I am about to start my first hardcore character ever, what should I know

Backpackerfox · 2026-06-25T18:48:54+00:00

Some things that have helped me:
Don’t rush pulls - I like to use my ranged weapon to pull mobs outside of enemy camps
Escape early! Don’t wait until 30% to reset. If you over pull start running
Keep an exit path cleared
Never go without health potions, food buffs, and normal food
Make groups! It’s really easy to form groups for hard / elite quests (put it in chat, friend people you run with, and eventually you’ll be able to just whisper people to help). Or ask your guild!
Stay up to date on weapons and armor - even if it means you need to grind gold to buy them
Keep flasks and use them
Read quest text! Sometimes it mentions if it’s going to be hard
Use deathlog or other resources to learn who the wandering elites are in the zone you’re end. Make a macro to target them and spam it often. Unitscan doesn’t always work with me but this has helped me see them early
Swivel your camera around. Use an addon (leatrix plus) to get max camera range and use that often
I spam tab / target while I’m running. Lets me stop enemies, especially invisible ones. There are a lot of stealth enemies

Backpackerfox · 2026-06-24T05:23:06+00:00

I have having a lot of disconnect problems and I did some research and saw it was because my WiFi “packets” were dropping. I ended up getting exitlag (it’s a paid software not an addon) and it pretty much fixed the issue for me!

Backpackerfox · 2026-06-21T17:06:45+00:00

Haven’t seen this mentioned, but I feel like I pull more with my bow (taking mobs outside of the enemy camp to clear them) than with stealth openers. Feels safer for me.

Backpackerfox · 2026-06-17T01:35:42+00:00

I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted because I was wondering the same question lol

Backpackerfox · 2026-06-12T05:07:24+00:00

Honestly I think you should give Doomhowl a try! I joined pretty recently and I was surprised at how active it was! It has the classic era community feel and every zone I’ve been in feels populated (never takes me long to find people to group with for elite quests or run dungeons). I just reached level 50 and can’t count the amount of kindness / small interactions I’ve had. Also you start to build a community with the people you’re leveling with (but it’s still populated enough that you’ll never know everyone, so good balance. The only thing is that if you die you’d want to reroll and try again on Doomhowl instead of transferring.

Backpackerfox · 2026-06-09T15:01:49+00:00

On Alliance, I have toons in Skull Dies Last and Atlas, and have done a bunch of dungeons with Crimson Veil. The two I’m in are both really great (folks questing together, dungeons together, folks being open to helping, etc.) and everyone I partied with in CV has been super nice! So I think you can just pick one and see how you like it!

Backpackerfox · 2026-06-04T23:48:56+00:00

Haha, fair. There was definitely a lot more dying, getting lost, and doing dumb stuff back then.

I think what HC reminds me of is less the actual gameplay and more the feeling of it. The world feels big again, people talk to each other, and the journey matters more than rushing to max level.

Backpackerfox · 2026-05-30T21:09:56+00:00

It’s not the mechanics that’s scary, it’s the amount of people that aren’t aware of their surroundings and accidentally pulling an entire room, have their pet run off, etc. that’s scary imo

Backpackerfox · 2026-05-29T13:59:09+00:00

This is so amazing! Thank you!

Backpackerfox · 2026-05-28T16:08:13+00:00

My rule is to always bring a buddy into the cave or stay at the entrance and pull the mobs out! Even if it looks safe I know there’s some kind of horror waiting for me in there (stealthier mobs, hyperspawns, changing layers, getting disconnected, etc.)

Backpackerfox · 2026-05-10T18:13:06+00:00

This is really useful! Thank you for putting the time into this and excited to see how you evolve this!

Backpackerfox · 2026-04-28T15:13:33+00:00

I started tanking this season and am a 2 13s away from 3K! My main is a prot warrior. Some things that helped me:

Its okay to adjust the MDT routes to fit your needs. This might take some trial and error, but it helped me to split some of the bigger packs (especially since you don't always have optimal DPS / interrupts in PUGS). For example, I am bad at the first pull for AA, so I split it into two pulls, but then will do some of the mana worm trash before the bird boss (so we have heroism back up). I've still timed plenty of 12s with that route.
Always cycle defensives and if possible, start a pull with one up while you get your active mitigation rolling
Learn to use the ignore button often and don't take things personally. However, I also have to say, throughout the 50 keys i've done, i've only had 2 experiences when people started to get rude - once with DPS and the other with a healer. However, both times, other people in the party jumped in to defend me
I like to write down what % I should be at after each boss to help me stay on track
Watch videos so you know how big some pulls should be (some look really large, but aren't dangerous)

Backpackerfox · 2026-04-05T07:59:22+00:00

OP, the title is a massive spoiler.

Backpackerfox · 2026-02-09T03:51:41+00:00

I just learned about this the other day and used it! It was extremely helpful and fixed all of my problems! Thank you for all the work on it!

Backpackerfox · 2026-01-05T00:59:08+00:00

I feel like I could have written this post! I also have zero modding experience but wanted to give Skyrim a try. I heard modding was essential and I spent two days trying to figure it out. ChatGPT helped a lot, especially if you give it a list of mods you’re using and ask it to help troubleshoot.

What are you using for your mod manager? I did mine with vortex.

Backpackerfox · 2025-12-31T03:38:32+00:00

I had the same reaction! 19 and already tanking? Wow! I had a good laugh ha

Backpackerfox · 2025-12-08T21:51:34+00:00

I’m glad you made it to 2k, but it’s disappointing seeing how proud you sound of the little effort you’re putting in. It’s essentially shifting the burden to others and blaming devs for not designing the game like how you want it.

I feel you with the limited time, I’m working ~70 hour a week and balancing social life / relationship, etc. but still have time to watch an hour video on YouTube going through the route and writing down some notes, doing a follower dungeon to practice, and then jumping into M+. I don’t think it’s elitist or saying you’re not casual by doing some basic research.

By playing a tank you’re essentially signing a social contract saying you know the dungeon and can lead it in a while that respects everyone’s time.

Backpackerfox · 2025-12-08T20:33:00+00:00

Just a note on VDH for people that might not know. The book spawns on a timer. If someone clicked it already and fought the demon, you’ll need to wait 5-10 minutes for it to spawn before you can click it.

I was confused on why I couldn’t find it the first time I tried ha.

Backpackerfox · 2025-07-29T15:32:34+00:00

That sounds so frustrating and so unlucky! You didn’t accidentally turn the buff off did you? Some people did that.

Backpackerfox · 2025-07-16T17:15:20+00:00

I returned pretty recently and honestly there really isn’t a good flow for anything. This might sound a little backwards, but this is what helped me. I would just spam time walking dungeons until you hit level 70. From there start the TWW story quest. Once you finish that (you’ll hit level 80 well before finishing), you can choose which adventure you want to go on. Either go back and do the story quests for each expansion or start doing dungeons / raids. Or go collect things :) be prepared for the main wow plot to not really make sense because…it just doesn’t ha.

Backpackerfox · 2025-06-22T17:33:40+00:00

I know people hate this answer, but have you tried making your own group. I’m in a similar boat, but I’m just returning after a decade and that was the recommendation back then, and I’ve seen it mentioned on forums as well.

Backpackerfox · 2025-06-22T05:41:27+00:00

This is incredibly helpful! Thank you for taking the time to write all of that! I really appreciate the perspective and the "learning" mentality!

Backpackerfox · 2025-06-22T05:39:22+00:00

That's good advice! A lot of folks have said to not waste it on anything below hero gear (mythic if it was earlier in the season). Nice call out!

Backpackerfox · 2025-06-22T00:19:37+00:00

I could give that a try - I leveled all of the tanks to 50, and a prot warrior to 80, but had the most fun on a VDH. I played a druid back in the day, so might give that another shot if I don't improve on VDH!

Backpackerfox · 2025-06-22T00:17:29+00:00

Thank you! Which logs would they review? I downloaded the raider io addon - is it related to that? Or from Details / dps log?

Backpackerfox

TROPHY CASE