Monday, May 19, 2008

PWN 2v2 Arenas

WoW 2v2 arena's are great practice for your arena skills, but it can be difficult to post a consistent winning record. One mage comes out and nukes your partner down and it won't be a long fight.



Quick thinking is the key to victory. Anticipate your foes moves and counter them before they devastate your group.

Some people like to size each other up and discuss the strategy of who to attack first, who to cc, etc. DON'T BOTHER! Especially in 2v2. If you charge straight in and open up on the weakest enemy you will almost always prevail. Catching the other team off guard and unprepared, they will likely not have decided which one of you to kill first before you've already killed one of theirs. Surprise attack ftw!

Never remain stationary. Keep running circles around your enemy in an erratic pattern and make them face the wrong way as often as possible. Constant movement will prevent the enemy from casting huge spells, melee will be out of range or facing the wrong direction, and the greatest benefit is that your harder to target! This is paramount because truly good 2v2 teams will switch between targets to interrupt heals, cc, etc. If your running around like a chicken with its' head cut off, the other team will waste precious moments trying to target you. Since there's only two of you, they could always tab target, but if you drop some totems or have a pet or anything that they will have to cycle through, you will waste some of their time and maybe they will accidentally attack your pet.

There's 2 types of teams in 2v2: The burst team and the drain team. I use these terms loosely because there is a gray area, however the class make-ups generally fall into either category. Examples of a burst team would be any 2 dps team: rogue/rogue, mage/enhance shaman, hunter/warrior. And then those dps/healer combos with extreme burst dps, such as a healer with a mage or rogue. The drain team always has a healer and the dps is usually a warlock, warrior, ret pally or some other slow but powerful dps. Being able to distinguish between the two will assist you in prioritizing targets. Against a drain team always kill the healer first, and against a burst team kill the squishiest dps as fast as possible.

Also, you may be wondering: what's the best class for me to partner with? If you're a healer, generally its a better bet to go with a drain dps class (warlock,warrior,paladin). If you're burst dps you ALWAYS want to group with another burst dps. I speak from personal experience here playing with my enhance shaman. I've tried 2v2 with a resto druid before and didn't have near the success I've had with a mage or rogue partner. 2x burst dps means something is dead in a matter of seconds. Always have 1 ranged and 1 melee dps if possible. The variety will thwart hunters multi-shot and ensure your team is never kited.

Practice makes perfect! Play a ton of games to figure out what works best against what combos, each other's strengths and weaknesses and to get a feel for the hectic fast paced nature of arenas. Don't let losses discourage you and try not to worry too much about your rating, because the real points come from your 5v5 team. Use your 2v2 as practice for your 5v5 and, with any luck, you and your 2v2 partner can get on the same 5s team. Since you already are used to playing with each other, you will PWN FACE!

1 comment:

vanessa said...

i wanna comment but i just cant do it. you're still my favorite blogger tho <3