WoW Forever: beginner's guide

Pre-launch calendar

A WoW subscription is all you need to play. The Skyborne Epic Pack and the Warcraft Forever Collection add 30 days of Game Time, counted from launch. Prices and pack contents: release date, price and editions.

Before launch: what to decide

Ruleset and faction

Instead of a realm list, you pick a ruleset: Normal, PvP or Roleplaying. Hardcore arrives after launch. You cannot move a character to another ruleset later: to play on a different one, you create a new character.

Groups, dungeons and raids only work within one ruleset, and the Horde and the Alliance cannot group on any of them. So agree with your friends on the region, the ruleset and the faction. On PvP, one account can only have characters of one faction. Ruleset comparison: servers and rulesets.

Name and reservation

Names have two parts (like a first name and a surname, for example "Ana Forever"), and the full pair must be unique in the region. You can hide the second part in the world: Options → Nameplates → "My Secondary Name".

Early Name Reservation runs from October 27 to November 3, 2026. You can create and customize up to 3 characters. It is first come, first served, Blizzard does not guarantee any name, and the reservation only applies to the account the pack was bought for. Prepare a few options.

Class and race

Icy Veins advises against picking a class for its beta damage, because balance will keep changing throughout the life of Forever. Decide on your role first (tank, healer, DPS), melee or ranged, and how much utility you want to bring to a group. Blizzard's goal is for every specialization to be competitive.

For reference: the Mobalytics leveling tier list (beta, levels 1–20, read on October 18, 2026) puts Hunter and Warlock in S, Mage, Shaman and Paladin in A, Rogue and Druid in B, and Priest and Warrior in C. Mobalytics has changed this list without updating its date (an earlier version had Paladin in S instead of Warlock). Other sites rank them differently, and the beta level cap is already 30. Beta players add one more tip: if you have access, play every class to level 10 and pick the one that feels right. Source comparison: best class tier list.

Your race decides your starting zone and racial abilities. Skyborne require the Skyborne Heroic Pack or higher. Details: races and Skyborne.

Language

Set "Preferred Online Language" (Escape → Options → Languages and Social). It applies to the whole account and can be changed once every 24 hours. It helps you meet more players who speak the same language.

Addons: what to expect

Forever shares its UI architecture with retail. Blizzard confirmed on the WoW UI Discord that the Midnight addon restrictions ("addon disarmament", including "secrets") also apply in Forever. Old Classic addons have to adapt to the new API.

Wowhead says it plainly: anyone hoping for WeakAuras to return will be disappointed, as WeakAuras stopped development before Midnight. Players are protesting these restrictions on the Blizzard forums, but as of October 18, 2026 Blizzard has not announced any changes.

Instead, the game has built-in tools:

• Cooldown Manager (since October 8, 2026 it supports all classes, racial abilities and trinkets),
• Edit Mode for moving the interface around,
• Personal Resource Display,
• full controller support: Gamepad Action Bar and separate Edit Mode layouts for the gamepad UI.

There is no reliable list yet of addons that work in Forever (Questie, DBM, Details). Check each addon's page before launch.

Settings worth changing

Blizzard removed the "Ray Traced Shadows" option from the beta; it will return once fixed. On October 16, 2026 a new tutorial for new players was also added. The install is large: the store asks for 128 GB of free SSD space.

First hours: starting zones

On the way from 1 to 60 you will find more than 1,000 new quests and new zones, including Riverglades (over 150 quests, mid-30s to mid-40s). What else is new: what is WoW Forever.

Leveling guide: what to know

• Dungeons give more XP. In the beta, dungeon quests got 50% less bonus XP, but dungeon monsters give about 20% more, and XP is calculated like in Classic Era: only from your own level, not the highest level in the party. Blizzard says this will "dramatically increase experience earned in dungeons".
• Talent resets cost 1 silver in the beta, but only in the beta. According to Blizzard's notes, they cost more after that, and the price goes down after an hour.
• Wands require 0.5 s of standing still before each shot, like in early WoW.
• Take your time. Veterans advise reading quests and enjoying the world, and they praise Human leveling from 1 to 30 as the best.

Camping

Around level 5 the quest The Great Outdoors teaches you about resting at camp and Cooking: you make your first campfire, the Basic Campfire. Other players add "features" from their professions around it: 1-hour buffs, rested XP, gear repair, reagent vendors and crafting stations.

To get a buff, stay at the fire for about a minute. Sitting, a chair, sleeping, lying down and the kneel emote all work, and you can cast and craft at the same time. A Basic Campfire (Cooking 1) holds 3 extra features, a Journeyman Campfire (Cooking 90) holds 5. Every campfire has a 5-minute cooldown. Camp buffs do not stack with the same class buffs.

Professions to start with

You get 2 primary professions and all 3 secondary ones: Cooking, First Aid and Fishing.

Level Cooking from the start, because it decides the size of your camp. Your first profession features at the campfire unlock at 20 skill points, the next ones at 140 and 300. Reaching 150, 225 and 300 in a profession for the first time gives Legacy Points.

Legacy System from day one

The Legacy System opens with your first Legacy Point: usually at level 25 on your first character, at 150 in a crafting profession, or after exploring the whole world map. There are 65 Legacy Challenges in 6 categories, each worth 1 point. At launch you can spend up to 16 points per character, for example on Talented (talents up to 5 levels earlier) or Permanence (longer buffs). Points are shared across your account.

Dungeons without a dungeon finder

Forever launches with 9 new dungeons. The first ones are The Hall of Thanes under Ironforge (13–18) and Ruins of Lordaeron in Undercity (15–20). Both factions can enter them, although some quests are for one faction only. The Legacy System gives 3 points for defeating the last boss in every dungeon in the 15–25, 26–45 and 46–60 brackets, so each dungeon is worth doing at least once. All of them: new dungeons.

There is no automatic dungeon finder like in retail. There are no Meeting Stone summons either. You get a Looking For Group window in its WoW Classic form: according to Warcraft Tavern, it helps you organize a group but does not form one automatically or teleport anyone. In the beta, the list shows whether your party qualifies for a dungeon, has a "Show All Level Ranges" checkbox, and posts can use "In-Game Voice Mode". You have to travel to the dungeon yourself.

10 tips to start

1. Agree on the region, ruleset and faction with your friends before anyone creates a character.
2. If you have a pack, reserve your name between October 27 and November 3, 2026, and keep a few backup options.
3. Join the stress test on October 21, 2026 to check your hardware. Test characters will be deleted.
4. Pick your class for its role and playstyle, not for its beta DPS.
5. Bind your most used spells to keys.
6. Set your Preferred Online Language before you start looking for groups.
7. Do the quest The Great Outdoors and rest at campfires for buffs and rested XP.
8. Take two professions that work together and level Cooking from the start.
9. Run dungeons: they give more XP than they used to, and clearing full dungeon brackets gives Legacy Points.
10. Tell your group you are new and look for a guild. Veterans say a good guild "makes the experience night and day".