World of Warcraft: Forever is staying closer to Classic than to Season of Discovery. Lead Classic designer Tim Jones and lead encounter designer Mike Nuthals sat for a designer interview after BlizzCon and drew that line in public. Jones said a lot of SoD was fun, including the off-role experiments, and that those choices still fail Forever's pillars.
Simplicity and class identity were chosen over having shaman tanks and some off meta roles at launch. Spirit Weapons and Molten Blast have been floating around player lists. The reworked Shaman tree people have seen sits nearer to Classic than to a tank spec. Jones left the door cracked. He wants players who care about unusual roles to keep talking. He did not promise those roles for November 4.
Raid sizes got a cleaner answer. Flex raiding is out. Every tier gets at least one 10-player raid and one 20-player raid, plus a 40-player raid when that size still makes sense. Nuthals said a 10-man group that never wants 20-man content should still have challenge and rewards. Jones backed that. SoD taught them what happens when the only next raid is a bigger roster.
Mounts cost more in training gold, not on the item. Jones said they moved the price so hitting 40 does not hand you a free riding lesson. If you see someone mounted, that person spent. Which this is a question I had a question about personally, so I am glad to mounts are not just a free pass anymore. The same interview ducked the $30 Skyborne paywall. Jones and Nuthals said they design the game. They do not set the shop.
Warlock summons stay. Meeting Stones at dungeon doors open a Looking for Group listing. No warlock means a continent walk for the group. Nuthals called that downtime a social beat. Forty minutes of trash starts after people have said hello. Forever is keeping the ramp-up.
Combat add-ons get the retail-style cut. Nuthals said the in-combat disarmament that blocks automated marking and calculation tools is coming over. He did not publish a full allow-list. One-button rotations from other modes are not coming at all.
PvP gets a ladder that can hit rank 14 inside a season or patch cycle. Honor from battlegrounds and related content feeds it. Rewards include cosmetics and stat PvP armor. Darkspear Islands joins the original Vanilla battlegrounds. Jones wants PvP players to feel a track, not a side activity.
Jones also put a sentence under the title. Classic eras always end. Seasonal characters expire. Expansions move the floor. Forever keeps a level 60 cap, builds sideways, and uses the Legacy system to make alts matter. The name is the promise that time on a character keeps counting.
That stack is the design brief for Thursday. Beta opens September 17 at a level 20 cap that later moves to 30. The live Q&A splits Modern WoW at 10:00 a.m. PDT and Forever at 10:30. Aggrend already sent Twitter questions to that stream. Rank 14 pacing, 10-man raid rewards, and whether off-role specs are a later conversation all belong there.
November 4 is still the live date. December 9 is still the first raid door. The interview is the part that tells you what will not be in the first client: SoD tanks, flex sizes, one-button kits, and instant summons.
Are you fine losing shaman tanks if 10-man raids stay supported, or is the off-role kit one of your favorites to play? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Continue reading on Gamefragger:
World Of Warcraft Forever Is Confirmed For November 4, With Classic+ Beta Next Week
World Of Warcraft Forever Pre-Orders Are Live, Ranging From $30 Race Pack To A $150 Collector Box
World Of Warcraft Forever Has Official Controller Support, And The Show Floor Has People Playing It
Warcraft Forever's Undead Paladins Are Already Splitting Classic Players And Heating Up Debates