The trick will always be that Blizzard would have to be convinced the ganker is doing it intentionally.
If someone is accidentally flagged and someone else comes across them and takes them out for it there is no action to take against the ganker even though there was unintentional flagging and, from the ganked player’s perspective, nonconsenasual PvP.
But if someone decides to make it their mission to prey on flagged people in an area they know is prone to accidental flags they would very likely be actioned for it if Blizzard was confident that was their intention. And hopefully if the issue is prevelant enough Blizzard will deploy a fix.
The problem is verifying the intent. It’s easy to verify when a quest like the missing diplomat exists and people named “backtoelwynn” gank you immediately after it flags you. Harder when it’s roaming pats that are causing this, and anyone looking to take advantage of it has to scour the zone looking for players who got caught recently. So long as they aren’t blasting in chat about how their sole purpose is to gank people their intent won’t be obvious, especially if they are doing other activities in the zone when they can’t find anyone. In that case I doubt Blizzard does anything, nor should they.
I think the rules of engagement are probably more a deterrent than anything since I don’t think Blizzard has the support staff to thoroughly examine every claim.
It wouldn’t hurt to also ban people to make a point and make an even stronger deterrent though. If some person went on a gank spree in the swamp and became infamous, Blizzard might ban that person at least due to visibility and to deter other players from doing the same thing.
Sorry you’re too bad to pay attention to where you’re running. Hardcore is about situational awareness and preparation.
There’s some zones that are worse for horde with regard to guards (Loch->badlands trip, raynewood retreat in ashenvale with ‘hidden’ guards, southshore in hillsbrad), and some for alliance (e.g. 1kn lift, SoS)
Now that you know, deal with it and pay attention to where you are and stop being a crybaby if you mess up.
… and settlement should NOT flag you. Only Capital cities does (should do) AND attacking (not passing, or being hit by) Guards, Flight masters, Innkepoers, questgivers OR manually typing /pvp at the chat prompt.
Do you have any idea the amount of things that are inaccurate in the WoW manual? They changed the game constantly from launch day and on.
Here’s a tip: stay clear of opposing faction guards. That’s on you.
Man, the amount of people who don’t actually want hardcore is staggering. Anything they consider ‘unfair’ must be a bug! Must be ‘fixed’. Deal with the challenge. That’s the point of a hardcore server.
It was not like this in Vanilla. It was - and is - not like this in Era. It is a bug.
I just hope that you and all other PvP freaks get their own HC PvP server soon.
But of course killing unfortunate, maybe new - and as you see it bad - players is the perfect solution to the overpopulation on the HC servers, so go for it guys.
This happened because you say it did? I’m just supposed to believe that? A few days ago I was standing at that Lift on my troll priest and standing right next to me was a human pally and the guards didn’t give a damn. So excuse me if I’m skeptical.
It’s a hardcore server: err on the side of caution. Don’t be reckless; be careful.
Only PvP freaks will wait at their own faction guards for that player, who having played HC on the Era servers “know”! where to go and where not to … only they changed the rules (with a bug or two) in official Hardcore.
I am careful, but random bugs should be fixed by Blizz fixing their game, not by the players playing as if even a critter could kill you.
You cannot, and have never been able to run unopposed through the opposite factions settlements. The new thing is that now, randomly some guards other than those in the capitals, and those you attack, flags you for PvP.
I see them more as scouts. Just my take, and they can be avoided. I think the issue here is that before recently you didn’t flag from merely being slapped by one.
As I wrote before,
There are a lot of bugs in HC, this one may not be a priority.