New World: Aeternum Adjusts Healer Role Balancing in PvP Matchmaking

In the ever-evolving world of New World, the battle for supremacy over the continent of Aeternum has always been at the forefront of the game's design. From its launch, players have faced the challenge of mastering not only combat mechanics but also navigating the nuances of PvP matchmaking-a system that attempts to create balanced and engaging fights. In PvP (Player versus Player) engagements, especially in Wars, Outpost Rush, and Open-World PvP, roles like Healers play an essential part in maintaining the overall integrity of combat strategies. However, the healer role has long been a topic of discussion when it comes to balance issues in the game's PvP matchmaking.

Recognizing the concerns of its player base, the developers of New World have rolled out significant adjustments aimed at addressing these issues and ensuring that PvP combat remains both fun and competitive. This article will dive deep into the changes made to the healer role balancing in PvP matchmaking, explain the rationale behind these updates, and analyze how these adjustments impact both Healers and PvP players as a whole. Learn more about how to use your New World Gold more effectively.

The Healing Dilemma: What Was Wrong With the Old System?

Before the latest changes, the healer role in New World's PvP landscape was in a bit of an odd place. While healing is undeniably crucial in larger battles, certain aspects of healer gameplay were causing frustrations for both healers and non-healer players alike.

Healers Dominating the Meta: In large-scale PvP engagements, particularly in Wars, teams that had high-quality healers could often steamroll opponents. A healer who was well-equipped could keep an entire squad alive through long, drawn-out fights, making it extremely difficult for the other team to land kills, even when they had a numerical advantage. This imbalance led to frustration and left many players feeling that PvP wasn't entirely skill-based, but instead depended too much on whether your team had a solid healer.

Undermined Team Strategy: While healing was supposed to be a support role, it was often seen as a win condition in itself. The ability to outheal damage became a primary factor in determining the success or failure of a team in Outpost Rush or Fortress Wars. This created an environment where the tank and damage dealer roles were sometimes overshadowed by healers, causing other roles to feel redundant or overly reliant on the healers.

Lack of Risk and Reward for Healers: Healers also faced a dilemma where they were often too safe in the backlines, able to spam healing abilities without much consequence. While some healers would participate in the frontlines, many preferred to stay out of danger, making it harder to target or disrupt them effectively.

Difficulty in PvP Matchmaking: When building a team for PvP matchmaking, finding a balanced mix of roles was key. However, the healer role often created issues, as having too many or too few healers could throw off the balance of the match. PvP queues in New World started becoming frustrating, with some players deliberately avoiding playing healers, causing matchmaking imbalances.

Aeternum's Solution: Adjusting Healer Role Balancing

With the aforementioned issues in mind, Amazon Games decided to step in and overhaul the way PvP matchmaking handled healers. These adjustments were introduced in a series of patches aimed at creating a more balanced and enjoyable experience for everyone involved. Here's a breakdown of the major changes to healer role balancing in PvP matchmaking:

1. Healer Output Reduced in PvP Combat

One of the most significant changes was a reduction in healing output for healers in PvP situations. This change impacts both single-target heals and AoE (Area of Effect) heals. Healers now provide less raw healing in PvP to ensure that damage-dealing roles have a more viable opportunity to win engagements.

Healing Output Modifiers: Healers will still be able to heal effectively, but the scaling of healing abilities in PvP has been adjusted so that it is in line with other roles in terms of damage potential. The idea here is to ensure that healing is useful, but not overpowered.

Healing Scaling Based on PvP Combat: Healing abilities will be more impactful in PvE content, where healing remains critical for dungeon runs, expeditions, and PvE group activities, but they are toned down when it comes to PvP. This means that healers will need to focus on their positioning, timing, and strategy rather than relying purely on raw numbers to win a battle.

2. PvP Matchmaking Encourages Role Diversity

In response to the feedback regarding the over-reliance on healers, the PvP matchmaking system has been adjusted to encourage role diversity within teams. This means that:

Healer Slots are now more restricted in certain types of PvP matchmaking, such as Wars and Outpost Rush, where there's a cap on the number of healers per team. This helps maintain balance by ensuring that damage dealers and tanks are also essential to team compositions.

Diversified Team Roles: In addition to limiting the number of healers in a match, players are also encouraged to fill roles that complement healers, such as tanks and damage dealers. The matchmaking system now places more emphasis on ensuring that a team's composition is well-rounded and not healer-heavy.

3. Increased Risk for Healers: Positioning and Vulnerability

Another key change is the way healings and healing builds are affected by positioning. Healers will now face greater risk while attempting to support their team in PvP, meaning that their safety will no longer be guaranteed in the backlines:

Vulnerability in the Backline: Healers now have more risk when positioning themselves near the backlines. Since they are critical to team survival, they become more vulnerable to damage-dealing classes, especially ranged DPS who can now target healers with greater efficiency.

Limited Range on Healing: Healing abilities may now have a range restriction when used on allies, requiring healers to be closer to their team members. This change encourages healers to be more mobile and aware of their positioning, leading to more dynamic gameplay. Healers will need to find a balance between staying safe and being close enough to provide healing support.

4. Healer Builds and Strategy Changes

With the adjustments to healing output and positioning, healers will now need to adapt their playstyle and builds to remain effective in PvP matchmaking:

Healer Build Flexibility: The new system promotes a more strategic approach to healing builds. Healers now have more incentive to balance their healing output with personal survivability, meaning that healing-focused builds can still thrive, but they must now incorporate damage mitigation or escape mechanics (e.g., mobility, crowd control resistance) to protect themselves in battle.

Healing Skills Synergy: Healers will also need to better synergize their skills with the rest of the team's composition. Whether it's using AoE healing abilities to keep everyone alive during heavy engagements or single-target healing to sustain the tanks or damage dealers, healers now have to think more critically about their contributions to the team.

5. Rewards and Incentives for Healers

To maintain the importance of healers in PvP combat, New World has introduced additional incentives for playing the role effectively:

Healing Contribution: Healers will receive greater rewards based on their healing contributions, even if they don't deal the highest amount of damage. This provides more motivation for healers to remain an active part of the team's success without needing to carry the team with raw output.

PvP Healing Leaderboards: A new leaderboard has been introduced, focusing on healing contributions within PvP modes like Wars. Healers can now compete for high positions based on their team-saving abilities, fostering a more rewarding experience for players who specialize in the support role.

Impact on the PvP Landscape: What Do These Changes Mean for Players?

The adjustments to healer balancing in PvP matchmaking have a significant impact on the gameplay experience in New World. For players who primarily enjoy the healer role, these changes bring new challenges but also offer a more strategic and rewarding experience. Healing now requires more skillful positioning, timing, and teamplay rather than just spamming heals from the backline. Of course, you can also buy New World Gold coins on mmoexp to help you get stronger even faster.

On the other hand, players who are looking to take down enemy healers will find it a bit easier to do so, but they must also adapt their playstyles to counter healer strategies. The changes promote a healthier, more engaging PvP ecosystem, where no one role-especially healers-becomes too dominant.

Ultimately, these adjustments strive to balance healers with other roles in PvP, creating a more dynamic and competitive experience for everyone involved. Whether you're a healer main or a damage dealer, New World's PvP is now more exciting than ever.