Grind for Gladiator

[Jubee]

My 5v5 has made some big changes and our rating is on a slow and steady pace upwards. But with s3 so near I'm not sure we will make it to the estimated 2200 rating required to hit Gladiator. I barely missed out on Gladiator last season in a 3v3 team and I'm trying to avoid that same problem this season.

I've decided to start up a new 2v2/3v3 with the sole intent on hitting the Gladiator threshold as soon as I can. Can anybody give any suggestions on powerleveling a team to that rank?

The best choices for teammates are the same people in my 5v5. I don't know many consistent pvp players outside of them. With what is available, I was either thinking a 2v2 with my Warrior or a 3v3 with Holy Priest/Warrior. I haven't seriously done a 2v2 or 3v3 since s1 so I'm a bit out of the loop when it comes to those brackets these days. 2 RL friends and I got to 2100 last season as Shadow Priest/Frost Mage/Pally but it was obvious that it wasn't working out the longer the season went on.

So should I focus on 2v2 or 3v3? What days should I play (on Stormstrike) to face the easiest teams? Thanks for your help.

Edit: We use our 3v3 to get points for our alts. Our win% on our mains are not an accurate representation of how we have *really* done.

[Dildocart]

I'd make a 3s team and run with Warrior, Frost Mage and yourself. It'd be much easier to get Gladiator with that team rather that attempting to get it in 2s with a Warrior.

[Mischief]

yea 2v2 is really hard for paladins. I would focus on 3v3 with warr/mage/pally or warrior/lock/pally. Both good set-ups if you have good players filling the spots. Should hit 2200 easily.

[Scarf]

I would stay away from 2v2 unless you can find a really good warlock.

My 3v3 got to 2300 in about 2 days. Warrior/Ele Sham/Pally. Basically just build up rage/purge their warrior, wait a few secs, and then switch to their warrior and go all out.

[Jubee]

I helped a Warrior/Ele Shammy in some 3v3 yesterday and it just plain didn't go well. Maybe it's because they were undergeared for their rating (1820ish) but I just simply couldn't keep them up. Any time we ran into a Warlock or Mage was pretty much an instant loss. If I got counterspelled it was game over for one of my dps, and if I tried juking a CS it was still game over since I wasn't healing and they died anyway. I think we went 4-6.

I then went on to farm up some quick games with my normal team and we did much better. 7-0 as Arms War, AP Mage (he was messing around with specs and didn't have 50g to spend on our alt team.) At first I thought it was because our mage could lock down their DPS when I got counterspelled but I'm starting to wonder if the Warrior was just undergeared in our first team. He had about 240 res and 10.5k hp compared to my 2nd groups' Warrior who has 11.5k and 400 res unbuffed.

[Rades]

find a good sl/sl lock and do some 2v2

[Watcherdrank]

:)

[buena]

You probably need a warlock to hit it in 2v2, paladin / warrior isn't good enough without exceptional skill and/or gear.

3v3 would be the best bet as a variety of combos can be successful. Just pick the best 2 players you know and give it a shot. Warrior + 2 healers is supposedly easy to rank up if it isn't working out with your other teammates.

[Nynaeve]

2v2 is pretty gimp as a paladin - simply because a druid works better with both our best partners :P If 2v2 was the only bracket, I'd go SL-SL lock, Druid, Pala. The lock and druid queue first, and when a double dps team is queuing, run the paladin.

3v3 - The imbalance between druids and paladins is a lot less here, because druids cannot dispel, and your teammates can cover for you during times when you're CC'd. I've run War/Pal/FG Lock and War/Pal/Mage - both are strong. I prefer the lineup with the mage however, as you dominate teams who run warriors and no dispel, which in my BG is pretty prevalent. 2273 atm, and probably pausing here for the season.

[Spartus]

you could do it in 2s w/ a warrior thats what im attempting atm, but then again im also trying at it in 3s w/ a bm hunter and ms war, which isnt exactly the best combo.

[Jubee]

Ok due to some scheduling conflicts I just picked up a SL/SL lock and started some 2s last night. We got to 1950 and then ran into a Warrior/Druid that just kicked the crap out of us. Both time we were in Nagrand arena so that may have had some impact but they were happy sitting behind a pillar for 5 minutes waiting for us.

The first game we decided to focus the Warrior as the druid was stealthed and thought his partner may have been a shadowmelded NE or even a rogue. Well the felhunter was just proccing lifeblooms and MS eventually wore down my mana before my lock could burst him. We ran into them a 2nd time and decided to try to druid as focusing the Warrior wasn't even close. I put Justice on the druid and freedom on the lock whenever I could but he still just ran laps around the pillar and his hots were almost completely negating the dots on him. I eventually couldn't keep up with the MS'd/constantly out of LoS Lock and he went down. Is there any hope for Lock/Pally to beat a Warrior/Druid? We got pretty soundly beat despite similar gear. We stopped queueing after the 2nd straight loss and finished at about 1920. That was the only team that we lost to all night.

[Saffira]

First off did you use a void?
Second did you use BoL?
Third did you dot both the druid and the warrior, focusing more on the druid when he came out to heal with a mana drain and then on the warrior when the druid hid?
Forth did you BoF your pet?
Fifth did you ever top off your lock and his pet and then drink up while pulling the warrior far from the druid?

[Jubee]

He actually had a felhunter out to eat the hots off of the Warrior.

I did use BoL to start but I was switching between Freedom on the Lock and Sacrifice when Freedom was on cooldown to relieve some of the stress on him.

He fully dotted the War and did mana drain the Druid when it was possible but the drain got pummeled every time.

The pet never really got snared aside from a few piercing howls so I rarely BoFed it.

I drank when possible and tried topping off my lock but it's kind of hard with a Stormherald Warrior on him nonstop. We tried pulling the Warrior away but the druid just travel formed to the nearest pillar and the process started over again. I HoJed the druid on the way over and put justice on him but SL/SL Lock + Holy Pally didn't have the burst to drop the Warrior before the druid was able to start up the heals.

Edit: It should be mentioned that neither one of us have done 2v2 since s1. But it was the only match-up where it just felt like we couldn't win.

[Saffira]

A good warrior/druid team always is a tough match for lock/pally. Basically its an endurance match. If your lock can sustain high damage on both targets you will oom the druid faster then your pally will go oom. Try and just keep your lock topped off.

I usually never BoF my lock but instead do his pet this allows us to keep the druid in combat. (BoL on my lock means that I FoL him for over 1k with MS on. This is very very nice.) It also is a sneaky way of allowing the lock to focus the warrior more. If the druid is always running away and trying to escape the pet he is not topping his warrior off. Therefore if he does get a drink he will be behind in healing. This means he will go oom faster.

I try drink every chance I can against this combo cause you never know when the warrior is gunna get a crazy burst. Keeping your mana high is very key to this fight.

[Singularity]

If you think you can wait for the patch get a marks hunter/warrior. That's what I believe I'm going to run next season. Myself and my warrior friend are powerleveling a team to gladiator rank right now for 2s, so it's pretty doable if you have a good warrior and have experience in dealing with some team comps.
Also, if you're going to do this do it BEFORE 2.3, or else the warlock/priest teams will totally destroy you, and the druid buffs will make druid/warrior a really really hard combo. Should take a good saturday and possibly sunday to get ~2250-2300 rating if you know what you're doing.

[Zcisive]

There are alot of warlock druid and warlock shaman teams in my battlegroup now. Against those teams you can put alot of pressure on the other healer by pulling their warlocks pet away and out of los (it should be on you) and holy shocking/exorcism/ judge righteousness onto it, with the new spell damage buffs you should be able to kill it everytime.