WoW Forever Beginner's Guide: Release, Price & Changes

World of Warcraft: Forever is Blizzard's third permanent version of Azeroth, running next to modern WoW and Classic. It keeps the level-60, pre-Burning Crusade world, then layers new races, zones, dungeons, abilities and a reworked item game on top. This guide covers the release date, what you need to play, and exactly what changed from Classic, with every number taken from the game client (build 1.60.1.70685).

WoW Forever release date and time

Blizzard's roadmap puts launch on Wednesday, November 4, 2026 at 3 PM Pacific (6 PM Eastern, 23:00 UTC; that is already November 5 in Asia and Oceania). Character creation and name reservation opened on October 27 with up to three characters per account, so if you reserved names you can log straight in at launch.

1. Sep 17
   Beta

   Closed beta opens. Testers earn the 16-point "Played in the WoW: Forever Beta" Legacy reward that is already in the client.

2. Oct 27
   Name reservation

   Create up to three characters per account ahead of launch.

3. Nov 4
   Launch

   Levels 1–60, all nine classes, both Skyborne races, the new zones and the five-player dungeons.

4. Dec 9
   Raids unlock

   Blizzard's roadmap lists Barrow Deeps (10 players), Hyjal Summit (20 players) and Onyxia's Lair (40 players).

5. Winter
   Hardcore

   Blizzard plans Hardcore realms for winter 2026/2027, with no exact date yet.

6. 2027
   Spring and summer

   Blizzard lists new raids, new dungeons, more quests and zones, a legendary questline and PvP season refreshes.

What do you need to play WoW Forever?

According to Blizzard, Forever is included with active World of Warcraft game time, the same subscription that covers modern WoW and Classic. The new Skyborne race and its Zephras Isle starting zone are sold separately in optional Skyborne packs; every other race and class is in the base game. If you only want to play a Human Warrior or an Orc Shaman, game time is all you need.

What is different from WoW Classic?

We compared the Forever client with the Classic Era client, line by line. The short version: the world is still Classic Azeroth, but almost every system has been touched. You can browse the full list on our changes vs Classic pages; here are the headlines.

New race/class combinations

Forever opens six combinations that Classic never allowed: Human Hunter, Orc Mage, Dwarf Shaman, Gnome Priest, Undead Paladin and Troll Warlock. Add the two Skyborne races and there are now 10 races. Racial kits were reworked too: Blood Fury, for example, now raises Attack Power and Spell Power by 10% for 15 sec on a 3 min cooldown. Our best race for every class guide walks through each pick.

Classes get new tools

Every class has new trainer abilities. Warriors get Spearing Strike and Tactical Mastery (keep up to 10 Rage when you change stances); Paladins get seven, including Holy Strike, Seal of Fury and Templar's Bulwark; Priests get Shadow Word: Death and Chastise; Shamans get Call of the Elements to drop four totems at once. Spells that Season of Discovery players know as runes, such as Mutilate, Penance and Lava Burst, are now ranked abilities you train. The full list per class is in our class changes guide.

Your first week: a beginner route

1. 1
   Pick a class you will enjoy for 60 levels

   Browse the class pages. Every class has three talent trees, and Blizzard says the trees were rebalanced so that every spec is viable.

2. 2
   Pick a race for the look, then the racials

   Racials matter less than class choice. If you are torn, the race pages show the exact tooltips.

3. 3
   Plan your talents before level 10

   Your first talent point arrives at level 10 and you get one per level after that, 51 in total. Try builds in the talent calculator.

4. 4
   Choose two professions early

   A gathering plus a crafting profession is the classic pairing. Our profession guide shows which pairs share materials.

5. 5
   Run the new dungeons as you level

   Blizzard lists The Hall of Thanes at levels 13–18 and Ruins of Lordaeron at 15–20 as the first stops.

6. 6
   Unlock dual spec at 40

   Blizzard says dual specialization unlocks at level 40 from your class trainer, so you can keep a leveling spec and a group spec.

What we cannot show yet

Blizzard keeps some data on its servers until players discover it. In this build 10,192 Classic items, dungeon loot tables, quest text and the rank 2+ text of most talents are not in the client. Those items exist; they are revealed when someone first loots or learns them after launch. We re-read the client after launch and on every patch, so our pages fill in as the data appears. Our methodology page explains how.