Re: Hardcore Mode: Player tips for SURVIVING Hardcore

Snot · Post by **Snot** » Thu Apr 08, 2021 2:53 am

I thought it might be interesting and beneficial to share our experiences of what had caused our downfall as we continue our individual journey's towards immortality. This I hope will provide a thorough list of things to keep in mind that help in our survival, plus it will give us all a chance to show others how and why we died while providing valuable insight to newcomers of Hardcore Mode and Guild Comrades.

The single rule that MUST apply to your comments here is that it comes from a perspective of previous personal experience throughout your hardcore levelling.

Therefore, you MUST have either:
A) Died due to a lack of insight previously - that you now realise in hindsight or
B) Have already achieved IMMORTALITY.

Please respect the list rules and DONT INCLUDE personal opinion based on theoretical assessment of potential situations.

In the hopes of creating a vague format I shall begin...

1. STAY OUT OF WATER!
Cause of Death: Snotburst I and Snotrot (Drowning to fatigue even when swimming above water in certain locations)

2. STAY OUT OF CAVES!
Cause of Death: Snotburst II & Liberta (Some have very fast respawn rates and you can gain aggro from fair distance)

3. TURN ON: NPC NAMEPLATES!
Cause of Death: Snotrot II (In darker, less flat zones you cannot always see all enemies that exist within 360 degrees)

4. DONT DUEL!! (No matter how tempting)
Cause of Death: Demise I (Accepted duel at lvl 11 and died from Serpent Sting) dots will kill you)

5. BE MINDFUL USING THE UNDERCITY ELEVATOR!
Cause of Death: Kombat I (The elevator descends before the door closes so you can fall to your death at low levels.

That's all I have - Please continue using the format above so we can, together create a list that will serve our comrades as great advice and also provide a working historical orbituary of our characters.

Fizzeek · Post by **Fizzeek** » Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:21 pm

Rares hit hard. Be careful with them. Some also have pets and other horrible things (the engineer in Sludge Fen: Northern Barrens has a pet AND summons exploding sheep that hit for 100-200).

Where possible, pull back to an area where things don't spawn. Then if you D/C you might just live!

Group up! When in doubt bring more people.

Snot · Post by **Snot** » Sat Apr 10, 2021 9:22 am

Nice Advice

Anyone else?

Sinrek · Post by **Sinrek** » Sat Apr 10, 2021 10:00 am

Ask your guildmates for help?

Bazou · Post by **Bazou** » Sat Apr 10, 2021 12:27 pm

Some npc in the city is neutral and attackable. My hunter’s pet is set in aggressive pattern, so tragically got killed.

Emberlain · Post by **Emberlain** » Fri Aug 27, 2021 5:41 pm

I must reiterate, stay out of the water (learned the hard way).
Don't play when really tired.
Overlevel your zones.
Stay on roads.
Level cooking and consider Herb/Alchemy for potions.
Be patient and cautious at all times.

Spelevink · Post by **Spelevink** » Sun Jan 16, 2022 5:07 pm

Every boat you take is a gamble. If you lag/glitch and are dumped in the ocean, rip.NEVER take the boat with hearth on cooldown.

If you see mob corpses in an area expect them to come back to life soon. Doubly so if an area has no mobs, that usually does.

Always have an escape plan. If you fight your way in to a mob through an area of mobs, be sure you can run back the same way without getting Aggro. Also, any “cut in” needs to consider re spawns.

Never log off in an area with mobs.

Never try to “thread the needle”” by running between two mobs, chances are you will aggro both.

Escort quests will get you killed if the npc walks into mobs,or keeps walking when you fight. Be sure you KNOW how the npc will act on THIS server. They can vary from other pservers, and classic.

If you disconnect or server crashes when you are in a cave, this might be bad form, but consider enlisting someone to “clear out” the area where you would log back in. Through an alt or discord.

Remember that the hearth cooldown ticks while logged off, this can be used to your advantage if stuck in an area you can’t fight your way out.

Ask in world/guild if there are any events or kiting shenanigans going on before entering a zone. For example stitches.

Duvel · Post by **Duvel** » Fri Jan 21, 2022 6:48 am

TO HIGHEST HARDCORE CHARACTERS : I STRONGLY ADVISE YOU TO READ THE FOLLOWING 5 TIMES.

I died yesterday at lvl 47

It was my first char on this server and thus my first hardcore try.

I died only because I had become overconfident over my (long) leveling, and I ended up breaking one rule I set myself at the very beginning : DONT GO IN DEEP CAVES ALONE, EVER.

Its hard.

Dont do that. Stay focus until the very end of your journey and dont do stupid things, especially when the end is near.

To summarize, the most important point to stick on when you reach higher levels, is :
Your focus to the rules and your awareness should only grow with your progression and not the opposite.

If you reached level 40, you know perfectly what the rules are, and you are smart and skilled enough to go to 60, and it should be easy... As long as you keep in mind that over time, the worst enemy will be yourself.
Just don't be a fool, even for 5 minutes, you are playing with your life

Zomg · Post by **Zomg** » Fri Jan 21, 2022 2:18 pm

My rule zero: Make and develop rules, and stick to them. In writing, I suggest.

What works for you may not work for anyone else, but I still learn from what other people find hazardous.

A few of mine:

Don't go out in the world when tired.
Start a session with something really easy.
If your health drops below 50% for any reason, switch what you're doing to something less dangerous and come back later.

You are your own worst enemy. It probably going to be your mistake that kills you. Do what you can to avoid making that mistake!

Something I said yesterday but I think it's worth noting: Low confidence makes you slow. High confidence makes you dead.

Toodarkpark · Post by **Toodarkpark** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 11:20 pm

These are all great tips. While learning about the server I noted that quests give full experience at green and grey levels as long as you are within 25 levels of the quest. As someone who is trying HC, slow and steady, and exhaustion, this was good to know in addition to the tips listed above.

Eazyp · Post by **Eazyp** » Tue Feb 01, 2022 11:57 am

Is there a list of quests that are absolutely not done when leveling a hardcore character?
I'll be skipping the dungeons, elites and those that make me explore deep caves

Mac · Post by **Mac** » Tue Feb 01, 2022 12:02 pm

Eazyp wrote: ↑
Tue Feb 01, 2022 11:57 am
Is there a list of quests that are absolutely not done when leveling a hardcore character?

Yes, this one.

Selivanyro · Post by **Selivanyro** » Sat Jul 02, 2022 6:19 pm

All written here are causes of deaths of many HC characters. (I will update this post)
If you want to hit 60 here is the most complete ruleset (you either follow it or spend many lives studying it hard way):

0. Avoid HC mode if you have less than a year of your World of Warcraft gaming experience.
0.1.Take it slow. Don't rush, there is no end to achievements. Dwell in moment, its about journey not destination.
0.2.Remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.
1. Avoid involving in combat if your defensive abilities are on cooldown.
2. Never go deep in caves. Don't do dungeons at all. Avoid escort quests. Avoid being surrounded and having your way out sealed by respawns, rendering you unable to flee or reset combat.
3. Never buff people with green nameplates or throw leather balls back at them. DO NOT DUEL
4. Toggle NPC names in world so you see enemeies better.
5. Never travel by boat if your HS is on cooldown.
6. Never go AFK in wilderness, logout instead. Log out safely, only in areas free from creature patrol and respawn.
7. Always have health potions up to your level.
8. Never do quests if you are too tired or drunk.
9. Reduce all risks to minimum, seek to avoid risking your character at all.
10. Many deaths come from Unseen in Duskwood. Read up about who they are.
11. Never try to solo a rare or elite spawn if your melee class. They hit hard.
12. Remember that life of your character outweights any item you can find.
13. Be patient and cautious at all times. Don't use Autorun.
14. If you see mob corpses in an area expect them to come back to respawn soon.
15. If your internet connection is bad, you increase hardcore difficulty and not achieving 60.
16. Read up Wowhead about quests you are not familiar with.
16.1. When you enter new zone, browse Wowhead about elites, wandering spawns and high lvel creatures it cointains.
17. Never try to save other players from dieing or help anyone by aggroing mobs on yourself. Do not involve in PvP action no matter how righteous it looks.
18. Take full responsibility, ther can be no other cause of death of your lovely toon than you (or your ISP)).
Never rely on anyone other than yourself. Even if grouped, keep escape routes in mind, by doing so you may become a sole survivor.
18.1. Never sacrifice your safety. Use advantages of a self-centered egoistic state. Let go of high moral, dont mix it with hardcore.
19. Certain addons make your game crash in action. Use as little as possible, if any.

Yeah, aaa, aaa, aah, yeah I feel hardcore
Yeah, aaa, aaa, aah, yeah always hardcore

Jolikmc · Post by **Jolikmc** » Sat Jul 02, 2022 6:47 pm

Honestly? That is a really good post, Selivanyro. Especially point 13. Hardcore Mode is not for the temperamental or the impatient.

Not sure about 15, though. I used to play World of Warcraft on HughesNet Satellite Internet. My ping was consistently 1,200, no joke. The only thing it affected, really, was PvP. I compensated for the delay when doing PvE stuff, but it's pretty hard to hit your mark when the other player is "teleporting" about the place. (,:

Snot · Post by **Snot** » Sat Jul 02, 2022 8:04 pm

It's nice to see this topic of mine began to gain more traction and some excellent advise even 14 months later.
I want to add a few more things I have learned on my many journeys in the quest to attain immortality:
These are to be taken alongside the other fabulous advise on here already.

1. Never fight Murlocks! No, seriously, just dont.
2. (Adding to Spelevink's point) It's always better to find a small area of mobs that can be cleared (grinded on) each individually and in a large circular pattern so by the time you reach your start point they have begun to respawn again. Try not to go into large open areas with mobs that can respawn behind you the further into the area you go.
3. If you have a High level (Normie) alt, take them to the next area that your planning on going to and have a scout around. Look for good, safe grinding spots, any pathing rares or elites, take note of mob pathing, density and level differences between mobs and within what area. For example Silverpine Forest might have level 12 and 13 mobs and seems the perfect place after the Brill quests, but it also has level 22, 23, 25 elites and rares that path all over the place and the mob density between levels is patchy at best with the whole place being aggro heaven. I'm sure you get the point.
4. If you like to grind a lot then make sure your grinding on mobs 3-4 levels lower than you. That way if you do pull aggro and your well prepared as most HC are with pots and other bits and bobs then your chances of surviving a good.
5. If you like questing then grind until your first set of quests from a new hub are green in your quest log before doing them.
6. Always ask the guild for help, congratulate or commiserate people, if you dont need an item that you loot put it in guild and see if anyone else might like it and they will do the same for you.
7. My final piece of advise is that for many of us the calling of HC is like this inner voice, perhaps more so a whispering at best that yes, even you young adventurer have the capacity to shine light into the darkest depths of your soul to achieve, and perhaps one day sooner than you might think that fabled and most elusive holy grail that is IMMORTALITY!! (Cue stars, fireworks and huge fanbase).
So, when the time comes...and it will come... that you, 'The fabled Adventurer' finaly die! DONT throw your monitor across the room or punch you PC!
Instead, take a few deep breaths, take some time out, think about the 'Why' it happened and 'How' it happened, what you could have, should have and next time WILL do better and learn from your experience AND TRY AGAIN!
Remind yourself it takes a certain caliber of person to have a go at this challenge, a stronger caliber to get back up once beaten down and an even stronger caliber of person to dust themselves off and have another go at it. That is, at it's heart the very essence of what it is to be Hardcore.

After all, like your inner voice keeps telling you, your the fabled one right? You know it deep down within your soul like an itch you can't scatch, just out of reach. That you, CAN do it! Your not a quitter, a whiner, someone who gives up so easily. This is your destiny! After all, are you Hardcore enough or not...

Selivanyro · Post by **Selivanyro** » Tue Jul 12, 2022 1:17 pm

updated

Willmek · Post by **Willmek** » Sun Aug 28, 2022 9:15 am

The road is unsafe in Duskwood it’s patrolled by stitches a level 35 elite. Somehow snuck up from behind me since deleted the game and had a much more productive weekend.

Reploidrocsa · Post by **Reploidrocsa** » Sun Aug 28, 2022 9:36 am

Since it's not here i'll add it:

In general, avoid mobs that run away when low hp, but if you really have to, they'll always run to the oposing direction they're facing provided there is space for it, so if you position yourself facing an empty area, low hp mobs running away will run towards that empty area

This is not only useful for HC players but for those who do dungeons aswell

Versidue · Post by **Versidue** » Thu Sep 01, 2022 11:33 am

The warrior ability Battle Shout counts as a buff! If you use it while in a group with a flagged player, you will be flagged!

Gnomeregan is a useful dungeon to run, if you can equip staves. If you can get the Hydrocane, you no longer need to fear drowning so long as you equip it every time you go underwater. And I do mean every time, you never know when you might d/c!

Regarding Gnomeregan, though, there is a part where you can be instantly killed if you're not careful. When Blastmaster Emi Shortfuse collapses the trogg tunnels, STAY AWAY! The explosives WILL kill you.

Papum · Post by **Papum** » Sun Sep 04, 2022 6:25 pm

For alliance avoid the walking lvl 10 tauren at mulgore that's supposed to be an homage to a diseased vanilla wow player, if y get close he will spawn an high lvl tauren that has automatic aggro on you that will woop your ass quiker than y can say wtf.

Styopa1 · Post by **Styopa1** » Mon Mar 20, 2023 3:23 pm

If an area has less mobs than you remember, stay the hell away.
- Died to palemane skinner s of Bloodhoof because I *thought* they'd all respawned and was going to start picking off the outliers...whups, no, just as I was in combat with a +1 lvl enemy (ok, if it's 1:1) ANOTHER +1 enemy spawned right next to me. /sadtrombone

Llenne · Post by **Llenne** » Sat Apr 29, 2023 5:47 pm

There are low level reputation sets that are VERY useful to pursue, especially if you're not dungeoning and have fallen behind on gear:

Ironforge - Leather set
Darnassus - Mail set

Darkmoon Faire has a questline that gives you a turtle mount at level 18. DMF is off on Wednesdays and rotates on Sundays.

Styopa1 · Post by **Styopa1** » Mon May 15, 2023 7:25 pm

If/when you die, be honest with yourself. It's normal to want to blame someone/something else, but I'm on my 5th HC toon, and the 4 deaths were all avoidable if I had stuck with my own rules.

1) "shouldn't there be more mobs here? I remember this as being a lot of mobs around? Ah well, I guess I'll just proceed in, then..."

2) "I only need to get that interactible inside the building. I know there are two mobs in there - hey, I just saw 2 players come OUT of that building, it *must* be clear of mobs, right? I'll just go right in, then...."

3) "Hm, I'm feeling pretty good about this one. No dumb mistakes. Let's see, next group has 2 melee mobs and a caster, only a level below me. I could just pull back and wait for respawns of the easier pulls? Nah, it's late, I want to go to bed, I can do this...pet charge the caster, then attack one mob...wait, what? Ah, so when they stun my pet he loses ALL aggro? Now I have 2 melee mobs on me and a caster attacking?..."

4) "Whew, these groups are hard to clear as a warrior with one caster and one melee. Only one bubble to 20, I should be able to finish this quest and ding. I can't wait! You know I should be able to LoS those casters if I just go a *little way* into the cave, right? Get them to come out? Oh so they can shoot a bit through rock. Oh wow, I didn't even know there was one to respawn there. Huh..."

Other general tip:
- I'm not sure, but it seems like this server has a respawn timer based on population? It seems like mobs come back faster when there are oodles of players around.

Styopa1 · Post by **Styopa1** » Mon May 15, 2023 7:25 pm

Llenne wrote: ↑
Sat Apr 29, 2023 5:47 pm
There are low level reputation sets that are VERY useful to pursue, especially if you're not dungeoning and have fallen behind on gear:

Ironforge - Leather set
Darnassus - Mail set

Darkmoon Faire has a questline that gives you a turtle mount at level 18. DMF is off on Wednesdays and rotates on Sundays.

Are there horde equivalent? AFAIK there's only decent mail hats for Horde at 20 in Org?

Llenne · Post by **Llenne** » Tue May 16, 2023 3:53 pm

Styopa1 wrote: ↑
Mon May 15, 2023 7:25 pm

Llenne wrote: ↑
Sat Apr 29, 2023 5:47 pm
There are low level reputation sets that are VERY useful to pursue, especially if you're not dungeoning and have fallen behind on gear:

Ironforge - Leather set
Darnassus - Mail set

Darkmoon Faire has a questline that gives you a turtle mount at level 18. DMF is off on Wednesdays and rotates on Sundays.
Are there horde equivalent? AFAIK there's only decent mail hats for Horde at 20 in Org?

Orgrimmar rep gives a leather and mail helm at 25 and darkspear give a couple pieces around 30 but there are no sets.

Airfoce · Post by **Airfoce** » Wed May 17, 2023 8:38 am

Make friends, cooperation is key with non-hc and hc per se, heal whoever you see struggling, offer party to kill elites and such, if a griefer wants to screw you up send an alert in general and local defense, use your enviroment at your favor!

Rustiesoj · Post by **Rustiesoj** » Wed May 17, 2023 2:36 pm

Emberlain wrote: ↑
Fri Aug 27, 2021 5:41 pm
Stay on roads.

DONT stay on roads in the opposite faction areas - got killed in barrens as there is a random orc tower with high level guards randomly on the road.

Turtle WoW