In Hardcore mode of WoW Classic, evil people are currently hunting helpless characters. Because these carry most of the gold and valuable items. And the items are lost in WoW Hardcore after the player’s death.
Anyone who plays an MMO knows this: On their main character, there is usually not enough space, so they create a bank character where they stash their stuff. Usually, these heroes are not leveled because they just stand around in a city.
In WoW, these characters often also serve as merchants: they travel between the bank, mailbox, and auction house, buying and selling while hoarding important items and gold.
However, a few nasty people find it funny to kill such characters in WoW Hardcore. Because in the Hardcore mode of WoW, a character remains permanently dead and cannot continue playing. At least not on the Hardcore server.
Luring enemies into safe cities with items
How do the players proceed? Some people find it amusing to kill such helpless bank characters. Players are now reporting this on Reddit, complaining about it, warning others, and explaining that one should secure their bank characters. Because officially, characters should be safe in large cities.
The nasty players use a debuff for their purposes that some enemies in the Swamps of Sorrows employ. The debuff ‘Rift Beacon’ summons enemies after one minute that appear and then attack nearby targets. A little while later, they also attack and kill bank characters with just a few hits. The description of the ability states (via wowhead.com):
Marks an enemy with a locator beacon. After 1 min, 2 Rift Stalkers of the Lost find the enemy and attack. Rift Stalkers of the Lost are unstable at subatomic levels and cannot maintain their physical form after 1 min.
Since such heroes are usually only level 1 and wear at most cosmetic gear, they normally have no chance against such opponents. Almost any enemy above level 11 can take out a bank character with one hit.
Why is the loss so tragic? Often, such bank characters are worth much more than the main characters. Because the ‘bankers’ carry most of the gold and many valuable items since they handle all the trading and banking business for the player.
Consequently, many players are now concerned and upset. Because many have, unsurprisingly, no desire to lose their valuable possessions to any griefers
who are just having a cruel laugh.
Since characters in WoW Hardcore also lose access to their bags and all loot, they cannot trade anymore. This can even be detrimental to other players:
WoW Classic: Main tank dies with all the loot – no one gets loot
