20 comps
S5s Triple-Healer Control
The definitive S2 immortality comp — three healers behind an Arms warrior and Affliction warlock who never stop applying pressure. You don't out-burst anyone; you refuse to die and grind the enemy team into an empty mana bar. Every game is a war of attrition you were built to win.
SWarrior / Holy Paladin
The beginner-friendly powerhouse. Blessing of Freedom turns the warrior into an un-kiteable Mortal Strike machine, and the paladin is nearly unkillable. If you want a high floor, start here.
A5s Beast/Hunter Cleave (2347)
Beast/Hunter Cleave is a ranged burst comp built around the hunter's Beast Within window: a CC-immune nuke phase backed by Elemental Shaman and Destro Warlock damage, all propped up by a disc priest and holy paladin. It hits like a truck for eighteen seconds and refuses to die afterward. If the opener doesn't kill, the double-healer backbone lets you reset and go again.
A5s Caster Cleave
The ranged-control 5s archetype: stacked casters (mage + lock + shadow priest) layering Poly, Fear, and Cyclone behind a healer core. Kites melee cleave and kills through control — high ceiling, high coordination.
A5s Melee Cleave
The default competitive 5s archetype: stacked melee burst (warrior + rogue) behind two or three healers. 5s in TBC is less rigid than 2s/3s — think in team archetypes, and melee cleave is the highest-floor one.
A5s Shadowplay Plus
Shadowplay Plus takes the shadow priest and elemental shaman core and bolts on a frost mage, destruction warlock and holy paladin for a five-caster wall of ranged burst. It kills through raw instant damage stacked into one global, backed by a silence chain no single healer survives. When the burst is peeled, it simply mana-burns the enemy healer into the floor instead.
ARogue / Holy Paladin
Ride the tankiest healer in the bracket. The paladin's Freedom and Blessing of Protection keep the rogue glued to a target while the paladin simply refuses to die. Strong into cleaves, weaker into Mana Burn.
AWarlock / Holy Paladin
Fear control plus the tankiest healer alive. You almost never lose your healer, and DoT pressure eventually wins — but without Mana Burn your kills are slow, so patience is the whole game.
B5s Double-Healer Control
The attrition archetype: a healer-heavy core with a warrior + mage for pressure and CC. You almost never lose a teammate first and grind the enemy out — but you need a real kill condition to close, not just survive.
BBeastcleave / KFC (Warrior / Hunter / Paladin)
KFC is TBC's iconic melee cleave: an Arms warrior and a Beast Mastery hunter share two overlapping healing debuffs and dump every cooldown on one target while a Holy Paladin keeps them topped. It wins by making a kill target un-healable, then bursting it down inside a stun. The moment it gets kited and controlled instead of getting to press, it falls apart.
BDouble-Healer Warrior (Warrior / Shaman / Paladin)
The purest attrition comp in the bracket: one Arms Warrior grinding a target while a Restoration Shaman and Holy Paladin refuse to let anyone die. You don't out-burst opponents — you out-last them, riding Mortal Strike pressure and two full mana bars until the enemy healer runs dry or panics. Tier B because a single peeled Warrior is a comp with no offense at all.
BHunter / Holy Paladin
A patient control comp that wins by attrition and one hard-scripted burst window. The hunter locks the enemy healer out with Freezing Trap, stacks the Aimed Shot healing debuff on the kill target, then dumps Bestial Wrath while the Holy Paladin — the tankiest healer in the bracket — refuses to die. You don't out-damage the meta; you out-position it.
BMage / Holy Paladin
Mage/Holy Paladin is the patient control comp of the 2s bracket: two of the best CC toolkits in the game stapled to the strongest single-target healer. You rarely burst anyone down — instead you kite, Polymorph, and Mana Burn until the enemy healer is out of gas, then delete their partner in one frozen window. It is a grind, not a race.
BPHP (Paladin / Hunter / Priest)
A burst-and-control 3s: Ret + Hunter stack a big damage window while the priest and hunter traps lock the enemy healer. Freedom keeps the Ret on target. Strong burst, beatable by patient control.
BRet Paladin / Holy Paladin
'Ret/Holy.' All-in burst with unmatched melee uptime — Freedom and Blessing of Protection mean the Ret never gets kited or trained off. Ceiling is capped by no CC, but the floor is very high.
BRet Paladin / Resto Druid
'Ret/Druid.' A sustain-and-control comp that wins by outlasting: the druid rolls HoTs and chains Cyclone/Roots/Bash while the Ret adds Repentance and a Hammer of Justice stun. Blessing of Sacrifice and Freedom keep the druid free, and layered CC on the enemy healer eventually forces the kill.
BRet Paladin / Resto Shaman
A pure burst comp built to delete a target inside one Windfury-and-Bloodlust window before the enemy healer can react. The Ret hits like a truck under Judgement and Crusader Strike, the Shaman pockets him with Earth Shield and Grounding Totem, and the whole game is about landing that one explosive swing. No Mortal Strike means you win in seconds or not at all.
BRetcleave (Warrior / Ret / Shaman)
Retcleave is TSG's controlling cousin: an Arms Warrior and a Ret Paladin train a target while a Resto Shaman sustains, but the paladin trades a second warrior for Repentance, Hammer of Justice, and Freedom. Less raw instant damage than double-warrior, far more healer lockdown and burst on demand. A high-floor cleave that actually sets up its kills.
BWarrior Cleave (Arms / Fury / Paladin)
Two warriors, one Mortal Strike debuff that never falls off, and the sturdiest healer in the game standing behind them. Warrior Cleave doesn't out-think anyone — it picks a target, glues both swords to it, and dares the enemy healer to keep up through 50% healing reduction and relentless snares. When the swap lands and the cooldowns pop, people simply die between globals.
CRet Paladin / Disc Priest
A one-shot-window burst comp built around a single perfect setup. The priest Power Infuses the Ret while Repentance locks the healer, then Avenging Wrath, Crusader Strike and a twisted Seal of Command try to delete a target before anyone can react. Feast-or-famine, and it lives and dies by the opening.