City of Dalaran: Blizzard says Horde access to the city isn't really intended, and a Kirin Tor rep fix is done internally

The Stratholme loading screen from the WoW Forever client

2026-10-09 · ForeverDB

Players found that clearing the new City of Dalaran dungeon lets Horde enter Dalaran itself, after a quest chain earns them a key to the dungeon. A developer says on X, as reported by Wowhead, that full Horde access to Dalaran is not really intended and will be looked at, and that a fix for Horde gaining Kirin Tor reputation is done internally but won't land until next week.

With the beta's level cap now at 30, players can reach the new City of Dalaran dungeon, which Blizzard set at levels 28 to 33. Wowhead, drawing on a video by Farmerfarms, has laid out a Horde attunement: a short quest chain to earn a key, where Alliance can simply speak to an NPC and walk in. On 8 October Wowhead added a second find: clearing the dungeon lets Horde enter the city of Dalaran itself.

Update, 9 October: Blizzard says the Horde city access isn't really intended

Senior Game Designer Josh "Aggrend" Greenfield posted on X that Horde having full access to Dalaran is not really intended and that the team will look at it, as reported by Wowhead. Wowhead also reports him saying that Horde gaining Kirin Tor reputation (our Kirin Tor faction page) is already fixed internally, though the fix won't reach the beta until next week. So the Horde city access players found looks like a bug Blizzard means to close, not a feature. (Update, 15 October: Blizzard's development notes now say Horde are no longer welcome in Dalaran under any circumstances and will be attacked on sight. Access to the City of Dalaran dungeon is unchanged, but the Sewer Key questline no longer opens the city itself.)

Reported, not an official Blizzard post. Greenfield's words come from Wowhead's account of his X post, not from Blizzard's forums or Bluesky, so they aren't in our posts archive and we haven't quoted him word for word. Apart from the 15 October development notes above, Blizzard has posted nothing on its forums or Bluesky about the dungeon's attunement or about Horde entering Dalaran. The attunement chain and the city-access steps are player reports, from Wowhead articles citing Farmerfarms' video and later testing. The client now links three Forever quests to the dungeon, but none carries the names these reports use.

Horde can now enter Dalaran itself, players report

Wowhead's newer write-up says that once Horde have cleared the City of Dalaran dungeon and finished Heart of Disruption, the questline it says awards the Dalaran Sewer Key, they can enter the city of Dalaran itself. By that account you loot an Arcane Mote from the Shade of the Archmage inside the dungeon, then hand it in through a quest called Shrewd Negotiations. The guards, who were hostile, turn neutral and let any Horde player who has beaten the Archmage pass. You turn the quest in to Archmage Celindra, after which you can explore the city.

Player reports, not a Blizzard change or statement. The client backs up some of the pieces: the Arcane Mote (Arcane Mote) and the Dalaran Sewer Key (Dalaran Sewer Key) are both in the data, and the Shade of the Archmage is the dungeon's sixth boss. Our data has no quest called Heart of Disruption or Shrewd Negotiations, though, and no NPC named Archmage Celindra, so we can't confirm the chain or the city access from client data.

What Blizzard has said about the dungeon

City of Dalaran is one of nine new dungeons announced for Forever. In the Krol'dok Stronghold post, Kaivax listed its level range along with the others:

Dungeon LowerLevel UpperLevel The Hall of Thanes 13 18 Ruins of Lordaeron 15 20 Excavation Site: Wetlands 24 29 City of Dalaran 28 33 The Drowned City 35 40 Krol’dok Stronghold 40 45 Alcaz Prison 48 53 Blackmaw Hold 55 60 Shaper’s Terrace 58 60 Kaivax, Community Manager

Blizzard has not posted development notes on how either faction gets into the dungeon. On the Horde side there is only the developer's X post covered above.

What the client confirms

The Forever client has City of Dalaran as a new five-player instance, last updated in build 1.60.1.70291, with a recommended level of 28 and nine bosses, among them Arcane Anomaly, Shade of the Archmage and Atrexis the Grave Knight.
Three Forever quests are now linked to the dungeon, all set at level 33 and filed under a City of Dalaran category: Power Overwhelming, given by High Sorcerer Andromath in Stormwind City (Alliance); Source of Power, given by Doctor Martin Felben in the Undercity (Horde); and The Grave Knight, which asks you to slay Atrexis the Grave Knight, the dungeon's eighth boss. At our last check no quest was tied to the dungeon.
Both items the newer report names are in the client: the quest item Arcane Mote (Arcane Mote) and the Dalaran Sewer Key (Dalaran Sewer Key). According to the dungeon's own route notes, the Horde gate is locked and needs a Dalaran Sewer Key.
Magus Wordeen Voidglare and Keeper Bel'varil, the quest givers in the earlier report, are in Tarren Mill, in the Hillsbrad Foothills.
So are that report's items: the quest item Grimy Key (Grimy Key) and the Worn Stone Token (Worn Stone Token). The Grimy Key's id sits well above the Classic Era range, where Forever's own additions tend to sit.
Those NPCs still give three Hillsbrad quests, with text unchanged from Classic Era: Prison Break In (from Magus Wordeen Voidglare, Find the traitors and recover their artifacts), Dalaran Patrols (Kill 6 Dalaran Summoners and 12 Elemental Slaves) and Stone Tokens (from Keeper Bel'varil, Bring 10 Worn Stone Tokens).

The client now ties quests to the dungeon, but not the chains the reports describe. None of its three dungeon quests is called Heart of Disruption, Shrewd Negotiations or Key to the City, and the Tarren Mill quests above are still not linked to the dungeon, so the data doesn't spell out either reported attunement or the city access step by step. Nor does it show Kirin Tor standings for either faction, so the reputation fix the developer mentions can't be checked in the game files.

The chain players describe

Wowhead's earlier write-up has Horde start at Magus Wordeen Voidglare in Tarren Mill. The opening steps it lists are Prison Break In (find the traitors and recover their artifacts), then Key to the City (acquire the Grimy Key for Voidglare), then Stone Tokens (bring 10 Worn Stone Tokens to Keeper Bel'varil). The rest of the chain and the final key are in Wowhead's article and Farmerfarms' video.

Two of those names match the client's quests exactly, Prison Break In and Stone Tokens, and the Grimy Key is in the client. Our quest data has no quest called Key to the City in Hillsbrad, though. There is an item named Key to the City (Key to the City), but it is described as the Master Key to the City of Stratholme, so it is unrelated. The NPCs and items in the report are in the client, then, but its quest data doesn't show them strung together as a Dalaran attunement.

A caveat on levels

In the client the Hillsbrad quests carry their Classic Era levels: Stone Tokens at 32, Prison Break In at 34 and Dalaran Patrols at 35. All three sit above the current beta cap of 30, and Prison Break In and Dalaran Patrols are above the dungeon's own 28 to 33 range too. The dungeon's own three Forever quests are all set at level 33.

Speculation. Whether Forever has re-levelled the attunement so it can be finished at the cap is not clear from our quest data. The levels above are the values the client lists; the reported chains assume they can be done now.

Alliance, for comparison

Wowhead says Alliance have it easier: speak to Image of Archmage Modera, take the key and a quest, and walk in. The client's Alliance dungeon quest, Power Overwhelming, comes from a different mage, High Sorcerer Andromath in Stormwind City, so it doesn't confirm the Modera step. The rest of the Alliance route is a player report, not something Blizzard has posted or that our quest data confirms.

Sources

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