A week after the October 15 patch, the WoW Forever beta feels a lot more alive. Thunderstorms arrived, lightning now lights up the world around you, and players ran into a blizzard in the Alterac Mountains. Blizzard also answered the worries about store mounts, showed the zones you level in past 30 and fixed a few small things in the capitals. Here is all of it in one place.
Weather: thunderstorms, lightning and blizzards
Blizzard promised more weather back on September 23, posting a video of a rainy day in Elwynn Forest and stronger weather for some beta zones. After the Thursday maintenance on October 15, it reached the game.
Lightning is the highlight. A strike now lights up the ground through the new dynamic lighting, and thunder got new audio. Players noticed right after the maintenance, and on October 16 the official Warcraft account confirmed that pre-storm weather and lightning strikes are live in the beta. Against that weather, Blizzard says, the warm light of every inn became "10x more inviting".
The storms reached the capitals too: in Stormwind a flash floods the walls and towers with light, and you hear the thunder between the houses.
One thing Blizzard didn't announce but players found on their own: a blizzard in the Alterac Mountains. There is no full list of zones with the new weather yet, only the promise of "some zones". So if your favourite spot is still dry, that's not a bug.
Mounts in the files: a rooster, a turtle and a spectral pack
On October 16 dataminers found three new mounts in the beta files, based on classic ones. The Spectral Wolf Pack looks like the Spectral Tiger but does more: up to two nearby party members can join it and ride spectral wolves behind you. The Verdant Sea Turtle is based on the Sea Turtle, the Crimson Rooster on the Magic Rooster. All three require level 60 and Journeyman Riding in the files and are account-wide. How you get them isn't in the files.
Players immediately suspected the store: in modern WoW many mounts are sold for real money. Blizzard replied the same day that these assets are "not intended for this version of World of Warcraft". Where they will go wasn't said. Content creator MrGM noticed the turtle looks like a statue shown at a Chinese event and suggested the Chinese version of Forever, but that is only a guess.
Which mounts are definitely coming to Forever
What Forever does have, according to the beta: the Skyborne racial Galestriders (regular ones at level 40, armored ones at 60), the Forsaken Charger for Undead Paladins, the Pack Kodo for Merchant's Favor (how to get it), the Cerulean Prideclaw for pre-ordering and a Spectral Bear from the Legacy system. Recolors of classic mounts that only arrived in later expansions are coming back too: the White Kodo, the Striped Dawnsaber, skeletal horses in new colors and the Venomhide Ravasaur, the Horde counterpart of the Alliance Winterspring Frostsaber. There will be no flying mounts in Forever.
A 6- or 12-month subscription gives you the Tabard of Eternal Exploration and Eternal Explorer's Backpack transmogs and the Azurky pet in Forever. There is no Forever mount in this offer: only modern WoW and Mists of Pandaria Classic get mounts. The bonuses arrive by October 31 and must be redeemed by April 30, 2027.
Past level 30: the Riverglades and Mount Hyjal
In the new video "Your Leveling Journey Past 30" Blizzard showed two zones you will head to after level 30.
The Riverglades is a new zone on the coast of the Eastern Kingdoms next to the Redridge Mountains, for roughly levels 35–45 according to Blizzard's press materials. The Alliance gets there by a new road and meets the Brotherhood of the Horse, the knights from Warcraft II. Some of them chased the fleeing Horde here long ago and settled in Farhold Keep. The Horde allies with the Boulderrock ogre clan, former servants of the Twilight's Hammer who broke away after the Second War. The two sides fight each other, but they share an enemy: the Twilight's Hammer in the new outdoor dungeon Krol'dok Stronghold. You will also wreck a pirate operation, escort a horse, meet an ogre named Jom Jom and find the Bloodmaster's Ring arena, whose rewards are still unknown.
Mount Hyjal has been closed for five years, since the battle of Warcraft III. In Forever you finally get in and help the Druids of the Talon heal the land. It is also the entrance to Barrow Deeps, a new 10-player raid where Illidan was once held.
Small things in the capitals
Darnassus finally has a mailbox next to the Auction House, so you no longer run across half the city to collect your earnings. Stormwind and Orgrimmar already had one by the auctioneers.
In Stormwind an invisible wall between the barber shop and the Auction House is gone, and you can walk straight through. A small thing, but in the city where you spend every evening, small things are the first you notice.