Why do you play 5s/5v5?

[Fat Tire]

Ok I know I am probably going to get my head ripped off for this, however, I am curious.

What is the draw in playing 5 characters in pvp? I believe I know the all the pro/cons but maybe I am missing something.

I understand the draw of playing the same amount of characters for pve/heroics and pvp combined. Is that the only draw? I have boxed 5 characters for a while(about a year) so I know a little bout it and found over time it was not for me.

Now for pve, I leave that to the more advanced people here its just not my thing anymore. I am burned out of raiding, never again. I did 1 10 man solo in all of woltk not including VoA.

In pvp, for me I really see no difference in how fast I kill would kill a sinlge target between boxing 2 dps or 4. I dont know how boxing 5 characters over 2 could be more challenging other than all the grunt work of making macros/prof/buttons etc for 5 characters over 2. I guess one could make the argument of facing 5 enemy players instead of 2/3, so is that the challenge everyone plays 5 characters in pvp for?

I am really looking for some perspective.

[Shodokan]

3v3 can't be zerged really by a boxer, there needs to be SOME control.

[Fat Tire]

3v3 can't be zerged really by a boxer, there needs to be SOME control.

I tunnel like no tomorrow only using my interrupts/non facing cc and healer partner helps with cc in 3s and do just fine.

[Kromtor]

Psychologically:
5's are like the heavyweight division. The top 100lb and 150lb fighters wouldn't fair well vs. the top 250lb fighters and the same goes for arenas. We all want to have the maximum amount of power possible when we push a key - that's why some even continue to play or plan to play 30+ chars despite the raid cap being 25 on all the new content.

Also when you stomp another team in 5's with 5 characters of the same name they're forced to deal with the reality of what happened. In 2's or 3's they could just assume it's a couple friends who thought it would be funny to have matching names

Technically:
5's also cross into a threshold where you have the potential to gain a coordination advantage over a 5's team with 5 human players when it comes to avoiding overlapping cooldowns due to the amount of vent chatter required for a 5's team to fully coordinate that. In reality we probably never actually get this advantage since the best teams will use every addon possible to help track the cooldowns of both their teammates and enemies to avoid wasted cooldowns or diminishing returns even more than we can, but at least in 5's there's that slim chance. In 2's and 3's it seems the best teams pretty much already know what the exact gameplan is vs. each comp they are likely to face. Then there's the more obvious coordinated burst advantage, the more the better when it comes to that.

[Fat Tire]

Psychologically:
5's are like the heavyweight division. The top 100lb and 150lb fighters wouldn't fair well vs. the top 250lb fighters and the same goes for arenas. We all want to have the maximum amount of power possible when we push a key - that's why some even continue to play or plan to play 30+ chars despite the raid cap being 25 on all the new content.

Also when you stomp another team in 5's with 5 characters of the same name they're forced to deal with the reality of what happened. In 2's or 3's they could just assume it's a couple friends who thought it would be funny to have matching names

Technically:
5's also cross into a threshold where you have the potential to gain a coordination advantage over a 5's team with 5 human players when it comes to avoiding overlapping cooldowns due to the amount of vent chatter required for a 5's team to fully coordinate that. In reality we probably never actually get this advantage since the best teams will use every addon possible to help track the cooldowns of both their teammates and enemies to avoid wasted cooldowns or diminishing returns even more than we can, but at least in 5's there's that slim chance. In 2's and 3's it seems the best teams pretty much already know what the exact gameplan is vs. each comp they are likely to face. Then there's the more obvious coordinated burst advantage, the more the better when it comes to that.

Good Stuff.

Thanks for taking the time to write that out. Explains a bit about the psychology which I think was the issue I am having trouble understanding.

[Zappy]

In order to gear up a 5box team in pvp gear, it's a matter of how much time you put into it. Me personally, I'd rather put in my 5 wins once, rather than for each individual toon. For 5s, it's all about coordinating burst, and with equal gear, most matches can be quickly turned into a 5 vs 4 in the first few seconds of battle. At the moment, I'm not going for any serious ratings, but rather the minimum to get my weekly points in. The first few weeks were very rough where I think it took me something close to 30 games to get my 5 wins, but now that they are starting to get some gear, they are finally able to somewhat compete. With 2k resilience, I need another 1000 to be more competitive.

As far as the other brackets go, 2s is more or less about what makeup you run vs what you get matched up against. It's a lot more like rock, paper, scissors - for example, in S4, you had warrior/druid at the top - that comp could beat just about every other comp when played right. Only a few comps could reliably beat it - hunter/druid being one of them, but that comp wasn't as strong vs other setups. So to me, 2s is always going to be a fun bracket as you'll see a ton of different comps, and with practice, just about any comp can work and get a decent rating. I'm currently playing that with my DK and my daughter playing a feral druid ATM. Nothing serious, but I'm sure 1800-2k is well within grasp.

When I used to play solo, 3s was the most competitive bracket. While most teams played the traditional RMP combo, we were doing RLP, and as Kromtor pointed out, it's the experience that tells you as soon as the gates open, we already knew the gameplan in 95% of the matches. When CCs are executed and coordinated properly, it's a lot harder to lose.

So to me, the appeal is get my 5 wins in weekly for the quick easy epics that way I can play all my other toons. Sadly, I've done probably less than 10 BGs total between both my shammys and Dk/Rets since hitting 85 as I'm burned out on the grind.

[Fat Tire]

In order to gear up a 5box team in pvp gear, it's a matter of how much time you put into it. Me personally, I'd rather put in my 5 wins once, rather than for each individual toon. For 5s, it's all about coordinating burst, and with equal gear, most matches can be quickly turned into a 5 vs 4 in the first few seconds of battle. At the moment, I'm not going for any serious ratings, but rather the minimum to get my weekly points in. The first few weeks were very rough where I think it took me something close to 30 games to get my 5 wins, but now that they are starting to get some gear, they are finally able to somewhat compete. With 2k resilience, I need another 1000 to be more competitive.

As far as the other brackets go, 2s is more or less about what makeup you run vs what you get matched up against. It's a lot more like rock, paper, scissors - for example, in S4, you had warrior/druid at the top - that comp could beat just about every other comp when played right. Only a few comps could reliably beat it - hunter/druid being one of them, but that comp wasn't as strong vs other setups. So to me, 2s is always going to be a fun bracket as you'll see a ton of different comps, and with practice, just about any comp can work and get a decent rating. I'm currently playing that with my DK and my daughter playing a feral druid ATM. Nothing serious, but I'm sure 1800-2k is well within grasp.

When I used to play solo, 3s was the most competitive bracket. While most teams played the traditional RMP combo, we were doing RLP, and as Kromtor pointed out, it's the experience that tells you as soon as the gates open, we already knew the gameplan in 95% of the matches. When CCs are executed and coordinated properly, it's a lot harder to lose.

So to me, the appeal is get my 5 wins in weekly for the quick easy epics that way I can play all my other toons. Sadly, I've done probably less than 10 BGs total between both my shammys and Dk/Rets since hitting 85 as I'm burned out on the grind.

So my understanding is, correct if I am wrong. 2s/3s solo(non Boxed) are easy if CC is coordinated properly, but boxing 5s is harder or more of a challenge because its coordinated zerg or are you saying you are getting your wins in 5s because its the easiest way to gear up? But then why 5. Is it the challenge of playing 5 characters or is it the wtfpwn 1 enemy at a time or is the challenge in playing 5 characters while wtfpwning 1 enemy at a time. Because 2 dps can wtfpwn 1 enemy almost as fast as 4. Is the only reason 4>1 vs 2>1 ?

If you can gear up your characters doing 2s why play 5s with all the same classes. What is the benefit? I see that you do pve heroics etc. so I know that is a major pro of playing 5 characters. I am trying to understand the rational of why 5 characters are better or more of a challenge than 2 if you dont pve. Given the same number of players.

And thank you for taking the time to post and write that out. Much appreciated.

[Zappy]

I'm talking specifically to gear up a team. I have 2 sets of 85s, with a close 3rd coming up. I don't want to be playing them individually as that'll take 25 wins/week to get the conquest cap. Now I haven't tried boxing 2s or 3s, so maybe it's just as easy to win in 2s or 3s.

In 5s, the challenge is to wtfpwn 1 enemy before they've blown all defensive CDs and you start getting fearbombed left and right. The pace of 2s and 3s is a lot slower than 5s. In most 5s matches, someone dies in the first 5-10 seconds of every battle due to either a successful zerg or successful CCs.

But again, i'm not sure i'm answering your question. I do 5s right now strictly for the conquest gear. the arena system is such a joke in 5s these days, that I don't find the enjoyment from it, so I'd rather get my conquest points as quick as possible.

[Fat Tire]

But again, i'm not sure i'm answering your question. I do 5s right now strictly for the conquest gear. the arena system is such a joke in 5s these days, that I don't find the enjoyment from it, so I'd rather get my conquest points as quick as possible.

If you didnt pve would you still pvp with 5? If you didnt pve what are the benefits of boxing pvp 1 dk+ 4rets(5v5) over boxing 1 dk + 1 ret (2v2) for example. Also for argument sake I have killed shamans/priests and locks in the first 10 sec of combat before in 2s.

[Fat Tire]

I am guessing that most 5v5 players pvp because they enjoy doing pve as well and playing 5 characters seems to make the most sense.

Are there any 4/5 boxers out there that just pvp?