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Mage in WoW Classic casting a Fireball
Screenshot by Dot Esports

WoW Classic Hardcore: Coward debuff, explained

Worse than dying.

World of Warcraft Classic Hardcore offers a full-blown adventure experience, the thrill and risk of continuously trying to escape the grim reaper’s claws, and it has an incredible ever-growing community of daredevils. Overall, it’s one and the same game we all love, but it did come with a couple of changes, namely Duel to Death and the Coward debuff.

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On top of having regular duels where you can show off your PvP and think-on-your-feet skills, WoW Hardcore has an honorable Duel to Death, or Mak’gora, where only one player can walk out alive. But you also have the option to flee from the Duel to the Death for the price of having poor stats for three long days.

Here’s exactly how the Coward debuff works in WoW Hardcore.

How does the Coward debuff work in WoW Hardcore?

Coward debuff is a debuff you get if and when you flee, forfeit, or survive a WoW Hardcore Duel to Death in any other way without winning it. This debuff will decrease all your attributes, damage dealt, and armor and resistances by 20 percent and it will last three days.

Essentially, this is like a lesser version of Resurrection Sickness that exists in WoW Classic and decreases your attributes by 75 percent for 10 minutes. While you can wait out Resurrection Sickness while logged out, the Coward debuff won’t continue to count down when you’re offline and you have to spend time playing the game. 

How to get rid of the Coward debuff in WoW Hardcore

Unfortunately, there’s only one way of getting rid of the Coward debuff, and that’s by playing the game. Since you’ll be a lot weaker, I advise you to take a vacation in Hardcore and level up your professions, run errands, or do anything that relaxes you until the debuff runs out.

It’s important to note you can’t cleanse or remove Coward debuff in any way, and you will just have to sit through it.

What will give you the Coward debuff in WoW Hardcore?

Two WoW characters dueling in a duel to death
There are two types of duels in WoW Classic Hardcore, regular duels and Duels to Death. Screenshot by Dot Esports
  • Forfeiting
  • Fleeing from the dueling area
  • Surviving the duel without winning 

Can you appeal the Coward debuff in WoW Hardcore?

Unfortunately, you can’t appeal Coward debuff, and once you’re stuck with it, you’re stuck with it. In other words, you can’t write a ticket in case you were lagging or facing other similar performance issues and you’ll have to push through it if you hold your character dear. 


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Author
Image of Izabela Tomakic
Izabela Tomakic
Staff Writer & World of Warcraft lead. Izabela has a long history with writing and games like World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Fortnite, and The Sims. Before finding her home at Dot Esports in 2021, Izabela was an English teacher and a freelancer at Hotspawn, GGRecon, and Gameranx. In her free time, you’ll find her writing novels, wandering Azeroth, or inting on Summoner’s Rift.