Spell Variance Returning in Shadowlands

Spell Variance in Shadowlands
Update: Ion provided some additional context.



Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
In an upcoming build, most non-periodic abilities on all classes will have a small amount of variance on the damage or healing of each individual use.

This was standard behavior in WoW for many years (and has its roots in familiar mechanics from many RPGs), but recently was lost as a side effect of some under-the-hood mechanical changes. We’re restoring this behavior now to bring back the small bit of texture, and avoid the result where using the same spell repeatedly results in exactly the same 3- or 4-digit number every time.

We’re keeping the amount of variance small (5% currently), so that the impact on total performance, over the course of a combat with many events, is negligible.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Spell Variance Returning in Shadowlands started by chaud View original post
Published on 2020-07-22 07:17 PM
126 Comments
Comments 126 Comments
  1. Morae's Avatar
    I first heard of this while watching asmongold's stream. At first I thought "it won't matter at all", but then I realized what about short fights or aoe? What if you get lower roll on your aoe while other, exactly same gear as you, gets high roll. Adding in multipliers, it might give up significant difference in damage done.

    Only place where this wont matter is long fights where it gets to average out.

    You might still say it wont matter.

    I'd like to ask then "what exactly does it bring into the game to put this thing back in?" What is it good for?
  1. blankfaced's Avatar
    Are people seriously asking why they're re-adding an rpg element back into their mmorpg? It's a staple of most rpg games to gave your attacks hit for varying amounts. I mean should we just remove crit? Why have any variance in damage at all right? What's the point? Your abilities should always hit for the exact same amount every single time for consistency.
  1. quras's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Sithalos View Post
    Don't really see the point of this, but whatever. It doesn't affect anything.
    Agreed
    Seems like a complete waste of time to add this back into the game especially so for something they are so willing to claim will make no real difference. In other words, they are wasting their time adding in something that makes little to no difference.
  1. Ehrenpanzer's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aeluron Lightsong View Post
    Weapon speed doesn't need to be a thing, it wasn't really that important.
    Neither is spell variance, but here we are....
  1. Tiwack's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Thetruth1400 View Post
    Perfectly acceptable if they can get the balance right, but it's going to feel bad doing exactly the same thing as someone identical to you in every aspect but pulling out less DPS all because you got a string of bad RNG.
    This.
    Going back it did very little for immersion, people play without numbers and just slap on whatever ilvl is the highest from their bags.
  1. Railander's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by otaXephon View Post
    To an extent -- the issue with MoP Affliction (esp in SoO) was the power of Soul Swap more than it was snapshotting itself.
    yep that's exactly the time i discovered the addon existed.
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