Xaryu Responds to "Hardcore Servers" Concerns 

Xar, I think you should make a video with a few good personalities from the HC community and talk about the future HC official server (what it needs, how it should be, rule set and etc), similar to what you did with the Mage Council before Dragonflight. With different perspectives, different experiences and views.

Personal thought here, when a character dies give the option to rebirth the character resetting it to a new toon (same name, class and appearance) but having it in the character pane show which rebirth your toon is on and say how your previous lives ended.

Blizzard and us as a community need to give the makers of the hardcore addon their flowers. They really did it.

The thing is with all respect, if people want to play that way (using AH trading running dungeons etc) there is literally nothing stopping them. What these kind of people actually want though is for EVERYONE ELSE to follow their rule set too so they can play within a community defined by their rules which is just dumb. To counter the whole "just don't do it" thing... just don't play HC if you don't enjoy the ruleset. Stop trying to re-invent the wheel it's going to kill the fun - like it has done for so many expansions at this point. You want HC but a watered down softcore version.. cool.. go do that on your own and stop trying to force everyone else to be the same so you aren't left out. Or just play the mode in all its glory as it was intended. If they add official servers with trading AH and all that I literally just won't play. Sounds boring af twinking out and stomping everything. Deleting would mean absolutely nothing. It's a hard no from me. The mode is great exactly as it is right now - which is why there are so many people jumping on to play. That is why I am fully backing the status quo.

I have been playing HC since a little before SoM was released, and it is great to see how popular this mode has become. IMO, if Blizz releases an "official" HC server where they only disable resurrect-related abilities (from the spirit rez to ankhs, and passing through all sorts of revives that are available), that would be good enough. It is like a sandbox where players can implement their own rules (e.g., HC addon). My only ask would be to have a retail-like system where different players can attack a rare mob/an elite/or a named NPC and still get credit towards loot or a quest - it is very hard to get quests done (think about the barrens centaur quests) with so many players around. Sure I can skip it, but I dont want to skip the quests, especially given how insane the grinds are in preTBC/preWrath classic.

I think they should restrict the auction house/mailbox to only be usable by level 60s, and make it so 60s can only trade with other 60s (trading from levels 1-59 also allowed). This way the leveling experience maintains its hardcore feel (no overpowered easily acquired AH builds) opens up the option for profession variety, and encourages trading while leveling.

personally i like that you got 1 lockout per instance! makes the whole process a real journey where you don't do the same thing twice because your foes are mortal aswell

I feel like what you‘ve said is totally right but if Blizzard could add some sort of achievement/titles or some sort of rewards only for hardcore could make the whole thing work. For example if you hit lv60 on solo you get a golden title with a solo hardcore symbol (or something like that). If you do it in a duo/group you get something else. Maybe even create titles like „Hardcore assassin“ where you have to kill 100 enemy players in world pvp. Or you will collect some sort of hardcore points from your runs and the harder the challenge you choose the better the reward you can get, maybe with a monthly leaderboard? That way everyone could stay in the same community on the same servers but differ about the challenge they are trying for

I would support adding a solo mode for dungeons. That way you can still have a chance at drops even if you don't want to group with other HC players.

Could also have a dungeon XP lockout, where after the first time you run a dungeon, every time after that your own xp inside dungeon is disabled.

You can have single player and multiplayer on the same server. Just make the option available on character creation for the type of character you wanna play. If you wanna go for a solo achieve then you select that at the start and grouping/trading/AH are turned off for that character. A list of achievements should be available at character creation and your character would get limited to the achievements you choose. Even for the Naked achievements, disable equipping gear. This would also open up competition for who has the most achievements by time they hit 60 or even make the achievements account wide so people can see all the types of game types you've played thru.

Don't forget some of the original hardcore rules have a roleplay background, too. It just doesn't make sense to kill the bosses in a dungeon multiple times. But I don't think its an important rule for official hardcore servers. On the other hand, I have a very clear opinion when it comes to trading. Trading, mailbox and auction house should not be possible before level 60. It opens up too many opportunities to boost a character. It would be really cool though, if Blizzard can implement a duo or trio mode, where you bond to another character at the start of the game and then you can trade with that character. But if the whole problem are some enchanting rods, then just add them to a random vendor.

one of the things with solo and multiplayer hardcore is that multiplayer hardcore will probably be the base and then solo hardcore would be a setting on top of that since its more of a self imposed challenge more than anything, because I don't see the need to separate them into different servers/realms when you can just add a box that activate the solo self-found settings. so yea I just don't see a reason to separate them as heavily.

I agree with it all, well said and very insightful and thurough suggestions. If i had one thing to add, it would be a party max of 3 in open world/questing. So that way there is a sense of working up to more difficult scenarios. One of the best things about HC is the sense of developing a story for your character and I believe this addition will hold true to those values. MUCH LOVE

I think the way to implement battlegrounds while including the hardcore element would be that when you die in the battleground, you can't res (IN THE BATTLEGROUND). However, when the battleground ends, you are alive again. This could create some really cool moments where everyone is dead and there is like a epic 1vs1 in the end of the battleground, and everyone is spectating in ghost form.

The 1 week dungeon lockout sounds most legit to me. No spamming shit, dungeons or whatever. I also agree multiplayer WITH certain restrictions in place would be best.

Best idea was what you said in your other video about grouping etc.: You should be able to do a dungeon once per day or per week and then you've an ID like raids. Groups should be possible but the question is: - only for dungeons, so grouping only works when you're near a dungeon entrance for example - works in general so you can do elite quests No grouping at all is the worst idea ever because this ruins so much, especially the end game. In my opinion grouping should be allowed all the time as long the chars are nearby levelwise, so a level 50 char should not be possible to be in a level 35 group otherwise he will carry them through elite quests or dungeons. Any other grouping should be allowed (as long you're like 5-10 levels apart from each other, not more). Because this also means you can do duo leveling if you want, but also do can it solo. Not sure about the auction house and trading. We can go full on hardcore, no trading, no Ah. Or we could make both possible. That would mean people who have twinks will have an easier time because they can buy gear for their twinks etc. - in D3 you can do this and is does not ruin the gameplay at all.

biggest issue with not grouping is lines of 10+ people standing there waiting for a named mob quest that has a 5 min+ respawn timer. Not being able to group for that doesn't make hardcore actually hard, just an unnecessary waste of time, especially for those without an instant tag ability. Not grouping also makes every elite quest almost undoable outside of specific classes like mage or just coming back way over-leveled and doing it.

His point about Solo exclusive or Unlimited groups etc doesn't need to happen, like you said Xar fragmenting. What i'd like to see is a toggle, so maybe everyone is solo or duo or whatever is already in place, but you can toggle between them and have a certain amount of hours per week you can group or quest etc. So maybe an item with 7 charges per week maximum, each reset day essentially where you can get a buff that enables you to team up with someone on a tough quest here or there, or run dungeons etc. So you can run a dungeon multiple times, but it depends on how fast you clear it. So now there is no fracturing of community but essentially a bridge inplace, and that rewards skilled and efficient players to maximize those Groupable windows you choose to toggle. I think this would be a fantastic thing to keep HC as 1 single community, and help speed up questing so you dont run into lines or ninja tagging etc, or to help someone get over the hump of a tough quest etc. The point would be game flow and community building. This needs to be in the discussion.

Not being able to group outside or utilize dungeons will definitely shrink the pool of classes that struggle on a solo basis. Imagine if you force a lockout you'll be lacking so many tanks and healers for dungeon and raids.

Warmode as in retail. AH/Mailbox unlocks at 60. Trading/Grouping allowed within -+10 levels of eachother (..so you can get the rods for enchanting ect and also allows water from a mage and bags that are within your level range). Implement achievement system, so you are able to level the way you want (..complete solo run, no dungeons, naked, ect. Might even give titles for completed achievements). Dungeon lockout of 24-48 hours, so that you are able to get the item you want (..level range limit on dungeons, so you can't recklesly run through because you out level it). This is what I would like to see off the top of my head :)

You can have both types of Hardcore modes on the same servers. Just have a toggle at character creation. If you choose "Ironman", you can't trade or group until 60. How that would work for dungeons 1-59 would remain to be seen though.

1st rule no. 2nd rule no. The only game mode we need is no auction house AT ALL (Kills bots to some degree makes the game harder). 72 hour lockout on dungeons. No dying. You can trade with other players only at level 60. (Adds a huge trading economy and social aspect). Please just do this and were good.....

How can I do link's quest with the videre elixir, or the blackrock depths key quest though? Should do something about those quests so you don't lose your character forever

Xar, keep making these videos! We need someone to keep the rules in check. Twinking / Having dungeons spammed / allowing carry runs etc will ruin the challenge.

the community is already 'segmented' in hc, with people self restricting for different achievements. they dont need separate servers, there will just be people on the server who are solo self found. I think a daily dungeon reset would be sick

Will it just be PVE or PvP too? I would like PVP and battlegrounds, just it don't count if you die in BGs. It would count in world pvp but grief, ganking would be a major thing. You would actually need to help you allies etc i like the idea of solo hard-core and normal hardcore

I think limiting dungeons will also be amazing for the economy. The drops you get will be worth way more

Imagine fighting for something for years only to have those who never did anything to help get it now tell you how it should be.......

SOLO hardcore is cool, but the game inherently is an MMO, so it makes sense it has a social aspect. For me it would be best if they have SOLO Hc opt in which is played on the same server, but obv you have the restrictions and you get some reward for completing it solo, like a cool title or something, and after 60 you can play normally, the restrictions are lifted.

60s can still farm low level gear, and once you have one 60 you can basically boost your other characters. AH and trading completely destroys the mode. You’ll have people selling gear for $$$

Allow grouping for Elite quests. Disable XP and loot and quest progression for all solo-grouped characters, with the exception being Elite mobs and their quests.

One of the reasons open world grouping would be good is because it's impossible to quest right now in low level zones because there are too many people :D Also for open world elite grouping, not all specs CAN feasibly solo that content.

It would be cool to have an point system where blizzard awards achievement points to the player depending on how "hardcore" they are through their leveling adventure. For example, if you often live on the edge attacking yellow/orange mobs and surviving that will trigger the algorithm to provide you with achievement points for that achievement until you unlock the achievement "A Cocky Hardcore Player". That's one example, others like that could be: "Never used auction house", "No Green Gear", "Never grouped", so on.. At the end of your hardcore leveling adventure you are ranked on the achievement points accumulated and that will be your bragging rights and true hardcore level... Oh look Bob made it to 60 and dang look at his achievements, while Tim made it to 60 (never died) but he wasn't a risk taker, kept it fairly safe.. -- Just my 2 cents

My idea is keep Solo and Group intact, but have an item that lets players toggle that. Here's my proposal instead of only having dungeons where all players can group only once. You have an item, it has 7 charges for the week, it refills all charges on reset day. Each Charge gives you 2 hours where you can toggle to the other side (so if you are solo, you can now group with duo. If you are duo you can now quest solo). Instead of seperating the community you now implement something that helps players connect, helps lines and ninja tagging of quest mobs which helps game flow, allows players to team up on quests they might be stuck on, or allows duo players to now play some solo to quest when their friend is offline. I'd love to hear what you think of this idea Xar as I believe it could be exactly what HC needs.

Interesting discussion. One way would be to have solo hardcore or multiplayer hardcore just be options when you create the character? With a screen detailing what each entails. Then allow a solo character to swap to a multiplayer but not vice versa. Make solo players literally unable to interact with AH/trade/mailbox till 60. Making it unavailable would counter potential trade offers being accept dnand griefing a solo into being multiplayer. All on the same server, would be cool. Then can always have a tag or something for those on solo or multiplayer to avoid me as a multiplayer person spam inviting a solo.

Man, being solo self found is awesome. Lvling and gearing...then when my equal-ish lvl buddy hops on at same time, we go quest about together and enjoy the game. Then we log, I play when I can, he does the same and we link up when schedules allow. Not boosting, or carrying, but equal lvls doing equal things.

Staysafe is reasonable. I like the Xaryu take on both 1) lockouts to prevent dungeon spam and 2) avoid splitting the community (use achievements/titles for those that elect to play with more restrictions they choose to level under)

XAR starting the reacts content, my dog! big love

One major flaw is if you allow trading. Someone will transfer all their wealth to the alt accounts which makes dying don't necessary to lose everything.

TL;DR: Every additional rule should be a viewable badge on your character, and grouping applies all players' challenge rules simultaneously to everyone for the duration. After writing this, this system does get a bit convoluted with certain rules and doesn't have a clear solution in many cases, but this seems potentially viable to me so that challenge-goers of any arbitrary ruleset are all happy-let me know if you think otherwise. If you're on the hardcore server, you obviously cannot resurrect by any means. The Idea: ------ On top of that, you can opt for additional challenges during character creation. Maybe separate them into tiers containing groups of badges where Multiplayer Hardcore is the lowest tier, Solo Self-Made is the highest, and then add the additional cool challenge modes like no armor, perma-PvP, et cetera. That way, if you wanna play "Solo Self-Made" it can just show up as one giant badge that links to several, rather than having to sort out which players are true Solo Self-Mades and which have sneakily neglected one rule to get ahead but appear as though they're legit (even if that's a bit silly, it removes the clutter of badges when inspecting a player and makes it easier to tell how hardcore they've played). Each additional challenge shows up as a badge visible when inspecting a character. Grouping will bring everyone into the hardest tier and compiles all challenge modes, so if one person is hardcore naked no-consumables, another is hardcore weaponless dungeon-grouping only, and the rest are regular hardcore peeps, everyone becomes naked weaponless no-consumable hardcore peeps who can't gain XP outside of a dungeon. If your character is ineligible to join the group for whatever reason, it will fail and you must disrobe manually or talk to the PvP-flag NPC manually (this is to prevent you from joining a perma-PvPer without noticing if it were to flag you automatically). If you want to play with certain rules that go away at 60, maybe you can choose whether the badge appears with a halo (you're no longer playing by this rule, but it still shows you leveled to 60 using it) or devil horns (it persists forever). You can delete a badge at an NPC if you get cold feet for whatever reason but don't want to create a new character, but you can never add a badge. Caveats: ------ AH-bought items-it would just be impossible for players to group together if they don't share the same AH ruleset, unless every AH-derived item is flagged and must be removed from the inventory. Additionally, does every single AH-bought item need to be given challenge badges as well, so that you don't end up buying an item from someone who wasn't using your gamemode? A bit tricky and probably too much to ask here. Maybe no-trading is a prereq for many (or even all!) challenge badges? Also, people who leveled faster due to not having a particular challenge could group with someone who got to that level a harder way, which could potentially be seen as affecting the integrity of the more hardcore challenger, even if they're the same level and doing the same more hardcore challenges for the group duration. Doubles or Triples (and beyond) would all be required to tick the same challenge badges and meet each other without leveling, as usual, and could either be exclusive (no grouping with anyone outside) or inclusive. The people you group with don't necessarily need to be Doubles or Triples players, though. Maybe each badge has a soft (silver) and hard (gold) icon, signifying varying difficulty?? IDK why you'd want to play half-naked or with only people within 1 level of you rather than 3, but I guess if people get picky with options that could work without giving you too many badges to sort through. Very rough solution, honestly, but it was just a random idea I had while watching. Thanks for clicking all the way down here.

An aspect people simply aren't considering with an AH / Trading is the absolute epidemic of botters that would come with it. I think a lot of the community still doesn't realize that Blizzard straight up monetizes botters. In WOTLK alone for instance Blizzard made over 10 million dollars from Botters. They allow them to farm gold for several months then they do a ban wave. This allows the gold sellers to earn enough RL money to make resubbing after the banwave worthwhile. Do the math. Their latest banwave had over 100,000 accounts banned. It was roughly nine months after their previous banwave. 100,000 x 15$ x 9 = $13,500,000. Bots can use flyhacks and all sorts of sketchy shit because of how broken the game is. They should be able to flag those types of actions immediately, and they probably do-- but they give them another nine months of destroying the economy before they ban them. Any trading whatsoever will enable bots, Blizzard will profit, the experience will be diminished, etc etc.

One thing i would like to see for hc is that you could so every profession. Im sure there could be some problems with this but I think it would be cool. You would still struggle to do them all since you need gold and material, but it would at least open up the new possibilities.

I think at turtle they fixed the trader system putting a lv cap. The players can only group and trade with +-5 levels between the highest and the lowest of the group.

One thing you also didn't talk about which needs to be discussed is what about appeals? aka Griefs and DC deaths. Griefing will be lowered by a lot with official servers but I don't think it will go away completely, which always feels really bad when it happens to you since it was out of your control (low level naming themselves named mobs, vanish/FD kiting high lvl mobs, etc.) And on top of that DC deaths, the Blizzard server are not the most stable when it comes to disconnects on top of that here lately they have been getting DDoSed a couple times a week. Nothing can be done on your end if you are playing and the server goes down without warning or gets DDoSed and you die to a disconnect. I know the big counter argument here is Diablo doesn't have appeals. Which is true I have enjoyed both Diablo and PoE hardcore runs, however, Blizzard servers are WAY more unstable and more often a target of DDoS than Diablo or PoE. Most of the DCs I had in Diablo was my own internet/power which feels bad but at least it was in a way more my fault. Also people usually spend more game time leveling a character in WoW than they do in Diablo or PoE so losing a character feels worse since the time invested is so much greater. I just don't see Blizzard hiring GMs in order to review appealed deaths. And once the official servers go live its going to get flooded with players which will cause the server to crash several times and bring in the DDoS.

also xar you gotta remember not everyone plays a mage its alot different doing solo as a paladin lol

AH makes the game too easy, no ty! & people ARE making their rods first btw. have 2 ppl in my guild on HC who capped mining/bs first, and are now working on their enchanting. THAT is the essence of Hardcore. you can simply say you’re too lazy lol

Would love to do BGs at any level, deaths dont count, but no XP or rewards.

1/One life rule means nothing, if other restrictions are not in place. 2/Griefing is NOT a problem on a full hc server. 3/If there is a possibility to exploit - people will do. 4/Classic. Classic era. Classic SoM. Retail. And now multiple layers of hc??? If you enable trading - at some point it will swirl out of control. Maybe not within the first 2 weeks but soon after. People will find a way to bot, or abuse farming, even boosting. Even with this level restrictions for dungeons you guys mentioned, that will not stop people from boosting. Why? Simply - twiking. If i have to level trough Westfall and Deadmines and Lakeshire, i would rather do that with rare weapons from Deadmines and a few hundred more health then without, even if i dont gain exp from this 20min deadmines zerg with a lvl 60 mage. Is that hc? About enchanting - simply buy these rods from enchanting vendors. Like bags. Problem solved. The very point of HC is IN these restrictions and NOT ONLY in the you-can-not-die one. How many people celebrate hc because there are no bots? I am one of them. Keep trading disabled, beyond 60 trading within the guild only - some sort of gold cap(daily/weekly/per player traded with) AND OFC, beyond a certain reputation, to diminish farming and boting. Enable party for elite quests - lets say max 3 ppl. Some quests are made to be done with a party, period. Weekly dung lock, or even a 1-3 cap per dung while leveling (as bad luck protection, and/or finish quests you can not do in one visit) sound bouth fine. About pvp - if griefer die and lose - griefing will be omega nerfed. Yes some people are still going to do it, lets find a way how to improve pvp in hc and not just disable it totally (remember the guard you could rent in Dalaran sewers back in Legion?). Stronger guards, more patrols trough the woods, something like that. Grief on a low level with cheese methods are fun and will not make people quit - it is the constant harassement we witness on a daily basis these days that drive people mad. But, if the griefer dies and stays dead - he is not returning 20min later. Or tomorrow. Or even, EVER. Alas, we got classic era. We got SOM. If we want a hc server - it should be a full blown hc server.

You could realistically have both game modes simultaneously run together coenside together. But if you choose solo it would be restricted like it was with starter accounts, unable to use AH, group up, trade etc. The coding is already in the game for a lot of the hardcore restrictions within the starter acct restrictions, it just needs to be coded and tweaked for dungeons and level 20-60. Maybe once you earn the achievement for a dungeon you cannot return thru the dungeon wall and what not

Everyone seems to be ignoring BGs. I think the answer is simple tho. BGs exist and have no change on how they work. You respawn in the BG and when you leave, its like nothing happened. Why would you remove content that doesn't change anything for anyone else does. If you don't like the idea that you can die and res, don't do BGs..

I have a suggestion! In case two game modes come up as staysafe recommends there should be some POWER UPs at each milestone. For example if a solo player manages to go to 60 he can unlock a permanent buff such as 5% more dmg or healing. Or unlock a 3rd profession. Or get a special recipe for your profession. Apart from Titles that they should be 100% in game and maybe a mount at lvl 60 depending on your race.

I think you should get the two gamemodes he talked about: the solo gamemode and the group gamemode (with AH, trading, grouping...) But put them both in the same servers, and just have the "solo" players have a symbol at the side of their nameplate or something like that, so that they get some more "merit" for doing it, and so people know how to differentiate them and know that there are different rules for them. Then, don't let these solo players trade and group and AH and everything mentionned. With this you wouldn't split the community and solo players would be able to play solo, group players would be able to group. Because the fact that people are able to group doesn't affect the solo players

It would be nice to be able to group for elite quest, but get an achievement for doing them solo at a certain level range.

For solo vs multi-player hardcore, could they implement a decision at character creation like Shadowlands alts where you choose to skip the story? Then mark players with a "solo" tag or something and automatically disable grouping and trading. But keep them on the same server that way the world is still full

I don't understand what the problem would be for "splitting" the community. We don't need them on separate servers do we? They can be on the same server IMO, just differentiate them visually with a silver / golden "elite" unitframe depending on whether they're doing multiplayer (easier) vs solo (harder). Being on the same server shouldn't hurt anyone considering the base rules are the same, and the differences would not influence other groups. Solo players can't use AH or trade so any economy created by the multiplayer crowd shouldn't affect solo players during leveling. Also important to note that solo players do become multi players once they reach 60 according to the current rules, so both sides end up merging in the end anyway... Most important is to make sure that the solo player leveling experience isn't made worse by multi players.

The only issue with dungeon lockout (unless it ends at 60) will be not being able to farm dungeons at lvl 60 to get pre bis

One idea I got regarding the « immortality at 60 rule». Maybe players reaching 60 may be gifted by a token to transfer their character into a soft server if they die. Maybe it could be a one time token per account but it would be nice to earn the cheracter you’re invested into after so many played time!

Trading / AH / Mailbox if these are allowed on the official hardcore servers it won't only make it so much easier allowing people to minmax/twink there toons but also get bis prof items etc but it WILL bring the bots and boosting communities back. One thing I really like about how HC is now is you don't see hordes of bots or general being spammed non stop with selling items/runs/power levels for gold and lets be real RMT. As far as grouping in the open world and being able to spam dngs that is just going to make it Classic 2019 all over again. But not being able to do Dngs with 100% solo would also feel terrible, esp if you cannot group at 60 either. Think splitting the hardcore community is also a terrible idea, once people stop playing a mode can easily die just like making too many servers, which Blizzard has done several time. What makes HC challenging is not that you only have one life its that you are put in difficult situations and have to use all your tools in your OWN toolbelt to either come out on top or escape with your life. Grouping in open world will make it no longer challenging and people are gonna get to 60 no problem which will make the journey non-existent, Classic 2019 was fun but everyone rushing to end game min maxing and then destroying the raids week 1 made the content fly by and wasnt challenging at all. Think the beauty of HC is it makes you slow down and its the closest we will ever get to OG Vanilla as far as difficulty is concerned, the more rules they take out the less we will get the same feeling and the more you are going to split the HC community between the addon ruleset enjoyers and the people who just want the normal game but with one life.

Ok, hear me out: WoW Classic HC Rules: 1. Death = Delete (or permaghost, idc really) 2. Grouping is allowed everywhere BUT only within "orange level range" meaning +/- 5 levels of each other. 3. You can run dungeons multiple times, but each dungeon only once a day (removed at lvl 60) 4. Trading is allowed in 2 ways (60 to 60 and 1-59 to 1-59) 5. AH only allowed at 60 6. No Mail between Characters from the same Account 7. Add Achievements like HC Addon does already

Paladins can’t bubble hearth, should mages be allowed to cast portals and leave dangerous zones?

I like a mechanic that allows me to catch back up to my duo if say I die, so that he may wait for me to level back up to him to continue content, perhaps involving the same character name

SS literally has a history of acting as a rightwing provocateur and fostering that kind of hateful, divisive community. Worth considering before reacting to his content in the future.

I wonder whether they could allow the trade window but not to trade items, but only services. Allowing high level players to provide services (enchanting) to allow characters to still have enchants whilst leveling without the hurdles of BS + mining.

There's one problem that is not taking into account regarding trading and AH. Lots of people will have an alt where they mail and send everything to. gold, items, epics. everything will be stored on that character. this is a Massive issue. even if you delete. it wont be a big issue.

Cities you can see players and group for dungeons. Outside of the cities, you see no one. Makes mobs and spawns entirely your responsibility, no lines or help.

Remove all experience from dungeons so it's purely a loot and grouped content experience. Add a new one time Quest or System to reward you a lump sum of experience upon killing all bosses for the first time. I think this would the best way to still have dungeons but ensure people don't optimize the fun out of the game and can still find an opportunity to play with friends along the journey.

24 hour lockout like dailies, 7 days is too long for the demographic. Love the videos bro

I actually like the idea of a hardcore economy. It would lead to legacies, guilds were wealth is passed on from dead players to the living. Then add pvp to this - the potential!!! No guild banks btw - wealth is managed between living characters or it is lost.

I like the idea of multiplayer HC, but as far as logistics, it's gonna be hard to implement. AH and trading will encourage botting regardless of how well the features are implemented. Solo HC players should be on the same server as group HC but just have a SoM style buff or choice that strips down their actions to what is possible in the unofficial hardcore rules.

I think your point is good about splitting the player base and is applicable in most situations. However it is not really a relevant point for hardcore. Because segmenting the player base in an experience where it is inherently designed for them to play more separate is a lesser impact than it would normally be on non hardcore servers.

Group mode = everything X% more difficult. Each time you do a dungeon difficulty increase, weeks resets difficulty to normal.

They should also add an account wide mount, if you hit lvl 60 in the official hardcore mode server

Who will be checking deaths for validity if needed? - Griefers who move high-level mobs between locations will remain. - Deaths from disconnects? Blizzard doesn't have people to verify such deaths.

Another thing I don't get why you can't allow just normal battlegrounds. I get it's hc but it's really about the leveling. I feel you should incorporate hc in a way that no other part of the game gets restricted (trading, professions, grouping, etc)

1 mode, solo only. If you’re going to create a party for a dungeon, you have 15-20 mins before a full group of 5 is formed before lvl 57-60. This will help with friend/guild functions viability. Obviously a 3-whatever hour penalty of inviting someone to your group with no intentions other than quest grouping is penalized. Taking out the capability of finding people to play the long term game with would kill it before most become even close to max level.

The trading aspect for low levels is so scary imo, people will just send all their valuables to bank alts, and the loss from deaths with be way lower.. And also the whole aspect of just twinking out low levels :(

a better idea for professions is if youre playing strictly hardcore solo where there is no grouping at all let your char have every profession honestly. if you cant trade with anyone or use the auction house why not? you have to put in ALOT of time to level up the professions and gather everything but to me that feels like the ultimate survival tool. youre literally BUILDING your character up and when you die halfway to 60 its that much sweeter. keep the 2 proff restriction for the hardcore where you can grp and trade obviously

people who say that no grouping allowed period, i really believe dont have friends. and this isnt a dig at those people. but it sucks so much to tell someone "oh sorry i cant play with you im doing this challenge thing." I literally had to do it to someone today. they made a character on classic, unaware of the HC rules set, tried to invite me to a group, and trying to explain that i cant group with them, or even play with them at all since they also arnt hardcore, sux. they ended up just logging out and doing something else bummed out. In every other type of mmo that iv played that has this "solo adventure" style game mode youre still able to play with nonHC people. you just cant do things like trade. The classic community really just feels out of touch with the concept that classic isnt hard, it just takes a long time. doing quests alone isnt hard. even elite quests, if its too hard you just end up skipping it. its borderline boring at times. and while i enjoy the challenge and the constant looming threat of dying. i should be able to jump into the game with a friend for a few hours with out being "Unverified" and being pushed out of the community.

Solo Harcore I understand for purists. But for me only interested in Multiplayer Hardcore and like the idea of being able to trade and invest in crafting too. If markets get too fat down the line we can revisit this and tune again. But first lets see before assuming since auctions will be removed when players die etc.

SSF is a great playstyle in some games but unless they made changes to how dungeons/raids worked etc then it wouldn't work in WoW. I'd love the idea of an SSF character where the dungeons/raids are scaled to SSF and are super hard encounters but rewarding, but I doubt we'd ever see something like that.

I wonder what they’ll do with BGs. BGs are a huge part of the classic leveling experience and I think its the biggest loss from playing HC.

There is already grouping with trios and duos so Xars argument makes exactly 0 sense. Those grouping rules only exist because we dont have offical

I think HC with a working AH and economy sounds way more fun. If you can't respawn upon death it means the vast majority of the economy will be organic vs botted and from a character that hasn't died. That's cool to me and I'm very down. The limit on professions like enchanting atm is frustrating.

+ABSOLUTELY NO trading/AH +Unlimited grouping/dungeons but no kill XP while in group +Only group tagged quest objectives can be completed in group--still no mob kill XP +Unlimited professions--let people make all their own gear/items +Increase resources node spawns--no economy/bot farming to worry about Philosophy: restrict anything that fast tracks the game while leaving open as many play styles as possible. If a player wants to farm every drop from WC then let them do it. Just make sure it isn't the "fastest" way to 60. This can be solved by turning off kill XP while in group. They should probably implement a single way combat system so that players not in groups cannot help each other or at the very least no XP or loot is obtained from a mob tagged by multiple players. The single way restrictions are less griefable, but either might work. Trading will guarantee bots even if they only farm low level resource nodes they will get their hands on gold and it will be sold and severely damaged the game mode's integrity.

Disagree with some of the comments calling for BGs to be enabled. The biggest issue with PvP in hardcore is the honor gear. You could farm gear and xp with no risk of ending your hardcore run.

Bruh, an awesome idea would be that if you get solo 60. You get a title or mount or item or some reward and there’s a realm wide announcement saying you did it solo. Not only would I want to get that but I’d fkn love to see that too

i thought i read somewhere that for warlocks and hunters, if a pet dies, it dies for good too. is that true?

Multiplayer would make hardcore easier, but since the stakes are still very high it would drive sociability and group play. It is an mmo afterall.

Staysafe's take summarized: "Change EVERYTHING so that I can max out my every streamer privilege optimaly."

man what is it with ppl wanting hc with no grouping up, I want to play HC but I still want to play wow as the mmo it is and have fun playing with the other ppl around me

I play on a private server with official hardcore and they allow grouping between other hardcore flagged characters 5 levels plus/minus. No AH access which feels fine. There are no rules other than don't die, grouping within 5. As a lovely touch, they leave gravestones where you died as long as you don't delete the character, and when you die, you can't res and are auto logged out after 2 minutes. Honestly, the gravestones are a very fun touch XD

iv played private servers that have hardcore as a opt in feature, they have it so you cannot attack or be attacked by anyone that is not in the range of 1 level below you and 1 level above you, im sure blizzard could add something in like that.

What staysafe is talking about with both systems is similar to osrs hardcore ironman. Except every player on the server is hardcore, but if you want to throw extra difficulty on top you enable ironman. If your playing hardcore it's just like regular except if you die that character is done it would also imo be better to limit dungeon runs. 1 per 24-72 hours would be cool. If ironman is enabled you can't interact with other characters until 60 except one run of each dungeon. And once 60 you still can't trade or use the ah.

They need to prevent the infinite damage leash on mobs, so you can't get grieved by High level players/mobs that are not in intended zone (however this will nerf some infinite kiting strats so idk)

My dude trying to make this Ruthless hardcore LOL>

Xar man I wonder why nobody talks about BG deaths to be allowed? What you think? I think BG should be allowed to die in and play so you still have that PvP mode available in BG. That way you can BG, still have hardcore twinks etc as well since it’s still hardcore outside of BGs. You still can’t get boosted by a way higher level character in dungeons so would be harder to get the best gear for twinks which would make the Battlegrounds more even? I know getting grand marshal tho or high warlord would make the 60s way better then not having BGs and many would do BG to get BiS gear pretty much which highest rank is essentially. But still… What you think?

Xar right on all points here. Rules are important

Having an auction house will destroy the hardcore experience with bots and gold buying.

i think they should make it so you can do dungeons as many times as you want up to the max level of the hughest boss in the dungeon, so for example VC is i think 22 so after 22 you cant re enter till level 60