Beta day one: what's in, what's capped, what changed

Updated 2026-09-16

The beta runs September 17 → October 21. Everything below is from Blizzard directly: the BlizzCon panels, the Destin interview with Clay Stone (Associate Production Director) and Nora Mills (Lead Software Engineer), and Blizzard's own correction post.

The level cap starts at 20, not 30

The beta opens capped at level 20, and the cap is raised to 30 later in the test. It stays at 30 for the rest of the beta. Plan your test characters accordingly: a class you want to see at 30 — Paladin's Holy Shock, or anything that needs 21 talent points — won't be reachable on day one.

Beta characters are wiped before launch. Everyone starts at level 1 on November 4.

No WoW Token, no boost

Asked about catching up, Blizzard was explicit: there are no plans for anything similar to a WoW Token or a boost. The reasoning they gave is that the journey is the game, and the Legacy system — not a paid shortcut — is how alts are meant to get easier.

Three new ship routes

Travel changes that did not appear in the panels:

Stormwind Harbor ↔ Auberdine — a direct link between the human and night elf starting areas.
Menethil → Southshore → Auberdine — a three-stop route across the north.
The Riverglades ↔ Steamwheedle Port — the new zone connects to the southern half of both continents.

The stated goal is keeping the wonder of travelling the world while making it easier to play with friends — particularly for the Riverglades, which Blizzard wants people to actually reach.

Krol'dok Stronghold is 40–45

Blizzard corrected a number that was wrong on the BlizzCon slides: Krol'dok Stronghold is a 40–45 dungeon, not 40–55. Their published table for the nine new dungeons:

Dungeon	Levels
The Hall of Thanes	13–18
Ruins of Lordaeron	15–20
Excavation Site: Wetlands	24–29
City of Dalaran	28–33
The Drowned City	35–40
Krol'dok Stronghold	40–45
Alcaz Prison	48–53
Blackmaw Hold	55–60
Shaper's Terrace	58–60

Our dungeon pages and the dungeon guide carry the corrected range.

What to do on day one

Rolling a character to test the reworked trees is the obvious start — the talent calculator has all nine classes from the BlizzCon demo build, and anything we haven't been able to verify is marked as an estimate. If the beta contradicts what we show, tell us and it gets fixed the same day.