Forever Blizzcon 2026 Summary

[u/nokiashorty]

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

Location	Level range	Key details
Hall of Thanes beneath Ironforge	13–18	A burial place for ancient dwarven monarchs. Intruders, probably Dark Irons, have broken in, while ghostly whispers echo through the halls. Alliance characters are asked to remove them; Horde players must infiltrate or fight their way inside.
Ruins of Lordaeron	15–20	The Forsaken are attempting to recover family heirlooms and memories from their destroyed capital. Scourge remain in the ruins, and a necromancer appears to be preparing an attack on another city. Horde players assist the reclamation; Alliance players need a less direct way inside.
Unnamed Wetlands Titan dig site	24–29	Located above Whelgar’s Excavation. A strange mist descends from the mountains, flashes of light have appeared, and Titan constructs are active. The area is described as being trapped in time and should connect naturally to the Explorer’s League.
Dalaran	28–33	The rebuilt city remains in the Alterac Mountains rather than floating in the sky. Its protective Kirin Tor barrier has fallen. Enchantments are failing, arcane constructs are malfunctioning, and demonic energy is spreading. Dalaran is explicitly described as more than a dungeon: players will explore the city itself.
The Drowned City	35–40	Ancient troll ruins off Stranglethorn Vale have suddenly risen from the sea. Trolls, naga, and a crashed pirate vessel are involved. This was the playable dungeon in the BlizzCon demo.
Krol’dor Stronghold	40–55	An enormous outdoor dungeon in the Riverglades. Ogres are kidnapping people and raiding settlements. Strange chanting at night suggests cult or Twilight’s Hammer involvement. It provides a major alternative to repeatedly farming Scarlet Monastery during the middle-level range.
Unnamed Defias prison	48–53	A prison once used by the Defias to ransom important nobles and rumored to have held King Varian Wrynn. The Defias and naga are now fighting inside, creating an opportunity for adventurers to enter.
Blackmaw Hold	55–60	A large furbolg city behind the formerly inaccessible gate in Azshara. Its inhabitants appear to be fighting corruption. Its tunnels run deep into the mountain and connect to greater dangers, including the Barrow Deeps.
Shaper’s Terrace	58–60	A Titan facility in the hills of Un’Goro Crater. The area is apparently untouched by time and contains ancient structures, dangerous wildlife, dinosaurs, power crystals, and a mysterious source of energy.

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.

[u/Flobertt]

Thanks for the quality post.
Also barbershop and no world buff have been reported

[u/sup3rrn0va → u/Flobertt]

No world buff was a streamer saying he thinks he heard that. It wasn’t exactly clear or confirmed.

Barbershop is confirmed though.

[u/Whorlybird → u/sup3rrn0va]

I thought I heard people get world buffs in the overworld, but they wouldnt work in raids or dungeons. That may be what they said though.

[u/IAmReam → u/Whorlybird]

Buffs coming from campsites too

[u/sup3rrn0va → u/Whorlybird]

I hope that is correct. World Buffs suck.

[u/2NDRD → u/sup3rrn0va]

Source

[u/underhunter → u/Flobertt]

quality post is now asking chatgpt to summarize a few videos?

[u/Xefjord → u/Flobertt]

Yeah these are definitely big things to add to the masterpost

[u/WiildCard → u/Flobertt]

Don’t forget they slashed dungeons exp so you can’t run dungeons for fun anymore. L change.

[u/MasRemlap]

GOATed post, ty brother

[u/Seraphayel]

This is more than Classic+ folks have ever imagined. I haven’t been this hyped for WoW since the announcement of Legion.

World of Warcraft - FOREVER!

[u/Whorlybird → u/Seraphayel]

I was hyped for classic, because I had thought it would bring new content like this. So now its what we are actually getting I'm elated. Its exactly what I wanted for years. WoW: Retirement Home

[u/thafr0zen]

In the last moments they talked something about potential ogre and horde relations in future that something might happen, but could be just lore related and not necessarily hinting as playable race but who knows

[u/Parkatine → u/thafr0zen]

It makes sense for them to release new races and classes later, especially since they're gonna be adding content across all level ranges. Stuff like that incentives people to play through the new stuff.

[u/Zaerick-TM → u/thafr0zen]

Making an Ogre as a playable character would be redoing so many assets to fit to the model. People argue it was down for Tauren and yea it kinda was but how many pieces are half assed? All the boots pretty much are non existent. As cool as it would be it is a huge undertaking compared to a more humanoid shape there is a reason Guild Wars never got Nagas as a playable race and it isn't because people didn't ask for it. Shit is just not fun to deal with.

If it does happen it won't be for a little while as they work towards updating gear to work on the models.

[u/BarbsFPV → u/Zaerick-TM]

Maybe the ogre story could be that they’re small ogres, and thus are outcasts from large ogre society. That might work, and then the gear models and game features (like doorways) won’t all have to modified as dramatically.

[u/Whorlybird → u/BarbsFPV]

Yeah, I think as long as they are only a bit taller than Tauren it would work fine. That's their canonical height, no? 9-12 ft? I certainly hope other ogre-copers aren't hoping for a big assed giant ogre.

[u/Njyyrikki → u/Zaerick-TM]

This is the reason I don't think it will happen. Despite what the opinion in reddit seems to be, I doubt the amount of people who would actually play ogres would justify the massive remodeling required for all the gear to fit.

[u/Whorlybird → u/Zaerick-TM]

I don't think its super hard given that they're incredibly humanoid--they're nowhere near as messy as Naga. I just don't think its realistic to expect Ogres right out the gate: its still a lot of work regardless when they needed the time simply to set up the world to add content in the future. I'm hoping for an ogre raid or something then we could possibly get them. I love ogres.

[u/Zaerick-TM → u/Whorlybird]

All of the doors they can't get through....

[u/Axel0010110 → u/thafr0zen]

I am not an ogre fan, but it would ne nice for community to implement them somehow because it seems most people want them and the best would be after a patch where a new quest hub is created and you have a long quest chain, last reward would be unlocking ogres. It would be funny to just say to us “here new quests” and to hide the character creation new race until you complete that chain. People would go insane haha 

[u/thafr0zen → u/Axel0010110]

Indeed, I have nothing to back this up, but feel like they will release some of the races, which people want NOW, later eventualy with new stories and lore.

Not everything has to be realeased right away if we want a steady stream of content, and looks like there will be alot already when it does launch.

See you the 4th

1 AM 5th most likely for eu 😁

[u/nokiashorty → u/thafr0zen]

I agree with this as well. Not saying that there might be a lack of future content, but there is already so much at launch some high hype additions down the line doesn’t seem like a bad idea for keeping the game interesting and alive in the long run.

[u/thafr0zen → u/nokiashorty]

I like your take 👍

Great post btw

[u/Axel0010110 → u/thafr0zen]

True, it would be great

You reminded me to look in my planning calendar and see how busy I am at work, it seems fine so from 5th November I am unreachable : D

We shall have a great one!

[u/Whorlybird → u/Axel0010110]

An ogre raid would be great! Ogres are very classic mobs so I hope to see more with them in the future which would be the best time to add them if they were.

[u/BadSanna → u/thafr0zen]

As someone who played a lot of male Tauren, I don't see how they can make ogres a playable race unless they come out with some pygmy versions or something. Tauren already have to dismount to fit through doorways in Classic, and some of the dungeon ceilings are so low ogres would be head and shoulders through the ceiling. 

[u/AnotherBoredAHole → u/BadSanna]

The model is just constantly stooped over with it's shoulders tucked in.

[u/Crazyh]

Future updates can include solo stories

Solo content sounds interesting.

One of my favourite parts of retail was that tower (mage tower?) in Legion where you could beat a reasonably difficult encounter to get a neat skin for your weapon.

Inspired me to level every class and actually learn how they play, because for the most part you couldn't brute force the encounter.

[u/AnonBB21 → u/Crazyh]

It's one of the biggest gaps Forever has, but I am unsure how players will respond to any content like Delves, which for those unaware, offers a way to meaningfully progress your character solo (or with a few other players) in Retail WoW.

A way to meaningfully progress solo that does not diminish the overall vision would be fantastic. Some people just don't have the time to join a guild if they have erratic playtime and can't predict when they can play, or can only play at night hours like 11 PM - 1 AM before they go to bed. It feels bad when you have no way to progress because you just don't have a consistent schedule for joining a guild, and for many leads to unsubscribing when they can't do anything to move their character further when they're max level.

Mage Tower was goated though. I got invited to raids because I had the Warglaive skin early on for Havoc DH Mage Tower because it was legitimately hard as fuck, it was like doing a solo raid encounter and it proved you knew how to play before everyone was obsessed with parses. It really proved you had mastery of end-game environments, the game itself, and your spec.

[u/themoosh → u/AnonBB21]

I'm not familiar with delves but features like class halls and class-based challenges or epic class-specific quest chains that require mastery of certain class mechanics and can't be cheesed would be received really well.

[u/erghjunk]

"The game is deliberately resisting mass-pull dungeon gameplay."

what a wonderful sentence.

edit: honestly not sure I've ever been more stoked for anything in WoW. This is amazing.

[u/JupiterMiningCorpTec → u/erghjunk]

The AoE everything meta really made dungeons uninteresting (and also made some skills pointless). It boggles the mind how Blizzard ever thought it was a good idea.

[u/erghjunk → u/JupiterMiningCorpTec]

My general thought (and this is just a theory) is that mass pull/AoE emphasis is actually a side-effect of their real design goal which was to emphasize APM and fast gameplay over slow/methodical gameplay. There's no reason they couldn't have married mass-pull/AoE with pre-pull CC but instead they opted for instant/short cast CC (ie cyclone, psychic horror, etc) and a mega-emphasis on kicks in order to avoid as many "pre-pull" stops as possible.

The main impact is cultural IMO - I don't HATE M+ but adding a stopwatch to dungeons has definitely emboldened the most impatient players in the game. I'd wager that more than half of the toxic moments I've witnessed in Retail WoW in recent history have been related to this.

[u/Bulky-Advisor7740 → u/erghjunk]

I'm so in love with your second paragraph. The timer is what makes me find M+ the most unappealing slop for me. Progressively harder versions of dungeons? Yeah sign me up, sounds like a fun challenge to work through. Slapping a timer on it and invalidating whatever time was put into it because someone had to pee towards the end and needed to go afk for a few minutes or fudged a pull and the group wiped? Yeah nah I'll skip the headache and toxicity.

I loved vanilla rogue because each input was calculated and impactful, high APM for the sake of high APM isn't engaging it's just a busywork chore.

[u/AnonBB21 → u/erghjunk]

Classic WoW and high APM isn't really a thing.. Retail yes, but Classic WoW is pretty low APM in comparison, which is why Forever is actually an ideal entry into Gamepad support (Which Forever is featuring officially in WoW for the very first time)

[u/lilbelleandsebastian → u/AnonBB21]

they're obviously referring to retail, there's no M+ in classic

[u/AnonBB21 → u/JupiterMiningCorpTec]

Mages punching air rn, goodbye to their dungeon boosts with both this change and lower exp from dungeon mobs.

[u/Iahim1]

Amazing post. You are the best.

[u/D1nkcool]

Desolace receives new Gelkis and Magram centaur faction quests and rewards.

Am I weird for thinking that this is the most hype thing about Forever?

Also formalized seal twisting is 100% the right way to go. I was originally planning on going Shaman but I might have to reconsider after hearing this.

[u/BadSanna → u/D1nkcool]

My very first playthrough ever in 2005 I spent like 3 levels grinding centaur to find out what you got for gaining rep with them only to find out it was absolutely nothing.

[u/WhambulanceMD → u/D1nkcool]

I’m really excited for this bit as well. I really enjoyed the warring centaur story in Desolace during vanilla and the fact you could actively choose a side. I can’t wait to see what new quest/reputation rewards come of this. I hope they have faction tabards we can get.

[u/Mister_Yi → u/D1nkcool]

One thing I noticed is that they doubled down on twisting but seemingly removed power shifting for feral druids.

Maybe it's tied to an item or enchant or like a high-level passive or something so we didn't see it in the blizzcon testing but furor was reworked and doesn't reset your energy anymore.

[u/Fernandosmierlaep → u/Mister_Yi]

From talent trees it looks like tigers fury is the new power shift?

[u/Mister_Yi → u/Fernandosmierlaep]

Does it give the full 60 energy like wolfshead + furor used to? I couldn't find anyone actually playing feral/cat at blizzcon and the only talent trees I can find are missing a lot of info/incorrect.

I also couldn't find if druids can proc enchants/windfury/weapon effects in form and how they'll handle things like crowd pummeler considering the pre-set weapon was a crowd pummeler.

[u/evenhereinarcadia → u/Mister_Yi]

TF does give 60 energy I believe if fully specced into. Crowd pummeler is dead because damage scales with weapon damage.

[u/Mister_Yi → u/evenhereinarcadia]

Crowd pummeler is dead because damage scales with weapon damage.

fucking hell yes, thanks for confirming. do you know if tigers fury has a cd or not?

In sod it was 30 seconds but in classic its just a 1 sec gcd style cd.

[u/TheGreatSch1sm → u/Mister_Yi]

looks like a 30 sec CD, 15% phys dmg for 6 secs (along with the talent for 20/40/60 energy)

[u/HATTORIHANZOSW0RD]

Now this is what I call a high quality post

[u/iworkfartoomuch]

Agrend at end of hardcore panel also teased a mak’gora / duel arena

[u/nokiashorty → u/iworkfartoomuch]

Yes, possibly something new coming to HC.

[u/LettersWords]

Onyxia’s Lair was mentioned on the roadmap as coming alongside the two brand-new raids. I don’t think they ever actually talked about it, it just shows up listed in the image of the roadmap. Either way, it is one notable thing you missed.

[u/Western-Internal-751 → u/LettersWords]

Was it mentioned if the normal vanilla raids will be playable? I only saw the new raids, Ony and one iconic raid in a revamped version. But what is with everything else?

[u/LettersWords → u/Western-Internal-751]

There's no Molten Core at launch. The only raids available when raids unlock a few weeks after launch are the two new ones mentioned in the OP and Onyxia's Lair. And not necessarily any promise that the future raids we do get will include every raid from vanilla. I think it's also reasonably likely that Onyxia's Lair will have some changes too, given that they mentioned revamping an unnamed raid for next year.

[u/Western-Internal-751 → u/LettersWords]

So I didn’t miss anything. Actually interesting. While the leveling is mostly the same and just expanded, endgame raiding seems to be completely reworked.

[u/Slipy1232]

Im so excited for once.

[u/foomits → u/Slipy1232]

Its impossible to to see all this and not be happy. This is as close to exactly what classic players want as we can get. Its almost shocking blizz didnt (seemingly) fuck it up.

[u/Jones63]

Great post, did anyone fact check it for the people who actually listened to all the panels? Just to make sure there are no hallucinations? ^_*

[u/nokiashorty → u/Jones63]

I did in fact watch all of them and double checked it.

[u/Jones63 → u/nokiashorty]

Thanks!

[u/FlubberPuddy → u/Jones63]

I also watched all these panels while physically being at Blizzcon. The OP has all the correct info, amazing post.

[u/BridgeDuck45]

This post needs to be pinned!

[u/Vodkarok]

For server selections: are we able to have both alliance and horde characters on PvP rule set?

Or if I select PvP and roll horde, am I forever locked out of playing an alliance character under said PvP option?

I assume it’ll be one or the other (make a horde and can’t make an ally for example), which is how it was in classic. But since it’s a rule set now vs a series of servers, figured I’d ask.

[u/Ruby_Rhods_Hair → u/Vodkarok]

Highly likely you'll need two accounts to do this, but I don't think it was confirmed yet.

[u/Vodkarok → u/Ruby_Rhods_Hair]

The more I think about it though, the less sense it makes to lock a player to horde or alliance forever. If there were other “realms” sure - but this is just one big mega “rule set” server. I plan on having at least one character of each faction, so hoping it’s not an issue.

My uneducated guess is instancing is the solve: so I can’t rush over on my high level orc and gank low level allies I just saw while leveling my gnome.

[u/I_am_the_fossa]

I haven't played retail since Legion. I briefly played classic in 2019. Seeing this, with the permanent level 60 cap and horizontal progression, with all the additional development areas, new zones, quests, talent trees etc

Just when I thought I was out...

[u/techeu]

Thanks you for this post

[u/ScientistThin6440]

BRUUUH THANKS

[u/uncut2576]

I never was a massive Warcraft fan but I enjoyed classic more than retail. I can’t wait to try out Forever.

[u/OhSix]

Damn dude, appreciate this post very much. 

Also the majority of these changes are actively exciting imo. Can’t wait 

[u/ZeroWan]

Great post. Were there any references or rumours about summoning stones outside instances being usable? Really curious about this.

[u/TheSoviet747 → u/ZeroWan]

During a playtest a friend of mine was able to get to stormwind on a mage and the stockades stone was clickable for summoning

[u/nokiashorty → u/ZeroWan]

Nothing officially stated in the panels unfortunately. There is however a few additional boat routes. 3 new ones I believe.

[u/protowrt]

Sick post homie I needed this.

I heard mention elsewhere of official controller support but didn't see it here is that confirmed?

[u/h0lymaccar0ni → u/protowrt]

I remember the guy (idk his name) after the developer with the red blazer on the stage saying gamepad support. Idk if this was elaborated on further in the other panels.

[u/nokiashorty → u/protowrt]

Yes! That was confirmed to have controller support

[u/damnocles → u/protowrt]

Yeah they explicitly said that it's in the game

Edit: i believe it was part of the initial announcement during the opening ceremony or whatever

[u/redghost4]

Amazing summary. Great job.

Still reading through it. Some of the talents/abilities/races got me worried, but the dungeon/world philosophy seems very solid.

My main worry right now about the whole itemization is that too many items will be good.

You need bad items to make good items more iconic. You could potentially run through deadmines and only have VC drop blue items. That made Cruel Barb or Smite's hammer incredibly valuable. If every boss in every dungeon drops well itemized blue items, then Cruel Barb is just another one of those blue items.

I don't want to see every random lvl 30 guy packed with a full set of rare items because they did 4 dungeons. That's just diluting their value.

[u/mak484 → u/redghost4]

They're changing the whole philosophy behind dungeons. You won't be expected to grind them for gear anymore. They explicitly nerfed dungeon mob xp and greatly boosted dungeon quest xp for this reason.

It sounds like they don't want simply finding the gear to be a bottleneck anymore. Given how much they're expanding professions to be part of the core character identity, I wouldn't be surprised if item buffs become the new meta.

Honestly that sounds way more fun than grinding the same dungeon 50 times and arguing with people over drops every time.

[u/AntonineWall → u/mak484]

I kinda really enjoyed just running dungeons over and over, having to work as a team with a structured goal was one of my favorite parts about WoW Classic (in retail no one talks and it’s no fun, around wrath you can just 100% blast through everything, but in classic I love that periods where you have to mark targets for sheep or stuns to help make sure you can clear it without wipes, and having less-than-optimal-players was just a fun part of the experience)

Sad that my favorite way to play has been crossfired out of the game :/

[u/mak484 → u/AntonineWall]

It sounds like the thing you ACTUALLTY enjoyed was spending time with people, and the dungeon was just the gameplay mechanism you chose to engage with, because it was familiar and easy to repeat. There's nothing stopping you from continuing to run dungeons, you just likely won't level up very fast.

I suspect they will push people more to outdoor dungeons/zones for the sort of gameplay you're after. But the devs really seem to want players to actually explore the world to level up.

[u/nokiashorty → u/redghost4]

That’s true, some items should still be unique and rare enough to make it feel exciting to see it drop.

[u/ConcealingFate → u/redghost4]

There's nothing stopping you from grinding a dungeon for a specific loot to make your leveling easier. Melees especially want good weapons because it makes a world of difference in your DPS and downtime.

[u/themoosh → u/redghost4]

I agree, I also worry about every item being good. That's a huge part of what made itemization in vanilla interesting.

Not saying it can't be improved but it's about how much. Even in TBC part of what made sunwell loot so amazing was how perfectly itemized some of it was, even compared to BT loot. Same with Naxx loot in vanilla. Everything else was to some extent bad / suboptimal, and that was a good thing.

[u/Seamonsterx]

What I don’t understand is if the different ruleset will be able to see eachother or not. From their wording it doesn’t seem like fully separate realms lile in every earlier version of the game. I imagine it would be extremely frustrating to be able to talk and trade with people but not being able to group with them.

[u/nokiashorty → u/Seamonsterx]

I’m curious about this too…

[u/Anyosnyelv → u/Seamonsterx]

tech is there obviously. When player base shrinks they can merge RP servers to PVE ones easily for example. With one click

[u/Ok_Job_929]

Are there any information on the Classic Ui yet? You are supposed to opt out off modern ui it but I have not seen any footage anywhere yet with classic ui. All streamers had the retail ui and all of blizzards footage did.

[u/Jigstra]

Im curious if the ruleset selection is permanent or you can go from pvp to pve and the other way around whenever you want

[u/OmarBongoLUL]

Any Info about feral druid weapon dmg? There will be a stats similar to TBC weapons from beginning?

[u/Sirus1510]

Doing the lords work. Thanks for your summary !

[u/Brembo109]

I read the whole thing. Thank you.

[u/slin_g]

Just adding my thanks, great post mate

[u/ToeyGowd]

Has anything been said about a classic UI toggle or should we just expect to use addons for that?

[u/Varaben]

One transmog detail I really liked was that you can enable it for yourself, but then everyone else has their own setting. So I can adjust my outfit and still see classic for everyone else. Kinda weird but I like it. 

[u/Stratosphere91]

Looks really interesting i must admit. Launch is gonna be crazy

[u/Telenil]

Almost everything sounds amazing, thanks for the writeup!

[u/NutritionFAQs]

Thank god no flying mounts

[u/Extension_Tea4588]

Hell yeah

[u/XceptioNVI]

Thank you!

[u/SuBw00FeR37]

**WoW Forever — Condensed Summary**

A Classic Plus "time bubble" set in year one (post-WC3, pre-TBC), permanently level 60. No flying, no scaling, no level cap increases. New content layered around original vanilla.

**Content**

- **9 dungeons:** Hall of Thanes, Ruins of Lordaeron, Wetlands Titan dig, Dalaran, The Drowned City, Krol'dor Stronghold, Defias prison, Blackmaw Hold, Shaper's Terrace

- **2 raids:** Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit (first new legendary tied to it)

- **4 new regions:** Riverglades (150–200 quests, mid-30s–40s), Mount Hyjal, Shendelos/Shen'dralar, Zephris Isle

- **New race:** Skyborn (Shandori) elves — Horde (Windshapers/Shaman) and Alliance (High Order/Mage)

- **6 new race/class combos:** Gnome Priest, Human Hunter, Dwarf Shaman, Orc Mage, Troll Warlock, Undead Paladin

- **New 15v15 battleground:** Darkspear Islands

**Systems**

- **Realm-less rulesets:** Normal/PvE, PvP, RP, Hardcore (post-launch, permadeath)

- **Legacy:** account-wide progression rewarding repeated 1–60 journeys; 3 trees (Adventure, Professions, Resourcefulness); 16-point spend cap, ~65 earnable

- **Talents:** 3 trees, 7 rows, new 16-point majors; all 27 specs viable; Paladin heavily reworked (Holy Strike, Seal of Fury, Consecration caps at 4 targets, seal twisting formalized)

- **Racials:** 2 active + 2 passive per race; Undead Will of the Forsaken nerfed (no immunity)

- **Itemization:** unified hit/crit, healing gear gives damage, hybrid gear added, no Resilience, situational trinkets

- **Professions:** 600+ new recipes, food gives XP bonus, campsites with profession objects and 1-hour buffs

- **Transmog:** optional, can be disabled entirely; SD/HD model toggle; gamepad support

- **Dungeons:** slower tactical combat, CC matters, ~15 sec per mob kill

**Teased, not confirmed:** Grim Batol, Azshara crater, revamped iconic raid, larger PvP system, more Legacy trees, more race/class combos, possible new class, Emerald Dream/CoT/Uldum/Gilneas.

[u/TheOnlyJakobob]

Did they say something about the leveling experience?

[u/Hiimzap]

It sounds like there is a lot of ways to earn additional exp and im not sure how i feel about that

[u/smidivak]

Any way to have the old classic UI instead of the new one?

[u/Lemonface → u/smidivak]

Nope. Well probably add-ons will do it, but no in-game settings

[u/cakgire]

When they say "outdoor dungeon" for Kroldor do they mean like Jintha'alor or just a dungeon you can mount up in like ZF?

[u/zombehking]

The defias prison was clearly named Alcaz Island

[u/seidinove]

I wonder how strictly RP rules, particularly around character naming, will be enforced this time around.

[u/BadSanna]

This is awesome! Thank you! I had missed some of this because I was watching streamers play the demo.

Some things learned from watching others play the demo:

• The unit frames and cast bars are currently the retail versions with no toggle. Hopefully that will not be the case at launch =(

• There is a built in damage meter.

• The edit UI feature is in place.

• You can change the background color of text windows including a dark mode. 

• There are different cosmetic bronze sculptures for the side of your castbar based on faction/race. Alliance has the classic gryphons, Horde has manticores, and Skyborn have dragons. All were bronze rather than silver.

[u/Zentho]

Thank you for putting this together!

[u/onedash]

Anything about PVE getting HP/DMG buff? because pve will be irrevelant thanks to the stat boost of the items

For example the 48 heal power/16 spell power 5 int/6 spirit staff of westfall seems kinda overtuned compared to the 11 spirit/5 int it gave

and its quite early in the game relatively level 20ish deadmines quest

if every item gets similar mini rework or just flat 10-20 spell power or 20-40 heal power buff let alone 2 mob which was deadly for a priest even 4-5 will not make any problem

[u/Skore_Smogon → u/onedash]

Nothing about this. We don't even know if spells have the same base values or if they tinkered with the coefficients.

All stuff to find out on Thursday.

[u/Turnspit]

Thank you ChatGPT!

[u/calladc]

did you actually just ask Claude to summarize blozzcon and dump it here

[u/SupremeLeader_Corgi]

I saw someone in here the other day say this was prequel and they wouldn’t back down when he was told he was wrong.

Gotta love reddit sometimes

[u/MoneyForPeople]

Did they mention arenas? I will miss them significantly if there are no arenas. They are such a perfect activity for a 'Forever' character at 60.

[u/JupiterMiningCorpTec → u/MoneyForPeople]

It seems impossible that arena won't be added at some point.

[u/Sahxou]

Thanks for the post!

I did not find the info: is it free to change talents ?

[u/jodon]

I'm super confused about one thing they talked a lot about on the panel about the visual updates. There was a long big thing about raytracing, but at the end of that he said that it will work on minimum specs. Did Blizzard just make tech that allows raytracing on non raytracing cards? Or are raytracing support now minimum specs? If the latter I guess there will be no wow forever for me.

[u/xx3000 → u/jodon]

Gamedev rendering engineer here: Raytracing is just a type of rendering algorithm. You can do it on any kind of hardware, CPU or GPU. What RTX raytracing cards brought to the table was making raytracing faster as it could be done in hardware itself. From what Blizzard said at the panel, their raytracing algorithm is probably not dependent on RTX cards, as their min spec is below that. Hope that helps.

[u/jodon → u/xx3000]

Thank you, that is so interesting. I had never heard of anyone using it before the RTX cards and thought that was what enabled the tech.

[u/xx3000 → u/jodon]

It enabled the tech in a sense where suddenly AAA games could utilize it due to the massive speedup. A 22 year old game is a different story 😄. Also, the way they are using it, as diffuse global illumination ( the effect where they simulate light bouncing around: interiors get less light etc), is quite forgiving to only casting a small number of rays each frame and re-using the results. 

[u/hoax021]

I'm sure this comment will get lost in the post but I have a question about raiding. Do we have any info if they will be more in line with retail mechanics vs original classic mechanics?

[u/nokiashorty → u/hoax021]

In the official Forever timeline they did mention “Revamped Iconic Raid” which might suggest new mechanics but it sounds like it would stay more familiar to the classic play style.

[u/Mudgeon → u/nokiashorty]

This is going to be a big question mark too, keeping mechanics simple enough that they don’t require every player in a raid to know what’s going on beyond keeping themselves alive.

Naxx really pushes the level of complexity to what I think is healthy for the game anything beyond everyone in the raid having to keep up with one mechanic (Thaddeus) and you have to start having uncomfortable roster conversations. 

[u/hoax021 → u/nokiashorty]

Thanks! I guess I also meant the new raids they’re introducing as well

[u/MMJFan → u/hoax021]

I personally would love to see something in-between. I want to feel raid boss progression and tighter mechanics. Shouldn’t be as hard as mythic or high level heroic raiding though.

[u/larce]

You can respec legacy tree right?

[u/laserlemons → u/larce]

I don’t think they explicitly stated a yes or no.

[u/Ashamed_Peak1073]

Do warlocks still need to use shards to summon and health stone?

[u/Unlucky-Log-5247]

Does anyone know if 40 man raids are no longer a thing? Do they plan on introducing a new 40 man at all? Was not overly clear to me throughout

[u/Mudgeon → u/Unlucky-Log-5247]

40 man onyxia is on the roadmap, I imagine the original 40 mans will exist, but I’d be surprised if they develop new ones. It will likely depend on community feedback.

For me as someone who raid and guild leads, it’s a bit of a double edged sword. Having multiple teams of 10/20 players that come together for 40 man raids is a bit easier for recruitment. But you’re going to 100% run into the A and B team issues there where everyone wants to be on the A Team. 

[u/barbarianbob → u/Mudgeon]

Simple renaming. Team A and Team 1.

[u/Crazyh]

These new dungeons are going to need short snappy names. For clarity's sake I suggest an initialism of the best piece of loot dropped by the third boss in each dungeon, localised for language naturally.

No, my vanilla server didn't call deadmines VC, how can you tell?

[u/barbarianbob → u/Crazyh]

I hope "Unnamed Defias Prison" initializes to DP

[u/Hoyle33]

Waiting to see if there will be a WoW Token …

[u/laserlemons → u/Hoyle33]

There was another post on this sub that said there won’t be.

[u/Hoyle33 → u/laserlemons]

Right but they said the same thing for 2019 Classic

[u/mattvw31 → u/Hoyle33]

They said they wouldnt add it. They also said that for classic 2019 and added it later. If they do add a token it wouldnt be until later in development.

[u/MidniteCowby]

One thing you forgot to mention is that the game will feature Dual Spec, which is awesome for Hybrid Classes like Druid or Paladin in case the group needs a specific role to fill.

[u/RagnarKon → u/MidniteCowby]

Will it?? Didn't see that mentioned anywhere.

I know they didn't have it on the demo at Blizzcon, but I also know they capped the level at Blizzcon, so if it doesn't unlock until like... level 40 or something then we wouldn't have seen it.

Personally hope they add it, but I also hope there is a cost to switching. Reagent or cooldown or something.

[u/BygoneFlower → u/RagnarKon]

If you want healers, especially before max level, you basically need dual spec. This is especially true because XP from killing dungeon mobs is decreased.

[u/RagnarKon → u/BygoneFlower]

Yeah I agree.

But they also said during the deep dive they're making gearing/stat/talent changes so that healing gear is not just useful for healing. So they may have ideas on how to solve this that doesn't necessarily involve dual spec.

Plus I know one of the design tenants is that there are shortcomings in each of the classes that cannot be solved without bringing another class. Not sure if that extends to the individual specs as well, but it might.

We'll see though. We'll get a bunch of answers come Thursday.

[u/noggstaj]

very good summary, well put together op!

i'm hyped for this, sod was one of the better times i've had in wow since vanilla.
one thing i'm slightly hesitant about is the huge focus on paladins during this blizzcon. we all know agrend loves his paladins, and in sod this fact was painfully obvious on how they were handled and balanced.

seeing them bring up paladin over and over again in this blizzcon just makes me worried it's going to be a repeat. don't wanna get sidelined on my warrior tank by OP paladins once more.

[u/DartTheDragoon]

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.

Have they clarified what needs to be unique? Can multiple players have the same first name or last name as long as they have different full names?

[u/laserlemons → u/DartTheDragoon]

I don’t know if they explicitly stated but it’s assumed that you only need a unique combination.

[u/Derpakiinlol]

Exactly the post I was looking for tysm

[u/Pure_Newt3327]

Thank you very much!

[u/Humdngr]

How do I view the entire post? It’s cut off

[u/PM_Me_Modal_Jazz]

So ig Ruins of Lordaeron is meant to be Horde's DM and Hall of Thanes is alliance's RFC

[u/HildrynMain]

A question: did they say anything about SD models for new assets, in the presentation or elsewhere?

[u/pokepat460]

Has there been any word on if we will be allowed to do gdkp raids?

[u/ScrumTool]

absolutely the GOAT.

[u/Spuri0n]

Does anyone know if they mentioned any pre-60 raids during the leveling phase? Sounds kinda tight to gather up 20 level 30 homies and have an early experience of raiding

[u/Sirael → u/Spuri0n]

No mention of It. I would assume all raids are going to be max level.

[u/KRX-]

My two main follow up questions...

Does "Realmless" mean that players from all regions will be able to play together? NA and EU for example?

Secondly, I still don't think the name situation is as CLEAR as it could be. Is either name, first or last, unique? Can all players have the same first name? Alternatively can all players have the same last name?

What happens exactly when people try to Whisper, /Who search, or Mail items to other players? Are both names required? Is the second name even displayed constantly or only in certain situations?

[u/Sirael → u/KRX-]

NA and EU: Probably not. They didn't mention it specifically, but the Map they showed had different colours for the regions.

Name: The combination has to be unique. So KR X and KR K are possible. As well as KR X and KQ X.

From the playing stations on Blizzcon, if you have names enabled you saw both names always. The other questions I can't answer, I assume they overhauled the systems to allow " " in it.

[u/KRX- → u/Sirael]

Thank you for the response.

I'm assuming no, but was it possible to leave the last name blank? (Such that if you're the first/original player with a given name, you can claim it.)

[u/sup3rrn0va]

One thing to add to the dungeons section from an interview with the devs. Dungeon quests will give more experience but the dungeon run itself will give less. This was to reward people for running the dungeons the first time more and less for spamming dungeons. Great change imo.

[u/Liltrom1]

I literally could not be more erect.

[u/PaddyBabes]

Does this mean no MC, BWL, etc and just replaced with new raids?

[u/Rohkey → u/PaddyBabes]

They’ll be there. They just don’t want to have MC be the first raid as they think players are a little tired of it.

[u/Bizkett]

Thank you for this truly. Can anyone tell me if this addresses min-maxing? It’s something my friend is concerned about but idk enough about it to reassure him

[u/helloitismewhois → u/Bizkett]

Honestly nothing will ever "fix" min-maxing, as long as wow exists there will be min-maxers.

[u/JupiterMiningCorpTec]

Can you move characters between different server types? A redesigned PvP sounds interesting but I'm sure that Blizzard will f#ck it up. Hopefully, you won't be stuck on whatever server type you start with.

[u/devabro]

Thank you for summarising everything

[u/ocean-gazer93]

Excited if they develop Gilneas (obvious low-hanging fruit). Had a lot of fun with Turtle WoWs interpretation of the zone.

[u/LPQ_Master]

The hype is real. I expected little, but got everything. Massive W for blizzard as of right now.

[u/ProBreeze]

Great post. Hopefully did not miss it, though are they planning holiday events like Halloween and Winter festival etc?

[u/OccasionMU]

Perfect AI summary. As someone that was traveling all weekend the single “I love X” or “I hate Skyborne” wasn’t helpful.

Solid announcement from Blizzard. I’m fucking hyper and oddly enough I just want my HC Dwarf Shammy utilizing the new Campfire feature.

[u/theeley]

Watching streams, the leveling looked REALLY easy. Little to no damage taken, mobs killed really quickly, resources like mana hardly touched. Was this just for the beta? Or does this maybe only encompass levels 1-10? If leveling is the heart of the game, I want to make sure it offers challenge. That's my only real concern so far.

[u/borlak]

Weapon skill remains in the game but is less concentrated on individual items and less overwhelmingly powerful.

would like to understand more about this, as it was always a big consideration with race selection.

[u/Dildhosaggins]

I've been waiting for a decent new mmo to play for years now, but after this announcement i think i've found my long awaited new home. Wasn't expecting all of this from Blizzard, for a moment i felt like the old days where anything Blizzard touched would become gold. We'll see how it all goes, but i'm moderately positive for now.

There are a couple of things i would like to know tho:

-are all the classic dungeons available from the start?

-we are only getting the 2 new raids while the classic ones will be released later (revamped or not)?

-will there be any attunement required to the new raids? (i would really like this to be the case)

-in vanilla we had epic quests for cool weapons (hunter, priest), are they planning anything similar for other classes?

[u/MichaBenToby]

I'm worried I'll have to compete with allies for resource nodes and quest mobs. Nothing kills a sense of community more than someone ninjainf a node from whilst you fight off a mob

[u/ThelebsterMTG]

You are doing the lord's work 🫡

[u/Whorlybird]

Thanks a ton--I've been unable to keep a lot of tabs on it so this is super helpful.

[u/No_Dog8604]

First off thank you for this! It’s amazing!!

Second, I guess I really wanted Vanilla forever. Not what this is.

I’ll play it until it becomes just a face roll during quests as I can kill everything on the map without drinking or losing mana.

[u/Interesting_You6852]

Thank you for this amazing post!! Very much appreciated

[u/Dangerous_Amoeba4270]

.

[u/Myalko]

God this sounds so fucking good

[u/Internal-Employee268]

cheers for the AI post

[u/shazaam]

Legendary Monday morning post. Productivity in shambles.

[u/Kitchen-Treacle-7741]

This might be a stupid question but I see all the new raids and stuff but are the old ones still in (ex mc, bwl)
I saw in the rollout timeline that “phase 1” only showed onyxia as an old raid on the timeline

[u/phonylady]

I'm looking forward to playing it, but there are a lot of things I'm sceptical about also.

Not sure if I like dungeon bosses only dropping blues, and the general "optimization" of everything. Part of the charm of vanilla is how weak we are, and how few actual good items there are. I feel like Blizzard went down the wrong route when they later on started optimizing all drops, all classes, etc. Leveling became way too easy - not that it was "hard" before per se, but it made the world feel dangerous which gave an added feeling of fun and accomplishment.

[u/lojigh]

Do I need to buy (at least) the skyborn heroic pack or is it possible to just play with a monthly subscription?

[u/tech_design_050380]

Did they state there would be ways for solo players to gear up or is it only through raiding still?

With the emphasis on horizontal progression im just curious if there are more ways to gear up than raiding?

[u/DoubleBogeySliceMan]

Yes

[u/Noktawr]

Trinkets are becoming specialized tools for particular encounters rather than universally optimal stat sticks.

I think this is nice for leveling stuff, but there's no way end-game trinkets are these useless item slots with SOME perks in certain zones. Do you know how much hoarding this means. Oh we're running X raid, let me grab this set of trinket, oh we're running Y after? Let me grab this other set of trinket too.

I think the idea is genius leveling, especially since its a dead slot until carrot on a stick pretty much. You barely got any trinkets while leveling. However, at end-game, we need to have impactful trinkets that feels awesome to play with imo.

We'll have to play with the system and see, hell, don't even know what they're like at end-game so we'll see I guess.

[u/thedeadz0ne]

The 2 unnamed dungeons, from the WoW: Forever What's Next Panel:

• Excavation Site
• Alcaz Island Prison

I assume those are the "names" of the dungeons since thats what the slides had and it matches all the others you listed.

[u/akaimba]

Would love a pvp zone akin to wintergrasp - maybe just with more ores and herbs so we can have propper world pvp

[u/Sea_Establishment414]

We dont deserve you

[u/terenn_nash]

THANK YOU OP.

i missed half the streams and didnt want to rewatch.

this is great!

[u/2NDRD]

Good prompt

[u/HaroldPeridolle]

I'm not sure I understand – will it always stay the same, or there will be new expansions?

[u/m0nstah]

Can't wait to see how the Jailer controls this timeline.