Blizzard: lower critical strike damage against players on the Forever beta is a bug
· ForeverDB
Since September 25 beta players have reported that critical strikes do only about half their usual bonus damage against other players. Blizzard designer Aidan “Zirene” Moon says it's a bug and “won't be staying”. No fix date yet.
Critical strikes against other players on the WoW Forever beta hit for less than they should. Late on September 28 (US time), Blizzard game designer Aidan “Zirene” Moon said on X:
Just so everyone knows, the reduced critical strike damage in PvP is a bug. That won't be staying. Aidan “Zirene” Moon, Blizzard game designer, on X
He didn't say when the fix will arrive. Wowhead reported it too.
What players found
These numbers are from player tests posted on the forums. Blizzard hasn't given its own numbers.
In Classic, a melee or ranged critical strike does 200% damage and a spell critical strike does 150%. On September 25 a player reported on the forums that against players it's lower:
- Melee crits: about 50% extra damage instead of 100%, so about 150% damage in total.
- Spell crits: about 25% extra damage instead of 50%, so about 125% damage in total.
- The reports are only about hits on players. Nobody has reported lower crits against monsters.
A second thread asked Blizzard to remove any “hidden” PvP modifiers. Blizzard didn't reply in either thread; the answer came on X. For burst classes such as Rogues, Mages and Warriors this makes a big difference in world PvP and duels, which matters for anyone preparing for the Forever Open dueling tournament.
What the client files show
We checked the beta client (build 1.60.1.70009) for a PvP rule that could cause this. It has a spell called “PvP Rules Enabled (HARDCODED)” (134735), but its only effect is a placeholder (dummy) effect with no value. No spell in the files lowers critical strike damage, and no spell effect has a separate PvP multiplier. So the reduction happens on the server, where the client files can't show it, and you can't check the fix in the data. The way to test it is a duel after the next build.
What we don't know
- Which build fixes it.
- Whether healing crits and talents that add critical damage were affected as well. Nobody has tested that in the threads so far (Speculation).