THE WOW FOREVER COLLECTION · DISPATCH · RESEARCH CHECKED NOVEMBER 8, 2026
Short answer: in two interviews recorded in the first 48 hours after launch, WoW Forever's developers said there will never be flying mounts. The Black Market Auction House is a deliberate gold sink, and a second vendor puts a hard price ceiling on Black Lotus and other rare reagents. The Tier 1 set is split across all three launch raids, with the same item level at every raid size. Raid bosses should feel like typical Naxxramas fights, harder than Molten Core. Shaman and Druid talents are the only trees on Kris Zierhut's radar for a big rework, and that won't come before early next year. Separately, world first 60 Jokerd reports that a developer told him level 60 quests giving no gold is intentional. Blizzard hasn't said that publicly.
The two videos are Crix's interview with Kris Zierhut and Tim Jones (published November 5, about a day after launch) and MrGM's interview with Zierhut and Josh Greenfield (November 6). We went through both auto-caption transcripts rather than relying only on the summaries. Timestamps are given so you can check them yourself.
Raids: Tier 1, difficulty and how Hyjal is built
Raids open on December 9, and MrGM's video confirms the launch is global. Note that the date came from MrGM, and the developer replied about the global part without correcting it. Our raids explainer covers sizes and Onyxia's attunement. Here is what's new:
- Tier 1 is split across all three raids. Zierhut told Crix (11:51): "the tier one set is split across all three. If you want to finish your set, you're going to have to go to all three." Jones added that item level is "pretty level" across raid sizes, since raid size changes how hard a raid is to organize, not how hard the bosses are. If you only raid in 10s, you can still get most of the set, just not all of it.
- Difficulty target. On MrGM (17:35), the goal is "the typical" Naxxramas encounter, "not the hard ones", and specifically not Four Horsemen, but "harder than" Molten Core, which "was too easy". Fights will be long enough that "you're going to hit that cool down multiple times."
- Barrow Deeps, the 10-player raid, gets compared to Karazhan rather than UBRS. The developers expect you to be able to pug it "a couple of weeks in or a couple of months in". It has three entrances, in Winterspring, in Hyjal and in one of the dungeons, and each leads to a different section (Crix, 26:14).
- Hyjal Summit opens three wings after the first boss, and you have to clear all three to reach the last part (Crix, 25:56). Some summaries put this on Barrow Deeps, but in the video Jones is answering a question about Hyjal.
- Hidden loot stays hidden. Items can be flagged so their data isn't sent to the client "until somebody gets it", and "we're going to keep doing it every time we make new" dungeons and raids (MrGM, 20:58). That explains the hidden item stats problem and why early BiS lists stop at pre-raid gear.
- Chase items. Every raid boss has "some lower chance to drop chase items", some at a higher item level (MrGM, 29:03). A new legendary staff came up only in passing.
- Buffs and stacking. Shaman totems are raid-wide, raid buffs last an hour, Blessing of Salvation is gone (tank threat is built in instead), and Blessing of Light is now a deep Holy talent. "When we look at 20 player raid, you can get all of the... required buffs with 10 people" (Crix, 13:30).
- Attunements. Onyxia and Karazhan are the models. Tempest Keep and Mount Hyjal went "too far", and Karazhan is "the upper limit" (Crix, 26:56).
- PTR. There will "very likely" be one for stability, but the team "somewhat doubt[s]" raids will ever go on it (MrGM, 22:07).
The economy: BMAH and a Black Lotus ceiling
Zierhut called players "walking printing presses" of gold (MrGM, 11:47), and both of these systems exist to pull that gold back out.
The Black Market Auction House launched "conservative" (12:04), with "a few mounts and a few pets". It also sells dungeon set pieces, which you need for the Lord Valthalak quest chain and the Legacy point that comes with it. Greenfield said the beta selection was "pretty wild" and got toned down. Rivendare's Deathcharger "is not there", though "that doesn't mean it might not be there at some point in the future" (13:32).
Next to it, a second vendor "sells a bunch of rare resources including black lotuses for a gold price" (12:37). That sets a ceiling: the price "will never go above this". If you're planning flasks or a profession around Black Lotus, that vendor price is the most you should ever pay on the Auction House.
Crix also got a date-less promise that the Auction House minimum deposit goes back to 1 copper: "coming. Not yet" (8:24).
No gold from quests at 60: what we know
At max level in Classic Era and retail, quests pay bonus gold instead of XP. In Forever they currently pay nothing extra. Jokerd, whose group got the world first 60s, said on stream on November 7 that he asked a Blizzard developer about it and was told "it is an intentional change". According to Wowhead and Output Lag, he also said a weekly quest with a random gold reward may come instead.
Neither interview mentions it, and Blizzard hasn't posted anything about it. The forum threads "Level 60 no longer gets bonus gold for quests in place of exp" (US, 46 posts) and "No gold from quests at lvl 60? Seriously?" (EU, 40 posts) had no Blizzard reply as of November 8. Treat the weekly quest as a secondhand report for now. The no-gold part is easy to check, and the first 60s are seeing it.
Shaman, Warlock and Mage
Crix asked about the Shaman Classic Discord protest. Zierhut said (14:44): "I think some of their issues are legitimate and some of their issues are they're mad that they can't have improved Ghostwolf. But there are some legitimate issues there."
- Enhancement "should want to wear strength and intellect and spell power", the same as a Ret Paladin, and "we don't want enhancement shamans running around in cloth robes" (15:01). That matches the November 10 class tuning, which makes Strength their best stat.
- Elemental. Zierhut said he personally made the late call to cut Lava Burst and bring back a stronger Chain Lightning, and "it still could have used a little more cook" (15:21).
- Talent reworks. "I wouldn't be surprised if early next year we revisit the shaman talents... It's not going to be sooner than that." Druid talents are the only other tree "on my radar for significant change early next year" (15:37). Numbers tuning can come sooner, once raid data is in.
- Voidwalkers. Zierhut said he'd "have somebody look at voidwalker health" against 1.15 and pointed out that Forever pet stats scale with yours (18:03). That was before Blizzard announced the Tuesday fix.
- Frost Mage PvP. The 31-point talent's 20% frost damage increase is "going to be dispellable", and battlegrounds, not arenas or duels, are the center of PvP balance (27:28).
- PvP gear. You buy Honor gear first and then "convert it" into the higher-rank epic gear (28:47).
Everything else worth knowing
- Flying. "We're not going to put flying [mounts] in this game. Not going to happen." Then: "never say never. That's kind of a never" (MrGM, 7:03). Maps are filled in "as if you could fly" anyway.
- Quest help. The goal is "enough quest information that it's comfortable and they don't feel like they have to install" Questie. Lines they won't cross include flying mounts, rated arenas and "shared mob tagging" (MrGM, 23:55). That last one matters right now, with zones packed this weekend (see our overcrowded layers dispatch).
- Layers. Speaking a day after launch, the developers told Crix they had spread players too thin and were raising layer density (2:04). From November 7 players started complaining about the opposite problem.
- Weather. Weather that affects gameplay was "cut long before launch" but is "something we want to explore in the future", with groups of Shamans changing the weather as one idea (Crix, 10:43).
- Patches. Two big updates about four months apart, each with "a 10-man and a 20man raid" (Crix, 25:14). We covered the update schedule when IGN first reported it.
- Legacy raids like Molten Core will come back reworked to surprise players, with no timing given (Crix, 23:39). Gilneas is the Cataclysm version for now, but it's on the map for later (MrGM, 10:10).
Sources: MrGM, WoW Forever Developer Interview with Kris Zierhut & Josh Greenfield (YouTube, November 6, 2026); Crix Forever, WoW Forever Dev Interview: NEW Raid Info + Shaman & Warlock Fixes? (YouTube, November 5, 2026); Wowhead summaries, Black Market Auction House, Global Raid Launch, Quest Helpers - MrGM Interview (November 7, 2026), Raid Rewards and PvP Balance - Crix Interview (November 6, 2026) and Shaman Talents Revisited Early Next Year (November 6, 2026); on quest gold: JokerdTV, Level 60 Quests Gold (Twitch clip, November 7, 2026), @ClipsForeverWoW (November 7, 2026), Wowhead, Quests Give No Gold at Level 60 in WoW: Forever (November 7, 2026), Output Lag, WoW Forever quests pay no extra gold at level 60 (November 7, 2026), Icy Veins, Quests Do Not Reward Gold at Level 60 in WoW Forever (November 7, 2026), and the forum threads Level 60 no longer gets bonus gold for quests in place of exp (US, November 7, 2026) and No gold from quests at lvl 60? Seriously? (EU, November 7, 2026), post counts checked November 8, 2026.