Start Here — Guides · WoW Forever

WoW Forever is a new take on original Azeroth: the level cap is 60, the world grows with new zones and dungeons, and familiar classes and races get new choices. This guide covers what to decide before you log in and what's different from Classic Era.

WoW Forever launches worldwide on November 4, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. PST; the first raids unlock on December 9. See the dates in your time zone

Level cap: 60
Rulesets at launch: 4
Races: 9
Classes: 9
Legacy points per character: 16
Dual specialization: Level 40

1. Choose a ruleset

WoW Forever has no realms to choose from: you pick a ruleset, and everyone on it shares a larger world. Choose with your friends, because you can only group, run dungeons and raid with players on your ruleset and your faction.

WoW Forever rulesets compared
Ruleset	What it means	Factions	Open-world PvP	Available	Good for
Normal	The baseline: exploration, questing and cooperation, with player-versus-player combat optional.	Both factions on one account	Optional	At launch	Players who mostly quest, run dungeons and raid.
PvP	More danger: open-world conflict when you travel through contested territory.	One faction per account on this ruleset	In contested territory	At launch	Players who want world PvP on the road to 60.
Roleplaying	For players who want to immerse themselves in Azeroth's fantasy and meet like-minded adventurers.	Both factions on one account	Optional	At launch	Roleplayers and players who enjoy a slower, in-character world.
Roleplay-PvP	Roleplaying with player-versus-player rules, added to the launch lineup on October 22.	Not detailed yet	Not detailed yet	At launch (open for name reservation from October 27)	Roleplayers who also want world PvP.
Hardcore	One life: death has lasting consequences. A fully separate ecosystem; a character that dies can transfer to another ruleset.	Both factions on one account	Not detailed yet	After launch, date not announced	Players who want every death to matter.

Grouping, dungeons and raids stay within one ruleset; cross-ruleset groups aren't supported, and Horde and Alliance can't group together.
Battlegrounds can bring players from different rulesets together, except Hardcore, which stays separate.
You can't move a character to another ruleset: to play there, create a new character. A Hardcore character that dies is the exception: it can transfer to another ruleset.
Collections and Legacy Points are shared across your rulesets; Hardcore's Legacy progress carries over to the others, not the other way round.
Set your language under Options → Languages and Social → Preferred Online Language. It's account-wide and can be changed once every 24 hours; it also shapes who you meet.
To keep factions balanced, Blizzard may briefly limit new characters of one faction on a ruleset.

2. Create your character

A first name and a surname

Every character has two names, like a first name and a surname. What has to be unique is the full pair, across your whole region: two characters can share a first name as long as their surnames differ, and a family can share a surname.

Asha Brightvale · Thalen Brightvale · Mira Brightvale

You can hide the second name in the game world; it still shows in chat.
Both names follow the code of conduct, and they're checked together: a banned word split across them is still banned.
Early Name Reservation runs from October 27 to November 3, 2026 for upgrade owners, first come, first served.

Race, class and faction

9 races across the Alliance and the Horde: the original eight and the Skyborne, who pick a faction at character creation. Six familiar races gain a class:

NewThe Skyborne start on Zephras Isle (levels 1–12) and need the Skyborne Heroic Pack or a higher edition.

Races and racials Talent Calculator

3. Understand Legacy

Each of the 65 account challenges you complete (class levels, profession skill, dungeons, raids, exploration and PvP) earns one Legacy Point, shared by every character on your account.

Each character spends up to 16 points on its own perks, and points beyond that keep counting toward a toy, a pet, a tabard and the Spectral Bear mount.

Legacy challenges Legacy calculator

4. What's different from Classic Era

Riding

Level 40 · 60% speed · 100 gold · a mount comes with the training
Level 60 · 100% speed · 1000 gold

Not final Blizzard's notes describe training that includes a mount; the prices come from the developers' interview and may change.

Two talent builds for one character
Unlock Dual Specialization at level 40 to maintain a second talent build; trainer respecs still apply when changing the builds themselves.
Classic Era: Era has one active talent build and requires paid trainer resets to change it.
More in What's New Talent Calculator
A mount comes with riding training
Forever adopts the Burning Crusade-style approach described in its Deep Dive: learn the riding skill and receive a mount, with the up-front cost shifted into training.
Classic Era: Era players purchase riding training and a mount separately.
More in What's New
Appearance collection, with an opt-out
The announced system can be disabled to see equipped gear. Eligible dungeon looters share Uncommon/Rare bind-on-pickup appearances; epic raid appearances go only to the player who receives the item.
Classic Era: Era shows equipped gear and has no transmog collection.
More in What's New
Familiar trees, new turning points
Forever revisits all nine classes and adds a 16-point milestone. Key buffs such as Divine Spirit, Blessing of Kings, and Improved Mark of the Wild move into baseline class tools.
Classic Era: Era builds use the original 1.12 talent trees and their 11/21/31-point milestones.
More in What's New
Racials with new trade-offs
Ruthless (Human), Savage (Orc), and Earth Fury (Dwarf) replace the weapon specializations with critical strike chance or critical damage and healing. Eureka! is an 8-second buff that cuts Mana, Rage, or Energy costs by 10% and adds 10% damage. Stoneform reduces Physical damage instead of boosting Armor; Will of the Forsaken removes Charm/Fear/Sleep without lasting immunity. Cannibalize also restores Mana.
Classic Era: Era Humans, Orcs, and Dwarves gain weapon skill; Gnomes gain bonus Intellect; Stoneform increases Armor, and Will of the Forsaken includes lasting immunity.
More in What's New Every changed racial
Build a useful roadside campsite
Basic camps support three contributed objects, one per player, with a shared one-hour object cooldown. Resting can grant one-hour buffs or access to repairs, vendors, and workspaces; matching class buffs do not stack.
Classic Era: Era’s Cooking Fire is not a multi-profession camping system.
More in What's New Camping guide
Honor to spend, ranks to earn
Forever Honor is spendable currency; Rank Points separately advance ranks with weekly limits. Seasonal tasks reward both, and selected tasks award Legacy points.
Classic Era: Era Honor feeds weekly rank progression; gear purchases depend on the earned rank.
More in What's New Honor and ranks
A built-in Cooldown Manager
An optional manager tracks class cooldowns, racials, and trinkets in the October 8 beta. Consumable tracking is still planned, not part of that supported set.
Classic Era: Era’s default UI has no Forever-style customizable Cooldown Manager.
More in What's New

Where to go next

Classes in WoW Forever: Warrior, Paladin, Hunter, Rogue, Priest, Shaman, Mage, Warlock, and Druid.

1. Choose a ruleset

2. Create your character

A first name and a surname

Race, class and faction

3. Understand Legacy

4. What's different from Classic Era

Riding

Two talent builds for one character

A mount comes with riding training

Appearance collection, with an opt-out

Familiar trees, new turning points

Racials with new trade-offs

Build a useful roadside campsite

Honor to spend, ranks to earn

A built-in Cooldown Manager

5. Your first steps

Where to go next