During a tour of WoW Forever, Blizzard reveals which pain point has the highest priority right now

During the beta finale of WoW: Forever, we had the opportunity to speak with Blizzard developers Aidan Moon and Kris Zierhut about insights, potential issues, and the upcoming launch of Classic Plus.

On the night of November 4th to 5th, 2026, World of Warcraft: Forever will launch. Anyone with an active WoW subscription or a friend code from the paid Forever editions can dive into the new Azeroth adventure starting at midnight. Unlike WoW Classic, we only have limited knowledge of what to expect this time. Blizzard has adjusted many contents from the original vanilla version and spread even more new content throughout Azeroth.

Accordingly, I was thrilled when Principal Designer Kris Zierhut and Senior Game Designer Aidan Moon offered me a tour of the new Azeroth to discuss the beta, the upcoming launch, and plans for Forever. Below you will find the complete interview. But first, there’s also a tl;dr version with the key insights.

All the important points from the interview in a tl;dr version:

• New content should feel as if it was in Classic back in 2004. This works wonderfully for regions like the Riverlands and Hyjal.
• The new graphic effects for light, fog, and more aim to create a classic Azeroth as we remember it: atmospheric and immersive.
• Some planned contents were cut because they didn’t feel Classic enough – camping was originally supposed to be much more complex.
• The rewards for quests and dungeons were initially too good in the beta. Additionally, they want to ensure that the new items feel Classic and therefore are rarely perfect and often very situational.
• Up to level 30, players can expect various surprises – some contents were disabled in the beta, others simply haven’t been found yet.
• The problems with layering are currently the highest priority for Blizzard.
• The war mode does not fit with Classic.
• Although dungeons promise a lot of experience through rewarding quests, questing in the open world should remain an essential part of the leveling experience.
• New class-specific content and legendaries are planned for all classes and roles.
• Initially, all dungeons and raids will come with only one difficulty level. Later, there could be the option to adjust the difficulty, like in Ulduar or the Classic seasons.
• Onyxia will appear in a slightly adjusted version in WoW: Forever.
• The difficulty of Deepgraves and Hyjal Summit is more in line with the Blackwing Lair than with the Molten Core.
• The developers will continuously work on class balancing. For instance, the elemental shaman can still expect adjustments.

Like back in Classic, but new: the Riverlands

My tour with Kris and Aidan began in the Riverlands, one of the new playable regions of WoW: Forever, which is supposed to serve as a level alternative to the Stranglethorn Vale. Specifically, Aidan teleported us to the fortress “Farhold Keep,” while Kris told me a bit about the region.

Kris Zierhut: The Riverlands are a new zone northeast of the Redridge Mountains, south of the Blasted Lands, and north of the Swamps of Sorrow. The story there draws heavily from the Warcraft RTS roots and references many events from Warcraft 1, 2, and 3.

This zone is neutral, which means that both the Alliance and the Horde will be active here. On a PvP server, conflicts will arise as their paths cross. On the map, there is an Alliance settlement in the southeast, a Horde village in the north, and on the eastern edge, a goblin port that offers plenty of quests for both factions.

In the fortress “Farhold Keep,” you can find the Alliance survivors of the “Brotherhood of the Horse” – a faction from the Warcraft RTS games that has pursued the Horde into this part of the world. In the north, there is an ogre clan that the Horde can befriend. While “Farhold Keep” is close to the Alliance, they remain neutral when you arrive, as they have been cut off from Stormwind and have been on their own for a very long time.

MyMMO: It looks very much like Classic here.

Kris Zierhut: Yes, the goal is for it to feel like a Classic zone that could have easily been in the game back in 2004, without feeling out of place. It continues storylines from the Redridge Mountains. You might remember the gnolls in Redridge, the mage tower, and the dark medallions – that continues here. Shadow Council cultists and ogres are also involved.

MyMMO: I played the Skyborn and have to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of the new race. My first thought was that it looks more like Burning Crusade and less like Vanilla. But this zone here is pure Classic; I really like it.

Kris Zierhut: These are all Classic assets that have been freshly assembled in a new area. When we get to the zone called Shen’dralas, we will talk about how closely the Skyborn are truly tied to the ongoing story around Darkshore.

MyMMO: When traveling through the zones in the beta, you immediately notice the new effects for fog, lighting, weather, and the revised skies. What were the biggest technical or artistic hurdles in reworking the Classic areas? It looks much more modern but still feels Classic.

Kris Zierhut: We wanted to present you Classic as you remember it. Back in 2004, games didn’t have great lighting effects, but in our memories, they looked fantastic. We wanted to capture that exact feeling.

All lighting in the game now uses dynamically computed shadows that change with the time of day, instead of baked-in, static shadows. We also improved fog, visibility, and water rendering.

The biggest hurdle was that every single zone had to be completely re-lit. An artist had to match each zone with the Classic era client and the new client side by side to ensure that the original game feel was retained under the new lighting engine.

We added eerie fog in places like Duskwood, and instead of just artificially fading distant objects to gray, we now use smooth fog transitions.

MyMMO: Duskwood is definitely an atmospheric zone, especially on hardcore.

Kris Zierhut: You never know what lurks around the next corner. Speaking of which: a little one is just coming down the road right now. Guard Dodds is right over there – he dies first every time. We have deepened the immersion with better rendering and lighting, but the character models, terrain, and game mechanics remain exactly the same.

MyMMO: And you react quickly. I remember the feedback about the campfires, and now they emit smoke columns.

Kris Zierhut: The artists were eager to give the campfires a proper smoke column. With the camping system, we want to bring players together in the wilderness. When you see smoke rise in the distance, you walk over, sit down, chat, grab the buff, and maybe team up for quests.

MyMMO: I can confirm that and sat by the campfire myself to chat briefly with others and grab my buffs. It works!

Kris Zierhut: Did you end up teaming up with people you met at the camps?

MyMMO: Not in the beta, but that could very well happen while leveling, especially if you’ve crossed paths a few times before.

Kris Zierhut: That happened to me in the beta because you quickly realize if you’re working on the same quests.