Getting started in WoW Forever

New to WoW Forever? How to pick a ruleset, faction, race and class, what to do in your first ten levels, the interface basics, and what happens when you die, checked against the beta client and Blizzard's posts.

Written for the WoW Forever beta (client build 1.60.1.70009), where the level cap is 20. Anything here can change before the game launches on November 4, 2026.

What WoW Forever is

World of Warcraft: Forever is a new version of WoW built on WoW Classic. Blizzard calls it a new permanent home alongside modern WoW and Classic. You level from 1 to 60 on the original continents of Azeroth, with new zones, new quests, new dungeons, a new race and reworked classes, and the game keeps getting new content after launch. Two ground rules Blizzard set out at BlizzCon: no flying mounts and no level scaling, so the monsters in a zone stay the level they are. Access comes with a WoW subscription or Game Time. Our BlizzCon recap has the full picture.

This is not a mode, a season, or a new version of Classic. It is a promise to keep building this world with the community, guided by your feedback, and made to last. Blizzard, World of Warcraft: Forever What's Next Panel Recap

It's in beta right now. The beta opened on September 17 and runs until October 21, and the game launches on November 4, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. PST. The beta is capped at level 20, and Blizzard says the cap rises to 30 later in the beta. That's why this guide and the leveling guide stop at 20. Follow the changes on our news page, in where the beta stands and in the September 24 class changes.

Explore Zephras Isle, take on new dungeons, and quest your way up to level 20. World of Warcraft on Bluesky, September 17

Tip: Words you'll see everywhere: a mob is any monster. A pull is starting a fight with one. Aggro means a mob is attacking you (it has "aggroed"). In a group, the tank keeps the enemies' attention, the healer keeps everyone alive, and the DPS (damage per second, also used for the damage dealers themselves) kill things. AoE (area of effect) hits everything in an area. CC (crowd control) takes an enemy out of the fight for a while: stuns, sheep, fears and the like.

Pick a ruleset

Forever has no realm list. Instead, you pick a ruleset, and each ruleset is one big community of players.

Instead of choosing from a long list of realms, players will select a ruleset—Normal, PvP, Roleplaying, or Hardcore—that matches how they want to experience Azeroth. Each option operates as its own large ecosystem for grouping, dungeons, raids, and community, with Hardcore joining the available lineup sometime after launch. Blizzard, Choose Your Ruleset in World of Warcraft: Forever

• Normal: questing, exploring and working together, with player-versus-player (PvP) combat when you choose to take part. At BlizzCon, Blizzard said PvP on Normal needs both sides to agree.
• PvP: for players who want danger and open-world fights every time they enter contested territory (zones both factions share). You can only have characters of one faction on this ruleset.
• Roleplaying: for players who want to lean into the fantasy of Azeroth and meet others who do.
• Hardcore: death has lasting consequences. It arrives some time after launch, so it isn't in the beta.

You can group, run dungeons and raid with anyone on your ruleset and faction, but not across rulesets, and you can't move a character freely between them: to play on another ruleset, you make a new character there. Your Legacy Points and collections are shared across your account.

Tip: Not sure which to pick? Start on Normal. You learn the game without other players ambushing you, and you can still fight other players when you want to.

Every character also gets a two-part name, like a first name and a surname, and the full name has to be unique in your region. Both rules are explained in No more realm list: rulesets and two-part names, and Blizzard's own article is Choose Your Ruleset.

Choose a faction and race

There are two factions, the Alliance and the Horde. Alliance and Horde players can't group together, and on the PvP ruleset they can fight each other in contested zones. Your race sets your faction (except the Skyborne, who choose), which classes you can play, your racial abilities and where you start.

Races and classes from the Forever client. The starting zones are where each race began in Classic (the Forever client has those zones' quests), and the map pins show Classic's starting point. The Skyborne start on Zephras Isle, per Blizzard.

New in Forever: six new race and class combinations, Human Hunter, Orc Mage, Dwarf Shaman, Undead Paladin, Gnome Priest and Troll Warlock. In Classic, Paladins were Alliance only and Shaman Horde only. In Forever both factions have both: Undead Paladins on the Horde side, Dwarf Shaman on the Alliance side. Blizzard says more combinations are planned. The full story is in Races, classes and reworked racials.

Blizzard also says the classic starting areas, such as the Valley of Trials in Durotar and Shadowglen in Teldrassil, get new NPCs, quests, profession hooks and recipes in Forever, so even veterans will find new things in their first hour.

The Skyborne

The Skyborne, or shen'dorei, are Forever's new race: descendants of Highborne elves who made a pact with the wind spirits. You choose their faction when you create one. Windshapers join the Horde and can be Druids, Hunters, Rogues, Shaman or Warriors. The High Order joins the Alliance and can be Druids, Hunters, Mages, Rogues or Warriors. Both start on Zephras Isle, a new starting zone. The client's map of the island names Valanaar, Falaath Village, Shen'dar Village, Thendal Village, the Shrine of Akir and the Ruins of Ban'Aethal.

Their journey begins on Zephras Isle, a level 1–12 starting experience that blends classic Warcraft aesthetics with elemental architecture and a story shaped by wind and ancestry. Blizzard, WoW: Forever Meet the New Skyborne

At launch, Blizzard lists the Skyborne race and the Zephras Isle starting experience as part of the optional Skyborne Heroic Pack (and the bigger packs that include it). In the beta they're open to testers. More in Meet the Skyborne.

Racial abilities

Every race has its own racials. Blizzard reworked them for Forever: each race has two active abilities (you press them) and two passive ones (always on). Below is what each one does, from the client's tooltips. Racials are still being tuned in the beta.

Alliance

• Human: Will to Survive instantly removes all Stun effects. Perception greatly increases your stealth detection for 20 sec. Sword Specialization (passive) adds 2% critical strike chance to your spells and attacks while you have a sword or two-handed sword equipped. The Human Spirit (passive) raises your Spirit by 5%.
• Dwarf: Stoneform removes and makes you immune to Bleed, Poison and Disease effects, and cuts Physical damage taken by 10%, for 8 sec. Find Treasure shows nearby treasure on your minimap until you cancel it. Mace Specialization (passive) adds 1% critical strike chance with a mace or two-handed mace. Big Game Hunter (passive) adds 5% damage against Beasts.
• Night Elf: Elune's Light raises your critical strike chance with spells and attacks by 10% for 15 sec. Shadowmeld makes you much harder to detect until you move; used in combat it discourages enemies from attacking you, but its cooldown grows to 2 min. Quickness (passive) adds 1% dodge chance and 2% movement speed, and makes Night Elf Rogues and Druids harder to spot in Stealth. Wisp Spirit (passive) turns you into a wisp when you die, with 75% more movement speed for the run back to your body.
• Gnome: Escape Artist frees you from any movement-impairing effect and makes you immune to them for 3 sec. Eureka! makes your next 3 damaging abilities cost 10% less and deal 10% more damage. Expansive Mind (passive) raises your maximum Mana by 5%. Engineering Specialization (passive) makes engineering devices fail or backfire 20% less often.
• High Order Skyborne: Walk on Air lets you glide downward for 10 sec, steering as you go. Read Ley Line doubles your Health and Mana regeneration (100% more) for 15 sec, or for 15 min if you use it at a ley line. Wind Blessed (passive) adds 1% Haste to your spells, melee and ranged attacks. Elemental Insight (passive) adds 5% damage against Elementals.

Horde

• Orc: Blood Fury raises your Attack Power and Spell Power by 10% for 15 sec. Shatter Curse removes and makes you immune to all Curses and Banes, and cuts Magical damage taken by 15%, for 8 sec. Axe Specialization (passive) adds 1% critical strike chance with an axe or two-handed axe. Hardiness (passive) makes Stun effects on you 20% shorter.
• Undead: Will of the Forsaken instantly removes all Charm, Fear and Sleep effects. Cannibalize eats a Humanoid or Undead corpse within 5 yds, restoring 7% of your Health and Mana every 2 sec for 10 sec; moving, acting or taking damage stops it. Touch of the Grave (passive) gives your spells and attacks a 10% chance to drain Health from the target, up to 5% of your maximum Health. Underwater Breathing (passive) makes your breath last 300% longer underwater.
• Tauren: War Stomp stuns up to 5 enemies within 8 yds for 2 sec. Cultivation grows a copy of a nearby herb that you can pick without the Herbalism skill (once per herb). Endurance (passive) adds 5% to your total Health and 1% to your chance to hit. Plainsrunning (passive) adds 1% movement speed for every 5 sec you keep moving, up to 30%; taking damage or standing still reduces it.
• Troll: Berserking makes you cast and attack 10% faster. Rapid Regeneration regenerates 50% of your maximum Health over 6 sec; moving, acting or taking damage stops it. Regeneration (passive) raises your Health regeneration by 10% and lets 10% of it continue in combat. Beast Slaying (passive) adds 5% damage against Beasts.
• Windshaper Skyborne: Walk on Air lets you glide downward for 10 sec, steering as you go. Skysight raises your movement and mounted speed by 10% for 30 sec, or for 15 min if you find an elemental convergence. Wind Blessed (passive) adds 1% Haste. Elemental Insight (passive) adds 5% damage against Elementals.

Where the client and Blizzard's posts differ: the September 24 notes turned Gnome Eureka into a 10% discount on Mana, Rage or Energy abilities for every class, while the tooltip we have still names Energy. Troll Berserking's tooltip says "until cancelled", but its spell data and Blizzard's article give it 10 seconds. Blizzard gives Read Ley Line to the High Order and Skysight to the Windshapers; the client's racial list names both for both. The September 24 notes also added a player level requirement to Tauren Cultivation (the herb's Herbalism requirement divided by 5) and stopped Undead Touch of the Grave from breaking crowd control.

Tip: Racials are nice, but they're small next to your class. Pick the race you like the look and story of, among the ones that can play your class. If you want to play with friends, pick their faction first.

Priests: your race adds two spells

In the Forever client, each Priest race has two class spells only that race can learn, one at level 10 and one at level 20. If you want a Priest, this is the one place where race changes your toolkit:

Race-only Priest spells in the Forever client, with the level the trainer teaches them.

Choose a class

Forever has the nine Classic classes and no new ones. Your class decides how you fight and which role you can take in a group: tank (holds the enemies' attention and takes the hits), healer or damage. Every class can deal damage and every class can level on its own. Tanks and healers need their talents and gear pointed that way, which you'll sort out from level 10.

Tank and healer roles are the ones our planner gives each class from the Forever client: a class counts when it has the key spell (Taunt, Seal of Fury or Growl for tanks; Holy Light, Lesser Heal, Healing Wave or Healing Touch for healers). Races are from the client's race and class table.

• Warrior: a melee fighter in heavy armor. You build Rage by dealing and taking damage and spend it on attacks, and you switch between stances for different jobs. Warriors are the classic tank from level 10, when Defensive Stance and Taunt arrive. New in Forever: Spearing Strike from level 1, which dismounts mounted targets and hits Giants and Dragonkin harder, and Tactical Mastery at level 14, which keeps up to 10 Rage when you change stances. Leveling guide.
• Paladin: a holy warrior in heavy armor who fights in melee with Seals and Judgement, heals with Holy Light, and can tank. New in Forever: Holy Strike at level 6, an instant strike with Holy damage, and Seal of Fury at level 10, a tanking Seal that taunts the target when you unleash it. Leveling guide.
• Hunter: ranged physical damage with a bow or gun, plus a tamed beast that fights beside you from level 10. The pet can take the hits while you shoot, which helps a lot when you level alone. Our pet database lists every tameable beast. Leveling guide.
• Rogue: a stealthy melee fighter in leather. Stealth lets you sneak up on targets. Attacks like Sinister Strike cost Energy and add combo points, and finishers like Eviscerate spend them for a big hit. New in Forever: Puncturing Wounds, a passive from level 1 that makes Backstab crit more often. Leveling guide.
• Priest: a cloth-wearing caster who heals and shields, or deals Shadow damage. Every Priest also learns two race-only spells (see the table above). Leveling guide.
• Shaman: a hybrid who drops totems on the ground to help the group, heals, throws lightning, or fights in melee with enchanted weapons. New in Forever at level 20: Call of the Elements places up to 4 totems at once, and Totemic Recall picks them back up for some Mana. Leveling guide.
• Mage: a ranged caster with Fire, Frost and Arcane spells, strong AoE and Polymorph to turn an enemy into a sheep. Mages conjure their own food and water. New at level 20: Arcane Blast and Ice Lance, which deals far more damage to frozen targets. Leveling guide.
• Warlock: a caster who wears enemies down with damage over time (DoTs: spells that keep hurting after you cast them) and commands demons: the Imp from level 1 (Summon Imp) and the Voidwalker, a sturdy pet that holds mobs off you, at level 10 (Summon Voidwalker). Forever splits Curses and Banes, and adds Bane of Havoc at level 1. Leveling guide.
• Druid: a shapeshifter who casts and heals in normal form, tanks in Bear Form (level 10) and fights as a melee cat in Cat Form (level 20). New in Forever: Revive at level 12 brings a dead player back to life (out of combat only), and Feral Charge at level 20 is a bear charge. Leveling guide.

Tip: Pick the class whose play style you enjoy, not the one someone calls strongest: you'll press its buttons for a long time. If you like being in demand for groups, tanks and healers usually find dungeon groups fastest. Each class page has a Builds tab with leveling talent builds and what to press, for example Mage builds.

Your first 10 levels

Your first hour is about learning to move, fight and quest. Here's what to do, in order:

1. Talk to anyone with a yellow exclamation mark (!) over their head. That's a quest giver. Right-click to talk, read the quest and accept it. A yellow question mark (?) means a quest is ready to hand in there.
2. Take every quest nearby and do them together. Kill the mobs and collect the items for several quests in one trip, then hand them all in. Quest rewards and quest experience (XP) are the backbone of leveling. Read the quest text: it tells you where to go.
3. Fight one mob at a time. Click a mob to target it, then use your abilities. Mobs close to your level are usually safe one at a time; mobs with an orange or red level are dangerous. Some mobs come to help their friends, so look at what's around before you attack.
4. Eat and drink between fights. Sit down and eat food to get health back, or drink water for Mana. Tough Jerky restores 17 health over 18 sec, and Refreshing Spring Water 42 Mana over 18 sec, both while you stay seated. Innkeepers and food vendors sell them. Mages conjure their own from level 4 (Conjure Water) and 6 (Conjure Food).
5. Visit your class trainer at level 4 and at every even level after that. In the Forever client, every class learns something new at levels 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20 (Hunters also get a pet skill rank at 5 and 15) and nothing at level 2. Training costs money, so keep some. Starting areas and capital cities have class trainers, and guards can point you to them. Your class page's Abilities tab lists every ability and its level, for example Warrior abilities.
6. Loot everything and sell your junk. Grey items are junk: they exist to be sold to any vendor for coins. Cloth, meat and herbs are worth keeping for professions (see the professions guide). Vendors also repair your gear.
7. Get more bags. You start with only a backpack, and bag space runs out fast. Small bags drop from mobs, some vendors sell them, and Tailors make them. For example, Small Brown Pouch and Linen Bag hold 6 items and Red Linen Bag holds 8.
8. Set your hearthstone. Every character carries a Hearthstone. Using it takes you back to the inn you've made your home: talk to an innkeeper to change it. In the client it's a 10-second cast with a 1-hour cooldown. Set it in the town you're questing from, so you can come back quickly to hand in quests, train and sell.
9. Log out in an inn or a city. Time spent logged out there makes you rested, which gives bonus XP from kills until it's used up. Forever also adds campfires: Blizzard says you sit by one for a few moments to get rested and pick up its buffs.
10. Wear your upgrades. Quest rewards and drops are your main source of gear. Green (Uncommon) and blue (Rare) items beat white ones, and you want your armor type and the stats your class uses. Each class's PvE tab lists the best items at level 20, for example Warrior PvE, and the gear planner compares items.

Watch out: Don't get stuck on a quest you can't do. If a quest's mobs are red or orange to you, leave it for later and come back when you're higher level, or find a group for it.

What changes at level 10

Level 10 is your first big milestone.

• Talents. You earn talent points to spend in your class's three talent trees. In the client, the first row of every tree opens at level 10, and our talent calculator counts one point at 10 and one more per level, so 11 by level 20. Try builds in the calculator on your class's Talents tab, for example Priest talents, or copy a leveling build from the Builds tab. During the beta, Blizzard made a re-spec cost 1 silver if you haven't changed talents recently (temporary, beta only).
• Big new tools for most classes. Warriors get Defensive Stance and Taunt (tanking), Paladins Seal of Fury, Druids Bear Form and Growl, Warlocks Summon Voidwalker, Mages Frost Nova, Rogues Sap and Slice and Dice, Shaman Flame Shock and Searing Totem, and Priests Mind Blast, Resurrection and their first race spell.
• Hunters get their pet. Call Pet and Beast Training are trained at level 10. Tame Beast isn't a trainer spell in the client; in Classic it came from the Hunter quests Taming the Beast, which the Forever client has. Since September 24, you can't tame a beast higher level than you. Find your first pet in the pet database.
• Time to move on. By Classic's quest levels, most starting zones' quests run out around level 10 to 12. The leveling guide shows where to go next for each race.
• Dungeons are close. Ragefire Chasm and The Hall of Thanes have a minimum level of 13 in the client. See your first dungeon.

Speculation: Classic's data has class quests at level 10 for every class, for example Taming the Beast for Hunters, Body and Heart for Druids and The Binding for Warlocks. The Forever client has these quests, but where each one starts in Forever isn't confirmed. The class leveling guides list them.

Learn the interface

Blizzard says Forever offers modern and Classic visual presets, a choice of high-definition or standard-definition character models, and official gamepad support. If you choose Classic Mode when you first launch the game, transmog is turned off (you keep collecting appearances in case you change your mind).

Action bars and keybinds

Your abilities are in your spellbook. Drag the ones you use onto your action bars, and put the ones you press most on keys near your movement keys. Pressing keys is much faster than clicking buttons with the mouse, and it becomes second nature within a few levels. You can change every key in the Options menu (press Escape). Gamepad players got class flyouts on the September 24 build: shapeshift forms for Druids, pet controls for Hunters and Warlocks, auras for Paladins and stances for Warriors.

Quest log and map

Your quest log lists every quest you have and what's left to do. The map shows where you are. In Classic, the default keys are L for the quest log and M for the map; check the key bindings in Options if Forever differs. Our interactive maps show every zone's towns, flight masters and dungeon entrances from the Forever client, and you can drop your own pins.

Watch out: In the beta, don't press Y before level 25. It opens the Legacy System early and causes Lua errors (a known issue). The Legacy System unlocks properly with your first Legacy Point, which for most players means reaching level 25. See the Legacy System explained.

Bags

Everything you carry sits in your backpack and the bags you add beside it. When your bags are full, you can't loot anything, so empty the junk at every vendor you pass.

The Cooldown Manager

Forever is testing a Cooldown Manager: a panel that shows your important cooldowns and buffs in one place you choose, so you don't have to scan your action bars mid-fight. It's off by default. Turn it on in Options, under the Gameplay Enhancement settings.

The Cooldown Manager in World of Warcraft: Forever is intended to enhance gameplay by pulling critical information from the buff bar or action bar and placing it in a fully customizable location. Blizzard, WoW Forever Beta Development Notes – Updated September 24

• Druids, Mages, Priests, Warriors and Warlocks can test it now. More classes follow in later updates.
• It doesn't support spell ranks yet, and some things can't be tracked yet (among them the Healthstone cooldown, Arcane Blast, pet cooldowns, and weapon enhancements such as Windfury or rogue poisons).
• Blizzard's most wanted feedback: which spells you wish were tracked by default.

The ForeverDB Companion addon

Our free Companion addon works with this site. It's optional, but it helps a new player a lot:

• Rotation card: your spec's priority list from the class Builds tab, on screen, for your level. Spells you haven't learned yet show the level you get them.
• Buff check: on a ready check it lists the buffs your group can give but someone is missing.
• Combat logging: switches logging on in dungeons and raids, so you can watch your pulls back on the Replay page and share them on Logs.
• Drop, quest and beast capture: it saves the items that drop, the quests you're offered and the beasts you see, with where you were. That turns Classic's details into confirmed Forever ones on this site. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Dying and getting back

Everyone dies, especially early on. When your health hits zero, choose Release Spirit and you appear as a ghost at the nearest graveyard. Then you have two choices:

• Run back to your body. Your corpse is marked on your map and minimap. Reach it, choose to resurrect, and you're back where you fell. This is free and it's what you'll normally do. Night Elves make the run as a fast wisp thanks to Wisp Spirit.
• Let the spirit healer at the graveyard revive you. You come back at once, but with Resurrection Sickness, which the client describes as cutting all your attributes, the damage you deal, and your armor and resistances by 75% while it lasts. Blizzard's known issues say its duration isn't right at lower levels in the beta. Only do this when your body is somewhere you can't get back to.

Dying also wears down your gear's durability, and a broken item stops working until it's repaired, so repair at a vendor now and then. In a group, wait for a healer to bring you back instead of running: Priests learn Resurrection at level 10, Paladins Redemption, Shaman Ancestral Spirit and Druids Revive at level 12 (all out of combat), and Druids get Rebirth, which works in combat, at level 20. A Warlock's Create Soulstone (level 18) makes a stone that stores a player's soul, so they can revive themselves if they die.

Tip: Most early deaths come from pulling too much. Before you attack, look for other mobs nearby and ones walking a patrol route, fight at the edge of camps rather than in the middle, start each fight with full health, and run away early if a fight goes wrong: mobs give up the chase after a while.

On the Hardcore ruleset, when it arrives after launch, death has lasting consequences, so everything above matters twice as much.

Grouping and chat

WoW is more fun, and often faster, with other people. A party holds up to five players; a raid is a bigger group. To invite someone, right-click their portrait or type /invite and their name. You can only group with players on your ruleset and faction.

• Quest together. Party members nearby usually share credit for quest kills, and you can share many quests with your party from your quest log. Some quests are marked as group quests: those need a party.
• Loot fairly. When an item drops in a group, you roll for it. Choose Need only for items you'll actually use, and Greed otherwise.
• Say what you're doing. Tell the group before you leave, go away from the keyboard (AFK) or pull something big.
• Beta quirks: forming or changing a party can move you to a different copy of the world (Blizzard is working on it), and the character friends list is disabled in the beta.

Chat has a few basic commands: /s to say something to players near you, /y to yell it further, /p for your party, /g for your guild, /w plus a name to whisper one player, and /1 for the zone's General channel. Forever has a Preferred Online Language setting (Options, then Languages and Social) to help you meet players who speak your language, and you can hide your own second name above your head under Options, then Nameplates.

Tip: Be the player you'd want to meet: say hello, thank people who help, and ask when you're lost. People remember names, and your two-part name is unique in your region.

Where to go next

• Leveling to 20: where to go: a zone-by-zone route for each race, flight paths and the dungeons on the way.
• Your class's leveling guide: Warrior, Paladin, Hunter, Rogue, Priest, Shaman, Mage, Warlock or Druid.
• Professions: gathering and crafting, and which to pick first.
• Your first dungeon: the three roles, how a pull works, the first bosses and loot manners.
• Making money: your first money, and how the Auction House works.
• Explore the site: classes, maps, dungeons, items, spells, the Hunter pet database and the Companion addon.

Checked against WoW Forever beta build 1.60.1.70009.