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.
Blizzard's final pre-launch notes raise class damage across the board, give mobs more health, bring Elemental Shaman back to Lightning Bolt, hand Rogues Shank and Death Mark, and say big tuning waits until after raids open. Every class, the forum reaction, and what it means on November 4.
Blizzard posted a final racial tuning pass on October 26, the night before name reservation and with the beta already closed, then added Orc, Troll and Undead changes on October 27. Every change for Human, Dwarf, Tauren, Orc, Troll, Undead and Skyborne, why Blizzard says it made them, what the 300-post reaction thread is angry about, and what it means for the race you reserve today.
The last big WoW Forever beta build before launch redesigned Arcane Blast, added Frost Blast to replace rank 1 Frostbolt, made wands and Auto Shot require 0.5 seconds standing still, turned totems and auras raid wide, rebuilt the Elemental Shaman tree and reshaped Shadow Priest. Every class change and what testers think of them.
The October 15 WoW Forever beta build deleted the weapon specialization racials and replaced them with flat crit and crit damage, slowed Blood Fury, put a 25 second cooldown on Touch of the Grave and buffed Troll, Skyborne and Gnome. Every change, what it means for your race pick, and why the forums lit up overnight.
The October 1 WoW Forever beta build raised the cap to 30, gave Warriors 100% more rage on crits, rebuilt the Fury tree, made respecs 1 silver, nerfed Gnome Eureka again and locked Tauren Cultivation behind player level. Plus the 16 Legacy point grant, what the devs said on the class podcast, and the rough launch night.
Everything Blizzard changed in the WoW Forever beta between September 21 and 23: client build 1.60.1.69977 with Mac and gamepad fixes, the second attempt at the A Firm Response quest, the realm restart that freed stuck characters, and the EU routing fix. Plus what testers found after the build, and what is not in any notes.