World of Warcraftis changing how Resurrection Sickness works inDragonflight. This is the first major changeWorld of Warcrafthas done to the death debuff since vanillaWoW.
Resurrection Sickness is adebuffWorld of Warcraftplayers get if they dieand choose to respawn the Spirit Healer instead of walking back to their body. Taking this resurrection now results in 50% durability loss with equipped items and a one-minute debuff which reduces all attributes by 75% for the duration.
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The purpose of this penalty has always been to prevent players from using Spirit Healers as a form ofquick transportation inWorld of Warcraft. The previous death penalty was 25% durability loss on items and 10-minutes of the debilitating Resurrection Sickness debuff. This new form doubles the gold cost of dying by reducing durability costs further, but greatly reduces the time players are effectively helpless and unable to fight.
The consequences for death and resurrection inWoWhave been virtually untouched sinceearly inWorld of Warcraft’slifespan. While the massive penalty made sense at the time, the debilitating and lengthy debuff felt out-of-place in a modern MMORPG. With the Resurrection Sickness debuff lasting for a full 10 minutes,World of Warcrafteffectively prevented its players from playing the game for its duration. This new model still provides a penalty, but one that doesn’t prevent players from having fun.
Many players aresatisfiedWorld of Warcraftfinally made this change. The archaic Resurrection Sickness debuff effectively made most players never consider the Spirit Healer’s offer unless absolutely necessary–and when it was due to a body being unreachable or in an inconvenient place, the debuff was cripplingly punishing. Now, players can actually consider taking the penalty without suffering too much.
Of course, some players are unhappy withWorld of Warcraft’schange to Resurrection Sickness. Some of them think the nerfed duration of the Resurrection Sickness buff is too drastic, and that thegold cost for gear repairs inWorld of Warcraftis a cheap tax at best. Others think the Resurrection Sickness buff should just be removed entirely, or perhaps the attribute penalty lessened instead of its duration. Players fear this change will encourage players to abuse death to quickly traverse the game.
Regardless, this change is live in theDragonflightbeta, and with theWorld of Warcraftexpansion’s launch officially right around the corner, it will almost definitely be in the retail release. Players won’t have to wait long to see this change to death and Resurrection Sickness in action when tragedy strikes them on the Dragon Isles.
