Arena: Duo/Trio? questions

[fling]

I've gotten to the point where I am functional enough with my dual boxing pve content, (AHK, one pc) coupled with getting tired of never having my arena teammates on at the right times, that I want to create an arena focussed duo/trio. While I am certainly not opposed to adding a friend or two to the team, I want to be able to, at a minimum, break the into 1600s, higher with gear.

I have a good mid level gaming rig (Core2Duo OC'ed to 2.8/2gb ram/8800gts/22" lcd) and a older rig (Sempron1.8/2gb ram/x800pro/17" lcd), and am willing to buy keyclone or whatever software I need as well as a third account if needed. Classes and configuration are what I need to figure out. I am thinking 2 of 1 class or 3 of 1 of one class would probably be the easiest, but I am not sure which/what would work best.

Does anyone run shamans in 2v2 or 3v3 successfully, or would warlocks or mages be better for those brackets? I would like to do all three brackets, at least one of them by myself, and one or 2 with a few friends. I know I can pve and BG with any duo/trio, but as many have said, arena is a whole new world. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated! Or you can just yell at me, either way!

Finally, is there a post on Ellay's rig? I think 4 accounts might be out of my price range and hardware range, but it would be interesting, thanks again!

[Phate]

2v2 is EXTREMELY gimmicky, and matrix dependent. There's no justifiable reason to not run a druid if you're starting from scratch. If you're just in it to win it, go with a warrior for the other. 8/10 of the top teams on Bloodlust are that combo. Rogue is another good one, but requires a pretty significant amount of micro, even compared to warrior. Warlock/x mana drain & attrition dies next patch, so I don't really recommend that build. Two DPS insta-gib teams are fun for lower brackets, but extremely difficult if you want to go higher. (duelist/Gladiator)

In 3s, if you want to run a single class, you could run 3x resto/ele shaman, with the new healing -> spell damage changes, that will be a very potent team, I think.

3x frost mage might be fun, but I don't know how well it would work, you'd DR yourself out of FN extremely fast. You absolutely can not take frost bite though. Silence DRs now, so you'd probably be better off running 1 or 2 of them as 17/0/44, and one as 0/8/53, and pick up full winter's chill. It'd be hit or miss, but with elemental + chain Freeze + IL + CoC spam, you could probably insta-gib a lot of teams, especially 2 healer + 1 DPS, which seems to be the FOTM.

[Phate]

Holy Acronyms Batman! :lol:

Haha, my bad.

DR = Diminishing Returns
FN = Frost Nova/Freeze
IL = Ice Lance
CoC = Cone of Cold
FOTM = Flavour of the Month

Any others?

While I'm at it, typical specs:
17/0/44 - For improved counterspell, and reduced chance for sheep to be resisted.

0/8/53 - For increased burst, Winter's Chill (Dispel fodder, this is vital after the removal of dispel magic.), and impact.

Sorry the second one is the WoW website, just imported it from my mage.

[Phate]

I think thats good. ty

What about a dual 3 minute mage setup? Insta-gib one down, then kite then other to death.

Not enough survivability, and too much dependence on crit, in my opinion. In 2s I can't think of any single class setup that would be very effective. Possibly 2x holy paladin with the new change, but that's only if you really, really hate fast games.

Edit: Changed the 17/0/44 build, because you can't CoC on any but the primary, it's too dependent on facing.

[fling]

Yeah I kept drawing a blank on 2s, how about 3v3s?

[Phate]

Yeah I kept drawing a blank on 2s, how about 3v3s?

See my first post for what I'd do.

[Ellay]

As Phate pointed out, the 2's are extremely gimmicky and that's a fact. The higher the bracket the better variables in combos you have.

Before I played my Shamans though I did play 3 Fire Mages. I dabbled a little bit in the 2's and moreso in the 3's which took place in Season 1. Almost hitting a 1700 rating with 3 Fire Mages it was all about the burn and burst DPS. I did manage to get an 1800 rating on 5's though for 1 week and then fell down (reason being Frost is superior in Arenas, but just wasn't my style).

I see this goal though overall being harder to accomplish 2's. The main thing we as multi-boxers have to our advantage is focus fire, and that is huge for the mid ratings since most teams don't even seem to run an /assist train. I would suggest playing a class you love to play and let it evolve from there. I know that's open ended but that's what counts in the long run, Blizzard has done a great job making many of the classes very well balanced.