It’s going to be easy to find yourself in a situation where you think you won’t make it out alive in WoW Classic Hardcore. Since you only have one life to play around with, you’ll want to make sure your Hardcore runs aren’t completely hamstrung by a faulty human error.
The biggest error you can make in WoW Classic Hardcore is being unprepared. Going into the world and already knowing which quests are going to give you the most trouble will give you an advantage, and an ideal questing route is something you should definitely research. Players who go in blind and undertake a quest with negative repercussions were likely going to die in the first place. Don’t be that player. Be prepared.
Here, you’ll find 10 infamous WoW Classic quests that have always been difficult—so much so that players on non-Hardcore servers even avoid them just because of how much of a headache they can cause.
10) Colonel Kurzen
This blatant Apocalypse Now reference is almost as brutal as the movie itself. Completing the quest requires you to go deep into one of the longest, borderline-inescapable caves in all of WoW Classic, with the fearsome Colonel Kurzen waiting for you at its back-end. His camp is littered with mobs, and the cave he inhabits could easily be your final resting place if you don’t watch your step. We recommend skipping this quest chain, or at the very least, stopping before you need to enter its final stages.
9) Hints of a New Plague
This escort quest at the Go’shek Farm in the Arathi Highlands leads you straight through dense areas of mobs, and can easily overwhelm you if you’re not prepared for it. While it may look like an easy source of experience on the surface, it can get out of hand quickly.
8) Wanted: Otto and Falconrest
Stromgarde Keep in the Arathi Highlands is a warzone full of elite mobs that can completely ruin your day. At the pinnacle of the keep are Otto and Falconrest, the equivalents of the final bosses in one of the game’s most notorious open-world dungeons. You’ll need to put together a group of well-prepared players to even attempt this quest, and even then, it might not go smoothly.
7) Skull Rock
An infamous early-game quest, Skull Rock requires you to collect six Searing Collars from Burning Blade cultists in Durotar. The titular subzone of Skull Rock is a place you don’t want to be caught alone, as you’ll almost certainly die when extra cultists start pouring in on you from all angles.
6) Mor’ladim
Although the Morgan Ladimore storyline may just be the best narrative experience that WoW has to offer, it’s a bit of a difficult task in the scope of Hardcore Classic. Mor’ladim is a tough boss that’s unbeatable without a decent group of players, and in some cases—even when you do take him on with a group—he might take down one of your party-mates with him. Although the questline is one of the best ever, it’s too much of a risk to try it in a Hardcore setting. The same can be said for a lot of quests in the Raven Hill Cemetery, which is one of the toughest-to-navigate subzones in the game without dying.
5) Pawn Captures Queen
I’m pretty sure that in every WoW Classic leveling run I’ve done over the years, this quest has killed my character each and every time. Getting to the back of that Qiraji cave in Un’goro Crater is something I never want to do again, and with Hardcore WoW only giving me one life the whole way through, this quest won’t even remotely be on my radar.
Related: How to quickly powerlevel in WoW Classic Hardcore
4) Worgen in the Woods
Although this quest chain is definitely doable without dying, the progressively increasing difficulty of the Worgen that you have to kill with each new iteration of the quest is a frustrating power creep. Once this quest chain starts throwing you into caves and making you fight mobs that could easily tank your run, it’s time to abandon it and seek experience elsewhere.
3) Scarlet Diversions
This quest has a notorious reputation among the Hardcore playerbase. Scarlet Diversions requires you to burn down a command tent in a Scarlet Crusade base camp, which seems simple enough, except for the fact that the tent is surrounded by mobs—many more than you can handle on your own. Before long, you’ll be swarmed by crusaders and you’ll find yourself checking into the nearest graveyard.
2) The Bloodsail Buccaneers
There are fewer examples of sincerely difficult quests in Classic WoW than the Bloodsail Buccaneers, a mid-level quest that tasks you with defeating a group of pirates spread out across three different ships outside of Booty Bay. With a group, this quest is challenging, and by yourself, it’s borderline impossible. The pirates on these ships are packed way too tight, and any chance you have at taking them on one at a time can quickly be forgotten about. If you try this quest, it’s likely you’re going to be overrun by pirates and your Hardcore character will be forever lost at sea.
1) Meet at the Grave
One of the quickest ways to completely upend your Hardcore run is to complete this quest. Meet at the Grave requires you to drink the Videre Elixir, which instantly kills your character without warning. There are no exceptions made for this quest, and you’ll simply be booted back to the character select screen upon trying to complete it. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
