The Blizzard developers have, for the first time in the history of WoW Classic Hardcore, resurrected a large number of deceased characters. Among them are many Azeroth heroes from the well-known streamer guild OnlyFangs.
Update from March 28, 2025 – 11:54 AM: Our reader Furby has pointed out that there has already been a reaction from OnlyFangs regarding Blizzard’s actions on twitch.tv. Thank you for that!
No one wants to leave the Blackwing Lair unfinished just because some trolls want to prevent progress there through DDoS attacks. Moreover, one of the guild’s raids hasn’t even had the chance to visit BWL on the Hardcore server yet.
Therefore, they want to undertake one last ride toward Nefarian with two raids, not this weekend, but next weekend – since many key players will not be available in the coming days after the announcement of the end of OnlyFangs.
Sodapoppin and other players will withdraw from the regular progress routine of OnlyFangs after this raid. Those who want to continue playing with their characters afterward can do so. Whether this will happen under the banner of OnlyFangs or with other guilds remains to be seen.
Original report from March 28, 2025 – 09:30 AM: Why is Blizzard resurrecting Hardcore characters? For some time now, DDoS attacks have been hitting the servers of World of Warcraft at regular intervals. This causes long lag spikes and disconnections, which can quickly become fatal, especially in the Hardcore worlds of WoW Classic.
After the recent DDoS attacks last week, the player experience was so frustrating that the well-known streamer guild OnlyFangs announced the end of their Hardcore project if Blizzard could not get the problem under control in a timely and sustainable manner.
The developers of WoW responded by announcing that they would adjust the previously pursued policy for Hardcore in light of the DDoS attacks. Those who lose their virtual life during a malicious mass event in the future can be resurrected by Blizzard.
In WoW Classic Hardcore, it can happen faster than you think to reach the spirit healer:
Historic Mass Resurrection
What has Blizzard announced now? Just a few hours ago, the next official statement from Blizzard followed in the official WoW forum. Community Manager Kaivax writes on forums.blizzard.com:
We have begun resurrecting player characters that were lost during the recent DDoS attacks (Distributed Denial of Service) on our Hardcore realms. We initially focused on characters that died during the attacks on March 24, and we are expanding the scope of our review to include the resurrection of characters that were lost during confirmed DDoS incidents after this date.
For dead characters that were transferred from Hardcore realms to normal (PvE) realms, we have taken steps to bring these characters back to the Hardcore realms in the state they were in before the transfer, and we have marked them so that they will be playable at the next login as if they had never died.
- To complete the process, you must go to the character login screen on your Hardcore realm and log in with the previously deceased character.
In the future, if characters die due to DDoS attacks, we will only restore characters that remain on their Hardcore realm. Please note that a character that dies due to a DDoS attack on a Hardcore realm cannot be restored if they are subsequently transferred to a normal (PvE) realm.
At the end, the Community Manager emphasizes once again: Those who fall victim to a regular lag, disconnect, or bugs on the Hardcore servers are out of luck and will not be resurrected.
How is the community reacting to the announcement? The resurrected characters also include the aforementioned victims of the streamer guild OnlyFangs. However, we have not yet found a statement from the guild leadership regarding the resurrections and whether that is enough to continue the Hardcore project.
However, many other WoW players are commenting on Kaivax’s announcement. The opinions could not be more different.
- Volcanus criticizes the move on blizzard.com: “Let’s be honest, this will harm the Hardcore community more than it helps. You broke your promise regarding the original state of the Hardcore community and caved in to a bunch of loudmouths. They [OnlyFangs] chose to raid while the servers were under DDoS and then complained because they died due to a server disconnect.”
- ciarenni sees it quite differently on Reddit: “If you don’t like the servers being attacked with DDoS, you should support this action. The likely main reason the person(s) behind the attacks are doing this is that they enjoy watching people lose these characters forever. If Blizzard brings them back, the perpetrator essentially hasn’t achieved anything more than the inconvenience of not being able to play the character for a while […]”.
- Tivra sums it up on blizzard.com as follows: “This is a perfect example that you can never make people happy. A large part of the people on a Hardcore realm die, others stop because of it, which is already evident in the economy and how dungeon groups are formed. And someone claims that resurrecting them harms the server more than it helps. Dying due to DDoS is NOT in the spirit of Hardcore realms, and that is a big win for Blizzard.”
As soon as we discover an official reaction from OnlyFangs, we will update this message for you.
What do I need to know about OnlyFangs? The guild of WoW Classic includes or included various well-known streamers and YouTubers such as Sodapoppin, but also Tyler1, Mizkif, PirateSoftware, TimTheTatman, or Jaythebard, who of course mobilized their respective communities. The Hardcore factor – if the character lands at the spirit healer, it is gone forever – added even more spice.
Additionally, the community imposed a series of rules on itself and role-played with their characters. And there have repeatedly been large, personal dramas surrounding OnlyFangs – like in a major daily soap. All of this combined ensured that World of Warcraft was extremely popular on Twitch again thanks to OnlyFangs.
