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WoW Forever stress test moved to October 21: open to everyone, no subscription needed

The Zul'Farrak loading screen from the WoW Forever client

· ForeverDB

Blizzard moved the WoW Forever stress test to October 21, two days later than first announced. The plan is otherwise the same: the beta goes offline, WoW Forever opens on live regional hardware for a few hours, any WoW account can join with no subscription, and every character made during the test is wiped afterwards. From October 20 players report the stress test client can be pre-installed in the Battle.net app.

Update, October 20. Players report that the stress test client can now be pre-installed from the Battle.net app, ahead of the October 21 test. See "Pre-install the client" below. This is a player report, not a Blizzard post.

Update, October 16. The stress test has moved to October 21. It was first announced for October 19. Community Manager Kaivax posted a short correction on the forums.

Please note that we will do the Stress Test on October 21, not two days earlier as previously stated. Thank you! Kaivax, Community Manager

The rest of the plan is the same. Blizzard will take the beta offline that day and then open WoW Forever on the same regional hardware the game will run on at launch. When Kaivax first announced the test, the wording was:

Please join us for the WoW Forever Stress Test on October 19. On that day, we will first take the WoW Forever Beta offline, and we will then open WoW Forever on the regional hardware that it will operate on when the game goes live. Kaivax, Community Manager

That quote is from the original announcement, which said October 19. The date is now October 21.

Pre-install the client

On October 20 a player on r/wowforever posted that the stress test client is ready to pre-install in the Battle.net app, with a screenshot of the launcher. The stress test has its own game version, separate from the beta and from retail WoW. As reported, you open the Battle.net app, select World of Warcraft, open the game version (or region/account) menu, find "WoW Forever Stress Test" under the "In Development" list, and install it. Finishing the download before test day means you can log in as soon as the servers open.

Player reports, not a Blizzard post. Blizzard has not posted pre-install steps. The steps above are what the Reddit poster and other sites describe, so menu names may differ on your launcher. Check the Battle.net app for the exact wording.

The same poster asked when players will be able to preload "for name reservations". As the wipe note below explains, this test does not reserve names: pre-installing only downloads the client ahead of time, it does not hold a character name for launch.

Who can join

You do not need beta access. Kaivax wrote that any WoW account is enough:

Any player with a WoW account is eligible to participate. No active subscription is needed. Kaivax, Community Manager

Wowhead reports that no subscription, Game Time, invitation or beta access is required, and that the beta is expected to return shortly after the test ends.

The subscription, Game Time, invitation and beta returns shortly after details beyond the quoted lines are Wowhead's wording, not a direct Blizzard quote.

When it starts

Blizzard gave the start times in the original announcement, keyed to October 19:

On October 19, the Stress Test will begin at 19:00 CEST for players in the EU region, 2:00 p.m. PDT for players in the Americas+Oceania, and at 5:00 a.m. in Taipei and 6:00 a.m. in Korea on October 20. Kaivax, Community Manager

Speculation. Blizzard restated only the date, not the start times. The correction says the test is two days later than the October 19 it first gave, so the same clock times should apply on October 21 (and October 22 for Taipei and Korea). Check Blizzard's post for the final times.

  • Europe: 19:00 CEST on October 21
  • Americas and Oceania: 2:00 p.m. PDT on October 21
  • Taipei: 5:00 a.m. on October 22
  • Korea: 6:00 a.m. on October 22

WoW Forever will be up on production realms for a few hours.

What to do, and why it matters

The point is load. Blizzard wants lots of players doing normal things at once:

Once you’re in, make a character, do a few quests, trade some items, chat, and group up with others to really put the game through its paces. This is a highly valuable event, since you’ll participate in our discovering of issues that would have otherwise happened on launch day. Kaivax, Community Manager

Everything gets wiped

Nothing you make during the test is kept. When the stress test shuts down, Blizzard will delete all characters and bring the beta back:

WoW Forever will be available on production realms for a few hours, and then when we shut down the Stress Test, all characters will be deleted* and we will re-open the Beta. *This is a complete wipe; names and everything else will be completely removed. Kaivax, Community Manager

So names will not be reserved. If you want a particular name at launch, this test will not hold it for you.

These are beta and pre-launch details. Timing and plans can still change before launch.

Sources

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