World of Warcraft: Forever launches today at 6 p.m. ET with 1,000+ new quests, the Skyborne and realmless rulesets

Azeroth gets a fresh start tonight. Blizzard says World of Warcraft: Forever goes live globally today, November 4, at 3 p.m. PST, which is 6 p.m. ET (23:00 UTC). It’s a permanent third version of WoW that sits alongside modern WoW and Classic, and it’s set after Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom and before Molten Core, with an adventure across the original continents up to level 60.

You don’t need to buy anything new to play. Blizzard’s pre-purchase page says access is included with a World of Warcraft subscription or Game Time. The paid upgrade packs mostly matter for one thing: as Wowhead’s editions guide points out, you need at least the Skyborne Heroic Pack to play the new Skyborne race and its starting zone.

What’s actually new

A bigger old world. Forever adds new and reimagined zones and more than 1,000 new quests across the 1–60 journey. Mount Hyjal deals with the aftermath of Archimonde’s defeat, Shen’dralas turns a hidden area between Mulgore and Desolace into a new adventure, and the Riverglades alone has more than 150 quests covering much of the mid-30s to mid-40s.

New race and class combos. The Skyborne start on Zephras Isle (levels 1–12) and can join either side: Horde Windshapers become Shaman, and Alliance High-Order Skyborne become Mages. Blizzard also lists new pairings like Orc Mages, Troll Warlocks, Undead Paladins, Human Hunters, Gnome Priests and Dwarf Shamans.

Rulesets instead of realms. You pick Normal, PvP, Roleplay or Roleplay PvP rather than a specific server, and characters get a two-part name that’s unique across the region. Hardcore is coming “sometime after launch.”

Your choice of old or new feel. On first login you choose a Classic or Enhanced preset, and each character can use HD or the original-style SD models. There’s also an account-wide Legacy System for horizontal progression, a group Camping system and gamepad support.

If you pre-ordered a pack, your Invite-A-Friend codes let friends play without a subscription from November 4 through November 11. If you missed it, our earlier stress test story covers how we got here.

PPR take: This is a smart move by Blizzard. Classic proved a lot of people want the old pace and the old world, but Classic is also stuck being a museum. Forever is the first time Blizzard is saying the original Azeroth gets to keep growing, with new zones and stories that never existed back in the day. The rulesets-over-realms change is the part I’m most curious about, since realm communities were a big reason the old game felt alive, and a realmless setup could either fix dead servers or make the world feel less personal. Having it included with the regular sub instead of a separate box is the right call too, since it means anyone already paying can try it tonight without a second thought. The big question is launch night itself. Queues and server strain are almost a WoW tradition, so if you’re logging in at 6 p.m. ET, have some patience ready.