Unlock your PvP potential with Skill Capped! Our brand new Skill Capped UI for Cataclysm 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 Plater, 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.
As a member, you’ll also gain access to specialized video tutorials from the world’s best pro players, with courses available for every class. Sign up today for a special 5% discount and start mastering WoW PvP with our engaging and informative content and take advantage of our 400 rating gain guarantee where we guarantee you’ll see improvement or get your money back.
Introduction
In this tier list, we will provide a brief synapsis of the most frequently played compositions for all viable specializations in the 2v2 bracket. This tier list will go over each specialization we have considered viable enough to perform in a competitive PvP arena setting.
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 comps are expected to have the highest winrate against equally skilled opponents.
A tier comps are expected to have positive winrates against equally skilled opponents.
B tier comps represent the “average” comp, and have a relatively equal distribution of winning and losing matchups
C tier comps are generally weak into the meta and are expected to lose against most higher tier comps
Other important notes:
Compositions will be ranked individually for each specialization, due to some specializations having viable compositions in this 2v2 bracket that are worse than others.
If you play a S ranked composition, this does not guarantee you the highest ratings by only existing. Having this in mind, you shouldn’t feel bad for playing a certain comp, as some comps require a high skill ceiling to achieve high rankings.
Having this sorted by spec allows you to identify compositions that are most valuable to you, for 2v2, in a competitive setting.
Best 2v2 Comps for Death Knights
Frost Death Knight
DPS/Healer:
C-Tier Frost Death Knight / Holy Paladin
Frost Death Knight paired with Holy Paladin is best, as this is due to their stun effect being the strongest out of any healer specialization that lines directly up with their Pillar of Frost burst modifier. Also, with their wall of defensives that protect and enable Frost Death Knight’s playstyle, especially with Hand of Freedom, it’s more than likely to see this composition performed in the competitive 2v2 ladder.
Unholy Death Knight
DPS/Healer:
A-Tier Unholy Death Knight / Holy Paladin
A-Tier Unholy Death Knight / Restoration Shaman
With Unholy Death Knight’s arsenal providing consistent RoT pressure on opponents, this specialization is most notable to disrupt Healers, making them struggle the most in terms of recovering. Depending on your personal playstyle, you can choose to play with either a Holy Paladin, for more setups with Hammer of Justice, or Restoration Shaman for a more attrition based playstyle. This will all depend on preference, as both compositions are powerful in 2v2.
Best 2v2 Comps for Druids
Balance Druid
DPS/Healer:
C-Tier Balance Druid / Holy Paladin
Double DPS:
C-Tier Balance Druid / Subtlety Rogue
C-Tier Balance Druid / Retribution Paladin
Balance Druids struggle the most with defensive utility, and due to their toolkit requiring them to cast for Cyclone in order to pressure opponents, they are not cut out for competitive 2v2 matchups. If you want the best Healer spec to climb as a Balance Druid, make sure to pick a Holy Paladin, as this specialization compromises for Balance Druid’s lack of defensive utility and offensive setups. Having Hand of Protection and Hammer of Justice allows for this specialization to cast more often, resulting in more damage and control.
Another alternative if you want to perform as a Balance Druid in 2v2 is with Double DPS. Subtlety Rogue and Retribution Paladin can provide enough control to immediately end games early on, although Retribution can enable Boomkin survivability more often than Subtlety Rogue with their Hand of Protection, Hand of Sacrifice, and their massive Word of Glory off-healing.
Feral Druid
DPS/Healer:
S-Tier Feral Druid / Discipline Priest
A-Tier Feral Druid / Restoration Shaman
A-Tier Feral Druid / Holy Paladin
As one of the king specializations of 2v2, having a healer that best enables their onslaught would be Discipline Priest. With these specializations pairing up in the arena, Feral Druid will benefit the most from Priest utility and extra defensive cooldowns, enabling more of an aggressive playstyle. This makes facing this comp extremely difficult to find win conditions if both players as this comp are smart and tactical with their defensive usage. Holy Paladin and Restoration Shaman may not provide the damage and similar utility Priest offers, but can help sustain Feral Druid better in order to attrition their enemies.
Double DPS:
S-Tier Feral Druid / Marksmanship Hunter
You also have the alternative of playing with a Marksmanship Hunter, as this specialization can grant massive frontloaded burst with Chimera Shot and Readiness to pressure your opponents very early on.
Restoration Druid
B-Tier Restoration Druid / Fire Mage
B-Tier Restoration Druid / Affliction Warlock
B-Tier Restoration Druid / Unholy Death Knight
B-Tier Restoration Druid / Arms Warrior
B-Tier Restoration Druid / Subtlety Rogue
Although Restoration Druid may struggle in terms of even finding compositions to play as in this expansion, they are actually quite versatile when choosing specializations to play with.
For caster comps, Fire Mage and Affliction Warlock are your best picks, but will result in more active gameplay by playing for control and Stuns on your enemies to build pressure.
Best melee comps include Unholy Death Knight, Arms Warrior, and Subtlety Rogue, which have their own playstyles depending on the comp you choose. Unholy Death Knight and Arms Warrior do not require you to set up, as their toolkit allows them to maintain pressure. This means that you will focus on healing so they can continue building momentum. Subtlety Rogue is a bit different, as this will result in more tactical decision making to help chain and extend crowd control during stun windows.
Best 2v2 Comps for Hunters
Marksmanship Hunter
Double DPS:
S-Tier Marksmanship Hunter / Feral Druid
A-Tier Marksmanship Hunter / Subtlety Rogue
In order to perform the best as a Marksmanship Hunter in 2v2, your strongest picks will be double DPS compositions, as you will want specializations that are highly explosive early on with their cooldowns. Subtlety Rogue and Feral Druid are most suitable for this, as you can immediately build pressure with stuns and offensive cooldowns. Subtlety Rogue with their iconic Smoke Bomb kill windows assist in disrupting enemy Healers, as well as to delay incoming spells.
DPS/Healer:
B-Tier Marksmanship Hunter / Discipline Priest
If you want to play more drawn out, longer matchups, this will be your best composition played for the most offensive pressure possible on your opponents, especially since having Psychic Scream does not DR with any Hunter Crowd Control. Even though this composition is not typically recommended in a competitive scene, Priest damage and utility will help you secure kills more often. You may end up struggling into more compositions that are higher ranked in this tier list.
Best 2v2 Comps for Mages
Fire Mage
DPS/Healer:
A-Tier Fire Mage / Discipline Priest
A-Tier Fire Mage / Holy Paladin
B-Tier Fire Mage / Restoration Shaman
Fire Mage is a specialization that is more like a slot machine, relying on lucky crits with Shatter in order to get the most valuable Combustion possible. Since this spec requires is more dependent on RNG, it’s best to play with a healer to sustain you until the stars align perfectly for your damage rotation. You can either choose Discipline Priest for additional damage on your kill windows, Holy Paladin for a lengthy stun, or Restoration Shaman to help sustain you the most efficiently while using Grounding Totem and Wind Shear to disrupt enemy pressure.
Frost Mage
DPS/Healer:
B-Tier Frost Mage / Discipline Priest
Frost Mage is best suited with a Discipline Priest in order to maintain momentum and pressure on opponents, especially with the amount of control offered by pairing these two specializations together. Although this will result in more lengthy matchups, your main focus will be to repeat Deep Freeze setups on your kill target, allowing you to gain more value out of Shatter, and have more opportunities to demolish your enemy’s health bar with a single Frostbolt.
Double DPS:
A-Tier Frost Mage / Subtlety Rogue
Rogue Mage has always produced one of the scariest opener bursts, especially from how well their toolkits synergize with each other. By rotating their offensive cooldowns, especially Icy Veins and Shadow Dance, this composition is designed to burn through your defensive cooldowns until there aren’t any left to use.
Best 2v2 Comps for Paladins
Holy Paladin
S-Tier Holy Paladin / Arms Warrior
A-Tier Holy Paladin / Unholy Death Knight
A-Tier Holy Paladin / Feral Druid
A-Tier Holy Paladin / Fire Mage
Holy Paladin is the archetypal melee healer in Cataclysm, and is best performed with the strongest melee classes in order to climb the most effectively. In order to gain the most value out of these comps, make sure to be constantly pressing W on your enemy targets to overwhelm them with raw damage.
Holy Paladins enable this playstyle from their massive wall of healing cooldowns they provide, especially from Avenging Wrath, Divine Favor, and Guardian of Ancient Kings, while also having Hand of Freedom and Hammer of Justice to keep melees on their targets.
Retribution Paladin
Double DPS:
A-Tier Retribution Paladin / Unholy Death Knight
B-Tier Retribution Paladin / Subtlety Rogue
C-Tier Retribution Paladin / Marksmanship Hunter
Retribution Paladin 2v2 comps are best with another DPS specialization that really deals massive frontloaded burst, provides lengthy amounts of control, and applies a Mortal Strike effect on enemy targets.
Ret Paladins are unique, due to simple fact that they have the best hybrid toolkit in the game. Not only do they contribute massive direct burst damage, but have multiple ways to protect themselves and allies with defensive cooldowns. This is mainly from your Word of Glory spell, and when taken advantage of the talents, Last Word and Selfless Healer, it’s safe to say your direct heal will be almost equivalent to a Lay on Hands. With great healing, utility, and burst, it comes to no surprise that these comps can immediately overwhelm enemy players.
Best 2v2 Comps for Priests
Discipline Priest
S-Tier Discipline Priest / Subtlety Rogue
S-Tier Discipline Priest / Feral Druid
With Discipline Priest having a wide range of offensive abilities that help maintain pressure on opponents, it’s best to choose Subtlety Rogue or Feral Druid, as both of these benefit the most with stronger offensive pressure.
Opportunities from these specs are more likely to arise from their stun and control effects, which help Priests cast more spells on their opponents. Due to these specs synergizing fairly well with each other, Priests can cast massive damage or Mana Burn more often, enabling more win conditions during matchups.
Shadow Priest
DPS/Healer:
B-Tier Shadow Priest / Holy Paladin
Due to Shadow Priest requiring a bit a ramp up before dealing damage on enemies, it’s more safe to perform with a Healer that will enhance survivability and Crowd Control in order to deal the most direct burst on enemy players.
With Holy Paladin’s wall of healing and defensive cooldowns, especially with Hand of Protection and Aura Mastery, you will successfully land casts the most often on enemy targets. By adding Hammer of Justice into your arsenal of cooldowns, this can be paired with Silence to guarantee Cross Crowd Control, allowing this specialization to efficiently spike their opponents down with Mind Spike and Mind Blast.
Double DPS:
B-Tier Shadow Priest / Frost Mage
B-Tier Shadow Priest / Subtlety Rogue
B-Tier Shadow Priest / Retribution Paladin
Instead of playing with a Holy Paladin, you have the option to play with another DPS to close out matchups very early on. These specializations will assist you with utility and control, allowing you to get your DoTs rolling on the target and spike them down with more coordinated, direct burst. What separates Retribution from the rest is their utility and massive off-healing, allowing you to have multiple ways of recovering from pressure.
Best 2v2 Comps for Rogues
Subtlety Rogue
DPS/Healer:
S-Tier Subtlety Rogue / Discipline Priest
B-Tier Subtlety Rogue / Restoration Shaman
Early into the expansion, Discipline Priests offensive utility enables the strengths of Subtlety Rogue, allowing this specialization to create deadly setups with Shadow Dance combined with Priest’s Psychic Scream.
Later onward into Cataclysm, Rogues will gain access to their legendary weapons. Their offensive support will be strong enough to where they don’t require offensive support from their Healer, making Restoration Shaman more prominent with Subtlety Rogue as the expansion progresses.
Double DPS:
A-Tier Subtlety Rogue / Frost Mage
A-Tier Subtlety Rogue / Marksmanship Hunter
Rogue Mage has always produced one of the scariest opener bursts, especially from how well their toolkits synergize with each other. By rotating their offensive cooldowns, especially Icy Veins and Shadow Dance, this composition is designed to burn through your defensive cooldowns until there aren’t any left to use.
Rogue Hunter is arguably a better version of Rogue Mage, as Hunters can instantly apply massive single target damage with Chimera Shot, Aimed Shot, and Readiness. Due to Frost Mage being more reliant on casting, Hunters can easily dismantle enemy teams without having to play in a coordinated fashion.
Best 2v2 Comps for Shamans
Elemental Shaman
DPS/Healer:
D-Tier Elemental Shaman / Restoration Druid
D-Tier Elemental Shaman / Holy Paladin
Elemental Shaman focuses on fishing for Lightning Shield stacks from their damaging spells to gain maximum value out of Fulmination. In order to do so, this requires them to play with a Healer that keeps their targets in place, and with Cross Crowd Control to secure kills from Elemental burst.
Having a Restoration Druid or Holy Paladin help protect Elemental Shamans when needed, allowing them to have necessary ways to counteract damage with from either a wall of cooldowns that Holy Paladin provides, or extra Crowd Control with Cyclone from Restoration Druids. Be mindful that Cyclone can only be removed from your Medallion, making this one of the strongest control effects in the game.
Double DPS:
D-Tier Elemental Shaman / Retribution Paladin
D-Tier Elemental Shaman / Feral Druid
If you want to close out matchups early on, you can play with either a Retribution Paladin or Feral Druid. These will provide similar utility that their Healer counterparts offer, but grants that extra frontloaded damage to secure kill windows very quickly.
Enhancement Shaman
Double DPS:
C-Tier Enhancement Shaman / Retribution Paladin
C-Tier Enhancement Shaman / Unholy Death Knight
Enhancement Shamans do not have healing reduction effects, making them more reliant on double DPS compositions in order to score kills early on in matchups. These specs listed above are best suited to help you press W onto your opponent, while having some additional damage mitigation and utility to recover from offensive pressure.
Restoration Shaman
A-Tier Restoration Shaman / Affliction Warlock
A-Tier Restoration Shaman / Feral Druid
For the best notable Healer specialization in the game, Restoration Shaman works the best with specializations that focus on attrition. This is due to their toolkit offering passive damage increases to their teammates, allowing them to rot opponents more quickly, and can disrupt enemies from dealing damage or recovering with healing with Wind Shear and Grounding Totem.
Best 2v2 Comps for Warlocks
Affliction Warlock
DPS/Healer:
A-Tier Affliction Warlock / Restoration Shaman
Affliction Warlocks are the kings of attrition, and mixed together with Restoration Shaman, this will help you deal the most amount of DoT damage on targets for very long games. With Affliction Warlocks having multiple ways of sustaining their HP with Soul Link and Demon Armor, and with Restoration Shaman offering multiple ways of passive healing, you will have no problem feeling safe as this composition.
What makes this composition in 2v2 challenging is the lack of direct burst you are able to deal, and without any Dampening, this may result in some sweaty outplays to secure kills.
Best 2v2 Comps for Warriors
Arms Warrior
DPS/Healer:
S-Tier Arms Warrior / Holy Paladin
A-Tier Arms Warrior / Restoration Shaman
For our last class, we have Arms Warrior, which is a solid choice in 2v2 for Season 9 as one of the most powerful damage-dealing melee. Similar to Wrath of the Lich King, the Warrior and Holy Paladin combo returns as your best composition for Cataclysm. Having a Holy Paladin will enable Arms Warrior the most, allowing Warriors to maintain the most uptime on their targets and gradually wear down enemy Healers.
Having a Restoration Shaman can be a promising alternative to Holy Paladin, since Warriors will be passively buffed by their Strength of Earth Totem. The only downside is that Warriors won’t have Hand of Freedom to maintain uptime, and will have to work harder to stay on their target.
Double DPS:
B-Tier Arms Warrior / Retribution Paladin
As an alternative composition that you can play as an Arms Warrior if you want quicker games is by playing with a Retribution Paladin. With their defensive utility acting similar to a pseudo healer, you’ll have enough survivability in order to completely dismantle the enemy team.
Unlock your PvP potential with Skill Capped! Our brand new Skill Capped UI for Cataclysm 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 Plater, 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.
As a member, you’ll also gain access to specialized video tutorials from the world’s best pro players, with courses available for every class. Sign up today for a special 5% discount and start mastering WoW PvP with our engaging and informative content and take advantage of our 400 rating gain guarantee where we guarantee you’ll see improvement or get your money back.