2v2 makes me want to slap someone in the face… Yesterday me and my pally wanted to get 2k rating to get him his S3 shoulders and so I can get mine next week, we started at ~1920 rating, finished playing 5v5 at around 8pm with 5 hours till the end of the week and full of optimism we queued for our first 2v2 that day. We farmed one team to 1960 and then it started.

Literally, we met 7 teams in a row that were:

hunter/druid
warlock/druid (like 3 different teams with this setup)
warlock/priest

At 11pm we stopped meeting those (pretty much becase they got boosted to 2k by us and happily stopped playing), we still managed to stay at around 1950 despite how overpowered they are against our setup (killing not so careful druid with JoJ and lucky mace stuns and what not).

After a lot of drama about 15 minutes after midnight we were at 1976, so close! Basically the only teams that were playing at that time were mage/rogue, lock/lock (one demo, one not) and war/druid, after loosing 5 games straight to those (despite the fact we beat them, exactly same teams, before) and dropping down to 1909 we were just to pissed to talk to each other not to mention playing and went off.

P.S.: any comments saying “get a druid” will be deleted, tell me something I don’t know.

Terhix

Current world top 100 player ranking representation to class population:

Druid: 24% arena / 10% pop = 2.4 ratio
Warlock: 20% arena / 11% pop = 1.81 ratio
Warrior: 22% arena / 14% pop = 1.57 ratio
Priest: 13% arena / 11% pop = 1.18 ratio
Rogue: 7% arena / 11% pop = 0.63 ratio
Paladin: 5% arena / 10% pop = 0.5 ratio
Mage: 4% arena / 13% pop = 0.31 ratio
Shaman: 2% arena / 8% pop = 0.25 ratio
Hunter: 3% arena / 13% pop = 0.23 ratio

Population data from Warcraft Census. Hunter situation is a very funny one, they are on the bottom of the food chain in representation, yet they are actually most potent arena class atm. Hunter/Druid teams got up to the 3rd most popular setup above 2200 rating in 2v2, which is one of the reasons why warriors went down, as druids are switching over to hunters for the most part. I guess forum nerfcallers can finally see the truth: It’s not warriors that were shining in warrior/druid 2v2, it’s druids, you tools! That doesn’t mean Blizzard should nerf druids, they should just remove water from 2v2 bracket and problem is solved! It’s much harder to drink in 5v5 than it’s in 2v2, and druids are masters of exploiting it, especially night elf bastards with shadowmeld-drink.

What’s inspiring, especially for me, is that there is still a fair amount of (4.3% which makes it 5th most popular) warrior/paladin setups, with the rise of the druids one could expect paladins go up as they bring one excellent tool to counter druid teams - Judgement of Justice. That being said warrior/paladin is still far from the X/druid easy mode, no free drinks, not much CC, yet I like to play it as it really feels rewarding.

On a side note, last week paladins were on an uproar (when they are not?) about retribution viability in arenas claiming that they, as a hybrid class, should have more then one role in pvp metagame, which is something you can’t really disagree with. Either way 5 minutes of analyzing situation made me come with those particular suggestions for the paladin class:

Step one: change repentance with crusader strike in retri tree.
Step two: make repentance trainable for all paladins at level whatever.
Step three: put charge at 41p retribution.
Step four: give paladins fear ward.

What this fix: Gives retribution paladins a way to enter melee combat, they already have tools to stay in melee combat despite not having snare ability - it’s not perfect, but neither is hamstring - they just have nothing to get back into melee once casters start to kite their ass. 30 second c/d in combat charge with immobilize effect like druid one (might be without spell interrupt as well) would be gimped enough one not to make it overpowered, yet good enough to make this damned spec work. Crusader Strike as 31 talent point is just cosmetic and brings them closer to what enh shamans have. Trainable repentance would bring a bit of CC for all teams with paladins, making them more viable especially in lower brackets where paladins stopped to shine after S1, long cooldown long range CC which breaks on damage, it’s not a cyclone, but I guess it would make it a bit more even in fights against teams with warlocks. Fear ward is something that I would also see on them, warlock/priest can really push it on paladins, and it’s easy to back this up with lore, heck, paladins in D&D have passive fear immunity since level 2, they are holy warriors, they are not afraid of some clowns in pajamas.

Terhix

Personal rating - checked.
Team rating - checked.
No druid 2v2 ez mode - checked.
Arena points - 150 missing.

[Vengeful Gladiator's Bonegrinder], you are mine baby!

Terhix

Can druids be the best overall arena class despite being weak in 5v5? Yes they can:

• Druid: 20 / 10 = 2.0
• Warrior: 21 / 14 = 1.64~
• Warlock: 16 / 11 = 1.45~
• Priest: 13 / 11 = 1.18~
• Rogue: 12 / 11 = 1.09~
• Shaman: 3 / 7 = 0.42~
• Hunter: 5 / 13 = 0.38~
• Mage: 5 / 13 = 0.38~
• Paladin: 3 / 10 = 0.33~

Just shows how unstable source of data a pool of 100 players is. We will have to wait and see how 2.3.2 changes affect rogues and mages.

Terhix

Looks like everyone got suddenly excited with new SK Gaming top 100 player rating, and, which seems to be new ultimate measure of overpowerness, population representation of classes in that top 100, and obviously Warriors are the best arena class… because it’s not fucking remotely possible, for a class that has the highest overall population to have the highest overall arena representation, and in result - the highest top 100 representation.

To get any real value of a class in all brackets you must not only consider it’s top arena representation, but also overall class population at level 70. Given current data at SK Gaming (it’s changing fast as 100 players is not much when we consider a game with 9 million players), the top 100 representation to class population ratio table looks like this:

• Warlock: 17 / 11 = 1.54~
• Warrior: 21 / 14 = 1.5
• Priest: 16 / 11 = 1.45~
• Druid: 14 / 10 = 1.4
• Rogue: 14 / 11 = 1.27~
• Mage: 9 / 13 = 0.69~
• Paladin: 3 / 10 = 0.33~
• Hunter: 4 / 13 = 0.3~
• Shaman: 2 / 7 = 0.28~

See what I’ve done here? There is more Warlock arena top dogs per Warlock player then there is Warrior arena top dogs per Warrior player. What is really interesting is the ratio of Druid class as they clearly stay in the first league of all arena brackets combined, where most people agree they are lacking in 5v5.

Also SK Gaming is not that much reliable source, as one battlegroup is not equal to another. Cherekee became a Hunter class God before people from his realm came to hunter forum saying he was simply win trading up to the number one.

What top 100 ranking do reflect well is that there are two leagues: Warlocks, Warriors, Priests, Druids (despite being weak in 5v5) and Rogues can compete in all brackets, where Mages, Paladins, Hunters and Shamans, while still being able to be successful in arena, can do so only in specific setups in specific brackets.

Terhix