BlizzCon 2026 is in full swing, and fans of Blizzard Entertainment have gathered in Anaheim, California, to celebrate the illustrious developer’s past and future. Blizzard is celebrating their past and future in their own way, with the formal announcement of the heavily rumored World of Warcraft: Forever, a re-release of the original World of Warcraft experience with new and expanded content.
Featuring a new race, new class options for existing races, new and updated zones, and much more, World of Warcraft: Forever seems poised to give Blizzard fans more of what they’ve been clamoring for: new content in the game’s original style.
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The cinematic trailer focused on the Dwarf hunter from the original World of Warcraft cinematic trailer, with a mysterious wisp of light seemingly luring him off his destined path. This wisp guides him to a beautiful new zone and into conflict with an Undead paladin (a new race/class combination possible in World of Warcraft: Forever) before leading him to Mount Hyjal, another zone that will be newly available. The trailer concluded with a first look at yet another new zone, a land borne in the clouds, and a new race, the aptly named Skyborne.
World of Warcraft: Forever will emphasize protecting and nurturing the social experience.
Using World of Warcraft: Classic’s “Season of Discovery” as a springboard, the developers learned to add new content to the original experience that felt cohesive and in line with Blizzard’s design philosophies from two decades past. One of Forever’s core pillars is that any new content should remain approachable and familiar, where players are still incentivized to work together in the world in order to survive.
Veteran players will remember questing through Stranglethorn Vale or Elwynn Forest, and Blizzard wants to ensure that new zones feel equally iconic, with the world feeling as much a character as any players you run across as you quest.
While quality-of-life updates add plenty of convenience for players, they also make it harder to socialize. It’s easier to find a party of players to run a dungeon now, but you can also go through the trial without exchanging a single word. This created another core pillar: protecting and nurturing the social experience to keep the game’s community healthy.
World of Warcraft: Forever’s new regions promise to tell new stories.
To kick things off, we were shown a quartet of new zones coming to Forever, starting with Mount Hyjal, the former battleground where the demonic invasion was repelled from Azeroth in Warcraft 3: Legion of Chaos. This is also the site of one of the first new raids: Hyjal Summit. We also got a look at Shen’dralas, an expansion on ruins that appeared on a flight path.
Another new zone is Riverglades, where humans pursued orcs in one of Warcraft’s earliest conflicts and later settled and formed their own factions. This and other regions promise to tell new stories that call back to earlier unexplored aspects of the fantasy world’s expansive lore.
Zephras Isle was the final new zone we got to see—which is the final zone we saw in the cinematic trailer. For the new Skyborne race, Zephras Isle is where they’ll be spending their early questing hours, before they leave their home to help the Horde or Alliance. Horde Skyborne can create a Shaman, while Alliance Skyborne have access to the Mage class instead.
Blizzard is adding several new raids to WoW: Forever.
This is not a one-time season; World of Warcraft: Forever, as the name implies, is a living world that will regularly receive new content. Dalaran, the city of mages, makes its appearance as a dungeon. Even casual fans may remember Dalaran as a floating city that appears in various locations across World of Warcraft’s history, but this version of the city is more terrestrial, with repairs ensuing after its destruction in Warcraft 3.
This divergence makes it the ideal place for one of Forever’s new dungeons, along with the Horde Undercity in the ruins of Lordaeron and some submerged ruins off the coast of Stranglethorn Vale. Blizzard’s dedication to World of Warcraft Forever is clear as they listed off these and several other new dungeons for intrepid explorers to tackle, new mysteries added to the classic MMORPG.
Blizzard is also adding several new raids, like the aforementioned Hyjal Summit. Barrow Deeps, where they hint Illidan was imprisoned in the past, is presented as a ten-person raid, while Hyjal Summit, Forever’s largest raid, is a twenty-person raid.
Transmog will be included as an opt-in system in World of Warcraft: Forever.
It’s clear that Blizzard is taking this opportunity to touch on every aspect of the familiar MMORPG. Talents, like the rest of the revamped experience, are receiving an update, bringing some balance changes that allow players to enjoy the new world as the class of their choice. The game’s aesthetic is being preserved, but there are still plenty of technical updates to make the world more immersive without changing the art drastically.
We saw a hint of the camping system, where players can relax at a campsite to receive buffs, giving them another chance to socialize while they rest. The developers also touched on a Legacy system, where alternate characters can receive bonuses based on a player’s achievements tied to their account.
Acknowledging the disparity in community feedback, transmog (the ability to apply one armor’s look to another piece of gear) is going to be included as an opt-in system. Players can decide if they want to see other players’ equipped gear, or see the outfits they meticulously put together. Character models are part of this philosophy as well, allowing players to switch between high- and standard-definition character models with the push of a button.
World of Warcraft: Forever’s roadmap looks promising.
As the panel wrapped up, the devs hinted at new professions content, new factions with whom to grind reputation, gamepad support, a new Legendary item, and more. All of these are intended to be part of the launch experience for World of Warcraft: Forever, so we got a glimpse at the roadmap, indicating that new dungeons, raids, quests, zones, and more would be added, while the level cap would remain at 60.
Since the level cap will remain static, all of these additions will allow for horizontal progression. Finally, citing World of Warcraft: Hardcore’s success, they also announced that World of Warcraft will receive a Hardcore variant, creating a high-stakes leveling experience in an increasingly unfamiliar world.
