World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is well on its way, releasing in less than three weeks from today. Blizzard has been hard at work in making sure everything is tuned in the buildup to release for the highly-anticipated expansion.
One of the facets of play that the developers are focusing their attention on is the endgame content, namely raids. With Mythic Castle Nathria set to release on December 8th a month from now, there’s plenty to tune.
Recently, Blizzard altered a few abilities in the Shadowlands beta, changing the balance a bit further. Some players are a bit annoyed to see the change, and as minor as it may seem from the outside, it could actually change the expansion meta significantly.
Some bleed effects will no longer be removed by the Kyrian Phial of Serenity or the Stoneform racial ability that Dwarves have access to. This is a bit of a strike for endgame strategies, many of which were based around these abilities.
We recently discussed Exorcus, a Russian guild that vies for supremacy at content drops as they work to secure their spot for World First and Realm First in the race that follows content drops every expansion.
Some bleeds, have been altered in Shadowlands to seemingly preventing Dwarf Stoneform and Kyrian Phial of Serenity from removing them.#Shadowlands#Warcrafthttps://t.co/AEiip1FpMl pic.twitter.com/pDoOuHom9F
— Wowhead💙 (@Wowhead) November 5, 2020
Exorcus, we stated, had recently changed their raiding team as a whole from Horde to Alliance. This move, it was widely suspected, was to access the Dwarven Stoneform ability as a counter to the bleed mechanics in the raid.
Exorcus is far from the only organization that had done such. Many were focusing in on Alliance for this ability, as it was a massive perk in removing the bleed effect, much like how Blood Elf players had a benefit in some Mythic dungeons, such as King’s Rest, for their racial ability immediately dealing with some mobs.
With this change, many are a bit frustrated to see their preparation having gone for nothing. Having the Kyrian Phial of Serenity upset the balance is only further frustrating players, as two strategies have now been erased.
It’s unsure if Blizzard did this intentionally or if there was a bug that they were working to remove. Either way, it’s unlikely that they’ll be reverting this change, though it’s a bit strange that they made it so close to launch instead of earlier in the beta.
It certainly isn’t the end of the world – players will undoubtedly find some new method to remove or counter these bleeds. Still, it’s definitely a bummer for players that had based their raid group composition around the Dwarven Stoneform or Kyrian Phial of Serenity.
