Once again, a single player seems to have forced Blizzard into action. Because of him, all WoW players now have to live with a new debuff.
The Corruption system of World of Warcraft is generally not very popular among players, but it allows for some fun moments with absurd numbers. Blizzard seems to have recognized this and is introducing a new negative effect. Those with too much Corruption on their items will inevitably die within seconds.
What has been done? Blizzard has announced in a small hotfix the implementation of an additional negative Corruption effect. The negative Corruption effects are essentially limitations to prevent players from accumulating too much Corruption. This can lead to slow effects, as well as ghostly copies that deal damage to the player. The most recent debuff, “Inevitable Doom,” increases the damage taken by the player and decreases the healing received. But now a new effect has been added.
What does the new debuff do? The new debuff is called “Inescapable Consequences.” It activates as soon as a player accumulates more than 200 Corruption. If that is the case, the player suffers 25% of their health points as damage per second, as long as they are in combat.
In plain terms, this means that most characters with more than 200 Corruption will be dead after 4 seconds in combat.
Rextroy was too successful with 625 Corruption
Why was this debuff introduced? Although Blizzard has not formulated this directly, the nerf seems to be a direct response to a video by the Paladin Rextroy. Rextroy is known for exploiting mechanics with maximum effectiveness and highlighting flaws in the system. For example, he kills raid bosses solo. Recently, he released a video in which he plays PvP in the arena with maximum Corruption (675) and was able to kill many of his opponents with just one hit.
The new debuff should ensure that this tactic is no longer as successful. However, with immunities like Divine Shield, he might still be able to hold on for a few seconds.
The debuff should primarily discourage other players from also aiming for a Corruption level beyond 200 in order to be particularly successful in PvP. Because that is now practically no longer possible.
With this, the Paladin Rextroy has managed once again to get Blizzard to make a change that should ultimately make the game fairer for everyone. Such a change was especially necessary in PvP to make the arena a bit fairer again.
Do you think the change is good and sensible? Or should Blizzard have left out this debuff and let us all have “fun with Corruption”?
