WoW: Forever Launches November 4: Launch Times, Final Class Changes and Raids on December 9

World of Warcraft: Forever, Blizzard's permanent level-60 take on Azeroth, goes live worldwide on November 4, 2026. A day before launch, Blizzard posted one last update to its beta development notes. It's a long list of class tuning that will define the first weeks of leveling. Here's when you can log in, how rulesets work, and what changed in the final build.

Launch times

The game launches at 3:00 pm PST on November 4, which is 23:00 UTC. Because of time zones, that falls on November 5 for most of Europe and Asia-Pacific:

WoW: Forever is included with an active World of Warcraft subscription or Game Time. You install it from the Battle.net app on Windows or Mac by picking it from the World of Warcraft game versions. The new Skyborne race and its starting zone, Zephras Isle, need the Skyborne Heroic Pack or a higher edition.

Presets, rulesets and how realms work

There is no traditional realm list. On first login you choose an Experience Preset, either Classic or Enhanced, and then a ruleset: Normal, PvP, Roleplay or Roleplay-PvP. A Hardcore ruleset is coming some time after launch, with no date yet.

Each ruleset is its own world. Grouping, dungeons and raids only work with players on the same ruleset, and moving to another ruleset means starting a new character. The exception is Hardcore: characters that die there can move to another ruleset. Battlegrounds can mix players from different rulesets, but not from Hardcore. Horde and Alliance still can't group together, and on the PvP ruleset you're limited to one faction. Collections and Legacy Points are account-wide, so cosmetic and Legacy progress carries across your characters.

What's in the box at launch

The level cap is 60, and Blizzard promises more than 1,000 new quests between levels 1 and 60. There are nine new five-player dungeons from level 13 upward: Hall of Thanes, Ruins of Lordaeron, Excavation Site, City of Dalaran, The Drowned City, Krol'dok Stronghold, Alcaz Prison, Blackmaw Hold and Shaper's Terrace. A new 15v15 battleground, Darkspear Islands, is open to levels 30–60.

Raiding waits a few weeks. Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit and Onyxia's Lair open on December 9, 2026. Blizzard says it doesn't plan big tuning changes before then, apart from fixing bugs and clear outliers.

The final beta changes (November 3 update)

The last development-notes update touches every class. The headline numbers, checked against both the official notes and outlets that covered them:

General

• Training every class spell from 1 to 60 now costs about 206 gold in total. Warlocks pay less for their Grimoires.
• New spells are no longer added to your action bars automatically.
• Most talents no longer lose proc chance when you cast lower ranks of a spell.
• Creatures have more health, and classes deal more damage to match.

Class highlights

Paladins lose several blessings and utility spells, including Salvation and Blessing of Light.

Systems

• The Cooldown Manager is off by default and in beta for Druid, Mage, Priest, Warrior and Warlock, with more classes to follow.
• Bags no longer auto-equip.
• Respawn times are faster in starting zones and slower in later areas, and quest XP has been adjusted.

What it means for players

The final notes point in a clear direction. Bear Druids and Warriors get much bigger threat numbers, which should make tanking dungeons smoother. Many damage abilities are buffed to match tougher creatures. Warlocks go the other way: their pets get far less health from Stamina, which could make pet-tanking while leveling noticeably harder.

If you're playing on day one, choose your preset and ruleset carefully, since switching later means rerolling. Most players get about five weeks of leveling, dungeons and battlegrounds before the December 9 raids. Blizzard has said it will still fix bugs and clear outliers in that time, so some of these numbers may change before Onyxia opens her lair.