Anyone out there playing any bracket somewhat seriously (1800+)? Curious to hear what experiences people are having as far as what combinations are hard/easy relative to your own composition. As well, what are people doing for gear/enchants/sockets? Pure stamina and resilience or are people sacrificing some/all of those things in favor of AP, crit, MP5, +damage/healing?

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

I have started doing 2v2 a little bit with another Rogue (I play a Rogue). It's fun, at times, but equally frustrating as well. The Blade's Edge Arena is really anti-Rogue. If we go up against casters there, all they really have to do is jump across on to one of the little platforms and just cast a Rank 1 AE on the area in front (which they do, frequently). If it becomes a waiting game, they eventually will get the see stealth powerup thing (grats to Blizzard for putting an item in the Arena specifically to make a Rogue's life more difficult).

We both spec'd Shadowstep for a day, but I totally suck at being a dagger rogue, and Shadowstep is buggy anyway, since it is almost impossible to use it on a moving target. My partner is good enough with daggers, so he is still spec'd like that, while I am back to my normal Subtlety build.

I'd say our biggest challenge is a Warrior/Paladin combo. We've beaten Priest/Priest, Warrior/Warrior, Mage/Mage, Rogue/Rogue, Warlock/Mage, etc. but when we get a team with a Paladin, it's just a pain in the ass. Hell, any team with a good Paladin is a pain in the ass to beat. The Nagrand Arena really levels the playing field for us, though. I'd say we have won probably 80% of our matches in that Arena vs. the Blade's Edge one.

As for gear, if you look at the Armory profiles of the top teams, you'll see that most of the melee-types have +stamina gems in all of their Gladiator gear. I have seen Rogues with 10k hp and only like 1000 attack on some of the top teams.

Here is my gear (I logged out after PVP so you can see the PVP gear):

http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/chara ... her&n=Peno

Of course, I don't have any Gladiator gear yet, but I think having a balance between stats will serve me best. I like hitpoints, but I don't think gimping my damage is the way to go. With a 2 Rogue group, we need to do as much burst damage as we can so we can take out one target ASAP while the 2nd is sapped/blinded/bubbled/whatevered.

I'm pure fire damage....3 min mage ftw! Insta Pyro crits for over 6.3k, followed with insta nuke and insta wave tends to take out most normal people. Granted I have very little ability to survive and my hps are not exactly high (measely 6200) but it allows for a quick elimination of one of the 2 players. (+1250 fire damage)

I have almost all my arena epics but using + damage gear over it...more a matter of play style I think. I do some 2v2 with my brothers rogue...works well for most combo's. Pali + ____ fuck my world up though because I waste the insta pyro if I try to take them out alot of the times. Probably Frost Mage + Pali cause me the greatest heart ache. Oddly enough I haven't had nearly as many issues with warlocks in arena that I do in BG's.

I haven't been paying attention, did they say are the next round of arena items going to be purchasable via already gained arena points?

Yes, I read somewhere "official" that you could keep like 25k Arena points saved up.

5000 is the limit you can carry forward to the next season.

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

Maybe that is what I read.

I did 5 v 5, we were above 2000 but not by much for a good while until we ran out of things we wanted / got bored.

For most classes stamina is key, especially in 5 v 5.

Resil helps a bunch too, but it basically comes along with the Gladiator gear. It won't do anything for you in terms of dot damage.

My pvp set on my healadin was gladiator gear, talisman of the breaker, improved pvp trinket, time lapse shard etc

The same is basically true of the smaller brackets as well.

The gear makes a massive difference.

As for combos, really it is mostly player skill... but Disc Priest / Warlock is probably the toughest combo to fight regardless of my partner.

Profiles for the best 2 v 2 team I have played against
http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/#char ... ht&n=Azael
http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/#char ... =Deztruckt

A warlock with 13khps and 300resil never seems to die with a pain suppression priest. I have heard the priest frequently goes shadow and owns just as hard though.

Basically 5 v 5 is all about balance, ms, burst damage, bop, positioning.

2 v 2 can change drastically depending on who you are fighting.