I have amended this report due to all of the new information we’ve been learning through the Theorycraft and Druid discord. Please see below for the current and full report:
1. Shoulder Enchants and Class Enchants
2. Temporary Weapon Buff Enchants
3. Loot Trading
5. Spell Batching or Trade Bug?
4. Exploitation and History
Shoulder Enchants and Class Enchants
Recently it has been popularized within the community that Level 19 players have been running around with Zul’Gurub Class Enchantments on their Helm/Leg slots as well as their shoulder enchantments. This isn’t new behavior for Classic nor was it unheard of in Vanilla.
Since Phase 1, you could place Argent Dawn shoulder enchantments onto other pieces of gear and trade them away. In Vanilla, you could also achieve this possibility most commonly utilized via the Naxxramas shoulder enchantments you’d receive from Sapphiron.
What wasn’t very well known is the possibility of doing this with the Zul’Gurub Class enchantments, but there is evidence even today through patch notes as well as current retail players stuck in limbo on Armory that this was possible. There was a method in Vanilla that persisted through all or nearly all of TBC that utilized the Mail in order to achieve these results.
Items which these enchantments are utilized on are Bind on Equip items. Argent Dawn and Zul’Gurub shoulder enchants and Zul’Gurub class helm/leg enchants currently create a binding soulbind effect once the item is enchanted. Naxxramas shoulder enchantments do not have this current behavior until WoTLK.
Source: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/415573477282545695/701094724379082822/wgS5MJYh.png
Temporary Weapon Buff Enchants
The current method in Classic can also be utilized to place Rogue weapon enchantments such as Crippling Poison, Instant Poison, Deadly Poison, etc. onto another individuals weapon. Again, like the shoulder and class enchantments this is only possible through placing them on BoE weapons and trading them away.
Enchanting weapons in this nature also creates a soulbind effect onto weapons. This type of exploitative behavior for Instant Poison on BoE weapons for raiders would be tremendously expensive if it was discovered that these enchantments are the most optimal. However, for the lower Level brackets this is a incredible boost.
It appears possible to even have a Shaman enchant a BoE and/or raid looted weapon with Rockbiter, Flametongue, Frostband, and/or Wind Fury and trade it away.
Source: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/583997297575198727/701467615691931714/unknown.png
Source: https://puu.sh/FzKIW/bea3fc0da4.jpg
Loot Trading
Loot Trading is a unBlizz-like feature that wasn’t apart of Vanilla and was soley integrated into Classic so Blizzard didn’t have to police the community with poor and mishapped decisions. Unfortunately, there is a vicious side effect to having the ability to trade a raid item within a 2hour window with the new found information we have with these ZG Enchantments.
Source: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/498619347778928661/701499954589597796/image0.png
Spell Batching or Trade Bug
At first thought it was believed to due to spell batching via the method in which these enchantments are acquired. However, is it possible that it’s a completely unrelated and entirely new issue in itself due with trading and mailing in general?
Source: https://clips.twitch.tv/SpeedyEnthusiasticGalagoSeemsGood
Source: https://clips.twitch.tv/ColdBusyVelociraptorGivePLZ
Exploitation and History
As mentioned prior we can see that this behavior was known about in Vanilla and carried through until WoTLK when it was finally addressed in various different ways. Firstly, in patch 3.0.8 addressing the Mail exploitation and then in 3.1 addressing the Naxxramas shoulder enchantment opportunity.
The method that was utilized often in TBC was the following:
- First just get your enchant from ZG, Aldor, or Scryer.
- Have the shoulders on your main as well
- Get to a mailbox and open the window and fill out your twinks name and message
- Start enchanting your shoulders, it has a 5 second cast timer.
- During this 5 seconds you place the shoulders in the letter and hover over the send button.
- The second that it is enchanted you hit send and it is mailed to your twink.
This method has been unconfirmed as of this report if it works in Classic.
Now requires the user to be at least level 70. Previously could be enchanted and sent to low-level alts, enabling the wielder to one-shot enemies many levels higher than the user.
Source: https://wowwiki.fandom.com/wiki/Patch_3.0.8_(undocumented_changes)
Old Naxxramas Shoulder Enchants will now soulbind items.
Source: https://wowwiki.fandom.com/wiki/Patch_3.1.0
As evidence to show that this opportunity was never fully rectified and persists even today in BFA, 15+ years later we can view various different characters on Armory with the ZG/Naxxramas shoulder enchants and class enchants: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/253206622522834945/701390112101236797/unknown.png
Note: The stats have been converted overtime from the game changing the stats of these enchants.
It is quite clear that this is exploitative in nature, however is it a relic of Vanilla that should go untouched such as other exploits like Noggenfogger? The “out of the norm” behavior is Loot Trading, but it is fair to point out that a normal player can’t acquire these enchantments in a normal-game mechanic otherwise. It requires “steps” so to speak.
It’s a slippery slope to address. In the past Blizzard has noteably nerfed Runeblade of Baron Rivendare’s 1:1 +healing scaling, citing that it does not operate in the way it works in Classic on the reference client. Failure in admitting that it currently does and has always operated in this fashion.
On the other hand, they refused to address Diamond Flask for the very same mechanic, which is actively abused by Warrior’s. The only rational reasoning for the lack of this nerf is due to there being tangible patch notes which refute when and how the item was nerfed.
The enchantments have strong documentation which support their behavior much like Diamond Flask Vanilla behavior. A nerf would either mean the reference client is to be discredited in its entirety or Blizzard must fix this from the top all the way to the bottom.
This isn’t just a Classic opportunity to address and I hope everyone, including Blizard, understands this. If altered and fixed for Classic it must be addressed for every single iteration of WoW all the way up to BFA since current characters that have seemingly “been lost to time” still have these enchantments populated on their characters.