WoW Classic Era Version 1.14.4 Patch Notes

World of Warcraft Classic Era Patch Notes - Version 1.14.4 - August 22, 2023

Hardcore Realms

New Classic Era Hardcore realms will open at 3:00 p.m. PDT on August 24.

When a player-character dies on a Hardcore realm, they cannot resurrect or be resurrected by any other spell or ability. After death, the player-character continues to exist in the game world as a ghost to facilitate communication with in-game friends and resolve logistical matters. The character is not necessarily lost, however. After dying on a Hardcore realm, players will be able to choose to utilize the Free Character Move service and move their dead character to a non-Hardcore Classic Era realm. Once the move is complete to the non-hardcore realm, that character may resurrect as normal.

On Hardcore realms, players are not automatically flagged for PvP upon attacking another player. To flag yourself for PvP, you must type the command /pvp. You won’t be able to take hostile actions against a flagged enemy player unless you flag yourself deliberately. PvP battlegrounds are completely disabled, as are all PvP Battlemasters. You may enter premade Wargames, but you may not gain honor or PvP reputations from Wargames. Various quests and objectives that cause players to become PvP flagged, such as the quest “The Attack” and “The Missing Diplomat”, do not cause players to become flagged for PvP.

All dungeons have at least a 24-hour lockout timer for players below level 60. Furthermore, level 60 players may never enter lower-level dungeons with players below level 60 for any reason. Additionally, group experience restrictions are in place, as they were on Season of Mastery realms. Players who are significantly higher level than the creatures in a given dungeon will cause those creatures to grant trivial experience to the other members of the group.

The 16 debuff limit and 32 buff limits have been removed on Hardcore realms. Paladins will not be able to use their Hearthstone while under the effects of Blessing of Protection, Divine Protection, or Divine Shield on Hardcore realms.

A new feature is available on Hardcore realms: Duel to the Death. To issue a Duel to the Death, right-click the target’s portrait and request a Duel to the Death from the context menu. A Duel to the Death can also be triggered by selecting the target and typing /makgora in your chat window. Before commencing combat, both parties must read and acknowledge a warning message and type “I Agree” to begin. Death in a Duel to the Death is permanent, just like any other death on Hardcore realms. The number of kills you receive in Duels to the Death are tracked and rewarded with a special cosmetic buff on your character called “String of Ears”. Each time you win a Duel to the Death, you will receive a “trophy,” and the stack count on this buff will increase by 1. Anyone who clicks on your character will be able to see what a frightful combatant you are by the number of Ears you’ve collected. You cannot earn the String of Ears buff before level 10, and you cannot earn the buff if you and your opponent are too many levels apart.

Hardcore realms will have all the original WoW Content phases unlocked and available right at launch.

Classic Era PvP Ranking Update

On Classic Era realms, the PvP Ranking system has been revamped. In the reworked system, Ranking Points have been eliminated, Honor is visible immediately after each Honor Kill (or Dishonorable Kill), and de-ranking is no longer a factor, making the system less punishing if you take breaks from ranking. Most importantly, your Rank is no longer determined by a comparison with other players, and the amount your rank increases each week during the weekly reset is solely determined by your PvP efforts in a given week.

Maximum honor gains for the week are currently set to 500,000 Honor per week. If you earn 500,000 Honor in a given week, you will reach the maximum progress possible in a single week. Earning over 500,000 Honor in a given week will confer no other bonus nor cause you to rank faster.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue that allowed certain raid buff items from the Season of Mastery version of Naxxramas to be used in Classic Era realms.
• Fixed an issue that could cause players to disconnect from the game when pressing the space bar to swim upwards while underwater.
• Fixed various issues with Vanish and Feign Death that could be used to flag nearby players for PvP.
• Fixed various issues that could cause enemy creatures to fall through the world when pathing through water.
• Fixed an issue with the Summon Incubus ability costing less mana than Summon Succubus.

With the 1.14.4 patch to WoW Classic Era, we’ve updated how PvP ranking works, both in immediate gameplay and via weekly rank calculations. For those who wish to know the details of how this system calculates weekly ranking, we’ve put together the following overview.

Each week during the weekly reset, the system now takes the following steps:

• Convert the player’s total weekly honor points to Contribution Points (CP).
• Find the player’s “expected rank”, given this amount of CP.
• If the player’s “expected rank” is greater than or equal to their current rank, then for each rank above their own (up to a maximum of 4 ranks), they are awarded the difference in CP between each rank above theirs and the next below it, multiplied by the honor change factor for that rank.
• If the player’s expected rank falls below their current rank, they will instead decay.
  
  • Please note that in this new system, de-ranking is not possible due to decay that comes from the player doing no PvP in a given week. De-ranking can now only happen if the player is at the lower end of a rank and chooses to commit dishonorable kills while not earning enough positive honor to offset them.

Honor points convert to CP based at different rates between ranks 1 - 6, ranks 7 - 10, and ranks 11 - 14. Honor points are worth less CP in higher ranks.

500,000 honor points is the upper limit for a week, and 500,000 honor points equates to 65,000 CP (Rank 14). 175,000 honor points equals 40,000 CP (Rank 10), and 45,000 honor points equates to 20,000 CP (Rank 6).

Each rank has a required CP threshold and an honor change factor. For example, if a player’s final total amount of CP is 23,014, that would put them in Rank 6. We use the honor change factor to determine what percentage of CP earned should be awarded for each rank.

Rank	CP Required for Rank	Change factor for Rank
1	0*	1.0
2	2000	1.0
3	5000	1.0
4	10000	0.8
5	15000	0.8
6	20000	0.8
7	25000	0.7
8	30000	0.7
9	35000	0.6
10	40000	0.5
11	45000	0.5
12	50000	0.4
13	55000	0.4
14	60000	0.34

*For rank 1, you must satisfy minimum PvP requirements — at least 15 HKs.

Here are a couple of examples of calculations that take place.

Example 1

A player is currently at Rank 4 and earns 50,000 honor points.

The weekly calculation is based on the amount of honor points gained this week. 50,000 honor points equals roughly 20,769 CP.

The “expected rank” for that amount of CP is Rank 6, since 20,000 CP is the minimum threshold for Rank 6. Rank 6 is higher than their current rank, so they will gain ranking progress this week. (If players’ expected rank falls below the next rank up, they will instead decay.)

For each rank the player has qualified for — at or above their current rank, up to a maximum of 4 ranks — they are awarded CP. First, we have (Rank 5 CP - Rank 4 CP) * (Rank 5 honor change factor). Then we add (Rank 6 CP - Rank 5 CP) * (Rank 6 honor change factor). So for this week in total, the player will earn: ((15,000 - 10,000) * 0.8) + ((20,000 - 15,000) * 0.8) = 8,000 CP. This will bring the player up to Rank 5.

Example 2

A player is currently at Rank 2 and earns 500,000 honor points. 500,000 honor points equals the maximum amount of earnable CP in a week, which is 65,000.

65,000 CP is the minimum threshold for Rank 14, so the player’s “expected rank” is Rank 14.

For each rank the player has qualified for — at or above their current rank, up to a maximum of 4 ranks — they are awarded CP. First, we have (Rank 3 CP - Rank 2 CP) * (Rank 3 honor change factor). Next, add (Rank 4 CP - Rank 3 CP) * (Rank 4 honor change factor). Next, add (Rank 5 CP - Rank 4 CP) * (Rank 5 honor change factor). Finally, add (Rank 6 CP - Rank 5 CP) * (Rank 6 honor change factor). So for this week in total, the player will earn: ((5,000 - 2,000) * 1.0) + ((10,000 - 5,000) * 0.8) + ((15,000 - 10,000) * 0.8) + ((20,000 - 15,000) * 0.8) = 15,000 CP. This will bring the player up to Rank 5.