Blood Sport: An early analysis of Cataclysm PvP
by C. Christian Moore 
Jan 25th 2011 at 6:00PM
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft) for fans of battlegrounds and world PvP. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more.
If I had to summarize Cataclysm PvP in one word, it would be fun. Between the novelty of rated battlegrounds, a very strong emphasis (and success) on balancing classes in PvP, and the presence of a diverse metagame at the top of the arena ladders, this is shaping up to be a great expansion.
We're almost two months into Cataclysm now, and it's been quite an expansion for PvPers. Are there problems? Sure. Is the patch going to throw us for a loop and possibly switch things up considerably? Perhaps. But is the whole of Season 9 miles better than Season 5? You better believe it.
Rated battlegrounds (RBGs)
Rated battlegrounds are undoubtedly a giant success story. I've heard many players relate RBGs to raiding -- the number of people required is comparable as well as the overarching strategy many teams employ.
The thing about rated battlegrounds I am most impressed with is the rating system. Now, while there are obvious bugs in the system right now (counting wins as losses, rating changes shown not being consistent with actual rating changes, etc.), Blizzard has the right idea when it comes to the RBG ranking system.
What is so awesome about the system? Your rating is tied to you as a player and not a team. This is incredible. Why? Because this makes it so you can easily play with others without sacrificing gains. Yes, in rated battlegrounds, unlike arena, you can team hop. On my server (Kel'Thuzad Alliance), there are rated battleground groups recruiting in trade almost non-stop -- and no one is being penalized for it.
I'm so impressed with the system that I openly petition Blizzard to change the system to work for arena in the same way (once it has all the bugs worked out). One of the huge flaws of personal rating attached to teams is that once players are on a team that has a high team rating (and they also have a high personal rating), they are punished very severely for leaving the team to help out friends or just play with new people.
PvP should be about playing games and having fun with lots of new people you've never met before. Team hopping was awesome in Season 1 and Season 2. Hopefully, Blizzard will consider changing the arena system (yet again) so arena can work more like rated battlegrounds in this regard.
Overall, the battlegrounds are much more balanced contests than I expected them to be. The better team almost always wins close contests, and I love discussions on correct strategy within battlegrounds. Honestly, even losses are fun most of the time. Simply put, awesome job, Blizzard.
2v2
Compared to the other two brackets, 2v2 seems very imbalanced. Of course, Blizzard intentionally doesn't balance for 2v2 (hence the reason it does not award end-of-season rewards like Gladiator titles or mounts).
Games feel long and drawn-out. When I've done 2v2 with people just to get them conquest points on the week, we've gone to time maybe 5% of the time. That's about 1 out of every 20 games have gone to 46 minutes. It's frustrating to spend so much time in arena just to lose points.
That being said, if you like 2v2, the more power to you. If you are doing very well in 2v2, there's no reason to stop. You can increase your conquest point cap quite substantially by achieving a high rating in 2v2, and it's also the easiest bracket to get a team together with -- so you and your best buddy can play some games and get a few wins to get points on the week, if you like.
If the only bracket you've participated in Cataclysm is 2v2, don't judge the other brackets by it! They're much different, and in the author's opinion, thankfully so.
3v3
There are so many teams at the top of the pile right now. The official PvP statistics page shows only a 3.5% population disparity between the 10th most popular team composition and the first. That is an incredibly low percentage shift and shows how balanced the bracket is.
Now, when I say "balanced" here, I don't mean that every class is doing fantastic in 3v3 at the moment. Hunters are completely absent from the top 10 teams (which is a serious problem), and certain classes are definitely represented very well (mages, death knights). However, no single team composition is dominating the bracket like we've seen in past seasons. Does anyone remember the Season 5 dominance between two compositions? Paladin-death knight-hunter and paladin-death knight-warlock were far above everyone else when it came to high-rated team compositions.
The absence of discipline priests from high-rated 3v3s is discouraging, but it's very encouraging to see the other three healers being very close to each other in terms of representation. None of my teammates have been complaining about how overpowered an opposing healing class is in 3v3. It seems many healers have found their niche, and shaman have finally risen to the top tier. In the past, restoration shaman have required very specific and sometimes peculiar setups to do well. The addition of a defensive dispel to their class has done wonders for them.
One of the great peculiarities of 3v3 this season has been the success of triple DPS teams and the disappointment of the double healer setup. Now, that's not to say triple DPS is the best right now or running a double healer setup is futile. Cataclysm has put a heavy emphasis on survivability and damage in the form of pressure rather than burst.
Three DPS teams are taking advantage of the fact that healers cannot instantly bring a teammate to 100 percent health anymore. Most of their wins come from whittling an opponent down (albeit a quick whittling). It's a very interesting sideshow, and I'm very excited to see if three DPS will continue to be a player in the metagame.
Patch 4.0.6 is slated to make hunters and discipline priests much more desirable to 3v3 teams. I wouldn't be surprised to see discipline priest-unholy death knight-marksman hunter as a formidable force in 3v3 after the patch.
5v5
The largest arena bracket feels very good at the moment. I'm currently playing on a 4 DPS squad, and our team's survivability feels very good. The pace of our games isn't usually a burst-a-thon, even though we're running a bursty team composition. However, it doesn't feel like people take forever to kill. Games are usually quick due to kills being scored within the first minute or two of the game, although I can definitely see some pretty epic contests happening in the future.
Class balance is very heavily debated in 5v5, it seems everyone brings something to the table at the moment. In my opinion, hunters seem very weak at the moment. Warriors and priests also feel a little weak, while warlocks and paladins feel very strong. Other people have disagreed with me, which is very surprising to me, but I guess I can see where they're coming from.
Disagreements about arena class balance are good because it means classes are probably more balanced than we think. Most people overwhelmingly agree when a class is overpowered or drastically underpowered, so disagreement of power level shows balance more than anything else, oddly enough.
Listening Music: Phoenix with 1901. I like the melody, and that the live stuff is just as good as the track on the album, but I can't understand the chorus repetition for the life of me. What is it? Falling? Fold it? Ballin'? A mixture of all three? It might just be something French, I have no idea.
Want to ascend the arena ladders faster than a fireman playing Donkey Kong? We'll steer you to victory with the best arena addons and let you in on some rank 1 gladiator PvP secrets. If you're looking for the inside line on battlegrounds and world PvP, read The Art of War(craft).
If I had to summarize Cataclysm PvP in one word, it would be fun. Between the novelty of rated battlegrounds, a very strong emphasis (and success) on balancing classes in PvP, and the presence of a diverse metagame at the top of the arena ladders, this is shaping up to be a great expansion.
We're almost two months into Cataclysm now, and it's been quite an expansion for PvPers. Are there problems? Sure. Is the patch going to throw us for a loop and possibly switch things up considerably? Perhaps. But is the whole of Season 9 miles better than Season 5? You better believe it.
Rated battlegrounds (RBGs)
Rated battlegrounds are undoubtedly a giant success story. I've heard many players relate RBGs to raiding -- the number of people required is comparable as well as the overarching strategy many teams employ.
The thing about rated battlegrounds I am most impressed with is the rating system. Now, while there are obvious bugs in the system right now (counting wins as losses, rating changes shown not being consistent with actual rating changes, etc.), Blizzard has the right idea when it comes to the RBG ranking system.
What is so awesome about the system? Your rating is tied to you as a player and not a team. This is incredible. Why? Because this makes it so you can easily play with others without sacrificing gains. Yes, in rated battlegrounds, unlike arena, you can team hop. On my server (Kel'Thuzad Alliance), there are rated battleground groups recruiting in trade almost non-stop -- and no one is being penalized for it.
I'm so impressed with the system that I openly petition Blizzard to change the system to work for arena in the same way (once it has all the bugs worked out). One of the huge flaws of personal rating attached to teams is that once players are on a team that has a high team rating (and they also have a high personal rating), they are punished very severely for leaving the team to help out friends or just play with new people.
PvP should be about playing games and having fun with lots of new people you've never met before. Team hopping was awesome in Season 1 and Season 2. Hopefully, Blizzard will consider changing the arena system (yet again) so arena can work more like rated battlegrounds in this regard.
Overall, the battlegrounds are much more balanced contests than I expected them to be. The better team almost always wins close contests, and I love discussions on correct strategy within battlegrounds. Honestly, even losses are fun most of the time. Simply put, awesome job, Blizzard.
2v2
Compared to the other two brackets, 2v2 seems very imbalanced. Of course, Blizzard intentionally doesn't balance for 2v2 (hence the reason it does not award end-of-season rewards like Gladiator titles or mounts).
Games feel long and drawn-out. When I've done 2v2 with people just to get them conquest points on the week, we've gone to time maybe 5% of the time. That's about 1 out of every 20 games have gone to 46 minutes. It's frustrating to spend so much time in arena just to lose points.
That being said, if you like 2v2, the more power to you. If you are doing very well in 2v2, there's no reason to stop. You can increase your conquest point cap quite substantially by achieving a high rating in 2v2, and it's also the easiest bracket to get a team together with -- so you and your best buddy can play some games and get a few wins to get points on the week, if you like.
If the only bracket you've participated in Cataclysm is 2v2, don't judge the other brackets by it! They're much different, and in the author's opinion, thankfully so.
3v3
There are so many teams at the top of the pile right now. The official PvP statistics page shows only a 3.5% population disparity between the 10th most popular team composition and the first. That is an incredibly low percentage shift and shows how balanced the bracket is.
Now, when I say "balanced" here, I don't mean that every class is doing fantastic in 3v3 at the moment. Hunters are completely absent from the top 10 teams (which is a serious problem), and certain classes are definitely represented very well (mages, death knights). However, no single team composition is dominating the bracket like we've seen in past seasons. Does anyone remember the Season 5 dominance between two compositions? Paladin-death knight-hunter and paladin-death knight-warlock were far above everyone else when it came to high-rated team compositions.
The absence of discipline priests from high-rated 3v3s is discouraging, but it's very encouraging to see the other three healers being very close to each other in terms of representation. None of my teammates have been complaining about how overpowered an opposing healing class is in 3v3. It seems many healers have found their niche, and shaman have finally risen to the top tier. In the past, restoration shaman have required very specific and sometimes peculiar setups to do well. The addition of a defensive dispel to their class has done wonders for them.
One of the great peculiarities of 3v3 this season has been the success of triple DPS teams and the disappointment of the double healer setup. Now, that's not to say triple DPS is the best right now or running a double healer setup is futile. Cataclysm has put a heavy emphasis on survivability and damage in the form of pressure rather than burst.
Three DPS teams are taking advantage of the fact that healers cannot instantly bring a teammate to 100 percent health anymore. Most of their wins come from whittling an opponent down (albeit a quick whittling). It's a very interesting sideshow, and I'm very excited to see if three DPS will continue to be a player in the metagame.
Patch 4.0.6 is slated to make hunters and discipline priests much more desirable to 3v3 teams. I wouldn't be surprised to see discipline priest-unholy death knight-marksman hunter as a formidable force in 3v3 after the patch.
5v5
The largest arena bracket feels very good at the moment. I'm currently playing on a 4 DPS squad, and our team's survivability feels very good. The pace of our games isn't usually a burst-a-thon, even though we're running a bursty team composition. However, it doesn't feel like people take forever to kill. Games are usually quick due to kills being scored within the first minute or two of the game, although I can definitely see some pretty epic contests happening in the future.
Class balance is very heavily debated in 5v5, it seems everyone brings something to the table at the moment. In my opinion, hunters seem very weak at the moment. Warriors and priests also feel a little weak, while warlocks and paladins feel very strong. Other people have disagreed with me, which is very surprising to me, but I guess I can see where they're coming from.
Disagreements about arena class balance are good because it means classes are probably more balanced than we think. Most people overwhelmingly agree when a class is overpowered or drastically underpowered, so disagreement of power level shows balance more than anything else, oddly enough.
Listening Music: Phoenix with 1901. I like the melody, and that the live stuff is just as good as the track on the album, but I can't understand the chorus repetition for the life of me. What is it? Falling? Fold it? Ballin'? A mixture of all three? It might just be something French, I have no idea.
Want to ascend the arena ladders faster than a fireman playing Donkey Kong? We'll steer you to victory with the best arena addons and let you in on some rank 1 gladiator PvP secrets. If you're looking for the inside line on battlegrounds and world PvP, read The Art of War(craft). 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
imatt94 Jan 25th 2011 6:13PM
Saw Phoenix at the Hollywood Bowl back in September. That was a hell of a show.
Leningrad Jan 25th 2011 6:23PM
he's saying "folded"
stevenf54 Jan 25th 2011 8:45PM
Phoenix definitely has real talent. Rome and Lasso are my favorite songs. 1901 is a good song, but definitely not the best on the album.
Elrandir Jan 25th 2011 8:28PM
Oh no it definitely is lol. Awesome song.
Srslyyeswai Jan 26th 2011 8:06PM
Check out their song called "North." Very different and cool... mellow. Love that song.
Pat Maloney Jan 25th 2011 6:35PM
Liner notes say "Fold it".
I dk whether this would be the column to ask or one of the shaman blogs, but as a resto shaman how important is it that I use the Earthliving weapon imbue? I've been using Frostbrand lately in PvP because the stacking slow with Frost shock and Unleash Elements is so useful. It seems like a good trade-off to me, but I've just been messing around in random BGs so I figured I would ask someone with high end experience.
Zankoku Jan 25th 2011 7:01PM
nice article... but balanced PvP? haven't PvPed on a Hunter this expac yet have ya? general PvP for a Hunter consists of a single macro:
/cast (Steady or Cobra) Shot
/die
aaron.bish Jan 25th 2011 7:14PM
Been playing WOW for 4 years now, still not sure what the draw is for PVP....
Lemons Jan 25th 2011 7:20PM
Playing against an intelligent, thinking opponent rather than an unthinking machine?
Matthew Jan 25th 2011 8:48PM
here is what I like:
1) no rotations perse. you have to think on your feet.
2) for healers, the ability / need to be good.
3) random element.
4) the classes are DIFFERENT in pvp more than they are different in pve.
I hope you try some good pvp. At first you'll get creamed. don't take it personally - my first wsg as a druid scared the hell out of me. I had no idea what was going on.
You'll slowly improve, esp if you don't mind dying alot.
Good luck!
Pyromelter Jan 25th 2011 8:54PM
As someone who started wow only to PvE (and still primarily enjoys that part of it), the draw of pvp is kind of like showcasing all your skills, and countering other player's skills. For example, maybe I'm going against a ret paladin, who casts his Hammer of Justice and stuns me, blows all his cooldowns and pops Avenging wrath. I'm a mage, and I'm playing fire, so I don't have the CC options of a frost mage, but what I can do is dish out a metric ton of damage. I already have my living bomb dot on him, and I know I'm not going to die in his stun. I wait for the stun to wear off, blink away, and I'm running circles spamming Spellsteal.
Now Spellsteal is something that is very rarely used in pve. There are random mobs with decent buffs to steal, and there is the rare boss like old Jaraxxus in ToC where you can steal a buff that is actually necessary to beat the encounter. But for the most part, it's not used very often.
But Spellsteal can be integral in PvP. You can heal yourself to full by stealing Renew and Rejuvination, you can steal a PW:S, and of course other buffs.
Bringing this back to the ret pally that is about to eat our faces, the spellsteal has stolen Avenging Wrath. Yes, I am now a mage with wings! And now I'm running circles around this poor bastard spamming scorch hoping for a Hot Streak! After a few scorches, Living Bomb has popped and I got a Hot Streak! My instant cast Pyroblast crits the poor sucker, and I plant a guild banner on top of his smoldering corpse.
This type of interaction is just not possible in a PvE environment. It's challenging, it requires mouse turning and lots of keybinds, but that's the fun of it. There are so many situations too... like a priest MC'ing someone and walking him off a bridge, or a balance druid popping out of cat stealth to blast someone into smithereens, or all the crazy tools rogues have to disarm, stun, disorient, snare, or otherwise incapacitate a foe. Using all these things, especially when you get good at it, really makes you feel like you have a deeper understanding of your class, and can really make you feel even more connected to a character.
gamerunknown Jan 25th 2011 11:57PM
Why not blink out of his stun?
Also, the best thing about the expansion for me has been how cheap and easy it is to set up arena teams. I also found the exact opposite in 2v2: every single team I've faced has been double dps with the longest matches lasting two minutes so far. But I'm at a very low rating at the moment, just playing 5 wins a week.
As for why PvP in general: it's an aspect of the game. While I hated the idea of making another player upset of disappointed, I figured I really wanted to explore all the game had to offer and finally took up arena (in greens, clicking and mouse turning) in WotLk and really enjoyed the challenge. That said I know quite a few people, myself included, who after a streak of crushing defeats in PvP will become very vitriolic for a few hours. More so than after any wiping in PvE. If you think that you might have the same problem, I'd give it a miss.
Sorcha Jan 26th 2011 5:55AM
It's the challenge. It's using every single tool in your spellbook to give you an advantage, rather than the smaller number that are necessary for PvE (that's not me attacking PvE, if the devs made encounters require every single spell mechanic available they'd be almost impossible without a specific raid comp.) Mind Vision, which in PvE is fun at best, becomes essential to see what's going on at various nodes, where that pack of Alliance you can see is heading, where their flag carrier is, what that rogue's last known position was. Granted I only arena very casually and mostly do BGs, but I can tell you that for me it's the feeling that I'm playing my class to its' absolute max.
Tom Jan 25th 2011 7:33PM
/agree with lemons
archbaotho Jan 25th 2011 7:35PM
alliance on kel'thuzad eh? way to be part of the gang :P just kidding, please be nice to us hoardies (who be stealin yo tol barad these days eh?)
i play alot of 2's as a disc priest and my partner is an enh shaman. were somewhat experienced in arena's, yet dont really take the time to check out things like arenajunkies for team comps/strategies. has anyone experienced a team comp they personally thought were overwhelming? my comp is unusual, it has low defense against double physical dps teams, yet we still find a positive w/l ratio most weeks. is the state of arena's atm in 3's and 5's similar in that unusual comps are finding some degree of success?
Matthew Jan 25th 2011 8:49PM
hey! i used to be a disc priest now i'm a resto shammie. did disc lose its fun/flavor/survivability from wrath to now in your opinion?
i miss my bubble. however, healing rain makes up for it.
Matrillik Jan 26th 2011 1:25AM
As of right now, (pre-4.0.6) disc priests are absolutely dismal in pvp. They've become the kid on the battlefield viewed as a free kill by every melee dps you can imagine. I've heard that currently resto shaman are the best healer in pvp right now. I can't recall exactly the shaman changes to pvp other then the greater healing wave buff, but I think they should still be doing very well. Disc priests are looking at a huge pvp buff in 4.0.6 so they should be back in the fray soon enough with the uber buff to power word shield and imp. power word shield. From some rough calculations, we'll be looking at priests with an instant cast bubble that absorbs ~30k. Until then, I'll stick to shadow.
Sorcha Jan 26th 2011 6:17AM
Overwhelming comp for us (disc/rogue) is mage/warrior. Or DK/mage. And we are seeing lots of them.
Revrant Jan 25th 2011 8:30PM
I'm just happy they're finally balancing Hunters in PvP, they've made a real, tangible, concerted effort to make Hunters in PvP not only enjoyable, but viable. The next patch will help Hunter mobility, which is the biggest issue with Hunter PvP, other classes get to break out of things on a relatively short cooldown, something Hunters don't have access to.
The lack of stun immunity is still an issue unless you're BM, but in that case you have a strong physical damage mechanic, which everyone gets to mitigate heavily, Cobra Shot has thankfully mitigated this weakness and I love in Survival. I intend to craft myself the entire mail PvP set and get my Shredder honor gear, put an end to Warsong Gulch "turtling".
HA! HA! HA! HA!
Zankoku Jan 25th 2011 9:00PM
Stun immunity in BM? WHERE??????? The Beast Within/Bestial Wrath no longer provides immunity. it is just a PvP trinket on a 1min17sec cooldown with a little bit of extra damage thrown in.... plus a giant sign on your head saying "PLEASE CC ME NOW!!!!!!!!!!ZOMG@!!!!!!!!!!!!"