Level 29 2v2 Arena/BG Teams: Mage/Priest

Before I start, I want to express that this series on team makeups are complete theorycrafting on my part due to personal experience and view point. I welcome any comments stating otherwise, as a matter of fact right here I will also ask, what do you think are the best 2v2 teams? But without further adieu here are my thoughts as to why these teams work.

Mage & Priest

The Mage: Mages... when I think of mages I usually get angry, thinking about being turned into a sheep, turtle, cat or penguin. But when I think about level 29 mages, the first thing that comes to mind is Blink, Counterspell, and Cone of Cold. These three spells are probably some of the most powerful utilities in the mage tool box between level 20 and 29, especially in BG's and Arena skirmishes. Blinking at the right time can keep you out of conical effect spells, if you blink behind your opponent it can interrupt a cast, speaking of casting, Counterspell is effective to cancel out a healers ability to support their partner or flag carrier, since most healers utilize a single school of magic. And Cone of Cold is easily one of the best spells shared between offense and defense, either as a means of kiting when being on the defense or slowing your opponent down to allow melee to get into range if you are on the offense, in pvp 8 seconds can mean life or death. While more situational you also receive your Ward spells during this bracket, Frost and Fire ward can easily offset a good deal of damage at these levels. Also while not quite PVP related you also receive your teleports, and a mages ever friendly Mana Gem and Evocation spells. Now as far as spec's go, I have to admit I am bias towards Frost in PVP, especially at this level, you can't quite get all of the talent points distributed for a good PoM/Pyro spec, Arcane seems a bit like the good ole days of the 5 second mage, and Fire while somewhat bursty, doesn't seem quite powerful enough yet. But I am up for a challenge, below are my takes on decent pvp builds for each spec.


Arcane - Much of the first couple tiers of the arcane tree seem to be more support talents, related to all three talent trees. Many highlight spells from all three talents rather than arcane specific abilities, with this I truly feel that Arcane at this level is more of a utility option, and that is further highlighted by the good talents you get from this tree. Such as Focus Magic, a 3% crit bonus that continues to stack by 3% each time you crit again during a 10 second period, this is nice, but at these levels a little impractical. Though my favorite talent in the arcane tree has to be Improved Counterspell, a 20 second Counterspell could really gimp an opponent, especially one that uses a single school of magic, like a shaman, resto/balance druid, priest, or a paladin. The potential is very wide. Now another great talent that seems to be a must have for everyone at higher tiers of content is Torment the Weak. Now an extra 12% damage is no joke, especially since you will likely have your opponents frost nova'd or under the effects of Cone of Cold. So while Arcane may not be a single focus output spec it definitely brings enough utility to the table to be considered.

Frost - Ah, frosty, how I enjoy you. Talents in the frost tree brings so much homogenization between spells. You got Frostbite giving you a 15% chance to freeze your opponents by your chill effect, your Permafrost increases the duration of your chill effect by 3 seconds and reduced their movement speed by 10%. Shatter gives you a 50% damage bonus against frozen opponents. Then you have Ice Shards giving you a 100% crit bonus for all your frost spells. and Icy Veins gives you a 20% speed boost when casting your spells. Frost is a great support spec, but it truly shines when you are the one required to control your opponents movement to allow your team mate(s) to burn them down, or when you are a flag carrier.

Fire - Much like Arcane, I don't feel fire really gets good until a little later. Luckily for Fire though is the fact that much of the basic necessities for a fire spec are in these first few tiers of talent points. For example, the wonderful Nuke spell Pyroblast, this is the basis behind PoM/Pyro and many fire specs. Another great talent is Ignite dealing an additional 40% damage to the victims of your fire crits. The other PVP staple for a fire build is Impact, it gives a 10% chance to stun the victim of your fire spells.

The Priest: While I do not have a priest myself, I have known enough to encounter the pitfalls an opponent can run into. Between the Heals, the Shields, and the Fears, a well played priest can be a very scary character to run up against, and most of these tools are learned between 10 and 19, but the toolbox is perfected in the 20-29 bracket, with Mana Burn, Devouring Plague and Flash Heal. Oh and lets not forget, Holy Fire. /cower

Disc - Much like the arcane mage, Disc gets stronger the higher level you are, and at these low levels you are basically establishing your utility. But these utility spells cannot be overlooked, things like Improved Power Word: Fortitude giving an additional 4% health , and Imp PW: Shield giving 15% more damage reduction, Improved Inner Fire giving the priest 12 more charges and a 45% increase to the inner fire spells effectiveness, then you have Inner Focus, their cooldown talent that gives them a 25% crit bonus as well as a free cast. While at low levels Disc may not seem the greatest, they bring a lot to the table in the way of buffs and utility.

Holy - At low levels Holy is the Bread and Butter healing spec. While Disc gives a 15% damage absorption through PW: Shield, Holy is capable of boosting their allies Armor by 10% for 15 seconds when casting heals on them, thanks to Inspiration. Holy Priests are also one of the only ones that has a single talent point self heal, thanks to Desperate Prayer. And their HoT ticks can be a life saver thanks to Improved Renew.

Shadow - Ah shadow, my personal favorite spec in the priests arsenal. Everyone has been the victim of a Psychic Scream or two, but it's shadow Priests that have the lovely talent to improve it, with Improved Psychic Scream the shadow priests cooldown has been dropped by 4%. The talent Shadow Weaving is an interesting one to me, making it so when you have 5 points allotted you have a 100% chance to increase your shadow damage by up to 10% for 15 seconds. Also, you have one of the shadow nukes in the one point talent spell Mind Flay, giving the shadow priest a channeled style DoT, that also reduces the victims movement speed.


So you might be saying to yourself, "ok, so now I understand the classes and the specs, but which make the best teams?" And I will answer "Mage and Priest". But no really, if it were up to me, I would stack an Arcane Mage with a Shadow Priest, a Fire Mage with a Disc Priest, and a Frost Mage with either a Disc or a Holy Priest. Overall my favorite combination is the Frost Mage with the Holy Priest because of the self heal, as well as the control available with the frost spec, also Frost Mages are capable of handling multiple enemies through Chill Effect and the healing specced Priests are capable of either mitigating damage received or healing through it to a great degree. So I definitely recommend trying this combination out.

Level 29 2v2 Arena/BG Teams: Paladin/Warrior

Before I start, I want to express that this series on team makeups are complete theorycrafting on my part due to personal experience and view point. I welcome any comments stating otherwise, as a matter of fact right here I will also ask, what do you think are the best 2v2 teams? But without further adieu here are my thoughts as to why these teams work.

Paladin & Warrior

The Paladin: While in the 10-19 bracket paladins feel very gimped in comparison to other classes, especially rogues, hunters, druids and shaman. It is between level 20 and 29 that much of the foundation is set for a paladin. At level 20 we get to see the wonders that it is to be a paladin, we get Consecration, Blessing of Kings, Exorcism, and Flash of Light. At level 22 you get Seal of Justice. Then at 28 they get a very powerful judgment for PVP purposes, Judgment of Justice. So with the variable blessings and judgments available, and having Flash of Light and Holy Light, a paladin can make for a rock solid healer, or with the different defensive capabilities offered, they are able to hold someone down quite well with pure survivability, not to mention many of the offensive abilities come into play during this level, between spells and talents. Speaking of Talents let's look at a couple builds that seem very viable for me in level 29 Arena's and BG's.

Holy - this spec receives it's major boon through the talent Illumination. This is where Holy Paladins begin to become one of the most mana efficient healers in the game, and it starts right here.

Prot - this spec has 2 points that I feel are interchangeable those are the 2 points that are in Guardians Favor they could just as easily be placed in Improved Hammer of Justice. This really depends on what you are focusing on, You would take Guardians Favor if you are trying to run the flag in WSG, where as you may take Imp. HoJ if you were in arena's or guarding a flag in AB. But the major boon for this spec is Improved Righteous Fury, this 6% damage reduction makes a Prot Paladin one of the biggest pains to kill in battlegrounds and arenas no matter what level.

Ret - Ret can quickly become a major damage dealer when geared properly. These 2h wielding holy rollers have the potential to knock you from 100% to 0% in the matter of a Hammer of Justice. With abilities like Seal of Command and the quicker cooldown from Improved Judgment. A Ret paladin offers a great deal of versatility. One thing about Ret is in my opinion there are 4 talent points that could be bounced around between 3 different talents that require only 2 points each. These talents are Pursuit of Justice, Vindication, and Eye for an Eye. In the spec I provided I left out Eye for an Eye because of how situational it is, this only really works against casters, but if you find yourself going up against a lot of Mage/Priest combos you may be thanking yourself if you took it.

Warriors: Warriors can be pretty devastating in the 10-19 bracket when played correctly. But in 20 - 29, I have one thing to say Cleave, no really, Cleave has to be one of the most amazing melee abilities in my opinion, but if you're thinking "that's not the only good tool in the Warrior toolbox" you're right, but at level 20 it is a very powerful ability. Another powerful ability (if you stay in Battle Stance or like to Stance Dance thanks to Stance Mastery) is Retaliation, counterattacks are great when facing off with other melee combatants. At 22 you receive probably the 2nd best tool in the Warrior pvp arsenal at least in my opinion, you get to piss those locks and priests off with Intimidating Shout. At level 24 Execute is another powerful yet very situational ability, while I love attacks that offer big burst potential, it is often difficult (especially in a BG situation) to pull some of these types of attacks off. Now any and all warrior flag runners in WSG look at level 28 with glee and zeal, this is when the warrior gets the wonderful ability called Shield Wall. Now lets look at the different talent potentials.

Arms - the arms tree is the warriors primary 2h weapon spec. And as such can put out some big numbers despite being slow. The main benefits for Arms comes from DoT damage, for example Deep Wounds and Improved Rend. Also you get Improved Overpower and Taste for Blood which helps proc Overpower. So between DoT damage and big proc numbers Arms can be very dangerous.

Fury - this spec has to be the best spec at rage generation, thanks to Unbridled Wrath. It also gets high scores in consistent damage dealing thanks to Enrage and Improved Cleave. The downfall to this spec to me is there isn't a whole lot of variety to it. Most of the Fury build is just sitting there swinging and spamming a couple abilities.

Prot - Again, prot means sustainability. These builds always mean you are going to stay up longer than everyone else and your focus will always be on out living your opponent rather than bursting them down, and that point can't be driven home any better than with an ability like Last Stand. Mix that with the fact that between Improved Bloodrage and Shield Specialization you will consistently be generating rage, allowing for Cleave and Thunder Clap spamming, and with Improved Thunder Clap you will be able to slow your opponents movement and blast right past them.


So, now the question of why would these two classes work out the best as a team? Well for one Armor value is a huge boon for both classes, these two classes are the only ones that can equip mail at this level. Meaning both classes have high sustainability especially when they work together. If we break it into spec's, I would happily pit a Holy Paladin/Prot Warrior combination against just about anything. Along with that I can also see the mixture of the double burst potential of an Arms/Ret team or the Wear Them To A Nub team that a Fury Warrior/Prot Paladin would make. To be absolutely honest I can see any of these interchanging but the three I just listed would probably make for the best combination, at least in my mind.

So, tell me, in the 2-29 bracket which of these do you think would be the most dangerous combination to contend with?