World of Warcraft Classic has finally dropped it’s new frontier of challenge – the terrifyingly merciless Hardcore Realms.
People had been clamouring for a new way to play the classic WoW experience, and what better motivator than the threat of losing all of your progress when you die?
#WoWClassic Hardcore is live now.
— Blizzard ANZ (@Blizzard_ANZ) August 25, 2023
No Rezzes. No Regrets. pic.twitter.com/fncoD5vl0h
Right from the mouth of your cruel masters, the Blizzard team have offered the following clarifications for any wary party that seeks glory in these new, terrifying environments:
- Death is Permanent
- Players will get a single chance to level as high as they can and participate in more dangerous activities, such as the Molten Core raid.
- Those who die will not be able to return to their bodies but can release and remain a ghost—in this form, they can close out their remaining business on the realm, such as guild masters transferring guild leadership to another player.
- If the unfortunate occurs, player characters will be given a free option to transfer to a non-Hardcore Classic Era server if they wish to continue playing those characters.
- Mak’gora and other PVP Changes
- Battleground queuing will not be enabled on Hardcore Realms, but pre-organised Wargames will still be available for groups choosing to engage in such deadly combat.
- Those wishing to truly test their mettle against others can initiate a duel-to-the-death mode by typing /makgora. This will prompt the receiving player to acknowledge and accept the high-stakes duel.
- A new tracking aura will visually communicate how many duels a player has completed and survived.
- Safeguards and Class Changes
- Players will notice a reduced log-off timer to mitigate ill-timed server disconnections.
- Class abilities and spells have been modified to prevent resurrection (both personal and those that can be used on other players), as well as quests that require PVP flagging and dying to progress the questline.
- Enemies will be tethered to their respective spawn and pathing locations to prevent players from kiting them to other lower-level quest areas.
It’s comforting to see such a level of care provided to the existing content within the game, particularly the amount of protective measures taken to try and mitigate needless deaths. The real thrill of the hardcore experience is dodging death by way of player skill and risk – not getting disconnected and drowning.
If you are tough enough to step into such a challenge, simply load up your World of Warcraft Classic client and seek out one of the new Hardcore realms that are available.
Lok’tar Ogar!
Are you going to give Hardcore mode a go? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
Known throughout the interwebs simply as M0D3Rn, Ash is bad at video games. An old guard gamer who suffers from being generally opinionated, it comes as no surprise that he is both brutally loyal and yet, fiercely whimsical about all things electronic. On occasion will make a youtube video that actually gets views. Follow him on YouTube @Bad at Video Games
