September 23, 2026: the open question on phasing gets a partial answer. Principal designer Chris Zierhut showed the "Go Again!" WoW Forever Hardcore panel at BlizzCon a warning UI that fires before the game refreshes the world around a player, reported by Icy Veins Emma.
Mechanics as described: a new UI element appears with a three-minute countdown ("in 3:00 minutes, 2:59, 2:58") and a button to confirm you are somewhere safe and ask to be moved now. Zierhut framed it as a feature added for Hardcore specifically, where a surprise world refresh is a death sentence, but said it will be live in the whole game.
What this settles, partially. Our hub had flagged phasing and Familiar Faces as an open interaction with layer hopping, on the assumption the phasing would be silent. It will not be. A warning plus a manual move request is the minimum viable courtesy, and it is aimed at the ruleset that needs it most.
What stays open. The count appears to apply to a scheduled refresh around the player, not every phasing transition the Familiar Faces system performs, so the "why did my group split" case is still unanswered. Rule set still ships after launch for Hardcore, and this UI has not been seen in the beta client yet.
SOURCES: Icy Veins Emma (Sep 23), quoting principal designer Chris Zierhut on the BlizzCon 2026 "Go Again!" Hardcore panel.