The hardcore dream for many players of World of Warcraft ends quickly. Because one brings the hardcore fans down – by kiting a dragon to Stormwind.
In World of Warcraft Classic, “Season of Mastery” started a few days ago, which brings some very special features. In addition to tougher bosses and more XP for group quests, there is also a “hardcore” mode where players must never die.
But this calls in people who want to thwart exactly that – and thus a “WoW legend” is currently causing chaos on the Classic servers.
What is the “hardcore” mode? In the “Season of Mastery”, players can pick up a special buff, the “Iron Soul”. This buff indicates whether a character has died at any point in the game or has never been defeated. If the character is killed – no matter how – the “Iron Soul” buff is lost and can never be regained. This buff is essentially an indicator for hardcore players – as they have only one life; after that, they lose this buff.
What has happened? Many players with “hardcore” ambitions may have met a sudden end when suddenly a dragon rampaged, roasting players in dozens in the middle of Stormwind.
The player Frond, also known as Taestiranos, has made it his mission to lead the boss dragon “Teremus the Devourer” to Stormwind. The dragon is actually based in the Blasted Lands but can be drawn all the way to Stormwind. Although it takes nearly 20 minutes, the resulting chaos rewards the effort.
The dragon not only hits hard in melee but also breathes fire on all enemies within a radius of 35 meters approximately every 50 seconds. This causes extremely high damage and simultaneously heals Teremus by a large amount. If not enough level 60 players assemble, the dragon rampages until he is manually reset or simply has no one left on his aggro list.
Frond is now so skilled that he can kite Teremus for nearly infinite time, bringing death and destruction to Stormwind for a long time.
Especially at the beginning of the Season of Mastery, where few players are still level 60, he can farm a lot of kills – by the way, he is already doing this at level 39. A pretty impressive achievement when considering that Teremus could probably take his life with a melee attack.
How players have reacted to him after the first day, he has captured in a large image – from promises to name the first child Frond to vicious threats, everything is included (click to enlarge):
Frond is a legend: Frond is not really a newcomer who has just started with “kiting Teremus” – he has been doing this for years. On many English-speaking realms, he is a legend and is even revered by many for his endurance.
Even though some repeatedly react angrily to this troll action, many more players celebrate what he keeps doing. According to his own statements, he receives messages in a ratio of about 70:30. About 70% of the people cheer him on and are excited, while 30% insult him and are hostile.
What one may think of Frond’s behavior and his fire-breathing friend in tow is something everyone must decide for themselves. It is impressive, however, with what endurance he pulls this off.
Thus, the hardcore mode has become even harder.
