The high cost of rez sickness
Lotonero got his thread locked because he posted it in the wrong forum, but he makes an interesting point: rez sickness costs are higher than ever. Death costs are already pretty high -- when you're dressed in greens and blues it's not much of a problem, but get yourself down to red on some high-level epics, and see if you don't wince when you hit up the repair vendor to pay the piper. But rez sickness costs are even worse -- they affect durability on all of your items, even those you're not wearing, and so when a dual-specced healer or tank with two or even three sets of gear goes rez-sick, the amount they have to pay goes through the roof.Now, you might think what I thought: if you're carrying around that much epic gear, then a) why are you dying, and b) why are you rezzing from a spirit healer? But Wryxian, right before sending Lotonero packing to the suggestions thread, throws in his own two cents: "Maybe not." Maybe Blizzard might consider it -- dual specs wasn't around when they originally thought up the cost of rez sickness, and maybe since many players are carrying around two sets of gear now, it's due for another look. I didn't think the Hearthstone cooldown needed a nerf either, but we got that anyway.
So maybe it's something for Blizzard to think about. My guess is that most players will not think it's worth the change -- gold is flowing so freely nowadays and the death penalty is so cheap (back in the EQ days, we used to lose XP or even levels) that it's not a big deal, especially when you choose to go rez sick. But it's true that this is one of the game's oldest mechanics, so maybe it's time to take a critical look.
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Economy, Making money






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Andrew May 15th 2009 6:14PM
I'm more bugged by the 10 minutes and the debuff. It feels like such a huge embarrassment to be walking around with.
Valdorin May 15th 2009 6:20PM
This
seanfury May 15th 2009 7:11PM
This. The gold for repairs doesn't phase me, but the 10 minutes I have my stats reduced does.
artifex May 16th 2009 6:47AM
But 10 minutes is about how long it takes to get across Dalaran after hearthing, to repair, some nights :)
Adam H. May 15th 2009 6:16PM
I can see how costs rise dramatically, a day of running heroics can cost me close to 100g when considering bad pugs, and I'm not even completely geared at all. I'm at a 2k score on wow-heroes and in mail armor. Imagine a dual specced tank/dps running through ulduar right now, where its not a cake walk.
Luckily a lot them are supported by guild banks, but still someone has to earn that gold.
OIK2 May 15th 2009 7:20PM
4 hours of raiding can cost me 150g+, and I am in cloth! it adds up quickly.
Rob May 15th 2009 6:20PM
Well, wiping is a part of raiding, and repair costs are part of that process. I'm not sure if lowering the repair costs would help or hinder raiding. I'm not sure if rez sickness has anything to do with raiding. It's quite simple, go back and get your corpse, don't rez at spirit healer. I've maybe used it once in the past few months.
I actually like the mechanic where at lower levels there is no rez sick cost, it helps the newbies alot. Maybe there should be a 'casual mode' check box so people don't have to suffer rez sickness. Idk. I do know my wife (very casual) constantly complained about dying and having to run back to her corpse, and eventually she tired of the game and quit completely.
Chiasas May 15th 2009 6:24PM
If you think death costs are high, you've obviously never played UO, EQ, or AC, where a death possibly meant months work work lost. WoW is incredibly forgiving, trust me.
Rollo May 15th 2009 9:55PM
And let's not even talk about that irl thing!
Kanuris May 16th 2009 2:01PM
You can see Blizzard's evolution of death from these older MMO's.
Diablo 2, if you died you'd take an experience loss and return to town totally naked. No gear. If you could run back to your corpse in the same game and pick all your gear back up off it, you'd get back 75% of the experience you lost.
If you couldn't (Usually because there's a swarm of nasties surrounding it) then you'd have to exit the game and join a new one, where your corpse would appear in town for you to pick up, but you wouldn't get the experience back.
Granted, it was a hack 'n slash style dungeon running game, but it does show Blizzard hasn't been a fan of the retardedly painful death costs from older MMO's. I consider WoW's death system one of the main things since release that's kept people from rage quitting WoW altogether.
Eversor May 15th 2009 6:22PM
This mechanic has been here for a long time. 100g was quite alot back in the day, but now it is just spare change. I see little point in changing anything in the way that rez sickness currently works. It's fine, in my opinion.
YukonCornelious May 16th 2009 3:20PM
I 100% agree with you. What's 100g? I can get that in a half hour of dailies now.
Why not get rid of Rez Sickness and the equipment repair cost and also take the hearthstone down to 60 seconds, free epics, and allow every class to heal and stealth? Lets make the game even EASIER! There has to be a balance between success and failure for your successes to feel rewarding. Northrend is far too easy as it is.
Blizzard... Put some of the challenge and fun back in the game and make certain things worth the time and effort.
Joetheserviceman May 15th 2009 6:23PM
I agree that the gold cost is a pain when you get stuck in one of those PuGs from Hell and die twenty times to trash. However, there has to be some type of penalty for dying (or then there's no risk in the game), and WoW's penalty is laughable compared to EQ or Runescape. Personally, I think that if you can afford Epic items (or raid enough to find them), you are raking in enough gold to pay for repairs, while (as Mike said) green and blue items don't carry a huge fee.
As for Rez Sickness, maybe Blizzard could extend the duration of the debuff and remove the extra durability loss. That would satisfy the gear-heavy without making the healer the default rez option.
Iwanttobeasleep May 15th 2009 6:34PM
I'd prefer to pay over a longer debuff. If you die in an an unaccessable place while playing (haven't had this experience in Wrath but in BC the Skettis dailies had a bit of a risk for this, not all of the platforms were accessible from the ground) and don't want to stop for more than 10 minutes, the longer debuff time is going to hinder your fun more than the gold cost.
Rollo May 15th 2009 9:53PM
So how about having an NPC priest at the graveyard (in the living world) who can remove rez sickness for a fee? :D
Hansbo May 15th 2009 6:24PM
And now imagine what it would be like if dying wouldn't give a 10% pemalty.
I think I'm shivering!
Wes May 15th 2009 6:28PM
Sometimes there's a glitch and you fall through the world and are unable to retreive your body.
Even if you accidentally dismount mid air and can't get to your body, or you afk autorun into exhaustion, this error doesn't warrant sometimes hundreds of gold in rez sickness durability.
You used to be able to get a friend to q you up to a battleground for a ghetto rez but no more.
I think blizz should do something to make spirit rez'ing avoidable, or lessen the penalty significantly.
Angus May 15th 2009 6:34PM
The are only a few reasons for people taking Rez sickness.
1: Being camped on a PVP server. Sometimes it just isn't worth the hassle and you don't want to quit the game for a while.
2: Game glitch makes it so recovering your body is impossible.
I've had to do this twice in the past month. I fell through the planet in icecrown while dismounting from an Argent horse in a weird place. (I couldn't be thrown upwards and it bugged out)
3: Getting back from your body when you are surrounded will just take too long or cause as much damage.
Of these, only 3 is someone being lazy. No one likes #1 and #2 is not something you can avoid often.
Getting rid of rez sickness in case 2 would probably be enough for most people.
Iwanttobeasleep May 15th 2009 6:38PM
Arguably being camped is part of the pvp server experience and players should roll pve if they don't want to deal with it and if they want to stay pvp either deal with it via pvp (log your main, call in help, etc) or deal with the high gold cost for the convenience of getting out of the camping.
Angus May 15th 2009 7:27PM
"Getting rid of rez sickness in case 2 would probably be enough for most people."
I should have made that last sentence more clear.
I seriously think it is the only spot where it should be changed.
No one likes being camped, but, well, if you want out, deal with it. Either take the money hit or get do something about it.