THE STORIES BEHIND THE GAME
Good reads for your next queue.
Guides, big moments, and the people behind them.
World of Warcraft: Forever rebuilds every talent tree, drops realms, adds nine dungeons and a thousand quests, and keeps level 60. We went through every change against Classic, and we kept the collection we wrote before the reveal.
The October 8 WoW Forever beta build raised dungeon kill XP by about 20% and stopped the highest-level party member from dragging everyone's XP down. Josh Greenfield says dungeon leveling is now 'very close, if not equal' to optimal questing. Testers posting their own numbers say it isn't close. Here is both sides.
The October 1 WoW Forever beta build halved the bonus XP on dungeon quests, after mob XP inside dungeons had already been cut. The exact patch note, the real numbers from Wailing Caverns and Shadowfang Keep, the backlash, and the players defending the change.
The items and systems WoW Forever beta testers found that Blizzard never announced. Rockslicer's 30-charge mining effect, the Coldflame Saber for melee Mages, the new Embrace of the Viper set bonuses, the Cozy Sleeping Bag, the library book rewards, guaranteed dungeon blues, mailed loot, a doubled bank and more, with exact tooltip numbers from Wowhead's Forever database.
Dungeon mob XP is 'way down' and dungeon quest XP is 'much, much, much higher' in WoW Forever. What the devs said, what the numbers might be, and why the biggest gameplay argument of the week is about tanks.
Where the 1,000 new quests live. Four new zones, nine new dungeons with level ranges, the December raid wave, the Darkspear Islands battleground, and who the Skyborne elves actually are.