Where Forever sits in the Warcraft timeline

Senior Game Designer Michael Nuthals and Principal Game Designer Kris Zierhut told Sportskeeda that World of Warcraft: Forever is set a couple of years after Warcraft III, on an adjacent timeline that diverges from World of Warcraft’s own history on WoW’s original day-one launch in November 2004.

Asked about Forsaken Paladins, a combination Classic’s “no changes” philosophy would have ruled out, the pair pointed to Season of Discovery: giving Shaman and Paladin to only one faction each caused more problems than letting both factions have both classes. On leveling design, they said the team looked for stretches of Azeroth without much to do, calling out a number of level 30–50 zones, and that Forever will keep adding new dungeons, zones and leveling paths over time rather than stopping at level 60 content. They also said Forever avoids content that becomes permanently unobtainable, unlike Classic’s original Naxxramas.

Why it matters: the diverging-timeline framing gives a concrete answer to how Forever’s history relates to WoW’s, and the leveling and content comments suggest zones between 30 and 50 get particular attention.