Items hidden until they drop, Season of Discovery class quests and barbershops: what Blizzard said as the beta opened

The WoW Forever beta opened on the evening of September 17, right after the live Q&A. Around it came three new interviews with the team, an official notice about graphics cards and the first findings from players who are already in. The headline, in one line: you won't know what an item does until it first drops on your server, and there will be no Dungeon Journal.

Here's everything, with who said it and where. The BlizzCon interviews we already covered are in this other article.

Who spoke to whom

• MMORPG.com: Josh Greenfield (Aggrend), senior game designer, and Jeff Parrott, senior art director.
• IGN Nordic: Michael Nuthals, senior game designer, and Tim Jones, lead game designer.
• But Why Tho?: Ion Hazzikostas, game director, and Holly Longdale, vice president.

We read Wowhead's summaries and always link the original interview in the sources.

Nobody will know what an item does until it drops

This is the change launch-day players will feel most. Greenfield told MMORPG.com:

• Every item in the game is obfuscated. You won't see its stats until it drops for you or for someone on your server.
• There will be no Dungeon Journal. You won't be able to look up in-game what each boss drops.
• Nobody will walk into the first raid knowing their best-in-slot gear. Greenfield expects the first week to be "the Wild West": people will get items, upload them to the databases, and the guides will follow from there.
• There will still be best-in-slot lists, but later, and written by players.

It changes things for us too: our raid and dungeon pages won't be able to list boss drops until someone gets them.

Season of Discovery class quests are coming back

MMORPG.com asked whether there would be more class quests. Greenfield said Season of Discovery was close to the team's heart and that some of its class quests made it into Forever, some are new and some were expanded. Whatever doesn't make launch can come later: they want to do more.

He didn't say which ones. In Season of Discovery, class quests rewarded runes and weapons, and the Paladin's ran across several phases. Whether that one returns is not confirmed.

In the previous day's Q&A, Greenfield also announced the return of a Season of Discovery currency, the Tarnished Undermine Real, which there came from dungeons and bought gear, toys, patterns and reagents. How you'll earn it in Forever is still unknown.

Gear that depends on where you fight

Both interviews explain how the horizontal progression Blizzard has been promising since BlizzCon will work:

• Biome bonuses. A piece might give you speed while you're in a desert (Nuthals and Jones, IGN Nordic). Greenfield mentions hundreds of these effects.
• Bonuses against an enemy type. For example, extra damage against dragons. Greenfield gives the example of building a dedicated dragon-slaying set.
• Old gear stays useful. The second raid tier will drop better gear, but they will raise player power "responsibly, unlike Season of Discovery", and they want pieces from earlier raids to stay worth having.
• Making epics special again. In Greenfield's words, over the years "epic" became just a color.

A bigger bank, the same bags

• The default bank is two or four times bigger than in Classic. Greenfield didn't give the exact figure.
• Bags start the same as the original. They'll expand storage over time, when it's needed.
• Already in the beta: around level 3 or 4 there's a new quest in Dun Morogh (Grund and Gozwin) that rewards a 6-slot bag that binds on pickup. Wowhead thinks each starting zone has its own. And if you have a free slot, the new bag equips itself.

Barbershops

There will be barbershops. Creator MrGM confirmed it from the BlizzCon demo, and there is one confirmed in Stormwind (presumably the other capitals have one too). You can change your hairstyle, body type and, it seems, everything you can pick at character creation, and even toggle the high-definition models while you choose. Whether it costs gold is unknown. On the beta's first day, barber chairs threw an error (it's on the known issues list).

Combat, addons and UI

• Slower combat than Classic. From level 10-15, a mob takes 10 to 15 seconds to kill, and if you pull three or more you'll probably die (Greenfield, MMORPG.com). We cover it in the pillar article too.
• Addons. The plan is to follow what modern WoW does, which matches what was said in the Q&A.
• Built-in damage meter: yes.
• Modern WoW's Cooldown Manager: probably not in the beta, but they want to add it.
• The minimap is neither Classic's nor modern WoW's. It's Forever's own.

The world: add, don't destroy

• Greenfield says they want to be very careful with changes that blow up the world. Cataclysm was cool, but it had a cost. The idea is to add, not destroy.
• Azshara has more quests. Wetlands has new lighting and art.
• In northern Elwynn Forest there's a kobold cave with no quest. Nuthals uses it as an example of where new content can go. Existing questlines have also been expanded.
• Servers remember who you meet. According to IGN Nordic, if you run into someone in Elwynn, the system takes it into account so you meet again later.
• Duskwood is spookier. Hazzikostas and Longdale use it as an example of the new lighting: carrying a torch or lantern lights things up in real time. They stress it's not just an engine upgrade, because environment artists reworked the scenery by hand.
• The camp's campfire lasts 10 minutes and has a one-hour cooldown. You can't place one in cities or too close to another (Greenfield). The rest of the system is in professions and camping.

Regions and patches

Hazzikostas and Longdale confirmed that regions won't be connected to each other and that patches will roll out staggered by time zone, coordinated with weekly resets and off-peak hours.

On bringing Forever features to modern WoW, they said the modern team is looking into it (server infrastructure, lighting or surnames), but it's not like flipping a switch. In the same day's Q&A, the Forever team was firmer about surnames: they're not coming to modern WoW during the Worldsoul Saga.

Does my graphics card work? The new requirement

Blizzard published an official notice: at launch, Forever requires a GPU based on one of these microarchitectures or newer:

The reason is technical: the new visuals rely on a feature cards started shipping around 2012. Blizzard notes that the compatible cards in the table are still well below the game's minimum requirements, which are listed on the Battle.net Shop. On Windows, your card shows under Settings > System > Display > Advanced display.

The beta's first day: known issues

Blizzard opened the beta with a list of known issues. The ones you'll notice while playing:

• Barber chairs throw a LUA error.
• Friends are disabled in the beta.
• The minimap may be partly off-screen.
• The character pane doesn't show level, class or titles.
• Opening Legacy (Y key) before level 25 causes errors.
• Guild charters couldn't be signed; while it's fixed, they can be turned in with no signatures.
• The glancing blow figures on the character sheet are wrong.
• Several talents and racials don't fully work yet, such as the Paladin's Vengeance or the Night Elf Priest's Starshards, and Holy Strike doesn't gain much per rank. Most are fixed in the next beta build.

The full list is on the official forum (linked in the sources), and Blizzard keeps it updated.

Quick answers

Will I see item stats before I get the item?

No. According to Josh Greenfield, every item is obfuscated: you won't see its stats until it drops for you or someone on your server. There will be no Dungeon Journal either.

Are Season of Discovery class quests coming back?

Some of them. Greenfield says some are in Forever, some are new and some were expanded, and they want to do more after launch. He didn't say which.

Will WoW Forever have barbershops?

Yes. You can change your appearance, including body type, and there is one confirmed in Stormwind. Whether it costs gold is unknown.

Does my graphics card work with WoW Forever?

You need at least an AMD Graphics Core Next 1 (2012), NVIDIA Maxwell (2014) or Intel Skylake (2015) GPU. A Radeon HD 6950 or a GeForce GTX 780, for example, won't work. You also need to meet the minimum requirements on the Battle.net Shop.

How much bank space is there?

Two to four times Classic's, according to Greenfield, who didn't give the exact figure. Bags start the same as the original.

If you're not in the beta yet, the guide to getting in is up to date. Whatever comes out of the beta goes into news, videos and clips.