In a recent update from the New World development team, some concerns and issues regarding Shirking Heals and other game mechanics were addressed. Shirking Heals, a popular healing ability in the game, has been a topic of discussion due to its seemingly overpowered nature. This article delves into the specifics of the issue, explores recent testing results, and discusses other updates and changes mentioned during the development team's communication.

 

• Shirking Heals and Its Current State
• Shirking Heals and Potions
• The Bigger Picture
• Future Changes and Updates

 

↖ Shirking Heals and Its Current State

Shirking Heals has been a point of contention in New World for some time, and recent testing has revealed that it may be even more broken than initially thought. Before diving into the details, here's a recap of how Shirking Heals and its interaction with the Ankh item were supposed to work:

 

• Shirking Heals, without any bugs or alterations, should provide 2,642 healing when used with 18,555 Health.
• With the Ankh item, this value should increase to 4,359.

 

However, real-world testing has shown that these values are significantly higher than expected. In previous testing before a nerf, Shirking Heals was providing 3,667 healing, and with Ankh, it reached 6,339. This led to the realization that the scaling on Shirking Heals is bugged, as the percentage seems to increase with your gear score, providing more healing on higher gear score characters. Additionally, when entering an arena, all gear pieces are scaled up, resulting in even higher healing potential.

 

For example, replacing a 600 gear score piece with a 675 gear score piece resulted in an astonishing 4,291 healing, well above the expected 2,642. Even after the Ankh nerf, the interaction remains problematic. Now, the real overall healing value, with Ankh's multiplicative effect, is 137.5% of the normal healing, resulting in healing values that are still far too high.

 

↖ Shirking Heals and Potions

Additionally, the recent changes have also affected the use of health potions. While the nerf to Ankh was supposed to reduce Shirking Heals' effectiveness, health potions have become more efficient again, with no reduction in their healing effects. Players can now heal for 3,282 with a health potion and even stack on an extra 2,813 with a health food buff. Adding 50 focus can provide an extra 500 healing, making health potions a valuable resource once again. This further emphasizes the broken state of Shirking Heals.

 

↖ The Bigger Picture

While Ankh is a part of the issue, it's not the sole problem. Shirking Heals, by itself, is inherently broken due to its percentage scaling. Even without Ankh, the healing values are significantly higher than intended. The imbalance becomes even more apparent in small-scale PvP, particularly in arenas, where players running Shirking Heals with Ankh have a substantial advantage over their opponents.

 

↖ Future Changes and Updates

The development team addressed various other concerns and questions during the update:

 

• No immediate plans for significant changes to the Magnify ability, with a focus on balancing for both casual and split-stat players.
• More artifacts are planned for each season, providing new content.
• A slowdown in the release of hard runs, with a focus on reviewing server populations and transfer requests.
• Debuff resilience changes are not planned at the moment, with a focus on making M3 encounters more challenging.
• No immediate changes to the worm rune difficulty scaling.
• Plans to increase the number of active mutations to three when crossbred Expeditions are introduced.
• Consideration of adding hard runs through other means in the distant future.
• Fix for a bug related to artifact drops and game crashes.
• Compensation for players who bought season pass levels this season.
• Plans to make certain named items upgradeable soon.

 

Conclusion:

The recent update from the New World development team has shed light on the broken state of Shirking Heals and the related game mechanics. While Ankh received a nerf, the healing imbalance remains due to the flawed percentage scaling of Shirking Heals. The community eagerly awaits further balance changes and fixes to address these issues, as well as the introduction of new artifacts and other content in the game. Stay tuned for the upcoming Balance of Power show, where more details on these matters are expected to be discussed.