Everything You Need To Know

World of Warcraft: Forever launches on November 4, and unless you’re someone who’s already deeply buried in the community, it probably sounds a little daunting. What even is it? Original WoW, but not? Lighting effects and torches? Something about some new blue elves?

I’ve been trying to explain WoW: Forever to friends and colleagues again and again for weeks now, but I have become tired and now I am just writing it all down for anyone to read. I’ve broken this up into two parts: the first half or so is for people who are familiar with some version of WoW already, but the second half addresses anyone who’s never even touched WoW and doesn’t know the first thing they should be doing. All of you are welcome in WoW: Forever, and I want you to understand the game as much as you want or need to, because I’ve played about 15 hours of it and it’s genuinely very, very cool.

Read these things you need to know, absorb them, and then come meet me in the Riverglades:

All you need to play it is a World of Warcraft subscription

Literally that’s it. If you already have a subscription that you use to play WoW or WoW: Classic, you’re golden. Don’t need to do anything else.

That said, if you want access to the new Skyborne race and their starting zone, it costs $30 for the Skyborne Heroic Pack. At the moment, this is the only gameplay content gated behind a bonus paywall, though it’s possible other things could be added in the future. There are other, more expensive bundles that will get you the Skyborne and a number of other goodies across both Forever and other WoW games, but again I cannot emphasize enough that if you just want to make an orc or something and play Forever, and you already have a WoW subscription, you don’t need to buy extra stuff. If you don’t have a subscription currently, you will need to get one, obviously.

Played WoW before? This will be (mostly) familiar

For those who have never touched World of Warcraft before, hold tight, I’ll get to you in a moment. Veterans, I’m talking to you right now. Maybe you’re coming back to WoW after years of not playing, or maybe you’re active in Midnight right now. Regardless, WoW: Forever should be pretty familiar-looking, especially if you played World of Warcraft “back in the day” and have powerful memories of that time. It’s still an MMORPG set in Azeroth, with the same locations across Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms, albeit in their original forms (before Cataclysm shifted everything around). The majority of the questlines, characters, classes, activities, and mechanics are exactly the same as they were when WoW first came out. If your most recent memory of WoW was playing back in its first few years, and you open up Forever when it launches and roll the same kind of character, you honestly might not even notice that much of a difference…at first.

You can hone in on the new content

Even so, there’s plenty of new things to be found. Even if you roll the same character you played in the original game and venture through the same zones, you’ll likely find yourself on quests here and there that seem unfamiliar, and that’s probably because they’re brand new—woven in with the old stories. But if you want something that truly feels new, here are a few good places to start:

• Just roll a new Skyborne Elf: their starting zone and storyline is totally new to Forever (as mentioned above, though, this costs at least $30)
• Play as an Undead paladin or a Dwarf shaman, classes that were previously locked to the opposing faction in original WoW
• At level 35, head out to the Riverglades in Eastern Kingdoms and adventure through a totally new questing zone
• As you approach the endgame, check out Mount Hyjal in Kalimdor, a new endgame leveling zone that was often-fabled in original WoW but didn’t appear until Cataclysm (and the Forever version seems quite different!)
• Shen’Dralas is another new zone added between Mulgore and Desolace. It’s not super clear what level range this is intended for or even what you’ll do there, as in the Beta the zone was too high a level and seemed like it hadn’t been fully implemented. But it’s worth checking out if you get a quest to go there.

There are nine (nine!!!) new dungeons at launch

Good grief that’s a lot, and that’s just in addition to the existing ones! The new dungeons are as follows:

Try out the campfire system

Early on, you’ll get a quest tutorial for a new campfire system that lets you build campfires out in the wilderness and sit by them to gain buffs. Those buffs are determined by the items you and other passersby set up around the campfire, which are learned through your professions. I really loved the quiet moments this system inspired when I toyed with it during the beta, and I definitely recommend using it when you’re out questing and the nearest town is far, far away. Or, join someone else’s campfire when you see the smoke rising in the distance. It’s worth it both for the buffs and the cool social interactions you’ll have.

Check out the Legacy Point system

A new Legacy Point system replaces achievements from modern WoW, and gives you spendable points for doing things like leveling characters, maximizing reputations, finishing dungeons and raids, and just exploring. You can then spend those points on all sorts of bonuses and perks related to professions, exploring, and other things. You won’t get combat bonuses out of them, but they can make your time in Forever a lot smoother or more enjoyable, depending on what you pick, so make sure you experiment with this system once you unlock it.

Toggle between old and new settings

Definitely play around with the toggles available to you to swap between old and new looks/feels for certain game elements. For instance, you can choose to toggle either old character models or new ones, depending on which you prefer, and you can also turn transmogrification appearances on or off. If you want everything to look as old and scrapped-together as possible, you can. But if you want to make a gorgeous outfit and show it off, that’s possible too. Look for the character model setting in the game options, and the transmog toggle at transmog NPCs in the faction capitals.

Prepare for new raids in December

Though they won’t be available right at launch, you’re going to need the month’s lead time to level up so you can participate in two new raids: The Barrow Deeps (ten players) and Hyjal Summit (20), both of which unlock on December 9th. Onyxia’s Lair will also return from original WoW at this time, though we don’t know if it’ll see any changes to its original format.

Classic WoW is…rough…at times

Whether you’re coming from Midnight or operating on pure nostalgia, it is good to go in remembering that original World of Warcraft could be…rough at times. You spent a lot of time slowly walking across continents just to talk to a skill trainer or meet up with your dungeon group. Your equipment was scrappy and often had the wrong combinations of stats. Money was hard to come by. Quests often sent you far out of your way for seemingly no reason. At lower levels (and even at higher ones) your available abilities sometimes made no goddamn sense. Be prepared for some jank, but also, embrace the jank. Overcoming such obstacles in weird or creative ways is genuinely a huge part of what makes playing older versions of WoW so fun.

Never played WoW before? No worries

Okay, for everyone else who has never touched this game before, it’s time to tune back in. If you’re just starting WoW, or maybe played so long ago you remember nothing, pay attention: you’re gonna be fine, but there are quite a few things you may want to know that WoW straight-up will not explain to you.

Choosing your realm

The very, very first thing you do when you boot up WoW: Forever is choose your realm type. This is new to Forever and replaces servers in the regular game, but is a much easier decision. You choose between the following:

• Normal – This is the basic kind of WoW experience, where players can’t engage in combat with other players unless both players actively opt-in during gameplay. This style is recommended for most people and certainly for newcomers, so pick this if you don’t know what else to do.
• PvP – Players can freely attack other players of the opposing faction. WoW has two factions, Alliance and Horde, and you pick one when you build your character based on what race you choose to play as (more on that momentarily). While you won’t run into opposing players for the first ten levels or so (unless a very ambitious, high-level player invades your starting zone or you go wandering off), it means you’re fair game to be murdered by the opposite faction any time. I do not recommend this playstyle for newcomers unless you just really love the idea of PvP.
• RP – Roleplaying. If you want to roleplay as a fantasy character in the world of WoW with other players, go here. People will speak in character as their characters and may be more interested in group activities that facilitate such things. This is a fine option for newcomers if you’re prepared to do some creative writing exercises as you play.
• RP-PvP – This is the RP and PvP options mashed together: people will play the game in character, and also be able to murder the opposite faction at any time. Again, less recommended for newcomers unless you’re really into the premise.

An additional Hardcore realm will arrive in the game at a later date but I don’t recommend that for newcomers at all. If you die in that realm, it’s permanent.

Choosing your race

The race you choose impacts a lot of elements of WoW, such as special racial abilities, your starting zone (and thus what quests you’ll be doing for the first several hours), your faction, and what classes are available to you. If you’re a total newcomer, I recommend not worrying too much about the first two, and only a little about the other two. If you’re playing with friends, make sure you’re picking races in the same faction as one another (Alliance are the blue guys on the left, Horde are the red guys on the right), or you won’t be able to play together. Beyond that, skim through what’s available and pick a race you think is cool that has the class you want to play available to it. You really can’t go wrong here.

Choosing your class

Again, if you’re literally playing WoW for the first time with Forever, I cannot recommend enough just picking something you think is cool and not worrying too much about the details. Here’s a quick, super dumbed-down, vibes-based rundown of all the available classes and what they tend to do:

• Druid – Animal shapeshifters, lots of nature-based abilities. You’ll be spending a lot of time in animal form. Really versatile class that can perform basically any role in a group: tank, healer, ranged or melee damage. This is a great class if you can’t decide what kind of role you want to play, as it’s (relatively) easy to switch up your playstyle at any time.
• Hunter – Ranged attackers who use bows/arrows and/or guns and have an animal companion attack for them. In Forever, they also have a melee attacker variation. Good class if you like the idea of taming animals.
• Mage – Pure damage-dealing, ranged spellcasters. You’ll be able to choose between arcane, frost, and fire magic. Die easily, but blow stuff up fast and have a ton of utility.
• Paladin – Another flexible class that can do a lot of different things: tank, healer, or melee damage-dealer. They use melee weapons and fight with the power of holy attacks and the light, and are pretty sturdy and tough to take down. Good class for solo players, though for Horde you’ll have to play an Undead to be one.
• Priest – Also holy and light-magic based, but priests are fragile spellcasters with the ability to heal or do damage at a distance. Damage-dealing priests use shadow attacks to fight.
• Rogue – You know what these guys do. Melee attacks, stealth-based and themed around building up combo points and spending them. They can lockpick, giving them access to treasures others can’t get, and also use all sorts of poisons.
• Shaman – These are my guys! They can be healers, or melee or ranged attackers, and use the power of the four elements (earth, water, wind, fire) to do those things. Shamans drop totems on the ground to buff themselves and their team.
• Warlock – Ranged spellcasters who summon demons and use the powers of darkness and Fel (it’s evil green-colored) magic to fight. Very strong damage, but again can be very vulnerable as a solo character.
• Warriors – Straightforward: They hit things with weapons. Tough to kill, lots of different weapon options. Can tank or be a melee damage-dealer.

Help, where do I go?

This may go without saying but I do think it’s important for people to know: when you first start up the game, after you’ve watched the opening cutscene, talk to the person in front of you with the yellow “!” above their head. That’s a quest marker.

Okay, maybe that’s obvious, but there are other things that are less obvious. WoW: Forever straddles a line between how original WoW used to do things (no quest help markers at all) and how the current version of WoW does it (quest markers all over the place). You’ll be able to see yellow arrows on your minimap indicating where you need to go to complete whatever quest you currently have set as your main objective, so use those liberally. They didn’t use to be a part of the game!

What WoW: Forever doesn’t do is show you where quests are that you haven’t discovered yet. So if you run out of quests to do and don’t know where else to go, the map may not be much help. If you’re in this situation, I have a couple of suggestions. First, I recommend heading back to the nearest major city or capital, such as Orgrimmar or Stormwind, and running around to see if there are any new quests you can pick up. Often, someone will have a “breadcrumb” quest to send you out to some town where a bunch of new questlines are waiting for you.

My other suggestion is to just check your map and strike out on your own. If you follow the road and use roadsigns, you can usually make it to the next town or settlement in the region you’re in, which may have new quests for you to undertake. When in doubt, explore!

How to learn new skills

You won’t just learn new skills automatically as you level up. You need to visit your class trainer regularly and pay to learn them. Yeah, sorry.

You’ll be introduced to your class trainer in an early quest, and most major cities have trainers for most classes available. Also worth noting is that most spells have “ranks” where you’ll start at Rank 1, but then later learn Rank 2, 3, and so on. If you have Rank 1 equipped to your spell bar, and you learn Rank 2, you’ll want to click and drag Rank 2 to your spell bar so you can use it instead.

Picking a profession

You’ll be introduced to professions in an early (new to Forever!) quest, so don’t worry about missing them. Professions are basically extra gathering and crafting skills you can learn that you’ll build upon as you adventure, and which will help you make money or acquire useful items for yourself. It is generally recommended for players to have one “gathering” profession (Mining, Herbalism, Skinning) and one “crafting” profession (Blacksmithing, Alchemy, Leatherworking, Tailoring, Enchanting, Engineering) so that one can funnel ingredients to the other. Try to pick two complementary professions (Mining + either Blacksmithing or Engineering, Herbalism + Alchemy or Enchanting, Skinning + Leatherworking). Three other professions—Cooking, Fishing, and First Aid—can all be learned in addition to the other two, without restriction, so grab those when you see them.

A few other things…

Just some more quick tips before you go:

• You won’t be able to communicate with members of the opposing faction, because you don’t speak the same in-universe language. All Alliance races speak Common, and all Horde races speak Orcish, and your dialogue will appear as gibberish to anyone on the other side. Every race also has their native tongue which is only decipherable to others who can speak it (so, members of their same race). The exception to all this is Skyborne Elves, who speak Darnassian, thus allowing members of the Horde to communicate with both other Skyborne and also Night Elves, who also speak it. The toggle for languages is down in the dialogue box, though you’re very unlikely to need to use it.
• If you plan to play with friends, it’s worth considering all making characters of the same race to start, or at least trying to ensure you start in zones close to one another. Early on, it’ll be pretty difficult to travel long distances to meet up with one another, especially across continents. Dwarves and Gnomes share a starting zone that’s not too far from that of Humans, so all three of those groups are good choices to play together. On the Horde side, Orcs and Trolls start close together, with Tauren in the zone next door. Skyborne Elves all start in one zone together regardless of faction, but around level 15 will pop out either near the Tauren zone for Horde or Dalaran for Alliance, and Dalaran has a portal to Stormwind to link them up with the Humans. Night Elves (Alliance) and Forsaken (Horde) are a bit out of the way from the rest of their factions.
• Whenever you find an inn, it’s good to talk to the innkeeper and “set” your Hearthstone to that inn. Your Hearthstone is an inventory item that can teleport you back to the inn you have it set to once per hour. Make sure you keep it up to date for whatever zone you’re exploring, as it’s a handy way to get “home” at the end of a long day of adventuring.
• And speaking of inns, whenever possible, try to end your play session with your character sitting in one. You’ll acquire “rested” EXP while you’re offline, which will double the EXP you collect next time you log on for a period of time.
• Finally, open the settings menu and turn on Autoloot. Trust me.

Ask for help!

If you’re ever confused or lost, I highly recommend just opening up chat and asking for help. If you just type directly in chat, your dialogue will only be broadcast to those around you. But if you type “/1” and then your message, you’ll broadcast it to the entire zone, and anyone else who’s online in the zone with you can offer help. While jackasses certainly exist in WoW, a lot of players are genuinely friendly, very knowledgeable, and eager to help new folks. It’s a lot easier and more reliable to get advice from players online with you in the moment instead of trying to sift through over 20 years of online guides for a game that’s now split into 3 different versions and 11 expansions.