World of Warcraft: Forever opened its gates at 23:00 UTC on 4 November 2026, 3 p.m. Pacific, midnight in central Europe. It is Blizzard’s standalone branch of the 2004 game: the original level 1 to 60 journey, rebuilt with new zones, new dungeons and a story set in the first year of the world, running alongside retail and Classic rather than replacing either. Game time is all you need; the Skyborne race is the only paid piece.
What is in the box
- A level cap of 60 with no planned increase. Catching up means levelling, not buying a boost.
- The Skyborne race on both factions: Windshaper Skyborne for the Horde (they can be shamans) and High-Order Skyborne for the Alliance (they can be mages), starting on Zephras Isle for levels 1 to 12.
- Six new race and class pairs for existing races: Orc Mage, Troll Warlock, Undead Paladin, Human Hunter, Gnome Priest and Dwarf Shaman.
- Nine new five-player dungeons across levels 13 to 60, among them Hall of Thanes, Ruins of Lordaeron, Excavation Site: Wetlands, City of Dalaran, The Drowned City, Krol’dok Stronghold, Alcaz Prison, Blackmaw Hold and Shaper’s Terrace.
- New and reworked zones: Mount Hyjal, Shen’dralas, the Riverglades with more than 150 quests for the mid 30s to mid 40s, and Zephras Isle.
- The Darkspear Islands battleground, 15 against 15, off Dustwallow Marsh.
- A camping system that upgrades the cooking fire into a shared campsite, and an account-wide Legacy system so your alts inherit what your main unlocked.
Rulesets instead of realms
There are no realm lists to agonise over. Each region has one large realm per ruleset: Normal, PvP, Roleplay and Roleplay-PvP, with Hardcore to follow in winter. Your character has a first and last name, and the full name is unique per region, which is why the name reservation on 27 October mattered. Pick the ruleset for how you want to play; everyone on it is in the same world.
The first night
Launch nights are measured in queues and hotfixes. Blizzard opened an investigation into escort quests that were failing to complete, and the Ruins of Lordaeron dungeon quests gained new prerequisites within the first day, both documented in the news feed on this page. Neither is a reason to wait. The levelling curve is long, the opening zones are busy in the best way, and the fixes arrive while you are still deciding which dungeon to run first.
As of 7 November 2026: the launch held up. Queues were capped at about five minutes on launch night, the login servers were overloaded for a short time at 00:02 CET, and a party-invite bug across versions was fixed with a restart (live coverage by Mein-MMO and PCGH). The first five characters reached 60 in the early hours of 7 November, all on the European Normal ruleset (worldfirst60.com, armorywowforever.com and race.aotc.gg).
The announced roadmap
- 9 December: the first three raids open: Barrow Deeps (10 players), Hyjal Summit (20 players) and Onyxia’s Lair (40 players, with an attunement).
- Winter 2026 to 2027: the Hardcore ruleset.
- Spring 2027: two raids, two dungeons, a new playable area and legendary questline, a PvP season refresh.
- Summer 2027: a revamped iconic raid, a new raid, two dungeons, professions and Legacy updates.
If you are starting this week, the first-days guide covers the choices that are hard to undo: ruleset, race and class, the experience preset, and what to buy at level 40.
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