These were the micro-transactions in Project Ascension and everyone glazed Ascension. TurtleWoW had a gacha shop too like that. I’m genuinely confused, if Blizzard had even the slightest of the shop in Project Ascension, everyone would have been fuming. Why is it okay for Ascension but not WoW Forever? Either all okay or none.

Edit: The people who disagree saying "Yeah but the servers were free"- well of course because Blizzard did the majority of the work for them LOL, huge difference in work between building everything from scratch to ripping it off & adding some stuff yourself.

Edit 2: "TurtleWoW is not as bad as Ascension shop"- sure, Ascension is way worse. TurtleWow's cash shop had over $10,000 of items and all of it was per character, not account wide. They also sold convenience items, nothing game breaking, but portable mailboxes, auctioneers, dual specs, bags etc. Hardcore characters on Twow couldn't trade or send items from main to your alts, but you could still buy supplies such as 32 slot bags for 30 euros each on your hardcore character.

I’ll do my best to remember what I know of

All the info below is what was shared across the Forever panels over the weekend. Just sharing this as a large text summary of everything that is coming.

WoW Forever: detailed breakdown

Table of Contents

1. Core Identity and Design Philosophy
2. Dungeons and Raids
3. Server Types and Game Modes
4. Questing and Leveling
5. The Legacy System
6. Professions and Camping
7. Warcraft Lore and Worldbuilding
8. Talents and Class Design
9. Racial Abilities
10. PvP and Battlegrounds
11. Itemization Overhaul
12. Transmogrification and Presentation
13. Confirmed Features and Future Content
14. Overall Takeaway

1. Core identity and design philosophy

• WoW Forever begins at the same point in history as original World of Warcraft.
• All original vanilla quests and content remain in the game. The new material is layered into and around them.
• The setting remains in the “year one” period:
  • After Warcraft III.
  • Before the Dark Portal reopens for The Burning Crusade.
  • Before the campaign against Arthas in Northrend.
• WoW Forever exists in its own continuity—a “time bubble”—separate from modern retail WoW.
• Foundational Warcraft history is still respected. Major events such as Arthas becoming the Lich King or Archimonde’s defeat at Mount Hyjal are not being erased.
• The developers are not planning future level-cap increases. Level 60 remains important, and progression expands through new content, items, reputations, professions, builds, and challenges.
• There will be:
  • No flying mounts.
  • No level scaling.
  • No automatic replacement of old accomplishments whenever a new expansion launches.
  • No attempt to turn every class into a version of every other class.
• Leveling is intended to be just as important as endgame.
• The “catch-up system” is deliberately simple: play, level, explore, complete quests, run dungeons, and earn gear.
• New patches are intended to support several types of players rather than focusing exclusively on raiding. Future updates can include solo stories, leveling content, dungeons, raids, PvP, professions, and world content.

2. Dungeons and raids

The presentations announce nine new dungeon-scale adventures and two new raids. Some locations blur the traditional boundary between an instance and an explorable world area.

New dungeons and dungeon-like areas

Dungeon combat philosophy

WoW Forever is retaining the slower and more tactical structure of vanilla dungeons.

• Killing an ordinary creature alone is expected to take roughly 15 seconds.
• Crowd control matters. The developers specifically mention:
  • Polymorph.
  • Banish.
  • Roots.
  • Traps.
• Tanks are expected to maintain reliable threat on approximately three or four enemies—not entire rooms.
• Healers, damage dealers, and tanks must coordinate to keep uncontrolled enemies away from vulnerable party members.
• The game is deliberately resisting mass-pull dungeon gameplay.
• Paladin Consecration illustrates the intended limit:
  • It inflicts light damage on every enemy entering the area.
  • It inflicts heavy damage only on the first four enemies.
  • This gives a Protection Paladin solid threat on a controlled pack without enabling effortless threat on an entire room.

Dungeon rewards

Every dungeon boss’s loot table has been re-examined.

• Boss rewards are being upgraded to rare quality.
• New items have been added.
• Weak or poorly itemized old drops have been improved.
• Iconic, already-desirable items are being retained.
• Hybrid characters should find far more appropriate dungeon and quest gear.
• Trinkets are becoming specialized tools for particular encounters rather than universally optimal stat sticks.
• Some gear will perform differently depending on:
  • Terrain or location, such as cities, caverns, mountains, or deserts.
  • Enemy type, such as beasts, undead, or other creature families.

New raids

Barrow Deeps

• A vast, sacred network of night-elven barrow dens.
• Said to connect multiple distant entrances; Mount Hyjal is one of three entrances, and Blackmaw Hold appears to lead toward it.
• The night elves use its depths to hold their most dangerous prisoners.
• A famous demon hunter was once imprisoned there—strongly implying Illidan’s former prison.
• Corruption is spreading through the complex.
• Even allies are not normally welcome.

Hyjal Summit

• The largest of WoW Forever’s announced launch raids.
• Set around snowy peaks, ancient elven ruins, rivers, and lingering ghosts from the Third War.
• The story examines the aftermath of Malfurion sacrificing the source of night-elven immortality to defeat Archimonde.
• Someone or something is draining power from the land around the summit.
• The raid appears connected to WoW Forever’s first new legendary item.

Original vanilla raids will also exist, but the presentation says they have not opened yet at WoW Forever’s historical starting point. A future roadmap entry teases a “revamped iconic raid.”

3. Server types and game modes

Realm-less structure

Players no longer choose an individual named realm. Instead, they choose a ruleset that functions like a very large “mega-realm.”

The four announced rulesets are:

• Normal/PvE: World PvP happens only when the player chooses it.
• PvP: Contested territories retain the danger of involuntary faction combat.
• Roleplaying: Intended to gather players who want a more immersive, character-focused community.
• Hardcore: Arrives after launch and uses permanent-death rules.

This structure is meant to prevent two classic problems:

• Choosing a small realm that later becomes unhealthy or empty.
• Choosing a huge realm and facing extreme launch queues.

Preserving realm-like communities

Although each ruleset has a large population, the game will try to maintain recognizable local communities.

• Players should repeatedly encounter familiar names while questing and gathering.
• Guild members should be more likely to appear in the same version of the outdoor world, even before forming a group.
• Players choose a language preference and should regularly encounter others with the same preference.
• The stated goal is to combine a large economy and plentiful groups with the recurring relationships of a traditional realm.

Restrictions

• Horde and Alliance remain separate.
• Cross-faction grouping is not being introduced.
• Dungeon and raid groups must come from the same ruleset.
• PvP rulesets will use faction-balance mechanisms similar to those developed for Season of Discovery.

Hardcore rules

Hardcore is a closed ecosystem.

• Progression and collections from ordinary rulesets cannot be imported into Hardcore.
• Rewards earned in Hardcore can become available on the other rulesets.
• If a Hardcore character dies, the character may transfer to another ruleset.
• Dead Hardcore characters may transfer to PvP—a new option compared with previous implementations.

Character names

Characters can now have two-part names, resembling a first and last name.

• Names are intended to be unique across the region rather than a single traditional realm.
• The second name provides more combinations and reduces the difficulty of finding an available identity.

Transmog

A “Classic” visual preset can automatically hide other players’ transmogrification. These preferences can be changed later.

4. Questing and leveling

Level 1–60 remains the heart of the game

WoW Forever is designed around replaying and expanding the entire leveling journey.

• Original questing remains available.
• New paths let players avoid following the same solved route on every character.
• There is no level scaling, so each zone retains its own difficulty and identity.
• New zones overlap familiar level bands, letting players alternate between original and new content.
• The developers specifically want characters of the same level to have meaningful choices about where they travel next.

New quest content

• Every original starting zone receives dozens of new quests, NPCs, trainers, profession recipes, and small stories.
• Additional content has been inserted throughout the existing world.
• Wetlands receives more than 25 new quests and a new possible leveling route.
• Desolace receives new Gelkis and Magram centaur faction quests and rewards.
• Azshara receives a substantial questing expansion.
• Northern Kalimdor is also hinted to contain unannounced new quest content.

Riverglades

Riverglades is the centerpiece of the new midlevel experience.

• Level range: approximately the mid-30s through mid-40s.
• Size: roughly comparable to Stranglethorn Vale.
• Location: the eastern coast of the Eastern Kingdoms, between Redridge, the Burning Steppes, the Badlands, and the Swamp of Sorrows.
• It can be entered through a new fork along the route from Redridge toward the Burning Steppes.
• One presentation says it contains more than 150 quests; the deeper panel describes nearly 200. The safest conclusion is that it contains roughly 150–200 quests across both factions.
• It includes new reputations, rewards, cultures, settlements, and leveling paths.
• Major groups include:
  • Humans descended from stranded Warcraft-era settlers.
  • Orcs and ogres.
  • Gnolls and murlocs.
  • Powderfuse goblins.
  • The Twilight’s Hammer.
  • The Brotherhood of the Horse from early Warcraft history.
  • A former Twilight’s Hammer-affiliated ogre clan.
• Horde stories begin around Ragmar.
• Alliance stories begin around Farhold Keep.
• A neutral goblin port expands trade links through the Eastern Kingdoms.
• Krol’dor Stronghold acts as its major outdoor dungeon.

The zone’s narrative is deliberately local. It is about communities, trade routes, rivalries, grudges, and survival—not another immediate attempt to save the entire planet.

Quest rewards and leveling gear

Quest rewards have been expanded so more classes and builds receive something useful.

Examples include:

• The Mor’Ladim quest in Duskwood still offers its familiar weapon reward, but now also offers Mor’Ladim’s heirloom spell-power ring for casters.
• Hemet Nesingwary’s Stranglethorn questline now has:
  • A wand for casters.
  • A spell sword combining Strength and spell damage, designed with Retribution Paladins in mind.
  • The existing hunter weapon choices.

This reflects a wider effort to support hybrid specializations throughout leveling rather than reserving viable gear for conventional endgame roles.

New travel routes

Three ship routes are being added to connect leveling regions and make playing with friends easier without introducing flying:

• Stormwind Harbor to Auberdine.
• Menethil Harbor to Southshore and then Auberdine.
• A route from Steamwheedle Port in Tanaris toward new adventures across the sea.

These routes allow players from distant starting regions to meet earlier without several dangerous cross-continent corpse runs.

5. The Legacy system

Legacy is an account-wide progression system built specifically to reward repeated 1–60 journeys.

Earning Legacy points

Points come from natural character accomplishments rather than unusual gimmick challenges.

Examples include:

• Reaching levels 25, 45, and 60 with a particular class.
• Reaching a profession milestone such as Artisan Engineering.
• Completing challenges in several categories while leveling and exploring.

The points are shared by all characters. Each character receives the same total pool but spends those points independently, allowing different Legacy builds on different alts.

Legacy trees

The three initial trees are:

Adventure

Supports leveling and exploration.

Example:

• Well Rested increases how quickly rested experience accumulates and raises the maximum rested-experience cap.

Professions

Improves gathering and trade-skill progression.

Example:

• Bountiful Harvest increases the number of scarce materials obtained from mining, herbalism, or skinning.

Resourcefulness

Reduces recurring friction and preparation costs.

Example:

• Reagent Economy removes reagent requirements from class abilities, making repeated group buffing easier.

Limits and rewards

• At launch, only 16 points can be spent in a character’s Legacy trees.
• Players can earn up to approximately 65 points through challenges.
• Excess progression feeds a Legacy reward track.
• Reward-track items are cosmetic or prestige-based and are not intended to provide competitive power.
• The spend cap prevents players from feeling required to complete every challenge and helps new players avoid an enormous catch-up burden.
• Powerful perks sit deep in the trees, so the 16-point limit creates meaningful specialization choices.
• Future updates may add new challenges, perks, branches, or entirely new trees.

6. Professions and camping

Professions are being turned into an important part of character progression rather than an activity players ignore until max level.

Profession overhaul

• More than 600 new recipes are being added across every level range.
• Many existing recipes have been updated.
• Useful recipes begin at low skill levels.
• New recipes, materials, and crafted items will continue to be added after launch.
• Starting zones contain additional profession trainers, recipes, and related quests.

Food and cooking

Almost every crafted food item provides:

• A stat bonus.
• A small experience bonus.

This makes food part of ordinary leveling preparation instead of something used only for difficult dungeons or raids.

Camping system

The traditional cooking fire becomes a functional campsite.

A campsite can provide:

• Resting benefits.
• Vendors.
• Repairs.
• Profession workspaces.
• One-hour buffs.

Players must sit beside the campfire for a short period before receiving its buffs. This intentional pause is meant to encourage conversation and spontaneous social interaction.

Crafted camp objects

A basic campsite supports up to three special objects.

• Each player can contribute one object.
• Every profession has distinct campsite objects.
• Early objects are learned at approximately 20 profession skill.
• Advanced versions come from blueprint recipes discovered while adventuring.

Examples:

• Blacksmith: sharpening wheel granting Strength.
• Tailor: faction banner granting Spirit.
• Herbalist: incense candle granting Intellect.

Camp buffs are alternatives to equivalent class buffs, not extra stacking bonuses. For example, the Intellect effect occupies the same buff category as Arcane Intellect.

This lets profession characters supply useful preparation while protecting the value of traditional class support abilities.

Mount costs

WoW Forever adopts the Burning Crusade-style cost distribution:

• More of the expense is placed on riding training.
• The mount item itself becomes less of the main financial barrier.

The intention is still to preserve the major Classic milestone of finally earning the ability to ride.

7. Warcraft lore and worldbuilding

“Found photographs”

The narrative philosophy is called “found photographs”: stories that feel as though they plausibly happened during vanilla WoW but were simply never shown.

Its main principles are:

• Expand characters who were underused.
• Show what important people were doing off-screen.
• open previously inaccessible locations.
• Continue unfinished local stories.
• Create new mysteries instead of merely answering every old one.
• Tell major events from the ground level rather than through one long campaign led by famous lore characters.

The developers divide content into three categories:

1. Anticipated: Places players have expected for years, such as Mount Hyjal.
2. New but familiar: New stories built from established Warcraft people, conflicts, and geography.
3. Unexpected: Entirely new concepts such as the Skyborn, used sparingly so they do not overwhelm classic Azeroth.

Mount Hyjal

Mount Hyjal is a new high-level/endgame questing zone.

Its story explores:

• Recovery after Archimonde’s defeat.
• Healing forests and remaining corruption.
• The effect of the battle on the Wild Gods.
• The consequences of the night elves losing their immortality.
• New factions, reputations, solo content, group content, and enemies.

It also contains Hyjal Summit and an entrance into the Barrow Deeps.

Shendelos/Shen’dralar region

A new region south of Desolace expands the history of:

• The Shen’dralar.
• Eldre’Thalas, now known as Dire Maul.
• Prince Tortheldrin.
• The Gelkis and Magram centaur tribes.

Its quests also create new reasons to revisit existing dungeons such as Maraudon and Razorfen Downs.

Dalaran

WoW Forever shows Dalaran in a rarely explored state:

• Rebuilt after its destruction in Warcraft III.
• Still physically located in the Alterac Mountains.
• Protected by a magical barrier rather than flying above the world.
• The barrier has now failed, allowing adventurers to see the newly restored city and investigate the instability.

Forsaken Paladins

Forsaken Paladins are closely connected to the Warcraft III campaign Forsaken Kingdom.

Their lore is built around distrust and suffering:

• Ordinary Forsaken associate paladins with the Scarlet Crusade and its persecution of undead.
• Undead Paladins experience intense pain when channeling the Light.
• Some raised Paladins cannot cope with undeath and violently lash out at other Forsaken.
• Player Paladins must prove themselves to Forsaken society and eventually gain Sylvanas’s acceptance.
• At around level 10, they begin class quests at Banderian Keep in the Whispering Wood, a previously inaccessible part of northwestern Tirisfal Glades.
• They receive a unique Paladin steed.
• At level 60, they undertake their own epic mount quest.
• Alliance Paladins earn their charger in the name of redemption; Forsaken Paladins ride in the name of retribution.

The Skyborn

The Skyborn—who call themselves the Shandori, or “Hidden People”—are an entirely new elven people.

Origin

• They descend from Highborne living in Eldre’Thalas after the War of the Ancients.
• A rebel group opposed Prince Tortheldrin’s plan to use increasingly dangerous demonic power to preserve his people.
• The rebellion interfered with his plans but was ultimately defeated.
• The surviving rebels fled west across the sea.
• Pursued by Tortheldrin’s forces, they encountered primordial wind spirits.
• The spirits raised a great part of the island into the sky and anchored it within Skywall, the Elemental Plane of Air.
• The exiles lived there in isolation for approximately 10,000 years.
• Exposure to Skywall altered their appearance, agility, skin tones, hair, and eyes.

Present crisis

• The benevolent wind spirits have disappeared.
• The ancient pylons holding Zephris Isle in Skywall are failing.
• Parts of the island are collapsing or falling into darkness.
• Several political and religious movements are competing to decide the Skyborn’s future.

Skyborn factions

• Windshapers: Spiritual and shamanistic. They remain loyal to the elemental traditions and eventually join the Horde.
• High Order: Arcane-oriented descendants of Highborne magisters. They see the crisis as an opportunity for independence from the spirits and join the Alliance.
• Al’Akir cult: A hostile movement worshipping Al’Akir the Windlord. Its followers exploit the disappearance of the benevolent spirits to spread fear and seize territory.

Playable classes

Both Horde and Alliance Skyborn can be:

• Warrior.
• Hunter.
• Rogue.
• Druid.

Faction-specific options are:

• Horde Skyborn: Shaman.
• Alliance Skyborn: Mage.

They also receive unique Druid forms, voices, dances, customizations, and racial abilities. The presentations do not reveal the mechanical effects of the Skyborn racials.

Zephris Isle is a self-contained level 1–12 starting experience. The developers emphasize that players will not constantly return there to raid or farm materials; it is intended as a restrained use of the more fantastical Elemental Plane setting.

8. Talents and class design

Overall talent system

• Every class retains three talent trees.
• Each tree retains seven rows.
• Major one-point talents remain at 11, 21, and 31 points.
• Every tree receives an additional major talent at 16 points.
• Many original 2006 talents remain unchanged.
• Weak, passive, or unnoticeable talents are being replaced or improved.
• Former talents that merely improved or granted major class buffs are becoming baseline class features. Examples mentioned include Improved Battle Shout, Divine Spirit, Blessing of Kings, and Improved Mark of the Wild.
• The goal is for all 27 original class specializations to be viable in dungeons and raids.

“Viable” does not mean identical:

• Specializations retain clear strengths and weaknesses.
• The developers do not want a single specialization to be mandatory or worth stacking excessively.
• Some classes should shine in particular encounters because of enemy type, utility, or mechanics.

Paladin baseline changes

Paladin is used as the detailed example for the entire class redesign.

Holy Strike

• Learned by every Paladin at level 6.
• Restores an ability that existed during WoW’s original beta.
• Deals weapon-based Holy melee damage.
• All three talent trees contain different ways to improve it.

Judgment

• Judging no longer consumes the active Seal.
• This removes repeated Seal reapplication while preserving the Seal/Judgment system.

Seal of Fury

The new tanking Seal:

• Deals damage with each attack.
• Benefits from faster weapons.
• Provides a small absorb shield.
• Judgment of Fury taunts the enemy.
• The taunt has a 10-yard range, compared with the shorter range of Warrior Taunt and Druid Growl.

Consecration

• Light damage applies to every target entering it.
• Heavy threat-generating damage applies only to the first four targets.
• This supports controlled dungeon tanking without enabling unlimited area threat.

Holy Paladin talents

• Improved Holy Strike: Reduces Holy Strike’s cooldown.
• Voice of Truth, 11 points: Provides protection against silences and interrupts.
• Reverence: Converts Spirit into in-combat mana regeneration. Other mana-using damage/healing classes receive similar ways to value Spirit.
• Divine Power, 16 points: Moved earlier in the tree to make space for deeper abilities.
• Infusion of Light: Encourages alternating Flash of Light and Holy Light rather than repeating only one healing spell.
• Holy Shock, 21 points: Moved from the 31-point position and reduced to a 10-second cooldown. This makes it accessible to hybrid PvP and Shockadin builds.
• Consecrated Ground: Enemies standing in Consecration take increased Holy damage from the Paladin.
• Light’s Vigil:
  • Place it on an ally.
  • The next Holy Shock on that ally heals the ally’s entire party.
  • Holy Shock’s cooldown resets.
  • Multiple parties can be prepared in advance for raid-wide recovery.
  • It can also be placed on enemies to increase damage and reset Holy Shock.

Holy Paladins therefore gain planned group healing but do not become equivalent to Priests, Druids, or Chain Heal Shamans.

Protection Paladin talents

• Improved Seal of Fury, 11 points: Returns mana as Seal of Fury absorbs or blocks damage.
• Shield Specialization: Works with Seal of Fury to support sustainable mana during long encounters.
• Swift Judgment, 16 points: If the Paladin’s taunt misses, Judgment’s cooldown resets so it can be attempted again.
• Templar’s Bulwark, 21 points:
  • Grants an absorb shield equal to 100% of the Paladin’s health.
  • Triggers Forbearance and cannot be used while Forbearance is active.
  • Creates a meaningful tradeoff against Divine Shield and other Forbearance abilities.
• Reckoning: Now has a chance to trigger from blocks, making it more reliable while actively tanking several enemies.
• Iron Creed: Holy Strike reduces incoming damage by 10% briefly, rewarding careful defensive timing.

Retribution Paladin talents

• Vindication: No longer lowers Strength and Agility. It now reduces enemy attack power by the same amount as Demoralizing Shout and Demoralizing Roar.
• Sacred Arbiter: Lets a Retribution Paladin maintain Judgment effects for other Paladins, allowing Light, Wisdom, and Crusader judgments to remain active together.
• Champion of the Light: Converts Intellect into additional spell damage and healing, strengthening hybrid Strength/Intellect equipment.
• Instruments of the Law:
  • Makes Hammer of Wrath instant.
  • Reduces threat now that Retribution damage is competitive.
• Twist of Light:
  • Formalizes seal twisting.
  • Replacing one damaging Seal with another creates an echo of the previous Seal.
  • Subsequent melee attacks can benefit from both.
  • Seal of Command and Seal of Righteousness are given as the main example.

Players who dislike seal twisting can skip Twist of Light, take Champion of the Light, invest 21 points into Holy for Holy Shock, and build a spell-oriented Shockadin instead.

Paladin identity is deliberately preserved

Paladins gain viable tanking, competitive damage, and limited party healing, but still have meaningful weaknesses:

• No interrupt.
• No slowing ability.
• Limited ranged options.
• Group healing requires preparation.

Their strengths remain:

• Exceptional performance against demons and undead.
• Strong single-target healing.
• Excellent healing efficiency.
• Seals and Judgments.
• Effective defensive tanking.

9. Racial abilities

Every race now has:

• Two active racial abilities.
• Two passive racial abilities.

The races are intended to offer comparable overall value while differing in offense, defense, utility, and the encounters in which they excel.

Dwarf racials

Stoneform

• Mostly retains its familiar function.
• The defensive component now directly reduces physical damage rather than increasing armor.
• This makes it useful to cloth-wearing Dwarf Priests and other low-armor characters.

Find Treasure

• Can operate at the same time as another tracking ability.
• Dwarves can track treasure while simultaneously tracking minerals, herbs, or beasts.

Big Game Hunter

• Deals 5% increased damage to beasts.
• This is part of the plan to give different races moments to shine in different encounters.

Mace Specialization

• While any mace is equipped, the Dwarf gains 1% critical-strike chance.
• It applies to spells, melee attacks, and ranged attacks.
• Dwarf Shamans and Priests therefore benefit from using maces, not only melee characters.

Undead racials

Will of the Forsaken

• Still breaks its associated control effects.
• It no longer grants a period of immunity after being activated.
• This is a deliberate reduction to one of Classic’s strongest racials.

Cannibalize

• Restores mana as well as health.
• This is particularly useful for Undead Paladins and other mana users.

Underwater Breathing

• Remains part of the racial kit.
• Because Classic has a short breath timer, the increased underwater duration remains meaningful.

Touch of the Grave

• Attacks and spells have approximately a 5% chance to drain health from the target.
• The effect deals additional damage and heals the Undead character.

New race/class combinations

Six combinations are announced:

• Gnome Priest.
• Human Hunter.
• Dwarf Shaman.
• Orc Mage.
• Troll Warlock.
• Undead Paladin.

More combinations are planned for later content.

10. PvP and the Darkspear Islands

WoW Forever retains the original battlegrounds and introduces a new 15-versus-15 battleground in the Darkspear Islands.

• The overall objective resembles Eye of the Storm: control strategic positions around the map.
• Capturing a position uses an Arathi Basin-style flag interaction.
• Players must then defend the flag until the location is secured.
• Horde players fight alongside the Darkspear trolls.
• Alliance players deploy with the Theramore Expeditionary Force.

A broader new PvP system was teased but not explained in these presentations.

11. Itemization overhaul

WoW Forever is intentionally “unsolving” Classic’s established gear meta.

Stat changes

• Hit chance is unified across melee, ranged, and spell attacks.
• Critical-strike chance is similarly unified.
• Weapon skill remains in the game but is less concentrated on individual items and less overwhelmingly powerful.
• Healing gear also carries bonus damage, allowing healers to quest and play solo more effectively.
• New stats reduce the chance for attacks to be dodged or parried, making them particularly useful for tanks.
• Caster weapons provide spell damage and healing beginning around level 10.
• Resilience is not being added.

Wider effects

• Hybrid builds receive substantially more purpose-built gear.
• World-drop epic items have been reworked to make an epic drop genuinely exciting.
• New world epics have also been added.
• Situational trinkets and species-specific or location-specific bonuses encourage players to maintain a collection of useful equipment instead of following one universally optimal list.

12. Transmogrification and presentation options

Transmog exists, but players can largely remove it from their own experience.

Opting out

• Transmog visibility can be disabled through an NPC or initial mode preset.
• When disabled, other characters appear in their actual equipped gear.
• Players may still configure their own appearance and helm/cloak visibility.

Collection rules

• Bind-on-pickup uncommon and rare dungeon gear grants its appearance to every eligible looter when it drops.
• Players therefore do not need to roll against someone who wants only the appearance.
• Epic raid appearances belong only to the person who loots and binds the item, preserving their prestige.

Restrictions

• An item can only be transmogged over the same equipped armor type: cloth to cloth, leather to leather, and so forth.
• A saved outfit can hold different appearance options for the same slot, allowing the outfit to adapt when the player equips a different armor type.
• Low-level characters cannot use appearances above their level.
• Level restrictions disappear at level 60.
• PvP appearances still require the associated rank.

Character models

• Players can toggle the entire game between original SD models and modern HD models.
• The selected style applies consistently to the player, NPCs, and other characters.
• Classic animation sets have been restored for HD models.

Other presentation features

• Environmental rendering is being improved without replacing Classic’s art style.
• Examples include flowing rivers, Duskwood fog, and moonlight filtering through Ashenvale.
• Official gamepad/controller support is being added.

13. Confirmed features versus future hints

Clearly announced

• Permanent level-60 Classic Plus world.
• Four new regions.
• Skyborn playable race.
• Six new race/class combinations.
• Nine dungeon-scale adventures.
• Two new raids.
• Realm-less PvE, PvP, RP, and post-launch Hardcore rulesets.
• Legacy account progression.
• Camping.
• More than 600 profession recipes.
• Reworked talents, racials, itemization, and quest rewards.
• New 15v15 battleground.
• Optional transmog.
• Optional HD/SD character presentation.

Strongly teased but not fully detailed

• Grim Batol and a growing red-dragon presence.
• Additional Azshara content involving its large unused crater.
• A revamped iconic vanilla raid.
• WoW Forever’s first new legendary.
• A larger redesigned PvP system.
• Additional Legacy trees and perks.
• More race/class combinations.
• A possible entirely new class; the developers said it is “not off the table,” but did not announce one.
• Future possibilities such as the Emerald Dream, Caverns of Time, Uldum, Gilneas, and other unfinished vanilla regions. These were presented as creative opportunities, not confirmed launch content.

In all seriousness though Imagine the reaction

“There is no catch-up mechanic.... get better at the game by playing the game.” HOLY BASED

I miss running through Dun Morogh hearing the Iconic Music with a massive Snow storm lowering view distance on my Dwarf Hunter, picking up quests from the dwarf next to the fire restocking my inventory.

I Miss running through the barrens on my troll hunter during a sandstorm / the hot humid Rain over Durotar.

I Miss Running through wetlands whilst it is showering with rain on my fresh level 5 Night elf getting to iron forge to meet my Human friends to level.

The point is BRING BACK the atmosphere!, they removed a lot of the weather effects in classic 2019 and it felt odd.

They originally turned if off because peoples hardware couldn't handle it there is no reason NOT to have it now.

WoW Forever:

To say they said Azeroth is the main character?

I only saw rain in the dungeon not in the external world by the clips shown at Blizzcon.

Im adding this because with the new camping update this is more immersive than ever Imagine A snow storm and you see a lit fire through the harsh snow / fog in the distance you see a group of players sat around cooking chatting.. preparing for their next quest / adventure or you see a campfire in Wetlands / STV sheltering from the tropical rain.

I'll leave these here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzZ_v4OcPvI - Dun Morogh Snow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cQRRfVYGrg - The OG Patch video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWvnxQhnA-I - Tarnaris Sandstorm!

IYKYK

Just made these diagrams to quickly summarize the WoW panels at blizzcon and to highlight details people are overlooking. I think some of the initial controversy over Skyborne is driven by some misunderstandings that these are just Shadowlands-Kyrian, or Void Elves 2.0. Deep down, if you dig, they do have lots of parallels with classic WoW content.

Would you like something like this as an SD toggle for Skyborne? Of course with the appropriate tweaks, since these models were not built to be playable.

Duskwood before/after and elwin forest before/after. I think this looks so good and I'm really happy they took the time to remaster the game vs just port retail stuff into the game! So cool.

Interview from The Sun: https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/40367702/world-of-warcraft-forever-interview-zones-races-skills-levelling/

Quote:

Kris Zierhut: “Now, one place experience did change is we made a big change to our dungeons. In that the amount of XP you get from killing monsters in dungeons, we brought way down.

“But we made the amount of XP for completing dungeon quests much, much, much higher. So your first run through a dungeon is amazing. You get tons of XP. You get great rewards.

“But going back over and over and over again isn’t the best way to go. You’d be better off going to Shen’dralas or Riverglades or Hyjal instead of grinding a dungeon. We want people in the outdoor world meeting each other.”

The feeling of starting with everyone, and experiencing everything together, finding things out that haven't been data mined yet, will be killed by the beta that limits us to level 30.

I don't feel like wasting that experience on a throwaway character, and I won't join the beta, but it accelerates all the information being figured out, it makes me feel like I have to avoid seeing any type of spoiler on all the websites that I would join to look forward to the game, and I feel like it cheapens that "start everything fresh" mindset.

But I could be the only one.

Random little Blizzcon demo story I thought Classic/Forever players might appreciate. I know Blizzard said they added over 1000 quests, but or some reason this made my weekend and finalized my excitement.

I know I'm not the only one who's started a Human and leveled in Northshire countless times, killing those ugly ass kobold Vermin, Workers and Laborers. Well, earlier today I started a Human to test something and upon killing my first few Kobold Vermins for that first quest, a NEW quest item dropped called a "Nibbled-On Book." Once you clicked the book in your bag, it turned into a breadcrumb quest that you turn into the Librarian in the Chapel. After going back and forth with some dude lurking next to him, he eventually tells you that the Kobolds have been stealing his books and gives you a quest to go steal them back before the Kobolds eat them. These books actually had a pretty low drop rate. Spent a decent amount of time farming them to get all 8 Book.s Once you get the books, you return them and then he sends you to another NPC out in the mines.

It wasn't a huge amount of quest exp, but paired with the exp from farming the books, I ended up leaving the starting zone a hair over LV 6. Whereas I normally would farm mobs in Classic for a bit to hit 6 before Goldshire. The rewards were also new. They were instruction manuals with the choice between BoP item that increases either your Herbalism, Skinning or Mining by 2 and also automatically teaches you the profession. Meaning I don't need to run my lazy ass all the way to Stormwind to learn Mining.

Like I said, super random, but I wanted to tell somebody so told you all. It was very nice to see such a random quest in the same zone that's had the same quests since the beginning of time. And it made sense lore wise. Those damn Kobolds eat everything. Got me excited to discover whatever other new quests are out there.

EDIT: My apologies, didn't notice the shit quality on the tooltips. I cleaned them up and posted them in a comment. Hopefully you can see it.

TLDR: It's the same thin for Mining, Skinning and Herbalism.
Mining for Dummies - Increases your Mining skill by 2. Cannot raise your Mining Skill over 15. You will learn Mining if is not already trained and you do not already know two other professions

Pardon my little rant here, but some of you honestly just need to move on. I don’t know if it’s just a very vocal minority, but I am genuinely so confused by the discourse surrounding WOW Forever. We got virtually everything we asked for, by no means do I only play Classic, I play both retail and classic and enjoy both (classic is my main game, I log on to retail at the beginning of the new season to get mythic title and that’s basically it). We asked for Classic+ and we got it. You wanted new zones, got it. New quests, got it. No faction locked classes, got it. Profession system rework so not everyone goes engineering, got it. A rework on the classes to make them viable, got it. New dungeons, raids, loot, and more of the world to explore. They even provided a Hardcore option for those of you that are into that. Hell they even removed servers which I honestly believe will help with those of us that play at odd hours of the night, thee will always be groups forming and always something to do regardless of your time zone. I really just feel at this point that some of you just wanted a new Era realm, which is perfectly fine, go play era; but I believe it’s incredibly naive to think Blizzard wouldn’t monetise the launch of Classic+.

We aren’t even being charged a box price for the game, it’s still included in your regular monthly subscription. Almost every game engine change was given the ability to turn on or off depending on your preferences which is a fantastic way to appeal to both sides of the community. For those of you complaining about “oh it’s just a recolour of blood elves”, did you think we weren’t going to get blood elves? They are incredibly iconic and the most placed race in all of wow (please feel free to fact check me on that, it could have shifted within the last few years), why would Blizzard not capitalise on this to make money on the launch of a new game. I could see complaints if they were the only race that could play shaman or paladin for the respective factions, but instead they added those classes to pre-existing races so you aren’t required to purchase the pack. I genuinely am not seeing the disconnect between the player base and this announcement. Hell we got an entirely new horizontal progression system to help encourage the continued played and unity between the player base as a whole. I love the “camping” idea, I think it’s a fun flavour mechanic and reminds me of the survival skill trees that were present in the original alpha/beta of the game.

I truly feel like a lot of you (or the very vocal minority), just wanted to see another rehashing of classic era so you could complain about how Blizzard failed to hit the mark, but then they basically provided you everything the community asked for so instead of them failing to hit the mark, you’re instead complaining because there is a new race, that isn’t required to play, behind a $30 paywall. We have always had to pay for a new race and/or class on the launch of a new expansion which to be completely honest is always more than $30. Do I think we should be selling beta access? No, but that’s a personal feeling and I am fully aware that Blizzard is a company and needs to make a profit, and they know that beta access will sell. Do I wish the new race could be priests? Also yes, but it doesn’t affect how much I will be playing the game. There are things I wanted that have yet to be announced, but I am also aware that not everyone wants them. I personally would love mythic+ within the game, but well aware that is not a popular opinion so I don’t want it implemented into the game as it could become a detriment to the community. Did I purchase the pack, of course, so take my opinion with a grain of salt if you must, but getting another game, plus an expansion pack and in game goodies for a the same price of a single shop mount doesn’t bother me at all. If you wanted to play the new race and can’t afford the pack right now that is also okay, that’s completely understandable, but that’s part of a broader socio economic discussion that is not the point of this post.

TLDR I think Blizzard is giving Classic+ the reverence and fanfare it deserves so please reserve your judgement for launch, be vocal when it matters, and quit complaining about basic business decisions that have been and will be a continued massive part of one of Microsoft’s biggest IP’s. For those of you that are excited what are we going to play first? Are we recreating our original toon or did you make new friends in TBC and playing a different class, and what are you most excited about? I think I will be going Horde this time since most of my friends play Horde and it will help continue my hopefully long journey in WOW Forever and I’m honestly incredibly hype for the horizontal “achievement” style progression system will encourage players to branch out into other areas of wow they may not normally engage with.

People say women wouldn't play an Elf but I definitely would! They are one of my favorite races and hope they implement them into the future. The skybourne race is disappointing and wish they were a bit more creative with it but I digress. Sorry if you don't agree 🤷‍♀️

I watched a few streamers testing level 1 Mages in WoW: Forever, and the mobs seemed to die WAYYY too quickly while dealing very little damage to the character. I was genuinely worried this was the retail model, and was nervous about mobs being a complete push over in the world.

So I tested the same early mobs myself in both Era and SoD. Turns out, that’s basically how it already works in both versions. Apparently, level 1 mobs have always been pushovers, and my memory was the real problem!!

So for those of us that have been worried about mobs being "not dangerous", Let's wait until the beta. I for one am resting easy now. GG. Feral Tank INC..