September 17, 2026 — the Forever beta client (build 1.60.1.69893, product wow_classic_beta) is dataminable, and classicwowforever published a six-part analysis covering how Blizzard hid the loot, how item stats now work, 4,862 new items, 3,472 new spells, what still can't be read and how the files were read. Everything below is pre-release data from an offline, read-only pass — and classicwowforever stamps its own caveat on the series ("data is gathered with AI assistance and may contain inaccuracies"), so treat the numbers as provisional until in-game tooltips confirm them.
The loot is locked — twice over
Blizzard's surprise-loot promise is enforced in the files. The interesting records sit in encrypted sections inside the database files, and those sections sit inside encrypted containers — both locks use the same 8 keys, and all 8 are withheld from the client (7 resolve to key slots with no key bytes shipped, 1 is not listed at all), so the game client itself cannot read these records. Sealed and countable: 66 items (63 in one block, plus IDs 285352–285354), 872 spells, 90 quests, 41 item effects, 2 creatures and roughly 3,300 fully sealed files. Filenames are stripped from this build except interface art and fonts.
Item stats don't exist on the client anymore
Flat stat amounts, weapon damage and resistances are no longer stored in the item data — verified byte-exact across all 19,119 readable item records. In their place: stat types plus a per-stat weight in basis points (10,000 = 100%), with the actual +X values computed or supplied by the server. The examples are stored exactly as: Thunderfury — 2174 / 3478 / 3478 / 3913 (translated: Agility 17%, Stamina 27%, Fire Resistance 27%, Nature Resistance 30%) — and Sulfuras — 2222 / 2222 / 5556 (Strength 22%, Stamina 22%, Fire Resistance 56%). Resistances moved into the stat list (types 51–56) instead of their old separate field, and the per-slot budget formula behind the weights is still unknown.
4,862 new items
551 epics, 1,445 rares, 1,073 uncommons — the rest common, poor and test items. Headline finds:
- A complete Premier PvP tier (537 pieces): 292 epics at level 60 / item level 65, and 245 rares at 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.
- A Theramore vs Darkspear faction ladder: jewelry in lockstep tiers at required levels 28 / 38 / 48 / 58 on both sides, armor at 50 and 60, Basic/Standard/Advanced care packages and a Darkspear Islands Mark of Honor — battleground-ready naming, exact acquisition still unconfirmed.
- 48 new item sets: the 26 rank PvP sets are fully built at six pieces each; among the rest, only Teachings of the Furbolgs (2 pieces) and The Spiritcaller's Storm (4 pieces) have items attached so far — most dungeon and crafted sets are still being assembled.
- Four Watcher's Signets at item level 68, above every other plausibly real new item — plus flagged curiosities (Reverance, Leafre's Ring of Precise Spell Power, and a legendary literally named "NOT USED") that look like test data.
3,472 new spells
Readable out of 13,620 total spell records (872 sealed). The new themes: Stronghold and City magic — maximum health, Block chance, Dodge chance and all-magical healing/damage each double inside Strongholds and Cities (Bastion of Tyranny, Stabilized, Toy Soldier, Black Horn Necklace); terrain and climate — snow doubling Frost/Shadow damage (Chthonic Power), the Sword of the Still Wind, desert mount speed and the winds of Tanaris, a Mount Hyjal transporter plus a zone-locked flask shared with Hyjal Summit and the Barrow Deeps, and lava immunity (Flame Walker); pets — Focused Fire, and Matron's Call letting healers proc an Onyxia Whelpling; eight racial-tagged spells (Walk on Air, Read Ley Line, Wind Blessed, Will to Survive, Elune's Light, Eureka!) plus sealed mace and Energy passives; and gatherer camp features (Gardening, Bait and Tackle, Tanning). The census also counts 10 "Legacy Perks & Boons" spells, 53 "Undead Slayers" and 9 "Raid Attunement" records — and new NPCs named for Skyborne mage/shaman/warrior/druid/hunter plus Undead Paladin, Dwarf Shaman and Tauren Hunter. Those are NPCs, not confirmation of playable options.
What the data can't tell you
Boss loot is server-side, like always: the boss-drop source table (CollectableSourceEncounter) exists but is completely empty — 208 bytes, zero records, the vendor-source table holds 4,392 rows of zeroes, and quest rewards, vendor inventories and creature spawns are server-side too. The series' own verdict: "no datamining can currently tell you which boss drops which item."
Where it lands on the tracker
The hit list posts the round-one results — the dungeon roster is mostly resolved ("Excavation Site" for the Whelgar's-site dungeon, Blackmaw Hold at Azshara for the furbolg city). The instance-map teasers post pairs with this for map-level finds — including the "Dalaran City" map, which wowforeverclassic.com reads as the open-world Dalaran city rather than a hidden instance. The hub updates today in itemization, PvP and zones.