05/17/2023 at 11:30 am by Susanne Braun – The effectiveness of healing in the online role-playing game WoW seems to be a constant problem for Blizzard developers. After double adjustments to character life points and damage output from AI opponents and a reduction in life steal, WoW Patch 10.1.5 comes with a nerf for DpS cooldowns that convert damage done into healing, such as the shadow priests’ vampire hug.
Apparently, the developers of the MMORPG World of Warcraft are still not satisfied with how the healing done is balanced. Already at the start of WoW: Dragonflight there was a noticeable boost in character life points from level 69 to the maximum character level 70, as well as the damage caused by AI opponents. One comparable adjustment took place with the release of WoW Patch 10.1 instead, and in the same breath became the tertiary lifesteal toned down, specifically so healers don’t benefit as much from it.
But that’s probably not all. In an update of the previously published test server patch notes for WoW (buy now) patch 10.1.5, the WoW makers noted a nerf to the DpS cooldowns that convert damage caused into healing. So this applies to the vampire embrace of the shadow priests, nature guard of the druids and guidance of the shaman’s ancestors.
Nerfs in duration or in functionality
The following adjustments await you with the release of WoW Patch 10.1.5:
Druid
Nature’s Vigil duration is now 15 seconds (was 30 seconds)
priest
The shade
Vampiric Embrace duration is now 12 seconds (was 15 seconds)
shaman
Ancestral Guidance now only converts single-target damaging abilities into healing (down from all damaging abilities). The conversion of healing spells into healing has not changed.
The developers on the WoW team explain these adjustments as follows: “We are reducing the effectiveness of group healing of DpS from damage-to-healing conversion spells. The affected abilities are Vampiric Embrace, Nature’s Guard and Ancestral Guidance. While we want hybrid DpS to be able to heal the party, these spells are now powerful enough to temporarily relieve the healer’s role without interrupting the hybrid’s DpS rotation.”
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So that means that the WoW makers see the spells as another big cooldown with a lot of group damage, which, however, has too much of an effect on the group or the raid. These nerfs are interesting with regard to the fistweaving of the mistweaver monk, which could theoretically also be viewed as a hybrid of DpS and healer due to the “convert damage to healing” part.
