I've played pretty much nothing but World of Warcraft for the last few months. Outside of a few short lived expeditions into other games this has been my main game. Lately I've been feeling the need for a change of pace. Ironically I don't want to play anything else that World of Warcraft. Luckily there are currently several versions of World of Warcraft available to play. One of them being the hardcore version of World of Warcraft: Classic that I've wanted to dive deeper into for a while. Time to do just that.

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What is World of Warcraft Classic: Hardcore?

Gamers will recognize the term hardcore from classics like Diablo and more recently the honor mode from Baldur's Gate 3. In hardcore you permanently lose your character if you die. You have one life. You have no room for mistakes. If you die, it's over.

Now why would anyone do this to themselves, you might ask? It's simple. People do it for the thrill and the challenge. For people who have played this games countless of times through many years these are the last ultimate challenges. The final frontier. Playing the game normally has no stakes. If you die it's a minor inconvenience. In hardcore it's a disaster.

For me it's about the thrill and the stakes. I've leveled several characters to max level in World of Warcraft: Classic already and I have no appeal to do so again under normal stakes. It's time to up the stakes and jump into this hardcore journey.

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Female human rogue, as always

My first ever character in World of Warcraft was an undead rogue. The first character I played for any length of time was however a female human rogue. The first character I leveled to max level and raided with when World of Warcraft: Classic released in 2019 was a female human rogue. It's the class I know the best meaning it's the class I'll probably have the highest chance to succeed with.

So far I've only done the starting area for humans, Northshire Abbey. It's practically impossible to die in here as long as you have somewhat of a brain and a decent overview of your surroundings. There's a few neutral kobolds that don't really pose a challenge, and a few aggressive Defias that can be a danger if you're not careful. I powered through the quests in here and made it to level 5.

The last thing I did before logging off was to run to Goldshire and sit down in the inn. That'll get me some rested experience for my next session which will come in handy for leveling up just a bit quicker. This is where the danger begins though. I'll probably die to a level 7 murloc within the next two hours of playtime.

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^{All images in this post are screenshots taken by me.}

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