World & Raids
Blizzard's pitch is that the world is the main character — that Forever is about “unfinished corners of the original world, forgotten ruins, and the spaces between the places players have traveled for decades.” More than a thousand new quests are woven through the 1–60 journey rather than stacked at the end.
On this page 5 sections
Source tiers
- Official or client data
- Verbatim reporting, hands-on
- Provisional or placeholder
- Our analysis
→ PvP
The new 15v15 battleground, the honour ranks, and the ruleset you choose once at character creation and can never change.
The four new zones
Blizzard's What's Next recap names four new areas; Blizzard Watch's roundup counts three because it drops Shen'dralas. Blizzard wins. Level ranges for Mount Hyjal and Shen'dralas appear in no Blizzard source — both are endgame zones, and that is all that is stated. At the beta's cap of 30 both are reachable on foot through Desolace, but their content is above the cap.
| Zone | Level | What's there |
|---|---|---|
| Zephras Isle | 1–12 | The “elemental skybound” starting experience — Classic aesthetics blended with Skywall-inspired architecture. Home of the Skyborne. Pack-gated — requires the Heroic Pack or higher, in beta as at launch |
| Riverglades | mid-30s to mid-40s no numeric range given | Eastern Kingdoms. Rivers, grasslands, trade routes, struggling communities and old grudges. 150+ new quests. Contains Krol'dok Stronghold |
| Mount Hyjal | Endgame no range stated | The aftermath of Archimonde's defeat, including Darkwhisper Gorge. Hosts both Hyjal Summit and Barrow Deeps |
| Shen'dralas | Endgame no range stated | “A long-hidden mystery between Mulgore and Desolace” — tied to the Shen'dralar, Eldre'Thalas, Dire Maul and the region's centaur tribes |
Hyjal was playable in Cataclysm, but Forever's timeline branches from 2004. This is the post-Archimonde version of the zone, on its own continuity — not a port of the Cataclysm one.
Existing zones and restored cut content
Existing zones expand with more explorable places, quests, items and content, much of it drawn from material cut or left unused in vanilla. Several of the nine dungeons double as open playable areas with their own quests — Dalaran is the cited example.
The world itself was re-lit rather than remade: flowing rivers in Elwynn Forest, mist over Darkshore's waters, moonlight through Ashenvale's trees, “while preserving the timeless art style of original Azeroth.” All of it toggleable between HD and SD.
The nine new dungeons
This is Blizzard's own table, published by blue post after BlizzCon to correct a range that had been shown incorrectly.
This page previously attributed these level ranges to Blizzard Watch and Wowhead “not Blizzard's own recap”, and marked Krol'dok Stronghold as disputed. Both were wrong — Kaivax posted the full nine-dungeon table with levels, which also settles Krol'dok at 40–45 and gives the dungeon's name as Alcaz Prison. A caveat that understates your sourcing is as much an error as one that overstates it. Corrections.
| Dungeon | Level | Location and hook | In beta? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hall of Thanes | 13–18 | Royal burial chambers beneath Ironforge. Alliance-leaning; Horde can sneak in | Since 17 Sep |
| Ruins of Lordaeron | 15–20 | Tirisfal. Lingering Scourge and a necromancer preparing another attack; Horde-leaning — you help the Forsaken reclaim it | Since 17 Sep |
| Excavation Site: Wetlands | 26–31 | Rogue Titan constructs above Whelgar's Excavation, Wetlands — an outdoor dungeon just north of Dun Algaz. Its boss Shadetooth drops the Greenhouse Blueprint B | Since 1 Oct |
| City of Dalaran | 28–33 | The barrier has fallen — malfunctioning enchantments, constructs and demons. The wider city is also explorable. Alliance enter with a key from Image of Archmage Modera outside; Horde earn a Dalaran Sewer Key through a Tarren Mill quest chain B | Since 8 Oct |
| The Drowned City | 35–40 | Risen troll ruins off Stranglethorn's coast — trolls, Naga and pirates | No |
| Krol'dok Stronghold | 40–45 | A large outdoor Ogre dungeon in the Riverglades | No |
| Alcaz Prison | 48–53 | The previously inaccessible prison in Dustwallow — Defias against Naga | No |
| Blackmaw Hold | 55–60 | A Furbolg city behind Azshara's long-unused gate — a corrupted, demon-dealing tribe, not Felwood's Timbermaw. Devs: “probably a bit bigger than BRD” but not a mega-dungeon B. Its tunnels lead to the Barrow Deeps | No |
| Shaper's Terrace | 58–60 | A Titan facility in Un'Goro Crater | No |
It is only implied that all nine ship at launch, and Blizzard does not state a group size for any of them — five-player is our inference. Two new dungeons arrive in each of the Spring and Summer 2027 updates B — possibly from this list, possibly on top of it. Every classic dungeon up to Razorfen Downs and Uldaman is also open in the beta. Expect no dungeon maps: a developer said Forever “probably won't have” them.
Hands-on: The Drowned City
Warcraft Tavern ran it on the BlizzCon show floor and called it “MASSIVE” — a Zul'Farrak / Sunken Temple-style layout that opens up as you descend. Makrura give way to Risen Troll Sentries and then Naga. Two bosses were seen: Zul'Alai, with a hard enrage near death and painful AoE, and Zin'aka, higher level and able to “truly devour your tank.” Tight packs make it good for AoE farming and lethal for a sloppy group.
Raids — the new raids unlock 9 December 2026
Blizzard's own words are “New raids unlock on December 9” — which may deliberately exclude a returning raid. Wowhead and Warcraft Tavern say Onyxia also opens on 9 December; Blizzard Watch says it is available at launch. No Blizzard text has settled it (checked 8 Oct). The time of day raids unlock is not announced either. Boss counts above come from Blizzard's Legacy article (“all 13” Hyjal, “all 8” Barrow Deeps).
🔴 No attunements for the new launch raids. Devs Ana Resendez and Clayton Stone, asked directly: the new raids at launch will not require attunement, though some raid content may need items carried in. Onyxia's Lair keeps a traditional attunement — the only raid that does at launch (Aggrend, official podcast ep. 3) B.
One difficulty, always. There are no heroic or mythic versions of dungeons or raids, and content does not scale to you: “The difficulty will always be the same” — so you can out-level and out-gear it. That is also why raid sizes are fixed at 10, 20 and 40 rather than flex.
These bring new tier sets and “a legendary reward we're looking forward to revealing in full” — still unrevealed as of 9 October.
Raid sizes are fixed at 10, 20 and 40 — one raid at each size in this tier. There is no flex raiding; Blizzard chose set sizes deliberately. The 10/20/40 spread means fewer redundant DPS slots than a vanilla 40-man, but far more raid groups, since a 10-man forms trivially.
Grouping, lockouts and anti-boosting
| Item | Status |
|---|---|
| Lockouts | Unannounced No raid or dungeon lockout lengths have been published |
| Attunements | Answered None for Barrow Deeps or Hyjal Summit; Onyxia's Lair only. City of Dalaran has a Horde key chain (Alliance get the key outside) |
| Dungeon finder | No, and the design points away from it Meeting stones exist outside dungeon entrances and open an LFG listing window — but do NOT summon or teleport. “You're going to either have to hoof it to that door or have a Warlock to port party members over.” Explicitly to “encourage some interaction among players and reinforce the importance of ramp-up time”. A Group Finder listing tool exists in the beta — listings, not matchmaking |
| Dungeon XP | Rebalanced twice At the beta's open, dungeon kill XP was low and dungeon quest XP very high. On 1 Oct Blizzard cut the quest bonus: “Dungeon quests now reward 50% less extra experience beyond normal quest values.” On 8 Oct it raised dungeon kill XP ~20% and stopped the highest-level party member penalising everyone's kill XP (a vastly higher member still zeroes it). Stated intent: dungeon XP per hour roughly equals questing A |
| Anti-boosting | No WoW Token and no paid character boosts, the party-level XP rule above, and GDKP runs are not allowed. Blizzard closed nearly 4,000 gold-buying and gold-selling accounts during the beta |
Forever five-mans are slow, CC-led and tank-gated, with no automated matchmaking and no summoning. Threat retention degrades past one pack. Source tier A — official Blizzard or live client data: A A solo player needs 10–15 seconds per ordinary mob. That is the maximal-tank-demand configuration, and the strongest structural argument for rolling a tank in this game.
PvP
Darkspear Islands — the new battleground
Blizzard's Battle for the Darkspear Islands article (7 October) gives the rules: a 15 vs 15 battleground off Dustwallow Marsh for levels 30–60. Teams fight over four capture points plus a central flag carried back to an owned base; first to 2,000 points wins. A
Horde fight as the Darkspear Raiders (base: Merchant Coast), Alliance as the Theramore Expeditionary Force (base: Northwatch). Each has a reputation with vendors (trinkets, rings, cloaks, weapons, armour), Marks of Honor turn-ins and an Exalted questline ending in a tabard. Queue at battlemasters in the capitals and in the Barrens.
Note Blizzard's own plural — Islands. Earlier descriptions (“control points with Arathi Basin-style flag captures”, or Output Lag's “Eye of the Storm rule set”) were both pointing at this points-plus-one-flag shape. In the beta it was promised “as the beta continues”; no post says it opened, but the 8 Oct notes fix a Shipwreck Cove capture point D.
Progression
14 ranks per season, earned with Rank Points from battlegrounds and PvP quests, with a weekly Rank Point cap (value not stated). Every rank has a published reward, from a tabard at rank 1 to epic weapons at 14. Honor — from kills, battlegrounds and PvP quests — buys a blue set and an epic set; an epic piece is the blue piece plus a rank-gated Emboldened Seal. On 1 Oct the Honor cap went from 15,000 to 25,000 and costs went up ~50%. A
Unannounced: rank thresholds, the weekly cap value and decay rules. Arena is not mentioned in Blizzard's PvP article — treat it as unannounced, not confirmed-absent. PvP.
The PvP ruleset
PvP is one of the rulesets you pick instead of a realm, and it allows one faction per account, with Season of Discovery-style creation limits for faction balance. You cannot switch ruleset later. Battlegrounds may include players from other rulesets, except Hardcore.
On the Normal ruleset, PvP requires mutual consent. There is no War Mode.
Alterac Valley is named by Blizzard. The Legacy article counts “Exalted with each Battleground reputation” as four points, so there are four battleground reputations, and the beta client carries Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin maps. That the four are WSG, AB, AV and Darkspear is our inference D.
Class notes for PvP
- Frost Mage — Ice Lance and Fingers of Frost are the first real additions to Classic Frost's kit; Improved Counterspell now always grants a shorter silence from one point (duration not given), Ice Block is the 16-point gold talent, and Cold Snap moved to 21 points with a 10-minute cooldown. Against 15v15 objective PvP this is the strongest version of Frost ever shipped in a Classic-lineage game.
- Arms Warrior — Mortal Strike is unchanged at 31 points, so Arms remains the PvP answer. Spearing Strike at 16 needs Battle Stance (no longer a two-hander), doubles damage against mounted targets, Dragons and Giants, and forcibly dismounts. Retaliation and Shield Wall drop to 15-minute cooldowns.
- Orc casters — Blood Fury now grants Spell Power, not just Attack Power. Paired with Shatter Curse and Hardiness (−20% stun duration), Orc is a strong caster PvP race — but Blizzard called the Orc and Troll actives “perhaps a little too strong” B, and the 15 October build cut them: Blood Fury now has a 3-minute cooldown, and Shatter Curse dispels Curses and Banes and cuts magic damage taken by 5% Source tier A — official Blizzard or live client data: A.
Legacy hooks
The Player vs. Player Legacy category is worth 12 points: ranks 3, 7, 10, 13 and 14 (5), Exalted with each battleground reputation (4), and Season's Journey weeks 4, 7 and 10 (3). For Great Honor gives +2% Honor per rank, and High Alert (up to +2 effective levels for stealth detection) is explicitly disabled in Battlegrounds. Hardcore replaces the PvP challenges with twelve of its own.
Roadmap: a PvP Season Refresh in both the Spring 2027 and Summer 2027 updates B.
Synced to the knowledge base (400.20.2, 400.70.1, refreshed 9 Oct) · Last updated 9 October 2026