Topic requested by Satisfaction from the Korgarth server.

First off I won't comment to much on the 2v2 bracket.  This season after playing just a few games I decided that it wasn't worth my time to play because this bracket is all about your team composition vs the other team composition.  Casus and myself ran Frost Mage and SL/SL Lock for the previous 2 seasons and finished in Gladiator range both times.  Season 2 we were the 5th team and the top 4 made the Blizzard tournament, we missed the cut on a dropped queue that cost us 18 points.  But basically healer + dps rules this bracket now, most noteably druid + warrior and shaman + warrior.  Neither of these combos give me and casus problems but we have about a 5% chance to beat a resto druid + lock or holy priest + lock.  It doesn't matter how bad they are they will most likey beat us and that really makes it difficult to play when we lose to players that really don't play this game very well and there is nothing we can do about it.  Bottom line if you're not a warrior w/ a healer you probably want to stay away from this bracket.

3's on the other hand is a much more skilled base bracket but you can still run into counter comps but there are generally fewer of these and ways around them.  This season there have been 2 very popular combos which are Rogue/Priest/Mage and double melee teams with either a resto shaman or resto druid healer. 

     -Rogue/Priest/Mage was the first flavor of the month (now season) team for season 3.  This team combines burst, sustainability and CC.  The rogue and mage are the meat of this team.  Between locking down a caster w/ the rogue and the sheeps from the mage most priests really don't have to do a whole lot on this team.  Now the higher you get in rating the more the priest has to do but his main job is to keep the rogue out of CC and purge the current target.  Healing is mainly done w/ shields/renews and PSup in a pinch.  The rogue will pretty much tunnel vision down a clothy and the mage assist trains between CC's.

       -Double melee teams come in a few different varities.  You have most of them running w/ druid healers so healing can be done w/o casting and druids bring roots/cyclones to the table, but usally the druids job is just to stay at max range and avoid CC while keeping his 2 guys alive.  The other variations are which melee classes, probably the best combo is the rogue + warrior but you'll also see warrio + enhancment shaman, warrior + ret paladin and rogue+hunter or the ever anoying combo of double rogue.  If they run with a shaman they're going for a more RNG style team w/ WF being a huge damage component and want to end games quickly as shamans have big heals but lack longevity with their bad mana efficiency. 

         -Double healer usally being a priest + druid or shaman + druid paired with a warrior/rogue/hunter.  These teams are all about outlasting the other team.  they rotate drinks and just try to wait tell the other healer is oom.  Priests play aggressivly and mana burn when possible druids are responsible for the bulk of the healing while the priest burns and keeps their DPS out of CC.

*Note the success of some of these teams mentioned above stem from a fault in game mechanics that allow rogues to stack PVE gear while PVPing, this will be discused in detail in a future blog. 

          -Shadow Priest, UA Lock and a Resto Shaman.  This is a new team combo for this season.  I'm sure others have run it before but its really become popular and powerful this season.  Basically this team has a healer that can keep these 2 classes alive even though they have low survivability.  He does this through big inefficent heals and blood lust.  Basic of this team is to dot everyone, 2 instant fears, bloodlust as soon as dots are up then start w/ casting damage while people are feared.  Shocks + grounding from teh shaman will lock down mages+locks long enough for them to get there damage out.  after a healer is feared to DR, you then face, 6 second silence, follwed by a 3sec CS, followed by a 3 sec deathcoil, follwed by a ES which should be just enough to reset DR and you start the fear rotation again w/ single target fears from the lock.  the whole time this is happening everyone is dying from dots that can't be dispelled b/c of UA.  This team is anti warrior/mage/lock, rogues should give them a little bit of a problem but they'll just kill the rest of the team first.

          -There are also a few team variations involving warlocks.  Warlocks used to be the key component in many 3's teams but they have fallen out of favor this season.  The 3 most popular variations are Druid/Lock/Rogue, Druid/Lock/Warrior and Paladin/Lock/Warrior.  These teams have an MS effect, CC and depending on the healer choice, dispels + freedom or more CC.  These teams are almost completely dependent on the warlocks ability to play under pressure (not emotional but people using you as a pinata).  Warlock must keep curses up at all times, get key fears off and look for the clutch CS.  This type of team doesn't really counter comp anyone but relies on playing as a team and communication to win, they must outplay most of their opponents.

         -Triple DPS.  Various forums of these teams exist, usally involving a mage/rogue then warlock, shadow priest or ele shaman are the popular variations.  High damage, they want to kill someone within 20 seconds of the rogue coming out .  After gibbing a target they usally have the advantage, even if one of them dies with the first target the 2v2 is often in their favor as the opposing healer probably had to blow all his cooldowns attempting to save his teamate.  They will also use an insta fear if they have it to bait a trinket followed by a full duration blind.  Depending on the makeup paladin healers are a good counter to this team but paladin healers are few and far between in 3's.  Also there are not many 3 dps teams on BG6.

          -Going to throw one more 3v3 team out here.  This is the combo that we currently run.   Lock/Mage/Resto Shaman.  We rely on CC, CS's to be able to win.  We have no MS effect so it is impartive that we communicate locking down healers.  We will alternate fears/sheeps/cs's on targets to buy us the necessary time to bring down a target.  As the warlock i am our only dispeller on the team.  We can all offensivly dispel, purge, spell steal and devour (though i have to be careful with this as its our only dispel and its on a 8 sec cooldown.  I run a very offensive spec with this combo, 5/38/18 picking up insta corruption, SL/DK,DR, shadowburn and intensity.  Intensity is the key to my spec as it allows me to pump out damage as i'm being locked down by warriors/rogues.  Cordinating blood lust with our CC rotation along w/ casus poping cooldowns is our key to being able to take down targets.  One mistake in that though and a 5-8k heal can land which needless to say is bad.  You will not see this team in arena unless it is us =)  There are only 2 teams above 2200 with it and the other is a triple dps team. 

I'm out of time this morning, heading to work now so I will post some basic info on 5's makeups either tonight if i don't go to the movies or tommorow morning.  If you're looking for more specifics on a particular combo or how we make our hodge podge combo work don't hesitate to ask.  Currently #1 team in BG6 is the shadow priest/ua lock/resto shaman followed closely by 4-5 RPM teams.