AnnouncementAnnounced by Blizzard
WoW Forever beta opens
The beta opens on 17 September, capped at level 20, with the Skyborne, Zephras Isle and two new dungeons.
Key changes
- Level 20 cap, then 30 later in the beta.
- The Skyborne and Zephras Isle, playable from day one.
- Two new dungeons: the Hall of Thanes and the Ruins of Lordaeron.
Opening
2 changes- The beta opens on Thursday 17 September 2026, around 11 p.m. in Paris (2 p.m. in California): Blizzard first sorted out a few last issues, then opened access gradually.
- Access: by selection after opting in, or with the Skyborne Epic Pack and the Warcraft Forever Collection (active within 30 minutes, sometimes after restarting the launcher).
- A dedicated beta forum opens the same day, readable by every subscriber.
- The build live at the opening is probably 69893, the last one released before it (inferred).
Week 1 content
2 changes- Level cap: 20 at first, raised to 30 later in the beta (date not given).
- A new race and a new region: the Skyborne and Zephras Isle.
- Two new dungeons: the Hall of Thanes (levels 13–18) and the Ruins of Lordaeron (levels 15–20).
- All zone content up to level 20.
- More zones, more dungeons and the new battleground will open during the beta, as well as a "Server Slam" of a few hours open to everyone (date to come).
Known issues at opening
- Barber chairs cause a LUA error; the character friends list is disabled; the minimap can slide off screen.
- The character sheet shows no level, class or title (being worked on).
- Pet sheet: demon mana, health scaling with Stamina, hit, expertise and movement speed display wrongly (being worked on).
- Glancing blows: wrong chance and damage reduction for casters, wrong reduction in melee against higher-level targets; the character sheet is therefore off on this point (being worked on).
- The Y key opens the Legacy system before level 25, with LUA errors.
- Guild charters cannot be signed: Blizzard temporarily allows turning them in without signatures.
- Announced as fixed for the next build: Waylaid Crates (small-stack items, magic essences), the too-fast sentinel in Escaping Ban'ethil, Starshards and Twilight Focus, Vengeance triggering on periodic crits, weak Holy Strike ranks, the Create Firestone tooltip (ranks 3 and 4), and the Coldridge Valley map not revealing.