WoW Classic Gamebreaking Exploit Issue (Patreon)

For those of you who haven't been following the beta testing for classic WoW which is to go live in less than a month now, there have been a number of recent developments.

In order to prevent an influx of players crashing the servers on launch the current plan is to use "layering", a form of sharding which covers an entire realm. 

I am not going to go into detail about the technical aspects of layering which is dealt with in public sources:  https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/examples-of-layering-exploits-and-problems/198240 

However, from the perspective of an exploiter what is relevant is this:

1. Gathering nodes and rares can be reset by joining a group and/or re-logging and/or phase-shifting, and perhaps other methods. This is functionally equivalent to using a cross-realm add-on in retail.

2. Because layering is of finite duration any players that reach maximum level will be able to dupe large quantities of valuable end-game materials. (Note for newer players: gathering in classic is nothing like retail. Materials are far harder to access efficiently.)

3. Blizzard seem to believe that because layering is temporary this will not be an issue. In fact what this does is create a massive incentive for exploiters.

4. I would envisage large gold-making syndicates to do the following: power-level characters and acquire vast amounts of items such as thorium, hold onto the inventory and disguise its origin then profit when layering is discontinued. This will cause the price of these items to rise dramatically allowing the syndicates to cash-in.

5. This will allow syndicates to control the wow classic economy for a very long time.

6. It will be possible to instantly reset mobs in the manner of cross-realm assist type add-ons in pre legion wow. This could be used to exploit leveling as well as gold-making strategies.

It seems quite extraordinary that this scenario could materialize: this is a world-first race potentially worth tens of or even hundreds of millions of dollars. But it does not seem likely at this stage that anything can stop it materializing. 

Why am I mentioning this a month before launch? Because this is something that you will need to start preparing for if you want to participate. To make the most of it is going to require a lot of research and preparation, you will need to study all the optimized guides to classic leveling and form connections with like-minded individuals if you don't have them already, now.

There is still a possibility that this scenario may not happen but it is becoming smaller-it is a good idea to keep up with official and unofficial statements about classic. I'm ambivalent about it happening: it will not be good for the health of the game, on the other hand at the moment it could well be one of the biggest exploits in an MMO ever.