Wowhead News

Blizzard has announced that players with names that violate its naming policies may lose Beta Access.

The WoW: Forever beta launched on Thursday and has been very popular. One of the new features that players have been excited about is a new naming convention: players can choose both a First and Last name. While this adds a lot of customization and creativity for players, it also opened up a whole new avenue for players to circumvent the ToS with offensive name combinations.

Blizzard has addressed this on the forums when replying to a player who had their Beta access removed, noting that offensive names that break the naming policies could have their Beta Access removed.

I have not received an email as to why it happened either :frowning:

You should have received an email with the reason, specifically the name that was selected for your WoW: Forever beta character. The email that I show that was sent includes the name. Check your spam filter/junk folder.

Character names must adhere to our naming policies, including in Beta. If you violate those policies that may result in the removal of beta access.

At the end of the day, it’s a beta test. Introducing a new character naming scheme requires real-world stress testing, so why ban players for showing blizz what needs to be tuned?

It isn’t a matter of “tuning”, we know what bad names are and we know people create characters with them all the time. We have a reporting option specifically to have those addressed. Some slip through the cracks here and there because they go unreported.

Having the option for a first/last name provides opportunities for a lot of… creativity, but our policies are still in place. The names themselves should continue to abide by our naming policies. The Development team for WoW: Forever is trying to address those names that are brought to their attention.

Beta is primarily run by QA and the Game Development team, so policy enforcement there primarily falls under their banner. However, if you feel an error was made you’ll want to submit an appeal. None of the examples I have seen thus far seem to be appropriate, but that isn’t my call.

Now that the WoW: Forever Beta is here, we've dug into the client to find all the soundtracks available in-game: the sounds of Azeroth you know and love, with some new additions like the Skyborne theme.

WoW: Forever Music Playlist

With almost eight hours of playtime, our Forever playlist has over 100 soundtracks by artists like Jason Hayes, David Arkenstone, Derek Duke, Adam Burgess, Matt Uelmen, Russell Brower, Brendon Williams, Glenn Stafford, Neal Acree, Tracy Bush, Cédric Baravaglio, Grant Kirkhope, Leo Kaliski, and Jake Lefkowitz. Hayes in particular has created many of the most memorable World of Warcraft themes, but he's not the only legendary artist! These tracks bring the world of Azeroth to you no matter where you are, so dive in for a listen.

Want to check out the world of WoW: Forever but haven't been able to get into the Beta yet? Check out Wowhead's new World Map tool!

Wowhead's Azeroth Maps Tool

We're always looking for ways to improve our site, so we welcome all feedback - please tell us in the comments what you think, and what we can add to this new feature to make it even more useful.

Explore WoW Forever's World on Wowhead

Azeroth might be familiar, but WoW: Forever adds plenty of new locations to explore. Players can use this new tool to zoom in across the entirety of the world map to see what there is to explore.

One cool feature users can use is to share a specific point on the map with their friends. Whenever you zoom in or adjust the map anywhere, it'll adjust the URL up top. Wherever you leave the map on, the URL will adjust the coordinates, allowing you to share with your friends with ease. For example, this will take you right to Stormwind City!

Players can also toggle visibility of different map layers and features, like zone names, dungeon locations, class trainers, rares, and more. Zoom in to see all the details, or pull back for a higher-level view - the choice is yours!

In a recent tweet, Aggrend revealed that Blizzard has no plans to change how tagging works in WoW: Forever.

As players enter the Forever Beta, it's clear that there is a lot of hype - which leads to one of the largest Beta tests Blizzard has ever had. Virtually every quest mob is camped, and even with the new phasing technology, players are still facing stiff competition for tags on enemies.

Senior Game Designer Gosh Greenfield (also known as Aggrend) weighed in on the design philosophy and reasoning behind not switching tagging to the shared version Retail players are used to. Social aspects of Forever are a major influence on virtually every aspect of the game's development, so maintaining some of the friction that lets players have those interactions is hugely important to the team. Make things too easy, and people stop interacting - but make them too hard, and players stop having fun.

Brewfest is back! The food-and-drink-themed holiday has once again returned, and it's back with all-new rewards and achievements for players to earn.

Brewfest Holiday Guide

A Round on the House in Midnight gives players a new way to earn Brewfest Prize Token, which you'll need if you want to grab all the new decor available. Not only that, but there are two new brew-themed transmog sets from the Brewfest Banquet event!

Eat delicious food, drink bountiful beverages, and ride rams around barrels of apples! Brewfest has arrived, and you can enjoy all that and more!

When: September 20–October 6 Where: Silvermoon City, Valdrakken, Dornogal, Valdrakken, Ironforge, and Orgrimmar Currency: Brewfest Prize Tokens—used to purchase most items at the Brewfest vendor.

Freshly Tapped for Midnight What’s New Two new Brewer's transmog sets are available to add to your Brewer’s garb collection when you complete the Brewfest Banquet: Brewer's Purple Set: Purple Beret, Purple Shoulder Cape, Purple Belt, and Purple Kilt

Brewer's Red Set: Red Beret, Red Shoulder Cape, Red Belt, and Red Kilt

Brewfest-themed Decor is available to brewify your homes: Holiday Decor Vendors, Jolli Maxiboom (Horde) and Holly Twinklebright (Alliance), are hanging out in your Housing neighborhood selling select Decor for gold: Traditional Brewfest Stein

Brewfest Crate

Brewfest Decor Specialists, Fizz Alechux (Horde) and Kay Stouthammer (Alliance), will sell the following decor for Brewfest Prize Tokens: Traditional Brewfest Banner

Brewfest Fence

Brewfest Fencepost

Hanging Brewfest Wreath

Fay Stouthammer and Dizzy Alechux are offering all the available item during Brewest in the Brewfest hubs outside Ironforge and Orgrimmar.

Strike up a conversation with the Holiday Enthusiast in Silvermoon City to begin the brewfestivities. In addition to the usual fun in Ironforge and Orgrimmar, you can complete new Brewfest quests throughout Quel’Thalas, and the Brewfest Banquet Outdoor Scenario will keep you hopping.

What's Brewfest without some stout rewards?

Fresh items are available on the holiday vendor, but you can take the best of the fest with you wherever you go by bringing down Coren Direbrew—once daily for a chance at unique goods like the Brewfest Barrel Bomber mount.

Customize yourself for adventure with other festive kilt colors available from the holiday vendor or show off your Brewfest charm with a Brewer’s Balloon.

Left: Dark Iron's Ceremonial Set Right: Brewer's Blue Set

Brewfest Bomber Mount

Brewer's Balloon

Stop, Collabrewate, and Listen!

Grab your allies and hustle to get the most points possible during the Brewfest Banquet Outdoor Scenario.

Work together to serve as many NPC customers as possible, but first, you must choose your role: Gatherer Defeat mobs in the area to collect materials for depositing in the kitchen.

Cook Whip up your finest tasty goodies using materials gathered from the gatherers to cook pretzels, soup, or brew.

Server Ensure a fine-dining experience for the customers (NPCs) by delivering the meals lovingly crafted by the Cooks.

Activities (Modern)

Activities (Classic)

Activities

Brewfest Banquet Scenario

Grab your allies and hustle to get the most points possible during the Brewfest Banquet outdoor scenario.

Barreling Down

Keep your wits because you'll have to roll barrels through Valdrakken and deliver them to the Artisan's Market.

Bubbling Brews

Test your skills in Dragonriding and take to the skies above the Artisan's Market in Valdrakken to collect bubbles to fill a barrel.

Brewfest Chowdown

Slurp and burp your way through this eating contest to be crowned the Chowdown Champion. Compete with three other players in front of a panel of spectators to prove your prowess but try not to choke (literally)! The first to finish 10 plates of sausages takes home the prize. Manners optional. Speak with Etga (Horde) or Britta Steinhart (Alliance) to participate. Prize: 1 Brewfest Chowdown Champion Token.

Ceremonial Keg Tapping

Join the Draenor-famous Frostwolf brewery Warband Ales for a special toast during Brewfest at 6 a.m. or 6 p.m. server time. Alliance players can do the same with the Thunderbrew and Barleybrew breweries.

Daily Quests

Complete special daily quests to obtain experience, gold, and Brewfest Prize Tokens to purchase holiday items.

Sample Fine Food and Brew

Stumble your way through the grounds while trying specialty food and brew from all over Azeroth and Draenor.

Activities

Seasonal Boss: Coren Direbrew

It's time to track down the source of the Dark Iron attacks and end them once and for all. Players will follow a trail of evidence that leads to Blackrock Depths, where they can do battle with the mastermind behind the attacks - Coren Direbrew. He drops special rewards including epic weapons, trinkets, and rare mounts.

Ceremonial Keg Tapping

Join the Draenor-famous Frostwolf brewery Warband Ales for a special toast during Brewfest at 6 a.m. or 6 p.m. server time. Alliance players can do the same with the Thunderbrew and Barleybrew breweries.

Daily Quests

Complete special daily quests to obtain experience, gold, and Brewfest Prize Tokens to purchase holiday items.

Sample Fine Food and Brew

Stumble your way through the grounds while trying specialty food and brew from all over Azeroth and Draenor.

Holiday Items

Earn Brewfest souvenirs while gallivanting around Brewfest!

Brewfest Souvenirs

Mounts

Brewfest Goods

Brewfest Toys

Battle Pets

Heirloom Upgrades

Brewfest Souvenirs

Garland of Grain*: A festive crown adorned with a golden pretzel that you can wear during Brewfest. Tabard of Brew*: Show off your love for Brewfest year-round with this tabard! Brewfest Chowdown Trophy*: Proudly display your Brewfest Chowdown Trophy! Bottomless Brewfest Stein*: Fill your Brewfest Stein at a Brewfest Festive Keg. Brewfest Reveler’s Hearthstone*: Return home in the most jubilant way possible!

Mounts

Great Brewfest Kodo: Coren Direbrew won this prize after drinking a Tauren druid under the table – and the druid was in bear form. It was one of Direbrew’s proudest moments. Swift Brewfest Ram: Dwarves attribute this breed’s even temperament to rigorous training, but other races argue that a daily diet of strong ale has something to do with it.

Brewfest Goods

Blix’s Eyesight Enhancing Romance Goggles: Guaranteed by Blix Fixwidget to make EVERYONE look attractive! Brewfest Garb: Put together a full festive appearance by wearing three of the following cosmetic pieces: Blue Brewfest Hat, Green Brewfest Hat, Brown Brewfest Hat, Purple Brewfest Hat, Brewfest Dress, Brewfest Regalia, Brewfest Slippers, and Brewfest Boots. Brewhelm*: Attach two tankards to your head or helmet. Synthebrew Goggles XL*: Warning: Do not wear while mounted. “Brew of the Month” Club Membership Form: Sign up to join a monthly brew club! Angry Brewfest Letter: WARNING: Once an angry letter is sent, you will never be able to join the Club again! Feed your mount these hops to transform it into a Brewfest steed: Fresh Dwarven Brewfest HopsFresh Goblin Brewfest HopsFresh Brewfest Hops, or Preserved Brewfest Hops.

Toys

Brewer's Balloon:  Summon or dismiss this charming balloon! Brewfest Pony Keg: Tap a pony keg of delicious Brewfest Brew. Brewfest Keg Pony*: Summon a beer-toting keg pony for 3 minutes. Brewfest Banner*: Represent Brewfest! Steamworks Sausage Grill*: Places a Steamworks Sausage Grill that increases the spirits of those nearby by 4 and allows cooking. Pandaren Brewpack*: Carry a keg of brew on your back for 3 minutes. Drink brew or toss some to friends! Gravil Goldbraid’s Famous Sausage Hat*: You never sausage a hat!

Battle Pets

Pint-Sized Pink Pachyderm: A shy creature, the pink elekk will only make its presence known to those that have befriended it, or to anyone too intoxicated to harm it. Wolpertinger’s Tankard: Many a drunken Brewfest goer has told the tale of this mysterious creature, but few remember that tale in the morning. Stout Alemental*: The Pandaren Brewmasters accidentally brought a barrel of Uncle Gao's last sentient batch of brew with them to Brewfest.

Heirloom Upgrades

Ancient Heirloom Scabbard*: Upgrade an heirloom weapon allowing it to increase in power up to level 35. Timeworn Heirloom Scabbard*: Upgrade an heirloom weapon allowing it to increase in power up to level 40. Only works on heirlooms that scale to level 35.

Achievements

Brewmaster: Completing the achievements The Brewfest Diet, Brew of the Month, Direbrewfest, Does Your Wolpertinger Linger?, and Have Keg, Will Travel will reward the meta-achievement Brewmaster. Awards the title Brewmaster.

The Brewfest Diet: Eat 8 of the following Brewfest foods—Dried Sausage, Pickled Sausage, Savory Sausage, Spiced Onion Cheese, Spicy Smoked Sausage, Succulent Sausage, The Essential Brewfest Pretzel, and The Golden Link.

Brew of the Month: Join the Brew of the Month club.

Direbrewfest: Kill Coren Direbrew.

Does Your Wolpertinger Linger?: Obtain a Wolpertinger pet from the Brewfest quest line.

Have Keg, Will Travel: Obtain a Brewfest mount, or transform yours into one using Brewfest Hops.

Brew of the Year: Sample 12 beers featured in the Brew of the Month club. Requires a “Brew of the Month” Club Membership Form.

Strange Brew: Acquire the Brewfest beers listed below. Don’t drink them all at once!

Disturbing the Peace: While wearing 3 pieces of Brewfest clothing, get completely smashed and dance in Dalaran.

A Brew-Fast Mount: Obtain an epic Brewfest mount.

Almost Blind Luck: Fall 65 yards without dying while wearing Synthebrew Goggles during the Brewfest Holiday.

A Round on the House: Donate to Bar Tab Barrels at taverns and inns in zones throughout Azeroth.

Achievements in WoW Classic

Drunken Stupor: Fall 65 yards without dying while completely smashed during the Brewfest Holiday.

Down with the Dark Iron: Defend the Brewfest camp from the Dark Iron attack and complete the quest, "This one Time, When I was Drunk..."

Be sure to hop on over to the Brewfest staging areas at the gates of Orgrimmar and Ironforge from September 20 to October 6 to join the festivities.

*Not Available in WoW Classic Titles

In an interview with Windows Central, Blizzard discussed the differences between WoW: Forever and Retail WoW, the Faction Conflict, and how they're thinking about adding a Heroic World Tier for leveling in The Last Titan.

Windows Central Interview on WoW: Forever

Windows Central had an interview with:

Ion Hazzikostas (Game Director)

We've summarized the interview below, but you can see the original piece on Windows Central.

Interview Summary

Forever

Ending the opening ceremony at BlizzCon with Forever was Blizzard's commitment to the BlizzCon audience, as they knew that many players were waiting for Classic+.

Forever is a third pillar alongside Retail and Classic and will shape WoW in the future.

World Buff farming for raids will be removed from WoW Forever.

Fragmenting the Playerbase

They always have to consider fragmenting the playerbase, even for smaller experiences like Plunderstorm.

They don't see any perceived withdrawal from the social systems of Retail WoW as desirable.

There are strong communities in Retail, but a lot of it happens in Discord, outside of the game.

Friction vs Social Experiences

When you reduce friction and offer more solo content, you end up with a more solitary experience for players.

Friction and the lack of auto matchmaking typically lead to more social connections.

Friction is a big part of Classic, but for players who can only play for a short duration, it means they can't run a dungeon, so there are trade-offs.

There will be a very large difference between Retail and Forever.

Retail Problems

There are real problems in Retail WoW and things they want to fix.

They are thinking about offering something like a Heroic World Tier in The Last Titan for players who want challenging world content, more friction, and more rewards.

They should not be telling players to go play Classic if you want friction and rewarding open world content; all versions of WoW should have that.

They have a lot more work to do on the new player experience for Retail WoW to help players learn the class fantasy and the story.

Horde vs Alliance

On the topic of faction-specific leveling zones or quests, when the dev team has to build two different leveling storylines with the same resources, that means they're making half the experience on both sides.

It's also related to the story and the feedback from players, and if players want the faction conflict, then they might do more faction conflict.

Right now, they hear that players want more cross-faction gameplay.

However, they want to preserve Horde and Alliance identity.

Right now, there's a need to cooperate, but there's still a deep history of enmity. It's something that they intend to return to down the road.

In an interview with Game Informer, Blizzard discussed faction choices on PvP rules and how they're trying to maintain the social experience.

Game Informer Website

Game Informer interviewed:

Tim Jones (Lead Game Designer)

Nora Mills (Lead Software Engineer)

We've summarized the interview below, but you can view the original piece on Game Informer's website or on their YouTube channel.

Interview Summary

WoW: Forever

WoW: Forever is a promise to players that they are building a game based on the Vanilla world.

They are capping players at level 60 and are not going to Outland. Timeline-wise, the game takes place between Warcraft III and The Burning Crusade.

They're starting in a place where Molten Core hasn't even opened.

There are major lore characters that are still alive: Arthas is still up in Northrend, and Illidan is still in Outland, but there are still so many places to explore.

They can create content for a point in time that no one has experienced before. Hyjal was a zone in Cataclysm, but players haven't visited it since the events in Warcraft III.

They're expanding into places where players haven't been before.

The Riverglades is new, but it fits so well into the Vanilla world. It feels like it could have been there the entire time.

They want players to feel safe putting their time into these characters.

New Content

It's a learning experience to design for a Vanilla-style game.

People had different software back in 2004 and some of that software isn't even supported anymore.

They had to take a look at the way things were handled previously and find a new way to recapture them so that the items and weapons feel like they've always been in Classic.

They want to recreate how players remember things were, not to directly recreate how it actually was.

New Gear

A lot of people consider Classic to be a solved game, so they want to mix things up.

They've looked at itemization in the same way that they've brought classes to become more viable.

There are new affixes on items and trinkets that only activate in certain biomes or against enemies.

They want people to think about how to build their character and experience the world.

Level 60

The beauty of having a permanent level 60 cap is that players can approach the game in different ways.

Some players will want to level fast and some players will want to experience the raid content first. They want to support this type of playstyle.

With the level cap never moving, you can take the game at your own pace.

If you only have 30 minutes, then you can log in, look at your quest log, complete a couple, and do some professions.

One of the core pillars is Journey before destination.

They created the Hall of Thanes, a sister dungeon to Ragefire Chasm. This is a level 13-18 dungeon for Alliance.

Leveling

The Legacy system is a cumulative account progression that helps you level alts.

It helps incentivize players wanting to play alts.

But it's not a rush, and players should take their time through the experience.

Camping

The campfire buffs are tied to professions.

Campfires can support objects that are crafted by other professions

You're going to need to sit down to get these buffs, and the hope is that in these moments, you can maybe find someone who is on the same quest as you.

Social

When you're on a long flight path, you might answer a question in general chat or talk to your guild.

If you look at running to a dungeon or being on a long flight path at face value, it's tempting to want to do something about it, but Blizzard sees it as an opportunity for players to slow down a bit and decide if they want to engage with other players.

Factions

There's a restriction where players have to pick one faction on PvP rulesets.

You can make opposing factions on other rulesets.

Addons

Addons are supported, and there will be parity between mainline and Forever.

They want to stray away from addons having too much power and control over players' experiences.

Skyborne Elves

The hope is that players can see what they are getting for a sub at launch is their attitude towards players.

You may not have access to the Skyborne, but you have 9 new dungeons, 1,000 new quests, and brand new zones for the same subscription price.

There are more raids, dungeons, and questing content coming to the game for the base subscription.

The Future

There's expected new content, such as Mount Hyjal and Gilneas.

They're also looking at things that surprise players, such as exploring new places like The Riverglades.

As they add new content, they're going to continue to look at all the different levels and maybe deicde to add a new dungeon to an underrepresented dungeon bracket.

They want to create new content for every level in Forever.

There's a lot of room to explore bite-sized stories, rather than big world-ending threats.

Ahoy me hearties! Today be Pirate's Day in merry ol' Azeroth. Get ye ta Booty Bay where her worship, Dread Captain DeMeza, will sell ye a new patch fer yer eye. Fer a fair price. And while ye be at it, check out this guide fer all yer Pirate's Day needs.

Pirate's Day Guide

Pirate's EyepatchSource: Dread Captain DeMezaCost:

Avast ye landlubbers! Hoist sail and make way for Booty Bay because Pirate’s Day begins September 19, filled with treasures and finery galore! Pirate’s Day will also be available in WoW Classic for hardy heroes wishing to embrace a pirate's life.

What’s New Spend yer hard-won gold on proper pirate goods from Dread Captain DeMeza’s collection. Like the new Pirate’s Eyepatch transmog piece for a mere 1000g. Donning it will give you a proper scallywag look that shows friend and foe alike that it’s a pirate’s life for you.

Bring Your Sea Shanty to Booty Bay Pirates have taken over the goblin town of Booty Bay, and Captain DeMeza is recruiting any scurvy dog she can into her buccaneer ranks. Visit her or her henchmen in the capital cities if the pirate’s life is for you!

Feeling out of place in Booty Bay without a proper costume? Don’t worry. /Dance one little jig with the Dread Captain DeMeza, and she’ll be impressed enough to press you into her crew and outfit you properly. If you get attached to your new look, you can do the quest "You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat!" Succeed, and you’ll get an Emergency Pirate Outfit (or five) for when Pirate’s Day is but a distant memory, and your inner pirate is clawing to get out.

What good is a pirate without an avian companion on their shoulder? Captain DeMeza (for the exchange of a few shiny coins) can help you call forth a temporary companion named Petey to take with you wherever you sail.

From time to time, the captain will shout for a brave party to take on a terror of the deeps–an elite shark known as Ol’Eary. Make sure you have a hearty crew with you, or you could become just so much chum in the waters of the bay.

Join the Beach Party

Once you and your crew have helped the captain handle Ol’Eary, you can celebrate with the crew at a little beach party just south of Booty Bay. Those with the Feat of Strength "Advast Ye, Admiral" can also purchase a toy from Edward Techt–the Jolly Roger to show off their dedication to the cause.

If you’re really feeling generous, you can also purchase a Big Bag of Booty from Captain DeMeza and spread the wealth around to all your pirate pals in a burst of glittery glory.

Swashbuckling Skyriding Style Avast ye! Go from a swabbing scallywag to old salt when you deck out your Highland Drake in a coffer-carrying saddle with the Pirate's Day Armor. Grab your loot from Dread Captain DeMeza in Booty Bay, then use it at any Rostrum of Transformation. Ye savvy?

WoW Classic

Capital city commoners will be donning the latest swashbuckling fashion. Speak to any of them, and they'll set you up with pirate garb for one hour and give you the newest scuttlebutt. Apparently, Dread Captain DeMeza is riling up the crowd with talk of Pirate's Day.

When : September 19 (24 hours) Where : Darnassus, Exodar, Ironforge, Orgrimmar, Silvermoon City, Stormwind, Thunderbluff, and Undercity

Once in Booty Bay, look for Dread Captain DeMeza and her crew on the bank rooftop, and you can speak to her to raise a toast and become a pirate for the day. Doing so will grant you a 12-hour pirate costume buff, and you'll complete the achievement, The Captain's Booty.

Get out there, ye scurvy barnacles, and earn yer sea legs, aaargh!

For the latest information and updates, keep checking WorldofWarcraft.com/news and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

With the announcement of WoW: Forever at BlizzCon, players were excited and ready to jump right into the Beta, with thousands queueing up to head into Azeroth and see what new surprises were in store. Like most Beta tests, though, there were plenty of issues, both expected and not - and the unexpected ones had many players looking for answers as to why the launch was so buggy, laggy, and just plain frustrating at first.

Senior Game Producer Tom Ellis made a lengthy post on X (Twitter) describing the issues with the WoW: Forever Beta launch. After the live WoW Q&A, the Forever servers were supposed to go live, but issues delayed the launch. Even after servers started coming up, many players faced disconnect issues, long queue times, and even after finally getting into the game, loot lag and more.

Tom EllisAlright, now the dust has settled and you're just happily playing away, let's answer the most common question I've seen.

1. AHMAGERD, this game is 20 years old, how do you still suck at this!?!a. Heh, fair enough, sort answer is, this is our BETA PTR environment stack, it's not a Production stack by a long, long, long, long, long, long shot. Betas for WoW aren't usually huge meter movers so this environment just isn't that powerful. This led to the first problem you saw today,

Shortly after we went live and when you got through the login queue (which is just http://B.Net protecting itself, rate limiting logins, normal!), you were disconnected. Ah. That's not quite right. This one took the longest of the issue today to figure out (and even then, was around half an hour I think?). Our little BETA environment only uses one REGIONAL realm. Hrm, we should do a panel on WoW infra one day so any of this makes sense. Anyway...

This turned out to be a problem, but it took a while to find because all our services CPU and Memory were A-OK, bored even. And when the http://Battle.Net Game Service team took a look at their services that we were talking to and getting timeouts from, they were bored too. What the hell. Eventually engineers figured out that we were hitting the BGS metering system that protects their services from falling over under extreme load. Our tiny little REGIONAL with its two connections that were trying to login A LOT of users, even though it was no where near capped on CPU was completely screwing the math that system was using. We scaled that 2 to an 8 and immediately the flood gates opened once again. We all recognized we need more logging and notifications when this system is kicking in, but this is the first time anyone's seen it kick in when their wasn't an obvious CPU issue to go along with it. 20 years, always something new.

What next... Ah yes, shortly after that, many of you saw long looting times, accepting quests etc, anything that interacted with the database. The PTR database that beta uses was taking a long time to respond to queries. Our intrepid Oracle Database Engineers had to perform a manual analyze on all the tables and setup some automated jobs to periodically keep doing it, this is because some of these tables were new and existing tables were seeing a crapton of inserts and new query behavior so everything just needed to be checked more often while the data was still changing so much. As soon as these were performed DB performance cleared up instantly. For any DB engineers, yes we say analyze because we're old, we know its DBMS_STATS.

Restarts! We kicked you all off. A few hours in, we noticed our WORLD pools that run, well, the game simulation you play on, were running crazy hot on CPU and almost out of memory. We then started seeing the first VMs get hit by the OOM'killer as they threatened to take down the hypervisor. Classic engineers were able to identify that we were not correctly shutting down empty maps, so we were slowly, well, not that slowly, gobbling up CPU and memory. One quick fix through passed through QA but needs restarts to pick it up. We also took the opportunity to add some additional WORLDs just in case, and gave that REGIONAL service a extra friend, just in case.

Marked live once again and you all poured in without fuss. Right now things are incredibly smooth for the first few hours of a public beta, Classic teams watching and fixing anything blocking that comes up but we're otherwise pretty much done for the night, enjoy!

Players have discovered that killing Mythic Nymrissa may guarantee a piece of her loot in one of your Great Vault slots.

Flexible Mythic Slot

When the one-boss raid Sporefall was released in Season 1, some players noticed that one of their Great Vault slots was listed as Flexible Mythic. With the Tidebound Grotto Lair in Season 2 also having Mythic Flex difficulty, players have noticed the "Mythic (Flexible Raiding)" message in their Great Vault again.

Mythic Nymrissa Wavecaller seems to count as a Mythic boss in the Great Vault, but at a lower priority than a Mythic Venomous Abyss boss. For example, if you kill 5 Venomous Abyss bosses and Mythic Nymrissa, the final slot will say "Mythic (Flexible Raiding)". However, if you kill a 6th boss, then the Mythic Nymrissa item gets pushed out, and all 6 slots are Mythic.

Guaranteed Nymrissa Loot

Draco, Geek, Umbrica, and others from the Raid Leader Discord looked at some Great Vault data over the weekly reset. They now suspect that a "Mythic (Flexible Raiding)" slot forces that slot to be Mythic Nymrissa loot.

This theory hasn't been disproven yet, but there have been numerous vaults over the last two weeks that have a Nymrissa item in that exact slot. If this is true, this means that if you have killed an odd number of Mythic Venomous Abyss bosses and Nymrissa, you will have a guaranteed piece of Nymrissa loot.

Why Does This Matter?

There are some pros and cons to this system.

If you are specifically going for Mythic Nymrissa loot, such as for the Wavecaller's Seastone, then you may wish to kill an odd number of Mythic Venomous Abyss bosses so that you can get a Flexible Raiding slot in the Vault and have a much higher chance of getting the item you're looking for.

There are some downsides to this if you are still looking for Heroic. Many players still want loot off of the last two Heroic bosses, which would drop Myth 1/6 in the Great Vault. Items such as the set bonus on Coiled Altar of Zul'jin's Guillotine Technique and Aman'muso, Warlord's Vengeance or Maze-roa, Warlord's Fury are very powerful, and if you kill Nymrissa Wavecaller and don't need any loot, then you could get a guaranteed useless piece of loot in your Vault instead of a chance of something useful. In this case, you should avoid killing Mythic Nymrissa at all, or kill an even number of bosses in Mythic Venomous Abyss.

Ultimately, with Bonus Rolls, the consequences of just playing the game and not caring about this are a lot lower. Even if you don't want Nymrissa loot, you can just pick up a bonus roll, which allows you to have a chance of getting exactly what you want. This is a very interesting quirk of the Great Vault, and it may be more useful to know once Kith'ix releases in Patch 12.1.5.

In WoW: Forever, players will get a notification when they are about to phase, giving them time to get to a safe location before it triggers.

Forever OverviewForever Guide Compendium

In World of Warcraft, if all players were in the same location in a zone and could see each other, it would cause immense strain on the servers. As such, WoW has phasing technology called layering or sharding. Each zone in the world has multiple identical copies, and players are assigned to one of them when they enter. This places them into a zone that starts identically to other phases and runs independently from the other copies of the zone. Players can typically jump between layers and shards by forming groups, and as the population of a zone increases or decreases, the number of layers and shards can dynamically update as well.

In WoW: Forever, there's a new notification when a forced phase change is about to occur. Players will be notified that a zone "refresh" is coming soon, and they have 5 minutes to get somewhere safe before the change happens.

When the transition occurs, it's unknown what will be in the new phase. You could have defeated all the mobs nearby in your current phase, but in the new phase, all the mobs could all be alive again and immediately aggro you. Alternatively, your new layer could have everything dead, and you'll be surrounded by a bunch of new people. Questing mobs or pickups could despawn, or new herb and mining nodes might pop up.

When you're ready to trigger the phase, head to a safe location, away from any dangerous spawns, likely to a road or a town, and then you can click "Refresh Now" to trigger the phase. Once you're in the new layer, feel free to continue with your business.

If it's taking a little longer to get safe, you can click "Okay" to hide the notification. On the left side of your screen, near the chat box, there will be an arrow and a notification that reminds you how much time you have left before the forced transition. Click on the arrow when you're ready to bring up the notification again, and you can then click "Refresh Now" when you're ready.

At BlizzCon, this new phasing technology was revealed to have been created with Hardcore players in mind, since a forced phase at the wrong time might mean certain death. All players can use the new Refresh option, though, to make things a bit easier and provide more control.

Blizzard has just posted upcoming class tuning for the weekly reset which includes Augmentation Evoker buffs.

Our tuning pass this week is mostly targeted at low performers across Mythic+, Raid, and PvP. In addition to helping low performers, we are looking at some hero talent disparity to see if we can create a little more competitive balance between the options to better facilitate more gameplay options.

CLASS CHANGESDEATH KNIGHT

Blood

Developers’ notes: San’layn is dealing quite a bit more damage in AoE than our intended target for tanks. We will be reducing their overall damage to reduce the disparity. However, we will be increasing Death Strike’s damage and reducing its cleave effectiveness to buff Blood’s single target which is a little on the lower end of tanks. In addition, we are making some Deathbringer specific targeted buffs to counter the overall aura nerf and be a small net positive buff to both their AoE and single target damage.

All ability damage reduced by 6%.

Death Strike damage increased by 25%.

Deadly Reach now causes Death Strike now to deal 60% of its damage to 2 nearby enemies (was 75%).

Deathbringer

Exterminate damage increased by 25%.

Reaper’s Mark damage increased by 20%.

Wave of Souls damage increased by 20%.

Bind in Darkness now increases Blood Boil damage by 50% (was 30%).

Deathly Blows now increases Death Strike damage by 20% (was 12%).

Swift and Painful now increases Strength by 15% (was 10%).

Frost

Developers’ notes: Frost Death has been lacking in single target and two target cleave scenarios.

Frostreaper damage increased by 100%. Does not affect PvP combat.

Obliterate damage increased by 10%. Does not affect PvP combat.

Unholy

Developers’ notes: We’re looking to increase Unholy Death Knight’s damage output in raid. In parallel, we’re aiming to bring Blightfall build back to where it was prior to the bug fixes that made it no longer viable.

Scourging now causes your plagues to erupt at 65%/100% (was 50%/70%). Does not affect PvP combat.

Blightfall deals 200% of the plague damage remaining (was 100%). Does not affect PvP combat

San’layn

Infliction of Sorrow causes Vampiric Strike to erupt plagues with 75% increased effectiveness (was 30%).

Thrill of Blood increases Dread Plague damage by 20% (was 10%).

Frenzied Bloodthirst now increases Death Coil and Death Strike damage by 5% per stack.

DEMON HUNTER

Devourer

Developers’ notes: These changes are intended to primarily benefit the raid and single target performance of Annihilator hero talent builds and improve Annihilator’s viability in more content.

Collapsing Star damage to primary target increased by 25%. Does not affect PvP combat.

Consume/Devour damage increased by 8%. Does not affect PvP combat.

Havoc

Aldrachi Reaver

Developers’ notes: Aldrachi Reaver has fallen well behind the alternative hero talent options for both specs it is available to. We are improving some of its core effects for both specs, and for Havoc specifically the soul fragment generation from Broken Spirit is increasing to give a small boost to Fury generation and hasten the cycle of Reaver’s Glaive and its bonuses.

Art of the Glaive now increases the damage of enhanced strikes by 15% (was 10%) and 30% (was 20%).

Reaver’s Glaive damage increased by 25%.

Reaver’s Mark now increases your damage to the target by 7% (was 6%).

Broken Spirit chance to shatter a Soul Fragment increased to 20% (was 15%).

Vengeance

Aldrachi Reaver

Developers’ notes: Aldrachi Reaver has fallen well behind the alternative hero talent options for both specs it is available to. We are improving some of its core effects for both specs.

Art of the Glaive now increases the damage of enhanced strikes by 15% (was 10%) and 30% (was 20%).

Reaver’s Glaive damage increased by 30%.

Reaver’s Mark now increases your damage to the target by 8% (was 7%).

DRUID

Hero Talents

Wildstalker

Bursting Growth damage increased by 15%. Not applied to PvP combat.

Feral

Wildstalker

Patient Custodian increases bleed damage by 10% (was 8%). Not applied to PvP combat.

Restoration

All healing increased by 4%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

Fixed an issue where Photosynthesis could trigger from other players’ heal over time effects.

EVOKER

Augmentation

Developers’ notes: We’re making some targeted adjustments to parts of Augmentation’s kit that have lower representation in their breakdown than they should be relative to their intended strength or time spent performing them.

Eruption damage increased by 15%.

Fire Breath damage increased by 60%.

Upheaval damage increased by 40%.

Blistering Scales damage increased by 100%.

Devastation

Developers’ notes: Devastation’s overall damage in M+ is slightly lower than we’d like, so we’re broadly targeting AoE abilities for buffs. We’re increasing Unbound Flame’s damage to maintain its appeal as the focus of the Apex talents. And finally, we’re increasing Shattering Star’s damage so that players talenting for their tier set can feel confident they are making a competitive character building decision. We anticipate this package giving a larger buff to Flameshaper than to Scalecommander, as we’re seeing Scalecommander outperform it in most content.

Pyre damage increased by 10%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

Unbound Flame damage increased by 25%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

Fire Breath damage increased by 5%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

Azure Strike damage increased by 50%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

Azure Sweep damage increased by 50%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

Shattering Star damage increased by 10%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

HUNTER

Marksmanship

Developers’ notes: We’re looking to increase the area damage capabilities of Marksmanship Hunters with these changes.

Trick Shots now causes Aimed Shot or Rapid Fire ricochets to hit for 75% of damage (was 60%).

Volley damage increased by 10%.

Survival

Developers’ notes: We’re increasing the damage that Wildfire Bomb deals to all targets, but reducing the bonus damage to the primary target. This should be a neutral change against a single target, but an increase to area damage when fighting more than one enemy.

Wildfire Bomb damage increased by 20%.

Wildfire Bomb now only hits the primary target for 50% additional damage (was 80% additional).

MAGE

Developers’ notes: For both Fire and Frost, these changes are intended to primarily improve performance in M+, with a smaller impact in raids.

Fire

Meteor’s damage over time increased by 100%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

Frostfire

Dualcasting Adept now increases Flamestrike damage by 15% (was 10%).

Sunfury

Burden of Power now increases Flamestrike damage by 6% (was 3%).

Frost

Frozen Orb damage increased by 15%.

Comet Storm damage increased by 50%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

Frostbite’s Shatter damage to nearby enemies increased by 10%.

Glacial Assault icy comet damage increased by 50%.

MONK

Mistweaver

All healing increased by 5%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

Vivify healing increased by 15%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

Sheilun’s Gift healing increased by 15%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

Windwalker

Melee auto-attack damage increased by 25%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

Dual Threat damage increased by 20%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

Rising Sun Kick damage increased by 8%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

PALADIN

Protection

All ability damage increased by 6%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

Retribution

Templar

Developers’ notes: Templar has been underperforming compared to Herald of the Sun this season. We’re increasing its throughput to make it a more viable option against Herald of the Sun, for those who enjoy Templar’s playstyle.

Hammer of Light damage increased by 50%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

Empyrean Hammer damage increased by 12%.

PRIEST

Discipline

Developers’ notes: Discipline isn’t able to dish out proper healing in dungeon environments due to how strong Atonement is in raids. We’re reintroducing an Atonement healing bonus outside of raid environments and significantly increasing Atonement healing outside raid to help Discipline shine in dungeons.

Atonement healing is increased by 40% when not in a raid or battleground instance.

Atonement healing is no longer increased by 40% in PvP combat.

Penance mana cost reduced by 20%.

Shadow

Developers’ notes: We feel Shadow is lacking in single target damage, so these changes are intended to improve Shadow’s damage against singular targets while remaining neutral in multi-target situations.

Mind Blast damage increased by 15%.

Void Blast damage increased by 15%.

Shadow Word: Death damage increased by 15%.

Shadow Word: Madness damage increased by 15%. Not applied to PvP combat.

Mind Flay damage increased by 15%. Not applied to PvP combat.

Mind Flay: Insanity damage increased by 15%. Not applied to PvP combat.

Psychic Link now causes direct damage spells to inflict 20% of their damage to all other targets afflicted by Vampiric Touch (was 25%). Not applied to PvP combat.

Shadeburst damage reduced by 5%. Not applied to PvP combat.

ROGUE

Subtlety

Trickster

Developers’ notes: Trickster has performed well below Deathstalker for Subtlety this tier and is receiving damage boost to its core effects to make Trickster a more reasonable choice in a wider range of content.

Unseen Blade damage increased by 50%. Does not affect PvP combat.

Coup de Grace damage increased by 30%. Does not affect PvP combat.

WARRIOR

Developers’ notes: Warriors are in a good state overall, but we feel that Mountain Thane is a bit behind their partner hero specs on both Fury and Prot, so we’re giving a small boost there to help Mountain Thane enjoyers.

Fury

Mountain Thane

Lightning Strike damage increased by 50%.

Ground Current damage increased by 50%.

Protection

Mountain Thane

Lightning Strike damage increased by 50%.

Ground Current damage increased by 50%.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYERDEATH KNIGHT

Unholy

San’layn

Developers’ notes: We would like to push for the San’layn hero talent tree to be a more viable option for Unholy Death Knights in PvP.

Inevitable now causes plagues to deal up to 60% increased damage based on the target’s missing health (was 30%).

Vampiric Strike damage increased by 100%.

DRUID

Feral

Druid of the Claw

Ravage damage increased by 20% in PvP combat.

Dreadful Wound damage increased by 25% in PvP combat.

Exacerbating Wounds increases damage taken from your bleed effects by 10% in PvP combat (was 8%).

Restoration

Developers’ notes: Restoration Druid’s burst healing and instant crowd-control capabilities have limited counterplay for other players, so we’re targeting these aspects to decrease their overall performance.

Call of Ohn’ahra increases the cooldown of Nature’s Swiftness by 60 seconds (was 30 seconds).

Swiftmend healing reduced by 20% in PvP combat.

EVOKER

Augmentation

Ebon Might grants 12% primary stat in PvP combat (was 10%).

Preservation

Flameshaper

Consume Flame healing reduced by 30% in PvP combat.

HUNTER

Beast Mastery

Dark Ranger

Developers’ notes: Dark Ranger has been underperforming for Beast Mastery, so we’re adjusting their Black Arrow damage to increase their performance.

Black Arrow damage increased by 30% in PvP combat.

Survival

Developers’ notes: Survival Hunter’s burst window has been particularly powerful this season, so we are targeting reductions in that area to allow other players more time to react.

Takedown Hunter damage reduced by 10% in PvP combat.

Takedown Pet damage reduced by 15% in PvP combat.

Sentinel

Moonlight Chakram damage reduced by 15% in PvP combat.

MAGE

Fire

Developers’ notes: We feel Fire Mage burst damage continues to be too high even outside of Combustion, so we’re further reducing the damage bonus from Pyroclasm to lessen its potential to lead to quick kills.

Pyroclasm now increases the damage of Pyroblast or Flamestrike by 160% in PvP combat (was 180%).

MONK

Windwalker

Developers’ notes: We’re decreasing the performance gap between Windwalker’s hero talent trees as Shado-pan has been overperforming and Conduit of the Celestials has been underperforming.

Conduit of the Celestials

Celestial Conduit damage increased by 50%.

Shado-Pan

Flurry Strikes damage reduced by 15%.

PALADIN

Retribution

Templar

Developers’ notes: We’re bringing Templar’s performance up also in PvP, but we believe the gap to Herald of the Sun is less drastic compared to PvE.

Hammer of Light damage increased by 20%.

PRIEST

Developers’ notes: We’re increasing the effectiveness of Mindgames once more in this pass to solidify its usability. We’d like for it to be able to compete with other powerful PvP talent options in Priest’s kit.

Mindgames direct damage and reversal increased by 50%.

Holy

Developers’ notes: We feel Oracle Holy is in a good place, but Archon has difficulties keeping up, so we’re targeting buffs to its throughout and offensive potential.

Archon

Halo damage and healing increased by 30% in PvP combat.

Focused Outburst now reduces the cast time of Prayer of Healing by 40% in PvP combat (was 15%).

Realized Potential now increases Flash Heal healing by 20% in PvP combat (was 10%).

Shadow

Developers’ notes: We’re increasing the damage of Shadow Word: Death significantly in addition to the Mind Blast changes above to allow for more opportunities to finish enemies off.

Shadow Word: Death damage increased by 30% in PvP combat.

ROGUE

Assassination

All damage reduced by 4% in PvP combat.

Deathmark now shows as a large aura on raid frames.

Outlaw

All damage increased by 5% in PvP combat.

SHAMAN

Elemental

Developers’ notes: We feel Elemental should shine more in their damage against their primary target and less in their cleave, so we’re making some improvement to core spell damage and reducing the effect of the Voltaic Blaze and Purging Flames combo.

Lightning Bolt damage increased by 25% in PvP combat.

Lava Burst damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.

Voltaic Blaze instant damage reduced by 25% in PvP combat.

Purging Flames now causes Lava Bursts to fire at 25% effectiveness in PvP combat (was 40%).

Enhancement

All damage increased by 3% in PvP combat.

WARLOCK

Affliction

Agony damage increased by 40% in PvP combat.

Unstable Affliction damage increased by 10% in PvP combat.

WARRIOR

Arms

Colossus

Developers’ notes: We’re increasing the effectiveness of Colossus for Arms in PvP to increase hero talent viability with a focus on improving the effectiveness of your post-Demolish window.

Practiced Strikes increases the damage of Slam and Mortal Strike by 40% in PvP combat (was 25%).

Arterial Bleed now increases Rend and Deep Wounds damage by 5% per stack in PvP combat (was 3%).

Cut to the Bone now increases Rend and Deep Wounds damage by 30% in PvP combat (was 15%).

We've datamined a hotfix that will sometimes increase tank damage in Phase 2 of Heroic and Mythic Ula'tek.

Ula'tek

Ula'tek Tank Debuff

During Phase 1, Ula'tek applies 9 stacks of Stone Venom to the tanks, which ticks every second. This debuff lasts 1 minute and 40 seconds and does a decent amount of damage. A hotfix has been pushed to live servers, which increases the range of this Tank DoT.

Ula'tek

Stone Venom now has a 50,000 yard range (was 100 yards)

While some guilds built a strat around this range, all guilds would likely have benefited from the 100-yard range while progressing on this boss. On Heroic and Mythic difficulty, Ula'tek rotates 90 degrees around her platform in a random direction midway through Phase 1. When she does this, she's closer to one of the side platforms for Phase 2, and farther from the other side. The farther side is actually over 100 yards away from her position, which means the Tank is over 100 yards away in Phase 2, which makes the Tank DoT do nothing.

Heroic Ula'tek

On Heroic, the Tank DoT does about 100k per second, and the final application of Stone Venom lasts into Phase 2 for almost a full minute. This is a lot of extra damage, especially when your healers are split and you often kill the Warden so early that the tank has nothing to hit.

Some guilds had set up a strategy on Heroic Ula'tek so that the Tank with the debuff would always go to the side away from Ula'tek to make healing easier and outrange the damage. Even if you weren't using this strategy, your Tank would have an easier time with their survivability in the second phase around 50% of the time.

After this hotfix, make sure that your more durable tank gets the last debuff in Phase 1, as they'll be forced to deal with the DoT damage for most of Phase 2.

Mythic Ula'tek

On Mythic, the Tankbuster timings are slightly different, and you actually get your final applications of Stone Venom a lot earlier. While the debuff hits harder, at around ~250k a second, the debuff only lasts for around 30 seconds into Phase 2. While guilds weren't playing around this debuff on Mythic difficulty, likely due to running double Blood DK, it was a nice benefit when the boss moved in a favorable direction.

Now the tank will always be tanking consistent damage on every pull.

You can see how a guild benefited from this on Mythic difficulty, though it was clearly not part of their strategy, as some earlier wipes had their Tank taking the full damage the entire time.

One of Blizzard's biggest focuses in WoW Forever is the leveling and open-world journey players will set foot on every time they start a new character. Developers have stressed at BlizzCon that "the journey is what matters, not the destination". With that being said, this puts a big focus on the open world experience for players.

WoW Forever Zones Overview

New Starting Experiences

At the Blizzcon Found Photographs Panel, Lead Content Designer Evan Lee explains that all starting zones will have new NPCs, quests, and experiences compared to what players are used to in WoW Classic. Although new quests are added, it looks like the original content we're used to will also still exist alongside it. Along with these starting zones, places like Desolace and the Wetlands have gotten major quest additions to make these zones feel less empty. Overall, Blizzard has stated there are over 1000 new quests added in WoW Forever at launch!

Senior Game Designer Josh Greenfield (Aggrend) also explained that WoW Forever takes place at "year 1" of World of Warcraft, before the Dark Portal opened, and before players traveled to Northrend to take down Arthas. Executive Producer & Vice President for World of Warcraft Holly Longdale also explained that WoW Forever will take place directly after the campaign of the new Warcraft III Expansion: Forsaken Kingdom.

A new plateau area overlooking Thunderbluff in Mulgore

New World Travel Additions in WoW Forever

Several additions come to the open world for traveling. For starters, three new ports have been added to WoW Forever. Something players are familiar with is the Stormwind Harbor, originally added in Wrath of the Lich King, assisting players from Auberdine and the Wetlands in getting to Stormwind City more easily. However, two brand new ports are also being added. Southshore now has a use for its dock and will now serve as a stop for players between Menethil Harbor and Auberdine.

Steamwheedle Port can now actually be called a Port, because it now has a boat to take players across the continent to the new zone in WoW Forever: Riverglades.

Four New Zones in WoW Forever

World of Warcraft: Forever launches with four new zones: Mount Hyjal, Shen'Dralas, Riverglades, and Zephras Isle. Mount Hyjal is a new endgame zone and will host the first 20 and 10 player raid; Hyjal Summit and the Barrow Deeps. Because this takes place after Warcraft III, you will still find Archimonde's skeleton here by Nordrassil.

Shen'Dralas will be set between Mulgore and Desolace, and will continue the story of the Shen'dralar, while also continuing the story of the Centaur Tribes of Desolace. Along with that, there will be quests that will add more to the dungeons Razorfen Downs and Mauradon.

The Riverglades serves as the answer to the leveling drought for players in their mid-thirties to early forties (levels, that is). Players can reach here from Steamwheedle Port, but can also gain access from a new travel point in Redridge from an entrance through the Burning Steppes. Players can break off from questing in Stranglethorn Vale, Desolace, and Arathi Highlands to venture into this new land inhabited by Ogres and the Twilight's Hammer. Riverglades also hosts one of the new dungeons in WoW Forever: Kor'Dok Stronghold.

Finally, Zephras Isle will be a new starting zone for the Skyborne, the first new race in WoW Forever, available at launch. Zephras Isle will help explain the lore of the Skyborne, an elf race that escaped from Dire Maul with the help of the Air Elementals of Al'Akir. This zone will serve players from level 1-12, where they will break off into their respective factions' level 10-20 zones afterward.

The Journey, not the Destination

The developers have stressed at BlizzCon that there is a high focus on the leveling journey, and not just endgame content in WoW Forever. Associate Production Director of WoW Classic, Clayton Stone, highlighted that through features such as Camping, a strong focus on tradeskills, and Legacy Talents, players will be able to stop and savor the exploration and wonder of the new game.

Camping pushes players to focus more on tradeskills as they're leveling, and not just at max level. It brings not only social interactions, but also new buffs to players depending on their tradeskills. Some of them are cute thematic additions, like a little fish bowl!

ProfessionItemBuffBlacksmithingSharpening WheelStrengthTailoringFaction BannerSpiritHerbalismIncense CandleIntellectFishingFish BowlAll Stats %

These buffs will imitate class buffs such as a Mage's Arcane Intellect or a Paladin's Blessing of Kings. Along with that, Cooking receives a major buff as a new type of "Well Fed" buff enters WoW Forever: a +5% Experience buff!

Blizzard has a hard focus on slowing down players as they level up and getting them to interact and meet other players out in the world (of Warcraft). Although we do get buffs to leveling alts through the Legacy Talent system, there is a clear focus on making the leveling journey have that old-school MMORPG feeling, especially on that first-time playthrough from 1-60.

In an interview with Sportskeeda on WoW: Forever, Blizzard discussed how the game officially has controller support and the exact costs of training mount skills.

Sportskeeda Interview

Sportskeeda had an interview with:

Michael Nuthals (Senior Game Designer)

Kris Zierhut (Principal Game Designer)

We've summarized the interview below, but you can see the original piece on Sportskeeda.

Interview Summary

Timeline

WoW Forever takes place a couple of years after Warcraft 3.

It starts on the same day one launch of World of Warcraft in November 2004.

WoW: Forever is on an adjacent timeline, and it will diverge on the first day of WoW.

Forsaken Paladin

In WoW Classic, having Forsaken Paladins would have been a big change, as the Horde didn't have Paladins and Classic was #nochanges.

In SoD, the problems that were caused by trying to fix Shamans and Paladins so they could be on separate factions were worse than letting both sides have them, and so they learned from that

Stories

They really want players to explore all the nooks and crannies in Azeroth, and focus on the stories that are being told there.

The idea of Classic WoW is the adventurer going from town to town and helping people out and making a name for themselves.

In the Riverglades, there are some references to Warcraft I, including a ruined town called Sunnyglade.

Having smaller stories makes room for the player stories to take focus.

Leveling

To decide where to add quests, they wanted to try to find places where there weren't a lot of options. This includes a lot of level 30 to 50 zones.

They also want to make sure that when players come into Forever, they see something new that they've never seen before.

If you level an alt, you may decide to take a different path than before with the amount of options.

They're not just going to add new level 60 content, but also new dungeons, zones, and leveling paths over time to the world as well.

Controller

Technically, you can play on controller on retail, but it's not great.

Controller on WoW Forever is officially supported.

It's also a great accessibility option for players who don't want to, or can't, sit at a keyboard and mouse.[

Limited Time Events

They're trying to avoid anything going completely obsolete.

They never plan to do anything like what was in Naxx, where you can't do it anymore.

Content should be available as much as possible due to the horizontal progression and the fact that players are staying at level 60.

Itemization

Each boss will have a chase item that will incentivize you to return, as it may be useful later.

Items may have special effects in environments such as forests, mountains, or underground.

Items may also have special bonuses against creature types such as Worgen, Dwarves, or Dragons.

Mounts

Having an aspirational goal for your money is good.

It's also really good for the economy that there are gold sinks.

The new system for mounts is that the gold cost is in the training, which costs 100 or 1,000 gold depending on the level, and then players will get their first mount for free.

Did you miss the last week of World of Warcraft? Blizzard has released a recap to catch you up on BlizzCon 2026, the WoW Forever Beta, and more!

This week’s WoW Weekly roundup spotlights BlizzCon 2026 and the latest World of Warcraft announcements, including World of Warcraft: Forever, answers to community questions from our modern WoW and WoW Forever live Q&A, a peek at the Midnight Season 3 dungeon pool, and more!

World of Warcraft at BlizzCon 2026 News Round-Up

BlizzCon 2026 has come to a close, and we’ve gathered the latest World of Warcraft announcements, reveals, and updates from the weekend in one place. Catch up on all of this, and more, shared during the show:

World of Warcraft Midnight: Eclipse Revealed

The Final Chapter Begins in The Last Titan

World of Warcraft: Forever Announced

Tales Take a Dark Turn in Midnight's Talebound

Click to Learn More

Watch the World of Warcraft Live Q&A Now

We’ve gathered your questions for members from across the World of Warcraft development team to answer.

Watch now for more insight into the BlizzCon 2026 reveals and a look at what’s ahead for modern WoW and WoW Forever.

We look forward to joining you on the adventures that await you in Azeroth.

The World of Warcraft: Forever Beta Now Live

Players are invited into the World of Warcraft: Forever beta to explore a reimagined original Azeroth, where familiar roads lead to new discoveries, the journey matters as much as the destination, and the world is ready to grow for years to come. Over the course of the test, we’ll be inviting community veterans, press, fansites, friends, and family to check out what’s ahead and share their feedback.

Click to Learn More

Take a Dip into the Midnight Season 3 Dungeon Pool Preview

With the announcement of the Midnight Season 3 dungeon pool during the Midnight: What’s Next panel at BlizzCon 2026, the development team wanted to provide an early look at some of the changes for these returning dungeons.

This is just the beginning and we look forward to your continued feedback as we continue to plan for the future of Midnight Season 3 and all of the new challenges it can bring.

Click to Learn More

Corruption Calls with the Abyssal Crown Collection

In lightless depths, beauty does not perish; it twists into physical manifestations of the Void. Listen closely, the deeper you descend, the louder corruption calls.

Cloak yourself in Azshara’s corrupted regalia and rise on a Zothwing mount touched by the Void with the Abyssal Crown Collection*, a trove of finery fit for those who dare to dabble in the dark influence of the Old Gods.

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Although professions will still be very recognizable to WoW Classic players, in Forever, there are substantial updates to make crafted items more relevant and to encourage and reward players for interacting with professions throughout their journey.

On Retail WoW, the profession system received a complete overhaul in the Dragonflight expansion; this is not being implemented in WoW: Forever. The profession system is the same as in WoW Classic; crafting items has fixed material requirements, and the crafted items will always have the same stats.

New Feature: Camping

In WoW: Forever, players can place a campfire nearly anywhere in the open world; this will create a campsite. Campsites allow any player to rest and gain benefits such as vendors, repairs, tradeskill workspaces, and buffs.

At the campsite, each player can place an object from one of their professions to grant a buff to all players at the campsite. All of these buffs are the same as various class buffs and can not be stacked. For example, Herbalists can place an Incense Candle that increases Intellect; players can not have both the Incense Candle buff and a Mage's Arcane Intellect buff.

To learn more about camping in World of Warcraft: Forever, take a look at our Camping Overview.

New & Changed Recipes

There are over 600 new recipes across all professions and level ranges in Forever. Many existing recipes have also received overhauls to make professions more meaningful as you journey to level 60.

Professions & the Legacy System

World of Warcraft: Forever features a new achievement-like system called the Legacy system. Professions will be vital to maximizing your progression in the Legacy system, as you will earn a Legacy Point the first time you level each tradeskill to 150, 225, and 300.

Professions also benefit from progressing in the system, as Legacy Points can be spent on perks in the Legacy trees, and one of these trees is Professions. Perks in the Professions tree grant benefits like an increased chance to gain skill points and increased amounts of Scarce materials gathered by Mining, Herbalism, and Skinning.

One perk in the Professions tree references turning in supply crates to the Azeroth Commerce Authority or Durotar Supply and Logistics. In Season of Discovery, mobs would sometimes drop crates that could be turned in to these factions after adding specific profession materials.

For players looking to learn more about the Legacy system in World of Warcraft: Forever, check out our Legacy System Overview.

Learn a Gathering Profession in Starter Zone

Players can complete a quest very early on in their journey, around level 3-4, which rewards a choice from three manuals: Herbalism, Mining, or Skinning. These manuals will teach you the profession if you do not already have it trained and do not already have two professions.

The gathering professions are often among the best starter professions, as they provide players with raw materials that they can either sell or use to level up a tradeskill profession like Blacksmithing or Leatherworking.

In an interview with But Why Tho? on WoW: Forever, Blizzard discussed attunements and raid difficulty.

But Why Tho? Interview

But Why Tho? had an interview with:

Ana Resendez (Lead Software Engineer)

Clayton Stone (Associate Production Director)

We've summarized the interview below, but you can see the original piece on But Why Tho? .

Interview Summary

SoD

World of Warcraft: Forever will have pre-Season of Discovery content.

SoD pushed the limit of additions about as far as they could push it.

They wanted to be a little more conservative for Forever, and while there are class changes, they still preserved the original class specialities.

In the future, they will likely bring more of the interesting things from SoD into classes, but they're starting with filling out the skills of the classes first.

Raids and Dungeons

They are making every raid and encounter feel like Classic.

The encounters will not start with complex mechanics. They'll be challenging, but also be a place where you can bring your friends.

This is why they're starting with set sizes of 10-, 20-, and 40-man raids instead of having flex sizes.

They don't want to automatically change the difficulty of the content or have it adapt to your level. The difficulty will always be the same.

This means that you can out-gear or out-level the content.

Attunements

The new raids at launch will not require attunement.

Past that, they won't answer that at the moment.

In an interview with TechRaptor, Blizzard discussed Xal'atath's feet and the new player experience.

TechRaptor Interview

TechRaptor interviewed:

Paul Kubit (Associate Game Director)

Kim Flack (Senior Game Designer)

We've summarized the interview below, but you can see the original pieces on TechRaptor.

Interview Summary

Xal'atath

Players noticed that Xal'atath got into a heavily guarded place easily. This wasn't an "oversight on the Titans," and there are missing pieces of the story.

The body that Xal'atath possesses loves to float, and that's why you typically get an angle of her feet. In addition, based on the way the community and cinematic team react to a shot, they might add another shot.

They want to make sure to pay attention to the community.

She has brought a much darker tone to WoW, as Midnight was always going to be the dark middle chapter of the Worldsoul Saga.

Paladins

They decided to add three new races to become Paladins in Patch 12.2, as it ties into the story.

The Light and Void are two sides of the same coin.

There will be quests that give some background on how the races could become Paladins.

New Player Experience

There is too much story across too many expansions to teach to a new player.

The approach for Midnight is that you play through Exile's Reach and then Dragonflight.

Dragonflight gives you everything you need in WoW and explains what you need to do. Older expansions don't have that.

They plan to improve the War Within recap.

World of Warcraft Forever's beta is here, and we're celebrating! We're giving away Warcraft Forever Collections, WoW: Forever Epic Packs, and Beta access in our latest sweepstakes.

Blizzard has provided ten beta codes and six Warcraft Forever Collections, and there are also 50 Skyborne Epic Packs up for grabs which lets even more people try out WoW: Forever during beta and beyond!

The Warcraft Forever Collection is a collector's dream: not only do you receive collectibles for Modern WoW and Forever, you also unlock the Skyborne - but there's even more beyond that. The Forever Collection brings you back to where it all began with an included copy of Warcraft III Reforged and the new expansion, Warcraft III Reforged: Fallen Kingdom!

To enter for a chance to win, simply comment below on this article with what Class and Race you plan to play in WoW: Forever! The official release date for Forever is November 4th, but from today until October 21st players can test out the Beta and see what's in store on official release.

Six grand prize winners will walk away with the Forever Collections, but even more players will be able to experience the Forever Beta. 66 total winners will be selected and contacted by Wednesday, September 23rd. Good luck!

The Prizes

Grand Prize (x6):

Six Grand Prize winners will earn a Warcraft Forever Collection, which unlocks the Skyborne, provides Beta access, comes with in-game goodies, and grants a copy of Warcraft III Reforged and Warcraft III Reforged: Fallen Kingdom!

Second Place Winners (x50):50 Second Place winners will each win a Skyborne Epic Pack, unlocking the Skyborne, granting Beta access, allowing for WoW: Forever name reservations, and more.

Runner-Up Prizes (x10):10 Runner Up winners won't go home empty-handed; they will each receive a code to experience the WoW: Forever Beta.

Winners will be selected by random drawing from all eligible entries received.

One (1) entry per person, regardless of entry method. Multiple comments or entries will not increase your odds of winning.

The Sweepstakes begins at 7:00 PM PT on September 17th, 2026 and ends at 11:59:59 PM PT on September 21st, 2026. Entries received outside the Sweepstakes Period will not be eligible.

To enter through this article, your entry must be submitted in the comment section below and contain a valid response. Comments on other Wowhead posts or social media will not count as entries.

Comments removed for spam or violations of Wowhead's site rules will not be eligible for entry and may be subject to normal site moderation.

Potential winners will be contacted by September 23rd, 2026 and will have seven (7) days to respond and satisfy the applicable eligibility requirements. If a potential winner does not respond or is determined to be ineligible, an alternate potential winner may be selected by random drawing.

Legal Disclaimers, Eligibility Addendum and Official Rules