If you miss the World of Warcraft of the early years, with the long walks and the quest that asks for ten wolf fangs, you get a permanent place to go back to this week. World of Warcraft: Forever launches on Wednesday, November 4, at 3 p.m. PST (11 p.m. GMT), worldwide at the same time.
A permanent Azeroth, from 1 to 60
Unlike the seasonal Classic servers, Forever is designed as a permanent home next to modern WoW and Classic. The journey goes back to the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor up to level 60, but on new ground: Blizzard promises more than 1,000 quests across new and reimagined zones such as Mount Hyjal, Shen’dralas, the Riverglades and Zephras Isle, the starting area of the new race.
That race is the Skyborne (shen’dorei), who can join either faction: Horde-aligned Windshapers can be Shamans, Alliance-aligned High-Order Skyborne can be Mages. There are other combinations nobody could pick in 2005, such as Orc Mages, Troll Warlocks, Undead Paladins, Human Hunters, Gnome Priests and Dwarf Shamans.
Dungeons, raids and the update pace
Launch brings nine new five-player dungeons for levels 13 to 60 and the Darkspear Islands battleground for 15-versus-15 fights. Three raids open on December 9: Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit and Onyxia’s Lair. Players pick between two presentation presets (Classic, close to the original, and Enhanced, with high-definition models) and four realm rulesets: Normal, PvP, Roleplay and Roleplay PvP. Hardcore comes in a later update.
In an interview, principal game designer Kris Zierhut said major updates should arrive roughly every four months, three a year, because Season of Discovery’s eight-to-ten-week pace “felt way, way, way too fast”. Each update will unlock parts over time through an event calendar, and the team wants to “unsolve” the game so guides and optimized routes do not burn through it in a few weeks.
Sources: Blizzard Entertainment and an interview with Kris Zierhut.
Max Xavier