To his fans, the passing of Byron ‘Reckful’ Berstein was difficult to work through. It was known that the streamer struggled with his mental health, and his suicide was a poignant moment that punctuated the horrendous existence of 2020 as a whole.
Yet Blizzard has opted for a thoughtful nod towards the beloved streamer by adding him as a rogue trainer within World of Warcraft where the character notes that he doesn’t ‘train assassination rogues’, along with an option to simply tell the NPC ‘it was good seeing you again’ in Shadowlands.
Regardless of how Blizzard may be struggling currently, as they’re in the news for astoundingly low pay to their employees, it’s an emotional nod to those that are suffering as mental health, once again, removes another creator from our midst during this difficult time.
The trainer is located within the Cathedral of Light in the newest Shadowlands expansion; the same place where thousands went to pay tribute to the streamer after his ill-fated passing from a long battle with mental health.
The line ‘I don’t train Assassination Rogues’ comes from Reckful refusing to play the Rogue-meta Assassination during the WotLK expansion, instead reaching #1 PvP rank playing as a Subtlety Rogue; a feat that was astonishing to many, considering that Byron opted to not even train the Mutilate skill; considered a necessity for increasing damage due to it’s ‘on-demand’ instant damage ability.
As an additional touch, if you ‘/love’ emote at Reckful, he returns the gesture in kind while sprouting wings on his back. If you ‘/hug’ the NPC Trainer, he returns that emote as well.
A fantastic gesture from Blizzard that shows that, despite their current issues, there are empathetic humans behind the decisions that are very much in-tune with the community that surrounds the title, and has for over well over a decade.
As is the standard, Reckful now has an NPC page on WoWHead that references him, although the page is not completed as of yet to the recent addition of him within the MMO.
The streamers passing has left a void within the streaming community for World of Warcraft, with his occasionally exuberant attitude that he brought to the space while consistently bucking trends that formed within the MMO.
The elite NPC was added into Shadowlands in patch 9.0.1.35432 and is now a permanent fixture, not only within World of Warcraft, but presumably the lore as well; Reckful lore when?
