Live now
WoW: Forever launch guide
Open now, and what comes later
| What | When | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Leveling 1 to 60 | Open now | More than 1,000 new quests. New areas include Mount Hyjal, Shen'dralas, the Riverglades and Zephras Isle. |
| Nine new dungeons | Open now | Five-player, levels 13 to 60. |
| Darkspear Islands | Open now | A 15 versus 15 battleground for levels 30 to 60. First team to 2,000 points wins. |
| Normal, PvP, Roleplay, Roleplay PvP | Open now | The four launch rulesets. |
| Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit, Onyxia's Lair | December 9 | Level 60 raids for 10, 20 and 40 players. |
| Hardcore | After launch | Blizzard has not published a date. |
From Blizzard: World of Warcraft: Forever Now Live! · Return to Azeroth in World of Warcraft: Forever · The launch raids · Choose Your Ruleset
What you need to play
- You'll need an active World of Warcraft subscription or Game Time. It covers both modern WoW and WoW: Forever.
- Open the Battle.net desktop app, choose World of Warcraft, then select World of Warcraft: Forever from the Game Version menu. You'll need a Battle.net account to sign in.
- You can play on Windows or Mac with a keyboard and mouse. Gamepad support is in beta, and you'll still need a keyboard for chat.
- Skyborne requires the Heroic Pack or a higher upgrade. You don't need an upgrade to choose any other race.
From Blizzard: New Player's Starter Guide · Return to Azeroth in World of Warcraft: Forever · World of Warcraft: Forever Now Live!
Rulesets: the choice that is hard to undo
Choose your ruleset carefully. It takes the place of picking a realm, and you can't freely move a character between rulesets. If you want to play on another one, you'll need a new character there.
| Ruleset | What it means |
|---|---|
| Normal | Adventure first. PvP only when you choose it. Blizzard's suggestion if you are unsure. |
| PvP | Enemy players can almost always attack you. You can only make characters for one faction here. |
| Roleplay | Strict naming and behavior rules, for immersive roleplay. |
| Roleplay PvP | The Roleplay rules, plus the PvP risk. |
| Hardcore | Death has lasting consequences. Arrives after launch, as its own closed community. |
- Playing with friends? Make sure you're on the same ruleset and faction for groups, guilds, dungeons and raids. Battlegrounds can mix rulesets, except Hardcore.
- Your collections and Legacy Points are shared across rulesets. Hardcore progress can carry over to the others, but progress from the other rulesets can't carry into Hardcore.
- A faction can be temporarily closed to new characters to protect balance.
From Blizzard: Choose Your Ruleset · New Player's Starter Guide
Classic or Enhanced preset
You'll choose a preset before your ruleset. It only changes the presentation, so you can switch later in the options. If you're unsure, Blizzard recommends Enhanced.
| Setting | Classic | Enhanced |
|---|---|---|
| Character models | Standard definition | High definition |
| Quest markers and objective areas | Off | On |
| One-bag view | Off | On |
| Transmog | Off | On |
| Default movement keys | Camera-turning | Strafe |
| Screen layout | Classic | Centralized |
From Blizzard: New Player's Starter Guide · What's New and What Feels Familiar
Character names
- Your name has two parts, and that combination must be unique in your region. Names are first come, first served.
- You can hide your second name under Options, Nameplates, My Secondary Name.
From Blizzard: Early Name Reservation and character names · New Player's Starter Guide
Common launch errorsReported
We couldn't find an official launch error list. The suggestions below come from a community guide written before launch by a site that also sells leveling services. Use them as troubleshooting leads, rather than confirmed explanations for your error.
| What you see | What the guide says |
|---|---|
| WOW51900337, valid access license | The wrong WoW1 or WoW2 license is selected above Play, or that license has no Game Time. |
| Play button greyed out | The Battle.net app is set to a different region from your account. |
| Ruleset temporarily unavailable | A server-side problem. Wait and reconnect. |
| Faction unavailable due to population imbalance | A PvP faction is closed to new characters for now. |
| Character creation throttled | Too many players are creating characters. Wait and try again. |
| Character creation timed out | The server is slow. Check your character list before trying again. |
| A character with that name already exists | That name combination is taken in your region. Change the second name. |
Reported, not confirmed by Blizzard: