Force Gaming's week-one Forever verdict: what the client can and can't back up

2026-11-14 · ForeverDB

Force Gaming posted launch impressions a week into WoW Forever and scored it "9 out of 10", with two pain points: layering and PvP faction balance. We checked their claims against the Forever client. The Paladin abilities and the Sword of Dismemberment they show are in the client; the launch records, layering and faction locks are server-side, so the client can't confirm them.

This is a community video by Force Gaming, not Blizzard. What it says is the creator's own finding, so we write "Force Gaming says/shows" throughout. The ability numbers below come from the Forever client (build 1.60.1.70938); we checked the video's claims against the game files.

Force Gaming is a week into WoW Forever and happy. They settled on a Paladin as their main, reached level 40, and give the launch "9 out of 10". Most of the video is about systems and feel rather than exact numbers, so there is only so much the client can confirm. Here is what it does, and what it can't.

The short version

• Force Gaming scores the launch "9 out of 10": servers held up, the starting zones were packed, and they levelled a Paladin to level 40 on RP PvP.
• Their two pain points are layering, which they call "pretty busted" as players and weather flip across zone borders, and PvP faction creation locks.
• The client backs up the Paladin abilities they lean on: Lay on Hands, Seal of Command and Pursuit of Justice, with the numbers below.
• The client has the Sword of Dismemberment and its on-hit dismember proc; we couldn't find the "Croll Dock" tank set they show.
• The launch records, layering and the faction locks are server-side, so the client can't confirm them. The last section lists what we can and can't check.

Claim by claim

What Force Gaming says, next to what the Forever client (build 1.60.1.70938) holds.

The launch and the numbers

Force Gaming reads out Blizzard's posts that Forever had "the biggest launch in WoW history by peak concurrent players", the most returning players ever, and the most new players for a WoW launch in 15 years. Those are server and account figures, so nothing in the client can prove or disprove them. The one mega server per rule set and the account-wide Legacy system are things the client at least shows traces of: it carries the "(RP PvP)" rule-set text and a Legacy Tree window, so both features exist, even though the matchmaking and the shared-progress maths run on the server.

Layering and faction balance

The two pain points are layering and PvP faction balance. Force Gaming describes players and weather flipping as you walk across a zone border, and says a friend who bought a sub couldn't make a Horde character on a US PvP server because Blizzard had locked creation on the larger faction until the split moves back toward 50/50, with the worst case "roughly 55% to 45%". Both are server behaviours. The client doesn't carry layer assignment or the creation lock, so a beta player can't test either against the files; this is Blizzard's word and the creator's experience.

The Paladin they mained

The abilities Force Gaming leans on are in the client, and it adds the numbers the video doesn't. Pursuit of Justice is a Retribution tier 3 talent at level 20. Lay on Hands comes from the trainer at level 10. Seal of Command is a Retribution tier 3 talent at level 20. Full lists are on the Paladin changes page and the Paladin talent calculator, with Retribution at the Retribution Paladin simulator.

• Pursuit of Justice: +8% movement speed at rank 1 and +15% at the top rank. The client marks the top rank as changed from Classic Era, where it stayed at 8%. That is the "almost feels like cheating" speed the video talks about.
• Lay on Hands: heals a friendly target for the Paladin's maximum health. Its cooldown is 20 min instead of Classic's 1 hr at all three ranks, and Rank 3 (level 50) also restores 550 mana. That shorter cooldown is why it can be a regular clutch tool in PvP.
• Seal of Command: a chance to deal extra Holy damage equal to 70% of normal weapon damage. Judging it deals 48 Holy damage, or 93 to 101 if the target is stunned or incapacitated.

The video also jokes about the layering making players disappear like a Rogue who didn't use Vanish. The client confirms Vanish as a Rogue ability from level 22: improved stealth for 10 sec that also breaks movement-impairing effects, on a 5 min cooldown (Rogue changes).

The items they showed

The client confirms the Sword of Dismemberment: a slow weapon with a chance on hit to dismember the target, the "absurd" proc the video points at. The captions garble its damage range, so we leave the numbers to the item page, which has the exact values. The five-piece plate tank set the video calls "Croll Dock", whose stacking stamina buff "turns you into an ogre" at 20 stacks, we could not find in the client data, so treat that one as the creator's sighting until it turns up.

What we have, and what we don't

• The client has: the "(RP PvP)" rule-set text, the Legacy Tree window, the Sword of Dismemberment and its dismember proc, the Hillsbrad zone the video questlines through, and the Paladin and Rogue abilities above with their numbers.
• The client doesn't have: layering, the faction creation lock and the 55/45 split, the population balance, the auction house deposit value, the campfire buff timers, or the "Croll Dock" set.
• Why players can't test those yet: they are server rules and account-wide stats that the client doesn't carry, so you can only take them from Blizzard's posts and the creator's play, not from the files.

Sources

• WoW Forever Has Launched! The Good AND The Bad (Force Gaming, YouTube)
• Sword of Dismemberment in the WoW Forever client (ForeverDB)
• Paladin: changes from Classic Era (ForeverDB, from the client)
• Hillsbrad Foothills map (ForeverDB)