Brinas

I don't think that druids will need to be doing as much kiting in 2s and 3s. If there's no warlock on the other team, I see Treeform being more viable with the +360% armor, and thorns getting it's damage upped significantly. Why shift into bear form for 400% armor when you can just shift into tree for 360% and still be able to use barkskin and hots? The only thing you have to worry about is shifting out to avoid banish.

I think that Season 1 will be interesting because you will have lots of full dps teams that are using their lvl 80 quested gear, and you will have some of the "outlast" teams that will still be using their S4 gear. This depends on the lvl 80 conversion of resilience which I would guess 490 resil at 80 is only like -5% chance to crit. It also depends on how much quested gear has resilience on it.

 

Fauxpaz

I thought I read that resto druids in tree form will be getting a 360% increase to armor values when in ToL (they are also removing the -20% speed penalty from ToL). With this simple change resto druids should be able to tank melee and not rely on mobility as much as they currently do. With improved Brambles and being deep resto, a druid will not play the same as it currently does. Druids can tank and heal at the same time. Paladins and death knights would be hard counters based on how druids currently play/survive - since it looks like druids will play and survive very different based on the new talents, druids may still be a very effective healer in PvP. Granted druids will be not relie on mobility and kitting nearly as much, but they either play the same as they do now or tank melee damage while still being able to heal. Druids are gaining more versatility which, in my opinion, will help keep druids OP in small brackets and help them become more popular in 5v5 with increased survivability.

 

Raekwynn

Im contemplating the the use of my warlock in arenas yet again. While the Sl/SL spec was too boring for me to play in TBC arenas. Having Soul Link moved up as a 11 point talent in demonology really makes for some interesting builds.
I could easily imagine a spec like 55/15/0 aka heavy DoT build or a 0/17/54 Chaos Bolt spec having a good function and synergy with a shadowpriest(which is also a counter to the DK with abolish disease), and finally a resto shaman with the added CC of Hex and of course Purges. (Talking 3v3 arena)

Its hard to predict the strengths of the classes at level 80, but I could imagine there being many more viable setups than there currently is in real competitive arena.

 

Emth.

I fear re-rolling shaman (with the intention of playing resto) may have been a really poor choice. After seeing the paladin changes it's hard not to see shaman as the weakest arena healers (as things currently stand).

Maybe Blizzard will surprise us though. Speaking of abolish disease, let's not forget that shaman have disease cleansing totem too.

 

◊ Lord BEEF

Improved tree of life is currently +100% armor, down from +360%.

 

Shandara

Looking at the new hunter talents, I can see us basically doing more of the same we're doing now. Running interferences and draining.

Especially SV tree gets some boosts when it comes to traps and general nastiness in wide areas. Explosive shot has promise but unfortunately you can not get that and Scatter Shot in the same build. Also Deterrence is a nice change where we get 60% resistance to all spells for the duration. We still don't get an escape mechanism though, instead we have a shot and talents that work at extreme range.

MM tree gets some buffs to drain power, but suffers from the same problems we have now, it's difficult (even more than SV) to get away after we lose our range.

 

• thevidon

Some good feedback so far. To those who say "play what you like" - you obviously don't really care about success in arena right now. There are certain classes with a large inherent advantage. As with all things there are outliers skill-wise as well as certain comps that carry other classes. I am trying to divine which classes are going to have this 'inherent advantage' in WOTLK so I can enjoy arenas instead of worrying about how much better I could be if only I had a max level "XXYY".

It does look like they are doing some balancing with the changes so far.....and the main specs of each class are all looking more viable. The druid feedback looks really mixed so far. The obviously wont play as the same constant escape class they do now, but they should have a lot more viability in terms of standing and tanking some incoming damage with tree form.

I think maybe going melee with a rogue is looking better though due to what im seeing from blizz in regards to toning down healer escapes. By increasing the cost of ghost wolf significantly as well as nerfing druid travel, they clearly dont want healers running away nearly as much as they do now. Maybe this will help pallies some.....but it will help melee more - especially kiteable melee like deathknights.

Ill probably level my rogue some just in case, but I guess ill have to wait it out and see how deathknights end up.

 

◊ Lord BEEF

You're not going to be able to figure out who has the inherent advantage so early on.

Your safest bet is probably warrior. Throughout the history of the game (or at least since mortal strike was implemented in the original beta) they've never really been underpowered in pvp, and for the history of arena they've always been one of the top classes with very little fluctuations between patches. The core mechanics behind them just plain work well in a group setting.

 

Peekaboo

Tree form won't be that attractive at +100% armor for standing and tanking in 2s and 3s. That would be about half as much armor as a pally healer. I suspect kiting and cc will still be the game plan with tree form coming into play only as a last resort to catch up on heals. But why spend 4 points on tree form at all... because you can't root or cyclone and continually shapeshifting is too mana intensive. I can't see any 2s or 3s druid even taking tree form.

Moving feral charge to a 21 point talent will hurt mobility more than anything (well not if it turns out some arenas are indoors). Needing control of nature (8), and feral charge (21), leaves only 42 points for resto which means no Gift of the Earthmother (reduces global cooldown of rejuv and lifebloom!!). I simply can't see people going that deep into feral at such a cost unless pvp gear somehow has haste on it.

So druids will be slightly less mobile and have less cc (no feral charge stun) but will be even more hot-tastic. And they may have to take some skunky Healing Touch talents to combat the huge % of early DKs.

 

Thunderho

Holy Pallys and Holy Priest imo will b the safest bets for WotLK. They both have ranged disese removal mechanics vs DKs and the new judgemnt range increase is huge.
Priests getting a PW:S that gives them mana back aslong as its not dispelled is a whole new level for them.

Now on the topic of DKs, I think they are amazing in their current form.. They have a snare and Chains of Ice.. Death Grip, a Silence and intrrupt are amazing on top of the huge burst potetial with Dancing Runeblade...

As mentioned else where in this thread..look out for DK, Mage, Holy Pally

 

Fauxpaz

I did not see the *current* changes to the ToL. Probably why this is so hard to figure out as many ohter talents will change.

The best WolK class will always be a moving target, even after release. I think leveling a couple classes would be your best bet. But just in case you are looking at only leveling one class, maybe my thoughts can help.

Melee has traditionally scaled better then any other class type - so if you can stand being at a slight disadvantage for the first bit of WolK then melee would be the best bet. As you gear and new gear becomes available through patches, warriors and rogues will become very dominating.

The start of WolK will most likely be ruled by caster (in so far as DPS classes go). Mages will most likely continue to be good at kiting with excelent burst damage (perhaps a class for those who are patient and like seeing big numbers) while warlocks will probably remain the best DPS/spamable-CC class.

My favorite area is that of healers, and I think that paladins are due for a huge buff. But, holy paladins did rule all arenas at the start of S1 and some of S2, after multiple nerfs and other classes getting buffed (and the introduction of drinking) other classes easily over took the paladins #1 spot. I have a feeling that this will happen again, paladins will just be "too good" and everyone else will scream nerf. Paladins and shamans have the least amount of CC - so if you are looking for a pure healer pick one of them. Paladins are getting some huge buffs, so you should consider them. If you want a class that has more to do then just heal - a druid and priest is the way to go. Druid can spam CC inbetween tossing out heals while a priest can DPS - mana burn - put up sheilds and other really cool spells that help tremendiously. So if you want to heal and DPS and CC - pick a priest or druid.

I am thinking that the best classes will be as follows:
DPS: rogue for melee -- warlock for casters
Healing: priest for all around/most versitle -- paladin for best single target healing

I am putting a disclaimer, in my opinion Blizz is trying to build and revamp much of what they built on with the current expansion. I do not see classes going from one extreme to the other, but with minor tweaks and buffs and new abilities each class will be more versatile and more unique. Who knows how DK will screw with a system. It would be nice for each class to get a few more abilities to help them against classes that currently counter them.

 

Nolanhadhoof

Like others have said, it seems premature to begin speculation as to which class(es) will be the most powerful. I don't want to take this off-topic nor do I want to infer that arenas don't take skill, but I must say how disappointing it is that we hardly advocate class balance and instead seek a class that we think will be favorably imbalanced.

My one on topic comment is that, with respect to all their powerful abilities, I don't see much being added that will counteract rogues. This is keeping in mind that all changes may not yet be apparent to us.

 

Terp

A couple of easy observations:

The new arena with the changing environment and spike pits seems like an absolute nightmare for pet classes.
The windfury change will be an absolute godsend for cloth classes.
Mana costs seem to have risen through the roof.
All dps classes have new and quite powerful forms of aoe. In some cases very spammable too.
Most stun/fear resistance talents have turned into duration lowering. I interpret this as a buff to the talent meaning a slight nerf to rogues/locks.

All in all, priest seems like the safest choice. Shadow looking more respectable doesn't hurt either.

 

Barell

The big things when it comes to arena's is mobility, CC, and a healing debuff (MS). The abilities to get on target, stay on target, and control other targets while your doing this is huge. Classes that can do this naturally excel at arena's.

I think any class with mobility is going to do very well. They always have. So rogues are a shoe in as to be winners. They also can have style, as such they can do some great combos (blind into vanish/sap) and such. With Blizzard looking at removing the RNG from arena's any class that can do these things will be well positioned.

But I am basing this on past arena's. With the changes to druids they seem to be focusing less on mobility and kiting.

I think the biggest change to arena's will be the ability to move your opponent. Pulling him out of LOS of his healers behind a pillar could be the way of the future. Opens up lots of possibilities.

Just my opinion.

 

Ja7us

I hope they reconsider having a single indoor arena. That's a much more dramatic shift of balance based on the setting than anything we see with the arenas now (although the arena you land in does absolutely matter, nothing is quite that dramatic; feral druids in particular lose their 4-piece PvP set bonus completely in an indoor arena, and that seems a little silly).

 

Aldur

I think it depends on ones goal, if you want to get highest possible rating and perhaps [appropriate name] Gladiator then you are right and you should take a class that has best chances of getting there. However some people prefer to max their own character or spec instead and try to get as high with it as possible both in PvE and PvP. I'm personally changing my approach to the latter, as on live realms it's simply impossible to get truly skill based competition - and I'm not only talking about counter compositions that are present for every setup you may imagine, but also the fact you might not be so lucky to find best players playing the best synergy possible for your setup. I think TR is better place for competitive play and it saves you all drama about "I've worked 6 months on this char and for what??".

But then as I've said, it all depends on ones goal.

 

• thevidon

NOTHING would make me happier than if they implement class based gladiator rankings. Something along the lines of the top %10 of each class gets glad or whatever. If they were to make that change, it would allow people to play whatever class they wanted and always be competitive.

 

Shakes

You know how they could fix the who class balance issue: 10v10 arena where you have to take one of each class. Would be an interesting concept, although organising a team would be a pain.

 

• Amera

It's already hard to get your 5v5 team all online at the same time. 10v10 would just be silly. :P It should be a wsg variant.

 

Currylaksa

Based on the current patch, shaman healers are very attractive. Decursing CoT is huge. Spirit Link is a double/triple BoSac without the cooldown, renewable blind/sheep/sap immunity for all partners in 2v2 and 3v3. The deep end discipline tree for priests is heavy on shields, meaning purge will hurt them a lot. Hex is a curse debuff, so traditional dispellers Priest and Paladin cannot remove them.

 

Thunderho

10 v 10 Areana would be stupid. it would just be a burst down fest... imagine it like super organized BGs with no respawn..

To Terp, yes i agree knockbacks will be a whole new degree of craze in arenas... DKs pulling X target behind a pillar poping chains of ice on then to be victum to a Deep Freeze-Icebolt-Lance shatter combo out of LoS of a healer is crazy...

You can never say their isnt a meta game and that there is always X combo that is best with X being its counter...and that Y has only 1 semi valuable combo..

 

xarg

I really can't see shamans being that bad in arena for wrath. I'm currently leveling up my alliance shaman for this purpose. Elemental is getting another guaranteed crit ability (with a bit of a drawback, but it will still be useful). All shamans having crowd control is going to be pretty useful too. The only problem will be if druids continue their dominance, in which case every team you come against is going to be able to decurse it.

But still, it's too early to really make any hard decisions about.

 

Ethalan

As a Pally, Sheath of Light sounds nice, but your attack power as a Holy Pally is going to be minimal at best. However, the HoT is great, but easily dispellable.

I would much rather go with a 51/20/0 spec, for imp BoP and the stun duration reduction. However, the talent 'Divine Guardian' makes your Divine Shield protect all of your partners aswell, forcing 30% of the damage they take into your bubble of immunity. This is certainly more of a 5v5 spec though. Beacon of Light on only 2 targets would be meh, but on 5 it'd be great. This spec is also the counter to affliction locks in 5v5, due to the AoE healing and the bubble damage reduction.

I also like the Improved Devotion Aura, and how it gives 3% more healing, aswell as the Armor Bonus. It'd be argueable wheather or not to go 53/17/0 with this spec, and get imp. Concentration Aura instead.

Pally's, at the moment, seem to get higher in 5v5 than in 2v2. They can get up there with some 3v3 combos, but they seem to still be planned out as a 5v5 healer.

 

resuemae

Paladins will remain the most CC'able healer, and unless I am missing something obvious(?). They will be even more CC'able with blessing(hand) of sacrafice being nerfed.

Shamans will be switching roles with them, however, spending the most time out in the open casting. But, as things stand now, grounding and tremor totems will pretty much overcome mosts buffs paladins get relative to shamans by a pretty large margin, at least versus CC heavy teams.

Predicting the following, but will have to see how it ends up in game:

Best healers while being focused:
Priest > Druid > Paladin > Shaman

Best while left alone to cast:
Shaman > Paladin > Druid > Priest

Best while being actively CC'ed:
Druid > Shaman > Priest > Paladin

Mana conservation:
Paladin > Druid > Shaman > Priest

Offensive ability while healing spec:
Priest> Shaman > Druid > Paladin

Just my opinions by what things look like on paper

 

Bill

Shadowpriests are looking like a viable arena component with a "Oh shit" ability (dispersion), 60% less SW backlash and AoE horror scream (making fear breaks far less effective). They will be a powerful CC arena class and will stack up well with other CC heavy classes (Rogues, Mages, Druids). Rogue/SPriest looks to still be very potent in 2v2 with both classes having immunity abilities and various forms of CC. Mage/Rogue/Spriest looks to be a nasty CC combo triple dps team, especially considering all three classes posses s"Oh shit" buttons.

Considering the fact that a variation of Holy and Disc priests are always one of (though usually not the best) healer in all PvP brackets, Priest looks like a good choice for Wotlk arena, as either Shadow or Healer.

Keep in mind that while most classes are viable in all PvP brackets some are far more reliant on a few setups. For example Hunters are amazing in 3v3, if paired with a Disc Priest and Resto Druid, while many other setups are not as effective. Wheras Rogue, Warriors and Druids, many setups in 3v3 are effective, and thus your pool of potential arena partners is much greater.

If you want to pick a potent arena class that can fit into multiple setups (in 2v2 and 3v3 in particular) I would say go with a Druid, Rogue or Warrior. These classes just have strong base mechanics and will always be able to find a good arena setup. Avoid Mages and Hunters in particular, as they lack the flexability for many types of arena setups.