Arenas are fought 2vs2, 3vs3 or 5vs5. You will have to create or join a team to play in rated arena battles. In your team, you can have twice as many players as you are in the arena. In a 2vs2 arena team you can have four people, in a 3vs3 arena team you can have six people and in a 5vs5 arena team you can have ten people. Which classes your 2vs2 team consists of doesn't really matter, but some combinations might be better than others. In a 3vs3 team you should consider to either have a healer or a warrior for Mortal Strike if you want to succeed.

In a 5vs5 team you should have a paladin healer and a mortal strike warrior. The Paladin is very good for blessings and survivability as well as superb healing. The warrior's mortal strike decreases healing on a target with 50%. If you don't have a mortal strike warrior, you might have a problem with the target getting too much healing compared to the damage your team deals.

When creating a team, you have to choose the team's name and flag design. When designing the flag, you can choose the logo, the border style and the color of the background, border and icon. The name and the flag will be your team's ID.

The Arenas

There are three arenas currently in the game:

• The Ring of Trials (Nagrand Arena): Circle shaped arena with large pillars that you can hide behind to be out of line of sight. The Arena is located in Nagrand, south of Garadar, and it used to be an ancient orcish proving ground. One minute in the match, a cyclone appears and adds some spin to the fight. After 90 seconds, two shadow crystals appear that let you see stealthed and invisible units, but it also deals some damage to you. Nothing special about this arena. You should hide behind a pillar till you see what the other team has so you can decide on whom to attack first.

• The Circle of Blood (Blade's Edge Arena): Square shaped arena with heights and a bridge across them. Its location is in Blade's Edge, north of Thunderlord Village, and it used to be a place where ogres fought. After 90 seconds, two shadow crystals appear that let you see stealthed and invisible units, but it also deals some damage to you. The key to winning this is to become the lord of the bridge. If you let the other team get to one of the two pillars you will have a problem with them able to damage you without you being able to do anything to them.

• Ruins of Lordaeron: Plain arena with an undead theme. Not much to hide behind except a large tomb in the middle of the arena. It is located in Tirisfal Glades.

Arena Points

Once a week, the teams will receive arena points based on their arena rating. However, there are certain requirements to be able to get the points. Each week, the team has to played at least ten matches to get arena points. Only team members who have played in at least 30% of the team's matches will receive points. Blizzard uses the following formula to calculate arena points:

Team Rating to Arena Point Formula

X = Team Rating, Y = Arena Points, Z = Team size (2, 3 or 5)

If X>1500: Y = (2894/(1+259*e^(-0.0025*X)))*((10*Z+50)/100) Else: Y = (0.206*X+99)*((10*Z+50)/100)