Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women? Blood Sport investigates the entirety of all-things arena for gladiators and challengers alike. C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in WoW.com's arena column.

Listening Music: Modeselektor's Tetrispack. Allison Robert offered a challenge to our most beloved columnist last week. Ms. Roberts has chosen a clever and palatable piece with Richard Shindell's On-A-Sea-Of-Fleur-De-Lis. And now we come to my retaliation. My wife recommended our musical selection today -- it just happened to be on the absolute opposite end of the spectrum. How fitting. We love this song, albeit mostly for the intro. Upon your first listen, if you correctly predict the timing and type of shift in the first thirty seconds, serious e-props to you.

To wit, Robert: pan flute > no pan flute. Your move.

Last Week: part two of our beginner's arena guide. We featured the cute ukulele kid who pretty much controls the internet right now. After that, we discussed frequently asked questions from new arena players. We talked about how to spec and what team composition to choose, with two different types of answers (easy and long).

Today, we'll be talking some very basic class strategy. If you know your class inside and out, you'll know what I'm going to say when it comes to your class and arena. You can still learn about other classes here. I've written over 2500 words about individual class perspective inside arenas, that's a lot. Full article after the break.

Priests

You are the undisputed king of dispels. You can dispel offensively and defensively. Your dispels also remove two magical effects. If you haven't already, make your Dispel Magic button your easiest to reach and most comfortable keybind, you'll be using it incredibly frequently in arena.

• Discipline: Offensively and defensively Dispel Magic, heal and protect your teammates. Psychic Scream enemy healers, and throw in damage or Mana Burns when your party doesn't need heals. Discipline is a very balanced mix of offensive and defensive capabilities.
• Shadow: Offensively and defensively dispel. Use DoTs as your primary source of damage. Psychic Scream, Psychic Horror, Silence and Mana Burn enemies at crucial moments in the match (especially when you're looking to score a kill). Shift out of Shadowform to throw heals as a last resort. Your primary role is offensive, you are not responsible for team heals.

Mages

At the moment, you have some of the best crowd control in the game in Frost Nova and Polymorph. These can be dispelled, of course, so make sure you "sheep" an opposing dispeller or have Winter's Chill stacked high enough to make it difficult for them to remove it.

• Frost: Crowd control pretty much everybody with Frost Nova and Polymorph. Make sure you communicate who you are Polymorphing! Counterspell healers when in a good position and enemy dps casters when someone on your team might die. Try to burst enemies with your Water Elemental (Shatter combo by using your Water Elemental's Freeze spell), and pop lots of offensive cooldowns like Mirror Image when a kill opportunity arises. Remember to switch to Mage Armor against dps casters, particularly warlocks.

Warlocks

You are melee damage sponges. You're going to have to get used to being a kill target a lot, practice using your Demonic Circle: Summon and Demonic Circle: Teleport spells at vital times in the match. Make sure you Soul Link new pets when you summon them via Fel Domination. You can also put out a ton of damage and crowd control. If the opposing team decides to attack one of your teammates instead of you, make sure you are carrying your team's offensive burden by putting out a ridiculous amount of pressure (in both damage and crowd control). You will also need to dispel your teammates (and yourself) with your felhunter, this macro might help:

/cast [pet:Felhunter,target=player] Devour Magic

• Affliction: Put DoTs on everything in sight. Use Howl of Terror and Fear to punish enemies in bad position. Spell Lock healers when your team is doing well, enemy dps casters if your team is doing poorly. This might be the least I write about any spec, but I'm not saying it's easy. An affliction warlock is incredibly hard to master in PvP.
• Destruction: Get Immolate and Curse of the Elements up on a target and use Chaos Bolt Conflagrate to burst, or Incinerate for steady pressure. Use Spell Lock in the same way as above. If you're using a succubus, try to avoid casting Immolate or Corruption on a target you might want to Seduce in the near future.

Rogues

In arena, you are a slippery devil. Your active defensive cooldowns are some of the best in the game. Try to use them sparingly. If you burn your Cloak of Shadows, Evasion, Vanish, and Preparation early, you'll soon be paying the price. That being said, it's better to use them and get killed late than to die early with cooldowns up.

• Any spec: Try to get a Sap off before combat starts. You're usually going to open with Cheap Shot on your starting target, try to get your team to coordinate lots of burst on your starting target right off the bat. Blind enemy healers at a time that is favorable for your team. If you have to, you can Blind enemy dps when your team is doing poorly. Try to successfully Kick enemy casters (especially healers if you are attacking them).

Druids

Cyclone is both your best friend and your annoying little brother. Occasionally, Cyclone will just hand you a win out of no where. Other times, you'll lose a game because you didn't Cyclone a dps, or a healer, or you Cycloned someone instead of healing. A lot of teammates expect you to Cyclone no matter what spec you are. Try to figure out when you can use the spell to your advantage as it is a very powerful ability (and remember, holy paladins can't bubble out of Cyclone).

• Balance: Cyclone enemy healers when your team is doing well, enemy dps when your team is doing poorly. Entangling Roots opposing melee dps, but be careful if the opposing team has a defensive dispeller (priest, paladin, or felhunter). Try to get your team to coordinate burst when enemy healers are in Cyclones. Use Typhoon on melee dps primarily, but don't be afraid to punish opponents on dalaran arena or blade's edge arena (you can push them off the side).
• Feral: Bear Form if there is a lot of melee dps on you, or if you need to Bash for crowd control. Use the Predatory Strikes proc (instant Cyclone) to punish enemy healers primarily, but don't be afraid to use it on enemy DPS. You can also use the proc to throw heals to your teammates or yourself via Healing Touch.
• Restoration: Try to accurately predict what target the enemy team will dps. Pre-HoT (put Lifebloom and Rejuvenation on the suspected target before it takes damage). Try to conserve mana. Stay in Tree Form most of the time, but shift out for Cyclones on enemy dps or healers. Beware of warlocks when in Tree Form, they can Banish you. Make sure you put Barkskin up when you Innervate vs. opponents with an offensive dispel.

Shamans

Totems, Wind Shear, and Bloodlust or Heroism are your most class-defining aspects and abilities as a whole in PvP. When you're not healing or doing damage, you need to be making sure your totems are still up. If your kill target isn't going down, you need to assist your team by interrupting the enemy healer successfully. Bloodlust / Heroism is a very tricky spell in arena. The vast majority of the time, you will only be able to use it once per arena match. It's vital that you use it at the correct time. Unfortunately, only skilled teammates and experience in the arena will help you to use it correctly. It's the most situational spell in the entire game.

• Elemental: Punish teams on blade's edge arena and dalaran arena with Thunderstorm. Use correct totems (i.e. Tremor Totem if there is an opposing warlock, priest, or perhaps warrior). Purge your kill target (and possibly secondary 'switch' target). Flame Shock your kill target and try to Lava Burst + Chain Lightning + Lightning Bolt burst combo at opportune times. When your burst cooldowns aren't available, remember to Wind Shear healers and let your teammates pick up the slack.
• Enhancement: Earthbind Totem is huge, it removes snares and snares opponents. Weigh the benefits of Earthbind Totem vs. Tremor Totem vs. certain teams. If you're in 3v3 vs. a death knight + warlock + healer combo, you will need to figure out if Tremor Totem (breaking Fear) or Earthbind Totem (breaking Chains of Ice and Conflagrate Daze or Curse of Exhaustion) is more valuable. Also, you'll be interrupting heals with Wind Shear as enhancement a lot.
• Restoration: In addition to the healing you're probably used to, you are a very helpful healer for killing opponents. You'll be often asked to Purge (offensively dispel) the kill target, as well as 'shock' (i.e. Wind Shear) heals from the opposing healer. You also have access to some baller damage abilities when you don't need to heal anything. You are one of the most offensive healers in arena (you're not made to sit back and spam shiny hand abilties like a holy paladin).

Hunters

Doing arenas as a hunter is far different than raiding or doing battlegrounds. Skilled PvPers will abuse line-of-sight as a defense against hunters. Player vs. Pillar is the most challenging obstacle as a new player in arenas. Your main goal should be to always be damaging something. Don't chase players when they jump behind a pillar, just start shooting something else. Chasing opponents around pillars for half the game is the most frequent mistake I see hunters make in arenas -- and it also happens to be one of the most harmful. Call out your target switch and your team will adjust.

You have been maligned as the worst arena class in the history of WoW. While this might have been true for many seasons, hunters are not terrible in WotLK. You have a high damage potential and respectable active survivability cooldowns (Deterrence, Disengage, and Feign Death, to name a few). Don't think you can't succeed in arena because of your class -- hunters have achieved rank #1 gladiator title in every season thus far -- you can too!

• Any spec: No matter what spec you choose, you're probably going to want Aimed Shot. An instant cast 50% Mortal Strike debuff (reduced healing) is too much to pass up. Luckily, it's only eleven points down in the marksman tree. Use distance-creating abilities such as Disengage to get away from melee dps if they choose to attack you. If you can't get away from melee dps, try to attack something different on the opposing team -- like the healer, or opposing ranged dps. Try to combo healers into Freezing Trap. You might Intimidate, Scatter Shot, or Wyvern Sting first (depending on your spec). Try to run over to them while dpsing and get them in a trap after your initial crowd control.

Warriors

Try to save Intimidating Shout for a kill. Use it defensively (to stop enemy dps from killing someone on your team) only if you absolutely have to. Use Shield Wall and Spell Reflection to avoid dying, but don't be too trigger-happy to go defensive. Pop defensive cooldowns only when you sense death is near (exception: reflecting an important spell like a warlock Death Coil). You want to stay offensive for the vast majority of the game.

• Arms: Two weeks ago, you might have been the most overpowered class in arena as arms spec. The Sweeping Strikes + Bladestorm Combo just got nerfed. Charge like it's going out of style. Don't worry about the cooldown, you can always intervene if you need to get back to your healer. If you are high on rage and have damage cooldowns available, you might not want to Pummel. Lots of new PvP warriors think that if a warrior doesn't pummel, he isn't a good warrior. This is not true. You need to weigh the situation at hand and analyze the reward ratios of dumping rage with lots of damage into someone with preventing an ability (and possibly missing the pummel). You'll probably want to Pummel heals, especially if they're low on health and you're low on rage. Also, try to save Bladestorm for a kill, don't waste it to avoid crowd control.
• Protection: You are the master of control within the arena. Think of yourself as the ultimate annoyance. You want to make yourself as bothersome to the other team as possible. When you see your opponent create a thread on arenajunkies that's title is "protection specs are absolutely stupid in arenas," you know you're doing it right. You will never be targetted. Ever. Use that to your advantage and play aggressively. Wear gear that will maximize your damage for added pressure, I've seen prot warriors match well-geared affliction warlock damage in 3v3. If you're the main tank of a guild and haven't stepped into arena, right now is a great time to do prot PvP.

Keybinding an Intervene macro will allow you to ping pong around arenas with Charge and Intercept. I highly recommend every warrior (no matter the spec) make a special keybind for this macro, or one like it:

/cast [target=YourHealer'sName] Intervene

Paladins

You are a very survivable class, no matter what your spec is. Paladins are one of the few classes that can afford to wear ridiculous amounts of PvE gear. Take advantage of it if you can -- but don't be afraid to don the PvP gear if teams start attacking you. As any spec, you should be watching your party bars. Try to have Hand of Protection and Hand of Freedom ready for everyone on your team at all times.

• Holy: Healing is your thing, dude. Blizzard's given you some neat PvP abilities like Hammer of Justice and Turn Evil, but your primary deal is gonna be to pick a spot and Flash of Light and Cleanse people. You can use Aura Mastery either defensively (if you suspect a mage is going to Counterspell you), or offensively (if you want your spell dps teammates to blow something up without fearing interrupts). You can also Divine Shield (bubble) defensively to prevent Spell Locks. Hammer of Justice is one of the best finishing moves in the game (it's a instant cast magical stun) -- use it on an opposing healer or enemy dps to put the nail in the coffin. Similarly, if a priest runs towards you, think about using Hammer of Justice on him before he gets in range (he's gonna Psychic Scream you)!
• Retribution: You're an extremely survivable dps class. Most people on your team will be targeted before you. This allows you to use more PvE gear if you have access to it. Pump out as much damage as humanly possible. Save Hammer of Justice for healers or your kill target when you're almost about to win. I see lots of new PvP retadins using Hammer of Justice as their first spell -- this is the worst possible use for it. Try to not use it just to keep someone from running away -- depend on your team to help you out or just switch targets if they get away. The single most important thing that separates the amazing retribution paladin from the average ret is the group support. Cleanse and small heals are so important, missing them doesn't outright lose you every game, but it can certainly contribute. Keep an eye on your partners and get them out of crowd control and trouble.

Death Knights

Instead of concentrating on doing the most damage possible to your opponent, look at the big picture and ask yourself what you can do to help win this game. It might be lowering your damage by not casting Icy Touch with that frost rune, but Chains of Ice on a warrior instead. Instead of attacking the warlock, you might want to sit on the holy paladin to threaten Mind Freezing his heals. Although you're being targetted more in recent months, you're still a very survivable class with active magic defenses and plate armor -- you'll be able to wear some PvE gear if you have access to it.

• Unholy: Think of yourself as a control class. Yes, you can certainly put the hurt on an opposing team -- but raw damage is not what makes a death knight skilled at PvP. You have access to some of the best controlling abilities in the game. Spam Chains of Ice on opponents, particularly melee dps. Death Grip an opponent trying to attack your healer. Use Anti-Magic Shell to make that warlock waste his Haunt cooldown. Spread your diseases on 2-3 members of the opposing team and follow it up by Gnawing the healer to put them behind. Save Strangulate for the death knell. You want to be sure you will kill an enemy by Strangulating the healer -- don't use Strangulate and hope you get a bunch of crits.