That said, this particular stat penalty is almost certainly caused by one of the stat squishes in World of Warcraft’s history. While some of these items can be obtained in retail World of Warcraft today, their stat penalties have long since been removed. Back in Vanilla WoW, items like the Ogremage Staff or the Cloak of Rot reduce a character’s Intellect and Stamina respectively.

Hilariously, this isn’t actually the first time items in World of Warcraft have given a stat penalty. 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.

They posted an image of a Frozen Bonespike–a dagger dropped from Lord Marrowgar from Wrath of the Lich King’s Icecrown Citadel raid. World of Warcraft fan and Reddit user SpearLT300 discovered one such item while clearing out their bank. However, one side effect of the stat squish is strange occurrences in old, outdated gear and content. RELATED: World of Warcraft: First Details of Night Elf and Forsaken Heritage Quests Revealed Doing this allowed WoW to keep its ever-growing damage and health numbers from reaching absurdly large numbers. To avoid number bloat, World of Warcraft has done two stat squishes so far–once in Warlords of Draenor, and again with the Shadowlands level reduction. With nearly 20 years under its belt, World of Warcraft’s vertical level progression has caused issues in the past. The oddity on this outdated piece of gear was almost certainly caused by one of World of Warcraft’s previous stat squishes. While cleaning out their bank, a World of Warcraft player recently discovered an item that gives a penalty to a stat. Players can still find such items in WoW Classic. Items with stat penalties have occurred in the past in Vanilla WoW, but their penalties have since been removed.An old dagger, the Frozen Bonespike, which was once a powerful item, now gives a penalty to Critical Strike due to a stat squish.World of Warcraft has undergone stat squishes to prevent number bloat and keep damage and health numbers manageable.

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