WoW Forever Opens a Stress Test to Everyone on October 21; the Beta Ends October 23

Update, October 26: the stress test ran as planned on October 21, and Blizzard then kept the beta open two more days: it closed on October 23 at 10:00 a.m. PDT, after a last day of one-off events in the starting zones. Next comes Early Name Reservation from October 27: WoW Forever Name Reservation Opens October 27, With a New Roleplay-PvP Ruleset.

Blizzard first planned the stress test for October 19 and moved it to October 21 in an update on October 16. On the day, the beta goes offline, and WoW Forever opens on the regional hardware it will run on at launch:

European realms opened four hours before the others, and every region closed at the same moment, 01:00 UTC on October 22: eight hours of testing in Europe and four everywhere else. Blizzard announced the closing times on October 20.

Anyone with a World of Warcraft account can play. You don't need a subscription, Game Time, an invitation or beta access, and you don't need an upgrade edition.

1. Update your graphics drivers, then open the Battle.net app and let it finish any update.
2. Select World of Warcraft, open the game version menu above the Play button, choose World of Warcraft: Forever Stress Test among the versions in development, and click Install.
3. When the test begins, click Play, pick one of the test realms and create a character.

Blizzard asks players to do what a launch-day crowd would: create characters, quest, trade items, chat and group up. Problems found in these few hours are ones that won't have to be found on November 4.

When the test ends, Blizzard deletes every character, name and guild created on the stress test realms, a complete wipe ahead of name reservation. A name you take during the test is not kept, and nothing you earn carries over to launch.

Names are claimed for real during Early Name Reservation, from October 27 to November 3, by buyers of the Skyborne Heroic Pack, the Skyborne Epic Pack or the Warcraft Forever Collection. Each can create up to three characters, and names go to whoever claims them first.

The beta opened on September 17 with a level cap of 20 that later rose to 30. Blizzard first called October 21 the last full day of testing; on October 20 it set the close for 10:00 a.m. PDT on Friday, October 23, and reopened the beta after the stress test. For the last 24 hours it filled Zephras Isle, Dun Morogh, Elwynn Forest, Teldrassil, Durotar, Tirisfal Glades and Mulgore with one-off events, warning that much of what players saw won't be in the launched game. The beta closed on schedule on October 23.

Blizzard hasn't announced any way to keep beta characters, so plan to start at level 1 on November 4. The last beta builds were still changing classes and racials in mid-October: WoW Forever Beta: Racials Reworked and Group Buffs Go Raid-Wide covers the largest of them, and WoW Forever Mage Overhaul: Arcane Wrath, Frost Blast and a New Arcane Blast the Mage redesign.

The full schedule, the editions and what's in the game are in WoW Forever Launches November 4: Beta, Name Reservation and Raid Dates. Until launch, the talent calculator lets you try builds on the latest beta talent trees.