WoW Classic Soul of Iron System for Hardcore Players

The Soul of Iron buff has been added to WoW Classic Season of Mastery to honor and elevate the most hardcore of players who want to prove their mastery of the game by staying alive against all odds.

Dying = delete is their mantra, and they can now be easily recognized in game at any level through this buff and the new cosmetic Soul of Iron ability that comes with it.

There are two new NPCs, one for the Alliance and one for the Horde, who can activate this buff for you, assuming your character has never died since its creation.

The Alliance NPC, Watcher Fero can be found in the top right corner of the Ironforge map, deep inside the Hall of Explorers.

The Horde NPC, Watcher Morta can be found in the bottom left area of the Undercity map, inside The Apothecarium in one of the shop alcoves on the area closest to the middle of the map.

All you need to do is talk to them and they will apply the Soul of Iron buff to you if you have never died. They can also remove this buff or the 1% stats debuff you receive if you die with it active, Tarnished Soul.

Dying while having the Soul of Iron represents the end of your hardcore run on that character. You also get afflicted with the minor Tarnished Soul debuff, which reduces your stats by 1%. You can remove this debuff at the NPCs described in the previous section, but that character will never be able to have the Soul of Iron buff or use the Soul of Iron cosmetic ability again.

If the sole reason you are playing that character is to conserve and display your hardcore status, it is time to pack up your gold and gear and reroll!

Ultimately, survival comes down to a mix of patience, skill, and friends. Here are our top tips for this tough journey:

• Group up whenever possible. Even outside of activities that specifically require it, grouping up allows you to take on many more enemies at once than a solo player ever could, and it also enables tanking and healing, both of which make any activity in the game infinitely easier.
• Pull safely and patiently. Speed and safety are often at odds with each other. If you pull one enemy at once from a safe distance after taking your time to understand the path of any enemy patrols in your area, you are much less likely to run into unexpected problems.
• Avoid congested areas when solo. Respawns, especially in closed off spaces such as caves, can be absolutely deadly, as they will create multiple enemies out of nowhere at a time where you might already be engaging other enemies.
• Use profession items. Healing / Mana / Invisibility and Invulnerability potions, stat boosting elixirs and Engineering items such as Target Dummy and grenades can be absolute life-savers when things go wrong.
• Be overleveled and overgeared. While this can be tedious, one of the very best ways to survive is to always ensure you outlevel the enemies you are facing, and also that you are as geared as you can possibly afford to at every step.
• Stay focused. When a single moment of distraction means you could possibly lose endless hours of investment on your character, you should only play when you can ensure maximum focus throughout your play session.
• Avoid server / hardware / internet instability. Losing a hardcore character because of technical issues outside of your control is one of the worst feelings ever, so make sure to always play when conditions seem stable.
• "Cheat", if you must. While some community events might forbid trading with other players, using the auction house or "bubble hearthstoning", these are all valid methods to increase your odds of staying alive where the Soul of Iron buff is concerned. Overall, the most important thing is to have fun through playing the game, so make sure to play at your own pace!

As a way to promote hardcore gameplay in WoW Classic Season of Mastery, The Road to Ragnaros community event is being organized by a group of streamers with potential prizes for viewers and eternal fame for successful participants. It is one of the best ways to get involved with the new season of WoW Classic in a new and novel way.