Blizzard Outlines PvP Changes Coming To World Of Warcraft: Dragonflight In Patch 10.1
Blizzard Entertainment is planning to shake up PvP in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight with the release of Embers of Neltharion, a.k.a. Patch 10.1, sometime in the next few months. While the dev team says that they’re happy with the overall pace of PvP combat in Dragonflight, it’s still in need of a balance pass, particularly when it comes to burst damage.
“At the beginning of Shadowlands, we increased the Critical strike damage and healing value to 175% from 150% in PvP. We will be reverting this change, so the Critical Strike value will be 150% in PvP to address our burst concern,” Blizzard said in a recent forum post.
“We recognize this will slow down game pacing, and we will keep an eye on it to ensure it isn’t too slow. Alongside class changes, we intend to adjust the primary stat gain from Gladiator’s Distinction as a tuning knob to keep PvP pacing in a healthy place,” the studio added.
The team says that they will also be addressing concerns about crowd control and will be reducing the effect and interrupt durations of several related skills. “Our general guideline was to reduce the PvP duration of most Crowd Control abilities so that nothing should ever go beyond 6 seconds when modified (except when modified by Evoker’s Oppressing Roar),” they explained. “We want crowd control to remain meaningful when coordinated well, while still allowing for reasonable counterplay opportunities by the opponent.”
The new Dragonflight talent trees will also be getting another makeover with the addition of new talents and adjustments to undervalued ones to make them more viable in PvP combat. In line with the revamp, Precognition will be removed as a PvP talent and will be made available as an optional reagent that can be applied to crafted gear.
The above-mentioned changes will be making their way to the public test realm in phases over the next few months leading up to Embers of Neltharion’s release. But before that, players will soon be making their way back to Forbidden Reach to take on the Primal Incarnates when Patch 10.0.7 hits the live servers on March 21st.
