Since their original launch in 2019, Blizzard's official World of Warcraft Classic realms have seen tremendous popularity among new and returning players. Beyond the timeless nature of WoW Classic, Blizzard has further nurtured the classic player base by offering a consistent slew of new game modes and further expansions. Recently, Blizzard has decided to return to the basics with brand-new realms for both standard and hardcore game modes. While standard realms provide the typical WoW Classic experience, hardcore realms make death permanent, presenting a whole host of challenges to overcome in leveling and end-game content.

Fresh realms always generate excitement, with players racing to engage with the timeless world once again. The new realms will unlock end-game content through a phase system, updating the realm with patches which will ultimately lead into The Burning Crusade. That is, except for the fresh hardcore realms, which will stay locked to WoW's original release. Confining hardcore to classic-only realms is a disappointing choice, especially with the constant experimentation and overlapping release time of progressing realms. While this opportunity has been missed with the new batch of realms, TBC would create a near-endless supply of challenge and fun.

Burning Crusade Deserves A Hardcore Mode In WoW

The Burning Crusade Maintains And Improves Many Of Classic WoW's Beloved Features

Hardcore, of course, shouldn't be carelessly slapped into every expansion that WoW has released, such as the smart profession usage in Classic are also essential, a far cry from WoW's current leveling philosophy. While perhaps not initially appealing, these mechanics created a truly immersive world, ed by the scale of zones introduced in WoW's release.

Burning Crusade, however, feels like the one exception. TBC brought forward a variety of much-loved changes, while carrying over many of the quirks that made Classic so immersive. Previously unplayable classes suddenly excelled, class design had largely improved, and the raiding content was some of the best ever made. While the game-space was certainly more confined, leveling from 60 to 70 is still a long process, preserving constant travel and low drop rates. The amount of content to be gained from TBC is near endless, with significantly more end-game content to chew through after reaching level 70.

Burning Crusade Hardcore Would Be Brutal

An Unprecedented Hardcore Challenge Awaits Players In The Outlands

Perhaps the apprehension to make TBC hardcore realms stems from its difficulty. Besides the comparable challenge of TBC leveling, with even more roaming elite enemies than the already deadly Son's of Arugal in Silverpine forest, the end-game content has some truly brutal encounters. WoW Classic's end-game, except for the final Naxrammas raid, includes relatively simple fight designs. While it is undoubtedly an impressive challenge to defeat these raids in parties of all hard-core characters, TBC raids are at another level of complexity and difficulty, and have the potential to wipe out entire groups in the blink of an eye.

With both Classic and TBC leveling being arduous processes, it also raises the question of player time-investment. Grinding through 50 hours of leveling content is an achievement of itself, and it's difficult to say whether players would be willing to risk their characters through another 50. There has also been less opportunity to play through TBC in recent years, meaning knowledge checks and instant deaths would present more of a problem for players entering Outland. Falling deaths would likely see a spike too, with TBC's introduction of flying mounts potentially killing players in combination with server lag and disconnects.

How Burning Crusade Hardcore Could Work

Blizzard Would Need To Address Concerns With A TBC Hardcore Realm

Extra considerations would need to be made by Blizzard to minimize these concerns. The already included option of free realm transfers for dead characters is a solid first step, but may not be enough solace for the potential deadliness of TBC. One option is creating ways for players to jump into TBC faster, such as with the ability to make level 60 characters from the start. The difficulty here would lie in preserving Classic's hardcore experience. The previous batch of hardcore realms are perfect options for character transferring solutions, giving players the ability to stay within Classic if desired.

Utilizing character transfers in this way would maintain the appeal of fresh hardcore realms, while giving players the option to choose where their adventure ends. Ultimately, brutal difficulty is what hardcore is centered around, and TBC presents an opportunity to extend that experience to one of the most beloved World of Warcraft expansions. While there may be no current plans for this feature, hopefully Blizzard realizes the major potential of a hardcore TBC realm.