Everything new in WoW Forever: classes, talents, races, zones, dungeons and dates

World of Warcraft: Forever is the new permanent version of WoW that Blizzard announced at BlizzCon on September 12, 2026: the Azeroth of 2004, capped at level 60 for good, but with reworked classes, a new race, zones and dungeons that never existed, and systems designed from scratch. The beta starts on September 17, launch is November 4, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. PST (midnight CET on November 5), and the first raids open on December 9. It is included with a WoW subscription (or Game Time); only the Skyborne race requires a paid pack.

This is wow4ever's reference guide to everything we know as of September 15, organized and with every fact labelled by where it comes from. When something comes from Blizzard's official text, we say so; when it comes from Wowhead's talent calculator, the BlizzCon demo or the press, we say that too. We will update it as soon as the beta starts producing data.

What WoW Forever is and how it differs from Classic

For years the community used "Classic+" for the idea of a WoW Classic that, instead of moving on to The Burning Crusade, stayed in the original world and kept growing. Forever is that idea turned into a product: Wowhead's BlizzCon Day 1 roundup called it the long-awaited Classic+.

Blizzard describes it as a new permanent home alongside modern WoW and Classic, not a replacement for either. It has its own rules, its own progression and its own timeline.

When it takes place

Forever is set after Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom and before Molten Core. It is "Year 1" of Azeroth: Kazzak has not reopened the Dark Portal yet, and the game lives in its own time bubble. That is why Arthas is still in Northrend and Illidan in Outland, as the team told Screen Rant, and why Dalaran, Hyjal or the Barrow Deeps can get new stories without breaking canon.

The design rules

Blizzard summed Forever up in four pillars: approachable and familiar, the world as the main character, the journey before the destination, and protecting social experiences. Those pillars turn into some very concrete rules, all confirmed at the panels:

• No flying mounts.
• No level scaling: a level 40 zone stays a level 40 zone.
• Leveling matters as much as the endgame.
• A normal enemy should take about 10-15 seconds to kill solo, and crowd control and threat matter again in dungeons.
• The cap is 60 and it is not going up. Tim Jones, lead designer on Classic, explained it to Screen Rant: latecomers will find people waiting at 60, because nobody leaves for a higher level.

Everything the developers told the press is in our roundup of the interviews.

Forever versus original Classic, at a glance

Key dates, editions and price

Calendar

How much does it cost?

Forever is not sold separately: Blizzard says it requires a World of Warcraft subscription or Game Time, the same one that covers modern WoW and Classic. What is for sale are three optional packs:

Blizzard's pre-purchase page does not list prices in its text. Wowhead reported that the Heroic Pack costs 29.99 (dollars or euros); we haven't found a reliable, sourced price for the other two, so we don't give one.

Two more pre-purchase details: Invite-A-Friend codes let friends play from November 4 to 11 without a subscription, and name reservation lets you create up to three characters, first come, first served. And what won't be sold: in his interview with Wowhead, Clay Stone said there are no plans for a WoW Token or character boosts. Everyone starts at level 1.

Classes and talents

Forever keeps Classic's nine classes and adds none. What changes is almost everything else: Blizzard has confirmed that every class and specialization is being revamped.

How to read this section

There are two levels of certainty, and they shouldn't be mixed:

• Confirmed by Blizzard. Talent trees keep Classic's structure and number of rows. There are one-point "milestone" talents at 11, 21 and 31 points, plus a new one at 16. Some talents are unchanged from patch 1.12. Divine Spirit, Blessing of Kings and Improved Mark of the Wild become baseline abilities, so they no longer cost points. Hit and critical strike chance are unified into a single stat for spells, melee and ranged. For the Paladin, Blizzard gave full detail.
• Wowhead calculator. For the other eight classes, the talents come from the calculator Wowhead built from the panels and the demo. Wowhead itself warns the data is "mostly accurate" but that per-rank values may be wrong, and it will rebuild the calculator from the beta. It lists 470 talents across 27 trees.

For each class we give the tree and the row (1 to 7; row 7 holds the 31-point talent). Every tree can be tried out in the calculator on each class page.

New race and class combinations

Blizzard confirmed six new combinations, plus the Skyborne ones:

The full matrix is in the races section. In his interview with Kotaku, Tim Jones drew another line: no unusual role combinations at launch, such as Season of Discovery's tank Shaman.

Paladin

The Paladin is the class Blizzard explained in depth, and the one that changes most. What is confirmed from the Deep Dive panel:

• Holy Strike is learned at level 6: an instant weapon strike dealing Holy damage, on a 12-second cooldown.
• Seals are no longer consumed by Judgement.
• Seal of Fury, the new tank seal: it favours fast weapons, grants small absorb shields, and its Judgement is a taunt. Wowhead adds that this taunt reaches 10 yards, beyond the usual 5.
• Consecration becomes baseline at level 20, with heavy damage and threat on the first four targets.
• Holy Shock moves to a 10-second cooldown.
• Its limits stay: no interrupt, none of the slows other classes have, and taunting only through Seal of Fury and Judgement.

New or reworked talents Blizzard named:

• Light's Vigil — Holy, row 7. Marks a target for 30 sec: your next Holy Shock on it costs no cooldown and heals its whole party or strikes the enemy, refunding some mana.
• Infusion of Light — Holy, row 4. Holy Shock and Flash of Light crits shorten your next Holy Light.
• Voice of Truth — Holy, row 3. Six seconds of immunity to silence and interrupts.
• Templar's Bulwark — Protection, row 5. A shield absorbing as much as your maximum health for 8 sec, on a 5-minute cooldown.
• Iron Creed — Protection, row 6. More threat from Holy Strike and, with Righteous Fury, less damage taken.
• Swift Judgement — Protection, row 4. Resets Judgement and makes the next one free.
• Twist of Light — Retribution, row 7. When you swap seals, your next swing also applies the old seal: "seal twisting" returns as an intended mechanic.
• Champion of the Light — Retribution, row 6. Turns part of your Intellect into spell power.
• Sacred Arbiter — Retribution, row 4. More Holy Strike damage, and Holy Strike refreshes your Judgements on the target.

Undead Paladin. It is the headline combination of the reveal. It gets its own questline at Bandarion Keep and a level 60 epic mount, the Forsaken Charger. Wowhead highlights Blizzard's framing: Alliance paladins claim their charger in the name of Redemption, while the Forsaken ride in the name of Retribution.

Class page and calculator: Paladin.

Warrior

Blizzard hasn't detailed Warrior-specific changes beyond the general revamp; what follows comes from Wowhead's calculator. The recurring idea is to give each tree a tool it didn't have in Classic:

• Spearing Strike — Arms, row 4. An attack with bonus damage against giants, dragons and mounted targets, which it knocks off their mounts.
• Weaponmaster — Arms, row 5. A different perk per weapon: crit with axes and polearms, armor penetration with maces and staves, extra attacks with swords.
• Improved Slam — Arms, row 6. A faster Slam that no longer resets your swing timer.
• Raging Blows — Fury, row 4. Whirlwind also strikes with your off-hand.
• Boundless Rage — Fury, row 3. 30 more maximum Rage.
• Vanguard — Protection, row 4. Lets you Charge in Defensive Stance.
• Bastion — Protection, row 6. Up to 10% more damage with a shield equipped.

New race: Skyborne of both factions. Class page and calculator: Warrior.

Hunter

Humans can be Hunters for the first time, and so can the Skyborne. In talents (Wowhead calculator), the Hunter gains options for playing without a pet and a much more melee-focused Survival:

• Summon Hawk — Beast Mastery, row 4. A hawk that attacks for 18 sec; shares a cooldown with Arcane Shot.
• Deadly Aspects — Beast Mastery, row 1. A chance to speed up your attacks depending on your active aspect.
• Lone Wolf — Marksmanship, row 3. 20% more damage while you have no pet.
• Sniper Shot — Marksmanship, row 7. A slow, powerful long-range shot.
• Careful Aim — Marksmanship, row 2. Attack power based on your Intellect.
• Predator's Edge — Survival, row 4. More melee critical damage and more off-hand damage.
• Lacerating Strikes — Survival, row 7. Mongoose Bite also leaves a bleed.

Class page and calculator: Hunter.

Rogue

No new combinations apart from the Skyborne. In Wowhead's calculator, the Rogue gets abilities veterans will recognize from later expansions:

• Mutilate — Assassination, row 5. Strikes with both weapons, with extra damage against poisoned targets.
• Venom — Assassination, row 7. A finisher that boosts your poisons and their chance to apply.
• Restless Blades — Combat, row 4. Finishers reduce the cooldowns of Adrenaline Rush, Blade Flurry, Evasion, Sprint and Vanish.
• Hack and Slash — Combat, row 5. A perk per weapon: extra attacks with axes and swords, crit with daggers and fist weapons, armor penetration with maces.
• Cutthroat — Subtlety, row 6. Backstab can let you Ambush without being stealthed.
• Thousand Cuts — Subtlety, row 7. Rupture makes your next Hemorrhage or Backstab cheaper.

Class page and calculator: Rogue.

Priest

Gnomes can be Priests. Blizzard confirmed that Divine Spirit becomes a baseline ability. The rest comes from Wowhead's calculator:

• Penance — Discipline, row 5. A channeled burst that damages an enemy or heals an ally.
• Divine Aegis — Discipline, row 6. Critical heals leave a shield.
• Twin Disciplines — Discipline, row 1. More power on your instant spells.
• Prayer of Mending — Holy, row 7. A heal that bounces between party members when they take damage.
• Binding Heal — Holy, row 4. Heals an ally and yourself at once.
• Litany of Light — Holy, row 5. Refunds mana when you alternate between different healing spells.
• Devouring Contagion — Shadow, row 5. A cheaper Devouring Plague that jumps to another enemy if the target dies.

Class page and calculator: Priest.

Shaman

The Shaman opens up to Dwarves on the Alliance side and to Windshaper Skyborne on the Horde side. Blizzard called out the Dwarf Shaman by name on the official page. In talents (Wowhead calculator):

• Lava Burst — Elemental, row 7. Molten lava at the target, with extra damage if it has your Flame Shock.
• Lightning Overload — Elemental, row 5. A chance to cast a free half-damage copy.
• Maelstrom Weapon — Enhancement, row 6. Melee hits build stacks that make Lightning Bolt cheaper and faster.
• Rage of the Farseer — Enhancement, row 7. 25 seconds of faster attack and cast speed.
• Spirit Weapons — Enhancement, row 5. Lets you parry and adjusts threat depending on your weapon imbue. It is not a full tank Shaman: Blizzard ruled that role out for launch.
• Riptide — Restoration, row 7. An instant heal with a heal-over-time that empowers your Chain Heal on that target.
• Water Shield — Restoration, row 3. Orbs that return mana when you are hit or land a critical heal.

Class page and calculator: Shaman.

Mage

Orcs can be Mages, as can High Order Skyborne. From Wowhead's calculator:

• Arcane Blast — Arcane, row 3. A stacking spell: each cast raises its damage and sends its cost soaring.
• Missile Barrage — Arcane, row 4. Your spells can leave you faster, free Arcane Missiles.
• Hot Streak — Fire, row 4. Crits shorten Pyroblast's cast, stacking up to three times.
• Wake of Fire — Fire, row 1. Fire Blast with a shorter cooldown and more crit after a kill.
• Ice Lance — Frost, row 3. An instant spell that triples its damage against frozen targets.
• Fingers of Frost — Frost, row 5. Your chill effects can make your next spell treat the target as frozen.

Class page and calculator: Mage.

Warlock

Trolls can be Warlocks. Comparing Wowhead's calculator with Classic's trees, this is the class with the most talents that didn't exist before, and its damage curses show up there as banes:

• Drain Hope — Affliction, row 7. A Shadow channel that also raises your other periodic damage on the target.
• Pandemic — Affliction, row 3. Your periodic effects and drains can crit much harder.
• Soul Harvesting — Affliction, row 2. Killing with Drain Soul supercharges your mana regeneration.
• Decimation — Demonology, row 4. A faster Soul Fire that costs no shard against low-health enemies.
• Demonic Pact — Demonology, row 7. Demonic Sacrifice is no longer lost when you summon another demon.
• Incinerate — Destruction, row 7. A Fire bolt with extra damage if the target is burning with your Immolate.
• Bane of Havoc — Destruction, row 5. A cursed target takes part of the damage you deal to others.

Class page and calculator: Warlock.

Druid

Blizzard confirmed that Improved Mark of the Wild becomes baseline and that Skyborne Druids get their own forms: bear, cat, a bird travel form and moonkin (no tree form has been seen). Talents from Wowhead's calculator:

• Eclipse — Balance, row 5. Wrath speeds up your next Starfires.
• Insect Swarm — Balance, row 4. Periodic Nature damage that also lowers the enemy's chance to hit.
• Mangle — Feral Combat, row 4. A bear-form attack on a short cooldown.
• Berserk — Feral Combat, row 7. For 15 sec, Mangle hits three targets with no cooldown and frees you from fear.
• Natural Reaction — Feral Combat, row 6. More dodge and Rage on dodge, aimed at tanking.
• Wild Growth — Restoration, row 7. A heal-over-time for the whole party.
• Gift of the Earthmother — Restoration, row 3. Lowers the global cooldown of your heal-over-time spells.

In the calculator, Feral Combat is listed as a damage tree, although the class keeps all four roles. Class page and calculator: Druid.

Races: the Skyborne and the new racials

The Skyborne

The Skyborne (they call themselves shen'dorei, "the hidden people") are the only new race. They are elves who fled Eldre'Thalas after the War of the Ancients and found refuge in Skywall, the elemental plane of air. What makes them unique is that they choose a faction at character creation:

• Windshapers, on the Horde: they can be Shamans.
• High Order, on the Alliance: they can be Mages.
• Both can be Warriors, Hunters, Rogues and Druids.

They start on Zephras Isle (levels 1-12) and require the Skyborne Heroic Pack or a higher edition. According to Ana Resendes of the development team, speaking to Inven, there are no plans to bring them to modern WoW. The full story is in our Skyborne article, with pages for the High Order and the Windshapers.

Every race gets new racials

Blizzard confirmed that every race now has two active and two passive racials. Official text exists only for Dwarves and Undead; the rest were seen in the demo and compiled by Method and Wowhead, so they may change.

The most relevant official changes: Dwarven Stoneform now reduces physical damage taken instead of raising armor; Find Treasure can run alongside other tracking; Will of the Forsaken removes fear, charm and sleep but no longer grants immunity; and Cannibalize restores mana as well. Among the demo racials, the Skyborne's Walk on Air lets you glide downward for 10 seconds but not fly, and the Tauren's Cultivation grows herbs anyone can gather.

The world: zones, dungeons and raids

Blizzard promises more than 1,000 new quests across levels 1 to 60. Josh Greenfield gave GameSpot some context: each new zone brings between 50 and 200 quests, and older zones get new batches. The world also looks different: global illumination, volumetric fog, flowing rivers and shadows that follow the sun, without changing the art style, plus an HD or SD character model toggle.

New zones

Expanded and refreshed zones

Getting around, there are new ship routes: Stormwind Harbor – Auberdine, Menethil – Southshore – Auberdine, and the Steamwheedle Cartel line from Tanaris to the Riverglades.

The nine new dungeons

Blizzard confirmed nine new dungeons for launch. The level ranges in this table are the ones Blizzard published to clarify Krol'dok Stronghold, which the press had reported as 40-55; according to that clarification, as reported by Wowhead, it is 40-45.

The Drowned City was the playable dungeon at BlizzCon: Kotaku describes fully underwater corridors, naga, murlocs and a shark pool, and estimates around 8-9 bosses. None of the nine has published boss names yet. What is official: all dungeon loot has been reviewed, boss-unique items become blue, and some bosses drop advanced camping blueprints.

Raids and battleground

Raids have a fixed size and fixed difficulty, with no flexible mode. Mike Nuthals and Tim Jones told Kotaku that every phase will have at least one 10-player and one 20-player raid. New tier sets and a legendary reward have been announced but not shown.

In PvP, the Darkspear Islands battleground arrives, 15 versus 15, mixing control points with flag captures. Blizzard has announced changes to Honor without details.

Systems: what changes when you log in

Each of these systems has its own wow4ever article; here is the short version.

No realms: rulesets

There is no realm list. When you create a character you pick Normal (PvP only by mutual consent), PvP, Roleplaying or, after launch, Hardcore. You can't group across rulesets, and Horde and Alliance stay separate. Names now have two parts, first and last, unique per region. Full detail in No realms: rulesets, Hardcore and surnames.

Hardcore

It won't be there on November 4: it arrives in winter 2026-27. It will be a closed ecosystem with a way out: a character who dies can transfer to another ruleset, PvP included. What you earn in Hardcore can flow out to the other modes; nothing from outside flows in.

Legacy

Account-wide progression that doesn't break the character. Legacy Points come from challenges (exploring, leveling classes and professions, reputations, dungeons and raids) and are spent per character in three trees: Professions, Adventure and Resourcefulness. At launch each character can spend 16 points, and up to 65 can be earned. Summary in the system changes.

Transmog and items

Transmog exists, but you can turn it off, and Classic mode disables it by default. In dungeons, the whole group gets the appearance of uncommon and rare drops; in raids, it doesn't. On top of that, hit and crit are unified, trinkets become situational and there are hundreds of new items. All of it in Transmog and items.

Professions and camping

More than 600 new recipes. The Cooking Fire becomes a Basic Campfire that sets up a campsite with resting, vendors and up to three profession objects with one-hour buffs. Cooked food gives a small experience bonus. Details in Professions and camping.

Riding, travel and controller

Mounts are priced the Burning Crusade way: the cost moves into riding training, and you get the mount when you learn it. No flying. Forever is also the first WoW designed with a controller in mind, according to Wowhead: the BlizzCon Skyborne demo could already be played that way.

The roadmap to summer 2027

Blizzard warns that dates and content may change. The full reading is in the roadmap, explained, and the official image on our roadmap page.

What we still don't know

• Bosses and loot for the nine dungeons and three raids. Not a single official name.
• Official talents for eight classes. Only the Paladin has Blizzard text; the rest relies on Wowhead's calculator, which will be rebuilt from the beta.
• Official racials for every race except Dwarves and Undead.
• Level ranges for Mount Hyjal and Shen'dralas.
• The Honor changes, the legendary reward's name and the raid tier sets.
• The 2027 content: no raid, dungeon or zone has a name, and the "revamped iconic raid" is a mystery.
• The price of the Epic Pack and the Collection, which doesn't appear in the pre-purchase text.
• Whether there will be more paid gameplay content like the Skyborne race.

When will we find out? Two dates are very close. On Thursday, September 17, the beta begins, bringing the first data pulled from the client. That same day, at 10:00 a.m. PDT, Blizzard hosts a live Q&A on the official Warcraft channels. We will update this guide and the hub pages with what comes out of both, and you'll see it first in News.

Frequently asked questions

When does WoW Forever launch?

On November 4, 2026, worldwide, at 3:00 p.m. PST (midnight CET on November 5). Before that there's a beta from September 17 to October 21-22 and name reservation from October 27 to November 3.

Does WoW Forever cost money?

You don't buy it: it's included with a World of Warcraft subscription or Game Time. The only paid part is optional: the Skyborne race requires the Skyborne Heroic Pack (29.99 according to Wowhead) or a higher edition.

Do I need a subscription?

Yes, the same subscription as modern WoW and Classic. The exception is the packs' Invite-A-Friend codes, which let friends play from November 4 to 11 without one.

Can I play the beta?

Access is guaranteed with the Skyborne Epic Pack or the Warcraft Forever Collection. Wowhead notes you can also opt in through Battle.net, with no guarantee. The beta goes up to level 30: Blizzard told Wowhead it opens capped at 20 and raises the cap to 30 later on.

What is the level cap?

60, and the team has said it doesn't plan to raise it: Forever will grow "wide", with new zones, dungeons and raids, not more levels.

Are there new races or classes?

One new race, the Skyborne, who choose Horde or Alliance at creation. No new classes, but six new combinations: Undead Paladin, Dwarf Shaman, Orc Mage, Gnome Priest, Human Hunter and Troll Warlock.

Is it the same as Classic Era or Season of Discovery?

No. Blizzard presents it as a separate permanent version, alongside Classic and modern WoW, with its own world, rules and updates. It's the closest thing to an official Classic+.

Will there be flying, a WoW Token or level boosts?

No flying mounts, by design. On the Token and boosts, Blizzard told Wowhead it has no plans for either.