Con't from last article detailing 2v2 and 3v3 makeups.  I'm going to approach this topic a little differently.  Rather than list out every team type and discussing it i will be listing healer and dps groups for 5v5 teams and how they mesh together.

Healers are pretty much the backbone of any 5v5 team, the better they are the longer you'll live and the more time you will have to kill the other team.  I'm not saying that dps doesn't have a big role but if you're dead you can't do anything.  In the 5v5 brackets there are single healer teams better known as 4dps teams, your standard 2 healer teams and the occasional 3 healer setup.  Obviously there are 4 healers in wow, priests, paladins, druids and shamans....combat medics with bandaids do not count.

      -The most recognizable and popular healer combo in 5's is the Priest/Paladin.  Paladins bring so much to the table for a 5's team.  They have single dispel of magic/disease/poision, freedom, sacrifice,, bop, blessings and some of the biggest most mana efficent heals in the game.  Paladins also tend to wear a lot of pve gear because they are the hardest healer to focus down, if you manage to get a bubble it isn't so bad but very few teams will attack a good paladin.  Priests are one of the ultimate utiltity classes in the game.  They bring both offensive and defensive dispells to the table, shields, renews, pain suppression, extra buffs, spell haste buff and the ever deadly mana burn.  These 2 healers have the ability to keep eachother and teamates out of CC making them a strong duo.  The paladin brings longevity where the priest brings utility and the ability to turn a mana battle quickly into your favor.

       -Druids are the most verstile healer in 5's.  They bring huge heals without casting, can't be sheeped, abolish poision is amazing, the ability to almost reset diminshing returns on cylcone, roots, stuns and decurse.  Druids can also kite like no ones buisness but can be vulnerable to burst in late games if they get caught in the open with their trinket down.  Almost exlusivly paired with priests who have the above mentioned abilities.  The pairing with priests is to keep the druid out of the one cc that they are really open to, fear.  They can also be paired with paladins though that combo lacks some of the synergy that priests bring to the table.  Although Paladin + druid you bring the 2 longest lasting classes as your healers and they should be able to keep you up through almost anything.

         -Shamans have really one option, play with a paladin.  Shamans bring a lot to the table in resto form but more often you'll see them as elemental spec and the occasional enhancment one.  Shamans have to be paired with a paladin for blessing of wisdom, dispels but more so b/c they don't have longevity.  Paladins handle the bulk of the healing with this pair allowing the shaman to offensivly purge while twisting totems for warriors/casters.  You can pair a shaman with a priest healer but then one of your dps must be able to dispel, if they can't you are putting yourself at a huge disadvantage.  Also shamans fall into the utility catagory so pairing with a priest means a lack of long term healing for a team.  Again any team at high levels will pair a resto shaman with a paladin or its just not going to work.

So you have an overview of what healers bring to the table and how they're paired together.  Again the most common form is going to be Priest/paladin followed by priest/druid, paladin/shaman, then a few paladin/druids.  Triple healer teams will almost always have a priest, usally paired with a paladin/shaman or shaman/druid. 

There are far more DPS classes in wow as almost every class has a viable dps spec in arena.  Noteable exceptions are feral druids, anytime you see one of these it could be replaced with a rogue and probably have far more success.  Some of the more common pairings of DPS classes include Mages/Shamans/Warriors, Mages/Warlocks/Warriors or Rogues, Mage/Hunter/Warrior or Rogue Warlock/Hunter/Warrior or rogue, Warlock/Shaman/Warrior.  One of the questions posed to me by Satisfaction of the Korgath realm was if warriors were a must have in 5's.  The answer is a resounding no right now.  Only 1 team composition has to have a warrior in it and any other combination a rogue or even a hunter could be substituted for the warrior.

           -Shaman/Mage/Warrior is the core dps of the 2.5 setup.  This team is designed to mind screw with healers then unload massive amounts of burst onto unsuspecting targets.  This is the only team that requires a warrior.  I say it has to have a warrior b/c rogues and hunters can't switch to other targets as well as warriors can.  A warrior with full rage bar can intercept, MS, whirlwind, heroic strike + white damage in a blink of an eye and doesn't lose anything.  Rogues must build combo points and stack wound poision to be effective.  This team looks for warriors that will over persue or targets without an effective escape mechanism (iceblock, bubble) to be caught in the open.  This is the gold standard of team makeups and has been around since season 1.  This setup works best with priest/paladin healers but priest/druid healers will work as well.

            -Mage/Lock/Warrior or rogue.  Mage and locks have great synergy.  They can exert enourmous amounts of CC on the opposing teams, mage brings burst to the table where a lock brings lasting power.  These 2 together will become an outlast team or heavy CC on healers rotating between sheeps/fears allowing dots and warrior damage to take down targets.  This combo with a rogue is known as Euro comp and has been popularized by many teams all accross the battle groups.  Euro comp runs with priest/druid healers although priest/paladin or paladin shaman will work with this group.  The popularity of euro comp is based on its ability to CC with the lock/mage/druid, with insta fears from the priest.  Its backbone is the rogue through which can exert huge pressure on opposing clothies (this is partly because of a flaw in game mechanics that i will write about in the future). 

            -Mage/Hunter/Warrior or rogue.  This is not as popular of a group makeup but the TFO (mob gaming) that won the blizcon tournament ran this.  They opted for a mage over a warlock for extra warrior control and burst potential and it worked out well for them.  Hunters bring good damage, traps to help kite, a pet to help keep the other team in combat and the ever deadly viper sting.  The TFO combo ran a paladin/shaman healer but it would work out just fine w/ paladin/priest and now that hunters have arcane shot you could try it with paladin/druid but i think that might be weaker than the other combos.  Double melee damage makes cloth targets a favorite of this team.

            -Warlock/Hunter/Warrior or rogue.  Similar to above but the warlock brings curses + drain mana.  This team wants you to go oom and then not be able to heal the target.  This team won't over extend and will just use the extra 2 pets to make sure healers aren't getting drinks off.  Best paired with a priest healer because of a 3rd mana drain ability.  Paladin would be the best 2nd healer as they really help hunters in arena but a druid would suffice in a pinch.

            -Warlock/Shaman/Warrior otherwise known as 2.6 seems to have become a failed experiment from the begining of this season.  People for some reason thought locks were superior to mages in arena (mainly b/c drain teams had become popular) and warlocks rarely go oom.  But this team lacks and warrior control and the lock or shaman ends up being a pinata for opposing teams.  This teams only real hope is to use an offensive bop and burn warriors while they are deahcoiled and can't shield reflect.  It is not a very strong team composition in my opinion.

               -Warlock/Hunter or Warrior.  These are the triple healer teams paired with a Warlock and Hunter or Warrior.  Simply an outlast team that tries to drink as often as possible while wearing down the other team.  There goal is to heal longer than the other 2 healers.  Priests on these teams are very offensive, trying to mana burn and staying in the fight to keep their warrior out of CC and on target.  Warlocks job is just to drain as much mana as possible trhough mana drain and keep everything dotted, eventually the other team will run out of mana and everyone slowly dies.  This is not a very skillful combo just kinda meat and potatoes this is what we're doing and try and stop us.

                -Triple melee teams.  I'm not goign to list the endless combos that you can put together but needless to say warriors are almost always involved, rogues,hunters,enhancment shamans and the occasional feral druid.   These teams are refered to as meat grinders because they basically look for a soft target (cloth) and train it down to nothing.  I'm suprised these teams took so long to form, this is world of meleecraft and they put out so much damage that is basically impossible to heal.  These teams are anti warlock/druid/mage/rogue.  Requires less skill than triple healer they really just look to gib someone right off the bat.  A good team will split if they have to and converge later, splitting is the extend of skill in this makeup and it is done to put MS effect on mulitple targets further straining the healing. 

                 -4dps teams.  My least favorite to play in arena because these are the most skilless combos in the game.  They attempt to burn down one target quickly turning the game into a 4v5.  These teams usally involve rogues b/c of the stunlock capability of keeping a target in LoS of the other casters.  Shadow priests are very popular for these combos, mages, ele shamans and warlocks.  Healer of choice is a druid but a paladin will suffice if neccesary. 

As always this is a brief overview of current 5v5 teams, if you've seen another combo and would like some feedback on it let me know.  Next topic i write will be on how our 3's team deals with double melee and after that my rant on whats wrong w/ rogues in this game unless i get a request then i'll pospone my anti rogue comments.