World of Warcraft: Forever Goes Live Globally November 4!
World of Warcraft: Forever opens on 4 November at 23:00 UTC — 3 pm PST, midnight CET on the 5th, 8 am KST — as a permanent third home beside retail and Classic: a reimagined level-1-to-60 Azeroth with no realm list (you pick a ruleset instead), a new race, new zones, nine new dungeons and more than 1,000 new quests. The three launch raids open on 9 December. Blizzard's final pre-launch notes raised class damage across the board and say no big tuning is planned before the raids, so the levelling race starts on even terms.
- When: realms open on Wednesday 4 November at 23:00 UTC — 3:00 pm PST, 8:00 pm BRT and 11:00 pm GMT on the 4th; midnight CET, 7:00 am Taiwan, 8:00 am KST and 10:00 am AEDT on 5 November. Early name reservation ran from 27 October to 3 November.
- What it is: a permanent version of World of Warcraft set between Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom and Molten Core, levelling 1–60 across the original continents. There is no realm list — on first login you pick an experience preset (Classic or Enhanced visuals and UI) and then a ruleset: Normal, PvP, Roleplay or Roleplay-PvP; Hardcore follows later. Character names are two-part and unique within a region.
- What is new: the Skyborne race (Horde Windshapers as Shaman, Alliance High-Order as Mages, starting on Zephras Isle, levels 1–12) and new pairings such as Orc Mage, Troll Warlock, Undead Paladin, Human Hunter, Gnome Priest and Dwarf Shaman; Mount Hyjal, Shen'dralas and the Riverglades (more than 150 quests for the mid-30s to mid-40s); nine new dungeons from level 13 to 60; the Camping and account-wide Legacy systems; a 15-versus-15 battleground, Battle for the Darkspear Islands.
- Endgame: Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit and Onyxia's Lair open to level-60 characters on 9 December — five weeks after launch.
- Blizzard's final tuning (forum post, 2 November): class damage raised across the game with higher-level creature health raised to match; Blessing of Salvation removed (tank threat bonuses up instead), Lava Burst and Frost Blast removed, Rogues gain Shank at level 24, Hunters' Aimed Shot bonus damage roughly doubles, Shadow Word: Death now costs 30% of the Priest's health on a non-kill; training every class ability from 1 to 60 costs 206–207 gold for every class; faster respawns in low-level zones for the launch rush. Blizzard says it plans no big tuning changes before the raids open.
- What it means for your character: a fresh ladder where everyone starts at level 1 at the same moment, with no realm to pick wrong — the choices that matter on day one are faction, ruleset and class, and the Skyborne and the new race-class pairs exist only here. What we are watching: launch-day queues and hotfixes, the Hardcore ruleset date, and the first post-launch tuning pass Blizzard says will follow data from players past level 30.
When the doors open
World of Warcraft: Forever goes live on Wednesday 4 November at 23:00 UTC: 3:00 pm Pacific Standard Time, 8:00 pm in Brazil and 11:00 pm in the UK on the 4th, and midnight CET, 7:00 am in Taiwan, 8:00 am in Korea and 10:00 am AEDT on 5 November. Blizzard calls it a global launch — one moment for every region. Early name reservation ran from 27 October to 3 November.
What Forever is
It is a third, permanent version of the game next to retail and Classic: a reimagined original Azeroth, set after Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom and before Molten Core, played from level 1 to 60 across the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. The biggest structural change is that there is no realm list. On first login you choose an experience preset — Classic (standard-definition models, no quest markers, classic UI layout) or Enhanced (HD models, quest markers, one-bag, transmog) — and then a ruleset: Normal, PvP, Roleplay or Roleplay-PvP. Hardcore follows at a later date. Each ruleset is one large player pool rather than a realm, and character names are two-part, unique within a region.
What is new in the world
- A new race, the Skyborne: Horde-aligned Windshapers who can become Shaman and Alliance-aligned High-Order Skyborne who can become Mages, starting on Zephras Isle (levels 1–12). New combinations include Orc Mage, Troll Warlock, Undead Paladin, Human Hunter, Gnome Priest and Dwarf Shaman.
- New zones: Mount Hyjal, Shen'dralas and the Riverglades (more than 150 quests across the mid-30s to mid-40s), with over 1,000 new quests across the 1–60 journey.
- Nine new five-player dungeons from level 13 to level 60, the Camping system built on the Cooking campfire, and the account-wide Legacy system (challenges, perks and rewards).
- A 15-versus-15 battleground, Battle for the Darkspear Islands, off Dustwallow Marsh.
- Raids open on 9 December: Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit and Onyxia's Lair for level-60 characters.
Blizzard's final tuning pass
On 2 November Blizzard's community team posted the last beta development notes before launch. The headline is a change of approach: rather than holding every class to Classic-era power budgets, damage was raised across the game and higher-level creature health raised to compensate. Among the specifics: Blessing of Salvation is gone, so Bear Form, Defensive Stance and Righteous Fury generate much more threat; Shaman lose Lava Burst and Mages Frost Blast; Rogues gain Shank, an off-hand strike that generates Energy, at level 24; Hunters' Aimed Shot bonus damage roughly doubles; Shadow Word: Death now costs a Priest 30% of maximum health when it fails to kill. Training every class ability from 1 to 60 costs 206–207 gold for every class, and respawn rates in low-level zones are faster for the launch rush. Blizzard says it does not plan big tuning changes before the raids open, then expects a large pass once players are past level 30 in numbers.
What it means for your character
Everyone starts at level 1 at the same moment, in the same ruleset pools, with no realm to pick wrong. The choices that matter on day one are faction, ruleset and class — the Skyborne and the new race-class pairs are only available here. If you plan to raid in December, the 9 December date gives five weeks to reach 60 and gear up, and the final dev notes mean the numbers you see on launch day are, bar bug fixes and serious outliers, the ones you will raid with.
What we are watching
Launch-day queues and the first hotfixes, Blizzard's date for the Hardcore ruleset, how the Darkspear Islands battleground plays, and the post-level-30 tuning pass. We will update this item when the realms open.
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