One of the most annoying affixes for melee players in World of Warcraft has been weakened. Malicious is no longer quite so evil.
In the last expansions of World of Warcraft, there has been ongoing criticism that melee players have it harder compared to ranged players. Especially in weeks with some nasty affixes, this has certainly been the case. Depending on the affix, melee players may not even be included in groups – one of them was the affix “Malicious”. It has now been weakened.
What is Malicious? Malicious is an affix that can appear in “Mythic+” dungeons. It causes slain enemies to leave behind a spirit upon death. The spirit targets a random player, slowly floats towards them, and deals massive damage with melee attacks. They can be controlled with stuns and similar effects, die from high damage, and expire on their own after a few seconds.
What was the problem? The strikes of the spirits deal massive damage, often taking down many characters with just 1-2 attacks. Especially melee players struggle because the spirits spawn from the corpses of enemies and are thus right in melee range of the melee players. When melee players are targeted, it is difficult to avoid the first attack.
What was changed? Blizzard made a few minor changes that, although not listed in the patch notes for update 9.0.5 – like these 10 secret changes -, were noticed by some players. These include:
- The melee range of the spirits seems to have been significantly reduced. Previously, players reported that the spirits could sometimes strike from over 8-10 meters away. This has apparently been changed.
- Targeted players now have clear red eyes above their character to signal that they are being attacked. Previously, the eyes were weakly purple and harder to notice in the heat of battle.
These new changes are just minor tweaks, but they should make melee players’ lives significantly easier and lead to quicker reactions that are rewarded with fewer hits.
Will melee players be taken along again? Whether melee players will be welcomed again in weeks with “Malicious” will have to be seen until all players have noticed this change. In general, the affix continues to be more problematic for melee players as the spirits still spawn within melee range.
But even a small improvement is still an improvement – every death less helps to master even high-level dungeons.
What do you think of the adjustments? Do melee players still need more “help”? Or are the affixes well balanced?
