The newest installment in World of Warcraft: Classic is the seasonal Season of Mastery. It came a lot sooner than most people anticipated but it has attracted quite a large player base nonetheless. You can credit this to the love of the game or simply that TBC is going through a bit of a dry spell right now in content with Phase 2 hitting two months old. On top of a regular restart came the widely attracted Hardcore mode. We've gone over this mode in posts of the past and as expected it has taken the game by storm. It seems everybody wants to participate in this new idea of leveling without dying. The Road to Rag project takes it to another level with veteran Hardcore players trying to go past old goals of hitting 60 and hitting new ones of killing Ragnaros, the iconic Vanilla boss, without dying a single time.

With a new Classic launch comes another race to 60. This time it was not nearly as popular as the 2019 launch but some familiar names, such as JokerD the former world first 60 in 2019, came to play. In the end a player named Zarant achieved the World First SOM 60. Here is a clip of the feat . Now it doesn't seem like anybody was coming close to Zarant but JokerD was doing something a little different this time. On his trusty gnome mage doing the same AoE farms of races past he was playing on Hardcore. Death equals delete. If you have watched or participated in Hardcore before you will realize AoE farming is a very risky play but JokerD wanted to not only be world first 60 he wanted to do it Hardcore for the extra spice. Sadly at level 50 JokerD made a crucial mistake that can only be warranted due to his lack of sleep over the course of this race. Here is a clip

So who got first 60 Hardcore? It was a duo of experienced Classic speed runners. Tommysalami and Tactics decided it was only right to honor JokerD by hitting 60 on the same mobs he lost his life to. Here is a clip . Since then many other 60's have joined them and close calls in BRD, LBRS, and many other high level dungeons have had spectators and fellow levelers on the edge of their seats. I will go out on a limb and say Hardcore will keep Classic WoW alive for many years to come. It is a content generating machine with high level deaths and close calls. With the new Hardcore addon that is required to participate in Road to Rag you get notified when people die and everybody in the one of many guilds types a farewell "F" in chat. The community feel is unmatched compared to other current WoW game styles. This particular clip had a lot of the community rolling in their seats. A horde player dabbling in Hardcore Alliance mindlessly afking in the Duskwood road not realizing Stitches lurks. Here is a clip

It will be interesting to see if Road to Rag is possible. A lot of people are trying to get to 60 but are falling like flies due to lack of patience, bad RNG, or even worse a griefer kiting dragons to Stormwind with the goal of wiping out peoples time. Yes this is a thing. What are your thoughts on Hardcore? Do you see it as a well made community extension to keep a 20 year old game refreshing or a complete waste of time?