Monks in World of Warcraft are currently having a good laugh. In the arena, they can easily score kills – and that without any gear.
The PvP scaling in World of Warcraft has been a major point of criticism for months. But just now, towards the end of the expansion Battle for Azeroth, players are finding more and more ways to exploit this scaling. A recent case is making monks in the arena become real killing machines. The ability “Touch of Death” can instantly burst enemy players.
What is Touch of Death? This ability of the monks inflicts a debuff on hit enemies. After 8 seconds, the victim takes high damage. For regular enemies, this damage equals 35% of the monk’s maximum health, whereas in PvP it is actually less. However, with a (rather simple) trick, the monk can cause the Touch of Death to hit for over 600,000 damage. The Reddit user Phellxgodx showcases this in several clips and screenshots.
How does it work? The trick is that the enemy monk immediately retreats and drops their gear after using Touch of Death. Now, the PvP scaling kicks in, significantly increasing the damage effect of the ability – by over 200%. So if the monk is naked when Touch of Death wears off, the victim takes massive damage. In many cases, this is enough to eliminate players instantly, thus taking out an enemy.
However, this method is not entirely safe. The monk player has to remain naked and survive for a few seconds, which can be difficult in the arena. If they succeed, however, an enemy can be defeated in no time.
A good gear is still necessary. Especially the corruption effect, which increases versatility, is particularly useful. This further increases the damage of Touch of Death, even after the gear has been removed.
Something very similar was discovered by the paladin player Rextroy just a few days ago. He killed opponents without dismounting from his mount.
Will Blizzard fix this? It seems beyond doubt now that Blizzard must make significant changes to the PvP scaling with the new expansion Shadowlands to avoid such situations. Because gradually, more and more combinations and abilities will surely be found that can be exploited in unfair ways with the questionable PvP scaling.
By the time Shadowlands arrives, the developers will surely have a fix ready – but perhaps they might completely abandon the PvP scaling.
