What changes in WoW Forever compared with Classic

When the story takes place

WoW Forever is set early in “Year 1”, before Kazzak reopens the Dark Portal, and lives in its own timeline. It comes after Warcraft III Reforged's Forsaken Kingdom campaign and before Molten Core.

In practice you return to the original continents and level to 60, but with new stories in almost every zone and a race that didn't exist: the Skyborne.

No realms: rulesets

You no longer pick a realm. You pick a ruleset: Normal, PvP, Roleplaying or Hardcore (Hardcore only after launch). On Normal, player combat needs both sides to agree.

You can't group with players on another ruleset, and Horde and Alliance still can't group. Names have two parts and are unique per region, and you can set a language preference.

Hardcore is enclosed: a character who dies there can move to another ruleset, including PvP, but nothing from the other rulesets flows into Hardcore. Collections and Legacy points are account-wide, except on Hardcore.

World, quests and dungeons

There are over a thousand new quests from 1 to 60. New or reworked zones include Zephras Isle (the Skyborne starting zone, 1 to 12), the Riverglades (a zone the size of Stranglethorn Vale, roughly 36 to 44), Shen'dralas (south of Desolace), Mount Hyjal and Darkwhisper Gorge. The Wetlands and Desolace got new quests too.

There are new ship routes: Stormwind Harbor to Auberdine, between Menethil, Southshore and Auberdine, and from Tanaris to the Riverglades.

There are nine new 5-player dungeons from level 13 to 60, from the Hall of Thanes to Shaper's Terrace. There is no level scaling and there are no flying mounts. Our leveling guide shows the order by level.

Raids and PvP

The new raids open on December 9: Hyjal Summit, for 20 players, and Barrow Deeps, a max-level challenge for 10. Both bring new tier sets, and a legendary reward is still to be revealed. A revamped classic raid is planned for later.

The new battleground is Darkspear Islands, 15 vs 15, off the coast of Kalimdor: it combines control points with Arathi Basin-style flag capture and defense. Marks of Honor now stack to 30.

Classes and talents

Talent trees keep Classic's rows, with milestones at 11, 16, 21 and 31 points; 16 is new. Most talents were rewritten to offer noticeable choices. Divine Spirit, Blessing of Kings and Improved Mark of the Wild are now baseline.

The Paladin changed the most: Holy Strike at level 6, baseline Consecration at 20, Holy Shock on a 10-second cooldown, and Judgment no longer consumes the Seal. It still has no interrupt and no slow.

There are six new race and class combinations: Gnome Priest, Human Hunter, Dwarf Shaman, Orc Mage, Troll Warlock and Undead Paladin, which has its own story starting at Bandarion Keep and ending with an epic mount quest at 60.

Races

Every race now has two active and two passive abilities, and the old weapon skill racials are gone. A few examples: the Dwarf's Stoneform reduces physical damage instead of granting armor, the Undead's Cannibalize also restores mana, and Will of the Forsaken no longer grants immunity to Fear.

The Skyborne pick their faction at character creation: the High Order (Alliance) can be Mages, the Windshapers (Horde) can be Shamans, and both versions can be Warriors, Hunters, Rogues and Druids. The final numbers for every racial are in our race guide.

Combat and items

Playing solo, an ordinary monster takes about 10 to 15 seconds to kill. Spell, melee and ranged hit chance are now one stat, and the same goes for critical strike. Bonus healing includes one third of bonus damage.

Unique dungeon boss items are now blue. There are new rewards on old quests (for example Mor'ladim's in Duskwood and Hemet Nesingwary's in Stranglethorn Vale) and items with effects tied to environments or creature types.

Wands and Auto Shot require standing still for half a second before firing, and wands no longer scale with spell damage.

Campsites, professions and Legacy

The cooking fire is now the Basic Campfire, which sets up a campsite with vendors, repairs, profession workspaces and one-hour buffs for rested players. Each player can place one object from their profession there. Professions gained over 600 new recipes, and crafted food gives a small experience bonus.

Legacy gives points for challenges, shared across the account and spent per character (up to 16 at launch), in three trees: professions, adventure and resourcefulness. The details are in the professions and leveling guides.

Transmog, visuals and interface

Transmog is optional and set at transmogrifiers in some cities; Classic Mode turns it off. Uncommon and rare bind-on-pickup dungeon items grant the appearance to everyone eligible to loot them; raid epics only to the player who keeps them. Low-level characters can only use high-level appearances from level 60.

You can choose HD or SD models, modern or classic visual presets, and Classic animations restored on HD models. There is official gamepad support. Mounts work like in The Burning Crusade: the cost is in the training and you get the mount when you learn to ride.