The WoW: Forever beta is over: what happens next
The servers are dark: the WoW: Forever beta closed on Friday October 23 at 19:00 CEST. Community Manager Kaivax thanked everyone who joined in the last five weeks of playtesting, bug reports and feedback.
The next days
Blizzard now has a few short days of focused work on the most important issues and on the game service itself, so everything is in good shape for launch on Wednesday November 4.
Character creation opens on October 27
On Tuesday October 27 character creation opens for everyone. You choose the ruleset your adventure is played on and claim the name that fits your character, long before launch. Everything about the reservation: https://legendsofazeroth.com/news/reserve-your-character-names-from-october-27
The podcast continues
Next week a new episode of the WoW: Forever Podcast follows. Missed the earlier ones? Now is a good time to catch up. Episode 5, the End of Beta Special, is in our article about the last day of the beta: https://legendsofazeroth.com/news/last-day-of-the-beta-a-24-hour-celebration-and-an-end-of-beta-podcast
From episode 5: raids are "beer and pretzels"
Lead encounter designer Michael Nuthals explained how the team looks at raid difficulty:
- Raids should feel like "beer and pretzels": a group that prepares and plays together with friends should be able to succeed.
- There are still mechanics that ask for coordination, by voice or with the in game ping system.
- Bosses were tested and tuned by QA during the beta, and that work goes on.
More about the raids and the Horde road to Onyxia: https://legendsofazeroth.com/news/the-three-raids-of-wow-forever-and-the-horde-road-to-onyxia
Who is WoW: Forever for?
Associate production director Clay Stone said it is made by largely the same team as Classic, for three groups of players:
- Everyone who loves Classic and wants something new in that world.
- Players who stopped playing WoW a long time ago, or who dropped out of Classic.
- Brand new players who have never touched WoW.
What this means for Legends of Azeroth
Thank you to every guild member who tested and shared what they found! Now the countdown starts: on October 27 we pick our names and ruleset together, and on November 4 we meet in Durotar. Until then, check out our leveling guide and the camping article, and let us know in Discord which class you are going to play.
Source: Blizzard (Community Manager Kaivax) on the official forums at https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/thank-you-for-testing-the-wow-forever-beta/2390466