In Battle for Azeroth, items lose a large part of their attributes. A new “item squish” is coming in World of Warcraft!
Since the item spiral in an MMORPG like World of Warcraft must constantly turn, the values and attributes on items have been increasing year after year. Where a “+20 stamina” once caused wide eyes at the launch of a game, a “+3000 stamina” in Legion now only makes players smile wearily. The values have continued to grow, and have now reached levels where players can have several million health points and deal similarly high damage.
To ensure that in the upcoming expansion Battle for Azeroth, not everything has to be abbreviated with millions or even billions, patch 8.0 introduces an item squish. This means that the item level of all items in the game will be drastically reduced – the existing attributes on the items will decrease, and as a result, the characters will also lose power.
The best way to illustrate this is with the example of a legendary ring with item level 1000. After the item squish, it will “only” be at item level 280. The existing attributes on the items will shrink accordingly. Where there used to be more than 4000 stamina, there are now only just over 100.
Values shrink, but strength remains the same
To compensate for this, the enemies will also be adjusted once again. After all, Azeroth’s heroes should remain of approximately the same strength even after the item squish. However, the actual duration of battles should change as little as possible. In other words: If you currently defeat a current enemy in 10 seconds, you should not take longer after the item squish.
Please keep in mind that this item squish is still based on early values from the alpha of Battle for Azeroth. It is possible that there will be further adjustments before the release in summer.
What do you think of the item squish? Is this a good solution that should be done every few expansions? Or does Blizzard need a permanent solution, as this problem will arise more frequently?
