. Rogue/Mage, at a higher level, typically does require a lot of coordination to be successful, but we aren't talking about higher end arena here. At mediocre arena, you're probably looking at straightforward, 2 dps zerg down 1 guy. Even when played at a poor level, a rogue with a mage can still do that just as well, if not better than, something else like a BM hunter. Anybody can cheap shot, hemo, kidney while the mage pops the water ele and goes to town. And despite what many rogues (and rogue videos) will tell you, you don't have to vanish every death coil that comes your way to be moderately successful at low to average skill level arenas. And if you roll human, that will give you a huge leg up against other teams with stealthers.

As far as group desirability goes, I think the average pug group has no real grasp on how much rogue dps varies between specs. They mainly just care if you can sap, because pug groups expect tons of CC. If you're ShS, you will be able to sap trash mobs no problem. Rogues farm quite well for the most part. They perform extremely well in BGs, and level very quickly as well.

Sure they're easy to level but in my opinion, they're the toughest dps class to play in arenas.

edit: Well except if you go bm route with an elemental shammy. No coordination, just blow stuff up.

Nine classes, infinite variations of the same nine suggestions. This thread is a turd.