Blizzard's tech podcast: layering, rulesets and 'no more vanishing players' at launch

2026-10-29 · ForeverDB

Episode 6 of the WoW Forever podcast is all about the tech behind the game: why Forever runs on the modern codebase, how layering groups zones, why you pick a ruleset instead of a realm, and why PvE and PvP stay apart. Most of it is server-side and can't be checked in the client, but we line up what we can and list the Paladin, Priest and Druid changes the show skipped.

This is an official Blizzard video, posted to the World of Warcraft YouTube channel on 29 October 2026. It is a podcast about the tech behind WoW Forever, so most of it is talk, not data. Where we check a claim, the names and numbers come from the Forever beta client (build 1.60.1.70755). The client does not hold server-side things like layering, name reservations or faction locks, so a lot of this cannot be verified yet.

Host Josh Corbett sits down with Josh "Aggrend" Greenfield, lead software engineer Ana Resendez, principal software engineer Frank Williams and guest Shobek. They go through why Forever was built on the modern WoW codebase, how layering and zone boundaries work, why you choose a ruleset rather than a realm, the faction lock between PvE and PvP, and whether parties could ever be bigger than 40. Here is what matches the client, and what we simply can't see until launch.

The short version

• Forever is built on the modern WoW codebase, not a Classic snapshot. The devs say this gets them performance and tooling "for free", including work from the housing team. Server-side, so not in the client.
• Layering is back, grouping each zone or a small set of zones into one layer. Blizzard can tune which zones connect and how many players a zone holds. None of that is in the client.
• The players popping in and out at zone edges (near Orgrimmar and the Barrens) were improved late in the beta. Blizzard says "you won't see that anymore when we go live". We can't test it until launch.
• You pick a ruleset, not a realm. The client does carry an "(RP PvP)" ruleset label.
• PvE and PvP players still can't group or share an economy, by choice. The devs say the tech could link them later if a population needs it.
• Bigger parties ("an army which is maybe 80 to 120 people", a "mega raid") are being talked about, nothing announced. 40 is still the cap.
• The tech also let designers rebuild the talent trees, which is why they differ from Classic. We also list the Paladin, Priest and Druid changes the podcast didn't mention, rank by rank from the client.

Claim by claim

Checked against the Forever beta client's zones, factions and class data. The podcast is mostly about systems the server runs, which the client does not expose.

The tech: built on modern WoW

Frank Williams sets the scene. In 2019 the team took "a snapshot of World of Warcraft" and tried to turn it into Classic, but the live game kept moving under them, so they kept pulling changes across. They did a big effort they called "the merge" around Burning Crusade, but not everything merged, and they say they "suffered a little bit for a long time" over it. For Forever they started from the modern code instead, so security and compliance updates and performance work come across "for free", including improvements from the housing team. To be clear, they say that does not mean housing is coming to Forever. None of this is something we can check in the client.

Layering and the vanishing players

Ana Resendez and Aggrend explain how the world is split. Each individual zone, or a small grouping of zones, is treated as one layer together, and the team can tune which zones are connected and how many players a zone holds. That is why you would stand in Durotar watching duels and see someone appear out of nowhere as they walked out of Orgrimmar. Early in beta, Westfall and the Barrens felt packed and tags were hard to get, and they could not fix that when "the world was the world". Now they can halve a zone's cap if it is too full. They expect the launch layout to look very different a month in, once people stop making new characters in Durotar.

The players popping in and out near zone edges were the main trade-off of the new system. Frank says the final day or two of beta, and the server slam, pretty much erased that behaviour, and "you won't see that anymore when we go live". Aggrend sets expectations that it still won't be "a perfect contiguous world at all times": sometimes you will hit a zone boundary or need "a realm refresh or a world refresh". This all runs on the server, so there is nothing to test in the client until launch on 4 November 2026.

Realmless and rulesets

The big community change is that you "choose your rule set" rather than a realm, so a friend in Chicago and one in LA can just play together (region restrictions still apply). Aggrend traces this back to hardcore, where they cut realms "from like 200 to like two". The client backs up the ruleset idea: it carries an "(RP PvP)" label, which fits the RP PvP ruleset the show describes. The size, grouping and population of each layer are all server-side.

Faction locks

PvE and PvP players still can't group or share an auction house. The devs say some of the team were in favour of letting them group for instanced content and some were "vehemently against", and it came down to the economy: it is easier to farm on a PvE server, so letting the markets co-mingle felt wrong. Aggrend's line is that these are "different mindsets", different rulesets, so "Let's keep them separate for now". He adds the tech is set up so they could link auction houses or allow grouping later if a population could not sustain itself. Server-side, so not something we can check.

Larger parties

Shobek asks for tools to gather more than 40 people for big events and city battles. Aggrend says they have thought about letting you make "an army which is maybe 80 to 120 people", or an alliance of groups, but "we're not announcing anything". Frank jokes there "might be a whiteboard on campus with the word mega raid scrolled on it", and mentions auto-detecting PvP battles and expanding servers to keep them flowing. For now, "the state at the end of the beta is what you can expect for launch", and the party cap is still 40. The client does not set raid caps, so there is nothing to confirm here.

Talents, now editable

One tech win they call out matters for every class: the talent trees. In Classic Era they "didn't actually have the old editor" to change talents, and in Season of Discovery they couldn't manipulate them easily. On the modern base a designer can now "very easily manipulate talents", including their order and where they sit in the tree. That is exactly why Forever's trees are rebuilt, with new talents like Reverence slotted in. You can see the finished trees in the Paladin, Priest and Druid talent calculators.

What we have, and what we don't

The Forever client holds the game's zones, factions, items and the full class, talent and spell data. It does not hold the server-side systems this podcast is mostly about.

• We can confirm the zones they name: Durotar, The Barrens and Westfall, and both factions, Alliance and Horde. The podcast also names Orgrimmar, Ashenvale, Goldshire and Arathi (the auto-captions write them "Ashenville", "Goldshshire" and "Arafi"); we don't have map pages for those in this data.
• The client carries an "(RP PvP)" ruleset label, which fits the rulesets they describe.
• Layering, how zones are grouped, how many players a zone holds, name reservations and faction locks are all worked out on the server. None of it is in the client, so we can't test it.
• The beta has wrapped and the client's level cap was 60. Launch is 4 November 2026, so the live version of all this is what players will see then, not before.

What the video didn't mention

The tech talk is why the talent trees changed, but the show never lists the changes. Here is what else moved for the three classes in our data, from the client.

Paladin

Holy

• Reverence Reverence, a new tier 2 Holy talent from level 15: 30% of your mana regeneration keeps going while you cast.
• Holy Conduit Holy Conduit (level 20) takes the slot of Classic's Improved Lay on Hands and instead cuts the mana cost of Consecration, Holy Wrath, Exorcism and Hammer of Wrath by 40%.
• Divine Precision Divine Precision (level 25): +8% hit with Holy spells and -20% Silence duration.
• Oath of Light Oath of Light (level 25, replaces Improved Blessing of Wisdom): boosts your Holy Light, Flash of Light and Holy Shock healing on one ally for 5 min.
• Light's Vigil Light's Vigil (level 40): gives a target a Holy Shock with no cooldown that heals them and their party for 315 to 333.
• Lay on Hands Lay on Hands: cooldown cut to 20 min instead of 1 hr on all ranks.
• Blessing of Wisdom Blessing of Wisdom: rank 6 restores 40 mana every 5 sec instead of 33, and lasts 1 hr instead of 5 min (learned level 14).

Protection

• Sacred Duty Sacred Duty (level 15): cuts the cooldown of Divine Shield, Divine Protection and Templar's Bulwark by 60 sec, and Forbearance by 10 sec.
• Templar's Bulwark Templar's Bulwark (level 20): an absorb shield worth 100% of your max health for 8 sec; applies Forbearance.
• Iron Creed Iron Creed (level 35, replaces One-Handed Weapon Specialization): +30% Holy Strike threat, and Holy Strike cuts your damage taken 6% while Righteous Fury is up.
• Shieldsworn Shieldsworn (level 40): Holy Strike's cooldown drops 4 sec and it strikes with your shield.
• Seal of Fury Seal of Fury (level 10): a new threat seal for tanks.
• Righteous Fury Righteous Fury: now +90% Holy threat instead of 60%, and trained at level 10 instead of 16.
• Blessing of Kings Blessing of Kings: a Classic talent, now trained at level 20 and lasting 1 hr instead of 5 min.

Retribution

• Sanctified Judgement Sanctified Judgement (level 15): Judgement returns 60% of the judged seal's mana cost.
• Champion of the Light Champion of the Light (level 35): spell damage up to 60% of your Intellect, and -1 sec on Hammer of Wrath's cast.
• Unsealed Wrath Unsealed Wrath (level 40): your melee attacks store a copy of your active Seal, stacking up to 3 times.
• Holy Strike Holy Strike (level 6): a brand new melee attack, the base of the new Protection and Retribution kits.
• Judgement of the Crusader Judgement of the Crusader: rank 6 now 161 instead of 140, and lasts 40 sec instead of 10 sec.
• Blessing of Might Blessing of Might: rank 7 down to 133 attack power instead of 185, but lasts 1 hr instead of 5 min.

General

• Blessing of Salvation is gone from Forever (it was a level 26 trained blessing).
• Summon Warhorse Summon Warhorse and Summon Charger Summon Charger are no longer on the Paladin ability list.
• The Greater Blessings of Light, Salvation and Sanctuary are gone too.

All 102 Paladin changes, rank by rank →

Priest

Discipline

• Power in Light Power in Light (level 10): Smite and Penance hit 10% harder on targets carrying your Holy Fire or Shadow Word: Pain.
• Twin Disciplines Twin Disciplines (level 10): +5% damage and healing on your instant spells.
• Penance Penance (level 30): a Season of Discovery spell, now a Discipline talent; costs 150 mana and reaches 36 yd (the SoD version used 16% of base mana and 30 yd).
• Divine Aegis Divine Aegis (level 35, replaces Force of Will): your crit heals leave a shield for 15% of the amount, up to 1200 at level 60.
• Power Word: Fortitude Power Word: Fortitude: rank 6 +70 Stamina instead of 54, lasting 1 hr instead of 30 min.
• Power Word: Shield Power Word: Shield: rank 10 absorbs 928 instead of 942, a touch weaker.

Holy

• Holy Binding Holy Binding (level 25): Flash Heal on someone else also heals you for 50%.
• Litany of Light Litany of Light (level 30, replaces Improved Prayer of Healing): gives mana back when your next heal is a different spell from the last.
• Prayer of Mending Prayer of Mending (level 40): a Season of Discovery spell, now a Holy talent; 210 mana (the SoD version used 15% of base mana).
• Binding Heal Binding Heal (level 25): a Season of Discovery spell, now trained; heals your target and you for 223 to 271 at rank 1.
• Divine Grace Divine Grace (level 10): a new Holy ability.
• Smite Smite: rank 8 drops to 160 to 180 instead of 371 to 415, and you can now cast it in Shadowform.
• Flash Heal Flash Heal: rank 7 757 to 893 instead of 812 to 958.

Shadow

• Improved Mind Flay Improved Mind Flay (level 20): each Mind Flay tick does 20% more than the one before.
• Dark Inspiration Dark Inspiration (level 25): Mind Blast and a full Mind Flay give you and your party +15% Spirit for 10 sec.
• Devouring Contagion Devouring Contagion (level 30, replaces Improved Vampiric Embrace): Devouring Plague costs 50% less mana and spreads when a target dies.
• Early Demise Early Demise (level 35): +30% Shadow Word: Death crit on targets at or below 20% health.
• Shadow Word: Death Shadow Word: Death (level 32): a Season of Discovery spell, now trained.
• Shadow Word: Pain Shadow Word: Pain: rank 8 762 over 18 sec instead of 852, with a higher 0.2 spell power coefficient.
• Devouring Plague Devouring Plague: cooldown slashed to 24 sec instead of 3 min; rank 6 848 over 24 sec instead of 904.

All 89 Priest changes, rank by rank →

Druid

Balance

• Genesis Genesis (level 10): +10% to your periodic (over-time) damage and healing.
• Nature's Majesty Nature's Majesty (level 15, replaces Natural Weapons): +4% crit with spells and melee.
• Nature's Splendor Nature's Splendor (level 20): longer Moonfire, Rejuvenation, Regrowth and Insect Swarm.
• Eclipse Eclipse (level 30): Wrath cuts the cast time of your next two Starfires.
• Wrath Wrath: rank 8 now 86 to 96 instead of 236 to 264, but costs 120 mana instead of 180.
• Starfire Starfire: rank 7 350 to 412 instead of 496 to 584.
• Moonfire Moonfire: rank 10 is 124 to 146 up front plus 240 over 12 sec, instead of 189 to 221 plus 384.

Feral Combat

• Lacerate Lacerate (level 25): a Season of Discovery spell, now a talent; a bleed that stacks up to 5 times.
• Predatory Discipline Predatory Discipline (level 25): Ferocious Bite stops dumping spare energy into damage but still scales with it.
• Rend and Tear Rend and Tear (level 35): +10% damage from your melee abilities against bleeding targets.
• Shifting Power Shifting Power (level 40): turns mana into energy (the client doesn't list the amounts yet).
• Ferocious Bite Ferocious Bite: now has a rank 1 at level 24, so you get it earlier.
• Shred Shred: rank 5 does 155% weapon damage + 80 instead of 225% + 80, a cut.
• Cat Form Cat Form: learned from the quest The Great Cat Spirit, not the trainer.

Restoration

• Bloom Bloom (level 20): when Rejuvenation or Regrowth runs out, it heals for 100% of your Spirit.
• Living Spirit Living Spirit (level 30): +15% Spirit.
• Wild Growth Wild Growth (level 40): a Season of Discovery spell, now a talent; heals 280 over 7 sec instead of 119, but takes a 3 sec cast instead of being instant.
• Revive Revive (level 12): a new out-of-combat resurrect; a Season of Discovery spell, now trained.
• Healing Touch Healing Touch: rank 11 2139 to 2525 instead of 2267 to 2677.
• Mark of the Wild Mark of the Wild: rank 7 +385 armour instead of 285, and lasts 1 hr instead of 30 min.
• Rejuvenation Rejuvenation: rank 11 776 over 12 sec instead of 888.

All 90 Druid changes, rank by rank →

Sources

• All About Tech ft. @Shobek | Episode 6 - The WoW: Forever Podcast (World of Warcraft, YouTube)
• All About Tech ft. @Shobek | Episode 6 - The WoW: Forever Podcast (Apple Podcasts)
• WoW: Forever (Blizzard)
• Paladin: changes from Classic Era (ForeverDB, from the client)
• Priest: changes from Classic Era (ForeverDB, from the client)
• Druid: changes from Classic Era (ForeverDB, from the client)