World of Warcraft: Forever Launches November 4: What a Subscription Covers and What the Packs Add

World of Warcraft: Forever launches on November 4, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. Pacific time. Blizzard's September 12 BlizzCon announcement says access is included with a World of Warcraft subscription or Game Time, and that three optional upgrade packs sold on the Battle.net Shop add a new race's starting experience, beta access, 30 days of game time and cosmetics. A physical Collector's Edition is also on sale through the Blizzard Gear Store while supplies last.

Forever is a full new World of Warcraft game built alongside modern WoW and Classic, and Blizzard is explicit about what that rules out. "This is not a mode, a season, or a new version of Classic," the What's Next panel recap says. The game sits after the events of Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom and before Molten Core, returns to the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, and stops at level 60.

A new game on the original continents

More than a thousand new quests fill the level 1 to 60 journey. Mount Hyjal follows the aftermath of Archimonde's defeat and reaches into Darkwhisper Gorge. Shen'dralas turns a long-hidden mystery between Mulgore and Desolace into a story tied to the Shen'dralar, Eldre'Thalas, Dire Maul and the centaur tribes. The Riverglades open a frontier with more than 150 quests for the mid-30s to mid-40s. Zephras Isle is an elemental, skybound starting experience for levels 1 through 12.

Zephras is also home to the Skyborne, the new playable race. At character creation, each Skyborne chooses a faction: Horde-aligned characters gain the Shaman class, Alliance-aligned characters gain the Mage, and Warriors, Hunters, Rogues and Druids are open to both, with druid forms built for the race. Blizzard named nine dungeons at BlizzCon, among them the Hall of Thanes beneath Ironforge, the Ruins of Lordaeron, an excavation site above Whelgar's Excavation, the City of Dalaran, Blackmaw Hold, the Drowned City, Krol'dok Stronghold, Alcaz Prison and the Shaper's Terrace.

Two raids anchor the endgame. Hyjal Summit brings 20-player encounters to a location Blizzard calls one of Warcraft's most important, and the Barrow Deeps is planned as a 10-player challenge at maximum level. Both come with new tier sets and a legendary reward the company says it will reveal in full later. For PvP, the Darkspear Islands add a 15 versus 15 battleground that combines strategic control points with flag captures in the Arathi Basin style.

The rules follow Classic. There are no flying mounts and no level scaling, and the recap frames the intent as a continued focus on challenge, preparation, communication and cooperation. New raids unlock on December 9, with more dungeons, PvP updates, Hardcore and a revamped raid further out.

What a subscription covers and what the packs add

Every Forever player needs a subscription or Game Time. The upgrade packs change what arrives on day one rather than whether you can play at all.

The Skyborne Heroic Pack includes the Skyborne race and the Zephras Isle starting experience, Early Name Reservation, the Cerulean Prideclaw ground mount, the Shen'dorei Skyseer's Garb and the Veteran Adventurer's Rucksack, a Shen'dorei Windwell toy, Skyborne housing decor items for modern World of Warcraft, and one Invite-A-Friend Launch Code. The mount still needs the riding skill bought in game.

The Skyborne Epic Pack adds beta access, 30 days of game time that begins on November 4, more Veteran Adventurer cosmetics, tabards, pets for the Forever collection, and three Invite-A-Friend codes in total. The limited-time Warcraft Forever Collection adds Warcraft III: Reforged, the Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom campaign and Forsaken and Human figurine decor for housing in modern WoW. Blizzard says that bundle stays on sale through January 11, 2027.

Beta runs from September 17 to October 21 and comes only with the Epic pack and the Collection. Invite-A-Friend codes arrive by email from October 20, and a code lets a friend play during launch week, November 4 through November 11, without a subscription or game time; it does not include beta access. Early Name Reservation runs from October 27 to November 3 and allows up to three characters, with names reserved on a first-come, first-served basis, so a name you want is not guaranteed.

Rulesets replace the realm list

Instead of choosing a server, Forever players choose a ruleset: Normal, where player combat requires mutual consent; PvP, for contested territory; Roleplaying; and Hardcore, which arrives after launch. Each ruleset works as its own ecosystem. Cross-ruleset grouping is not supported and the factions stay separate, so Horde and Alliance players still cannot group together. Collections and Legacy Points are account-wide across rulesets, with Hardcore as the exception: progress earned there can move out, and a dead Hardcore character can transfer to another ruleset including PvP, but progress from other rulesets does not flow back in.

Names change shape as well. Characters use two-part names that are unique per region, which gives players more room to find something original. The PvP ruleset also gets systems meant to keep Horde and Alliance populations balanced, similar to the approach used in Season of Discovery.

Legacy points, campsites and opt-in transmog

Three systems carry the Classic-era design into the new game. The Legacy System pays Legacy Points for challenges such as leveling a particular class or reaching a profession milestone. Points are shared across all characters while each character spends them in its own trees, and at launch a character can spend up to 16 points out of as many as 65 that can be earned. Additional points feed a reward track that grants cosmetics such as the Spectral Bear Cub, with no competitive advantage. Camping expands the cooking fire into a Basic Campfire that creates a campsite with vendors, repairs, profession workspaces and one-hour buffs; nearby players can add up to three crafted objects, and each profession learns its own. Professions gain more than 600 new recipes, including advanced Blueprint recipes that drop from dungeon bosses. Six new class and race combinations are planned, among them Gnome Priest, Orc Mage and Undead Paladin.

Transmogrification is opt-in. A player who picks Classic Mode when first launching the game has it switched off, and anyone can disable it at a transmogrifier and see other characters in their equipped gear instead. Appearances from bind-on-pickup Uncommon and Rare dungeon drops go to all eligible looters, so nobody has to roll against a player who only wants the look. Epic raid appearances are granted only to the player the item binds to.

Where Blizzard's own labels and dates disagree

The launch time carries two time-zone labels. Blizzard's September 12 announcement opens with November 4 at 3:00 p.m. PDT, then gives the same date and hour as PST in a later paragraph and again in its footnotes, and the What's Next panel recap uses PST. The two labels differ by an hour for anyone converting to local time, and Blizzard has not published a correction.

Other details are undecided in public. No date has been set for Hardcore beyond "after launch", the legendary reward and the Collector's Edition price are unpublished, and beta access is limited to two of the three packs, which leaves Heroic pack buyers waiting for November 4. The September 12 announcement thread on the official forums drew 45 comments, and the questions raised there were about whether Forever cosmetics will carry into modern WoW, why PvP was included at all, and a request for a contrast slider for players with impaired sight.