World of Warcraft: Forever

Release Date, Beta and Editions

• Public beta: September 17, 2026, through October 21, 2026 PST — beta access included with the Skyborne Epic Pack and Warcraft Forever Collection, or via a free opt-in on the WoW Forever website (not a guaranteed entry; per GameSpot, September 15)
• Live Q&A: Thursday, September 17, 2026 — modern WoW at 10:00 a.m. PT, the WoW Forever segment follows at 10:30 a.m. PT (18:30 BST / 17:30 UTC), on the official Warcraft Twitch and YouTube channels, per Blizzard's [watch post](https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/article/24302544/watch-the-world-of-warcraft-live-q-a-september-17)
• Early Name Reservation: October 27 through November 3, 2026, included with any upgrade purchase — up to three characters, first-come first-served
• Global launch: November 4, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. PST
• Launch timezone, resolved: Blizzard's launch announcement writes "3:00 p.m. PDT" and the What's Next recap writes "3:00 p.m. PST" (noted by wowforevertalent.com, September 27). US Pacific daylight time ends November 1, 2026, three days before launch, so Pacific is on PST on November 4 and 23:00 UTC is the correct moment. 3:00 p.m. PDT would be 22:00 UTC, an hour early. We print PST and 23:00 UTC, and the countdown below is set to that moment.
• First new raids: December 9, 2026
• Access: included with a WoW subscription or game time; optional Skyborne upgrade packs are the paid editions
• Level cap: 60, permanently — Blizzard confirmed the cap "will always be" 60

Pre-Purchase Editions (Official)

Three paid upgrade packs are available on the Battle.net Shop, all priced separately from the subscription. Every pack includes Early Name Reservation (October 27 – November 3) and the Warcraft Forever Collection is a limited-time bundle available through January 11, 2027. Blizzard has not printed pack prices in its announcement articles; storefront prices have been reported independently: $29.99 / €29.99 for the Skyborne Heroic Pack (per Icy Veins), $59.99 / £51.99 for the Skyborne Epic Pack, and $79.99 / £69.99 for the Warcraft Forever Collection (both per GameSpot's September 15 guide, consistent with the site's storefront listings).

Edition contents per Blizzard's official pre-purchase announcement (September 12, 2026). Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom is also sold separately for Warcraft III players.

Beta, Name Reservation and Invite-A-Friend

Beta: Runs September 17 - October 21, 2026 PST. Access comes with the Skyborne Epic Pack and Warcraft Forever Collection, or by opting in at the WoW Forever website - GameSpot (September 15) describes the opt-in as a signup that is not a guaranteed seat; Blizzard later confirmed servers open following the Forever Q&A segment on September 17 (10:30 a.m. PDT start, per WoW Classic's official Reddit post via Icy Veins). Independent coverage reports the beta will not require game time (per classicwowforever.com's reading of Blizzard's support article, which states it explicitly) and that Beta play is planned to be capped at level 30 (per its roadmap reading, again reported by Warcraft Tavern's September 17 beta guide) - both remain [NEEDS VERIFICATION] against the official announcement. wowforeverclassic's FAQ independently reads the same items: the beta opens "capped at level 20 and rises to 30 after a couple of weeks" (reported) and progress will "most likely not" carry over to launch (reported). GameSpot independently confirms the September 17 - October 21 end date. The beta went live on September 17: Blizzard's Kaivax posted the first official known-issues list the same day (pet display bugs for Hunters and Warlocks, Waylaid crate problems, glancing-blow math, UI errors). Update September 25: Kaivax's full development notes now list a memory-leak fix, broad class tuning, a limited Cooldown Manager, expanded gamepad options, and new known issues. Nothing carries to launch - the wipe is explicit in Warcraft Tavern's beta guide, and wowforeverclassic.com grades it "reported" - and Warcraft Tavern's guide also expects no raid testing during the beta window.

Early Name Reservation: Any upgrade purchase includes reservation from October 27 – November 3. You can create and customize up to three characters; names are reserved first-come, first-served and cannot be guaranteed. Forever is also realmless, and Blizzard says characters carry two-part names unique per region.

Invite-A-Friend: Qualifying packs include 1 (Heroic) or 3 (Epic/Collection) launch codes. Codes are emailed starting October 20, and let invited friends play Forever during launch week, November 4 – November 11, without their own subscription. Gift orders are excluded; codes cannot be used on an account that bought a Forever upgrade. One report (wowforeverclassic, reported grade) lists Epic at 2 codes and the Collection at 3, contradicting Blizzard's 3 for Epic — single-report conflict; the official count stands.

Collector's Edition: A physical World of Warcraft: Forever Collector's Edition is also available for pre-purchase. It bundles the Warcraft Forever Collection digital code (Skyborne access, beta from September 17 - October 21, 30 days of game time, cosmetics) with a 13-inch Dwarf-and-Bear statue, a Zephras Isle mousepad, art prints, pins and a companion journal, plus launch codes for the November 4-11 window (per Blizzard's Collector's Edition announcement). The storefront price had been reported at $150 and reportedly sold out (per wowforeverclassic, September 17). Update September 25: Blizzard's official restock notice says additional English versions are available in North America, the UK, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, with delivery expected in February 2027 and a one-copy-per-household limit on the Blizzard Gear Store.

Per Blizzard's official pre-purchase announcement and support article; verified September 13, 2026. Exact beta closing time has a one-day discrepancy (October 21 in purchase terms, October 22 on the roadmap graphic, and again October 22 in Warcraft Tavern's September 17 beta guide and classicwowforever's access reference) not yet resolved.

New Race: The Skyborne

Skyborne is the first new playable race for Vanilla-era WoW, and the centerpiece of Forever's reveal. The Skyborne are an ancient elven people who share ancestry with the Highborne; in the revealing lore, their homeland is Zephras Isle, an elemental skybound island off the coast of Kalimdor where their society is spiraling into crisis as the wind that once protected it begins to fail.

At character creation you choose which faction your Skyborne joins. The faction choice locks the exclusive class; the other four classes are available to both.

Beyond class access, Blizzard confirmed brand-new Skyborne druid forms (sky-blue Bear, Cat, Travel and Boomkin forms shown in pre-release footage; no Tree form observed so far), plus new racials, customizations, voices, dances and visual options. Fan transcribers report a deep customization set covering skin tones, hairstyles, eyes and markings. Dataminers also note Forever's Skyborne race IDs point at "TBD NPC Race ID" placeholders in Midnight 12.1.5's ChrRaces table — possibly planned as an NPC race in retail, but not evidence Skyborne become playable in modern WoW (per Icy Veins, September 17).

Race access details per Blizzard's panel recap and pre-purchase announcement: the Skyborne race and its Zephras Isle starting experience are part of the paid Skyborne packs (Heroic and above), confirmed in Blizzard's official edition list. Subtype names (Windshaper / High Order) are official per Blizzard article 24304075 (September 22).

New Zones: Hyjal, Shen'dralas, Riverglades and Zephras Isle

Forever adds four new regions and more than 1,000 new quests woven through the level 1–60 journey, layered on top of the original Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. The panel recap also showed expanded and reimagined existing areas, with rendering updates — flowing rivers in Elwynn Forest, mist over Darkshore's waters, and moonlight breaking through Ashenvale's trees.

The "found photographs" approach (a term Chris Metzen coined during early Season of Discovery talks, per Blizzard's Found Photos panel recap) drives how the team picks new content: stories that feel like they may have existed all along. New additions fit three buckets — Anticipated places players always wanted to explore (Mount Hyjal), new but familiar zones built on existing lore (the Riverglades), and sparingly used Unexpected surprises (Zephras Isle). Forever plays in its own "time bubble" set in early Year 1 Azeroth, before Kazzak reopened the Dark Portal, so new threads never overwrite the foundational story.

Mount Hyjal (Kalimdor)
Explores the aftermath of Archimonde's defeat and the Wild Gods' mountain recovering. Ready to journey through Darkwhisper Gorge and help shape the land's future. The Found Photos recap frames it as exploring the aftermath of the Battle for Mount Hyjal, meeting emerging factions and forming alliances. Zierhut (The Sun interview) sets it in the gap between the Warcraft III battle, the Burning Crusade visit and Cataclysm: what the survivors did and how they are trying to recover. Serves as Forever's endgame-leveling zone and connects directly into the Hyjal Summit raid.

Shen'dralas (Kalimdor)
A long-hidden mystery between Mulgore and Desolace becomes a new adventure tied to the Shen'dralar, Eldre'Thalas, Dire Maul and the centaur tribes of the region. The Found Photos recap adds that a path south of Desolace through the Valley of Bones opens the new Shen'dralas area. Zierhut (The Sun interview) confirms a new fork off the Valley of Bones road, with the Magram and Gelkis centaur story carrying over from Desolace and a direct tie to the Dire Maul story and what happened to Tortheldrin.

The Riverglades (Eastern Kingdoms)
A new mid-level zone roughly the size of Stranglethorn Vale, built from a previously inaccessible part of the Classic world. More than 200 quests for Horde and Alliance, connected to the Burning Steppes, Redridge Mountains, Swamp of Sorrows and the Badlands, with gnoll camps, ogre threats and the new Powderfuse goblins, plus Twilight's Hammer and the Brotherhood of the Horse (per Blizzard's Found Photos recap; earlier Inven Global coverage estimated 150+ quests across the mid-30s to mid-40s, and wowforeverclassic pins the Official bracket at 35–45 per Blizzard's panel videos). Principal designer Kris Zierhut (The Sun interview) pins it directly east of the Burning Steppes, south of the Badlands and north of Redridge, entered by a new fork on the Redridge-to-Burning-Steppes road, with Redridge's gnoll and shadow-magic stories bleeding in — plus a goblin outpost hosting a black market auction house.

Zephras Isle (Kalimdor)
The elemental skybound starting experience for Skyborne characters, covering levels 1 through 12. A floating island described in coverage as wooden docks in the clouds with ships anchored by chains to stone spires, blending Classic Warcraft aesthetics with architecture inspired by Skywall, domain of Al'Akir the Windlord (per panel recap, NoobToBoss and Inven Global). Zierhut (The Sun interview) cites Cataclysm's Skywall areas (Vortex Pinnacle, Throne of the Four Winds) as direct inspiration and says the departing elementals' fading magic leaves the island slowly falling apart, with the Skyborne seeking alliances with the Kirin Tor (Alliance) or the Earthen Ring (Horde). The Skyborne (shen'dorei, the "hidden people") fled Eldre'Thalas after the War of the Ancients and took refuge in Skywall. In Forever they are in crisis: their elemental benefactors have vanished, the pylons holding Zephras together are failing, and the Windshapers, the High Order and the Al'Aketh all vie for control (per Blizzard's Found Photos recap). First-hands-on detail from BlizzardWatch's 30-minute BlizzCon demo run: Night Elf-like architecture in powder blue, ruins everywhere (settled "a few thousand years" ago), a U-shaped path from Thendal Village (level 1, northwest) south through farmlands with anchor pylons visible beyond snow-capped mountains, Dire Maul-evoking statues, Throne of the Four Winds-style floating towers, a blue-fog Shadowgate Forest past the Shrine of Alar, and the Ruins of Ban'aethal in the northeast — where a sleeping Altarius (the Vortex Pinnacle drake) one-shots explorers. Eight Galestrider color variants (Empyrean, Regal, Stormy, Umber plus Swift versions) are datamined as the Skyborne racial mounts (per Tavern, September 16). Exploration XP alone reached level 2.

New ways to travel

Expanded ship routes keep the large-world feel while making it easier for friends to meet up (per Blizzard's Found Photos recap):

• Stormwind Harbor → Auberdine — an early cross-continent path between the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor
• Menethil · Southshore · Auberdine — a more flexible leveling route
• Steamwheedle Cartel (Tanaris) → Riverglades — the final route, pointing beyond known shores to the new zone via its port, Powderfuse Port. Zierhut (The Sun interview) adds a dock in the Riverglades sailing to the previously unused Steamwheedle Port, connecting on to Gadgetzan: "the goblin empire is growing and spreading"

Renewed attention also lands on existing places: Wetlands gains quests, Desolace's centaur faction quests get additional content and faction rewards, and starting zones receive new NPCs, quests and profession hooks designed to sit alongside the original experience. Dalaran loses its bubble and returns as an interactive city with levelling content in the Alterac Mountains — also home of the City of Dalaran dungeon (levels 28–33, per wowforeverclassic.com, citing Blizzard's Forever panel videos of September 13).

Nine New Dungeons

Nine new dungeons bring long-discussed places in the original world to life, designed for level brackets stretching from around level 13 up to level 60 (per Inven Global). The full bracket list is now official — Blizzard corrected the Krol'dok Stronghold range to 40-45 in a post-BlizzCon forum clarification (also noted by classicwowforever, September 15).

The recap also teased a Furbolg city dungeon in the same family as these destinations (per Inven Global's coverage, which names the Timbermaw Hold dungeon). Beta-era dungeon data (classicwowforever, September 17) reads that furbolg city as Blackmaw Hold in Azshara — behind the furbolg gates — with no separate Timbermaw Hold record found. Dungeon quests and new rewards are planned to keep running content part of Forever's loop. Themes above follow Blizzard's Forever panel videos (transcribed by wowforeverclassic, September 17); no outlet has disclosed boss lists or Blueprint drops for any of the nine. Update September 22: lead game designer Tim Jones told Windows Central "What was that weird gate in Azshara all that time, for example? That's now Timbermaw Hold, right?" That is a developer naming Timbermaw Hold for the same location the beta data calls Blackmaw Hold, but it is phrased as a question to the reporter and no official dungeon list has been published, so both names stay visible and the conflict stays open rather than being silently resolved in either direction.

Bracket caveats from wowforeverclassic's September 17 reads: Alcaz Prison's 48-53 range is graded only "reported" (no Blizzard source found), and its Krol'dok entry still shows the pre-correction 40-55 range (with a flagged 35-40 conflict) — the table retains the old range despite its September 17 check date, so the 40-45 correction stands.

Beta-client captures (September 16, via Icy Veins) add unannounced instance maps beyond these nine: Dalaran City, Hyjal Crater, Warsong Gulch (Winter), Battle for Gilneas, "Half-Pint Tavern", "Manor Mistmantle" (sic), "Eastern Kingdoms Preserved", Azshara Crater, Karazhan Crypts, Shadow Hold, Storm Cliffs, Starfall Barrow Den, The Crystal Vale and a Scarab Dais / Searing Basin / Tainted Scar cluster. Presence in data does not mean shipping — classic and Season of Discovery maps appear throughout the same files, and Blizzard has announced none of these (datamined, unconfirmed). The "Dalaran City" map most likely corresponds to the open-world Dalaran city above (per wowforeverclassic.com's reading), not a hidden instance.

Raids: Hyjal Summit and the Barrow Deeps

Two raids launch with Forever's endgame, unlocking December 9, 2026, with new tier sets and a legendary reward Blizzard is "looking forward to revealing in full." The team's ongoing raid philosophy, per lead designers Tim Jones and Michael Nuthals in Kotaku's September 14 interview: every raid tier ships at least one 10-player and one 20-player raid, sometimes a 40-player, with no flex raiding — "always a 10-player raid for groups... every single tier, forever." The September 17 Q&A panel added that there are no heroic versions of dungeons or raids — "the difficulty of group content is what it is" — and no cross-faction raiding; faction friction is deliberate. Update September 22: Jones told Windows Central the team will "consistently deliver new 10 and 20 player content every patch" and that "Onyxia will be our 40 man raid," with the difficulty target set against retail Mythic: "we don't want people to do 100 attempts on a boss ... Over-prepare and crush the content." That is a third independent developer statement of the per-tier structure, and a fourth Onyxia data point that still names no date. Full read in the September 22 interview post.

More raids follow on the roadmap, including a "revamped iconic raid" and a legendary reward still being kept under wraps. Molten Core will open "someday, but not now" — the team cited Molten Core fatigue across Era, Season of Mastery, Season of Discovery and Anniversary (per principal designer Kris Zierhut, The Sun interview).

Darkspear Islands Battleground (15v15)

The Darkspear Islands battleground sits off the coast of Kalimdor and pairs strategic control points with Arathi Basin-style flag captures and defense in a 15 vs 15 format. PvP updates, dungeon quests and new rewards are planned to keep conflict, cooperation and discovery part of Forever's ongoing expansion.

Ranked progression: The PvP progression system is built around Classic-style honor earned into ranks, with a rank-14 ceiling meant to be reached within a single season or patch cycle rather than over years (per lead designers Tim Jones and Michael Nuthals, Kotaku interview September 14). Rewards include cosmetic-rank items plus PvP armor that carries stats.

Battle-ready at the top end: the beta files show a 537-piece Premier PvP tier — 292 epics (level 60, item level 65) and 245 rares (level 55, item level 60) across four armor themes (Magus cloth, Mortarplate plate, Dragonhide and Shadowhide leather), spanning the classic ranks from Champion up to High Warlord — plus a faction ladder pitting Theramore vs Darkspear with jewelry tiers at required levels 28/38/48/58, armor at 50/60, care packages and a Darkspear Islands Mark of Honor (per classicwowforever's beta datamine; names and stat mixes are datamined, exact acquisition is not in the files). The September 17 Q&A panel confirmed there is no rated PvP: instead a seasonal Honor track with its own reward set resets each tier/season, and Blizzard plans to incentivize all PvP activities rather than Alterac Valley farming as the easiest Honor source.

Classes, Systems and Player Choice

Class identity stays central to Forever, with new abilities, new race and class combinations (the neutral Forsaken Paladin and the Skyborne combinations are the confirmed examples, per the panel recap and warcraft.wiki.gg coverage) and updates "designed to preserve the feel of the original game while opening new possibilities." The stated goal is covering gaps where they exist without erasing what makes each class unique.

New Race and Class Combinations (Pre-Release Preview)

Blizzard confirmed new race and class combinations as a design goal. The Deep Dive recap officially names six new combinations: Gnome Priest, Human Hunter, Dwarf Shaman, Orc Mage, Troll Warlock, and Undead Paladin (with more planned for future updates). Captures from the BlizzCon pre-release build (transcribed by classicwowforever.com, a fan wiki that logs its sources) show which combinations are new plus redesigned racials. Everything here is pre-release data observed in a September 12 build, not a launch guarantee.

New race and class combinations

Table per classicwowforever.com's racial-reference capture of the September 12 pre-release build. The Undead Paladin pairs with the Forsaken Paladin thread featured in the Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom campaign.

Skyborne racials

• Walk on Air — glide down through the air for 10 seconds (both factions)
• Windshaper (Horde) — Skysight: run 10% faster while under an Elemental Blessing
• High Order (Alliance) — Read Ley Line: activating a ley line grants 100% more Health and Mana regeneration
• Wind Blessed — 1% Haste to melee, ranged and spellcasting (both factions)
• Elemental Insight — 5% more damage to Elementals (both factions)

Racial redesigns worth noting

• Dwarf (Blizzard-confirmed) — Stoneform removes Bleeds, Poisons and Diseases, grants immunity to them and reduces Physical damage taken by 10% for 8 seconds (3-min cooldown) instead of increasing Armor; Find Treasure becomes an active that tracks treasure chests on the minimap and can stay on alongside other tracking; new passives Mace Specialization (+1% spell and ability crit with a mace equipped) and Big Game Hunter (+5% damage to beasts)
• Undead (Blizzard-confirmed) — Will of the Forsaken breaks Charm, Fear and Sleep on a 2-minute cooldown but no longer grants immunity; Cannibalize now restores Mana as well as Health (7% of each every 2s for 10s); Touch of the Grave drains up to 5% of max Health on a 5% proc chance and, as of the September 24 notes, ~~also broke crowd control~~ no longer breaks CC or procs from abilities with no damage component (Shadow Word: Pain procs on cast but not on ticks, and Distract, Pick Pocket and Polymorph cannot trigger it); Underwater Breathing (300% longer) unchanged
• Troll (Blizzard-confirmed, from the in-game race selection screen) — Berserking flattened to a flat 10% attack/casting speed for 10s (no longer scaling 10-30% with missing health); Rapid Regeneration restores 50% of max Health over a short period; Beast Slaying and +10% health regeneration unchanged
• Human (verified across reports) — Will to Survive breaks all Stuns; Perception detects stealthed enemies for 20s; Sword Specialization becomes +2% spell/ability crit with swords (weapon-skill bonus dropped); The Human Spirit +5% Spirit unchanged; Diplomacy dropped
• Orc (verified) — Shatter Curse new: 8s immunity to Curses, plus reduced magic damage taken; Blood Fury now +10% Attack/Spell Power for 15s with no healing penalty mentioned; Hardiness reduces stun durations by 20% (was a chance to resist); Axe Specialization +1% crit; Command (+5% pet damage) dropped
• Gnome (verified) — Eureka! new: ~~next 3 spells/abilities cost less and deal 10% more damage or healing~~ Update September 24: a flat 10% discount on Mana, Rage or Energy abilities for every class, replacing the class-scaled read (50% Mage and Warlock, 40% Warrior, 20% Rogue, 15% Priest); Escape Artist breaks roots/snares with a brief immunity (one report: 5s); Expansive Mind now +5% max Mana, Rage and Energy (was +5% Intellect); Engineering Specialization resolved for reliability: more reliable devices (per Blizzard article 24304075)
• Tauren (verified) — Plainsrunning new: movement speed builds as you keep moving (no numbers yet); Cultivation grows bonus herb nodes around you that anyone can gather without Herbalism, and as of the September 24 notes each herb now needs a character level equal to one fifth of its own Herbalism requirement (herbs needing more than 300 Herbalism unlock at level 60); War Stomp 2s stun on up to 5 enemies within 8 yards; Endurance +5% health and +1% hit chance
• Night Elf (verified) — Elune's Light new: +10% critical strike for 15s; Wisp Spirit movement speed while dead up to +75%; Quickness resolved at 1% dodge + 2% run speed (per Blizzard article 24304075)
• Racial structure — each race now has two active and two passive abilities, tuned to deliver similar offensive power while preserving signature utility (per the Deep Dive recap)

Racial tooltips captured from the September 12 pre-release build per classicwowforever.com; Dwarf, Undead and Troll entries above are Blizzard-confirmed reads (per wowforeverclassic's Official-grade pages, sourced to the Deep Dive recap and the in-game race selection screen), while Human/Night Elf/Gnome/Orc/Tauren rest on 2-3 independent reports (their "verified" grade). Night Elf Quickness (1% dodge + 2% run speed) and Gnome Engineering Specialization (device reliability) are resolved official per Blizzard article 24304075 (September 22). Command and Diplomacy are dropped — wowforeverclassic's full racials table (40 racials: 17 new, 15 changed, each graded with sources) lists neither for any race — and the Classic weapon-skill specializations became crit-based (Sword +2%, Axe +1%, Mace +1% spell-and-ability crit). Pre-release values can change before launch.

Legacy, Camping and How Legacy Points Work

Legacy is Forever's account-wide progression layer, delivered through perk trees rather than traditional account systems. Blizzard's September 23 official article confirms the model: earn points through Legacy Challenges, spend them on perks per character, and unlock account-wide Legacy Rewards.

The points economy (per Blizzard's September 23 article and beta captures)

• Earn up to 65 Legacy points at launch through 65 first-time Challenges, shared across non-Hardcore characters
• Each character can spend up to 16 points across all three perk trees; every character picks its own allocation
• One character can earn up to 29 points, so alternate characters are optional rather than required
• Legacy access normally begins at level 25, or when a character reaches skill 150 in a non-gathering primary tradeskill or explores the entire world map
• Hardcore progression stays separate: a Hardcore Challenge can grant its challenge in other rulesets, but non-Hardcore progress does not flow back into Hardcore; PvP Challenges are unavailable in Hardcore

Challenge examples observed in the pre-release build

Blizzard's September 23 article now confirms the 65-Challenge breakdown: 27 class milestones, 18 tradeskill milestones, 12 PvP points, 2 adventure points, 3 dungeon bands and 3 raid goals. Beta-client reads still supply the exact tree gates, connector layout and numeric rank curves. The beta cap of 20 also explains why opening Legacy before level 25 currently produces errors.

The collection track (per Blizzard's reveal image)

Collected rewards are claimed from Innkeeper Wiley in Ratchet (per beta captures; the mount's claim location was not captured). Rewards sit on a separate track from perk spending, so challenges beyond the 16-point cap keep feeding the collection. Blizzard's September 23 article confirms the four launch rewards and their account-wide nature; the point thresholds remain beta-capture reads until the UI verifies them.

Blizzard's official September 23 Legacy article is primary for the 65 Challenges, 21 perk names, access rule, 16-point character cap, 29-point single-character ceiling, Hardcore boundary and four launch rewards. Beta-client reads from classicwowforever.com, wowforeverclassic.com and Wowhead's Legacy calculator supply the numeric rank curves, tree gates and reward thresholds not printed in the article. The earlier 17-perk transcription is retained as a dated correction in the Legacy guide and verification hit list.

The Content Roadmap

Blizzard's roadmap positions Forever as a long-lived, evergreen product that keeps expanding the original world over time. The 2026–27 plan below comes from Blizzard's official roadmap graphic and the 2026–2027 roadmap pinned post on the official forums (transcribed by classicwowforever.com where fine print was only legible in-capture).

• Sep 17 - Oct 21 2026 Beta (level 20 cap at start, rising to 30 after a couple of weeks, per Icy-Veins; access via Epic/Collection). Closing date read as October 21 in purchase terms and October 22 on the roadmap graphic, with Warcraft Tavern's September 17 beta guide and classicwowforever's access reference also reading October 22 - discrepancy not yet resolved. Beta went live September 17; Blizzard posted the first known-issues list the same day. September 24: Kaivax posted full development notes with a memory-leak fix, class tuning, Campfire changes, a limited Cooldown Manager, and expanded gamepad support.
• Sep 17 2026 Live Q&A — two segments: modern WoW 10:00 a.m. PT, Forever at 10:30 a.m. PT (18:30 BST / 17:30 UTC), per Blizzard's [watch post](https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/article/24302544/watch-the-world-of-warcraft-live-q-a-september-17); official Warcraft Twitch and YouTube (VOD after). Questions via forums: NA thread / EU thread; Retail and Forever questions both welcome
• Oct 20 2026 Invite-A-Friend codes begin arriving by email
• Oct 27 – Nov 3 2026 Early Name Reservation, up to three characters, first-come-first-served
• Nov 4 2026 Global launch, 3:00 p.m. PST — four new regions, nine dungeons, Darkspear Islands, and endgame encounters opening at the Barrow Deeps and Hyjal Summit (raids unlock December 9)
• Dec 9 2026 First raids unlock — Hyjal Summit (20-player) and the Barrow Deeps (10-player); Onyxia's Lair (40-player) named by Zierhut as the third raid with tier pieces across all three, Dec 9 date per roadmap transcription [Dec 9 timing NEEDS VERIFICATION]. A second independent fan read (wowforeverclassic.com, graded "reported") also places Onyxia on December 9, from the roadmap slide. New tier sets and the legendary reward accompany them
• Winter 2026-27 Hardcore planned for Forever, available after launch with a death-transfer path to other rulesets (no date or full rule set yet). Zierhut told The Sun it is "coming next year," with the team wanting bugs worked out first: "You don't want people dying because they ran into a bug"
• Spring 2027 Two raids (10 and 20-player), two dungeons, more quests and playable area, a legendary questline, and a PvP refresh
• Summer 2027 A revamped iconic raid, another raid, two dungeons, expanded world content, plus PvP, profession and Legacy updates

Roadmap per Blizzard's official roadmap graphic and forums post, September 12 2026; dates corroborated by Blizzard's official What's Next and Deep Dive recaps (September 12-13 2026). Spring/Summer 2027 details transcribed from the roadmap capture by classicwowforever.com. Longer-term items are subject to change.

Blizzard CDN Build Watch

Live Beta build 1.60.1.70532 on BlizzTrack (the client testers download); dev track 1.60.1.70532 on BlizzTrack (internal, usually ahead) · detected 2026-10-22 by our automated build watcher. This is Blizzard's own CDN, not a leak — a new build here means real progress on Forever's Patch 1.60 branch.

Recent beta bumps:

• October 22, 2026 1.60.1.70532
• October 22, 2026 1.60.1.70450
• October 16, 2026 1.60.1.70425
• October 15, 2026 1.60.1.70374
• October 13, 2026 1.60.1.70338

The Road to the Reveal — Project Camelot Timeline

All evidence was not equal. This is what had actually been observed versus what remained theory leading into BlizzCon, and how the community tracked a product Blizzard never fully named until the show.

Observed — datamined & tracked

• Project Camelot naming in Blizzard's backend information
• An encrypted WoW 1.60 development branch, with 29+ encrypted builds logged on the branch since October 2025
• Heroic and Epic licensing references
• Updates across multiple development environments
• Brief appearances on Blizzard vendor environments — Western and Chinese
• Development advancing to Patch 1.60.1
• Encrypted promotional assets under investigation

Interpretation — what the activity may indicate

• Camelot received continued development right up to the show (wowdev2 hit 1.60.1.69800 over reveal weekend)
• Blizzard maintained more than one test branch
• The project always involved a substantial WoW product
• Some development activity related to Classic infrastructure

• Oct 2025 Encrypted WoW 1.60 activity begins appearing on Blizzard's internal infrastructure.
• Jan 29 2026 Executive producer Holly Longdale begins announcing what's next for Classic during State of Azeroth before a staged power outage cuts her off mid-sentence ("I guess we'll save that for later"). Blizzard later confirms the cutoff was intentional.
• Jun 16 2026 "World of Warcraft: Camelot" references go public alongside Heroic and Epic licensing labels.
• Jul 29 2026 Possible Alliance and Horde Lordaeron tabard textures raise questions about Camelot's setting.
• Late Jul 2026 The encrypted 1.60 build briefly appears on a Blizzard vendor environment before returning to internal development.
• Jul 31 2026 An identical 1.60.0 build appears across additional internal environments, indicating broader internal distribution.
• Aug 7 2026 wowdev2 advances from 1.60.0 to 1.60.1 — the first detected point-one branch.
• Aug 14-15 2026 wowdev5 and wowdev2 receive new builds while encrypted Dwarf and Skyborne promotional rewards add more theories — Stiven suggests the Dev Five line may be stabilized for a BlizzCon playable demo.
• Aug 18 2026 An anonymous forum post claims an October 13 release with neutral Dalaran, a battle pass and new races — unconfirmed rumor, not datamined or official.
• Aug 20 2026 Project Camelot's encrypted build appears on China's vendor server. NetEase had committed over a year earlier to launching Classic+ simultaneously for Chinese and Western audiences. The same day, the encrypted Dev 2 branch advances from 1.60.1.69328 to 1.60.1.69407 (credited to dataminer Algalon).
• Aug 27 2026 Official WoW Armory adds support for Classic game versions (flagged by Joardee), letting Blizzard's web stack distinguish Classic realms/characters.
• Aug 28-29 2026 Three encrypted builds in ~25 hours: Dev 2 69407→69555, Dev 5 69439→69606, Dev 2 69555→69609 — parallel 1.60.0/1.60.1 activity (Algalon/Ghostopheles tracker; Stiven notes possible BlizzCon show-realm prep).
• Sep 1 2026 wowdev2 advances to 1.60.1.69638.
• Sep 5 2026 Dev 2 advances further; Dev 5 also receives a new build.
• Sep 12 2026 BlizzCon reveal: World of Warcraft: Forever. Beta September 17, launch November 4, first new raids December 9. The dev branch bounces to 1.60.1.69800 over reveal weekend then settles on 1.60.0.69818.

Compiled from public reports, leaks, rumors and CDN build tracking. See the categorized feed sections below for every logged item with source links.

What It Means for Private Servers

Blizzard's legal campaign against private servers has run on a similar clock to Forever's development: Turtle WoW sued August 2025 (offline May 2026), Stormforge closed May 2026, Project Ascension hit with a nine-count suit including RICO claims in June 2026. Correlation is not causation — but the practical effect is that the largest custom Classic servers are being dismantled in the same window Blizzard prepares its own expanded Vanilla product. Our full analysis: BlizzCon 2026 Preview, and what displaced players are doing about it in the Turtle WoW successor wave.

Forever Coverage From Our Newsroom

• BlizzCon 2026 Day One Recap: Everything Announced
• World of Warcraft: Forever — every confirmed detail from the reveal (our forever-updated reveal post)
• Talebound: the new Midnight game mode
• BlizzCon 2026 Preview: Project Camelot, WoW Classic+, and What It Means for Private Servers
• Project Camelot hits Patch 1.60.1 — Dwarf Shaman and Shen'dorei clues surface
• WoW Classic+ datamine fuels BlizzCon 2026 anticipation
• Blizzard teases stronger storms for selected Forever beta zones
• Forever beta update: memory leak fixed and class tuning expands
• Blizzard adds more Forever Collector's Edition restocks
• Forever beta name enforcement moves to forced changes and access removal
• RestedXP Guides v4.11.9 expands Forever and Skyborne routing
• Beta build guide: class tuning, Campfire QoL, and what to test next
• Forever launch checklist: what to do before November 4
• Forever Legacy system: official 21-perk structure and correction history
• The best Vanilla+ private servers in 2026

World of Warcraft: Forever FAQ

• What is World of Warcraft: Forever? The official Classic+ product announced at BlizzCon 2026 — a permanent, evergreen version of original Azeroth being expanded by the Classic team. It is not a mode, a season, or a new version of Classic; it is a third WoW experience beside Modern and Classic.
• When is WoW: Forever's release date? November 4, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. PST. First new raids follow on December 9, 2026. Beta begins September 17, 2026.
• Is Forever free, or does it cost money? It is included with an active WoW subscription or game time — no separate purchase is required to play outside of the optional Skyborne upgrade packs. The Skyborne Heroic Pack (launch price independently reported at $29.99/€29.99), Skyborne Epic Pack (adds beta access and 30 days game time), and Warcraft Forever Collection (adds Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom, available through January 11 2027) are the only paid editions.
• Is the Skyborne race free? No. Per Blizzard's official pre-purchase announcement, the Skyborne race and their Zephras Isle starting experience are part of the paid Skyborne Heroic Pack and above. Race access is the one gap in otherwise sub-only Forever content.
• Is Forever beta free? The guaranteed beta route requires an upgrade purchase — access comes with the Skyborne Epic Pack and Warcraft Forever Collection. GameSpot also lists a free opt-in on the WoW Forever website, described as a signup that does not guarantee a seat. Independent coverage reports the beta itself will not require a subscription or game time, and that beta leveling is capped at 30 (both [NEEDS VERIFICATION]). The beta runs September 17 through October 21, 2026. Beta-ops notes (wowforeverclassic, per Blizzard's support article): the beta client can go offline at any time, and there are no separate beta forums — feedback goes to the WoW Forever forum.
• Will Forever stay at level 60? Yes — Blizzard confirmed the cap is "will always be" 60, with raids, dungeons and world content expanding the endgame rather than raising the cap.
• Is Classic+ coming, or was that just a codename? Classic+ is now official as World of Warcraft: Forever. The Project Camelot codename and encrypted Patch 1.60 builds tracked here led directly to this product; see the Project Camelot timeline above.
• What zones does Forever add? Mount Hyjal and Shen'dralas in Kalimdor, the Riverglades in the Eastern Kingdoms, and Zephras Isle (the Skyborne starting zone), plus expanded and reimagined existing areas and over 1,000 new quests across levels 1–60.
• Where can I play Classic+-style content today? Private servers fill the gap until Forever launches — see our ranked picks in the best Vanilla+ servers of 2026 or browse the full server tracker.

FAQ compiled from Blizzard's official panel recap and pre-purchase announcement, cross-checked against Icy Veins, Wowhead, Inven Global and warcraft.wiki.gg coverage.

Sources

• Jez Corden, Windows Central - I spoke to the 'World of Warcraft: Forever' team about balance, competing with Retail, adding "classic"-style Player Housing, and more, September 22 2026. First-party quotes from lead game designer Tim Jones and lead software engineer Nora Valleta: all 27 talent trees now viable, Retribution Paladin raid-viable via seal twisting, 10- and 20-player content every patch with Onyxia as the 40-man, the "not 100 attempts" difficulty target, post-launch sub-60 zone plan, player housing as a stated wish, adjacent-timeline lore framing, and the Timbermaw Hold naming question. Full read in the interview post.
• Blizzard - Get to Know the World of Warcraft: Forever Legacy System, official, September 23 2026. Primary source for 65 Challenges, 21 perks, 16 points per character, 29 points on one character, access, Hardcore rules and launch rewards.
• Blizzard — World of Warcraft: Forever What's Next Panel Recap, official, September 12 2026. Primary source for all release dates, zones, dungeons, raids, battleground, systems and roadmap details above.
• Blizzard — Pre-Purchase World of Warcraft: Forever Upgrades, official, September 12 2026. Primary source for editions, beta window, name reservation and Invite-A-Friend details.
• Kaivax — WoW Forever Beta Development Notes, Updated September 24, official forum post, September 24 2026. Primary source for the memory-leak fix, class tuning, Campfire changes, limited Cooldown Manager, gamepad updates, and new known issues. Short report · beta test guide.
• Blizzard — Updated 9/24 Collector's Edition restock, official, September 24 2026. Primary source for additional English regional restocks, February 2027 delivery, and purchase limits. Short report.
• Fwoibles — WoW Forever Beta Account Actions For Name Violations, official forum post, September 24 2026. Primary source for forced name changes, access removals, development review, and Customer Service appeal limits. Updated coverage.
• RestedXP — Guides v4.11.9, first-party public project release, September 22 2026. Primary source for Forever #classic routing and expanded Skyborne guide coverage. Short report.
• Blizzard — 2026-2027 Forever roadmap graphic + pinned forums post, official (partly transcribed by classicwowforever.com for fine print).
• Icy Veins — Meet WoW Forever's New Race: Everything We Know About the Skyborne (Skyborne Heroic Pack pricing, race pack access). September 17: WoW Forever newsroom — Q&A topic recaps (GDKP transcription, addon/UI-architecture detail), the official known-issues list, beta launch issues (Login Servers are Full), the First Aid healing-potion change, and the Skyborne retail NPC race-ID datamine note.
• Wowhead — Skyborne First Look and New Zones Coming With Forever (druid forms, customization, Kirin Tor faction flavor).
• warcraft.wiki.gg — World of Warcraft: Forever (renaming layer, account-wide perks, rendering details, Forsaken paladin).
• Inven Global — WoW Classic+ Details Announced (dungeon level brackets, Riverglades location, Zephras lore).
• NoobToBoss — WoW Forever — All New Zones (Zephras island description).
• classicwowforever.com - independent fan wiki (Skyborne subtype names, racials, new race/class combinations, all 17 Legacy perks from the September 12 pre-release build, and the 15+ radical redesigns transcribed with per-screenshot sourcing; the 17-perk count is superseded by Blizzard's September 23 official 21-perk article). The talent calculator talentsforever.com read 19 Legacy perks from the BlizzCon demo build (tooltips flagged "Estimated"); its beta-client read (build 1.60.1.69876, Sep 19) showed 27 account-wide perks. Blizzard's official September 23 article is the current structure source at 21 named perks; numeric rank discrepancies remain beta-read questions. September 17: six-part beta datamine series on build 1.60.1.69893 (sealed loot, stat weights, new items/spells, empty boss-drop tables), self-flagged as AI-assisted. September 26 audit: the site was lagging on its class, racial and profession pages, all then dated September 19, and its guides index September 14. Update September 27, re-audit: the site now stamps every page "Last updated 25 Sept 2026" and tracks build 1.60.1.70009, and the staleness it carried has partly cleared. Its talent data now carries the September 24 change note, including the Crusade removal and the Primal Fury to Blood Frenzy rename, and its racial page now carries the Cultivation "a fifth of its Herbalism requirement" level gate, so both of our September 25 client-read items are confirmed. Two values remain disputed and we are ahead: its Gnome Eureka! still reads the pre-70009 "cost 10% less Mana, Rage or Energy" with no damage addition, and its Undead Touch of the Grave still carries no crowd-control clause. Its own homepage advertises "a flat Eureka! discount" as a headline change of this build, so it knows the value moved and has not applied it. wowforeverclassic.com is behind on the same two values and further behind on currency, its own stated last-checked date being 19 September with no build tracking at all. Both fan values are struck through on this hub in favour of the client read, and both sites are cited in the links directory with the disagreement attached. The full comparison is in Round 12 of the verification list.
• Warcraft Tavern — WoW Forever coverage (developer Q&A recap and the official day-one known-issues list, both September 17 2026; beta guide with the October 22 close read, the launch wipe and a no-raid-testing expectation).
• MMORPG.com — BlizzCon 2026 Interview: Chatting WoW Forever's Campsites, Horizontal Progression, and More with Blizzard, Robin Baird, September 15 2026 (Senior Game Designer Josh Greenfield + Senior Art Director Jeff Parrott: campsite placement/duration/cooldown/buff replacement, biome-specific gear effects, ~96-slot bank, transmog toggle, SoD class-quest carryover, world-change philosophy, item-stat obfuscation, no Dungeon Journal at launch).
• MassivelyOP — independent recap of the MMORPG.com interview, Chris Neal, September 16 2026 (campsite rules, horizontal progression/itemization, storage, discovery).
• wowforeverclassic.com — unofficial fan reference with confidence-graded sourcing (Official/Verified/Reported/Unconfirmed; full-site crawl September 17: race and class pages with per-race 2+2 racials and reported class changes, systems pages — items & stats, camping objects, combat pacing, graphics — the First Aid page reading healing potions as First Aid crafts, Legacy spend/earnable caps 16/65, dungeon theme re-reads incl. the Alcaz Prison reported-only bracket flag, and their methodology page). September 17 re-check: the /racials page's full 40-racial table (17 new, 15 changed, per-racial grades) plus the items-and-stats, class-changes, camping, release-date-beta and dungeons-by-level pages re-read — corroborates the facts integrated above and adds the reported Invite-A-Friend code-count conflict (Epic 2 vs official 3). September 26 audit: /classes now lists 180 sourced class changes and /legacy matches Blizzard's 21-perk structure with the 15/25/40/55 reward track, but /classes, /racials and /professions all still carry a September 19 check date, so their Gnome Eureka!, Touch of the Grave and Cultivation entries are behind the September 24 notes, and /talents is still labeled with Classic Era build 1.15.9.69722 and a "until the beta opens on 2026-09-17" note. Useful for structure and sourcing, never for current numbers without a first-party check.
• wowclassic.plus — community survey project (player voice).

Confirmed News

• September 12, 2026News WoW: Forever revealed at BlizzCon 2026 worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com
  Confirmed: Classic+ is World of Warcraft: Forever — an alternate-timeline Vanilla branch (third WoW experience beside Modern and Classic). Skyborne race (Horde/Shaman, Alliance/Mage), four new regions (Mount Hyjal, Shen'dralas, Riverglades, Zephras Isle), 1000+ new quests, nine dungeons, two raids (Hyjal Summit 20p, Barrow Deeps 10p), Darkspear Islands 15v15 battleground, opt-in Transmog, HD/SD models, gamepad support, no flying, permanent cap 60. Beta September 17, launch November 4, first new raids December 9, Hardcore on the roadmap.
• September 5, 2026News Dev 2 advances to 69704 — movement seven days out tracker cdn-watch
  Automated CDN watch ticked WoW Dev 2 from 1.60.1.69638 (Sep 3) to 1.60.1.69704 (Sep 5). Encrypted, contents unknown. Steady pre-show cadence continues into final week.
• September 3, 2026News BlizzCon schedule shows 1-hour gap after What's Next ixbt.games
  Published schedule lists 45-minute World of Warcraft: What's Next, then 1-hour gap before Diablo. Only such gap on schedule. Reads as hidden panel slot — Classic Plus deep dive or StarCraft — to be revealed after Opening Ceremony.
• September 2, 2026News Dev 2 hits 69638, Dev 5 hits 69679 — three new builds quissy.tv
  Three encrypted updates advanced WoW Dev 2 to 1.60.1.69638 and WoW Dev 5 to 1.60.0.69679. Parallel 1.60.0/1.60.1 activity continues 10 days out from BlizzCon, seen as possible show-realm stabilization but unconfirmed.
• August 29, 2026News Camelot Hits 1.60.1.69609 — Three Builds in 25 Hours quissy.tv
  WoW Dev 2 advanced again at 02:16 UTC Aug 29 from 1.60.1.69555 to 1.60.1.69609 — the third encrypted update in under 25 hours. Counts as steady internal QA, not a content reveal: builds remain encrypted, no zones/classes/dates exposed, and no PTR yet, two weeks out from BlizzCon.
• August 28, 2026News Camelot Advances Twice on Dev 2 — 69407→69555 quissy.tv
  Algalon (Ghostopheles tracker) recorded WoW Dev 2 advancing from 1.60.1.69407 to 1.60.1.69555 at 01:27 UTC Aug 28 — the first of three encrypted updates in ~25 hours across two internal branches. Parallel activity continued on Dev 5 the same morning.
• August 28, 2026News Camelot Dev 5 Moves to 69606 — Parallel Branch Active quissy.tv
  Hours later at 08:15 UTC Aug 28, WoW Dev 5 jumped from 1.60.0.69439 to 1.60.0.69606 while staying on 1.60.0. Two encrypted branches now advancing in parallel — Dev 2 on 1.60.1, Dev 5 on 1.60.0 — seen as possible BlizzCon show-realm stabilization (per Stiven) but unconfirmed.
• August 27, 2026News Black Temple Phase 3 Live — Final Milestone Before BlizzCon blizzard.com
  Burning Crusade Anniversary Phase 3 went live on schedule: Black Temple, Battle for Mount Hyjal, Arena Season 3, Netherwing dailies and epic gems now playable. With this launch complete, Longdale's promised 'clarity after Black Temple' now points directly to the BlizzCon 2026 reveal in two weeks.
• August 27, 2026News WoW Armory Adds Classic Game Versions wowhead.com
  Blizzard's official WoW Armory was updated to support Classic game versions (highlighted by Joardee Aug 27), letting the web infrastructure distinguish Classic realms and characters instead of routing everything through modern WoW. Useful on its own for era/anniversary realms, it also makes it easier to accommodate another Classic version in the future — though Blizzard has not tied the change to Project Camelot.
• August 18, 2026News Black Temple Opens August 27 — On-Ramp to the Reveal blizzard.com
  Blizzard confirmed the Burning Crusade Anniversary Phase 3 launch for August 27: Black Temple and the Battle for Mount Hyjal, Arena Season 3, Netherwing and epic gems. It is the exact milestone Longdale named — clarity on Classic's future comes 'after The Black Temple, at BlizzCon 2026', landing two weeks before the show.
• August 14, 2026News BlizzCon 2026 Set — Reveal Expected blizzard.com
  BlizzCon 2026 runs September 12-13 in Anaheim, with badge pickup from Friday September 11. The Opening Ceremony and main-stage panels stream free on official Blizzard YouTube and Twitch feeds, with the ceremony traditionally kicking off around 11 AM Pacific on Saturday. The show includes the WoW Arena World Championship, Mythic Dungeon International, the Blizzard Classic Cup and Saturday-evening Community Night and Darkmoon Faire. With Longdale's promise on the table and Camelot datamined, a Classic+ reveal is widely expected on stage.
• August 7, 2026News Camelot Bumps to 1.60.1 quissy.tv
  Patch-tracker data detected build 1.60.1.69141 on WoW Dev 2, replacing 1.60.0.69075 — the first 1.60.1 instance. The point-zero to point-one jump may mean a second development branch beyond the initial launch build.
• August 1, 2026News Camelot Testing Expands quissy.tv
  On July 31 the encrypted 1.60 build was updated from 1.60.0.69014 to 1.60.0.69075, then appeared on a second internal environment (WOW Dev Five) just over an hour later — expanded internal QA, but no beta or PTR confirmation.
• May 11, 2026News NDA Creator Summit at Blizzard HQ escapistmagazine.com
  Streamers Xaryu, Sodapoppin and Esfand were flown to Blizzard Irvine for a secret NDA'd event widely assumed to preview the Classic+ announcement.
• January 29, 2026News State of Azeroth Tease wowhead.com
  At the State of Azeroth presentation, Holly Longdale said 'all Classic players have a lot to look forward to', with the Classic future promised after The Black Temple at BlizzCon 2026.
• December 19, 2025News Blizzard Teases 'Long-Term Future' of Classic wowhead.com
  The 2025 year-in-review promised Blizzard is 'cooking on the long-term future of WoW Classic' — with a deliberate row of plus signs in the graphic.
• November 18, 2025News Titan Reforged Launches to Millions wowhead.com
  Titan Reforged went live in China with account-wide progression, 25-man rescaled raids, upgradeable legendaries and player-driven unlocks — reportedly 2.4M+ players at peak.
• July 17, 2025News Titan Reforged Revealed (China) wowhead.com
  Revealed at the WoW 20th anniversary CN event: a China-exclusive project merging Vanilla, TBC and Wrath at a level-80 endgame — effectively the first full Classic+ style release.
• May 27, 2025News Season of Discovery Ends — Next Major Classic Project Begins wowhead.com
  Days after the Scarlet Enclave update, the Classic team marked the end of Season of Discovery's active development and confirmed work on a new major Classic project — the first official word that a successor was in the works.
• November 30, 2023News Season of Discovery Announced wowhead.com
  Blizzard's experimental seasonal Vanilla with rune-based class changes. It was the community's first taste of modernized Classic, though it never became Classic+.
• August 26, 2019News WoW Classic Launches — Demand Exceeds Content wowhead.com
  The Vanilla re-release launched to huge player counts, but content was cleared far faster than expected, seeding years of demand for a 'Classic+' expansion.

Leaks

• September 12, 2026Leak Reveal-weekend CDN bounce: 1.60.1.69800 → 1.60.0.69818 tracker cdn-watch
  Automated watcher caught wowdev2 on 1.60.1.69800 around reveal weekend, then back on mainline 1.60.0.69818 — a point-one branch appearance timed to the BlizzCon reveal. Encrypted contents unknown.
• September 3, 2026Leak Warcraft Forever triple signal — bindings, ResetEra, domain icy-veins.com
  12.1.5 PTR has DefaultForeverBindings.wtf with legacy bars and TOGGLELEGACYSYSTEM, no housing/ping. ResetEra insider says Warcraft is Forever. warcraftforever.com re-reg Sep 2 via Cloudflare, not MarkMonitor. Name could be final Classic+ title — or coincidence.
• September 2, 2026Leak Gear Store exposed wow-camelot theme, renamed to wow-2 icy-veins.com
  Blizzard Gear Store briefly showed wow-camelot__color-scheme alongside wow and wow-midnight, dated Aug 25. After Stiven flagged it, store renamed to wow-2__color-scheme. Generic palette, name scrub is the signal — not WoW 2 proof.
• August 15, 2026Leak Dwarf Shamans & Skyborne Rewards quissy.tv
  Dataminer Stiven found encrypted promotional rewards tied to Camelot: a Dwarf Bear mount, a Skyborne Cat mount with four color variations (separate Classic and Retail models, the Classic one lower-polygon), two Shen'dorei-themed transmog sets, a 3D Adventurer cape, a Shen'dorei Windwell toy, two tabards and five Skyborne housing pieces. Rexxar, Misha and Huffer rewards may belong to the same promotion. The Dwarf theme has Wildhammer precedent for Dwarf Shamans, though the assets could also be a separate Retail promotion.
• July 29, 2026Leak Lordaeron Tabards Datamined quissy.tv
  Dataminer Stiven shared two textures appearing to be separate Alliance and Horde versions of a Lordaeron tabard, fueling theories of revised faction rewards or a fresh Classic-era setting.
• July 22, 2026Leak Death Knights & Karazhan Raid Leak happygamer.com
  New leak points to a playable Death Knight class and a Karazhan raid before Naxxramas. Flagged by Icy Veins as plausible but entirely unconfirmed by Blizzard.
• July 15, 2026Leak Leaked Feature Survey wowhead.com
  An internal survey leaked gauging interest in Mount Hyjal/Uldum/Gilneas zones, 10- and 20-man raids, seasonal world events and cross-realm play — while rejecting pet battles and housing.
• July 8, 2026Leak IronSeer Alternate-Timeline Leak mmo-champion.com Discuss ↗
  MMO-Champion's IronSeer leaked an alternate-timeline Classic+: Scarlet Crusade zone, faction-locked Deadmines/Ragefire Chasm as first raids, Scarlet Monastery raid, Stratholme raid with Death Knights, and Blackwing Lair with Molten Core downgraded to a dungeon.
• June 18, 2026Leak Internal Roadmap Screenshot Leaks notebookcheck.net Discuss ↗
  A leaked internal roadmap (screenshot via GottaSmokeEmAll) showed Camelot launching fall 2026, a Warcraft Chronicles RTS in 2028 and an Arthas ARPG in 2029.
• June 16, 2026Leak Project Camelot Datamined eurogamer.net Discuss ↗
  Dataminer Stiven_SRB found 'World of Warcraft: Camelot' Heroic and Epic store licenses on Blizzard's servers, using the same bundle framework as Midnight. Patch 1.60 is described as the mainline Camelot patch.
• October 30, 2025Leak 'Infinite Classic+' 4chan Leak boostmatch.gg Discuss ↗
  An anonymous 4chan post detailed a seasonal-model Classic+ with a battle pass, a new 'Spellblade' class and new zones. The community exploded; Blizzard stayed silent, confirming nothing.
• October 20, 2025Leak Encrypted 'Classic 1.60' Builds Hit the CDN kami-labs.fr Discuss ↗
  Roughly 29 encrypted 'Classic 1.60' builds began appearing on Blizzard's CDN from late October 2025 — verifiable technical traces that Blizzard is actively building a new Classic patch.
• August 12, 2025Leak Internal Franchise Timeline Leaks reddit.com
  A leaked internal franchise timeline surfaced on Reddit showing 'Camelot' targeting Q3 2026 under 'Live Ops' — the first concrete leak linking Blizzard's next Classic project to a date.

Rumors

• August 27, 2026Rumor Alleged BlizzCon schedule lists Infantry, Fables, Chronicles icy-veins.com
  Anonymous 4chan image via r/blizzcon lists StarCraft Infantry after Opening Ceremony, Northrend TLT look, Diablo What's Next, Warcraft Fables deep dive as Classic+, plus Chronicles RTS meet team. Too perfect mix of hopes — no build, no license, uncorroborated.
• August 14, 2026Rumor WoW Dev Five Build Eyed as BlizzCon Demo quissy.tv
  On August 14 WoW Dev Five jumped from 1.60.0.69075 to 1.60.0.69322, and WoW Dev Two hit 1.60.1.69328 less than a day later. Dataminer Stiven suggests the separate 1.60.0 line on Dev Five may be stabilized for a BlizzCon 2026 playable demo while 1.60.1 continues active development on Dev Two. No demo realm or playable client has been confirmed.
• August 12, 2026Rumor Community Backlash Fears massivelyop.com
  MassivelyOP asks whether the announcement will anger the community — so much Classic news arriving so fast risks whiplash over what was 'just a re-release'.
• August 1, 2026Rumor Technical Rumors boostmatch.gg
  Community leaks claim no public PTR, an engine shared with Midnight, expanded UI customization and restrictions on automated boss-timer addons.
• July 1, 2026Rumor Timeline Math: Classic+ Could Be 2027 wowhead.com
  The leaked timeline chart shows TBC Anniversary leading to WotLK Anniversary and a Fresh Vanilla in 2028, suggesting Classic+ may not land until late 2027.
• June 25, 2026Rumor Heroic & Epic Editions, Battle Pass boostmatch.gg
  Datamined store licenses suggest paid Heroic/Epic editions and a 6-month seasonal battle pass layered on top of the subscription.
• June 25, 2026Rumor Neutral Dalaran & New Races boostmatch.gg
  Rumors point to a neutral Dalaran hub, faction-agnostic Blood Elves, and playable races chosen at level 5 rather than at character creation.
• June 25, 2026Rumor New Zones Rumored wowhead.com
  Speculated zones include Mount Hyjal, Uldum, Gilneas, pirate islands near Booty Bay, the Ruins of Quel'Thalas and an expanded Silithus.
• June 25, 2026Rumor Achievements & Midnight Cosmetics wowhead.com
  A leaked feature survey and forum claims suggest an achievements system, with some unlocks granting cosmetics redeemable in Midnight.
• June 20, 2026Rumor Release Date Speculation boostmatch.gg
  An anonymous MMO-Champion post floated an October 13 2026 release; others argue late September or not until 2027. Nothing official.
• June 20, 2026Rumor Spellblade Class Rumored icy-veins.com
  The leaked Spellblade class (mail armor, tank/heal/DPS roles) is the most disputed rumor — some dataminers flag it, others call it fabricated.