Rules of Engagement: Classic Hardcore is Coming to World of Warcraft

news.blizzard.com:

It’s official, Hardcore realms are coming to World of Warcraft. Players will have the opportunity to show if they have the edge, the grit, the very will— to engage with Azeroth, its denizens, and their fellow players… to survive.

But there are rules of engagement, as there always are. Here are the rules for WoW Classic Hardcore realms and a little bit of the behind-the-scenes thoughts on the choices that have been made.

This means that if you die, you won’t be able to run back to your corpse and resurrect, nor can you be resurrected by any other spell or ability. This means that even if you have abilities as a part of your class, such as the Shaman Reincarnation, or Warlock Soulstone, they won’t be of any use to you.

You will continue to exist in the game world as a ghost to facilitate communication with in-game friends and resolve logistical matters such as handing over guild leadership if you are a Guild Master who has died an unfortunate death at the hands of a Defias Bandit or some other deadly creature.

Your character is not necessarily lost if you die, however. After dying on a Hardcore realm, players will be able to choose to utilize the Free Character Move service and move their dead character to a non-Hardcore Classic Era realm. Once the move is complete to the non-hardcore realm, that character may resurrect as normal, but the way back to a Hardcore realm will be closed to them.

Players will no longer be automatically flagged for PvP upon attacking another player. To flag yourself for PvP, you must type the command /pvp.  You won’t be able to take hostile actions against a flagged enemy player unless you flag yourself deliberately.

We’ve added this failsafe to prevent situations in which a player could