Megan from Out of Mana posted an Arena Assignment for the readers to come up with a spec for all the players, and pretty much explain what each player will be doing given the team makeup and opponent. She gave the assignment a week and a half ago, and just like I would in real life, I wait until now to work on it. So here is my homework and of course, an apple for the teacher.

Here is a look at the assignment:

Part One:

“For each class involved, pick a spec for them that you think works for the particular makeups.”

First I’ll work on the top team in this post, and the bottom team in a different post. Top team will be my Team A. Bottom team will be my Team B.

Team A:

• Mage – 17/0/44
• Paladin – 41/20/0
• Priest – 42/19/0
• Shaman – 0/0/61
• Warrior – 44/17/0

Part Two:

“Pick a map that you think best suits the strengths of the top team. Then pick a map that best suits the strengths of the bottom team.”

Team A: Nagrand Arena

Healers can pillar hump or pole dance (or whatever you may call it) to keep away from harm. Open space in the middle for Mage to do damage, and Warrior won’t have much trouble sticking on target.

Part Three:

“Break out your crayons. Start drawing lines as you see fit for each class on each team. Highlight any specific reasoning behind your choices, or any that you feel are the key decisions for each team.”

This is the part I decided to split the answer into two separate posts.

Virtual Threat:

“Virtual threat implies the potential danger and damage (not just DPS, CC and healing and utility included) you can dish out without even having done anything in the first place.” Some more information on Virtual Threat by Out of Mana

Mage – Virtual threat will be mainly on the Warrior. Not DPS him down, but to keep him out of the game. By using a combination of Polymorph, Frost Nova, Freeze, and Cone of Cold, a Mage can pretty much keep a Warrior CC’d, or slowed the entire fight.

Paladin – The Paladin will be harassing the Shaman with stuns whenever he can.

Priest – With the Paladin harassing the Shaman, the Priest will be Mana Burning the Paladin whenever there is a chance. Priest will also have a Mass Dispel ready for when the Paladin bubbles.

Shaman – Will not necessarily be harassing the Hunter, but will be dispelling the Hunter’s stings, which can burn a lot of mana if it stays on a caster.

Warrior – The Warrior will keep MS up on the Warlock, and keep the lock hamstrung and slowed for most of the fight. Will also be Pummeling the lock’s fears.

Actual Target:

“Represents actual targeting, at least for the early moments (within the first minute) of the Arena match.”

Mage – Will be DPSing whoever the Warrior is targeting. Mage will also try to keep the opponent’s Warrior CC’d as much as he can, and keep him away from the team’s healers.

Paladin – As a healer will be keeping the team members alive most of the time. Will keep an eye on the opposing team’s healers for when stuns are needed.

Priest – If on the offensive, will mostly be Mana Burning for the entire fight, mostly on the Paladin. Will help heal when needed. Will also be dispel whoever the Warrior and Mage is DPSing down.

Shaman – Will be cleansing and healing the team most of the time. Will be helping with DPS on the Warlock if not much healing is needed.

Warrior – Will be on the Warlock the entire time. May even switch on the Warlock’s pet if given the chance to kill the pet.

Potential Swap:

“A target swap down the road, which could either be planned from the beginning (eg switch to this after X class uses Y defensive cooldown) or as a fall back plan (eg if the other team properly reacts to our attack plan on target X and it’s not working, swap to target Y).”

If the Warrior and Mage manage to kill the Warlock’s pet or get the Warlock at low health. A call for Bloodlust/Heroism and focus on the Warlock may be called. Priest can use Psychic Scream offensively to fear the healers to prevent them from healing. Mage can time a CS on one of the healers before the call, Paladin can stun one of the healers too.

If Priest has managed to Mana burn all of the Paladin’s mana, a call to switch to the Shaman will be used. With his only other healer OOM, the Shaman won’t last long. The stuns, fears, and CS can be used on the other members of the opposing team to give you time to do whatever you want to the poor Shaman.

Focus Target:

“Target that class would most likely have as their focus target—all the goodies of macros that involve [target=focus] will be applied here.”

Paladin will most likely be the main focus target from everyone on the team. Interrupting his heals, and forcing him to bubble early will give Team A the edge in the battle. When the call to switch to the Shaman, the Paladin won’t have his bubble to keep his spells from being interrupted.

If you have anything to add, change, or comments, let me know. I would like to hear how others may have handled this situation too. For the specs for each class, I didn’t know the exact talents to take, but I had an idea of what to get, though I could be wrong.

This isn’t the “Correct” way to do it, or the “Best” way to do it, but it is one of the many ways you can handle it. Arena is a big chess match, of trying to use your Strengths against their Weaknesses.

Stay tuned for the second part of the assignment for Team B.

Related Posts:

• Hpwnwork Assignment #1 – Team B
• Week 2 of Season 4
• More Arena in Week Two
• The Power of PMR
• Arcane Mage PvP: Never Give Up