Unlock your PvP potential with Skill Capped. Our brand new Skill Capped UI for The War Within will fast track your success, offering everything you need to set up your UI like a pro in just seconds. Skill Capped members can download the complete addon package from our site and unlock premium profiles for BetterBlizzPlates, OmniBar, and OmniCD to gain visual and in depth insights that enhance your gameplay and give you the edge over your opponents. With Skill Capped, you’ll start climbing the ladder in no time.
Table of Contents
Introduction
This guide was made in collaboration with multiple current Rank 1 Gladiators, but is designed to represent the entire arena ladder.
To help understand how these rankings work, we assume the following:
S tier specs are expected to have the highest winrate against equally skilled opponents.
A tier specs are expected to have positive winrates against equally skilled opponents.
B tier specs represent the “average” comp, and have a relatively equal distribution of winning and losing matchups
C tier specs are generally weak into the meta and are expected to lose against most higher tier comps
A visual representation can be found here.
Other important notes:
This list is an ongoing project and will be updated periodically
If you don’t see a comp listed, it MIGHT be weaker than C tier, but could also mean that it is too experimental to properly rank or simply an oversight.
Best 2v2 Comps for Death Knight
B Tier – Unholy Death Knight
Unholy Death Knight / Restoration Druid, Preservation Evoker, or Discipline Priest
As one of the few melee specializations without a Mortal Strike effect, Unholy still remains relevant and competitive thanks to the amount of viable offensive healers. This allows them to setup with their teammate to deliver some powerful setups. Not only is this super influential in how Unholy feels in the current meta, but they have multiple short bursty cooldowns like Apocalypse and Dark Transformation to cleave multiple targets.
B Tier – Frost Death Knight
Frost Death Knight / Preservation Evoker
What places Frost Death Knight in B Tier is how linear its win conditions are, making it quite restrictive in terms of strategy. This means players can easily play around it to counter your burst. It’s a combination of running around the map while your cooldowns are down and then trying to set up a massive burst window every 45 seconds with Pillar of Frost.
Due to this, we highly recommend playing with a Preservation Evoker who can follow up with some solid AoE stuns with Oppressing Roar and Deep Breath.
Best 2v2 Comps for Demon Hunters
A+ Tier – Havoc Demon Hunter
Havoc Demon Hunter / Restoration Druid, Preservation Evoker, Discipline Priest, or Restoration Shaman
Demon Hunter has been iconic in the 2v2 bracket with how much consistent damage this spec can provide. Fortunately with its talent rework, Demon Hunters can now do absurd damage and with that makes this spec back to being relevant in 2v2. When played with an offensive healer, expect to finish off targets relatively quick with micro Crowd Control.
Best 2v2 Comps for Druids
S Tier – Feral Druid
Feral Druid / Discipline Priest, Holy Priest, Preservation Evoker, or Holy Paladin
Comparative to most specs, Feral Druid is extremely strong in the current meta and deserves its title as S tier. They have a solid balance of control, damage, and defense that makes them so impactful in the arena. The best composition you’ll see them play is with a Discipline or Holy Priest, as they can produce a solid amount of extra damage to put your opponents on edge.
B Tier – Balance Druid
Balance Druid / Restoration Shaman, Discipline Priest, Holy Priest, or Preservation Evoker
Balance Druid has always been seen as too clunky to perform in this bracket, as the only way to secure wins is during your Incarnation or Root Beam windows. Aside from that, you do need a healer that provides enough control and damage to secure wins, to which any of the healers listed above suit that role the best.
Best 2v2 Comps for Evokers
A Tier – Devastation Evoker
Devastation Evoker / Discipline Priest, Holy Priest, or Preservation Evoker
Devastation Evoker has considered an absolute melee counter in the 2v2 bracket due to how slippery this spec can be. This is due to talents like Unburdened Flight that providing them with a snare immunity during Hover, and Slipstream giving them another charge of Hover every time they Deep Breath. They can definitely pack a punch from Disintegrate alone, and when paired with any one of our offensive healers listed above we definitely see this spec taking out their opponents relatively quick and unexpectedly.
C Tier – Augmentation Evoker
Augmentation Evoker / Discipline Priest, Holy Priest, or Preservation Evoker
Augmentation Evoker barely has any representation in competitive brackets, but for all we know it is a worse version of Devastation. Their win conditions are based around a gimmicky burst sequence with Breath of Eons, and by adding an offensive healer that can strengthen their burst windows, Augmentation can land kills a bit easier.
Best 2v2 Comps for Hunters
A Tier – Marksmanship Hunter
Marksmanship Hunter / Restoration Druid, Preservation Evoker, or Discipline Priest
Marksmanship Hunter can deal some heavy frontloaded burst, but becomes a lot more difficult to get off especially in a 2v2 environment. With so many disarms and stuns thrown in your way, it becomes difficult to get your damage off when it matters. This is a major reason why Beast Mastery has an upper hand in the 2v2 meta, as you can avoid damage easily while simultaneously pressuring your opponents with pet damage.
Additionally, this spec needs a teammate that can reliably lock down your opponents to enable their damage as opposed to a 3v3 or Solo-Shuffle bracket. Marksmanship Hunters are preferred with any healer that can control their target at ease, especially Restoration Druids with the amount of stuns and even Cyclone casts they can use to follow up off traps to secure wins.
S Tier – Beast Mastery Hunter
Beast Mastery Hunter / Discipline Priest, Holy Priest, or Restoration Druid
Beast Mastery has always stayed relevant due to its consistent damage output, as well as its ability to avoid taking damage the best compared to any ranged specialization. Typically healers struggle the most from this spec since its constantly pressuring one target and looking for Crowd Control on healers to secure wins. This is especially potent during deep dampening, which kicks in way faster now during 2v2 matchups.
A+ Tier – Survival Hunter
Survival Hunter / Restoration Druid, Preservation Evoker, or Discipline Priest
Survival benefits heavily on consistent damage and swaps, while waiting on Diminishing Returns to land their Stun + Freezing Trap combos. With this in mind, having some type of offensive healer further assist us with our goals. Even though Restoration Druid isn’t relatively known for providing damage, having your healer land some solid Cyclone casts on low-health targets could be just as good to help reset Diminishing Returns and score a kill.
DISCLAIMER: Survival Hunter is hard and requires a lot of practice in order to climb competitively.
Best 2v2 Comps for Mages
A Tier – Frost Mage
Frost Mage / Discipline Priest, Holy Priest, or Restoration Druid
Starting off with Frost Mage, instead of playing solely on a Rogue like Mages have been conditioned to in the past, playing with a Holy Priest or even a Restoration Druid could keep the momentum in their favor. Having an offensive healer that can keep targets stationary during a Frost Mage‘s Icy Veins enrage timer can allow them to secure kills at relative ease.
The best way to set up burst windows is with Snowdrift as it is their only method of stunning the opposing team while benefitting off Shatter when stunned.
B Tier – Fire Mage
Fire Mage / Discipline Priest, Holy Priest, or Restoration Druid
With the most recent changes, Fire is less reliant on Glass Cannon to build pressure as they have received a variety of buffs to their core damaging spells. Although you can play with a Sub Rogue, higher ranked healers like Discipline Priest will make you struggle in terms of getting a win. You can play with either a Holy Priest or Restoration Druid for additional control to secure wins during Combustion windows.
A Tier – Arcane Mage
Arcane Mage / Discipline Priest, Holy Priest, or Restoration Druid
Comparative to all mage specs, Arcane is a bit more methodical in terms of playstyle but still achieve wins playing as comps similar to Frost Mage. This spec requires excellent control and attrition in order to score kills, and by pairing with an offensive healer it becomes easier to determine win conditions.
However, this specialization struggles against the higher ranked specs, predominantly Feral Druid and Beast Mastery Hunter.
DISCLAIMER: Arcane Mage is hard and requires a lot of practice in order to climb competitively.
Best 2v2 Comps for Monks
A+ Tier – Windwalker Monk
Windwalker Monk / Discipline Priest, Holy Priest, Holy Paladin, or Mistweaver Monk
Windwalker Monks still are a great choice in 2v2, as they serve a role similar to a brawler as opposed to a calculated tactician. This spec can really lack the finishing power in most cases, to which your best bet is to pair with a healer that can greatly assist you during your Leg Sweep burst windows. This could be by following up with more control or more damage.
Best 2v2 Comps for Paladins
B Tier – Retribution Paladin
Retribution Paladin / Discipline Priest, Holy Priest, or Preservation Evoker
Retribution Paladin can deliver some solid burst during their Avenging Wrath or even during every Wake of Ashes if Radiant Glory is used, but still lacks a Mortal Strike effect that would otherwise help them close out games . A majority of their damage comes from their Hero talents, especially Dawnlight with its spread pressure and occasional Blessing of An’she procs. In order to make up for this weakness, this spec relies on a healer that can deal some extra damage to execute your targets during your Avenging Wrath burst windows.
Best 2v2 Comps for Priests
A Tier – Shadow Priest
Shadow Priest / Restoration Druid, Preservation Evoker, Holy Paladin, or Restoration Shaman
Shadow Priest is a spec that can deal some heavy burst as long as their primary kill target is locked down. Having a healer that has some control built in their toolkit while enabling them to cast is going to suit the best in the current meta. Restoration Druids best fit this description as they can provide you with Maim or Bash during your Dark Ascension or Void Eruption burst windows.
DISCLAIMER: Shadow Priest is hard and requires a lot of practice in order to climb competitively.
Best 2v2 Comps for Rogues
A+ Tier – Subtlety Rogue
Subtlety Rogue / Discipline Priest, Holy Priest, or Preservation Evoker
Out of all potential specs, Subtlety benefits the most out of the Dampening change as the amount of damage and control it possesses can make it unrecoverable the longer the match goes. Not to mention, Sub Rogues also deal some solid consistent damage with Rupture thanks to Dark Brew and Replicating Shadows, giving you more opportunities to swap around and get a target low enough before stun-locking your kill target with Shadow Dance.
DISCLAIMER: Subtlety Rogue is hard and requires a lot of practice in order to climb competitively.
A Tier – Assassination Rogue
Assassination Rogue / Discipline Priest, Restoration Druid, or Preservation Evoker
As a spec that’s more friendly to pick up than Subtlety, Assassination retains its role as a attrition-based spec similar to a Feral Druid. You can expect this spec to succeed relatively well in a BM hunter meta, as Assa gains more primary stat from Scent of Blood depending on how many Ruptures they can have up. Since this spec focuses on maximizing damage, you’ll want to pick up a healer that can assist with that goal as many of your wins will occur during deep dampening.
Only downside of this spec is that Preservation Evokers and Survival Hunters can easily counteract their bleeds with a simple bleed purge, even with Cauterizing Flame being available every minute as opposed to Deathmark‘s 2 minute cooldown.
A Tier – Outlaw Rogue
Outlaw Rogue / Discipline Priest, Restoration Druid, or Preservation Evoker
This specialization is most notoriously known for high-APM gameplay, and is constantly trying to reach high dampening which Outlaw excels at. Look at picking up any one of the meta healers, or even a Restoration Druid to reach that dampening threshold and overwhelm the opposing team with consistent damage.
DISCLAIMER: Outlaw Rogue is hard and requires a lot of practice in order to climb competitively.
Best 2v2 Comps for Shamans
C Tier – Enhancement Shaman
Enhancement Shaman / Discipline Priest, Holy Priest, or Preservation Evoker
Although Enhancement Shaman doesn’t have a healing reduction effect, this spec now receives some finishing power in order to keep the momentum on your favor. However, with an increase in Dampening this inherently weakens the utility this spec provides. Self-healing becomes a bit more lackluster early game and makes Enhancement quite susceptible to death against most matchups.
C Tier – Elemental Shaman
Elemental Shaman / Restoration Druid, Preservation Evoker, Discipline Priest, Holy Priest, or Holy Paladin
Although this spec has received some heavy buffs to their burst and consistent cleave damage, this spec has similar issues to what Enhancement experiences; no healing reduction effect. Additionally, Elemental does not have enough control to slow down the pacing of the game, and with that makes it so much more important to play with an offensive healer that can.
Best 2v2 Comps for Warlocks
A Tier – Affliction Warlock
Affliction Warlock / Restoration Druid, Restoration Shaman, Holy Priest, or Holy Paladin
Affliction can be quite scary to face with how much cleave and instant cast direct damage they can deal, making them ranked slightly higher than they were before. The biggest problem with this spec is that Affliction does not have a healing reduction effect, and are easily chewed out against our higher ranked specs. That being said, this spec requires a healer that can enable their offensive pressure, especially Holy Priests with their Holy Word: Chastise stun.
A Tier – Demonology Warlock
Demonology Warlock / Restoration Druid, Restoration Shaman, or Holy Priest
Demonology is the only specialization for Warlock that has a reliable healing reduction effect from their pet. This shifts your focus to play not to lose and dwindle your opposing healer’s mana bar down to zero once dampening is high enough. Although Demonology has to constantly open up it’s cast bar to deal damage, this weakness is now lessened to a degree as they receive more instant casts on Demonic Core. This is a huge quality of life improvement to the spec, allowing them to somewhat catch up to some of our higher ranked specs in this tier list.
B Tier – Destruction Warlock
Destruction Warlock / Restoration Druid, Preservation Evoker, or Holy Priest
Although Destruction has a lot of instant cast damage built into their toolkit, they experience the same problem that Demonology does, getting shut down heavily by high-tier melees and BM Hunters. This is most prevalent at times where you need to land Chaos Bolt to finish games. Again, you’ll need a healer that can play offensive in terms of control or damage after using double Mortal Coil in order to secure wins.
Best 2v2 Comps for Warriors
A+ Tier – Fury Warrior
Fury Warrior / Restoration Druid, Mistweaver Monk, or Restoration Shaman
Fury Warrior has received an abundance of damage buffs that help them deliver a lot of pressure, increasing our rankings for this spec in particular. Fortunately their buff to Rallying Cry helps strengthen their defensive toolkit, making them less likely to be taken down than in 11.0.7.
This spec exceeds with a healer that can deliver a lot of throughput healing, damage, and some control to keep them on their target.
A+ Tier – Arms Warrior
Arms Warrior / Restoration Druid, Mistweaver Monk, or Restoration Shaman
Arms is also experienced some recent buffs to some of their core damaging spells, to which has risen their rankings in the current meta. Similar to Fury, this spec is heavily reliant on a healer that is comprised of a solid amount of healing throughput and control to keep the momentum in their favor.
We’re offering a 5% discount link to sign up, which includes a money back guarantee. If you don’t gain at least 400 rating while actively using our website, we will offer a full refund.