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Blizzard announced on the 20th of this month that they were finally
answering the PvPers call for a buff to resilience. This change is to
come in the form of a hot fix and it will be applied between Arena
seasons so Blizzard can better evaluate how it works in different PvP
situations. It will also help Blizzard prepare for Cataclysm as they
have hopes to change the PvP environment completely so it is harder for
players to achieve the bursts of healing and damage that are currently
possible.



The change will double the value of resilience in reducing damage done
by players. Depending on the resilience a player has, they may find a
10 to 20% decrease in damage taken. However it should be noted that
Blizzard will not be making any changes to the critical strike and
critical strike reduction portion of resilience.  The tooltip
for this update will not change until patch 3.3.2 comes out. To see the
official Blizzard posts on this please click href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=22739754001&pageNo=1">here
or href="http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=12303920920&sid=1&pageNo=1">
here.



The question is then what does this mean for you? As the developers
intended this will now make Arenas last longer, meaning the end of 1
minute (or less) games. This should also eliminate the problem of
players being wiped out in the span of one GCD (I don’t think
anyone enjoys this), and will hopefully permit 1 or two extra cool
downs which should allow some extra reaction time, making your games
that much more intense. Can you imagine what just 1-2 seconds longer
will allow you and your healer(s) to do?



This  may be one of the best solutions to the
problem without
hurting individual classes. However there may be a problem in the
healing department, in which healers will be essentially untouchable.
Blizzard has already foreseen this problem and after testing it they
may make PvP-only healing changes if necessary. Which will make those
PvE players who are tired of getting nerfed just for the sake of PvP
happy. However I think that the change will need to be made without a
doubt, as killing style="float: right; width: 193px; height: 300px;" alt=""
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healer without MS or another similar
ability will be difficult.



This change may also allow classes who traditionally wear less
resilience gear (mages) to opt to go for more PvEish gear since they
will essentially still be getting the same amount of resilience with
less gear. On the flip side this very thing has players on PvP forums
across the web more than slightly annoyed. They claim that since
resilience has been buffed they will be forced to stack more PvE gear
in order to be able to compete and will further buff those who have
access to high level PvE gear as they will be able to do high damage
while still maintaining a relatively decent amount of resilience.



Another frequent complaint is that classes that tend to do less damage
that other classes may find themselves unsuitable for the arena. With
the buff to resilience these classes may find that they are now are
unable to do enough damage to defeat any other players, or with the
extended time it will take, may run out of mana before they come close
to even killing one target. 2v2 teams that run two damage classes also
may find themselves at a disadvantage as they may not be able to take
out the enemy healer quick enough (or at all).



Despite all the obvious problems it is clear that Blizzard is making a
good attempt to fix the current problems with PvP and they will
continue to do so until they get it right. If this change will be
enough, or if they will have to nerf PvP healing, or make other changes
remains to be seen. Either way I feel this is a step in the right
direction.



Care to share your opinion on the changes to Resilience or suggest
changes Blizzard should make in the future? Join us on our forums!