“It’s important to note that attacking an enemy faction NPC will still flag you even if you haven’t typed /pvp, so steer clear of settlements of the opposing faction!”
You missed one very important line. That last one. “It’s important to note that attacking an enemy faction NPC will still flag you even if you haven’t typed /pvp, so steer clear of settlements of the opposing faction!”
You don’t necessarily have to attack them to gain their attention, but you also should know not to get too close to a place where enemy NPCs will go after you. They safeguarded Hardcore from accidentally flagging by a flagged player or thereabouts. Safeguarding players from the opposing faction’s guard NPCs would bring about all sorts of abuse of that mechanic. How many people do you think would suddenly be traipsing about in enemy cities and the like if they had that kind of freedom?
I did read that line, and as I mentioned I did not attack the guards. That’s Fine, but they should rephrase it and mention that just getting attacked by guards will flag you as well, not only the other way around.
Not sure what abuse of mechanics you are referring to by not having guards flag you for pvp when they hit you, if you don’t attack them back. Guards vs. quest givers are different units and you’d still run huge risks of dying by running into main city with max level guards.
If you have any kind of passive affect that deals damage back to the npc (thorns for example), it will flag you.
As well you should. The safeguard was only against PLAYERS. They said nothing about NPCs because that should be self-explanatory. Enemy guards and NPCS are going to go after you just like they normally do - no matter the game iteration or play style. And if they will agro to you, then of course you’re going to be flagged. That’s how it is across the board.
yes, and i suspect even things you wouldn’t ordinarily think would trigger the flag do as well. for example, any talent that reacts to being hit is probably considered “an attack”. bottom line: stay away from guards 
Go after us, yes. Try to kill you, yes.
But if you do the EXACT same in Era, the guards will go after you, trying to kill you with all means, but NOT flag you for PvP.
It is a new - unexpected - bug, introduced somehow with the elimination of PvP quests.
Not on Era. The guy at the lift can smack me until I’m dead, but I won’t be flagged.
I have absolutely no idea why your post is getting so many likes. 99% of the guards in the game will not flag you unless YOU attack THEM. This isn’t new to HC servers, this has always been the way it worked. In the world you would occasionally find a rogue guard that would actually flag you if they hit you … camp mojache in Feralas comes to mind. This is unusual and aberrant behavior for guards.
So if you are suggesting that guards not flagging you unless you actively attack them would open all sorts of abuse… then where is the abuse? This is how guards work almost everywhere all the time and they always have so where is the abuse?
Then it should be reported as a bug. I will confess I don’t spend much time in either Classic iteration, but I’m just rolling with what Blizzard has said on the matter and just my own dealings with if it’s red and running towards you - danger.
Why? You’re part of the 1% that actually read that stuff.
It’s a bug and should be fixed. You never got PVP flagged for guards attacking you in vanilla. Only for attacking back.
It should be fixed so players don’t have to take non vanilla extra measures to deal with a bug when trying to get to Badlands as horde.
If guards attack you, yes they will flag you in classic (ERA) and probably did in vanilla, but it’s been too long. Some quests are still flagging people still however, I know I reported a bug on one the other day.
Either way, not everything will be in the “Rules of Engagement” and if you think something is a bug, report it. That said always give guards lots of room, and if you do flag for whatever reason, hide for 5 minutes, or jump on a flight, that will clear it. It is my understanding that it’s only people that you have to /pvp to turn pvp on, not guards.
well, things change i like this system better anyway. what, are these guards chopped liver to you? they should be a threat of some kind.
I’m seeing a lot of this in this thread and all I can think is that you guys have mostly played on pvp servers. This is not how flagging works on pve servers. 99% of the guards in game will only flag you if you attack them. You will not get flagged simply by being attacked by a guard.
I was gonna do some quick testing to illustrate it but I kinda forgot that most of my era characters are on PvP servers. Can’t test what flags you if you are already flagged. However, I did have one mid thirties human mage and I ran around a bit. I aggrod a bunch of guards and let them hit me, but never fought back. Here is what I learned:
Hammerfal - Arathi: Did not flag me
Tarren Mill Death Guards: Did not flag me
Sepulcher guards: Did not flag me
Deathguards at Brill Zeppelin: Did not flag me
I was going to test undercity guards but apparently there are none posted outside and it autoflags you if you enter a main city.
So there you have it, guards generally are not supposed to flag you just because you aggrod them.
Not imo, I feel it’s reasonable on a PvE server. Outposts, scouts, etc should be hostile, but not flag if you don’t attack back ideally. Cities are fine having a territorial flag.
It’s not the guards that scare people, it’s the getting flagged and murked afterwards that scares them
If only they had put the HC sever on the PTR for people to test 
I’m just glad to hear pvp happened. HC PvP servers when?