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WoW 5.0: Spell Resistance Removal

There were two primary problems with spell resistance.

First, the mechanic was implemented in a really confusing way. We could describe it all here, but it would take paragraphs, so instead we invite you to look it up on one of the fansites. The way a point of resistance leads to decreased damage is not an easy system for even experienced players to understand. We certainly could have redesigned the system, but to what end? Gearing for resistance sacrificed so many other stats that it was really only beneficial on those fights that the designers decided ahead of time would be "resistance fights," which generally meant getting a whole set of Nature (or Fire or Shadow, etc.) resistance gear. It felt more like an annoying speed bump to being able to progress to the next boss, rather than a fun challenge.

Secondly, the various resistance auras were passive things you'd just throw up, and pretty easy for any group larger than 5 to have. In designer parlance, we balanced around the assumption of their presence, rather than them feeling like awesome bonuses when you got to use, say, Fire Resist Aura. There isn't a ton of interesting gameplay there.

As we said in the blog, in some alternate universe, we could imagine a World of Warcraft itemization design where resistances are nearly as meaningful as stats like haste or crit. In that game there would be a lot of mobs that cast spells or use magical attacks, and stacking resistance might be an interesting trade off to stacking Stamina and armor. In the abstract, resistances could be cool. They aren't currently very cool in the actual World of Warcraft. We could spend a lot of design attention to make them cool -- and maybe someday we'll take that challenge on again -- but for Mists, we'd rather spend more attention on making sure the talent tree and spec revamps are as cool as they can possibly be.

 

Earlier Articles:

* WoW: Cataclysm Post Mortem - Dungeons and Raids with Scott
* WoW: A Sentence to Prove you were a WoWer
* WoW: Patch 4.3 Hotfixes -- Feb. 23
* WoW: Patch 4.3 Hotfixes -- Feb. 7
* WoW: Love is in the Air 2012 Guide
* WoW Valentine''s Day Event: Love Is in the Air 2012
* WoW: Patch 4.3.2 is Now Available
* WoW Patch 4.3: Hour of Twilight Feature
* WoW Patch 4.3.2: Cross-Realm Raids
* WoW: Patch 4.3.2 on Test Realms and 64 Bit Game Client Might Appear
* WoW Patch 4.3.2: New Items Unveiled
* WoW PTR Patch 4.3.2 Notes

WoW 5.0: Spell Resistance Removal

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