World of Warcraft: Forever — everything we know

Blizzard announced World of Warcraft: Forever at BlizzCon 2026 on September 12. It is the long-rumored “Classic+”: a third branch of the game, built by the Classic team, that starts from the original world at level 60 and keeps adding to it. This page holds everything Blizzard has said or shown, with a source on every line, and a separate section at the end for what is still only reported. For the differences from Classic in one place, see what’s different from Classic; for the short orientation first, see What is Forever?

Dates and how to play

When	What
September 12–13, 2026	BlizzCon. Forever playable on the show floor; the What’s Next, Deep Dive and Found Photos panels, whose recaps Blizzard published, are the sources for most of this page.
September 17, 2026	Beta begins. It runs through October 21 (Pacific time).
October 27 – November 3, 2026	Early Name Reservation for paid editions, up to three names, first come first served.
November 4, 2026, 3:00 p.m. PST	Launch.
December 9, 2026	New raids unlock: Barrow Deeps (10-player) and Hyjal Summit (20-player), per Blizzard’s panel recap.

Launch in other time zones: 6:00 p.m. Eastern and 11:00 p.m. UTC on November 4; midnight Central European Time and 10:00 a.m. Sydney time on November 5.

You do not buy Forever. Access is included with an existing World of Warcraft subscription or Game Time. The paid editions add the Skyborne race, beta access, name reservation and cosmetics; see Editions below.

What Forever is

Forever is set in the first year of World of Warcraft, and the level cap stays at 60 “for the foreseeable future” Confirmed PC Gamer. Instead of raising the cap with an old expansion, Blizzard is filling in the original map and adding stories that sit alongside the events of vanilla. New content spans the whole 1–60 bracket, not only the endgame, and many of the new dungeons and quests are for characters well below 60.

Blizzard’s own description of the design is “the world as a main character” Confirmed PCGamesN: carve your own path, no rush. It is developed by the Classic team and intended to embody the principles of the original game, while borrowing two decades of quality-of-life improvements where they do not change what made vanilla work.

Forever runs alongside the current retail game and Classic as a third version. Blizzard has not said what, if anything, changes for existing Classic realms.

The world

Three new zones ship at launch, several existing zones are overhauled to “fill in the blank spaces” Confirmed Game Informer of the vanilla map, and more than 1,000 new quests are spread across the 1–60 bracket. Every zone of the original world, with its quests and NPCs, is indexed under Zones; the new zones get pages as the beta shows them.

New zones

The What’s Next panel named them. Blizzard’s own recap confirms the Riverglades at the mid-30s to mid-40s with more than 150 quests, and Zephras Isle at levels 1 through 12 Confirmed Blizzard; the rest of the detail is as reported by Wowhead Confirmed Wowhead:

• Mount Hyjal — set after Archimonde’s defeat, includes Darkwhisper Gorge. Blizzard’s Found Photos recap has players “explore the aftermath of the Battle for Mount Hyjal, meet emerging factions, form alliances” Confirmed Blizzard.
• Shen’dralas — south of Desolace through the Valley of Bones, exploring the characters and stories connected to Eldre’Thalas Confirmed Blizzard; Wowhead ties it to the Shen’dralar, Dire Maul and the region’s centaur tribes.
• The Riverglades — a frontier of rivers, grasslands and trade routes for the mid-30s to mid-40s. Blizzard’s Found Photos recap sizes it: roughly the size of Stranglethorn Vale, built from a previously inaccessible part of the Classic world, with nearly 200 quests for both factions Confirmed Blizzard, connected to the Burning Steppes, Redridge, the Swamp of Sorrows and the Badlands, with its port at Powderfuse Port, gnoll camps, ogres, the Powderfuse goblins, the Twilight’s Hammer and the Brotherhood of the Horse.
• Zephras Isle — the Skyborne starting experience, levels 1 through 12, with architecture inspired by Skywall. The Found Photos recap tells the story: rebels who fled Eldre’Thalas after the War of the Ancients found refuge in Skywall; now their elemental benefactors have vanished, the island’s pylons are failing, and the Windshapers, the High Order and the Al’Aketh vie for control.

New ship routes make the world smaller, per the Found Photos recap: Stormwind Harbor to Auberdine; Menethil, Southshore and Auberdine on one line; and a route from the Steamwheedle Cartel in Tanaris to the Riverglades Confirmed Blizzard. The starting zones gain NPCs, quests, profession hooks and recipes; the Wetlands gains quests; Desolace’s centaur factions gain quests and rewards.

Each of the new places, the nine dungeons, the two raids and the battleground among them, has a page under New in Forever holding what Blizzard has said, until the beta fills it in.

Wowhead notes the full zone list is not yet public, so this is the highlight reel rather than the whole map. Which of the four count among “three new zones” and which are reworked has not been spelled out.

Visuals

The world gets updated lighting and visuals, and characters get a toggle between HD models and the old-school look. Game Informer’s summary lists new lighting and global illumination, volumetric particle effects, a new water renderer and real-time shadows Confirmed Game Informer. Blizzard’s recap spells out the character options: modern and Classic visual presets, High-Definition and Standard-Definition character models, restored Classic animations for the HD models, and official gamepad support Confirmed Blizzard.

Dungeons and raids

Nine new dungeons ship at launch, and Blizzard’s own recap of the What’s Next panel names all of them: the Hall of Thanes beneath Ironforge, the Ruins of Lordaeron, an excavation site above Whelgar’s Excavation, the City of Dalaran, Blackmaw Hold, the Drowned City, Krol’dok Stronghold, Alcaz Prison and the Shaper’s Terrace Confirmed Blizzard. Blizzard sketches a few of them: the Forsaken reclaiming the Ruins of Lordaeron, magical trouble in Dalaran, titan mysteries in Un’Goro, naga and pirates around the Drowned City, and corruption stirring in the depths of Blackmaw Hold. Many are aimed below 60, and dungeon quests are on the post-launch roadmap. The places two of them sit in, Ironforge and Un’Goro Crater, and the Ruins of Lordaeron in Tirisfal are in the world index; the dungeons themselves get pages when the beta opens them, next to Classic’s own, from the Deadmines to Naxxramas.

Raids unlock after launch. Blizzard’s recap gives the date: new raids unlock on December 9 Confirmed Blizzard. Barrow Deeps is planned as a maximum-level 10-player challenge and Hyjal Summit brings 20-player encounters to the mountain, with new tier sets and a legendary reward Blizzard says it will reveal in full later. The roadmap after that lists more raids, dungeons, PvP updates, world content, more quests across 1–60, Hardcore, and “a revamped iconic raid” Blizzard has not named. Wowhead describes the wider plan as new 10- and 20-player raids over the next year alongside returning old favorites. An earlier report of three raids Community Windows Central has not been borne out by the roadmap.

PvP. The Darkspear Islands is a new 15-versus-15 battleground off the coast of Kalimdor, combining strategic control points with Arathi Basin-style flag captures and defense Confirmed Blizzard. No date is attached beyond “PvP updates” on the roadmap.

Races and classes

Skyborne Elves are the new playable race, starting on Zephras Isle. A Skyborne chooses the Horde or the Alliance at character creation, and the choice sets the class list: all Skyborne can be Warriors, Hunters, Rogues or Druids; Horde-aligned Skyborne add Shaman, Alliance-aligned Skyborne add Mage Confirmed Wowhead. Skyborne Druids have their own sky-blue Bear, Cat, Travel and Moonkin forms; no Tree form was shown. Customization is described as extensive. The race and its starting experience require the Skyborne Heroic Pack or a higher edition; they are not included with a plain subscription.

Skyborne racials. The Alliance variant is the High Order, the Horde variant the Windshapers. Both have Walk on Air (a ten-second downward glide), Wind Blessed (passive 1 percent Haste) and Elemental Insight (5 percent more damage to Elementals); the High Order add Read Ley Line (100 percent increased Health and Mana regeneration), the Windshapers add Skysight (10 percent run speed) Confirmed Wowhead.

Changes to existing racials. Blizzard’s Deep Dive recap sets the shape: each race has two active and two passive abilities, reworked to be stronger and more distinct Confirmed Blizzard. Its examples: Dwarf Stoneform now reduces Physical damage taken instead of raising Armor, Find Treasure runs alongside other tracking, Mace Specialization adds crit to all spells and abilities with a mace, and Big Game Hunter adds damage against Beasts; Undead Will of the Forsaken removes Charm, Fear and Sleep but no longer grants immunity, Cannibalize restores Mana as well as Health, and Touch of the Grave gives attacks a chance to drain life. Wowhead’s earlier coverage adds Tauren Cultivation growing bonus herbs, Orc Axe Specialization raising Critical Chance, Gnome Expansive Mind raising maximum resource, and the Gnome Eureka! ability.

New race and class combinations. Blizzard’s Deep Dive recap names six: Gnome Priest, Human Hunter, Dwarf Shaman, Orc Mage, Troll Warlock, and Undead Paladin, with more planned for future updates Confirmed Blizzard. The class picker shows all nine classes with the new pairings marked, filterable by faction, role and race, and each class has a guide that holds Classic’s design as the baseline and what Blizzard has said for Forever.

Talents and combat. Talent trees keep the same number of rows, with milestone talents at 11, 21 and 31 points and a new 16-point milestone; some talents are unchanged from patch 1.12, some adjusted, and Divine Spirit, Blessing of Kings and Improved Mark of the Wild are baseline Confirmed Blizzard. Combat keeps Classic’s pace: an ordinary creature takes a solo player roughly 10 to 15 seconds, crowd control still matters in dungeons, and threat still has to be respected.

Paladins, the first class detailed. Holy Strike at level 6, Seals no longer consumed by Judgment, Consecration baseline at 20, and Seal of Fury, a Protection Seal that favors fast weapons, grants small absorbs and makes Judgment a taunt Confirmed Blizzard, plus new talents in all three trees, from Infusion of Light and Light’s Vigil for Holy to Templar’s Bulwark for Protection and Twist of Light for Retribution. Paladins still lack an interrupt and a slow. Other classes follow “through future videos and articles”. The full detail is on the Paladin guide.

Itemization. Spell, melee and ranged hit chance are combined, as are the three crit chances; weapon skill gives less per item; bonus healing includes a third as much bonus damage; new stats reduce the chance to be parried or dodged; caster weapons carry spell damage and healing Confirmed Blizzard. Every dungeon drop has been re-examined, hundreds of new drops added, unique dungeon boss items are now blue quality, set bonuses improved, and quest rewards widened, with Mor’ladim’s quest now also offering the Ladimore Heirloom Ring for casters as the recap’s example.

Systems

The Legacy system. Legacy Challenges in six categories (exploring, leveling classes, tradeskills, PvP ranks, reputations, dungeons and raids) award one Legacy point each, spent in a perk tree across Professions, Adventure and Resourcefulness Confirmed Wowhead. The perks apply to every character on the account, are mostly passive, and none affect combat power; examples from the BlizzCon demo build include faster rested experience, talent points from level 9, more reputation, less durability loss on death, and tradeskill bonuses. A separate reward track pays out cosmetics by total points, including a Replica Ironforge Air Rifle toy, a Spectral Bear Cub pet, a Spectral Bear tabard and a Spectral Bear mount. Numbers come from a demo build and may change.

Realmless rulesets. There is no realm list. Blizzard’s Deep Dive recap: players choose a ruleset, Normal (PvP by mutual consent), PvP, Roleplaying, or Hardcore after launch; each functions like its own large ecosystem, cross-ruleset grouping is not supported, and factions stay separate Confirmed Blizzard. Collections and Legacy Points are account-wide across rulesets, except that nothing flows into Hardcore. Players can set a language preference, and the PvP ruleset gets faction-balance systems like Season of Discovery’s.

Two-part names. Every character has a Full Name made of a Main Name and a Secondary Name; both are required, and whether the second shows is a settings toggle Confirmed Wowhead. Blizzard’s recap adds that names are unique per region Confirmed Blizzard, its example being “Ana Forever”.

Transmog, optional. Forever has transmogrification, and a setting decides whether you see other players’ transmogs or the base look of their gear Confirmed Wowhead, for everyone you see. The Deep Dive recap fills in the rules: a transmogrifier in certain cities configures outfits or disables the system; Classic Mode disables it automatically; a bind-on-pickup Uncommon or Rare dungeon drop grants its appearance to every eligible looter, epic raid drops only to the player it binds to; Poor and Common items grant their look on loot; plate stays plate and cloth stays cloth; high-level appearances unlock at 60 Confirmed Blizzard.

Camping. Craft a campfire in the outdoor world; other players can stop by, contribute through their professions, and share the campsite buffs Confirmed Blizzard. How long a campfire lasts, which professions count and the size of the buffs are not stated.

Camping, in detail. The Deep Dive recap: a Basic Campfire creates a campsite with vendors, repairs, profession workspaces and one-hour buffs for players who sit and get rested; up to three crafted objects from nearby players, one each, on a shared one-hour cooldown; every profession has three objects, the first at skill 20 and the advanced ones from Blueprint recipes that drop from dungeon bosses Confirmed Blizzard. Its examples: a Blacksmith’s Sharpening Wheel for Attack Power, a Tailor’s Faction Banner for Spirit, an Herbalist’s Incense Candle for Intellect, variants of class buffs that do not stack with them; Alchemy Labs, Tanning Racks, and Cooks’ upgraded Campfires for five or ten objects.

Professions. Over 600 new recipes across professions and level ranges, crafted food that can grant a small experience bonus with its stats, and Blueprint recipes from dungeon bosses Confirmed Blizzard.

Hardcore is a ruleset, available after launch, a fully enclosed ecosystem; a Hardcore character that dies can transfer to another ruleset, including PvP, and progress earned in Hardcore can become available in the others, never the reverse Confirmed Blizzard. No date beyond “after launch”.

Account-wide perks were confirmed at the announcement; the Legacy system is what they turned out to be. The Deep Dive recap gives the numbers: Legacy Points are shared across all characters and spent separately in each one’s trees; at launch each character can spend up to 16 points, up to 65 are earnable at the start, and points beyond the cap feed a Legacy Reward Track of cosmetics such as the Spectral Bear Cub Confirmed Blizzard. Its example perks: Well Rested (Adventure) raises rested experience and its cap, Bountiful Harvest (Professions) increases gathered materials, and Reagent Economy (Resourcefulness) removes reagent costs from class abilities. Forever also adopts the Burning Crusade approach to mounts: the cost moves into riding training, and learning the skill grants a mount.

Editions and what they unlock

Everything below comes from Blizzard’s pre-purchase post and the Battle.net Shop.

Edition	What it adds
Subscription or Game Time	Forever itself: the zones, dungeons, raids, quests and the new race/class combinations. No purchase needed.
Skyborne Heroic Pack	The Skyborne race and the Zephras Isle starting experience, Early Name Reservation, the Cerulean Prideclaw ground mount, the Shen’dorei Skyseer’s Garb, the Veteran Adventurer’s Rucksack, the Shen’dorei Windwell toy, Skyborne housing decor, and one Invite-A-Friend launch code. No beta access.
Skyborne Epic Pack	Everything in the Heroic Pack, plus beta access, 30 days of Game Time from launch, more cosmetics, tabards and pets, and three Invite-A-Friend launch codes in total.
Warcraft Forever Collection	Everything in the Epic Pack, plus Warcraft III: Reforged, its Forsaken Kingdom campaign, and Forsaken and Human figurine decor for housing in the current game.

Prices, the physical Collector’s Edition and a plain recommendation for each kind of player are in the edition guide.

Beta and name reservation

The beta opens Thursday, September 17, 2026 and runs through October 21 (Pacific time), through the Battle.net app. Access comes with the Skyborne Epic Pack or the Warcraft Forever Collection. We are in it from day one; guides on this site are written from what we see in the beta and marked “verified in beta” when they are. How access is delivered, the free sign-up route, and what Blizzard has not said yet are on the beta FAQ.

Early Name Reservation runs October 27 through November 3, 2026 (Pacific time). It is for paid editions, allows up to three character names per account, and is first come first served, so a wanted name is not guaranteed. We will send a reminder to the email list the morning it opens.

What we are still checking

Nothing in this section is confirmed. Each item says who reported it.

• Skyborne as a neutral race with Paladin and Shaman access, from a zone called Skyvale. Community MMO-Champion The panel contradicts most of this: the Skyborne home is Zephras Isle, they choose a faction, and their class list has Shaman or Mage, not Paladin.
• A leaked zone list: Blackrock Depths as an open zone, Dragonspine Canyon, Gilneas, Skyvale and the Nazdo Isles. Community MMO-Champion None of these names appeared in the panel coverage; the named zones are above.
• New specializations for Shaman and Warlock. Community MMO-Champion Blizzard’s Deep Dive recap describes talent trees with the same rows as Classic and says nothing about new specializations.
• A first expansion titled “Lands of Conflict”. Community MMO-Champion

When one of these is confirmed or debunked, it moves up into the right section with its tag changed and the confirming source added, and the change is logged below.