by Blizzard took down the banhammer at “almost 120,000” World of Warcraft classic accounts after discovering that players were creating bots to exploit the Death Knight class to extract resources in the Wrath of the Lich King classic expansion that started in September.
For the uninitiated, World of Warcraft classic launched in 2019 and is a reversal of Wow to its state in 2006, but using the modern infrastructure of the current game. Since the game gradually added the expansions of the main game, it has since reached Wrath of the Lich King. In this expansion, the special Death knight class is introduced, and the starts at level 55. Initially the World of Warcraft classic version of this special “hero class” was available to players without restrictions, rather than requiring them to reach the level cap as they had to in the original World of Warcraft. Despite the removal of that requirement, Death Knights still start at level 55, which meant players could create new accounts, start out as a Death Knight and jump right into the Wrath of the Lich King expanding endgame content much faster processing raw materials at a high level. As a result, bots have overrun the servers and Blizzard has finally taken action.
In a statement on the company forumsBlizzard says it not only banned 120,000 accounts engaging in this nonsense, but also reinstated the level cap requirement of the original game in an attempt to discourage it altogether.
“We felt it was very important for the launch of Wrath of the Lich King classic to allow anyone who wanted to step into this iconic expansion to do so with as few barriers as possible,” the statement read. “It was important to give every account access to Death Knights, even if they didn’t meet historical requirements. However, now that the initial launch period is over, we no longer want to allow unlimited Death Knights to be created on brand new accounts. It is a tempting vector for malicious actors to come into play and take advantage very quickly.”
The community already seems pleased with the decision, with one user on the forums calling it a “straight nerf for botters,” though some seem to feel it was an avoidable mistake. One comment reads “that restriction should never have been lifted, but better late than never I guess.”
Although the studio has not yet announced any plans to release Catacylsmthe next of the famous MMOs extensions, before World of Warcraft classicat least it seems to the team be open to the idea.
