Dalaran opens its gates to the dwarf hunter in Blizzard’s WoW Classic Plus reveal, sending a familiar face from the original cinematic into territory that once stayed closed. At BlizzCon 2026 on September 12, executive producer Holly Longdale announced World of Warcraft: Forever, the official name for the much-discussed Classic+ project. Blizzard’s Classic team is building new adventures inside the original game’s first year, with a level cap of 60 and content stretching from starting characters to raids. [1, 2]
WoW Classic Plus Finds Its Timeline
The hunter takes another route down the mountain. Kotaku’s Rebekah Valentine describes a trailer that carries him into Dalaran, hints at secrets beneath the city, and visits Nordrassil, the World Tree that players could not reach in the original version. A new kingdom in the sky introduces another elven people. Blizzard uses those places to establish the premise: familiar Azeroth still has doors to open, even when its history stops advancing through the usual expansions. [1]
Longdale places Forever after Warcraft 3 Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom, around the beginning of vanilla WoW (the original game). She describes Azeroth itself as the central attraction, with exploration and community taking priority over a single heroic storyline. Why play WoW Classic in this new form? Blizzard’s answer is the chance to build a character’s own journey through an older world that keeps gaining places and adventures, rather than simply repeat its original progression. [2]
Modern WoW and Classic will continue. Longdale says Forever will operate with both existing games, giving Blizzard another branch to develop. [3]
PC Gamer compares the approach to Jagex’s Old School RuneScape, where an earlier version provides the foundation for further development. WoW Classic Plus now has that kind of mandate: revisit the starting point and expand from there. Blizzard has also committed to adding content after launch. [4, 5]
Azeroth Opens Its Blank Spaces
Mount Hyjal, Zephras Isle and The Riverglades lead the new map additions named by Game Informer’s Alex Van Aken, while older zones will receive changes that open up previously unused space. Zephras Isle serves as a starting area, according to GamesRadar+. Darkspear Islands hosts a new battleground. Those locations give the announcement more shape than a general promise of extra quests: Blizzard is adding destinations for beginnings, exploration and player combat within the same early Azeroth setting. [6, 7]
Reports disagree on the zone total. Game Informer, Kotaku and PC Gamer list three new zones; GamesRadar+ reports four. Game Informer also says Blizzard has yet to specify which existing zones it will overhaul. That leaves a practical question for the next presentation: how much of the familiar map will change between the new destinations? [1, 4, 6, 7]
Blizzard promises more than 1,000 new quests across the journey from level 1 to 60, so the additions should reach players well before they assemble a raid group. New items, reputations and profession content accompany them. The distinction matters for returning players: someone beginning again should encounter new material during leveling, while a character at the cap has a separate set of dungeons and raids ahead. [1, 2]
Level 60 Keeps the Journey Open
Nine new dungeons and two raids anchor the announced group content. Blizzard plans raids for 10 or 20 players, and Longdale says the level cap will remain at 60 indefinitely. PC Gamer describes the commitment more cautiously as lasting for the foreseeable future. Either way, the announced plan directs development into adventures within that level range. Blizzard is making room for further encounters without announcing another climb beyond the original ceiling. [1, 2, 4]
Hardcore will be optional. PCGamesN also reports new skills and talents, giving players more to consider as they build characters for the expanded world. Blizzard’s content plan covers the full level range both at launch and afterward, according to Kotaku. How will the team divide later updates between leveling and raid groups? The announcement establishes that both audiences matter, but does not yet provide a detailed schedule for those releases. [1, 2]
Older games are returning in other forms, too, including Torneko’s Mystery Dungeon’s move west after 33 years. Forever takes its own route through that interest in familiar worlds. WoW Classic Plus will keep receiving new content, with the Classic team developing adventures inside a setting that many returning players already know. The attraction depends on what Blizzard puts into that space over time. [1, 5]
Skyborne Join a Redrawn World
The Skyborne are a new neutral elven race. Game Informer identifies them as playable and points to an Undead Paladin in the trailer, while PC Gamer says the footage appears to show a Forsaken paladin, a dwarf shaman and an orc mage. Those observations suggest some of the new race/class combinations (which people can take which character roles), rather than a complete confirmed selection list. Blizzard also promises new pets and account-wide perks, adding rewards beyond the gear attached to individual characters. With new skills and talents joining that mix, character creation and development could offer returning players unfamiliar choices before they reach a new dungeon. [1, 2, 4, 6]
Blizzard is changing the scenery, too. Game Informer reports new lighting, global illumination, volumetric particle effects, a replacement water renderer and real-time shadows. Together, those engine changes affect how the world lights its landscapes, draws water and displays effects. They accompany the expanded geography, so a return to Azeroth’s first year will also bring a different visual presentation. [6]
Character models retain an SD/HD toggle (standard or high definition). Blizzard is offering a choice over their appearance as it updates the wider world. [2, 6]
The Beta Arrives Before November
Blizzard’s launch announcement, reproduced by PlayDayOne, sets the release for November 4, 2026 and the beta opening for September 17. BlizzCon attendees can already try Forever on the Anaheim show floor, according to Insider Gaming. The public reveal leaves little distance between seeing the cinematic and the first scheduled beta sessions, where players can begin checking how the expanded world actually plays. [3, 5]
Access has several parts. PC Gamer reports that the existing WoW subscription covers Forever, with Battle.net upgrade packs starting at $30 and features such as the Skyborne race attached to those purchases. Separately, Blizzard’s announcement quoted by PlayDayOne names the Skyborne Epic Pack and Warcraft Forever Collection as prepurchase routes into the September 17 beta. Subscription coverage should not be read as a promise that every extra or beta access comes with the base subscription. [3, 4]
For WoW Classic Plus, the next concrete milestone is that September 17 test. The announcement has already named the destinations, the new race and the group content; beta players will start finding out how those pieces fit into the trip from level 1 to 60. Blizzard still has details to explain, including the older zones it will rebuild. Game Informer expects more information during the remaining BlizzCon panels. [6]
- ONLINE NEWS Valentine, R. (2026, September 12). World of Warcraft: Forever revealed as WoW’s rumored Classic+. Kotaku. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Allsop, K. (2026, September 12). World of Warcraft Forever is the MMORPG’s ‘Classic Plus,’ and its beta is imminent. PCGamesN. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Clarke, J. (2026, September 12). World of Warcraft: Forever announced, launches this November. PlayDayOne. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Wilde, T., Wagner, J., & Litchfield, T. (2026, September 12). The WoW ‘Classic+’ rumors were true: World of Warcraft: Forever promises to be another timeline’s version of the MMO. PC Gamer. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Taylor-Hill, G. (2026, September 12). World of Warcraft Forever announced, and it’s huge. Insider Gaming. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Van Aken, A. (2026, September 12). Blizzard announces World of Warcraft: Forever, expanding vanilla WoW with new zones, raids, 1,000 new quests. Game Informer. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Serin, K. (2026, September 12). World of Warcraft: Forever is a whole new WoW game launching in November that’ll live alongside Classic and Vanilla. GamesRadar+. [Article Link]
