The beta's closed, but the news keeps coming. On October 26 Blizzard made its last pass on racials before launch, with five races getting new bonuses and orcs getting the classic Command back. Blizzard also explained what it's fixing in layering for November 4, put out a story about a Forsaken who wants to serve the Light, and today, October 27, opens name reservation.
Racials: the final pass before launch
Players complained from two directions. Some found the new racials too generic, and others said a few races were just stronger than the rest. In the final pass Blizzard put racial identity first. That means some races will be a little better than others in certain roles, and some role- or class-focused racials that got swapped for generic ones are coming back.
One exception: weapon bonuses like the human Sword Specialization and the orc Axe Specialization aren't coming back. Blizzard says otherwise future raid and dungeon loot would get judged by a "required" weapon type. Blizzard also toned down passives that pushed race choice around too much.
| Race | Before | Now |
|---|---|---|
| Human | Ruthless: +2% crit chance | +1% crit chance |
| Human | The Human Spirit: +5% Spirit | +10% Spirit |
| Dwarf | Earth Fury: +2% critical strike bonus to damage and healing | Removed. Replaced by Artisan's Precision: +1% hit chance with spells and attacks |
| Tauren | Plainsrunning: +1% movement speed per stack, up to 30%, also while mounted | +2% per stack, up to 60%, no longer works while mounted |
| Tauren | Endurance: +5% Health and +2% critical strike bonus to damage and healing | Only +5% Health |
| Orc | Savage: +1% crit chance | Removed. Command is back: Hunter and Warlock pets deal 5% more damage |
| Skyborne | Wind Blessed: +3% Haste | +2% Haste |
| Skyborne | Read Leyline: +100% Mana and Health regeneration | +50% for 15 sec. At a Ley Line you also get Attuned for 1 hour: back to +100% |
| Skyborne | Skysight: +10% movement speed | +15% for 15 sec. At an elemental convergence you also get Charged for 1 hour: +30% movement speed |
- Attuned and Charged stay through death. Read Leyline can't be used while you have the druid's Innervate, since Innervate is stronger and takes over.
- The other races, trolls and undead included, aren't touched by this pass.
- Update, October 27: That evening Blizzard added to the post. Trolls got a longer Berserking, and orcs and the Forsaken got shorter cooldowns. Details are in the October 30 digest.
- We'll update our leveling guides and class pages wherever these bonuses come up.
Layering: what gets fixed for launch
Layers are several copies of the world running at once, so thousands of players don't pile into one zone. On the beta, layering turned into the top complaint, with people vanishing after a boat or zeppelin ride, at a capital's gates, or at a zone border. One clip made the rounds on Reddit where players ride a boat, land in a different layer after the loading screen, and the deck instantly fills up with enemies.
On October 23, associate production director Clay Stone answered GameSpot. Blizzard is fixing two cases for launch. You won't lose the players you rode a boat or zeppelin with anymore, and big groups won't split into different layers when they go into or out of a capital.
Layering isn't going away, since with this much load on the servers it's needed. Blizzard promises to keep improving it after launch too. Stone didn't say anything about switching layers at zone borders. That hurts world PvP the most, because a fight falls apart when a raid crosses into the next zone, and the losing side runs for the border to escape into another layer.
How the beta ended: world bosses, legendaries, and the plague
In the last hours of the beta Blizzard let chaos loose. A vendor showed up outside the capitals with fireworks, a speed scroll for you and everyone nearby, and a potion with +200% XP. World bosses roamed the starting zones: Azuregos, "Super" Hogger, Voracious, Prince Thunderaan, and Lord Kazzak.
The bosses dropped legendaries, Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros and Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker. Regular mobs in every starting zone dropped full Tier 1 sets and Molten Core weapons. To cap it off, Blizzard brought back the contaminated crates from the 2008 event before Wrath of the Lich King, and the Scourge plague spread across Azeroth.
None of this comes to WoW Forever after launch, so the beta was your last chance to hold Thunderfury.
Dalaran in the last beta build
In Forever, Dalaran is open to the Alliance. Before the beta ended, the city got a lot of finishing touches:
- Guards. There are more Arcane Sentries, and they're level 55 elites now. Kirin Tor guards point you to the inn, profession trainers, and the transmogrifier.
- Trainers. Besides profession trainers, the city has druid and mage trainers.
- PvP. The Underbelly has battlemasters for every battleground, Darkspear Islands included. The old Wrath of the Lich King arena organizer now queues you for Alterac Valley.
- Quest. A new Alliance quest, Past Due, for the Scarlet Monastery Library has you defeat Arcanist Doan and bring back the loot.
- Portal. The Stormwind portal to Dalaran for the High Order Skyborne is gone, while the way back still works. In the Silver Enclave, where the Alliance portals stood in WotLK, a mage is clearly conjuring something, so the portal might come back later.
"Unbowed": can a Forsaken serve the Light
On October 26 Blizzard put out a new short story, "Unbowed." It's told by the campfire in a 6.5-minute video, and the text is out as a PDF too. The hero is Cormack, a Scarlet Crusader in life and now one of the Forsaken. Unable to accept being undead, Cormack faces the past and the beliefs that shaped it, and ends up asking: can a Forsaken still serve the Light?
The question isn't random, since in Forever the undead can be paladins for the first time. It's written by Sean Copeland and illustrated by Surfside 3D, with Jesse Burch voicing Cormack.
Podcast: who Forever is for, and more episodes
One more topic came out of the fifth podcast episode. The host asked Clay Stone who Forever is actually for. Stone's answer was anyone who likes or once liked WoW. The team is mostly the Classic team, but they're also counting on people who left the game long ago and on Classic players who want something new.
Forever was made unlike modern WoW on purpose. Collections and transmog are there, but they work differently. Modern WoW players can drop in after finishing their expansion content, for the classic-style leveling. Who actually sticks around will only become clear after launch, and that'll shape the next decisions. Aggrend added that the team doesn't split players into "retail" and "classic," and what matters is that new things fit the four Forever pillars announced at BlizzCon.
The podcast is continuing. First players spotted the sign behind the hosts in episode five, then Kaivax wrote outright in the beta farewell post that the podcast continues this week.
Meet the developers on November 2
On November 2 the Irvine Improv in Irvine, California hosts a WoW Forever poster signing, where devs sign posters and you can chat with them. Tickets are free but limited, and they go live on TIXR on October 27 at noon PDT. At the door they scan your QR code for your arrival window, and there's no entry without a ticket. Blizzard hasn't said which devs will be there.
In brief
- Your beta stats. At timewalking.blizzard.com Blizzard pulled together your personal beta numbers, like hours played, the mob that killed you the most, and how many times you jumped. At the bottom of the page you can build a picture from your favorite stats and share it.
- The beta is closed. Kaivax thanked players for five weeks of testing. Until launch, the team is working on priority issues and the servers.
Key dates
- Today, October 27: name reservation opens, in Europe at 18:00 CET, in the Americas at 1 p.m. PDT, and in Korea and Taiwan on October 28 at 07:00. Up to three characters across all rulesets.
- October 27, noon PDT: tickets for the Irvine poster signing.
- November 3: name reservation closes.
- November 4, 3 p.m. PST (23:00 UTC): WoW Forever launches.
- December 9: Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit, and Onyxia's Lair unlock.