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Here at Ten Ton Hammer we focus a lot on the
PvE aspects of World of Warcraft. Patch 5.2 is filled with such content,
from raids to new daily quests. The patch notes truly have been a plethora
of PvE information. However, Patch 5.2 is also bringing a host of PvP
changes that simply cannot be ignored.

One of the more thought provoking changes
coming to PvP in World of Warcraft Patch 5.2 can be found in a recent post
made by Ghostcrawler. Buried deep in a titanic thread on the WoW forums,
it is easy to miss this bright little tidbit of PvP goodness. However, it
is well worth taking the time to read. See the full text below:

PvP

We're making a change to the way
damage-to-healing conversions work so that the healing is not affected
by resilience. The healing will be based on how much damage would have
been done as if the target had no resilience. If you hit an opponent for
10K and have a mechanic that converts damage into 50% healing, your hit
may land for 6K because of resilience, but the heal will still be 5K
(50% of the unmitigated damage). This only applies to resilience, not to
armor, Shield Wall or other forms of damage reduction.

This change currently includes Atonement,
Glyph of Battle Healer, Ancestral Guidance, Vampiric Embrace, Nature's
Vigil, Glyph of Siphon Life, Eminence, Glyph of Flame Shock, Leeching
Poison, Death Siphon, Feral Spirit and Soul Leech.

Related, we have read feedback that certain
mechanics, such as Retribution's mastery, Hand of Light, are
double-dipping from resilience. If this happened, then your attack would
be mitigated by resilience and then the mastery proc (which is supposed
to be a percentage of the main attack) would also be mitigated by
resilience. However, we can find no evidence that this is actually
happening. In our testing, Hand of Light is never mitigated by
resilience a second time. If anyone has additional information, please
share.

What does it mean for PvP in Patch 5.2?

If you have gotten over the initial shock that
apparently Blizzard actually thinks people heal in PvP and your head has
not exploded, then you may be wondering what exactly this change means. In
short this change that will be introduced in patch 5. 2 will provide a
buff to off-spec healing. As noted above, in of Patch 5.2
damage-to-healing conversions will work so that healing is no longer
affected by resilience. Wondering who will be affected by this change?
Retribution Paladins, Shadow Priests, Warriors, Elemental Shamans, Rogues,
Death Knights, Warlocks, and Monks will all be able to reap the benefits
from this patch induced change.

alt="Battle Healer Glyph" />

Thoughts and Conclusions

While I am not a huge PvP fanatic, this change
seems like it could be a welcome one. It makes sense (at least in my crazy
mind) that resilience should have little to no bearing on any type of
healing. Since little to no healing typically ends up being done in PvP
settings, it becomes especially desirable that off-spec and alternate
methods of healing are actually able to be worthwhile to use. Recently,
this has not been in the case.

Off-spec healing was hit with the almighty
nerf stick when Blizzard revealed that it would no longer benefit from PvP
Power. This change to the way resilience affects healing could be an
attempt to make this nerf right, or at least soften the blow. In my
personal opinion, this change coming in Patch 5.2 will be successful in
doing just that, without going overboard and causing players to scream
“overpowered”. It should be noted that this patch is still on the PTR, and
thus we may see some changes to it before it actually launches. This means
some or all of this buff may be changed before the finished product is
released.

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How this change will actually work out when
Patch 5.2 is brought to live realms remains to be seen. We will just have
to wait a few more weeks for this newest World of Warcraft patch to be
completed and test it out for ourselves. So while we wait...what do you
think of this change to off-spec healing? How do you think it will affect
PvP? What changes would you like to see be brought to PvP in future
patches? Share your thoughts with us using the comments section below!