Blizzard Unveils World of Warcraft: Classic Hardcore With Permanent Character Death
Blizzard has announced that it will introduce a new way to play World of Warcraft: Classic by adding the hardcore realm where all death is permanent.
Hardcore Realm will be added to the Public Test Realm (PTR) starting tomorrow, June 29th, and will be officially released later this summer. In Hardcore Realms, characters cannot be revived back into a corpse after death or revived by spells. Deceased characters remain in the game world as ghosts and can communicate with other players, explore, and perform certain actions such as handing over guild leadership to a living character.
All Hardcore realms are considered PvE realms, and Blizzard says they want PvP to be “optional and intentional” when considering stakes. A new feature called “Duel to the Death” is now available in Hardcore Realms where the player can choose to join her PvP battles with other players knowing full well that they will not survive.
In addition, other small quality of life improvements, such as preventing quest-related NPCs from being attacked by players from opposing factions, and adjusting how creatures return to their destination zone so players don’t kite high-level monsters. changes exist in Hardcore Realm. Infiltrates low-level areas and kills players unexpectedly.
After more than a decade of updates, patches and expansions, World of Warcraft: Classic was first released in 2019 as a way for players to relive the original World of Warcraft at launch. Blizzard has since updated the game patch by patch, from The Burning Crusade expansion to Wrath of the Lich King, and will continue to release expansions and updates only if the community wants it. Hardcore Realm in particular will be a brand new Classic Era server, so there is currently no Lich King of him for Hardcore players.
Rebekah Valentine is IGN’s Senior Reporter. you can find her on her twitter @duck valentine.
