Forever vs Classic Era: what changed

Live = Blizzard confirmed for launch · Beta = seen in beta builds or beta dev notes, recheck at launch

The world

• Cap 60, across the original two continents Live
• No flying mounts, no level scaling Live
• Set after Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom and before Molten Core Live
• New 1,000+ new quests across 1-60 Live
• New Zephras Isle (1-12, Skyborne start), Riverglades (150+ quests, mid-30s to mid-40s), Mount Hyjal, Shen'dralas (between Mulgore and Desolace) Live
• Design target: a normal mob takes about 10-15 s to kill solo; CC still matters in dungeons Live
• New Mount cost moved into riding training (TBC style): you are given a mount when you learn riding Live
• Launch: 4 Nov 15:00 PST = 5 Nov 10:00 AEDT = 5 Nov 07:00 AWST Live

Combat and stats

• New Hit chance is one stat for melee, ranged and spells; crit chance is too Live
• Weapon skill works as before, but items carry less of it each Live
• Bonus healing now also grants one third as much bonus damage Live
• New New stat on some items: lowers the chance your attacks are dodged or parried Live
• New Caster weapons now carry spell damage and healing, so casters get level-up weapons too Live
• Trinkets pushed towards situational effects; New some items are tied to terrain (Woodlands, Mountains, Deserts) or creature types Live
• Spells cast at ranks far below your level get less spell power and a lower proc chance (rank 1 Frostbolt at 60 = 0% Frostbite) Beta
• Wands no longer scale with spell damage Beta
• Wands and Auto Shot need you to stand still 0.5 s before firing, as in early WoW Beta
• Several weapon swaps inside one GCD are allowed again (2H to sword and board macro) Beta
• Dungeon kill XP raised about 20%; the grey-mob XP cut is worked out per player again (Era rule), but a party member vastly above the mob still means no XP for anyone Beta
• Dungeon quests still pay bonus XP over normal quests, but that bonus was halved on 1 Oct Beta

Classes, talents, rage

• Talent trees keep the 1.12 structure and row count; one-point milestones at 11, 21 and 31 points, plus New a new 16-point milestone Live
• Talents that gave key class buffs are now baseline (e.g. Divine Spirit, Blessing of Kings, Improved Mark of the Wild) Live
• Some talents are exactly as in 1.12, others were changed; class detail lives in each #<class>-guide Live
• New Paladin and Shaman exist on both factions: we get Undead Paladins, and you will meet Dwarf Shaman in world PvP Live
• New Warrior rage from auto-attacks is normalised to the weapon's base speed, not its damage Beta
• Warrior crits with basic attacks give extra rage again: +75%, raised to +100% (double) in the same 1-2 Oct notes; bear forms got +100% on 8 Oct; early beta gave none Beta
• Beta respecs cost a temporary 1 silver; the launch price is not announced Beta

Races

• Every race has 2 active + 2 passive racials, tuned for similar offensive value Live
• Weapon-type racials are gone for good: Blizzard does not want loot judged by "required" weapon types (final racial pass, 26 Oct) Live
• New New Horde combos: Orc Mage, Troll Warlock, Undead Paladin Live
• New Skyborne: faction chosen at creation; Horde Skyborne (Windshapers) can be Druid, Hunter, Rogue, Shaman or Warrior; needs the Skyborne Heroic Pack or higher Live
• Full list: Races and racials

Professions and camping

• Two primary professions plus all three secondary, as before Live
• New 600+ new recipes; crafted food can give a small XP bonus; advanced Blueprint recipes drop from dungeon bosses Live
• New Camping: Cooking's fire becomes a Basic Campfire; nearby players add up to 3 camp features (one each); sit or craft 1 min to get the buffs Live
• Camp features share a 1 h cooldown; camp buffs do not stack with the matching class buff (e.g. Fishing Bowl vs Blessing of Kings) Live
• New Upgraded campfires hold 5 or 10 features; camps can offer vendors, repairs and workstations (Alchemy Lab; Tanning Rack, needed for advanced Leatherworking) Live
• New New Horde trade faction: Durotar Supply and Logistics (Merchant's Favor) Live
• Detail: Professions

Legacy (account progression)

• New 65 challenges at launch, 1 point each, shared by all your non-Hardcore characters Live
• Each character spends up to 16 points in three trees (Professions, Adventure, Resourcefulness) Live
• One character alone can earn 29; earned points also unlock cosmetics Live
• Detail: Legacy system

Dungeons and loot

• New 9 new 5-player dungeons for 13-60: Hall of Thanes, Ruins of Lordaeron, Excavation Site, City of Dalaran, The Drowned City, Krol'dok Stronghold, Alcaz Prison, Blackmaw Hold, Shaper's Terrace Live
• Every dungeon drop re-examined, hundreds of new drops; unique boss items are now blue; set bonuses improved Live
• Quest rewards widened for more roles (Mor'ladim's quest now also offers a caster ring) Live
• World-drop epics improved; hundreds of new rare-mob drops Live
• New A BoP green or blue from a dungeon gives its appearance to every eligible looter, so nobody needs to roll for looks Live
• Raid epics give the appearance only to the player it binds to Live
• City of Dalaran needs an attunement chain; Horde start "Key to the City" and "Prison Break-In" from Magus Wordeen Voidglare in Tarren Mill Live

Presets, transmog, UI

• New First login asks for a preset. Classic: SD models, no quest blobs, no one-bag, transmog off, classic UI. Enhanced: HD, quest blobs, one-bag, transmog on, centred UI Live
• Every preset setting can be changed later in Options; HD or SD is per character (Options or a barber) Live
• New Transmog is opt-in, set at a transmogrifier in certain cities; appearances still collect while it is off Live
• Transmog follows armour type; level limits on appearances only lift once a character reaches 60 Live
• Poor and Common items grant their look on loot, no binding needed Live

• New Cooldown Manager (from retail): off by default, Options > Gameplay Enhancement; covered all classes, racials and trinkets by the 8 Oct beta; consumables later Beta
• New Official gamepad support, launching in a beta state Live
• New Party voice can use Discord (Audio settings; the party leader's setting applies) Beta
• Thunder Bluff now has a barbershop (switch HD or SD models there) Beta

Realmless rulesets

• New No realm list: pick a ruleset (Normal, PvP, Roleplay, Roleplay PvP); Hardcore comes after launch Live
• You can group, guild, run dungeons and raid only with the same ruleset AND faction Live
• No moving between rulesets: make a new character Live
• New Two-part names (first + second), unique per region Live
• Collections and Legacy points are account-wide across rulesets; Hardcore progress flows out, never in Live
• OCE players connect to Australian-based servers (Blizzard, 27 Oct) Live
• ! unconfirmed: day and night follow NA time; Blizzard is asking whether to split it (official podcast 29 Oct, via Icy Veins recap)

Our ruleset: Horde on PvP

• On the PvP ruleset you are "almost always at risk of being attacked by opposing players" (Blizzard's wording), from questing to camping Live
• Once you make a Horde character on the PvP ruleset, every character you make there is Horde Live
• Normal, Roleplay and Hardcore allow both factions; PvP does not Live
• Faction balance: Blizzard may temporarily limit new character creation for a faction on PvP rulesets (Season of Discovery style), so make planned alts early Live
• Camps are a target: Blizzard says the risk at a campsite rises when enemy players find it on a PvP ruleset Live
• Battlegrounds can put us against players from other rulesets (not Hardcore) Live
• Hardcore (after launch) is its own space; a dead Hardcore character can transfer out, including to PvP, but nothing moves into Hardcore Live
• Horde are attacked on sight in Dalaran; the City of Dalaran dungeon is still open to us, but the Horde Sewer Key chain no longer gives free run of the city Beta
• Hall of Thanes (13-18) is beneath Ironforge, so Horde groups travel into Alliance land for it; Ruins of Lordaeron (15-20) is an easy run from Undercity Live

PvP

• New Darkspear Islands: 15v15 battleground off Dustwallow Marsh (Darkspear Raiders vs Theramore Expeditionary Force), levels 30-60; 4 capture points plus a central flag; first to 2,000 points wins Live
• Honor (currency) and Rank Points (progress) are separate; ranks have a weekly cap Live
• Honor buys a blue set and an epic set; an epic piece = the blue piece + an Emboldened Seal (rank-gated) Live
• Seasons have a weekly-task journey; 3 of its tasks each grant a Legacy point Live
• Honor rates evened out across battlegrounds; holiday-week battlegrounds give more Live

Raids and roadmap

• 9 Dec: Barrow Deeps (10 players, 8 bosses), Hyjal Summit (20, 13 bosses), Onyxia's Lair (40) Live
• All three planned to reset weekly Live
• Onyxia: everyone needs the Drakefire Amulet in their bags; the Horde chain starts at Warlord Goretooth in Kargath and runs through LBRS and UBRS Live
• Hyjal Summit and Barrow Deeps bring new tier sets and a legendary reward Live

Plans, not launch facts:

• Every tier will have a 10-player and a 20-player raid; the 40 is "an exception that we're starting with" (Tim Jones, interview via Icy Veins)
• Roadmap (via Icy Veins), no exact dates: Hardcore (winter 2026); spring 2027: 2 raids (10 and 20), 2 dungeons, 2 new race/class combos; summer 2027: a revamped iconic raid, a new raid, 2 dungeons, profession and Legacy updates

Sources Blizzard launch · Deep Dive · What's Next · Rulesets · Return to Azeroth · Raids · Dungeons · Camping · PvP · Beta dev notes · Icy Veins rage · Icy Veins roadmap