Two kinds of mechanic are checked here. Contested rules: what retail did is itself argued, or the sources disagree. Server bugs checked: the retail rule is clear; the question is whether this server follows it. The reference is WotLK Classic's final state (which version). Each class is added as its comp is. How the leads are found and judged is on getting the game right.
Status: Confirmed: tested on the live server, with a strong source for the rule. Likely: tested or found in the data, with the source weaker than a log or footage, or the sources differ in a detail. Open: no source settles it; the server keeps its current behaviour, recorded as an assumption. Not yet checked: the rule is known, the server hasn't been tested.
The tables are generated from the project's mechanics spec, where each row is a claim with its sources and a confidence. A row's status can't claim more than that confidence, and a row listed as contested must record how the sources disagree.
Contested rules#
| Mechanic | Here | Basis | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diminishing returns | Full, half, quarter, then immune; crowd control on players lasts at most 10 s. The category resets exactly 15 s after its last crowd control ends; retail reset in 15 to 20 s (a 15 s timer checked every 5 s) | Live tests on stuns and Polymorph; the reset from a period wiki | Likely (levels and cap confirmed; the reset differs from retail, to be fixed; whether categories are fully independent is still being checked) |
| Damage breaking Psychic Scream | Breaks once the damage taken since it landed totals about 2,650 after absorbs, at level 80, not a share of the victim's health: no hit smaller than that breaks it on its own, one hit that size does | Patch 3.1.0 names Psychic Scream among the fears with a damage threshold, and the warlock's Glyph of Fear shows a fear breaks on an amount of damage; no source gives the WotLK number | Open |
| Two crowd controls at the same moment (double Sap, Vanish against Blind) | No delay window: the first to reach the server wins | Retail footage exists only for later expansions; WotLK Classic footage could settle it | Open |
| Shadowfiend | May hit too hard and carry the wrong auras | Measured here; reports against the Classic test realm; sources disagree on its scaling | Open (measured on this server, no Classic log yet) |
| Stealth detection | An enemy sees a stealthed rogue in the front half of its view within about 7 yd, and from behind only at about 1 yd (level 80 against 80, the loadout rogue with Master of Deception 1/3 against a priest with no detection effects) | AzerothCore's model, measured on this server; no retail source | Open |
| Tricks of the Trade and Sap | Sap keeps the buff for the next damaging attack | The tooltip says the next damaging attack; one undated wiki tip says Sap uses it up | Likely (changed on this server, #256) |
Server bugs checked#
| Mechanic | Here | Basis | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arena healing cut (spell 74410, named Arena - Dampening in the 3.3.5a client) | Healing and absorbs reduced by a flat 10% in arenas | Patch 3.3.2 notes, and a hotfix of 2010-02-05 for absorbs; still in Classic's client data, but no Classic log shows it applied | Likely |
| Wound Poison's healing reduction | 50% | Client spell data; Renew's ticks measured on this server | Confirmed |
| Rogue damage +5% | From the Slaughter from the Shadows talent, on all damage including poisons | Client spell data and patch 3.3.3 notes; measured on this server with and without the talent | Confirmed (not a bug) |
| Recasting a running crowd control (re-Sap) | A recast that would last less than the time left fails (a more powerful spell is already active), costs nothing and doesn't advance DR; a longer one replaces it | WotLK Classic footage of re-Sapping, cited in the upstream report | Confirmed (fixed on this server) |
| Pain Suppression while stunned, with its glyph | Castable while stunned, as the glyph says | Glyph tooltip; a reported bug that did not reproduce | Confirmed |
| Arena start: buffs cast before the gates | Short buffs are removed at the gates from players and their pets | Retail removed players' buffs with under 25 or 30 s left (sources differ); no source mentions pets, which the server missed | Likely (fixed on this server) |
| Focused Will and resilience | Procs on crits, and on non-crits with a chance equal to the victim's resilience crit reduction | Patch 2.0.7 notes and a developer post on resilience | Confirmed (fixed on this server) |
| Poison scaling with attack power | Instant Poison 9% of attack power a hit, Wound Poison 3.6% a hit, Deadly Poison 2.7% a tick | The 2010-01-07 hotfix; Wound Poison's measured on this server | Confirmed (fixed on this server) |
| Rupture ticks can crit | Yes | Patch 3.3.3 notes; checked against them, but no test on this server asserts it | Not yet checked |
| Feint triggering poisons | Should not (fixed in Classic patch 3.4.2) | Wrath Classic 3.4.2 patch notes | Not yet checked |
| Two Wound Poisons via a lower rank | Should not stack (fixed in Classic patch 3.4.2) | Wrath Classic 3.4.2 patch notes | Not yet checked |
| Shadow Sight orbs | Appear 90 s into a match | Wowpedia; AzerothCore was corrected from 60 s upstream; checked against these sources, not measured on this server | Not yet checked |
| Backstab after a stun on a turning target | Works from behind as the client shows | Backstab needs the target's back (its tooltip); a reported bug, not reproduced for players | Confirmed |
| Dalaran Sewers waterfall | Blocks line of sight from the first cycle | Found broken in the first cycle and fixed; the rule rests on the later cycles and TrinityCore's code, no retail source | Likely (fixed on this server) |
| Arena doors before the gates | Closed on the four arenas played here until the gates open (Ring of Valor is disabled) | Reported bug, not reproduced; the gate test asserts it. Likely, not Confirmed: the rule's only source is the report's own expected behaviour, with no retail source, where Backstab's rests on its tooltip | Likely |
| Tricks of the Trade and Cheap Shot | Cheap Shot keeps the buff; the next damaging attack passes it on | The tooltip, and Season 5-6 footage of Cheap Shot not using it up | Confirmed (fixed on this server) |
Known differences left in place#
- Engine timing: differs from Classic's modern engine: batching, movement and latency follow the 3.3.5a engine. Basis: the project keeps AzerothCore and the 3.3.5a client (D-038); no one has measured Classic's timing. Status: Open.
What else stays as in 3.3.5a, and why, is on which version.