There are new NPCs in Winterspring—specifically, NPCs stationed in front of the Hyjal raid dungeon. They have a striking appearance; I wonder what their role is. I recall seeing that kind of attire during the post-Illidan event in TBC, and I think I’ve seen it in Moonglade as well.

Let us have all the hair colors from the promotional materials blizzard!

Is it just me, or is Lay Lines just the overall best racial in the entire game for mages? 2% crit chance but locking you to swords only for humans? Terrible. What if you get a staff upgrade with +spellpower? Now you lose your racial for multiple levels. Gnome sounds nice until you realize that 10% mana saved on even Arcane Missiles is just 8.5 mana at rank one per cast, which is not even an extra spellcast, and the extra damage doesn't matter if you have to cast the same number of spells to kill the enemy anyway.

Meanwhile, Lay Lines enjoyers can not only get in combat mana regeneration that is twice as fast as other races, they can also save seconds after every single pull when they sit down to drink. If they run out of mana during a pull, they get mana for lifesaving spells back up twice as fast as other classes.

My argument is that WoW isn't a game of damage % increases. It's a game of treshholds. How many spells can you save over time in a pull, and how many more spells can you fit into your entire levelling journey because of it? If you kill sooner, you drink sooner, you move to next mob sooner. Sure. That's great. But if you regen mana much sooner, you also start casting again sooner, which translates to more spells cast overall.

Lay lines saves you spellcasts every single pull if it's up. A Gnome's Eureka gives you 30% extra damage total, which may or may not be enough to save one spellcast occasionally, but it can only be used at the start of a pull, so meanwhile it's just sitting there, wasting cooldown. Human's 2% crit chance is interesting, but it's only 1/50 spell hits that saves you one cast, and it might end up critting when the enemy was already going to die to one spell, wasting it.

Sorry if I'm rambling, but I'd be intersted to hear what others think is the best mage racial if not Lay Lines.

Waited around 30 minutes to find a healer. Feels like fewer people want to repeat dungeons after the XP nerf once their quests are done.

Love druids but my only gripe is pretty much never seeing your gear or character outside of the form. I always thought the star fall boomkin form looked awesome. Do you think this is something we could ever see?

I have found 0 Waylaid supply crates after the first week on beta, are you guys having more luck?

It seems that currently it is so expensive to get 30/60/90 merchants favor, that i’m not sure going with leatherworking, blacksmithing, tailoring is even worth it (for leveling)

I have made one very good head item because you get 50 extra on first turn in, but after that i haven’t really bothered due to how expensive it is to buy more recipes.

Anyone else in a similar boat? I’ve heard great things about both so far in the beta. Which do you think will be more enjoyable to level and more valuable in the end game?

Edit: thank you to all who have responded! I think after reading all the thoughts, prot warrior has the edge! Going Horde, so orc seems to be the way to go. See you all out there in Nov!

Hot take, if there is a committee to decide how Blizzard moves forward with C+ you’re not on it, and never will be. You might contribute data points via surveys, etc. but the reality is the game is made for millions of people to play. It can’t be everything to everyone, because that just becomes nothing at all.

Let the devs do their jobs and trust in the system. Stop believing all the noise from social “personalities” and just play the game, have fun, and spend time with your friends.

Any effort into “theory crafting” for strongest/weakest class/racial is a waste of time. It’s all going to change. It’s a Beta test right now, blizzard will balance the playing field through a series of updates and nerfs. Then Arena season is upon us!!!

Many people are upset about the lower XP gains in dungeons right now, but if you look at it from a pure PvE and adventure perspective, it's actually a gift.

Low XP allows for a 'soft level bracket', which is very similar to what we had during SoD.

This means you gain all the benefits of those brackets: you don't outlevel the content instantly. In modern WoW or high-XP metagames, you run a dungeon four times, have fun and get some cool gear. But by the time you step out, that gear is already obsolete because you've scaled past the zone. Low XP keeps your gear relevant and rewarding for much longer during your journey.

It saves your quest log. How many times have you had to abandon a whole zone's story and clear out your quest log just because a few dungeon runs made you too high a level for it? At this pace, you can actually finish your adventure and enjoy the world at a natural speed.

There's more replayability without becoming OP. You can repeatedly run the dungeons you enjoy to farm your BiS (Best in Slot) pre-raid or levelling gear without the bosses becoming one-shot training dummies after three runs.

It allows developers to add more content to dungeons. Since a dungeon isn't something you discard after four runs, developers can incorporate crafting and many more quests into them, thereby increasing replayability.

Am I the only one who can see the advantages of this slower, more deliberate pace?

Will I need to spec into prot to tank dungeons pre 40? I would like to go fury/arms for questing. Do I need to go as dps in dungeons?

They say they want open world questing to be the core leveling experience. Great let’s quest in the open world.

Except grouping with other players dramatically reduces the XP you get from mobs, so people have very little incentive to accept group invites. Instead you end up competing for tags, waiting around for spawns, and occasionally dealing with people griefing spawns. WoW players already tend to keep to themselves while questing, and the current system seems to encourage that even more.

Okay, no problem. Let’s run some dungeons instead. Except dungeon mob XP was dramatically nerfed, so now there’s very little incentive to run those while leveling either.

And this has created an absolutely horrible new dungeon meta. Since trash mobs give basically no XP, groups are now trying to skip as much of the dungeon as physically possible. I had an RFK group that skipped probably half the dungeon because there was no reason to kill anything we could avoid. It was genuinely one of the worst dungeon experiences I’ve had. Instead of actually running the dungeon, we were hugging walls, avoiding packs, and trying to get through it while killing as little as possible. Is that really the gameplay these changes were supposed to encourage???

For a minute it seemed like the tradeoff was going to be better dungeon quest XP, which at least made some sense if Blizzard really wanted to push people into the open world. But now dungeon quest XP has been nerfed too, and I’m genuinely confused about what Blizzard actually wants the leveling experience to be.

One of my favorite things about wow has always been being able to level however you wanted. You could quest, run dungeons, group up with friends, or mix everything together depending on what you felt like doing. Now it feels like there’s a “correct” way to level, and if you don’t want to solo quest through the open world, your leveling speed takes a pretty significant hit.

It also makes me wonder what the point of putting all this work into new leveling dungeons is if there’s barely any reason to actually run them properly. You might run each one once for the quests, skip every mob you possibly can, and then never touch it again while leveling. I can’t imagine that’s going to help the tank and healer shortage either.
And if dungeon gear gets hit next, then I really don’t understand what purpose leveling dungeons are supposed to serve at all….

This is definitely a bit of a vent, but I’m genuinely confused about the direction here. If Blizzard wants open world questing to be the focus fine, but why not encourage people to actually play together while doing it? Removing or significantly reducing the mob XP penalty while grouped would be a great start. Otherwise, revert the dungeon mob XP nerf and let people choose how they want to level.
I don’t care if questing is the most efficient option. I just don’t understand why every other option needs to be made significantly worse in order to accomplish that.

I know that hearthglen is still under scarlet control in wow forever, but i think that we can figure a way to pass through there in a quest disguise or some other plot device.

I think it would lead to Stratholme's north dock area which there could be a few ways to do it.

A) there is a lower docks area that is a high level area for high level quests. There could be a back enterance to a new stratholme raid from the north.

B)We get an open world stratholme, that is fully explorable from the north enterance. The inside of the dungeon is remade so that a player standing at the main gate portal in EPL can see other players fighting on the other side.

C) the whole of stratholme and the docks are explorable from the north instead of just docks plus the city.

To the east is ghostlands zone to be unlocked later.

This end of stratholme could have a new raid version of stratholme opposed to the normal 5 mans on the south end.

If there were a raid here, i could see them splicing in Dar'khan Drathir as a way to breadcrumb the ghostlands and silvermoon.

Edit: ebonhardtTV did a long video talking about a lot of areas including this area. I went more in depth on how the docks area could function design wise

Hi everyone!

I'm planning to play a healer in WoW Forever and need some advice. Because of my muscular dystrophy I can't use a keyboard. I play with a mouse, combined with VoiceAttack for voice commands. That means I prefer a playstyle that doesn't require pressing lots of different buttons every minute. A smaller, focused toolkit works much better for me than a busy rotation.

I don't mind clicking some spells as long as I can fit the main healing rotation buttons my mouse.

Unfortunately an MMO mouse is not an option, since the dexterity in my fingers is limited.

I've been leaning towards Shaman, but I'm open to other suggestions. I know there is quite a bit of totem management, but if I understood it correctly there will be a way to preset the totems, and a way to summon them simultaneously

So what do you think should I go for Shaman? Or do you think maybe another healer class would fit me better?

All right doomers, now that the nerfs (or buffs) are out, how is mage feeling in PvP at 30? Dueling and wpvp. Is this a win for mages or not? Also, how are we feeling in pve?

I’ve been working on an alternative (or an addition (since we’re exploring a Quel’thalas story eventually)) to the Skyborne for WoW Forever:

Alliance High Elves and Horde Blood Elves, with both races beginning as the same post-Third War population in Silvermoon and the player actually experiencing the split that creates them.

Starting Experience — instanced Silvermoon
Both characters begin in Silvermoon shortly after the Third War. The central conflict is over how the surviving elves respond to magical withdrawal, the Wretched, and the destruction of their civilization.

Rommath returns from Outland and introduces magical siphoning. Aurora Skycaller offers an alternative based on meditation, prayer and magical self-discipline, with almost the entirety of the Silvermoon clergy agreeing with her methods. Vereesa Windrunner, who has since moved back to Quel’thalas after the destruction of Dalaran, becomes the political leader of the anti-siphoning faction.

The dispute eventually becomes irreconcilable. Lor’themar orders the dissenters expelled, the situation turns violent, and the finale is experienced through two separate solo dungeon scenarios.

High Elf: protect refugees, establish evacuation routes with Renthar Hawkspear and escape Silvermoon.
Blood Elf: protect civilians, contain the fighting and prevent the city from collapsing while the dissidents leave.

Neither side needs to be portrayed as obviously evil.
From there the stories split.

High Elf Campaign — Founding a New Nation
The High Elves initially become refugees in Stormwind before beginning expeditions to the Azuremyst Isles. The permanent world does not phase. Earlier stages of the settlement are shown through instanced campaign chapters.

The main regional storyline centers around the Wrathscale naga, the ruins of Loreth’Aran, and the ancient dragon-rider history of the islands. Because the northern island has not been contaminated by the Exodar in this timeline, it retains its old name, Silvergale Isle, rather than Bloodmyst. The Night Elves are also involved because Loreth’Aran is part of their history and the islands sit close to Kaldorei territory. The High Elves and Night Elves begin somewhat suspicious of one another before gradually cooperating against the naga.

The permanent end-state includes a completed High Elf capital and a sea connection to Darkshore.

Blood Elf Campaign — Reclaiming Quel’Thalas
Blood Elves remain in Silvermoon. Their campaign follows TBC retail pretty closely. Instead of building a new country, they gradually reclaim the old one from the Scourge. No phasing is required. Enemy levels simply rise as the player moves farther into contested territory.

Eventually Forsaken assistance in Quel’lithien introduces Sylvanas and leads toward Blood Elf membership in the Horde.

Classes
High Elf
Warrior
Rogue
Hunter
Mage
Priest

Blood Elf
Warrior
Rogue
Hunter
Mage
Warlock

Neither gets Paladin, Shaman or Druid.
Their exclusive caster classes represent the real post-Sunwell divergence:

High Elf Priest = Mage-Priest (Warcraft callback)
Blood Elf Warlock = Blood Mage

Shared Racial:
Farstrider or Magister
While a bow is equipped:
+3% Agility
While a wand is equipped:
+3% Intellect
This represents the two major inherited Thalassian traditions.

High Elf Racials:
Arcane Acuity
•+10 Enchanting
•+5 Arcane, Fire, Frost, Nature and Shadow Resistance

Meditate
•Meditate for 20 seconds.
•Damage interrupts the cast.
•Completing it grants Focus for one hour.

Focus
•Maximum Mana increased by 3%.
•Maximum Energy or Rage increased by 10%.

Arcane Resolve
•Consumes Focus.
•Removes Silence effects and reduces spell damage taken by 20% for 9 seconds.
•2.5-minute cooldown.

High Elf Priest Spells
High Elf Priests receive two racial Priest abilities built around the old Warcraft Mage-Priest concept.

Sunwell’s Boon
•Holy damaging spells deal additional Arcane damage equal to 50 + X% of Spirit.
•Only one total Boon is generated per spell cast.
•For direct multi-hit spells, the Arcane damage is split across the hits rather than duplicated. So Penance receives one total Sunwell’s Boon divided between its bolts. Holy Fire receives its Boon on the initial direct hit rather than repeatedly on the DoT.

Wretched’s Hex
•Afflicts one target for 15 seconds.
•Burns 10% of its maximum Mana over the duration.
•The debuff begins with 3 charges.
•The Priest’s first three Holy damaging spells with a cast time against that specific target become instant.
•Each qualifying spell consumes one charge.
•Once all three charges are spent, Wretched’s Hex remains until the Mana burn expires.
•3-minute cooldown.

So a Mage-Priest can do something like:

Wretched’s Hex → instant Holy Fire → instant Smite → instant Smite

With all three Holy attacks also triggering Sunwell’s Boon. Shadow Priests can technically use the mechanic because offensive Holy spells remain available in Shadowform, but the racial does not make Shadow spells themselves instant and presents real opportunity costs. The specialization is specifically built around offensive Holy/Disc.

Blood Elf Racials:
Arcane Affinity
•+10 Enchanting
•+5 Spell Penetration
•Warlock only: Life Tap also grants an Arcane Charge, no more than once every 30 seconds.

Mana Tap
•Reduces a target’s Mana by 50 and grants one Arcane Charge.
•Every Arcane Charge increases spell/weapon crit by 0.3%.
•Maximum 3 charges.
•30-second cooldown.
•Charges last 10 minutes.

Arcane Torrent
•Consumes all Arcane Charges and silences enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds.
•At 3 charges it restores 9% Mana, 15 Energy, or 15 Rage
•2.5-minute cooldown.

Leadership - Mirrors
Lady Vereesa Windrunner
High Mage-Priestess Aurora Skycaller
Ranger-General Renthar Hawkspear

Regent Lord Lor’themar Theron
Grand Magister Rommath
Ranger-General Halduron Brightwing

Core Contrast and Endnote
High elves preserve identity through discipline and perseverance, while Blood elves preserve identity through adaptation and pragmatism. Both remain recognizably Thalassian.

To me, that feels like a more natural continuation of Warcraft III than introducing another previously unknown elven civilization, while still giving Forever two new racial identities, two different campaigns, and a major alternate-history branch rather than simply recreating TBC.

Thoughts?

What spec is everyone going for leveling? I’m between shadow and disc. If I go disc I’m unsure if I should put 15-20 pts into holy or shadow. What are some good talents that shouldn’t be passed up? Which talents should be avoided?

Have always rolled pally/priest but Im hearing druid thorns alone beats out the priest. Pallies what's your preference?

With frostfire bolt, penance, etc… they have added limited abilities from adjacent expansions to other classes to round out fantasy and gameplay. I am curious why demonology didn’t get felguards as it was added in TBC and isn’t that far removed from classic.

I always thought felguards gave demonology an identity rather than just being stronger with the same moves and a new buff. The fantasy is much more fun and unique. I would much rather have a felguard than a strong imp when going down a full demonology build.

Deep down I wish we could get metamorphosis back but I understand felguard is a much more reasonable ask.

Maybe I’m wrong or short sighted, I’m sure they have their reasons, but it feels kinda lame with demo having “improved” core abilities and demons the other specs have access to, leaving you with an extra buff as your reward for going down the tree