5v5 Arena Composition Tier List / Guide for Cataclysm Classic

In this guide, we will be presenting the compositions that form "the meta" of Cataclysm Arena in the 5v5 bracket.

The meta changes over time, but it will naturally change less and more slowly in a game as well understood as Cataclysm Classic. We will also be getting the final talent balance of Cataclysm right away, and thus most of the changes will come from having better gear for classes that scale well as we progress in tiers. To give a practical example, Casters will not have immediate access to their Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest legendary right away, making them much weaker in the first phase than they will be by the end of Firelands.

Also, while we will present some of the most recognizable arena compositions, the sheer amount of combinations possible is well beyond the scope of this guide, and replacements can easily be made in most teams without massively compromising the end result. Also, note that within each tier the compositions are not listed in order of power.

5v5 is a rather unbalanced bracket, owing to the crazy amount of abilities available when 10 players are involved, which leads most matches to be decided within the first minutes. Melee classes tend to have a hard time staying alive, as they often need to put themselves into the middle of the enemy team in order to deal damage.

Contrary to the other Arena brackets, crowd control (CC) is of limited usefulness in the 5v5 bracket as it is likely to be interrupted, dispelled, or simply arrive too late to have an impact on the fast paced matches.

Thus, the best 5v5 team compositions rely on burst damage, mostly of the ranged and cooldown-bound sort, and the strong defensive cooldowns and bubble of a Holy Paladin to score a kill quickly before the other team can do the same.

Overall, many compositions can work, but casters are generally favored as are classes with powerful cooldowns due to the short nature of most matches.

This list will be adjusted over time as teams match against each other in Cataclysm Classic.

No matter what class or specialization you play, there is always a strong team composition you can utilize. Every team has a weakness and it is important to know them. Teams and their weaknesses can change frequently throughout a season. If there is a team comp that is missing, please let us know in the comments so we can add it to the list.

Feel free to check out our 2v2 and 3v3 arena tier list / comp guides as well if you are interested in those brackets: