"What class/comp should I play?" - 3v3 Arena Guide

[Note: I've tried to be as unbiased as possible I ask that people posting try to do the same, this is a guide mostly aimed at newer players, so if you're an experienced Arena player this probably won't have much for you, I'm also going to avoid talking about specs which don't really have a place in Arena, such as Blood Death Knight, or Holy Priest]

This is an 3v3 Arena guide for people who want to know what class to roll, this will try to be as un-seasonable as possible, ie a general view of Arena not about what is strong or weak now.

Obviously the class or comps you should play; should be determined by what you have the most fun playing, whether or be a Healer or a DPS, a melee or a ranged and so on. This guide should only be used to help you choose the class which fits your desired role.

Lastly before we start I'll be giving people a comp suggestion along with each spec, this isn't set in stone, some comps can work well with either specs and often it can just come down to what spec that particular player prefers playing; for example Ret/DK/Priest works with either a Frost DK or an Unholy DK, Mage/Lock/Druid works with a Fire Mage or a Frost Mage and so on.

Starting with the Death Knight:
Frost
Frost is a cleave spec; and by this I mean it's a spec best suited for melee-cleave style comps like DK/Ret/Healer or DK/Rogue/Healer. This is because Frost has no "ramp-up" time in order to do damage, by that I mean you don't need to spend time hitting someone before you can do maximum damage, this is ideal for melee-cleaves who often need to win in the first 1-2minutes or they generally lose.

Comps: DK/Ret/Healer, DK/Rogue/Healer, DK/Enh/Healer and Triple DPS (Ret/Rogue/DK)

Unholy
Unholy is the more "cultured" spec for Death Knights, it has the higher "skill cap", it has more tools than Frost does and this gives it more room to have an influence on the game outside of raw killing power, it has higher survivability than Frost and more utility in the forms of Unholy Frenzy (this can break CC on you or your partner(s) and keep them out of CC for awhile), AMZ (A defensive anti-magic zone), AMS which although Frost has as well Unholy can spec it (and usually do) into 100% anti-magic damage/CC. The Death Knight's pet also has more abilities and allows for great usage, such as a 4 second "Gnaw" stun and when it's been transformed (Dark Transformation) has a Charge stun as well.

Just a sidenote: Although as I said Frost is better for most cleave style comps, this is mostly true for all except TSG (Warrior/DK/Healer), this is mainly because of Necrotic Strike and the additional control that DKs bring which Warrior's generally lack, and Warrior's also have a "ramp-up" time, so not being able to do maximum damage instantly isn't the biggest problem.

Comps: DK/Ret/Healer, Shadowcleave (Death Knight/Affliction Warlock/Healer), TSG (Warrior/DK/Paladin) and PHD (Death Knight/Hunter/Paladin).

Druid
Boomkin

Is generally not a strong Arena class, has only really been viable in the last 2 Cataclysm seasons and generally only as "LSD2" (Affliction Warlock/Boomkin/Resto Shaman) although in Season 11 people also started running "Spicy Chicken Cleave" (Fire Mage/Boomkin/Disc Priest).

Comps: LSD2 and Spicy Chicken Cleave are the strongest currently for Boomkin.

Feral

Feral has been a strong Arena class for a long time now, ever since WotLK was implemented Feral has been more than viable, it had a short time during Season 8 where it wasn't that great because Feral has a weakness to Spell Cleaves (which is double caster healer(example Frost Mage/Affliction Warlock/Resto Druid)), which were very popular in Season 8, up until Cataclysm however it was widely considered that Feral was only really viable in Melee Cleave-style comps (such as Kitty Cleave (Warrior/Feral/Healer), however in Cataclysm comps such as FMP (Feral/Mage/Priest) and FLS (Feral/Lock/Shaman) has changed this view.

Comps: Jungle Cleave (Feral/Hunter/Healer), FMP (Feral/Mage/Priest), FLS (Feral/Lock/Shaman) and Kitty Cleave (Warrior/Feral/Healer).

Resto

Restoration has been one of the consistently strongest healing specs through Arena, it's currently not as strong as it has been in the past, but it can be successful still with the right comp. Throughout Season 2 to Season 4 in TBC, Season 6 to Season 8 in WotLK; Druid was the most dominant Healer, however as said Cataclysm hasn't been kind to the Resto Druid. However Resto has always been (in my opinion) one of the more involved Healers since Resto's healing power isn't solely reliant on their Heals, because Resto Druid's have the best CC of any Healer in the game (arguably any class in the game) they also need to use their CC to stop the opposing team doing damage as well. This is where the average player falls short as they often don't understand this or can't pull it off.

Comps: Shattreeplay (Frost Mage/Shadow Priest/Resto Druid) and MLD (Frost Mage/Affliction Warlock/Resto Druid).

Hunter
Marksman
This is largely the only "real" viable Hunter spec, the other 2 never really convinced me of being well designed, especially for Arena, both Beast Mastery and Survival have had their moments of Arena glory but these were often condensed into 1 season. Marksman has very good damage and excellent control; with Scatter Shot, Frost, Freezing and Snake Trap as well as Monkey Stun (Pet ability) and Silence Shot they are one of the most unique classes in the game, it's also one of the only specs in the game which can (albeit for a short period of time) CC multiply players at once. In my opinion, especially now, it's always been one of the most devastating classes in the hands of a great player.

Comps: PHD (Death Knight/Hunter/Paladin), Junglecleave (Feral Druid/Hunter/Healer), Ret/Hunter/Healer and Triple DPS (Ret/Rogue/Hunter).

Mage
Fire

Fire is new to the Arena scene, it's not always been a strong spec for Arena and has only really seen viability in the past 2 seasons (Season 10 and Season 11), it's strength is Dots, Instant Damage and CC. Putting up Living Bomb, spamming Scorch for instant Pyroblast procs, waiting to time Combustion; great CC (a lot of it Instant) such as Impact, Ring of Frost and Dragon's Breath, that combined with Mage's traditional CC of Polymorph makes a Fire Mage able to control a whole team on his own. Fire was traditional seen as a weak spec mostly because it was considered that the spec lacked survivability, that Fire Mages were easy to kill. However with Blazing Speed and Cauterize I'd rather try and kill a Frost Mage than a Fire Mage (from a Warrior's perspective).

Comps: Fire works in numerous comps, RMP (Rogue/Mage/Priest), Shattreeplay (Mage/Shadow Priest/Resto Druid), Spicy Chicken Cleave (Fire Mage/Boomkin/Priest) or Fire Mage/Warlock/Healer.

Frost
Frost is an iconic Arena spec, it's been around since S1 and it'll probably be around until the end of World of Warcraft. It has great control and burst damage, it's a great counter to melee classes/cleaves in general, although has a weakness to dispels. It's usually the most important member of a team; if a team has a great Mage then they can be very successful, a team with a bad Mage will generally not be. In my opinion it's not a class for the beginner, it's a class for those who've played Arena before and understand how it works, which can bring the full potential of this class out.

Comps: Frost Mage can run almost anything, RMP (Rogue/Mage/Priest), MLS (Mage/Lock/Shaman), Shatterplay (Mage/Shadow Priest/Shaman), Shattreeplay (Mage/Shadow Priest/Druid) amongst others.