Over 40 abilities in World of Warcraft are being revamped. You will soon hit all targets again – no matter how many that may be.
The community of World of Warcraft has prevailed. After over a year of complaints, one of the most controversial changes to the combat system is being reversed. The issue with the “AoE cap” will soon be history, and Blizzard is backtracking. Soon you will be able to hit all enemies again – no matter how many they are.
What was the problem? At the end of Legion and Battle for Azeroth, dungeon runs often looked like players had pulled multiple trash groups together. Whether it was 30, 40, or even 50 mobs – they simply pulled together a huge group and then annihilated them under a barrage of effects. This resulted in effectively only one way to tackle Mythic+ and other content: pull everything together and blast them away.
Therefore, the developers of WoW applied an “AoE cap” to many abilities in Shadowlands – a maximum target limit for area-of-effect spells. Some abilities could only hit up to 5 targets at once. As soon as there were more enemies, simply not all were hit.
This felt disruptive for many players in current dungeons, but it also caused frustration when visiting old content. For example, players who just want to run through old raids to farm transmogs often have to use dozens of abilities to defeat groups that previously could be wiped out with a single attack.
What is WoW doing now? With patch 9.1.5, Blizzard plans to remove the AoE cap on many abilities and instead try another strategy. Abilities will once again hit all targets in the target area, but will deal reduced damage once more than 5 targets are hit. The damage dealt decreases per enemy as the number of foes increases.
Which abilities are affected? A whole range of abilities will benefit from this change. The following abilities will again hit all targets in the target area, but their damage will decrease as more enemies are present:
Death Knight
- Death Pact
- Monstrous Limb (Necrolord ability)
- Reanimated Eater (legendary power)
- Blood
- Blood Scourge
- Bone Storm
- Frost
- Frost Sense
- Unholy
- Bursting Bile
Demon Hunter
- Devastation
- Blade Dance
- Demonic Barrage
- Revenge
- Soul Cleave
- Soul Bomb
Druid
- Pounce
- Ferocity
- Brutal Slash
Hunter
- Soulforge Ember (legendary power)
- Beast Mastery
- Prowler’s Strikes
- Multi-Shot
- Suppressive Fire
- Marksmanship
- Multi-Shot
- Volley
- Explosive Shot
- Survival
- Rending
- Slicing
Mage
- Arcane
- Arcane Echo
- Frost
- Frostbolt
- Glacial Spike (legendary power)
Monk
- Brewmaster
- Whispering Jade Wind
- Windwalker
- Fists of Fury
- Whispering Jade Wind
Paladin
- Retribution
- Divine Storm
Rogue
- Assassination
- Fan of Knives
- Bloodstorm
- Subtlety
- Black Powder
- Shuriken Storm
- Secret Technique
Shaman
- Elemental
- Eye of the Storm from the Storm Elemental
Warlock
- Demonology
- Demonic Storm of the Felguard
Warrior
- Whirlwind
- Arms
- Blade Storm
- Rupture
- Devastator
- Horrific Strikes
- Fury
- Blade Storm
- Protection
- Devastator
What do you think about the removal of the AoE cap and Blizzard’s solution? A good step in the right direction? Or should all abilities always deal full damage?
Many wish for even more changes – like YouTuber Bellular, who has 10 demands for the developers.
