World of Warcraftis indirectly nerfing healing specializations in Patch 10.1 by buffing just about everyone else. This will make the job of healers inWorld of Warcrafta lot harder than it currently is.
The Public Test Realm forDragonflightPatch 10.1,Embers of Neltharion, is currently hard at work hammering out the details for the upcoming content update. Over the past several months,World of Warcrafthas been fine-tuning the patch via raid testing, feedback, and internal tweaking ahead oftheEmbers of Neltharionlaunch on May 2.
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In a recent build of the PTR,World of Warcraftdecided to test a significant change that would make healing a little harder. According to Blizzard, healers have been overperforming in their role, making it difficult to challenge players innewWorld of Warcraftraidsand dungeons without making bosses do high, spiky damage. To compensate,World of Warcraftis increasing player health and enemy damage by 25%. Self-healing and healing abilities of DPS and tank roles will also be increased to facilitate this change, and PvP gear is being adjusted appropriately to minimize the impact on the competitive mode as much as possible.
This is actually the second timeWorld of Warcrafthas done something like this in recent memory. Shortly before the launch ofDragonflight,World of Warcraftincreased player stamina and creature damageby roughly 40% for the same reasons. As player item level increases overDragonflight’slifespan, it seemsWorld of Warcraftthinks this first adjustment wasn’t quite enough to appropriately challenge players.
A lot of players aren’t happy with this change. ManyWorld of Warcraftplayers have concerns about Mythic dungeonsand actually think healers are underperforming in them. They claim many of the best Mythic+ dungeon strategies have replaced their healer with an additional DPS since some tank specializations’ offhealing capabilities were sufficient to survive without one. With 10.1 giving them even more HP and healing to play with, many fear playing a healer will become even less feasible.
Luckily, this change is not quite finalized yet. This stamina and damage increase is currently on the PTR, meaning players and developers alike have time to see how much it actually alters the game in actual play. Most hope this significant change has a positive impact on gameplay and does not simply undoWorld of Warcraft’slast level squish inShadowlands. If it does the opposite, hopefully,World of Warcraftcan revert the change, or make further adjustments to ensure characters of every role are neither overpowered nor obsolete.
World of Warcraftis available now for PC.
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