Here come the dev notes for the new Hardcore-themed Classic Era PTR! There’s a new PvP ranking system, a whole lot of known issues and more.

Classic Era PTR Notes (Source)

Welcome to the Classic Era 1.14.4 test environment.

Features

New PvP Ranking System in Classic Era

Testing of the PvP ranking system update will begin with a later build of the PTR.

Hardcore Realms

Please read our robust feature overview here 49 for a high-level rundown of the ruleset.

The Level cap is currently set to level 30 on the WoW Classic Hardcore PTR realm.

Known Issues

On first login to the PTR, some game settings may appear to be missing. Completely logging out and back in should resolve this.

Dungeons in WoW Classic Hardcore are a work in progress.

Dungeons currently save players after a boss is killed. As a result, we’ve moved all XP in dungeons to bosses only.

The amount of XP granted by bosses is not final.

This is not yet fully implemented and should be in place in a future PTR build.

The Soul of Iron system does not yet currently exist on Hardcore realms. We intend to port this system over Hardcore ruleset realms prior to their launch, with a few adjustments.

Currently, when players die, their auctions and mail are not cleared. Mail and active auctions will be cleared and deleted on player death in a future update to the PTR.

The leash range on enemies is set to a fixed distance from where the enemy is initially engaged. This range is currently set to 500 yards. We’re looking for feedback on how this impacts normal play.

We’ve made adjustments to the time that players stay in the world after disconnecting. This function is a work in progress, and testers may find themselves remaining in-game for longer than expected after some disconnects.

We recommend NOT forcibly disconnecting to avoid a death, as your character will remain in the game world for a short time. While we intend this time to be short enough to potentially help prevent an accidental death (i.e. due to disconnect while traveling through the world, or engaged in a very “safe” combat), if you are in genuine danger of dying and are at very low health, a forced disconnect is unlikely to save you.

As always, safe and careful play, avoiding overpulling, and always having a viable escape route during combat is the best way to prevent death!

Player versus Player

Additional iterations to the Duel to the Death feature are coming in a future build:

The minimum player level required to gain or grant stacks of the “String of Ears” buff is currently level 10. This will be raised to level 19 in a future PTR update.

There is currently no penalty for fleeing from a Duel to the Death. In an upcoming PTR update, we intend to implement a very punishing deserter-style debuff for players that flee an honorable Duel to the Death, in order to prevent exploits and non-participation in an agreed-upon duel.

The PvP honor system will be completely disabled on Hardcore Realms and this is intended.

Please note that we do plan to implement a method for hardcore players to obtain the PvP trinket when patch 1.14.4 goes live, as this trinket has utility outside of the Honor System (such as in duels or PvE content).

As always, we really appreciate your time on the Public Test Realm and are eager to read feedback from you on this game mode.