World of Warcraft: Forever Database

World of Warcraft: Forever is Blizzard's Classic+ game. It was announced at BlizzCon 2026 and it launches globally on November 4, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. PST. Blizzard does not call it a mode, a season or a new version of Classic. It calls it a new permanent home that sits beside modern WoW and Classic, built on the original level 1 to 60 world, and meant to keep growing for years.

This guide covers what Blizzard has actually said: the dates, the editions, the Skyborne race, the new zones and dungeons, the endgame, the systems, the toggles, the hardware cutoff, and what is playable in the beta right now. Where Blizzard has not answered something, you will see that said plainly instead of filled in. Every fact below links to our write-up of the Blizzard post or BlizzCon panel it came from, and the full set sits in the BlizzCon 2026 hub.

What World of Warcraft: Forever actually is

Forever is a new game client set in a reimagined original Azeroth. Blizzard's announcement places it after the events of Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom and before Molten Core, in the early Year 1 period of Azeroth, before Kazzak reopened the Dark Portal. You return to the original continents, level to 60, and keep progressing from there through new stories and updates.

The level cap stays at 60 permanently. Blizzard's own page puts progression in new content rather than new levels, and frames Forever as an Azeroth anchored in WoW's first age that keeps growing through regular content patches.

At the What's Next panel, the team described Forever as a game built on lessons from WoW Classic and Season of Discovery, looking deeper into Azeroth rather than beyond it and opening the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor regions that have sat at the edge of the map for years. Four pillars guide it: approachable and familiar, the world as the main character, the journey before the destination, and protecting social experiences.

The content philosophy has a name. At the Found Photos panel, designers Josh Greenfield and Evan Lee explained that the "found photos" idea came from Chris Metzen during early conversations about adding new stories to Season of Discovery. It means uncovering moments, places and mysteries that feel as though they may have existed all along. Forever also occupies its own time bubble, which lets the team add stories without disturbing original Azeroth's foundations.

Sorting is done in three buckets: anticipated places players have long wanted to reach, such as Mount Hyjal; new but familiar content grounded in Warcraft history, such as the Riverglades; and unexpected additions used sparingly, such as Zephras Isle.

Every date to know

These are the dates Blizzard has published. We keep the running list in our BlizzCon date round-up.

• September 17, 2026: the beta opens. Blizzard also ran a live Q&A that day, with the modern WoW segment at 10:00 a.m. PDT and the Forever segment at 10:30 a.m. PDT.
• October 20, 2026: Invite-A-Friend launch codes start arriving by email.
• October 21, 2026: the last full day of beta testing.
• October 27 to November 3, 2026: early name reservation, for up to three characters, first come first served.
• November 4, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. PST: global launch.
• November 4 to November 11, 2026: the launch-week window an Invite-A-Friend code covers.
• December 9, 2026: new raids unlock.
• January 11, 2027: the last day the limited Warcraft Forever Collection is on sale.
• December 31, 2027: the deadline to redeem a Collector's Edition code.

One date is still open. Blizzard said a Server Slam event happens during the beta but has not given the date.

Editions, pre-purchase and what a subscription covers

You do not need to buy anything to play Forever. Access is included with an active World of Warcraft subscription or Game Time. The paid editions add the Skyborne race and extras, and our breakdown of the comparison table walks through all three.

The Skyborne Heroic Pack is listed at 29.99 US dollars or 29.99 euros on the Battle.net Shop. It carries the Skyborne race and the Zephras Isle starting experience, early name reservation, the Cerulean Prideclaw ground mount (you still buy the riding skill in game), the Shen'dorei Skyseer's Garb transmog set, the Veteran Adventurer's Rucksack back transmog, the Shen'dorei Windwell toy, Skyborne housing decor for modern WoW, and one Invite-A-Friend launch code. It does not include beta access.

The Skyborne Epic Pack adds beta access, 30 days of Game Time credited when Forever launches, the Veteran Adventurer's Loyal Companion ground mount, the Veteran Adventurer's Outdoor Wear transmog set, four pets (Zergling, Panda, Diablo and Pachimari), the Lordaeron and Shen'dorei tabards, and three Invite-A-Friend codes in total. Blizzard's page does not list a price for it; the shop carries the current number.

The Warcraft Forever Collection adds Warcraft III: Reforged, the new Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom campaign, and Forsaken and Human figurine decor for modern WoW housing. It is limited and comes off sale after January 11, 2027.

Forsaken Kingdom is worth understanding even if you skip the Collection, because Forever picks up where it ends. It is a new Warcraft III campaign set around the fall of Lordaeron, the founding of the Undercity, and the first Forsaken Paladin. You can buy it on its own, in a combo with Warcraft III: Reforged, or as part of the Collection.

Read the fine print before you buy. The mounts, transmogs, toy and rucksack work in both modern WoW and Forever. The pets and tabards are Forever only. None of the items work in WoW Classic. The housing decor needs Midnight's Housing feature.

There is a physical set too. The Collector's Edition from the Blizzard Gear Store bundles a Warcraft Forever Collection digital code with a 13-inch Dwarf and Bear statue from the original World of Warcraft cinematic, a Zephras Isle mousepad, art prints, collectible pins and a companion journal. The beta code inside is one redemption per WoW account and cannot be redeemed on an account that already has beta access. Players in Australia and New Zealand can pre-purchase through participating regional retailers. EU shipping had a rough start: Blizzard later set a standard 45 euro rate for affected countries when there is only one Collector's Edition in the cart.

One thing worth knowing before you plan a main: the Skyborne race sits behind the Heroic Pack or higher. That makes it the first time a race has been paywalled outside a new expansion release.

The Skyborne and Zephras Isle

The Skyborne are a new race of windswept elves, also called the shen'dorei, or the hidden people. Their history starts with rebels who fled Eldre'Thalas after the War of the Ancients and found refuge in Skywall, where wind spirits anchored their island home in the elemental plane.

When you meet them, they are in crisis. Their elemental benefactors have vanished, the pylons holding Zephras Isle together are failing, and parts of the island are falling into ruin and darkness. Several groups are competing for control: the Windshapers, the High Order and the Al'Aketh. Blizzard describes Zephras Isle as a surprising but self-contained experience, added with care and restraint.

Zephras Isle is a level 1 to 12 starting experience with an elemental theme, blending Classic aesthetics with architecture inspired by Skywall. Skyborne pick a faction from the start: the Windshaper path leads to the Horde, the High Order path to the Alliance.

Class access splits along that line. Horde-aligned Skyborne follow elemental traditions and gain Shaman. Alliance-aligned Skyborne pursue an arcane legacy and gain Mage. Both sides can play Warrior, Hunter, Rogue and Druid, with new druid forms, racials, customizations, voices and dances.

A small spelling note: on stage Blizzard spelled the name Skyborn, and the official page uses Skyborne throughout. This site follows the official page.

Forsaken Paladins, Dwarf Shamans and the class pass

Forever adds two race and class combinations to the base game. The Forsaken Paladin and the Dwarf Shaman both break rules that held in original World of Warcraft, where Paladins were Alliance only and Shamans Horde only. Unlike the Skyborne, these two are not tied to a paid pack.

Forsaken Paladins have a story of their own, grown out of the Forsaken Kingdom campaign. They begin at Bandarion Keep in the Whispering Wood of Tirisfal Glades, mistrusted by other Forsaken and still learning what it means to channel the Light in undeath. At level 60 they get their own epic mount quest. Alliance paladins claim their charger in the name of Redemption; the Forsaken ride in the name of Retribution.

Blizzard's page states that every class and specialization is getting a revamp. The What's Next panel gave the first concrete examples: Paladins gain a tanking seal, group healing and a Retribution suite, talents drop small percentage nodes in favor of choices you actually notice, hundreds of new items arrive with on-use effects, existing items get stronger, and racials are updated.

The stated goal is to fill gaps without erasing what makes each class unique, with meaningful trade-offs and reasons to value every class in a group. Blizzard has not published the full class-by-class change list.

The new zones

Three new zones were named on Blizzard's official Forever page: Zephras Isle, the Riverglades and Mount Hyjal. A fourth, Shen'dralas, was added at the panels.

The Riverglades is a mid-level Eastern Kingdoms zone, a frontier of rivers, grasslands and trade routes that shifts from lush hillsides to the ruined keeps of old. It sits against the Burning Steppes, Redridge Mountains, the Swamp of Sorrows and the Badlands, but was out of reach in the original world. Its port is Powderfuse Port. Gnoll camps continue nearby conflicts, ogres create tension, and the Powderfuse goblins, the Twilight's Hammer and the Brotherhood of the Horse tie the area back to Warcraft history. Blizzard gave two different quest counts on two different stages: the What's Next panel said more than 150 new quests across the mid-30s to mid-40s, and the Found Photos panel called it roughly the size of Stranglethorn Vale with nearly 200 quests for both factions.

Mount Hyjal was closed off in original WoW. In Forever it is an endgame leveling zone set after Archimonde's defeat, explored through Darkwhisper Gorge, with solo and group content, new reputations and rewards, the Hyjal Summit launch raid, and one of the three entrances to the Barrow Deeps. The reveal cinematic showed Archimonde's bones on the mountain.

Shen'dralas sits between Mulgore and Desolace, reached south of Desolace through the Valley of Bones. It ties into the Shen'dralar, Eldre'Thalas, Dire Maul and the region's centaur tribes.

Existing zones get attention too. More than 1,000 new quests are woven through the level 1 to 60 journey. Wetlands gains quests built on existing characters and threads. Desolace's centaur faction quests get more content and faction rewards. Starting areas such as the Valley of Trials and Shadowglen gain NPCs, quests, profession hooks, recipes and small moments alongside the original experience.

Travel changes as well. New ship routes run from Stormwind Harbor to Auberdine, giving an early path between the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor; Menethil, Southshore and Auberdine form another route; and a Steamwheedle Cartel route from Tanaris reaches Powderfuse Port in the Riverglades. The cinematic also showed Dalaran without the dome that hid it in vanilla.

Nine new dungeons

Forever launches with nine new dungeons. The full list from the What's Next recap is 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.

Level ranges came from the panel as well. Our dungeon write-up has the low and mid bracket: the Dalaran city dungeon covers levels 20 to 35, the Ruins of Lordaeron is the Horde low-level dungeon at 15 to 20, the Hall of Thanes is the Alliance equivalent at 13 to 18, the excavation site is an Explorers' League dig in the Wetlands, and The Drowned City is a troll ruin off Stranglethorn Vale.

The upper bracket is the level 40 to 60 group: Alcaz Island Prison, The Shaper's Terrace and Krol'Dok Stronghold, plus the furbolg city of Blackmaw Hold.

The stories behind them run from the Forsaken reclaiming the Ruins of Lordaeron, to magical trouble in Dalaran, titan mysteries in Un'Goro, naga and pirates around the Drowned City, and corruption in Blackmaw Hold.

Raids, the endgame and the roadmap

Two raids ship with the game. The Barrow Deeps is planned as a maximum-level 10-player challenge with three entrances. Hyjal Summit brings 20-player encounters to one of Warcraft's most important locations. Between them they carry raid encounters, new tier sets and a legendary reward Blizzard says it will reveal in full later.

Raids in Forever support 10 and 20 players. New raids unlock on December 9, 2026, and the roadmap places the 20-player Hyjal Summit alongside the 40-player Onyxia's Lair, shipping new dungeons, raids, world content and PvP season refreshes in sequence with the original game. Riding, PvP and gamepad updates and a new legendary were on that roadmap too, and Blizzard did not rule out new classes.

After launch the list continues with more raids, more dungeons, PvP updates, world content, additional quests, Hardcore, and a revamped iconic raid. Blizzard has not said which raid that is.

The Darkspear Islands: a 15 versus 15 battleground

Forever's new battleground sits in the Darkspear Islands off Kalimdor's coast. It is a strategic 15 versus 15 map. Blizzard compared its flow to Eye of the Storm and built it around strategic control points with Arathi Basin-style flag captures and defense.

It arrives alongside the original battlegrounds rather than replacing them, and PvP updates, dungeon quests and new rewards continue after launch. Honor is getting changes as well, though Blizzard has not detailed the mechanics. For faction balance, the team said it will use systems similar to the approach introduced in Season of Discovery.

The design rules

Lead Classic Designer Tim Jones set out the rules that constrain everything else. There are no flying mounts and no level scaling. The world stays dangerous, measured against the spirit of Classic. Levelling matters as much as endgame. Effort keeps mattering, and the team framed Forever as a long term home where work you put in is never invalidated.

The panel added one more line that explains a lot of the other decisions: the team is being deliberately careful about convenience, because quality-of-life choices change how players meet and gather. Rewards are meant to come from playing the game.

That is the filter. When you wonder why something obvious from a later expansion is absent, this is usually the reason.

The September 17 developer Q&A put more of these rules in plain words: no GDKP, a single difficulty with no heroic mode, no cross-faction play and no rated PvP. What the developers said in that Q&A has each answer with the speaker and the stream time.

Legacy, Camping and professions

Three systems were detailed at the Deep Dive panel, and our recap covers all of them. The idea underneath all three is what Blizzard calls serendipitous interactions: the chance encounter that turns another player, first met as competition over an herb node, a mining node or an enemy tag, into someone worth stopping for.

The Legacy system is account-wide. You earn Legacy Points by completing Legacy Challenges across categories such as leveling a specific class or reaching a skill milestone, then spend them in Legacy Trees. Three trees exist at the start: Professions, Adventure and Resourcefulness. The Adventure tree holds Well Rested, which increases rested experience gains and raises the rested cap. Professions holds Bountiful Harvest, which increases materials gathered from mining, herbalism and skinning. Deeper in Resourcefulness, Reagent Economy can remove reagent requirements from class abilities.

Points are shared across all your alts, but each character spends its own. At launch a character can spend up to 16 points while up to 65 can be earned, a cap meant to stop the pressure to do everything at once. Extra accomplishments feed the Legacy Reward Track, which hands out cosmetic and prestige rewards such as the Spectral Bear Cub, with no competitive advantage attached. Forever also adopts the Burning Crusade approach to mount cost, shifting the up-front price into training and granting a mount when you learn the riding skill.

Camping turns the Cooking Fire into a Basic Campfire. Placing one creates a campsite where players rest and reach vendors, repairs, profession workspaces and one-hour buffs. Earning those buffs means actually sitting by the fire for a few moments. A Basic Campfire holds up to three special crafted objects, one contributed per player, on a one-hour cooldown. Every profession has three objects learned at different skill levels: Blacksmiths place a Sharpening Wheel for Attack Power, Tailors a Faction Banner for Spirit, Herbalists an Incense Candle for Intellect. Those effects are variants of class buffs and do not stack with them. Alchemists place an Alchemy Lab, Leatherworkers a Tanning Rack that advanced Leatherworking recipes require, and Cooks place upgraded Campfires that allow five or 10 objects at a camp. First objects come at profession skill level 20 from special NPCs or trainers; advanced objects come from Blueprint recipes dropped by specific dungeon bosses. Campsite placement matters, because some parts of Azeroth suit a quiet rest better than others.

Professions gain more than 600 new recipes across professions and level ranges. Crafted food has been adjusted to grant a small experience bonus along with stat boosts, and food buffs got a major update. Campsites are a natural place to refresh them.

Rulesets instead of realms

Forever is realmless. Instead of picking a realm before you create a character, you pick a ruleset that matches how you want to play. Each ruleset works like its own large ecosystem rather than a single traditional realm.

• Normal: the baseline experience with a cooperation focus, where PvP requires mutual consent.
• PvP: contested territory carries more danger, excitement and world conflict.
• Roleplaying: for players leaning deeper into the fantasy of Azeroth.
• Hardcore: available after launch, where death carries lasting consequences.

Cross-ruleset grouping is not supported, and factions remain separate, so Horde and Alliance still cannot group. Hardcore is a fully enclosed ecosystem with one exception: a Hardcore character that dies can transfer to another ruleset, including PvP. Collections and Legacy Points stay account-wide across rulesets, and Hardcore progress, collections and rewards can move out to other rulesets, but nothing ever flows back into Hardcore.

Names work differently too. Characters use two-part names, like a first name and a last name, unique per region, which opens up a lot of room for original names. You can also set a language preference and meet others who share it.

The Q&A added two details here. The second name is mandatory, and Oceanic players are hosted on Australian data centers while sharing the same-ruleset auction house with US players. Both are in the developer Q&A notes.

Blizzard's stated reason for the whole structure is to remove the pressure of picking the right realm before launch and to cut the tradeoff between long queues and lasting communities. The goal is larger populations without losing the sense that you keep running into familiar names while leveling.

Toggles: transmog, models and graphics

Transmog in Forever is opt-in. Blizzard acknowledged that transmog was not part of the original game and that outlandish outfits can affect immersion, so the system is built for both camps. You visit a transmogrifier in certain cities to configure outfits or to disable the system entirely. Opting out means you see everyone else in their equipped gear only. If you choose Classic Mode the first time you launch the game, transmog is disabled automatically. Even with it off, you keep collecting appearances from new gear in case you turn it on later.

The rules around appearances are shaped to stop loot drama. A bind-on-pickup Uncommon or Rare dungeon drop grants its appearance to every eligible looter when it is looted, so a player who needs the upgrade is not rolling against collectors. Epic raid drops grant the appearance only to the player the item binds to. Poor and Common quality items grant their appearance the moment they are looted, no binding needed. Item-type rules apply, so plate transmogs to plate and cloth to cloth: a Paladin wearing a cloth chest needs another cloth chest appearance. Low-level characters cannot use high-level appearances until level 60, when level restrictions come off valid appearances. Cosmetic-only items are an exception, and Blizzard says they will be rare.

Visuals are a toggle as well. You can switch between the original SD look and the updated HD graphics, and character models are fully switchable between High-Definition and Standard-Definition, with Classic animations restored for the HD models. Modern and Classic visual presets are both available. The original art style is preserved while rendering updates add flowing rivers in Elwynn Forest, mist over Darkshore and moonlight in Ashenvale. Official gamepad support is included.

What your PC needs

Forever drops support for older graphics architectures. Blizzard's GPU post sets the floor at AMD Graphics Core Next 1 from 2012, NVIDIA Maxwell from 2014, or Intel Skylake from 2015. Anything on an older microarchitecture will not run the game, and Blizzard says the vast majority of players are already on compatible hardware.

Example cards Blizzard listed as compatible: the AMD Radeon HD 7850 from 2012, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 9xx and the GTX 750 and 750 Ti from 2014, and Intel HD Graphics 530 from 2015. Blizzard notes those are still well below the game's minimum requirements, so compatible is not the same as comfortable. Example cards listed as unsupported: the AMD Radeon HD 6950 from 2010, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760, 770 and 780 and the GTX 8xxM from 2014, and Intel HD Graphics 6000 from 2015.

To check what you have on Windows, open Settings, select System, then Display, and choose Advanced display; or open Device Manager and expand Display adapters. The full minimum system requirements sit on the Battle.net Shop.

The reason for the cutoff is a single feature. Forever's new visual look relies on RGBA16F UAV support in compute shaders, introduced to GPUs around 2012.

The beta, and what is in it

The beta opened on September 17, 2026 and runs through October 21, which Blizzard calls the last full day of testing. The level cap starts at 20 and rises to 30 later in the test. Week one opened with the Skyborne race, Zephras Isle, and two dungeons: the Hall of Thanes for levels 13 to 18 and the Ruins of Lordaeron for levels 15 to 20. All zone content through level 20 is available.

There are two ways in. Signing up on Blizzard's Forever page enters your account for selection-based invitations, which arrive by email; Blizzard's own wording is opt in for a chance, so it is a lottery rather than a guarantee. Buying the Skyborne Epic Pack or the Warcraft Forever Collection includes access outright. The Skyborne Heroic Pack does not. Blizzard has also said it will invite community veterans, press, fansites, friends and family over the course of the test.

To get in once you have access: update your graphics drivers, update the Battle.net desktop app, pick WoW: Forever Beta under the In Development game versions, install it, and create a new test character.

Expect rough edges. Blizzard's first known issues list for September 17 covered Waylaid Crates, Paladin and Priest talents, Warlock pet displays, guild charters and a barber chair Lua error, with eight entries already marked fixed in the next beta build. Treat anything you see in the beta as provisional, including numbers.

Using the Forever database on this site

Our Forever data is read out of the beta client itself, wow_classic_beta build 1.60.1. That means what you see here is what the beta currently contains, and it also means the data moves whenever Blizzard ships a new beta build, so a value you read today can change before launch.

Start at the WoW Forever hub, which is the front door for everything below.

• Items for gear, stats, requirements and sources as the beta client defines them. Blizzard has said hundreds of new items are coming with on-use effects and that existing items are getting stronger, so this is the family that will churn most between now and November.
• Spells for ability data pulled from the same build.
• Talents for the trees. Blizzard has said talents are being reworked to drop small percentage nodes in favor of choices you notice, and the class-by-class list is not published, so treat every tree here as a snapshot of the current beta build rather than a final layout.
• Zones for the map data, including the new areas as they land in the client.
• Objects for world objects.
• Auction House for prices. These come from player-provided scans uploaded from the beta, so coverage depends on what players have scanned and when. Read them as a sample from the test, not as a settled economy.
• Patches for build tracking. Related: on the day of the announcement, a product code called wow_classic_titan appeared on Blizzard's public version service carrying version string 3.80.2.69815 and a single region row. Blizzard has not named the product, and nothing in the record says what it is.
• News for ongoing Forever coverage, and BlizzCon 2026 for the full set of announcement articles this guide draws from.

If you want the original game preserved rather than expanded, that is a different product: Classic Era is the frozen version, and Forever is the one that keeps changing. Blizzard's framing is that Forever is not a season or a mode, but a promise to keep building the world with the community.