So, we invited new guy into 3v3 and played warrior/warlock/paladin matrix. Warlock (who got a lot of pvp gear already from 5v5 in other group) with commanding shout (1/5 commanding presence) and BoK sitting at 13.8k hp. How do you kill that guy? Seriously, I’ve no fucking idea, and I’m glad I won’t have to find out, at least not in 3v3 bracket. From all 3v3 setups I’ve played, from warrior/druid/priest to warrior + 2 pom-ap-pyro mages, warrior/lock/pala setup seems most balanced you can have. It provides valid melee dps, valid spell dps, valid crowd control and valid healing with dispelling. Whatever we met - we crushed it. As long as most 3v3 teams consist of 1 healer with 2 whatever, having a lock who can put CoT on the healer and chain fear him, while assisting me at killing weaklings is pure sexiness, his shadowbolts might not crit for 3k damage, but they hit hard enough to kill people, what more do you need?

Seems to me warlocks really advanced since we first saw the ratings and locks we the least played class in top 5v5 teams. They are walking killing machines, while Warriors must have support to truly shine, locks don’t get that much benefit from support, but they bring enough to the table on their own. And what is really funny, one of the reasons to bring a lock into the arena is, surprise surprise, to counter other warlocks. There is only one thing (other then killing the pet that is) that turns enemy lock’s soullink off - banish. Now some people might use felhunters with tons of resistances that are hard to banish, but once the pet is banished, you not only throw a fair amount of warlock’s utility out of the window, you also make him back what he really is - a soft clothie, assist train and it’s dead. Good for me the lock I’m playing 5v5 with is gearing the same way (tho he is still lacking to that guy), I think that war/frost mage/lock/priest/pala will be our leading setup in 5v5, at least until we get some decent ele shammy, who doesn’t have 5.5k hp ><.

Terhix

Those are 2 most popular arena builds. There is also 31/30, which is a compromise between PvP and PvE dps. I won’t even talk about it, no TM and no Second Wind = fail, if you play arenas, spec for arenas, gear for arenas and live for arenas, 31/30 is not for you.

So, what’s the big difference between the two? 2 points can’t make that much of the difference, right? Well, they actually can. People with 35 points in arms usually pick blood frenzy, or just put some points into talents they wouldn’t have maxed other way, people who put 25 in fury get improved Slam.

And here we hit the spot. Slam. Some people curse it, some people love it. I guess you should all know how it works, but just in case - Slam is a casting type of attack that works in melee range only, unlike instant attacks (Mortal Strike) it’s NOT normalized, so even tho the additional damage is lower then on MS, it can hit just as hard with slow weapons, while it cost only 15 rage to use. Where is the hack? Talented Slam casting time is 0.5 second - neat! But wait wait wait, one may now think it’s like almost an instant attack - it’s not. You can’t move while using slam and it resets your swing timer. Now technically, you can use slam in two ways:

• Spam it to burn rage fast.
• Time it after white attacks.

Now both of those things are quite easy to do in PvE, and provide actually pretty good DPS. Why not in PvP? Someone asked once, why fury sucks in PvP if it can do more dps, and one answer I remembered well for the simplicity - “Because in PvP people are moving and getting healed”. Now, he obviously wasn’t talking about slam, but more about burst damage and MS advantage over fury back in the day on lvl 60, but both things apply. To put it in other words - Slam is a whore to control in PvP, it’s situational, and even if you master it and use it successfully every time you can - you still have to apply MS every 10 seconds for the debuff. Let’s look at the alternatives, shall we.

How do you burn rage? If you don’t have Slam, the only answer I can think of is - Cleave it baby! Not enough arms/fury warriors are using cleave, it’s a powerful move - costly, but it’s there to use when you have shit a lot of rage. You can also apply 5 sunders on someone, believe it or not - 5 sunders increase melee dps by a ton. If you are in Battle Stance it’s even more simple - use the damn Sweeping Strikes. I love SS, there are fights where I just can’t wait for that little cooldown to refresh so I can use them again - being able to land some heavy damage on two targets is a killer, mostly because it makes enemy healer to heal 2 folks instead of one, that’s like another MS debuff you may say. But back on topic. If you didn’t pick improved Slam, you still have tons of ways to burn your rage fast, and you have an advantage a guy with Slam doesn’t - Blood Frenzy. It gives you 4% more damage, and it’s on almost every time of the day. While Slam gives you situational advantage, eats your global cooldowns and make you “immobilized” - Blood Frenzy gives you a passive bonus, it works and you don’t have to think about it, staying focused on the bigger picture.

Is one of those builds better then the other - no. They are both used and warriors with both builds show up in very top arena teams (tho more have 35/23/3 :p). How do you spec?

Terhix