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One of the many new features coming to World of Warcraft: Forever is Camping. With this feature, players of all professions can craft items to place at campsites (a player-summoned campfire), and those who sit around the campfire for 1 minute will receive the associated buffs.

Camping Overview Guide

The buffs players will receive include the following:

ProfessionTier 1 Perk / BuffTier 2 Perk / BuffTier 3 Perk / Buff

AlchemyMana Well:Mana regenerationFermenter:Create certain reagentsMana regenerationAlchemy Laboratory:Enables crafting recipes requiring an Alchemy LabMana regeneration

BlacksmithingSharpening Wheel:Increased StrengthAnvil:Usable AnvilIncreased StrengthMaster Forge:Enables crafting recipes requiring a ForgeIncreased Strength

EnchantingEnchanted Lute:Increased ArmorIncreased All StatsIncreased ResistancesArcane Salvager:More efficient DisenchantingIncreased ArmorIncreased All StatsIncreased ResistancesArcane Forge:Enables crafting recipes requiring an Arcane ForgeIncreased ArmorIncreased All StatsIncreased Resistances

EngineeringReagent Bot:Purchase reagentsRepair Bot:Purchase reagentsRepair gearAnarchist's Workbench:Enables recipes requiring an Anarchist's Workbench

HerbalismIncense Candle:Increased IntellectGreenhouse:Grow herbs over time from planted seedsIncreased IntellectSeed Hybridizer:Multiply or combine seeds into rarer tiersIncreased Intellect

LeatherworkingCamp Tent:Rested XP up to 5% of a levelTanning Rack:Create certain reagentsCamp Tent Rested XP benefitSewing Machine:Enables recipes requiring itCamp Tent Rested XP benefit

MiningLodestone:Increased melee Attack PowerRock Garden:Spawns a common mining node over timeIncreased melee Attack PowerMolten Foundry:Enables recipes requiring itIncreased melee Attack Power

SkinningCamp Chair:2% Critical StrikeField Guide:Grants Track Beasts2% Critical StrikeTrapper's Workbench:Contains 1 trap2% Critical Strike

TailoringFaction Banner:Increased SpiritSpinning Wheel:Create certain reagentsIncreased SpiritLoom:Enables recipes requiring itIncreased Spirit

CookingBasic Campfire Kit:Allows CookingUp to 3 additional camp featuresJourneyman Campfire Kit:Allows CookingUp to 5 additional camp features

Cookie's Feast:Stamina-boosting foodExpert Campfire Kit:Allows CookingUp to 10 additional camp features

First AidFirst Aid Kit:StaminaToxin Study:Healing Potions and antivenomPlague Doctor's Laboratory:Healing Potions and poultices

FishingFish Bowl:8% increased statsFishing Rack:Catch uncommon fish for 1 hourFishing Skill lures8% statsFishing Hut:Catch rare fish for 1 hourFishing Skill lures8% stats

To unlock these perks, you must complete a quest early in your adventures called The Great Outdoors. After you complete it and continue your questing, you'll notice a buff on your buff bar called Campfire Nearby. When you notice this, you can scan the area for a campsite, sit down at it, and get the buffs. You don't need to be in a party with the person who placed the campsite or any of the buffs; simply walk over and type "/sit" and hang out for a minute.

Players have been delighted to discover that the Cozy Sleeping Bag Quest Chain (originally from Season of Discovery) is now available in Forever.

Thank you to Brubby from The WoW Secret Finding Discord for confirming this and providing screenshots. If you think Secret Finding is for you, you can join the Discord at the link below:

Wow Secret Finding Discord

The Cozy Sleeping Bag is an item (with a 1-hour cooldown) that enables you to get cozy anywhere. You can put down your Sleeping Bag and have a quick lie-down to gain a 1% experience buff every minute, up to a maximum of 3% buff. You'll need to take a nap after all the running you need to do to get it!

While 3% experience may not sound like much on its own, if you combine this with other buffs (such as the 5% experience buff available from cooking), it can quickly add up.

As a reward for time spent on the trail, you will also receive 5x Student Fodder (which in Season of Discovery gave 20% of a level of rested experience) and a 12-slot bag from Stepping Stones.

Cozy Sleeping Bag Guide

Our guide walks you through all the steps to claim your own Cozy Sleeping Bag, but if you would rather explore for yourself, you can find the starting points for both Horde and Alliance below. Be warned, though: it has been reported that, at present, the quests are visibly marked in-game. We are unsure if this is intended, and so if you would rather complete this blind, you may prefer to hold off until launch.

Where to start the Cozy Sleeping Bag Quest Chain in WoW: Forever

If you are level 14 or above, you can complete this quest now on the beta. The start points for both Horde and Alliance are below:

LocationWestfall, Alexston Farmstead/way 37 50Burned-Out Remains in the Rubble of Cart Wreckage

Burned-out Remains

LocationThe Barrens, South of Camp Taurajo/way 46 74Burned-Out Remains in the Rubble of the Burnt Tower

Burned-out Remains

Players have discovered a cosmetic-only item in WoW: Forever, similar to how Retail handles cosmetic appearances.

WoW: Forever will include an opt-in transmog system for those who want to use it. Players who want to see transmogs on themselves and others can opt in, while players who want to see the exact models of gear that players have equipped can keep the setting toggled off.

Now that the WoW: Forever beta is live, "Gloky" has submitted a screenshot to Wowhead of a transmog-only item on the Gadgetzan reputation vendor. Stolen Wastewander Cowl is sold at Revered reputation for .

This cosmetic-only item is new to Forever with the transmog system, but players who have experienced Retail will be familiar with the concept. If you're playing with Transmog off, then there's no need to buy this other than for collections. It's currently unknown if there are other items similar to this, or if this is an oversight that might be changed before official launch.

Stolen Wastewander Cowl

Blizzard has posted hotfixes which includes a nerf to Ula’tek on all difficulties.

HotfixesSeptember 21, 2026

Classes

Evoker

Fixed an issue preventing Unravel from activating when Fire Breath was cast with Tip the Scales.

Fixed an issue where Unravel may not hit all targets struck by Fire Breath.

Dungeons and Raids

Fixed an issue where following Lindormi’s Guidance in Den of Nalorakk and Altar of Fangs would lead to ending the dungeon short of the enemy forces requirement.

The Venomous Abyss

The Coiled Altar

Fixed a rare issue where Toxic Deluge would fail to create Coalesced Venoms and Virulent Mutations.

Fixed a rare issue where Fangs of the Crucible and Defilement of the Crucible would not create area denial on both halves of the platform.

Resolved an issue where pets could engage Zul’jan during the roleplay.

Ula’tek

Ula’tek’s Stone Venom damage reduced by 40% on all difficulties.

Boiling Venom on Mythic difficulty is now an Important Aura.

Fixed an issue where Stone Venom could fail to inflict damage to players far from Ula’tek.

Forever changes many things about Classic, including the EXP curve required to level up! EXP requirements are a hot-button topic for a lot of Classic players, and while Blizzard has tuned experience gains from Dungeon Quests, the actual amount of experience needed to level has also changed significantly according to our datamining.

Smooth and GradualEra and SoD servers had a very specific leveling path that players were very familiar with. Now, though, it looks like Forever is making changes to adjust that curve. The main takeaway from the data is that the new experience curve is a gradual climb up to 60, rather than a series of spikes.

In Classic, there were two spikes in experience required: going from level 39 to 40, and from 59 to 60. These levels match up with learning mounts and hitting max level, and traditionally had much higher experience requirements than similar levels. We've previously noted that the profile of dungeon experience was changing (from mob-heavy to quest-heavy), and these experience changes dovetail with an overall reduction in the amount of experience needed to reach level 60.

LevelBeforeAfter% Difference

638003600-5.26%

750004500-10.00%

864005400-15.62%

981006500-19.75%

1092407600-17.75%

11107808800-18.37%

121322510100-23.63%

131680011400-32.14%

142037512900-36.69%

152444014400-41.08%

162808016000-43.02%

173150017700-43.81%

183480019400-44.25%

193855021300-44.75%

204231523200-45.17%

214656025200-45.88%

224944027300-44.78%

235200029400-43.46%

245504031700-42.41%

255840034000-41.78%

266112036400-40.45%

276416038900-39.37%

286688041400-38.10%

297168044300-38.20%

307616047400-37.76%

318144050800-37.62%

328560054500-36.33%

339024058600-35.06%

349456062800-33.59%

359920067100-32.36%

3610416071600-31.26%

3710848076100-29.85%

3811328080800-28.67%

3911792085700-27.32%

4013398090700-32.30%

4113930095800-31.23%

42144620101000-30.16%

43149800106300-29.04%

44155120111800-27.93%

45160580117500-26.83%

46165900123200-25.74%

47171360129100-24.66%

48176820135100-23.59%

49182280141200-22.54%

50188020147500-21.55%

51193620153900-20.51%

52199360160400-19.54%

53205100167100-18.53%

54210700173900-17.47%

55216580180800-16.52%

56222460187900-15.54%

57228480195000-14.65%

58234220202300-13.63%

59240380209800-12.72%

60254000217400-14.41%

In Forever, the spikes in required experience no longer exist; instead, it follows a gradual quadratic climb per level. Overall experience has also dropped significantly, with the biggest reductions between levels 15 and 30, where the total reduction averages over 40%. This reduction eases in higher levels, but the 30 to 45 level bracket still sees a reduction of over 30%. Overall, experience required from 1 to 60 has dropped by a staggering 26%. Levels 1 through 5 are unchanged.

The Future of LevelingLeveling in Forever and other versions of Classic is a big part of the game, and these changes significantly speed up many areas that have been both iconic and painful. Players might remember quests around level 35 not being very centralized anymore and requiring a lot of running around, or levels 50-60 being a long stretch to the end of their journey. These changes ease those pain points significantly and directly incentivize replayability.

By leveling faster, players simply won't have the time to explore and quest through as many zones as one might expect. Those zones, however, could be played through on a second or third character. For players looking to speed through the leveling process, the combined change to experience requirements and dungeon quests should also make leveling significantly smoother.

That said, given that players will be capped at level 60 forever in Forever, some players may be concerned that the leveling process is too fast. Many players have noticed that leaving a starting zone now gets them close to level 12 in many situations, whereas before, in SoD or Era realms, a character would be slightly underleveled heading into the next zone. While the beta only allows players to level to 20, it's also a possibility that experience is tuned higher to allow greater accessibility during testing in a limited timeframe.

With the realm-less feature and the inclusion of first and last names for characters, players have noticed many issues with mail routing in the Forever beta. A few days into the beta, players started noticing that mail they sent to alts and friends mysteriously disappeared, and the community has found the answer:

Mail currently on the Forever Beta is going to the earliest created character with a matching first name.

Where's the Mail, BlizzardPlayers first started seeing issues very early, with reddit users like LordHarpocrates first noting oddities, such as Horde players getting mail from the Stormwind auction house, but it quickly blossomed and became a widespread issue as more and more players started sending mail to each other and buying things from the auction house.

Image courtesy of LordHarpocrates's Reddit Post

The issue lies with how Forever character names work. Having a first and last name with no server tag means that first names are no longer unique identifiers. In other versions of World of Warcraft, names are unique to a server, so routing mail to a certain name poses no problems. Forever being both realm-less and having two names seems to have broken this age-old mail routing. Instead, players now get mail based on their first name, regardless of whether that's the correct character. Reddit user Mattastrophe tested the issue and even deleted a character. In doing so, they found that all mail they sent went to their warrior (their first created character); once they deleted the warrior, their mage got the mail instead (their second created character).

This creates a massive headache for both alts and the auction house, especially if you made your character a few days into the beta, or perhaps over the weekend. The best advice right now for those who are concerned and unsure is to avoid any feature that uses mail until Blizzard fixes it.

Brewfest is now live on the Burning Crusade Anniversary Servers. With this event comes a handful of fun events, encounters, and minigames that players can participate in, including getting new Best-in-Slot trinkets for all classes/specs!

Brewfest TBC Holiday Guide

Brewfest in TBC Anniversary

From fun minigames, collector pets, Brewfest-themed outfits, to new gear upgrades, there are plenty of activities for players to participate in this year on TBC Anniversary servers.

Seasonal Boss: Coren Direbrew

It's time to track down the source of the Dark Iron attacks and end them once and for all. Players will follow a trail of evidence that leads to Blackrock Depths, where they can do battle with the mastermind behind the attacks - Coren Direbrew. He drops special rewards including epic weapons, trinkets, and rare mounts.

Ceremonial Keg Tapping

Join the Draenor-famous Frostwolf brewery Warband Ales for a special toast during Brewfest at 6 a.m. or 6 p.m. server time. Alliance players can do the same with the Thunderbrew and Barleybrew breweries.

Daily Quests

Complete special daily quests to obtain experience, gold, and Brewfest Prize Tokens to purchase holiday items.

Sample Fine Food and Brew

Stumble your way through the grounds while trying specialty food and brew from all over Azeroth and Draenor.

Upgraded Trinkets

This year's Brewfest on TBC Anniversary includes incredibly strong Item-level 141 trinkets, compared to their original Item-level 110 versions. For example, compared to the old one, the Empty Mug of Direbrew sees a +26 Attack Power upgrade along with a near +100 Attack Power on-use upgrade!

World of Warcraft Forever has updated its character panel for players. One of the biggest changes, especially for new players, is the new descriptions given under each stat and how they all work.

New Character Panel in WoW Forever

World of Warcraft: Forever's UI has been updated to really assist players, especially newer ones, with what their stat priority is. Previous versions of WoW, pre-Cataclysm, often gave a very vague description of what the stats were and how they worked. In WoW Forever, players can hover over each stat to get a very descriptive definition of what it is, what it does, and how it benefits your character.

It also answers questions that players frequently ask, such as "Can DoTs critically strike?", along with "What even is a Critical Strike to begin with?" When players obtain any sort of Hit Chance, it also tells them how much is needed for specific level types. Remember that in WoW Forever, Hit and Crit now apply to every school of attack/ability, and are no longer separated by Melee, Spell, and Ranged.

Incredibly important for tanks, this also explains important stat goals such as Critical Strike Immunity and Crushing Blow Immunity, more commonly referred to as Defense Cap and Avoidance Cap (although it must be stressed that players can still benefit from Defense past its "cap").

Blizzard has posted an update to Class Tuning for the Weekly Reset, which affects Blood DKs and Vengeance DHs.

Class Tuning on September 22nd

Made the following changes to the original post:

DEATH KNIGHT

Blood

Death Strike damage increased by 15% .

Developers’ notes:We are making a small adjustment to the Death Strike damage increase. We are reducing the damage increase to 15%, down from 25% which will still be a buff in single target but will be closer to neutral in cleave priority damage which was the original intent of the changes.

DEMON HUNTER

Vengeance

Aldrachi Reaver

Reaver’s Glaive damage increased by 25% .

WARRIOR

Fury

Mountain Thane

Lightning Strike damage increased by 50%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

Ground Current damage increased by 50%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

Protection

Mountain Thane

Lightning Strike damage increased by 50%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

Ground Current damage increased by 50%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

A feature from Modern World of Warcraft has made its way into WoW Forever. Any loot not picked up by players in a dungeon will be mailed to them now, thanks to the Steamwheelde Lost and Found.

New Loot Recovery System in WoW Forever

Players tend to unfortunately forget to pick up a piece of loot, whether Uncommon, Rare, or even Epic in Classic WoW. The consequence of this is that if you realize too late, the NPC with said loot can despawn, offering no opportunity for recovery - you have to hope it drops again in the next run. In World of Warcraft: Forever, the Steamwheedle Lost and Found makes sure players get all their items from instances, even if they didn't realize their bag was full at the time!

Players can thank Rix Xizzix, owner of the Steamwheedle Lost and Found, for assisting them with their oversights. Players may remember this goblin and his organization from Season of Discovery, as it appears they've made a permanent return in WoW Forever.

Note: The letter does not actually self-destruct, but don't take any chances!

There are many new mounts being added in WoW: Forever, and we've discovered some of them through datamining in the Beta!

Forever Mount Guide

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable devilsaur. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable moose. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable skeletal horse. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable warden saber. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable devilsaur. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable warden saber. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable caravan kodo. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable prideclaw. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable green kodo. This is a very fast mount. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable Empyrean Galestrider. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable moose. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable warden saber. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable devilsaur. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable moose. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable green kodo. This is a very fast mount. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable lavender kodo. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable skeletal warhorse. This is a very fast mount. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable pack kodo. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable devilsaur. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable Purple Skeletal Horse. This is a very fast mount. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable Regal Galestrider. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable spectral bear. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable Stormy Galestrider. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable Sabre Cat. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons a Forsaken Charger, which serves as a mount. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons a warhorse, which serves as a mount. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable crane. This is a very fast mount. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable crane. This is a very fast mount. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable crane. This is a very fast mount. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable crane. This is a very fast mount. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable galestrider crane. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable Venomhide Ravasaur. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable bear. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable devilsaur. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable moose. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable white kodo. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

NEW Summons and dismisses a rideable warden saber. Increases ground speed by Ground Speed%.

Some of these mounts might be familiar to players from later phases of Classic, while others are entirely new. "New" in this situation refers to being new to the Vanilla-style experience that Forever is offering.

Many of these mounts are encrypted, so while we know their current names, we don't have models for them. For those that we do, you can see the information below:

Black Skeletal Horse Caravan Kodo Cerulean Prideclaw Dark Skeletal Horse Empyrean Galestrider Swift Empyrean Galestrider Green Skeletal Horse Lavender Kodo Ochre Skeletal Warhorse Pack Kodo Purple Skeletal Horse Regal Galestrider Swift Regal Galestrider Spectral Bear Stormy Galestrider Swift Stormy Galestrider Striped Dawnsaber Umber Galestrider Swift Umber Galestrider Veteran Adventurer's Loyal Companion White Kodo

Blizzard has released a blog post discussing rulesets in WoW: Forever, and explaining to players how a future without servers will work in the new game.

Going serverless is a big change for World of Warcraft players of all flavors, and it's going to take some getting used to - so the biggest change for players won't come from picking a server to play on, but picking a playstyle to follow instead.

Every journey through Azeroth begins with a choice about the kind of world you want to step into. In World of Warcraft: Forever, we’re changing how that journey begins by moving away from the traditional realm-selection screen and introducing rulesets instead.

Rather than asking players to pick the “right” realm before creating a character, World of Warcraft: Forever lets you choose the kind of experience you want to have first. Each ruleset functions more like a broad player ecosystem than a single traditional realm, making it easier to find others who share your preferred playstyle while preserving the feeling of a living, active Azeroth.

Choose the Ruleset That Fits Your Journey

Players will be able to select from several rulesets that reflect familiar ways to play World of Warcraft: Normal: The baseline World of Warcraft experience, where players can focus on exploration, questing, cooperation, and player-versus-player combat when they choose to engage in it.

PvP: For players who want every trip into contested territory to carry more danger, excitement, and open-world conflict.

Roleplaying: For players who want to lean more deeply into the fantasy of Azeroth and seek out like-minded adventurers.

Hardcore: For players seeking the ultimate challenge, where every decision matters and death carries lasting consequences. (Hardcore will be available sometime after launch.)

Playing Together Within a Ruleset

While World of Warcraft: Forever is designed to make it easier to connect with friends, each ruleset remains its own distinct space. Players can group, run dungeons, and raid with others who have chosen the same ruleset. Cross-ruleset grouping is not supported, so characters in different spaces will not be able to group together for those activities. Battlegrounds may include players from other rulesets, with the exception of Hardcore, which remains separate.

Factions also remain separate. Horde and Alliance players still cannot group together, preserving the faction boundaries that remain core to the World of Warcraft: Forever experience and maintaining the “war” in Warcraft.

Moving Between Rulesets

Each ruleset is built to support a distinct community and playstyle, so movement between them is intentionally limited. Players cannot freely hop between rulesets; to play under a different one, they’ll need to create a new character in that ruleset. When Hardcore becomes available, Hardcore characters will remain in a fully enclosed ecosystem, but if one dies, that character can transfer to another ruleset—including PvP.

Collections and Legacy Points are account-wide across rulesets, with Hardcore handled differently. Progress, collections, and rewards earned in Hardcore can become available elsewhere, but progress from other rulesets will not flow back into Hardcore. This keeps Hardcore distinct while still allowing players to carry accomplishments forward if they move out of it.

A Larger World That Still Feels Familiar

The realmless structure is meant to reduce the pressure of choosing the right launch realm without turning Azeroth into a place that feels anonymous. As players level, quest, gather, and explore within their chosen ruleset, the world around them should still feel active and lived in—filled with organic encounters, unexpected rivalries, moments of cooperation, and the kind of shared experiences that make each journey feel rooted in Azeroth.

Players will also be able to choose a language preference and encounter others who share that preference. To set it, open the Game Menu by pressing (Escape), choose Options, then select Languages and Social under the System heading. From there, choose your preferred language under “Preferred Online Language.” This account-wide setting applies to all characters and has a 24-hour cooldown before it can be changed again.

For the PvP ruleset, faction balance remains an important consideration, and World of Warcraft: Forever will include systems intended to help keep Horde and Alliance populations closer together similar to the approach introduced in Season of Discovery, where new character creation could be temporarily limited for a faction when additional balance support was needed. On the PvP ruleset, players can only create characters for one faction. Once you create an Alliance character on the PvP ruleset, you won’t be able to create a Horde character there, and vice versa. On Normal, Roleplaying, and Hardcore rulesets, you can create characters from both factions.

On the Beta of World of Warcraft: Forever, players have started finding all kinds of new items, including some item sets that might change the whole way we approach gearing in the future.

The First Mate Band is new and, so far, has been reported to drop from Mr. Smite in the Deadmines Dungeon. As displayed in-game, the set's bonus is:

(2) Set: Chance on melee swing to become Angry, increasing strength by 50 for 10 sec.(2) Set: +20 Strength

What makes this set very interesting, though, is that the Epic half of it (The Better Half, if you will) is a level 60 item. This has implications for your future gearing (as well as your bank space), as it implies you may be looking for Deadmines loot for a very long time to come. It's also possible that other dungeons will feature a similar setup, where one item might be the first half of a set that can't be completed until much later in the leveling process.

As of now, we do not know where the Band of the Better Half is found in-game.

Blizzard has released an update about the EU beta issues. During the beta, some testers in the EU have experienced very high latency. While many have used VPNs to reduce this, as a long term solution, that wasn’t viable; thankfully, this should now show a big improvement for players.

As many Beta testers in this region know, in the first couple of days of the WoW: Forever Beta, we experienced routing issues that impacted testers’ ability to move, interact with the world, and in some cases, to stay connected. We immediately put our engineers on the case and they’ve been working to understand and address any parts of the issue that were within our control.

I’m happy to report that, over the last 24 hours, we’ve developed and implemented solutions to streamline routing to the Beta for the EU region.

As we continue to carefully observe the game performance for EU testers, we can see that there may still be routing issues for some players that are out of our control. This is always the case when a local Internet Service Provider (ISP) is experiencing a connection issue, or something upstream from the ISP is temporarily routing via a less-direct route for whatever reason, or the players themselves are running firewall-type software that’s introducing a slowdown (and in some cases, outright blocking connection to the game).

We believe that our fixes for issues that were within our control should have improved (and hopefully fixed) what some players were experiencing.

And we will continue to monitor the situation very closely. Finding and fixing game performance issues is a key reason to do a public test like this one.

Thank you very much for your patience and understanding.

Blizzard has increased the default bank size in WoW: Forever!

Forever OverviewForever Guide Compendium

Warcraft: Forever will focus on horizontal progression, with players capped at level 60, forever. One of the ways that the developers will keep players engaged is through special effects on gear. Gear in Warcraft: Forever can have very situational effects and only trigger when players are in a specific zone, biome, or on specific mobs. As such, players will likely collect situational gear for different types of content. When leveling, players may want a bonus effect that gives movement speed in Elwynn Forest, and against the 40-player Onyxia raid, players may want a gear set that has bonus effects against Dragons.

With all the new gear players might want to collect, they'll need a place to store it. As such, in WoW: Forever, the bank has been updated and can now hold more items. The default bank space has been doubled to 48 slots, and the number of bag slots has been increased to 8 (from 6).

This should give a decent amount of extra starting space for ore, herbs, gear, and anything else players want to keep while leveling. In an interview with MMORPG, Blizzard also mentioned that they do expect to increase the default bank space in the future, but not until players get to a point where they need it.

In an interview with Artemir, Blizzard discussed Astalor and his Nemesis boss encounter and the inspiration for Talebound!

Artemir had an interview with:

Paul Kubit (Associate Game Director)

Kim Flack (Senior Game Designer)

We've summarized the interview below, but you can see the original on Artemir's YouTube.

Interview Summary

Talebound

They draw a lot of inspiration from a lot of the coolest spooky locations in the game: Drustvar, Stormsong, Ardenweald.

The classes came from that and what you think of when you think of horror stories: Witch, Inquisitor, and Slayer.

Slayer has a Vampire Hunter feel to it.

These classes play very differently from each other and are very much affected by the Roguelike powers.

Talebound will be its own login mode similar to Plunderstorm, and you'll get cosmetics and rewards that you can bring back to your full account.

They're still working on Patch 12.2.7 and when Talebound will be released.

Xal'atath

Players have been slowly learning about Xal'atath and her history over time.

We're going to learn much more about her in Eclipse. Players will see much more of her, learn more about where she came from, what she's doing, and why she's doing it.

Azeroth

Azeroth is not taking this silently.

Azerite is Azeroth's blood, and the zone is caked in it.

The Radiant Screams, by name alone, should tell you a lot about this activity. What Xal'atath is doing to her is not pleasant.

There will be more on Radiant Screams later this year.

The Sword is there, and they have not forgotten about the sword, but no spoilers to give right now.

Dungeon Rotation

When choosing dungeons, they want to have a varied experience with varied boss layouts across the Season (e.g. All bosses shouldn't be council fights).

They also look at the theme of the Patch, and that's a big part of why Stonecore was chosen. They want to make sure that all the dungeons don't feel or look completely the same.

Once the dungeon rotation is chosen, the encounter team goes through and makes sure the dungeons are up to the level of modern dungeons with visuals, encounter difficulty, etc.

Astalor

He was already the fan favorite internally before he became a favorite character in the community.

They love the Astalor memes.

His Nemesis boss encounter is still in progress, and the difficulty is TBD. They don't want him to be the easiest or hardest one.

Hopefully we'll be able to see the Prey Magic and the red kit stick around longer than Midnight.

In WoW: Forever, the hidden casting time for Auto-Shot and Wanding has been reduced significantly.

In Classic WoW, Hunters can auto-shot arrows, while casters can wand things once a Wand is equipped. These abilities work very similarly and are basic ways to deal damage to mobs when you are out of mana and can't cast abilities. In Classic WoW, these abilities have a brief hidden cast time and will require the player to stand still for a duration before the attack fires. This hidden cast time makes kiting more difficult, as players will need to plant for a brief duration to continue to deal damage.

In WoW: Forever, this hidden cast time has been greatly reduced. It still requires players to plant, but only for a very, very short duration. This makes it much easier to kite and is likely to cause some shake-ups, particularly in PvP combat. Hunters will now be able to kite more easily while still being able to use their ranged damage.

Aggravating_Doctor20 on Reddit has released two videos comparing the Auto-Shot and Wanding abilities from Forever to Classic. These videos show the difference between the hidden casting time for Forever and Classic very clearly.

Blizzard has announced that players with names that violate its naming policies may lose Beta Access.

The WoW: Forever beta launched on Thursday and has been very popular. One of the new features that players have been excited about is a new naming convention: players can choose both a First and Last name. While this adds a lot of customization and creativity for players, it also opened up a whole new avenue for players to circumvent the ToS with offensive name combinations.

Blizzard has addressed this on the forums when replying to a player who had their Beta access removed, noting that offensive names that break the naming policies could have their Beta Access removed.

I have not received an email as to why it happened either :frowning:

You should have received an email with the reason, specifically the name that was selected for your WoW: Forever beta character. The email that I show that was sent includes the name. Check your spam filter/junk folder.

Character names must adhere to our naming policies, including in Beta. If you violate those policies that may result in the removal of beta access.

At the end of the day, it’s a beta test. Introducing a new character naming scheme requires real-world stress testing, so why ban players for showing blizz what needs to be tuned?

It isn’t a matter of “tuning”, we know what bad names are and we know people create characters with them all the time. We have a reporting option specifically to have those addressed. Some slip through the cracks here and there because they go unreported.

Having the option for a first/last name provides opportunities for a lot of… creativity, but our policies are still in place. The names themselves should continue to abide by our naming policies. The Development team for WoW: Forever is trying to address those names that are brought to their attention.

Beta is primarily run by QA and the Game Development team, so policy enforcement there primarily falls under their banner. However, if you feel an error was made you’ll want to submit an appeal. None of the examples I have seen thus far seem to be appropriate, but that isn’t my call.

Now that the WoW: Forever Beta is here, we've dug into the client to find all the soundtracks available in-game: the sounds of Azeroth you know and love, with some new additions like the Skyborne theme.

WoW: Forever Music Playlist

With almost eight hours of playtime, our Forever playlist has over 100 soundtracks by artists like Jason Hayes, David Arkenstone, Derek Duke, Adam Burgess, Matt Uelmen, Russell Brower, Brendon Williams, Glenn Stafford, Neal Acree, Tracy Bush, Cédric Baravaglio, Grant Kirkhope, Leo Kaliski, and Jake Lefkowitz. Hayes in particular has created many of the most memorable World of Warcraft themes, but he's not the only legendary artist! These tracks bring the world of Azeroth to you no matter where you are, so dive in for a listen.

Want to check out the world of WoW: Forever but haven't been able to get into the Beta yet? Check out Wowhead's new World Map tool!

Wowhead's Azeroth Maps Tool

We're always looking for ways to improve our site, so we welcome all feedback - please tell us in the comments what you think, and what we can add to this new feature to make it even more useful.

Explore WoW Forever's World on Wowhead

Azeroth might be familiar, but WoW: Forever adds plenty of new locations to explore. Players can use this new tool to zoom in across the entirety of the world map to see what there is to explore.

One cool feature users can use is to share a specific point on the map with their friends. Whenever you zoom in or adjust the map anywhere, it'll adjust the URL up top. Wherever you leave the map on, the URL will adjust the coordinates, allowing you to share with your friends with ease. For example, this will take you right to Stormwind City!

Players can also toggle visibility of different map layers and features, like zone names, dungeon locations, class trainers, rares, and more. Zoom in to see all the details, or pull back for a higher-level view - the choice is yours!