WoW Forever news

Beating Archmage Arugal in Shadowfang Keep now lets you take a Black Tome from a book on his table. Use it beside the Ambermill Leyline Focus, inside the keep of that Silverpine Forest town, and it becomes Tome of Dalaran. In City of Dalaran, once Atrexis the Grave Knight, its opening boss, is down, go straight on in the sewer instead of up to the surface, and use the tome on the purple rune in the tunnel to call Lyn. The tome stays in your bags and can be used again after 3 min, so a group that wipes can retry.

On the third podcast episode, the designers talked about whether tanks should need their own talent build for dungeons. Josh Greenfield said dual spec turns on at level 40 for now, that the team is discussing the right level, and half-jokingly floated level thirty. Nothing is decided. An earlier unlock would let you keep a second build for dungeons, such as a tank build, next to the one you quest with.

Season of Discovery's class quests are coming back, and beta players have found the Paladin chain that used to give the Divine Storm rune. In Forever it ends with a cloak instead. The chain starts at an orb in the Tower of Althalaxx in Darkshore and leads through Ashenvale, Stormwind, Redridge Mountains and Demon Fall Canyon, where you gather 14 Summoner's Salt and 12 Mote of Mannoroth. Horde Paladins can't finish it for now; Blizzard has said the factions need not match exactly, but this may be a mistake, as Paladin weapons for both factions keep changing in the beta.

The spell damage and spell healing tooltips on the character sheet now say that ranks well under your level benefit less from those stats. Such spells also have a lower chance to trigger effects like Frostbite and Omen of Clarity. The developers' example: at level 60, rank 1 Frostbolt has a 0% chance to trigger Frostbite, so you choose between a cheap, quick slow and a shot at Frostbite. Healers who cast low ranks to save mana and avoid overhealing will now heal for less with them.

Per a player's write-up, the chain follows the Wind Totem quest: loot Charlga Razorflank in Razorfen Kraul, gather 20 totems from zones such as Desolace and the Badlands, clear waves of level 40 elite foes at a Thousand Needles site, then take it all to Bath'rah the Windwatcher in Alterac Mountains. You pick one of three weapons, among them Rage of the Storm, and also get Elementalist's Guard. In the new beta build the totem mobs respawn faster and drop totems more often, more kinds of mobs carry them, including Dustbelcher ogres in the Badlands, and the Eye of the Tempest is now a multi-drop item.

In an interview with a Taiwanese gaming outlet, Clay Stone said the ban announced at BlizzCon holds only in NA and EU, as with the bans on Season of Discovery and Anniversary realms. Blizzard's stated reasons: GDKP can shut out players with less gold, and it pushes people to buy gold, which harms the economy and helps launder it. Clay called buying from the Auction House central to the game, said Forever players lack the well-worn gold farms of original Classic, and said they will earn much more gold than there. The team now handles the economy better and can let merchants sell items such as Black Lotus, capped at 50 gold.

You start out with a weapon and some coins, and each race's starting area now has added quests to find. Cooks can light a fire and build a camp that other players can add to. The Skyborne quests open with an introduction to their culture, new story quests tell how the Forsaken came to have Paladins, and the Wetlands get more quests. On the travel route between the Wetlands and Darkshore, a new stop lets you get off in Hillsbrad.

The class posts cover Frostfire Bolt and other mixes of Mage schools, simpler totems and longer weapon imbues for Shaman, and updated talents for Rogue and Warlock. On the podcast, designers Rowan Ryder, Jay Hartman and Josh Greenfield talk about leveling through dungeons and through quests. The recap also links the posts on the Skyborne look and Standard-Definition models, the 15 against 15 Darkspear Islands battleground, and how PvP progression works. The rest is not about Forever's game: the Zul'Aman release for BCCA, a Twitch drop, a mount, transmog bundles and a student art contest.

Violet Sorcerer's Vestments give 5 Arcane resistance and 10 Spirit, a proc that keeps 15% of your mana regen going during casts for 15 sec, and a proc that calls an Arcane elemental. Krol'dok Battlegear gives 100 armor and more Defense, a heal of 14 to 23 that can fire when you block, and, often when you get hit, 1 Stamina for 30 sec that stacks to 20. Defias Enforcer's Garb gives 10 Fire resistance, Stamina (listed as 10 in one place and 15 in another), +1 Swords, and a melee proc for 2% more crit over 20 sec, doubled in swamps. The level 40 Krol'dok Stronghold has not been tested in the beta yet.

In Classic the helm gave extra Energy each time you went into Cat Form, which made macro powershifting worth the mana and kept it best in slot through all of Classic. In Forever the bonus goes to Shifting Power, the Druid ability that trades mana for Energy. Wowhead gives the new bonus as 5 Energy, but the item's effect line in the same post reads 205 Energy, so check it in game. The effect also gives 5 Rage when you use Enrage.

Penance now costs more mana, 150 instead of 100 at rank 1, and deals less damage and healing. The Warrior talent that widened Battle Shout and Demoralizing Shout now covers every Shout and also cuts their Rage cost by up to 25%; a talent that raised maximum Rage by 30 is gone, and the off-hand talent swaps its hit bonus for more off-hand damage and Rage. Druids get Natural Instinct in place of Predatory Instincts, and Bear Form now forfeits the Energy you would get back on returning to Cat Form and stops it building. Low ranks of Wrath, Fireball, Frostbolt, Smite, Lightning Bolt and Shadow Bolt get new damage ranges, some higher and some lower.

Blizzard started early so it could ship and test fixes to systems players don't see, on top of the usual bug fixes and gameplay tuning. Wowhead's report expects about 6 hours of downtime. Blizzard plans to post updated development notes and known issues once the build is out.

Party XP now follows the Classic Era rule: each player's share depends on their own level, not on the highest level in the group, and Blizzard expects the two XP changes together to speed up dungeon leveling a lot. Rage from damage taken no longer drops as you add Stamina gear, now counts crits and crushing blows, ignores absorbs, and is tuned for 20% to 40% armor instead of 50%. All beta characters get the full 16 Legacy Points, the Cooldown Manager now covers every class, racials and trinkets, and crits in PvP are no longer weakened. Known issues include broken icons in the Professions window and a pet crit display bug for Hunters with Ferocity.

Blizzard says it will stay strict on real-money trading and keep improving how it spots it. A future update adds a line to the trade confirmation asking you to check where the gold comes from, and the same warning is planned for accepting mail. Blizzard says it has become good at telling normal trades, such as tips for a portal or payment for crafting, apart from bought gold. Earlier steps against botting and gold buying have their own item.

Blizzard shared what week 4 of the beta brings in a social media post. City of Dalaran can be played now. What opened in the previous week stays open for testing, level 30 included.

Countdown To Classic hosts, with Hammerdance as a guest and Blizzard's Rowan Ryder, Jay Hartman and Josh Greenfield; Blizzard calls all three senior game designers, while Wowhead's post also lists Hartman and Ryder as encounter designers. In a forum reply, Blizzard added a fix the episode left out: on the beta, each dungeon kill gave XP by the group's highest level, and now it goes by your own level against the mobs. With the 20% raise to XP from dungeon kills, Blizzard expects dungeons to level you about as fast as the best questing, still slower than in Era, and won't let them become the best way to level. Gold-buying bans and dungeon maps from this episode have their own items.

Some players have asked for maps to find their way and finish runs faster, while others like working out the route themselves. Hartman said a map leads groups to take the shortest path and skip fights, and Blizzard wants dungeons to feel risky and reward looking around. Wowhead says it will be worth watching whether players still ask for maps once the dungeon XP increase is in.

Players have argued that some racials are far apart in strength, such as the Dwarf's against the Orc's, and that Horde racials are stronger overall. Aggrend named the Orc and Troll actives, Blood Fury and Berserking, as perhaps too strong, and asked whether weapon skill racials should stay or be replaced. Because Dwarves are the only Alliance race that can play Shaman, their racials also matter for faction balance.