THE WOW FOREVER COLLECTION · DISPATCH · RESEARCH CHECKED NOVEMBER 11, 2026
Short answer: in WoW Forever, a quest you hand in at level 60 does not convert its XP into bonus gold the way it does in Classic Era. Blizzard confirmed on November 10 that this is deliberate, because the conversion rewarded players for sitting on a full log of finished quests until 60. To make up for the lost income, a hotfix dated November 10 adds gold to most quests of level 48 and above, including ones that never paid gold before. The gold is on the quest itself, so you get the same amount at 55 as at 60. There is no longer any reason to save quests.
What was missing
In Classic Era, a quest completed at max level pays extra gold in place of the experience you can no longer use. That turned leftover quests in Winterspring, Silithus and the Plaguelands into mount money, and the standard advice was to finish a full log of quests at 59 and hand them all in after you dinged.
The first Forever players to reach 60 found that it doesn't work here. Jokerd, whose group took the world first 60s, said on stream on November 7 that he had asked Blizzard developers and was told the change was intentional. Icy Veins reported it that day and MeinMMO the next. We noted it in our developer interview roundup as something Blizzard hadn't addressed.
A US forum thread, "Gold at 60 for quests", opened on November 7 with: "Quests are basically useless at 60 if they don't have a reward." It reached 240 posts and about 18,800 views.
What Blizzard said
Kaivax answered in that thread at 21:56 UTC on November 10. The removal was planned:
When we evaluated the economy going into WoW: Forever, we made a conscious choice to disable the XP-to-Gold conversion for quests completed at maximum level.
The post gives the history. The conversion "was originally introduced in 2006 in the weeks leading up the original Burning Crusade launch", meant as a gold boost for players finishing up before the expansion. Blizzard kept it for Classic in 2019 and chose not to for Forever, because it "created an incentive for players to hold a full quest log worth of completed quests to hand in after hitting level 60 for maximum gold returns." Taken to its end, Kaivax wrote, the best way to level was to grind mobs and not hand in quests at all, "which is not a design we want to retain in WoW: Forever."
Then the admission. Only "about 25% of quests in the game actually provide raw gold rewards", so removing the conversion was "a slightly more negative change than intended to gold income as you get closer to level 60."
The fix: gold on level 48+ quests
The November 10 hotfix notes, posted a few hours later, list it in one line: "Most quests level 48 and higher now additionally reward gold."
Details from the two posts:
- It applies by quest level. A quest with a quest level of 48 or more qualifies, whatever level your character is.
- Quests in that range that never paid gold now do.
- You get the gold when you hand the quest in, at any level, alongside the XP if you can still use it.
Three kinds of quest are left out, according to the developers' notes: those that "already reward valuable items", repeatable quests, and those that are "quick, easy, or trivial to complete". So don't expect extra coin from a breadcrumb that sends you across a zone to talk to someone, or from reputation turn-ins.
Blizzard hasn't published the amounts. Nobody had posted a before-and-after comparison in the thread when I checked, so I can't tell you yet how a typical level 55 quest compares with what Classic Era paid for the same quest at 60. Kaivax's stated aim is that you "should feel adequately rewarded with gold" for doing quests at the appropriate level.
What this changes for you
Hand quests in as you finish them. The old trick is dead on purpose. A quest log full of completed quests at 59 gets you nothing extra at 60, and you lose the XP in the meantime.
The last twelve levels are where the money is. Zones with quests at 48 and above (Felwood, Un'Goro, Winterspring, the Plaguelands, Burning Steppes, Silithus) now pay gold on most quests. If you were planning to grind mobs through the 50s, questing is a better deal than it was on Monday.
Leftover quests at 60 are worth doing. They still give no bonus for the unused XP, but most of them now carry a gold reward of their own, plus reputation.
It isn't a replacement for a profession. Blizzard described the change as fixing a shortfall. With no token and gold buying being actively punished, your steady income at 60 is still gathering, crafting and dungeon drops. Our profession leveling routes and the Merchant's Favor guide cover that side.
The reaction
Kaivax's reply has over 100 likes, which is a lot for a blue post in a complaint thread. One of the first responses: "Quests giving consistent gold whether you do them at 59 or 60 makes sense, and doesn't punish people for handing them in 'too soon'". Another says "I hated holding onto quests pre-60".
Not everyone wanted a fix. Before the reply, one player argued that scarce gold is the point: "the little 5 gold coins I have right now at level 23 mean something." Others think Blizzard is managing the economy too tightly, with one calling Forever "an endless gold farm till 60".
There is one loose end. Jokerd also said a weekly quest with a gold reward might be coming. Kaivax's post doesn't mention one, and nothing like it is in the hotfix notes, so that stays a secondhand report.
Sources: Kaivax, Blizzard forums, Gold at 60 for quests (thread opened November 7, 2026; Blizzard reply November 10, 2026, 21:56 UTC; post count and views checked November 11, 2026, 07:30 UTC); Kaivax, Blizzard forums, WoW: Forever Hotfixes - November 10, 2026 (posted November 11, 2026, 03:27 UTC); Ease, Icy Veins, Quests Do Not Reward Gold at Level 60 in WoW Forever (November 7, 2026); Starym, Icy Veins, More Gold! Most Higher Level Quests Are Getting an Added or Buffed Gold Reward (November 10, 2026); Karsten Scholz, MeinMMO, Spieler von WoW Forever bemerkt auf Stufe 60 krasse Neuerung (November 8, 2026).