WoW Forever isn't a Classic server with extra content bolted on. At BlizzCon, Blizzard showed that everything around the adventure — how you pick a server, how you travel, what you do between fights — has been rebuilt too. Here's what is confirmed, no rumors.
Goodbye, realm list
Forever has no realms. When you create a character you pick a ruleset: Normal (PvP only by mutual consent), PvP, Roleplaying and, after launch, Hardcore. You can't group across rulesets, and factions stay separate.
Hardcore is a closed box: if your character dies it can move to any other ruleset, PvP included. Collections and Legacy Points are account-wide, but progress only flows out of Hardcore, never in.
Another day-one change: names have two parts (first and last), unique per region.
Riding: your mount is no longer a gold wall
Mounts are priced the Burning Crusade way: the cost moves into riding training, and you get the mount when you learn the skill. What doesn't change is one of Forever's design rules: no flying mounts. No level scaling either. The journey matters.
Getting around, there are new ship routes, including the Steamwheedle Cartel line from Tanaris to Riverglades.
The campfire becomes a camp
Cooking Fire becomes a Basic Campfire that sets up a campsite: resting, vendors, repairs and profession workspaces. Each profession can add an object with its own one-hour buff — a blacksmith's sharpening wheel, a tailor's banner, an herbalist's incense candle — up to three at a time. Advanced blueprints drop from dungeon bosses.
Professions and items
- 600+ new recipes across professions and level ranges. Cooked food grants a small XP bonus on top of stats.
- Hit and crit are unified, and items carry less weapon skill.
- Trinkets become situational (against a creature type, in a specific environment).
- Unique dungeon boss drops are blue.
Legacy: account progress that doesn't break characters
Legacy Points come from account-wide challenges (exploring, leveling classes and professions, reputations, dungeons and raids) and are spent per character across three trees: Professions, Adventure and Resourcefulness. At launch each character can spend 16 points, and up to 65 can be earned. Blizzard named three perks: Well Rested, Bountiful Harvest and Reagent Economy.
Opt-in transmog
Transmog exists, but you can switch it off at transmogrifiers in certain cities; Classic Mode turns it off automatically. Appearances are still collected while it's off.
What we don't know yet
Blizzard announced changes to Honor without details, and legendary rewards haven't been shown. The beta starts on September 17, capped at level 30 — that's where the first hard data will come from. We'll keep adding it to the roadmap and the game pages.
