WoW: Forever Beta Hits Level 30 and Adds Uldaman, but Dungeon Quest XP Bonus Is Halved

Blizzard's latest World of Warcraft: Forever beta build lets testers level to 30, opens Razorfen Downs, Uldaman and a brand-new dungeon called Excavation Site: Wetlands, and cuts the bonus experience from dungeon quests by half. The changes are listed in the beta development notes that Blizzard updated on 1 October.

This article is built on those official notes and on Blizzard's beta announcement. Readings of the XP change are attributed to PC Gamer, and community reaction to Reddit threads; nobody outside the beta can measure levelling speed yet, so we have not tried to.

What's in the 1 October beta build?

The headline is the level cap. Blizzard said when the test opened on 17 September that it would start at 20 and rise to 30 later in the beta; the new notes state that players "can now level up to a maximum of level 30". Three dungeons arrive with it, on top of the eleven that were already playable.

The rest of the build is a long list of class and system changes. The ones most likely to matter to anyone playing the beta are below.

How much did dungeon XP actually drop?

Less than the word "nerf" suggests, at least on paper. Blizzard's note says dungeon quests now give "50% less extra experience beyond normal quest values", and the developers tie it directly to feedback on levelling speed. In other words, the cut applies to the bonus on top of a normal quest reward, not to the whole reward.

PC Gamer makes the same point after admitting a knee-jerk reaction of its own: in WoW: Forever, dungeon mob kills give considerably less experience, and the design leans on generous dungeon quest rewards to push players through each dungeon once or twice and then back into the open world. Halving the bonus keeps that structure but makes dungeon-only levelling slower.

Not everyone is convinced. Threads such as one on r/classicwow asking Blizzard to revert all dungeon-related XP changes, posted on 2 October, show that players who prefer levelling through dungeon groups see it as a step in the wrong direction. Blizzard has not published XP-per-hour figures, so neither side can yet point to hard numbers.

Why is Kyle's Gone Missing in WoW: Forever?

The Mulgore quest was not part of the original 2004 game. As IGN recounts, it was added in patch 2.1.2 in June 2007 to honour Ezra Chatterton, a Make-A-Wish child who voiced the quest-giver and created Kyle the dog. Because WoW: Forever rebuilds the pre-expansion world, the quest was missing until players asked for it in a Blizzard forum thread, where community manager Kaivax replied that the team was working on it.

It is now listed under Mulgore in the 1 October notes. IGN says it can be picked up in Bloodhoof Village from level 5.

What it means for beta players

If you are in the beta, there is now content up to level 30 until the test ends: Blizzard says 21 October is the last full day of testing. As our earlier report on the beta cap notes, PC Gamer says beta progress will not carry over to launch, so treat the extra levels as a preview rather than a head start.

If you are waiting for launch on 4 November (23:00 UTC), the useful signal is direction of travel: Blizzard is still tuning levelling pace and PvP costs build by build, so specific numbers in this build may change again before release. Everything else we publish on the game lives on our WoW: Forever hub.

What we don't know yet

Blizzard has not said whether the dungeon XP change will ship at launch unchanged, how levelling speed compares with WoW Classic, or when the open "Server Slam" window will happen; the beta announcement still says details will come closer to the date. We will update this article if Blizzard revisits the XP change before 21 October.