As we’ve discussed before, the nature of WoW Classic sometimes invokes different memories for different players, and this leads to certain misconceptions for some about what is or isn’t working as intended.
The following is a list of commonly-reported gameplay in WoW Classic that is not actually a bug, and is working as we expect it to:
- Tauren’s hitboxes and their melee reach is slightly larger than other races.
- Being critically struck while using /sit to sit does not cause abilities like Enrage, Blood Craze, and Reckoning to activate.
- Using the “Automatic Quest Tracking” option does not auto-track newly accepted quests. (It instead will start to track an existing quest once progress towards an objective is started.)
- Warrior health Regeneration is working at the expected rate.
- Quests objectives and points of interests are not tracked on the map or minimap.
- Completed quests are marked on the minimap with a dot. (and not a “?”)
- Feared players and NPCs run fast.
- Standing on top of other players while facing away allows spells and attacks to be used.
- Creature respawn rates are much slower than in Battle for Azeroth.
- NPCs which offer multiple quests may inconsistently display them as a dot or a “!” on the available quests list. They were inconsistent in 1.12, and we’ve reproduced the exact inconsistency they had back then.
- Quests that are too low level for do not show up as a “!” in the game world.
- Available quests do not display a “!” on the minimap.
- On level up, the message: “Your skill in Protection increased to 15” was added in 1.12.1, and we’re intending to keep that.
- You are unable to Polymorph enemy targets that are tapped by players with whom you are not grouped.
- At all levels of player characters and enemies, aggro radius is set to the intended distance.
- Long quest objectives don’t have text wrapping.
- Fall damage is equivalent to expected and verified values.
- Broadcast text can be seen multiple times if multiple players interact with the same NPC.
- WANTED signs do not have “!”, and are also not highlighted.
- Player characters do not animate when looting/interacting with quest objects (e.g. collecting pumpkins).
- Gnomes and Taurens are the correct size.
- “Melee leeway” is working as intended in both PvE and PvP.
- Cone of Cold is behaving consistently with the reference client.
- Arcane Missiles does not put the caster in combat .
- A Hunter’s Frost Trap ground effect will break Rogues out of stealth.
- The Berserking Troll racial ability is behaving as expected and matches the reference client.
- The pet that a Warlock has when initially logging into the game world does not restore a Soul Shard when dismissed by taking a flight path or moving out of range.
- The trigger range on Hunter’s traps are reduced by Stealth when the stealthed player is a similar or higher level than the Hunter.
- Soul Link cannot be dispelled by dispelling the Warlock’s pet.
- A Warlock’s Succubus and Felhunter pet cannot cast spells if they are out of line of sight of the target.
- Manually cancelling Stealth after using Vanish will remove the Vanish buff as well as the Stealth buff.
- Escape Artist has a very small chance to fail when used to escape an effect that has a decreased chance to be dispelled (e.g. a Rogue’s Vile Poisons talent).
- Rogues are not broken out of stealth by Blizzard until they take damage.
- Taunting Hunter pets that are set to Aggressive or Defensive mode will cause them to attack the taunting player.
- The threat generated by Battle Shout is not capped at 5 party members and is increased when affecting targets such as Hunter and Warlock pets within the same party.
- The chest at the end of the encounter with The Seven in Blackrock Depths does not prompt a loot roll. Beware of Ninjas!
- Other players do not see a Hunter’s quiver on their back.
- Shield Slam and other off-hand abilities does not proc extra attacks from Windfury.
- Logging into World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth while playing WoW Classic on the same game account will disconnect you from WoW Classic. This is true in reverse as well.
- Non-targeted, group, or AoE buffs will not affect party or raid members if you are flagged for pvp and your party or raid members are not flagged for pvp, or vice-versa.
- It is much easier to not get quest credit for escort quest objectives in WoW Classic than in Battle for Azeroth. Follow your NPC allies closely to ensure quest credit is obtained!
- Monsters will respawn more aggressively when reduced past certain thresholds of their original populations in many areas of the game. This is working correctly and is consistent with the reference client.
- Offhand attacks that occur while on-next-hit abilities such as Heroic Strike are queued do not suffer the dual wield to-hit penalty.
- Eternal Quintessence is not yet available to players and will arrive in a future phase.
- Stuns from procs such as Improved Revenge and Improved Concussive Shot do not diminish and are not diminished by Controlled Stun abilities such as Hammer of Justice and Kidney Shot.
- Various Plans and Recipes from the Thorium Brotherhood are not available until later phases.
- Practice Dummies in the Undercity cannot be attacked. There are no “Training Dummies” in WoW Classic.
- Overpower procs will be lost if the Warrior changes targets away from the target that dodged.
- The Eye of Shadow has a higher drop rate than many players expect.
- Note: This was changed late in Original WoW to have a much higher drop rate.
- The objective of the quest “Touch of Zanzil” will fail if the player is not targeting Doc Mixilpizil when they /lay command is used.
- A summoned Infernal that is no longer under the control of the Warlock will only affect PvP flagged targets and targets that are on its threat table and will quickly despawn when no viable targets are available.
- Some monsters have a “Thrash” mechanic and can proc multiple attacks against players in a very short duration.
- Note: Most of these monsters can also “store” these procs and unleash them all several seconds later. An example of this is the Princess Theradras encounter in Maraudon. The Princess will store her attacks if kited and can land several attacks instantly when she catches up to her target. This behavior is consistent with the reference client
- Righteous Fury grants additional threat on all holy abilities, not just attacks.
- Sharpening stones have “hidden” level requirements and higher level stones cannot be used on lower level weapons.
- The Juju Flurry buff increases attack speed but also lowers overall DPS by the same amount.
- Reckoning stacks are lost when you mount up.
- Reckoning stacks are lost when you initiate an auto-attack against a target and cancel it before it goes off.
- Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker can be completed and equipped by any class that can equip swords.
- Neretzek, The Blood Drinker’s proc effect does not scale with Spell Damage.
- It is possible for dispels to be resisted or fail, particularly if the source of the dispel is significantly lower level than the spell target.
Hunter concerns:
- Hunter “dead zone” is working as expected and is consistent with the Reference Client.
- A wolf pet’s Howl buff is consumed by anything that causes damage, even if it does not benefit from the buff.
- A Hunter pet’s Bite and Claw ability damage will not change in the tooltip based on the happiness of the pet. The tooltip will always display the damage as if the pet were Content (yellow). This is consistent with the Reference client.
- Traps can sometimes not be triggered if a player moves over them very quickly (i.e. a Warrior’s Charge ability). This behavior is consistent with the Reference client.
- Auto Shot does not make a sound when cast during the animation of Hunter’s Mark and certain other abilities.
- Scatter Shot, Wyvern Sting, and Freezing Trap share diminishing returns.
- A Hunter’s Frost Trap ground effect will break players out of stealth.
- The rate at which pet focus regenerates is not always consistent.
- Note: While the actual amount of focus that can be generated per tick is inconsistent, the total amount generated over time is flat and consistent. There are slight variations in the time between ticks that cause this to display inconsistently.
- Pet aggro radius is working properly and as expected. This is to say, it was extremely inconsistent in original WoW, and it remains inconsistent in WoW Classic.
- Pets “remember” targets that they have been instructed to attack previously and when sending a pet to attack a different target, the pet will return to attack any remaining targets they were previously instructed to attack when the currently engaged target dies.
- Pets that have been instructed to attack dead targets with a special ability or attack will attempt to approach and attack the dead target, but will return to the hunter’s side when the ability fails.
- Other players do not see a Hunter’s quiver on their back.
- Hunters can sometimes experience a slight delay before recasting Auto Shot after moving.
- Note: There is a hidden “retry” timer that occurs if the hunter is moving when the normal swing timer finishes. This timer checks for hunter movement before trying to resume auto shot, and this timer refreshes every 500ms when the hunter is moving. This means that if a Hunter is moving and stops moving just after this timer refreshes, you need to wait until the retry timer checks again to validate that you are no longer moving and can resume casting auto shot. This is not a result of spell batching or server heartbeats, and is specific to the functionality of a Hunter’s Auto Shot. This is consistent with Auto Shot functionality on the Reference client.
Updates for Patch 1.13.6 (12/03/2020)
Combat & Class Mechanics
- Consecration, Rain of Fire, Premeditation, Flamestrike, Arcane Missiles, Blizzard, and Volley are correctly counting as a debuff, but not displaying a debuff icon.
- Life Drain effects (enchants or procs) cannot crit, consistent with reference client behavior.
- Vaelastrasz the Corrupt and Nefarian are susceptible to the Vindication (and similar) debuff, and this strength reduction properly reduces the damage dealt by these creatures.
General
- The Ice Guard enchant cannot be applied to another player’s items via the enchant slot of the trade window.
- Green Lens’ random enchantment pool does not include elemental resistances.
Naxxramas
General
- Splinters of Atiesh are not tradable.
- Developer’s Note: This is unfortunately due to a technical limitation that prevents us from being able to make stackable Bind-on-Pickup items tradable during the 2-hour trade window. The only alternative was to make these items non-stackable which seemed even less palatable given the high number of these items that need to be gathered to complete Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian.
- Looting a Frozen Rune from the wall in Naxxramas will save you to the raid instance and that rune will not respawn.
- The “Pattern: Glacial Wrists” item that has been datamined, and that appears to require Hydraxian Waterlords reputation, is not obtainable in-game. Players who are Revered with Argent Dawn and who are master Tailors can learn how to craft Glacial Wrists directly from Master Craftsman Omarion in Naxxramas.
Arachnid Quarter
- On Anub’Rekhan, Corpse Scarabs do not immediately spawn from Crypt Guard corpses, and they may not spawn if Anub’Rekhan is out of range when the spawn timer delay is triggered.
- It is possible to pull Infectious Skitterer packs through the gate after the Anub’Rekhan encounter with healing aggro.
- Arcane Bombs do not affect Naxxramas Cultists or Naxxramas Acolytes.
- The “Widow’s Embrace” debuff that Faerlina’s Worshippers cast when they sacrifice themselves will also be placed on nearby players, but has no detrimental effects.
- Flask of Petrification and similar effects or immunities may not prevent Maexxna’s Web Spray ability.
Military Quarter
- If any trash is left alive when Instructor Razuvious is pulled, all of the trash will pull with him.
- Instructor Razuvious does not have a chat line accompanying the Disrupting Shout mechanic.
- Disrupting Shout only deals damage if it drains mana, and the damage it deals is dependent upon the amount of mana drained.
- Instructor Razuvious will emote/bark when he kills a player, but there is an internal cooldown on how often he will do so.
- Deathknight Understudy has a small chance to miss its attacks against Instructor Razuvious.
- Gothik the Harvester, or his adds, may spawn additional enemies if they detect no living players on one side of the encounter space.
- Four Horsemen will run through the door to attack still-living players who are outside the encounter space when the encounter is reset.
- Plagued Ghouls cannot be debuffed by Frost Trap.
Plague Quarter
- Plagued Gargoyles’ AoE attacks cannot be avoided by line-of-sight manipulation.
- Noth the Plaguebringer does not have a voice line/chat emote to signal his teleportation to the balcony to begin the adds phase.
- Heigan the Unclean’s Mana Burn ability does not use an Arcane Explosion visual.
- The door between the eyestalk gauntlet and Heigan the Unclean’s room is intentionally left open during the encounter.
- The hallway between Loatheb and Heigan the Unclean is intentionally empty once the Heigan encounter has been completed.
- Loatheb’s Spore spawn locations are dependent upon boss positioning, and match reference client.
Abomination Quarter
- Patchwerk’s Hateful Strike mechanic considers both high threat and high HP.
- In the 3rd row of Living Poison slimes after Patchwerk, the fifth blob that spawns always disappears, creating a gap.
- Stitched Spewer knockbacks match the reference client.
- Gluth’s Decimate casts are not based on time, and its interaction is consistent with design.
- Thaddius is tauntable.
- Positive Charge and Negative Charge debuffs are not removed when Thaddius dies, and will continue to deal damage in the presence of oppositely-charged players or when the debuffs expire.
Frostwyrm Lair
- Frost Aura damage is not affected by Dampen Magic or Amplify Magic.
- Sapphiron’s Blizzard deals damage periodically, but applies the Slow effect instantaneously to players in its area of effect. Players who are dipping in and out of the Blizzard effect may never take damage as reapplying the aura delays its first DoT tick.
- Sapphiron does not display a target while casting Icebolt at players.
- Players are out of line of sight for healing and other beneficial spells while affected by Sapphiron’s Icebolt.
- Players who were struck by another target’s Icebolt are ineligible targets for their own Icebolt, which may result in fewer than 5 ice blocks spawning during the encounter.
- Pets and totems cannot be targeted by Icebolt.
- Sapphiron’s Frost Breath may be avoided with the use of Vanish.
- Unstoppable Abominations’ health pools, Mortal Wound ability damage, and inability to be disarmed, all matches their reference client behavior.
- Guardian of Icecrown’s scaling damage and Bloodtap ability matches reference client behavior.
- Guardian of Icecrown can be affected by roots and snares.
- Kel’thuzad’s highest threat target is a valid selection for Chains of Kel’Thuzad.
We appreciate all of your feedback!