Blizzard detailed significant design shifts for World of Warcraft Forever at BlizzCon, aiming to enhance the early WoW experience with elements drawn from later expansions.
Core Gameplay Changes
World of Warcraft Forever will focus on a ruleset system rather than separate realms, a move intended to increase player density and encourage interaction. Players will select a ruleset such as normal, PvP, or hardcore, ensuring a more populated journey through Azeroth. Transmogrification, the feature allowing players to alter their gear's appearance, will be a global, optional setting. Acquiring a gear piece will automatically unlock its appearance for transmog. Additionally, players can now establish campfires in the open world, providing crafting stations and resting buffs tied to professions.
Profession gameplay is set to expand significantly, with over 600 new recipes planned across all level ranges for each profession. The game will also introduce new race/class combinations, including Gnome priests, Human hunters, Dwarf shamans, Orc mages, Troll warlocks, and Undead paladins, with more planned for future updates.
Progression and Itemization
A new "Legacy" progression system will allow players to earn points that unlock various perks. These perks can alter mechanics, such as removing material requirements for major buffs, or grant access to exclusive cosmetics. The development team also stated that most items in the game have been reworked, or new ones have been added, to ensure their usefulness across all classes and roles. Loot drops from all bosses have been improved, and unique racial abilities for every playable race have been enhanced with new additions.
One of Blizzard's stated goals is to "unsolve" the game, encouraging players to experiment with mechanics and abilities again. This approach aims to provide a fresh yet familiar experience for both new and returning players.
World of Warcraft Forever is slated for release on November 4 and will be accessible with the standard World of Warcraft subscription. A beta period is scheduled to begin on September 17 for those who purchase the game early.