Forever stress test opens to everyone on October 21

Wowhead spotted a new game mode in the Battle.net launcher: “WoW: Forever - Stress Test.” Selecting it lets you download the client, and the launcher marks it as becoming available on October 19. Wowhead said it appeared a stress test was coming.

Blizzard announced it two days later, for October 19. On October 16 it moved the test back to October 21: the stress test now opens at 2:00 p.m. PDT in the Americas and Oceania and 19:00 CEST in Europe, with Taipei joining at 5:00 a.m. and Korea at 6:00 a.m. on October 22. Anyone with a WoW account can take part, without a subscription, an invitation or a place in the beta. You install it from the Game Version menu in the Battle.net app, under In Development.

Kaivax wrote that the test runs on the regional hardware Forever will use at launch, and asked players to quest, trade, chat and group up to load the servers. The beta goes offline for it and returns afterwards, and the window may end early or run late. When it closes, every character, name and guild made in it is deleted, ahead of name reservations opening on October 27.

On October 20 Kaivax gave the end times too: the test runs four hours, 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. PDT (5:00 to 9:00 p.m. EDT, 19:00 to 03:00 CEST), and in Oceania on October 22 from 8:00 a.m. to noon AEDT. On the day, he posted that the beta was going offline at about 9:30 a.m. PDT, and that the Stress Test choice appears under the Game Version selector on the WoW Forever play screen. The beta itself now closes on October 23.

Why it matters: any account holder can play Forever before launch, beta or no beta, but nothing you make that day carries over.