Does Jokerd’s layering abuse invalidate his WoW Classic speedrun to level 60?

Hardcore WoW Classic players were in a tight race to have the first level 60 character in the world. Jokerd led the pack, but some people think his abuse of an in-game mechanic might invalidate his speedrun.

The race’s front runner who hit level 60 today has been heavily scrutinized by salty players who feel like his use of WoW Classic’s layering is unfair. Some even think that his speedrun should be invalidated.

Here’s everything you need to know about layering, Jokerd’s method, and whether his speedrun should be negated.

What’s layering?

Layering, which was introduced to WoW Classic to ensure a smoother launch, allows players to create a separate instance of themselves within the same realm. This prevents players from having to compete with the entire realm’s population to complete a quest.

In the video, WoW developers John Hight and Omar Gonzalez explain the new mechanic in an interview with YouTuber Tips Out.

“This new technology kind of allows us to spin up World of Warcraft continents, wholesale,” Gonzalez said. “For launch, we’ll be able to have, if we need to, more than one of those continuous worlds in order to, kind of, soft absorb an impact of a tremendous amount of players trying to log in initially.”

How did Jokerd use layering?

A player’s layer will change if they enter a party, which will put all of the people in a group into a separate instance. This is where Jokerd comes in.

Once the streamer hit the upper-50s, he realized that gaining experience through questing and normal means proved tedious. To expedite the process, Jokerd began killing a bunch of mobs with his Gnome Mage, effectively eliminating the enemies in his layer. He then joins a group, which puts him in a new layer, respawning the same mob over and over again.

This is efficient because Jokerd’s Mage gains loads of experience by farming the same group of enemies repeatedly. He also doesn’t have to waste time running through dungeons or collecting quest rewards from NPCs.

Does layering-abuse invalidate Jokerd’s speedrun?

Jokerd, being the first person to reach level 60 in the world, did abuse this technology. But does that invalidate his speedrun? No.

The streamer put in countless hours of stream time, going live for 39 hours straight after WoW Classic’s launch. He sacrificed sleep, a personal life, and probably thousands of brain cells to achieve this feat.

His speedrun was so unbelievable that he was even accused by team Method of sharing an account with his brother.

If the layering technology was so frowned upon, Blizzard would’ve found a workaround for this sort of leveling. Because the company intentionally put the exploit in the game, players should have free rein to use it. And that’s what Jokerd did.

Today, Jokerd’s name was added to the WoW Classic history books without an asterisk.