7 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.
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.
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.
C5s DPS Zerg
The all-in 5s archetype: four DPS (arms warrior, sub rogue, frost mage, SL/SL warlock) stacked behind a single discipline priest. You don't win the long game — you CC the enemy healer, dump every cooldown on one target, and delete them before your lone healer runs dry.