After 2 decades of snacking, a new World of Warcraft spell renders vendor food partly obsolete

As World of Warcraft preps for patch 11.1.7, Wowhead has spotted an interesting feature on the public test servers: a new spell in the general tab for all characters, called recuperate, that lets you light a little campfire, cook, and get your health (but not mana) back over 30 seconds. It costs you nothing.

For me, someone who was playing World of Warcraft during beta back in 2004, this is a world-shaking change. What do you mean people aren't going to buy trash food from the vendors anymore? What'll happen to all those steaks and sausages and breads and muffins and stews?

While it might seem like a modern, convenient way not bogged down in the traditions of MMOs past, I can't help but think of the (fictional, entirely in my head) devastating effects on the economy of the poor NPCs in every village and camp who scraped together a living selling their foodstuffs to passing adventurers. A whole category of dudes who'll now go hungry, or at least unclicked-upon and unloved.

Except on the roleplaying servers, I guess. They'll probably still eat things just for the fun of it. And the spell doesn't regenerate mana, so vendor food is still useful in that regard, as Wowhead points out.

Foundation-shaking food changes aside, the 11.1.7 patch will also include some really neat "Lorewalking" quests delving into branches of WoW's history spread across the two decades of its release, extra-hard overcharged twists on six solo-expedition delves, and a single-button assistant feature that'll help you learn new classes or builds by serving up optimal choices for your ability rotation.

You can read more about the Legacy of Arathor update on Blizzard's World of Warcraft site.