WoW Forever launches November 4 at 3:00 p.m. PST (23:00 UTC). See the launch timeline for that time in your own time zone.
Before launch day
- Check you can play. WoW Forever is included with a World of Warcraft subscription or Game Time. The Skyborne race needs one of the Skyborne packs.
- Install it early. Open the Battle.net app, select World of Warcraft, open the Game Version menu above the Play button, choose World of Warcraft: Forever and click Install. Update your graphics drivers while you’re at it.
- Reserve your names if you bought an upgrade or Skyborne pack: up to three characters across all rulesets until November 3. See rulesets and names.
- Pick your class. The class finder filters by faction, race and role, and choosing a main covers what to think about.
Choosing a ruleset
There are no realms: you pick a ruleset, and everyone on it plays in the same world.
- Normal if you want PvP to be optional.
- PvP if you want open-world fights. You can only play one faction there, and your first character decides which.
- Role-Play if you want to stay in character with others who do.
- Hardcore comes later, after launch.
You can’t move a character to another ruleset later (except a Hardcore character that dies), and you can’t group with friends on a different ruleset. Agree on a ruleset with your friends before launch.
Known launch issues
- Stuck at level 10 with an Invite-a-Friend code? Players who joined with an Invite-a-Friend code were wrongly limited: no leveling past 10, and no guilds, groups, trading or some chat channels. Blizzard fixed it with a hotfix on November 5. Log out and back in to get the fix.
First thing after you log in
- Set your preferred language. Game Menu → Options → Languages and Social → Preferred Online Language. It’s account-wide and has a 24-hour cooldown, so set it once.
- Decide on your second name. It shows above your head by default. To hide it: Game Menu → Options → Nameplates → My Secondary Name.
- Choose a look. WoW Forever has modern and Classic visual presets, and HD or SD character models. Picking the Classic look also turns off transmog, but you keep collecting appearances.
- Using a controller? Gamepads are supported officially.
While you level
- Cook early. Cooking skill 1 turns your Cooking Fire into a campfire that friends can add buffs to. See camping and professions.
- Equip new bags yourself. Bags no longer go into empty bag slots automatically.
- Add new spells to your bars yourself. New spells are no longer placed on your action bars automatically. Open your spellbook after each trainer visit.
- Talents start at 10. Milestone talents come at 11, 16, 21 and 31 points in a tree. Each class’s leveling guide lists the confirmed ones.
- Legacy Points are account-wide, so leveling an alt or a profession later still pays off. See the Legacy system.
- Plan your route with the leveling zones chart, including the nine new dungeons.
Looking ahead
- Darkspear Islands opens to characters from level 30. See the battleground guide.
- Raids open December 9. If you want to be in Onyxia’s Lair on day one, start the attunement as soon as you can run Blackrock Depths and Blackrock Spire.