Warcraft Forever
Getting started with WoW: Forever
Updated 2026-09-13
World of Warcraft: Forever is Blizzard's permanent "Classic+": the vanilla world of Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, kept at level 60, with new zones, dungeons, raids and a new race layered on top. It is included with a normal subscription; the Skyborne race, beta access and early name reservation come with the Heroic Pack / Collector's Edition.
Key dates
| Milestone | Date |
|---|---|
| Beta (play up to level 30) | Sept 17 – Oct 22, 2026 |
| Early name reservation & character creation | Oct 27, 2026 |
| Launch | Nov 4, 2026, 3 PM PST |
| Raids unlock: Barrow Deeps (10), Hyjal Summit (20), Onyxia's Lair (40) | Dec 9, 2026 |
| Hardcore launch | Winter 2026/27 |
| Major update: 2 raids, 2 dungeons, new playable area, legendary questline | Spring 2027 |
| Major update: revamped iconic raid, new raid, 2 dungeons, professions & Legacy | Summer 2027 |
See the full roadmap guide.
Ground rules
- Level cap is 60, forever. No flying. No level scaling.
- More than 1,000 new quests across 1–60; many new dungeons target sub-60 characters.
- Transmog is opt-in on both sides: you choose whether to show yours and whether to see others'.
- Controller support, an HD/SD character toggle and a reworked UI ship at launch.
What's new
- Zones: Zephras Isle (1–12), the Riverglades (mid-30s to mid-40s), Shen'dralas and a renewed Mount Hyjal (60).
- Skyborne: a new elf race that picks Alliance or Horde at creation.
- New race/class combos: Orc Mage, Troll Warlock, Undead Paladin, Gnome Priest, Human Hunter, Dwarf Shaman — see Race & class combos.
- Legacy and Campsites: account-wide alt perks and social crafting — see Legacy & Campsites.
- Nine dungeons, two launch raids, one battleground — see Dungeons & raids.
Servers: realmless, four rulesets
There are no realms to choose. You still play in your Battle.net region (Americas, Europe, Korea, Taiwan), but within it you pick a ruleset instead of a server: Normal, PvP, Roleplay or Hardcore (Hardcore arrives later, see the roadmap). You group for dungeons and raids with players of your ruleset only, Hardcore is fully separate, and Horde and Alliance still cannot group together. There is no retail-style War Mode.
- Characters have two names (a main and a secondary one), unique across the whole region — reserving yours on Oct 27 matters more than it did in Classic.
- You can set language and faction preferences; the game leans on them when it phases and groups you in the open world.
- A Hardcore character that dies can be transferred to another ruleset instead of being lost.
Source: the Deep Dive panel at BlizzCon 2026 (Sept 13).
The world, renewed
New lighting, global illumination, a new water renderer and real-time shadows run across the original zones: rivers flow through Elwynn, mist hangs over Darkshore, moonlight breaks through Ashenvale's canopy.
