World of Warcraft Player Finds Item with Negative Stats

Summary

While cleaning out their bank, aWorld of Warcraftplayer recently discovered an item that gives a penalty to a stat. The oddity on this outdated piece of gear was almost certainly caused by one ofWorld of Warcraft’s previous stat squishes.

With nearly 20 years under its belt,World of Warcraft’s vertical level progression has caused issues in the past. To avoid number bloat,World of Warcrafthas done two stat squishes so far–once inWarlords of Draenor, and again withtheShadowlandslevel reduction. Doing this allowedWoWto keep its ever-growing damage and health numbers from reaching absurdly large numbers.

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However, one side effect of the stat squish is strange occurrences in old, outdated gear and content.World of Warcraftfan and Reddit user SpearLT300 discovered one such item while clearing out their bank. They posted an image of a Frozen Bonespike–a dagger dropped from Lord Marrowgar fromWrath of the Lich King’s Icecrown Citadel raid. While the dagger was once a best-in-slot item that boosted Critical Strike when it was new, SpearLT300’s version now gave a penalty to Critical Strike when equipped.

Hilariously, this isn’t actually the first time items inWorld of Warcrafthave given a stat penalty. Back in VanillaWoW, items like the Ogremage Staff or the Cloak of Rot reduce a character’s Intellect and Stamina respectively. While some of these items can be obtained in retailWorld of Warcrafttoday, their stat penalties have long since been removed.

That said, this particular stat penalty is almost certainly caused by one of thestat squishes inWorld of Warcraft’s history. Some fans posited the item generated these stats because it was the Heroic version of the weapon, which features a gem socket. The Frozen Bonespike likely rolled up a penalty to a stat because it is such a low item level, and becauseWoW’s system had to ensure the item did not go over its low budget of bonuses while factoring in the gem slot.

Either way, fans got a kick out of this particularWorld of Warcraftitem. They were reminded of cursedmagic items fromDungeons and Dragonsand other old-school RPGs and became nostalgic about these small, charming details from VanillaWoW.

Luckily, players who want to collect items with negative stat bonuses for themselves can still do so inWorld of Warcraft Classic. OfficialHardcore Realms are coming toClassic Era WoWserverssoon, however, so players will need to be extra careful while equipping these penalizing items on a one-life character.