WoW: Forever Explained: Release Date, Editions and What's New

World of Warcraft: Forever launches globally on 4 November 2026 at 3pm PST (23:00 UTC), and you do not need to buy it: Blizzard says access is included with a normal WoW subscription or Game Time. It is a new, permanent version of WoW set in a reimagined original Azeroth, with levels 1 to 60, a new playable race, nine new dungeons and two new raids planned.

This guide is built only on Blizzard's own announcements: the pre-purchase post, the BlizzCon 2026 What's Next and Deep Dive panel recaps, the PvP and battleground explainers and the beta development notes updated on 8 October. Prices Blizzard does not print are attributed to the outlet that reported them. Checked on 10 October 2026, during the beta; we will update it as the launch gets closer.

When does WoW: Forever launch in my time zone?

Blizzard's pre-purchase post gives 4 November 2026 at 3pm PST. Its main WoW: Forever news page says 3pm PDT, but US clocks go back on 1 November, so PST is the one that matches the date and the table below uses it. For most of Europe and Asia-Pacific, that means the early hours of 5 November.

Do you have to buy WoW: Forever?

No. Blizzard states that WoW: Forever, like the rest of World of Warcraft, requires a subscription or Game Time and nothing else. The three upgrade editions on the Battle.net Shop are optional. They add Skyborne race access, cosmetics, beta access and a few launch-week perks, but they are not the price of entry. Eurogamer, which reported the Epic Pack price as $59.99, £51.99 or €59.99, makes the same point: from launch the cost of entry is the monthly subscription.

Two details are easy to miss. The Prideclaw mount still needs the riding skill bought in-game before you can use it. And Blizzard lists access to the Skyborne race as an edition benefit; its launch posts do not say whether subscribers who skip the packs can unlock it some other way.

What is WoW: Forever, and how is it different from Classic?

Blizzard calls it "a new permanent home" that sits alongside modern WoW and WoW Classic rather than replacing either. In the What's Next recap the team is blunter: it is "not a mode, a season, or a new version of Classic". The story is set after the Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom campaign and before the Molten Core raid, on the original two continents, with the level cap at 60.

The design rules are deliberately old-fashioned. Blizzard lists four pillars: approachable and familiar, the world as the main character, the journey before the destination, and protecting social play. In practice that means no flying mounts, no level scaling, and levelling that matters as much as endgame. Combat keeps Classic's pace: Blizzard's own benchmark is that an ordinary creature takes a solo player roughly 10 to 15 seconds to kill, and crowd control still matters in dungeons.

Where it departs from Classic is in content and systems. Instead of replaying 2004 as closely as possible, it adds new zones, quests, dungeons, raids, a race, class changes and reworked itemisation, and Blizzard promises to keep adding to it over time.

What's new in Azeroth: zones, dungeons, raids and battlegrounds

Blizzard says the level 1 to 60 journey gains more than a thousand new quests. The table below collects every new location named in the What's Next panel recap and the Darkspear Islands explainer.

Not everything arrives on day one. Blizzard's roadmap says new raids unlock on 9 December, followed by more raids, dungeons, PvP updates, extra quests, Hardcore and "a revamped iconic raid". It has not said which raid opens first or named the revamped one.

Who are the Skyborne, and which classes can they play?

The Skyborne are WoW: Forever's new playable race, and you pick their faction at character creation. Horde-aligned Skyborne follow elemental traditions and can be Shaman; Alliance-aligned Skyborne follow an arcane path and can be Mage. Both sides can also play Warrior, Hunter, Rogue and Druid, with Skyborne-specific druid forms, plus their own racials, voices and dances.

Their starting zone, Zephras Isle, runs from level 1 to 12 and blends Classic Warcraft art with architecture inspired by Skywall. The other classic races and class combinations remain, and Blizzard says it is adding some new race and class pairings, without listing them all in the panel recaps.

How do realms work in WoW: Forever?

There are no realms to choose. According to the Deep Dive recap, you pick a ruleset instead, and each one behaves like a large connected ecosystem rather than one server.

You can group, run dungeons and raid only with players on the same ruleset, and Horde and Alliance still cannot group together. Collections and Legacy Points are account-wide across rulesets, with Hardcore as the one-way exception. Character names become two-part, like a first name and a surname, and are unique per region; you can also set a language preference to meet players who share it.

Which new systems should you know about before launch?

Four additions change how the game plays day to day, all described in Blizzard's Deep Dive:

• Legacy System: challenges such as levelling a given class earn Legacy Points shared across your alts. Each character spends them separately in trees (Professions, Adventure, Resourcefulness), up to 16 points at launch, with up to 65 points earnable. Extra points feed a cosmetic reward track.
• Camping: the Cooking Fire becomes a Basic Campfire where players rest for one-hour buffs and add up to three profession objects, such as a Blacksmith's Sharpening Wheel. The first objects unlock at profession skill 20.
• Professions: more than 600 new recipes, crafted food that can grant a small experience bonus, and Blueprint recipes dropped by dungeon bosses.
• Opt-in transmog and visuals: transmog can be switched off entirely (Classic Mode does it automatically), and there are HD or SD character models, Classic animations and official gamepad support.

One quality-of-life change is borrowed from The Burning Crusade: the up-front mount cost moves into riding training, and you get a mount when you learn the skill.

How does PvP progression work?

Blizzard's PvP explainer splits progression into Honor, a currency spent on gear, and Rank Points, which move you through the original 14 ranks towards High Warlord or Grand Marshal. Ranks have a weekly cap, which Blizzard says keeps the original foundation while making the climb more accessible. Honor buys a blue PvP set, which is upgraded to epic with Emboldened Seals that need a minimum rank; epic weapons sit at rank 14. Seasons add weekly tasks that grant Honor, Rank Points and, three times a season, a Legacy Point. Every rank reward is listed in our WoW: Forever PvP ranks and Honor guide.

Can you still play the WoW: Forever beta?

Yes, until 21 October, which Blizzard calls the last full day of testing. The ways in are an Epic Pack or Collection purchase, or an invitation if you opted in on the beta page. Blizzard has also promised a "Server Slam", a window of several hours when anyone can log in, but it had not dated it when we checked on 10 October. The beta has since been extended to 23 October, and our news on the beta extension and name reservations has the new dates.

The beta has moved fast. The cap went from 20 to 30 on 1 October, as our report on that build covers, and the 8 October notes add the City of Dalaran dungeon and raise experience from dungeon kills by about 20%; the developer notes say the changes should "dramatically increase" dungeon XP for most players. Numbers in the beta are therefore a moving target, not a preview of launch tuning.

Bringing a friend: how Invite-A-Friend launch codes work

Every edition includes Invite-A-Friend Launch Codes: one with the Heroic Pack, three with the Epic Pack or Collection. Blizzard says the codes arrive by email from 20 October and let an eligible friend play WoW: Forever from 4 to 11 November without a subscription. They do not include beta access, and gift purchases are excluded. Our beta and launch-date explainer has the full timeline.

What we don't know yet

Blizzard has not dated the Server Slam, named the raid that opens on 9 December or given a date for Hardcore. Beta tuning, from dungeon XP to class abilities, is still changing build by build. We will update this guide as each of those lands, and everything else we publish on the game is collected on our WoW: Forever hub.