FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
We’ve consolidated the FAQs for each Challenge into one document. Overall the answers will apply to each challenge, however, we will call out exceptions when necessary. (for example, Pacifists are allowed to have Professions, while everyone else is not).
If there are any questions you think should be on here, please contact Leeta or Ster.
Overall / General FAQ
When I Try to Import My Character It Says I’ve Done Pet Battles or Raid Bosses? I Didn’t Do Any!!!
This is because your “Display Only Character Achievements to Others” option in Interface > Social settings has been unchecked. If you *JUST* checked it on, LOG OUT (not Exit), then try to
import again. It may take a minute or two to get the Blizzard API data refreshed, there is nothing we can do about this. Patience.
Can I Do the Challenge with an Allied Race?
We are accepting Allied Races for the Iron Challenge as well as the variants, however, these characters will be placed in a separate list. These characters start at Level 10. Death Knight and Demon Hunter start at Level 8. We may bring these races into the main lists at a later date. Currently Allied Races are included in the main list for Iron Teams only as the ‘lock in’ is at Level 20.
For Allied Challengers (except Blood Thirsty and Green challengers), you must UNEQUIP all of your green starting gear. If you leave this gear on, you will be red-flagged.
ARGH!! I Need to Use an Elixir to Complete a Quest; Why Can’t I Use It?
See this post: http://wowchallenges.com/why-the-elixir-rule-change.
Why were cosmetic gear exceptions removed? I like my shirt/tabard. How come some Worgen can wear shirts?
Basically we removed cosmetic gear exceptions to simplify the code when looking at new challengers’ gear. Old challengers will be grandfathered in under the old rules. The new rules take effect January 1 2018 at Midnight PST.
All characters are no longer allowed to use green+ shirts / tabards except for Worgen Hunters, Rogues, Warriors and Blood Thirsty and Green challengers. Those specific Race-Class combinations have the green shirt automatically equipped on character creation. It is important to know that you CANNOT unequip that shirt to put something else in the slot or else you will get flagged.
Can I accept gold for doing guild signatures?
This is very much a grey area, however, the general consensus is that this is not allowed as it feels like you are getting help.
I completed the challenge, can I use my character for raiding, gold-farming, PvPing, etc?
Yes and no. Once you reach the Level Cap, log out and Update your character on the site. We’ll take a snapshot of the character at the current level cap and add you to the Challenge Victors page / list.
You can do pretty much anything you want with your character at this point, however, most folks treat it as a trophy or keep it to level once the level cap increases. Once the level cap increases your character is going to be subject to the rules again since it’s no longer at max level and will get flagged appropriately. Please note that your character will remain on the Challenge Victors page even if you get flagged afterwards since you DID complete the challenge.
I thought we couldn’t use Specs?
You are allowed to use specs now. Since Legion, WoW has changed in such a way that now since specs are allowed, therefore allowing people to pick and change specs if you want. Or even try spec-less if you want to try something different.
Can we use the flight path toys?
Yes, all toys are allowed.
I thought Talents weren’t allowed?
You are allowed to use talents with your class/spec now as we have had them forced on us with the Dragonflight changes. You are also allowed to reset your talent points.
Can we use Artifact Weapons?
No. While you are allowed to equip them momentarily as part of unlocking your Class Order Hall, you are not allowed to use Artifact Weapons in any fashion.
Am I allowed to get buffs from other players?
No. If another player buffs you, simply right-click the buff off. The only buff you are allowed are ones you can cast on yourself.
I get a buff from a quest that won’t go away, what do I do?
Buffs from an NPC for a quest are okay. Usually these are cast to help you for that particular quest and are no longer obtainable once the quest is completed.
I get a buff from my pet, am I going to be red-flagged?
Nope. Hunters and Warlocks get pets and any buffs that come from those pets are okay.
I’m confused… can I eat food?
Yes. You can eat any food as long as it doesn’t give you a buff. If it does provide you a buff, simply right-click it off.
Exception: Tin Man Challengers are allowed a food buff.
Am I only allowed to use Grey or White bags?
You can use any colour bag. The Netherweave Bag, for example, is perfectly acceptable and will not flag you.
Am I allowed to use the AH?
Yes. You can buy gear off the AH (if it’s there) and you can also put your loot up for auction to earn more gold.
Can I send gold to myself from another account or character?
No. Getting gold from another character, either yours or someone you know, is against the rules.
I have a quest to turn in inside a dungeon; am I allowed to do this?
Yes. You can turn in quests that take you inside a dungeon. Just take care not to kill any bosses while you are in there or you’ll get flagged.
What mounts can I use?
You can use any mounts that you have access to, including the Heirloom mount.
Can I tame a Hunter pet from a dungeon?
Yes! While dungeons are not allowed, you can go in and tame a pet for hunter. The key here is not to kill any bosses otherwise you will be flagged.
Are glyphs allowed?
Yes. Glyphs are purely cosmetic.
Am I allowed to group up? What if I run with friends but are not in a group?
No. Grouping up will result in you and the other characters in your group to be flagged.
I heard that Guilds were not allowed, why are they allowed now?
Guilds are allowed now because Blizzard removed the XP Bonus guild perk. Being a part of a guild gives you only two significant advantages now: Hearthstone is now 15 minutes and Riding speed is increased by 10%. While these do give you an advantage over a non-guilded challenger, the social benefits FAR OUTWEIGH being on your own.
Please note that you are not allowed to use the Guild Repair option as this is giving you gold you wouldn’t normally have access to on a solo character. The guild is supposed to be social only.
Is there an official Iron Man guild?
Yes. The Wowironman guild located on Wyrmrest Accord – US (Alliance) can be considered the original, oldest and pretty much official Iron Man guild. In order to join, you can do a /who wowironman and ask a member for an invite. For Non-Iron characters, guild repairs and the guild bank have been disabled to stay within the spirit of the rules. You are welcome to join, however, besides the fantastic guild members, you won’t get the typical perks you’d normally get from a regular guild.
There are other guilds out there on EU and US-Oceanic servers… for a full list, please see the Guilds section.
I’m having a problem listing / updating my character on the site!
First, you must be completely logged out of the character in order to force a DB update on Blizzard’s side, otherwise we won’t be able to pull your current data.
If you’ve done this, typically a Blizzard DB update is almost instantaneous, however, there can be slight delays depending on Blizzard’s usage / system latency / amount of Doom 2 being played on realm servers. This can as little as five minutes or in some very rare extreme cases TWO WEEKS.
We should be able to pick up your current data fairly quickly, however, if it’s been longer than 24 hours since you last logged out (and hit the Update button for your character), please drop us a line (twitter or the forums) and we’ll check it out.
Unfortunately in these cases there is pretty much nothing we can do as we have to wait until the data is made available to the public Blizzard API.
I deleted my old Challenger and want to use the name again but I still see the original character’s info.
You can absolutely re-use the name of a Challenger. For characters that were deleted and re-rolled using the exact same name we’ve seen a bit of a lag for data being updated / refreshed on the API side of things. You will be able to look up your character on the Armory and it looks fine, however, the API data we access seems to use a different data-set.
Don’t worry. All you need is some patience. It seems like at the most it should take a day for the data to update, however, in some extremely rare cases it’s taken longer. If you’ve noticed your character not updating after a few days, please contact Leeta or Ster.
My Character was Listed… now it’s gone! What happened?
I’m not entirely 100% sure. I suspect there is something wonky happening with the data being made available from the Blizzard API as I don’t ever physically remove characters from the DB unless I see they are no longer participating in the challenge (like boosted characters).
In all the reported cases I’ve seen, the character re-appeared within a few hours. If you see this issue, please wait a day or so… if the character does not re-appear on the list, please contact Leeta or Ster.
Can I transmog or use cosmetic items?
NEW! Transmog is ALLOWED however you are still only to wear white or grey quality gear.
NEW! DO NOT equip/learn Cosmetic gear unless it is a white or grey quality item. Best to learn these on a scout or regular toon so you do not get RED FLAGGED!
Exception: Blood Thirsty and Green challengers are allowed to equip green gear.
Can I use bandages?
Yes. Bandages are made from Tailoring and are okay to use. While you can’t learn a profession (except you wonderful Pacifists and Working Man!) you can purchase bandages from the Auction House. The anti-venom should not count as a healing or mana potion, so should not flag you. Mind you, we have not tested this yet as the anti-venom only works when level 25 or lower.
Exception: Tin Man Challengers are allowed to use any potion.
Can I buy armor/weapons from vendors or only what I loot is allowed?
You can buy grey or white quality armor/weapons as long as it does not break any of the rules only with the gold you earned on that challenger.
Where can I find out availability of weapons/armor for irons?
The best bet would be to go to a site like WoWHead.com and look up gear. Filter by white / gray quality and by your class.
Can I use novelty toys (even if they are green/blue/purple)?
Yes, Toys are not meant to give you an in-game advantage.
What about the Goblin Glider Kit, Stealthman 54, Shieldtronic Shield, and Mecha-Blast Rocket? They are all “white” and don’t require engineering.
Yes, all engineering items are allowed unless they break other rules.
What’s a scout?
A scout is usually a dead Challenger that is kept to level up and scout ahead so that a player can test certain areas out before bringing in their living Challenger.
What about armor/weapons at 50+ levels? The lowest ones I can find stop strictly at XX. Are we restricted solely to those, as there are no higher-level ones to be had?
You can only use White or Grey quality armor or weapons. You might have a tough time finding better gear, however, that is the nature of the challenge.
Exception: Blood Thirsty and Green characters are allowed to wear Green quality armor at any time.
What about Hearthstones? Are we allowed to use those to return to a sanctuary? or do we have to hoof it the whole way?
Hearthstones are absolutely allowed.
Can we use the Auction house to sell BOE items we acquire from drops?
Yes, using the Auction House to sell items you’ve acquired on your Challenger is okay. The gold you acquire from selling on the Auction House is now legit gold for your Challenger to purchase gear / weapons or anything else that are allowed by the rules. This does not mean you can list an item at an absurdly high price and get a “friend” to buy your auction. That is intentionally circumventing the spirit of the challenge.
If Warlocks can use Healthstones and DKs can use Runeforging, why are Monks not allowed to use XP boosting quests?
The monk can complete the XP-boosting quests, however, they must right-click the XP buffs off. The reasoning behind this is that Warlocks and Death Knights are using something that is inherent with their class… an ability / spell that they have for their class.
The XP-boost for Monks, while, yes it is Monk-exclusive, is actually not bestowed on the character BY the character. It is not an ability / spell the Monk can cast on themselves, it’s actually cast on the character by an NPC.
If that reasoning doesn’t satisfy you, basically it’s an XP-boost in a challenge where XP-boosts are forbidden, so it’s not allowed.
Can Warlocks use Soulstone ability or Shaman use Reincarnation spell?
No. A death counts as a death on Blizzards stats.
Exception: Tin Man Challengers are allowed to use these as they are allowed to die.
Are we allowed to buy the WoW Token to sell for gold?
No. The gold you get on your character should be earned by questing, killing mobs and playing the AH with standard in-game items. The Token gives an unfair boost to players solely due to having available cash to spend.
If you are purchasing the WoW Token off the AH with gold you earned on your Challenger, then yes, by all means go for it… who are we to stop you from letting you sub for another month?
I died from a bug / glitch / invisible mob, etc – NOT FAIR!
I agree… it is not fair at all. There have been *numerous* occasions where past Challengers have died to invisible mobs (stay away from the caves in Zangarmarsh!), lag, even disconnecting and logging back in to find themselves dead.
We all understanding how frustrating that can be and commisserate with you over the loss of your Challenger. Take this opportunity to take a step back, take a breather and make a note of what quest, mob, area you need to avoid for next time.
I don’t have access to remove deaths from your account, so I can’t rescind your death. That also would not be fair to the other victims. I would think at this point your only point of recourse would be to contact Blizzard and ask them to alter your Deaths statistic. I am not 100% they will do it… in fact, I don’t think they will but you can at least try that.
If they do, GREAT! If not, I really feel for you. We’ve ALL been there at some point or another. Like I said earlier, take a break. Clear your head. Come back with a plan and have an even better attempt next time.
Here is a link to our Death Rage thread. http://wowironmanchallenge.proboards.com/thread/323/death-rage
Blood Thirsty Specific
Why are Blood Thirsty Characters Allowed Quests? UPDATED
Blood Thirsty challengers are only allowed quests to grant them access to certain zones. Death Knights, Demon Hunters, Goblins, Worgen, and Pandaren challengers are allowed to complete the quests in their zones and then proceed as a normal Blood Thirsty challenger would: NO QUESTS.
Additionally, completing a handful of quests is necessary to access Mists of Pandaria, Legion and Shadowlands expansion zones. These quests are also allowed in order to allow the Blood Thirsty challenger access to level appropriate creatures for killing.
NEW! What about Blood Thirsty Challengers and learning the Riding/Flying Skills?
Blood Thirsty Challengers can purchase these skills from a Riding Trainer. DO NOT hand in the quests “Learn to Ride” or “I Believe You Can Fly” as these quests will flag you! Just abandon the quests.
Why can’t we do the Warlords intro quests? How are we supposed to get access to Draenor?
You can get access to Draenor by taking the Ashran portal in your factions capital city. This portal opens at Level 10 and a reminder that Tanaan Jungle is a Level 40 zone.
Why are some Blood Thirsty challengers allowed 210 (or 300!) quests but new ones are only allowed 4?
Basically new challengers are held to the new rules, while currently existing challengers are held to the old rules. It would not be fair to flip the switch and have challengers flagged because of a rule change. We’ve always grand-fathered challengers in when the rules have been changed.
I just created my character and I already have 40+ quests completed?
These are the account-wide battle pet quests. All characters will start off with some number of quests completed. The number of allowed quests for the challenge has been set to take these into consideration.
NEW! What about Blood Thirsty Challengers and Threads of Fate?
Check out this article about The Threads of Fate Quest Explanation for Blood Thirsty Challengers.
Pacifist Specific
How the heck do I start the Pacifist Challenge? I have NO MONEY!!!
Depending on the race you select, you should be able to sell your clothes to pick up enough copper to afford either Herbalism or Mining (10 copper each). Please note for Mining you are NO LONGER REQUIRED to have a mining pick axe.
If you still do not have 10 copper from selling your gear, the best thing to do is hunt around your starting zone quests that do not require you to kill.
I don’t understand, a Pacifist is allowed to do quests???
Most definitely. The big thing for this challenge is not to kill anything (yes, Whack-a-Gnoll counts as kills). Completing quests that don’t require you to kill is completely okay.
OMG I broke an Ice Sculpture / Whack-a-Gnoll / Whatver-Inanimate-Object… now it shows me with a KILL!??!!?!
Yes, unfortunately there is little we can do here. We track Kills based on whatever Blizzard deems to be a kill. Most of the time if you destroy an inanimate object you will get dinged with a kill and be red-flagged.
We cannot change / fix your flag for this.
OMG I got a Critter kill and now I’m red-flagged!!!
Yes, Critters count as a kill. Be very careful about what you’re doing, who you’re escorting (I believe Guardians killing things count as your kill). A kill is a kill. We cannot change / fix your flag for this.
Frequently Asked Questions – Teams
This page addresses questions specifically for the Teams Challenge. Answers here do not necessarily apply to other Challenges.
If there are any questions you think should be on here, please contact Leeta and Ster.
General – Overall
How Do I Add My Character or Create a Team?
First, level your character(s) to anywhere from Level 10 to 20, following all the rules for the Iron Teams challenge. Then log out and exit the game. Log into WoWChallenges.com with Battlenet, and go to the Team Management page. Each player must click Import Character from your Account screen and select your character from the list of eligible characters on your battle.net account, as well as select the type of challenge (Iron, Blood or Green) – You won’t be able to invite a toon that is imported for another challenge. Please note characters MUST be in the Level 10 to 20 range, otherwise we cannot import them to our site.
One of the players (the Team Captain) will have to use ‘Create team’ on the left, (the team name is up to you, however if we find it offensive in some way, we’ll rename your team). Each player will have to send the ‘invite code’ to the Team Captain, then the Team Captain will click on the team name (on Team Management page) and use ‘Invite Character’ for each toon in the team (including his own). After, each player will have to ‘accept’ the invite. From then on, you’ll play as a team, which means you must always be grouped while doing quests and killing mobs, and be near enough to each other so each toon gets kill credit. You’ll be flagged if a toon kills too many or too few mobs, don’t worry, healers get kill credit even if they don’t attack.
Can I Do the Teams Challenge with an Allied Race?z
Yes, we are accepting Allied Races for all Team Challenges. Since these characters start at Level 10, we will be including them with ‘regular’ races since all teams need to ‘lock in’ at Level 20. It is possible that this could change at a later date.
For Iron Teams, when you have Allied characters, you must UNEQUIP all of your green starting gear.
If you leave this gear on, you and your team will be red-flagged. This restriction does also, apply to Blood Teams.
I Don’t See My Character on the Import List
This can happen for several reasons, however, the most relevant / common reasons are: 1) Your character is not in the Level 10-20 range. 2) Your character name was already used on a WoW Challenges team and cannot be used again.
Why Can’t I Re-Use My Character Name?
Overall, we want to try to keep teams data as clean as possible. Unfortunately at this time we do not have access to the unique internal character ID that all characters have. If we
had access to this we could then allow users to re-use character names, even re-rolling the same class & race. Until then, it’s easier for us to maintain the system by not allowing re-use of character names.
Gameplay
Dungeons are OK… Right?
Yes, sort of. Dungeons are allowed for groups as long as they are not running the dungeon with other non-team members. If you have a team of two, three or four, you can not queue up for LFG, however, you CAN run dungeons with just your team by traveling to the dungeon location and entering on your own. You CAN use the LFG tool if you queuing up with all five of your team members.
Our Team is Flagged for Kill% Problems. The Numbers Don’t Look Right…
So basically, kills and killing blows are a bit tricky. First, let’s talk about numbers: We really only look at the number of kills & killing blows (kblows) your team has after the team gets
locked (first character surpasses level 20). After that we record whatever your kills & kblows are and deal with the difference since the team was locked. The numbers we are looking at will
probably not match up with what you are seeing on the stats page because, again, we are looking at the kill & kblow numbers since the team was locked.
Another issue that may come up is having all team characters remain in close proxity to each other. If one or more wander too far away (perhaps to do some side-questing), they will likely not
get credit for some of the kills that happened (again, not TOTAL kills… we’re looking at the kill & kblows differences). Don’t worry about being a level or two off from each, just level up together
and you’ll be all good.
What the Heck is This 10% Kill Rule Thing?
To be honest, if you are all grouped up and killing stuff together, this won’t be an issue. Same as the Killing Blow %. Don’t worry about this. Really.
Can I Be On a Team of One?
No. Originally, we allowed it, however, we’re no longer going to track “Team of One” teams. This is a team challenge; part of this requires some coordination with your teammates.
Can I Multi-Box?
It’s not against the terms of use for WoW, so I’d say yes you can. Go download Jamba and enjoy.
Can I Trade Items to My Teammates?
Yes! This is not a silly question at all, we’ve never really had to worry about this kind of thing before. You ARE allowed to trade items amongst your teammates as long as
they were not acquired by breaking the rules (mailing yourself stuff from another toon, etc).
Technical
Why Do I Need to Log In with My Battle.Net Account?
We need to ensure that you actually own the character that is going to participate in the Iron Teams challenge. We create a user based on your BNet tag and BNet name (not your real name). For example,
my recorded information is BNet:Leeta#xxxx & Name:Leeta. We do NOT show your Battle Tag to anyone except yourself. We also do not have access to your email address or real name. We do NOT have access to modify your account or characters. Battle.net information is limited to READ-ONLY (meaning we can’t change anything): Battle.Tag, Battle.ID, Character Information.
Managing Iron Teams data is much easier by using your registered Blizzard account.
I Logged Out But I Can’t Log In With My Other Account
In order to log in with another bnet account, you will need to log out of the WoW Challenges site, then go to Battle.Net and Log Out there. When you return to the WoW Challenges site to
log in, you should be prompted to supply the new other account information.
My Character’s Profile Image is Broken or Question Mark
We take the image directly from Blizzard’s character image render location. If the image appears to be broken it’s because it’s not available on their side. To fix this, you
can log back into your character and click LOG OUT (not Exit). Logging out first generally kicks off a bunch of behind-the-scene update jobs on Blizzard’s side like API data updates and, yep,
character image rendering updates.
Why Was My Team Name Changed?
Overall, we’re not going to touch team names unless they violate Wheaton’s Rule: Don’t Be a Dick. It’s pretty simple, really. We’ll also change team names if they are misleading or
misrepresenting, whether intentional or not.
Using promotional material in a team name can be subjective, whether intentional or not, so we advise you to steer well away from using any streaming names that you might have.
We provide many different avenues for you to get your name out there, however, using the Team’s listing as a billboard is not one of them. We can guarantee that you will not
like it when your team is changed.
So How Do I Get a Hold of Admin?
Well, there are many different ways. You can reach out to us by DMing us on twitter WoWChallenges or you can send an email to Leeta AT WoWChallenges DOT com.
Alternatively, you can find Admin and Mods on our Discord Server – Discord.WoWChallenges.com
Longer pieces of feedback are probably better sent by email.