As Blizz repeadedly tell us that the only PvP on HC servers is of the consensual kind, I will cntinue to maintanín that this is a bug, and you are wrong.
The blizz post also says that settlement guards will still flag you and there is nothing saying these npcs shouldn’t be flagging you. So, there is still a very reasonable assertion that this is intended.
You can maintain whatever you want, but there’s nothing to prove that this interaction is a bug that’s being exploited. So, how can you justifiably punish him for killing a flagged person in open world pvp?
The answer is you cant.
Yes. It’s precisely this sort of misusage of the term griefer that detracts from its meaning.
… if you attack them.
And yet they still flag you when you get attacked. So again, this has been the case since the beginning. If it hasnt been fixed by now, is it really a bug when they changed other NPCs early on?
We’re going in circles here so unless you have something new, let’s just agree to disagree.
No he meant you actually have to hit the guard back homie, the Loch Modan guards flag you IF THEY hit you.
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I understood and my statement is still accurate. You always got flagged if those mobs attacked you regardless if you hit back.
also in Era?
Th Hunter lvl 60 was in our guild. He went alone unannounced, wanted to be a hero. Which is fine, up until the point where the enemy rouge was able to disengage, at that moment our guy should have ran instead of sitting around. That rouge could have a hundred alliance players lvl 60 flying in from IF in 2min. Our dude was far away from “home”, he was doomed.
The same reason they have banned people for doing things like, say, pulling an elite dwarf mob from Badlands into the loch modan town and then watching it kill players. Or that time someone streaming was on a zeppelin and made an intentionally incorrect statement about num lock opening up all your bags that caused a player to run off and kill themselves, and his reaction was caught on camera it got used as the evidence to ban him. All of these are mechanics in how the game is supposed to work, but it was used in nefarious ways and therefore actionable. Hell in the latter case the offender didn’t even do anything to that specific player, he just said some words, and he still got actioned despite the other player being physically in control of his own character.
What people tend to forget is that griefing is a social concept, and by proxy you can say that makes it’s a legal one. There’s no legal system within WoW/Blizzard, but the point of calling it a “legal” concept is to highlight that what matters when discussing griefing is the intent of the player’s actions and this has been seen time and time again; it’s nothing new. Blizzard doesn’t ban people for accidentally taking advantage of something, but they do ban if they determine that they did it intentionally; Legion artifact power abuse and BFA leveling potion bugs come to mind.
And by the way if you’re really confused about this go make yourself a new HC character and reread the HC Social contract. Because there’s a few pieces of critical text within it, namely:
“Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right to take the most severe actions in response to deliberate negative behavior on these realms. Any players willfully and deliberately causing player death outside of consensual PvP or disrupting the play environment will find their accounts subject to disciplinary action.”
Now, for the life of me I’m not sure why Blizzard does not go to some extra lengths to remove some of these bad interactions that exist within the game (they have changed some things), but the sole fact that some still exist does not give player’s an excuse to abuse them. They have even said that just because you find some sort of bug they expect players to be cognizant about it and use their own discretion to realize it’s a bug and not exploit it.
The same logic applies here; if you know that there’s a spot where unintentional flagging occurs and you are choosing to camp it so you can catch low level player caught off guard, then if nothing else you are creating a negative environment for players within the game and that violates the HC agreement. You can call it whatever you want, but it’s still in violation and no mental gymnastics about how it’s intended in-game behavior matters at that point.
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The “intended gameplay” not being a grief is definitely nonsensical.
Like in Strat, the fight where one person gets mind controlled… Yes, you can kill them because it’s an ‘intended mechanic.’ But if all you do is queue Strat and kill 1 person every run, there’s a 100% chance you’re going to get banned (deservedly).
There is a difference between those actions and killing flagged players.
- Elite dwarf is not intended to engage combat outside of his zone.
- spreading misinformation to kill players is never intended by dev
- MC mechanics is intended to reduce MC players’ hp or kited away them, and is not intended to kill them.
However, pvp flagged players are intended to be attacked by pvp flagged enemies.
If you are in combat with enemy faction NPCs or players, you are automatically flagged.
These pvp killing actions are legit and can been seen as patriotic actions against mud hut invaders.
Get the heck off Alliance lands if you don’t want to die.
Slay the Horde !!! For the Alliance !!!
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There is not.
Aggroing a guard should not pvp flag a player in HC. Maybe I’m overlooking some exploitative mechanics why this would be necessary, but as long as the player doesn’t attack the guard I don’t see why they’d be pvp flagged.
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So by your logic, killing someone in a battleground is griefing.
One of the hottest takes of 2025.
If that’s what you took from my post I can’t help you.
Also who wants to tell him BGs basically don’t exist in HC?
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You dont really provide much substance.
A 6 paragraph post wasn’t enough for you?
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I didn’t read it because your first sentence was completely nonsensical and deliberately obtuse.
That’s adorable.
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