WoW SoD Phase 3: PvP Damage Reduction Test 2 (May 3, 2024)

The dev team is looking at testing reducing the damage in PvP for another round as the overwhelming amount of feedback helped them narrow down what changes need to be made to PvP in Season of Discovery Phase 3. Although the first test had some promising results, most of the community was frustrated due to the lack of reduced healing as it made Druid Bears almost unkillable, especially when paired up with healers.

Another oppressive strategy was to jampack 5 paladins all healing each other, thus winning out the war of attrition with only Shamans being able to somewhat match them in terms of power level.

Despite Shamans lacking any substantial CC, they were also powerhouses due to their ability to self-heal and dish out a lot of damage. Having said that, we will take a look at the new damage reduction changes that players will try out before the weekly reset.

Season of Discovery Phase 3 PvP Damage Reduction

The recent blue post highlighted the new PvP damage reduction test for Season of Discovery and what it will entail:

Starting tomorrow, May 3 at 10:00 a.m. PDT, we’ll enable an aura that does the following in PvP combat between players (and player-controlled pets and other units):

• 20% damage reduction from all Physical damage done by players or player pets.
• 30% damage reduction from all Magical damage done by players or player pets.
• For 10 seconds after being damaged by another player or player’s pet, the damaged player receives 20% less healing.

This would be multiplicatively cumulative with Mortal Strike, meaning a character with both effects would take 60% reduced healing (0.5*0.8=0.4=40% healing received or 60% prevented).

This time around, the changes look more balanced as PvP usually rewards players who have great mastery of their class by identifying enemy weaknesses by also incorporating smart risk-taking. 

Along with these changes, the devs will also look into the new abilities and runes that were added in Season of Discovery to allow players to have a better chance at surviving full-damage rotations and punishing mistakes.

We’re also fixing some interaction issues with self-damage effects (Seal of Martyrdom, Hellfire, Shadow Word: Death), and Chaos Bolt will again lose its benefit where Fire spells ignore absorb effects.

Overall, this PvP damage reduction test seems to be more favored given how better the stats and damage reduction are handled, coupled with the healing reduction that will definitely ensure the tankier classes to fall much easier instead of relying on 5 players focusing down 1 target.

Hopefully, the dev team is able to implement a more sustainable and fun PvP experience, as we start heading in the fourth and final phase of Season of Discovery.