The week to 16 October

How this page labels

As in the week before, every item carries one of three labels, and the label says where it comes from - not how likely we think it is. Confirmed comes from Blizzard itself or was read from the client, reported from Blizzard people via third parties or from many testers, a rumour from the files or from single testers.

Confirmed

The beta goes down for a new build. At 20:00 UTC on 15 October Kaivax announced that the beta would be taken down a quarter of an hour later, at 1:15 p.m. PDT. The maintenance deploys and tests a new build, and that build, Kaivax writes, "has quite a few changes and fixes". A full update to the development notes is to follow once the updating and testing are done. The day before, the beta had already been offline for a few hours from 8:00 a.m. PDT for internal tests; no new client came with it. Update: notes and client are out - what the build changes is in the week to 23 October.

The last deep dive: paladin. At 19:00 UTC Blizzard published the paladin article and calls it the end of the series. New for every paladin: Holy Strike at level 6, Seal of Fury as a tanking seal at level 10 with a shield and a taunt through Judgement at 10 yards, and Consecration for everyone at level 20 - which only hits the first four enemies properly. Judgement no longer consumes the seal, Lay on Hands has a 20-minute cooldown instead of an hour, and classic seal twisting exists only through the 31-point talent Twist of Light. Salvation stops being a blessing and can then be worn next to another one - but according to the article only with a future build. How the talents match the client is on the class deep dives page. At the end the article restates the 4 November launch and says the beta "nears its end".

Azurky and the explorer's backpack are a subscription bonus. At 20:12 UTC Blizzard announced an offer for 6 and 12 months of subscription. For Forever it includes the Tabard of Eternal Exploration and the Eternal Explorer's Backpack as transmog and Azurky as a pet - exactly the three items that turned up in client 70334 on 9 October (see below). A further six-month bonus follows for Lunar New Year, by 31 January 2027 at the latest. The bonuses arrive by 31 October and must be redeemed by 30 April 2027; in Forever they can be used from launch. The same offer covers modern WoW and Classic.

Three launch dungeons on video. On 14 October Blizzard released a video of just over four minutes on three of the nine new dungeons. The Hall of Thanes sits directly beneath the throne room of Ironforge and, like Ragefire Chasm, is built for newcomers: Dark Iron dwarves are looting the tombs of its kings and have woken restless spirits. Clearing Faldrim Anvilmar, the first boss, opens the gates deeper into the hall - Blizzard thus confirms the name that only beta reports had given so far. The Ruins of Lordaeron play out almost entirely outdoors and show off the new lighting; a necromancer waits at the end. In the Excavation Site in the Wetlands raptors nest in the tall grass, several of them stealthed. The video also says Forever refreshes "nearly every vanilla dungeon", with updated rewards and more experience from dungeon quests.

The soundtrack, and place names in it. The soundtrack went up on Blizzard's channel on 13 October, 42 minutes for Zephras Isle, the Riverglades and Hyjal. The tracks carry place names Blizzard has not given anywhere else, among them Shadowgale Forest, Gustberry Lowlands, Shrine of A'kir, Wheeler's Grange, Bolder'ok, Elderwild, Tainted Foothills, Mourning's Rest and Dae'gun. Which of them lie on Zephras Isle, in the Riverglades or on Hyjal, the list does not say.

PvP on the podcast

The same day brought episode 4 of the podcast, just over an hour on PvP, on Blizzard's own channel. The timestamps follow the automatic captions and can be up to half a minute early.

No arenas for now. Arenas ported from Burning Crusade or Wrath, with their own currency and gear that only counts there, "goes against what we're aiming for" (21:38). Towards rated battlegrounds and arenas the team would be "very very very" wary (22:45): original WoW was not balanced around 2v2 or 3v3 but around large fights over objectives. It is not ruled out: "that's not to say there won't ever be any kind of competitive experience" (23:17).
No moving between rulesets. Each ruleset is "one mega server" (03:26). Letting players move freely between PvP and Normal is "not likely" (03:58), and anyone tired of PvP after six months will "probably" have to roll a new character on the Normal ruleset (05:02). The reason is faction balance: it only holds if players cannot leave.
No RP-PvP. "We don't have any plans right now", but "never say never" (09:26). A second RP ruleset would split the small roleplaying community further.
Camping is not curbed. On level 60s camping low-level players: "The short answer is no. PvP occurs on a PvP server" (35:43). Blizzard will only step in on exploits and cheating.
World objectives off at launch. The capture towers in the Eastern Plaguelands and the sand turn-ins in Silithus are "not enabled" at launch (31:26). World events from Season of Discovery such as the Battle for Ashenvale or the Blood Moon in Stranglethorn are "still on the board". Whether world bosses get instanced is open (30:54).
Honour redistributed. Alterac Valley gives "a little less" honour, Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin and the Darkspear Islands considerably more (42:12). Honour and rank points are tuned separately.
Premades against premades. Premade groups are to be matched against premades, solo players against solo players and small groups of "two or three or something" - the exact limit is not settled (46:03). War games should work, if not at launch then soon after, and give no honour (47:40).
A duel map from the Hyjal crater. Blizzard split the old crater at Hyjal off as its own map; in the beta it hosts day two of a community tournament and is not freely accessible. "You might see more of this in a future patch" (55:17).

According to the host, Blizzard booked four episodes; this is the fourth, and whether it continues depends on the comments (62:17).

A trading hold on suspected gold buying. On 13 October Kaivax announced a new tool against real money trading in the forums, the "Temporary Economy Hold". If an account is suspected of selling or receiving gold, trade, mail, guild banks and the Auction House are restricted until the case has been investigated. The aim is to stop the gold before it is put into circulation. Players who simply play the game are "unlikely" ever to see it, Kaivax writes. False positives are possible while the system is new and leave no permanent strike. If the suspicion turns out to be false, the hold is lifted automatically; otherwise account actions follow. If it proves successful, the system will be deployed to all versions of World of Warcraft. It comes on top of the GDKP ban Blizzard has already announced.

Dual Specialization, maybe earlier. In episode 3 of the podcast, in the part about roles in dungeons, Blizzard says dual spec "will come online at level 40 currently", and that the team is "talking about maybe what the right level for that to actually enable is" (45:18). "Maybe a cheeky 30" comes up in the conversation - as an idea, not a decision. The thinking behind it: with two specs, players can more easily heal or tank in dungeons as their main role. Until Blizzard says otherwise, level 40 stands, as it does on the class deep dives page.

A trailer about levelling. On 9 October Blizzard released "Your Adventure Begins", just under six minutes on the road to level 60. One number is new: "more than a thousand new quests" across Azeroth (0:34). Beyond that the video shows what was known - new quests in every starting zone, the starting zones of the Skyborne and of the undead paladins, the cooking campfire other players can build onto, new pets and class-specific weapon quests, the stop in Hillsbrad on the shipping route from the Wetlands to Darkshore, and the Riverglades.

No new notes yet. Up to the maintenance on 15 October the development notes and the list of known issues are still those of 8 October, and Blizzard has written nothing about client 70374 either. Kaivax has promised the next notes for after the maintenance.

Read from the client: 1.60.1.70334, 70338 and 70374

Two clients in six hours, neither with notes. 70334 was on Blizzard's servers at 22:49 UTC on 9 October. Its files change only the loader, the crash handlers and the list of item icons; with the hotfix data that comes with it there are three new items and one spell:

Azurky, an item that "teaches you how to summon this companion", with the spell Summon Azurky - a companion pet.
Tabard of Eternal Exploration and Eternal Explorer's Backpack.

How players get them was in no file we can read. Since 15 October Blizzard says it itself: they are the Forever bonus of a subscription offer, see "Confirmed" above.

70338 followed at 05:05 UTC on 10 October with about 470 new shaders and no changed data table. Talent trees and spells are still those of 70291.

70374 was on Blizzard's servers at 23:25 UTC on 13 October, again without notes. Of 666 changed files, some 420 are sounds and 96 are removed map images of a raid from Battle for Azeroth, plus the loaders, the crash handlers and just under a hundred files without a known name. Among the data tables only two indexes of interface files and icons change. The tracker that regenerates from the CDN reports no change in its tables: talents and spells stay as they were. What stands out among the sounds is under the rumours below. All three clients have their own page under the beta builds.

Reported

The developers spent the weekend at PAX Australia and gave a series of interviews there and alongside. What they said we know from the interviewers' articles, not from Blizzard itself.

Endgame: what comes at level 60

"Horizontal" mainly means a wider world. Clay Stone, Associate Production Director, told Inven Global that it means new zones, dungeons, raids and quests, deeper professions and, over time, more Legacy trees. Gear, on the other hand, "isn't entirely horizontal": each new raid tier brings more power, but the jump is to stay "as narrow as possible". Best-in-slot items may well come from an older raid, and old dungeons and raids are meant to stay worthwhile for a long time. Whether there will ever be a "soft reset" of gear is too early to say. In the forums this very answer has started a debate on whether Blizzard and players mean the same thing by "horizontal".
New content for every level, and reasons for alts. PC Gamer spoke to several developers. Because the level cap stays, a good part of future content is aimed at levelling players. Tim Jones, lead game designer: "We promise to consistently add new leveling dungeons and new leveling zones." Ion Hazzikostas names the Legacy system as a reason to play alts and can see an account-wide bank coming "in the not-too-distant future", so nobody has to mail items from their main to their alts any more. That does not make it announced.

Classes: how they change, and which might be added

Not modernised, but deeper. Blizzard told TechRadar it does not want to modernise the classes but to "err on the side of simpler classes, but with engaging depth". Some were "too simple" in Classic and have gained a few mechanics; the complexity of the beta classes shows the direction.
Frequent balancing, few redesigns. In the first six months Blizzard plans frequent balance changes, "initially once per week", batched rather than trickled in. After launch on 4 November there are to be "very few design changes". From Season of Discovery the team learned it was "going too far"; Forever will be "a lot more careful and cautious".
Respeccing gets expensive. The cheap respec in the beta is temporary. At launch the price climbs quickly and decreases only once a week. Beyond Dual Specialization there are "no plans" for more specs. More respec utility for the Legacy talents is possible later.
No shaman tanks, for now. According to Wowhead, Holly Longdale and Clay Stone told the streamer JackedIQ that shaman tanks are not being pursued at the moment, though the team watches how players actually play their classes. There are items hidden in the game that will only be found after launch and may change how you play your class. Northrend and Pandaria exist as continents, but the focus is on the first year. We have not seen the interview itself.
A survey on eleven new classes. As early as late September some players saw a survey in the Battle.net launcher on possible new classes for Forever: Monk, Demon Hunter, Tinker, Illusionist, San'layn, Necromancer, Rune Knight, Bard, Warden, Witch and Death Knight. Each came with a role, armour type and example abilities; according to PC Gamer, the demon hunter would start at level 1. Participants were asked not to share it, and one published it anyway. Blizzard has said nothing about it, and a survey is not a plan. To Inven Global the week before, the team said only that new classes were being considered in surveys.
No modern races, no summoning stones. Blizzard told TechRadar it has "no plans" for goblins or vulpera and wants to build on the foundational lore of Warcraft. Summoning stones would shrink the world and are not coming.

Also reported

Kirin Tor reputation for the Horde. According to Wowhead, Blizzard confirmed that Horde players should no longer gain Kirin Tor reputation through the Dalaran quest line. It is fixed internally, but reaches the beta only this week. We have not seen the post itself.
Character cap and regions. According to Wowhead, Holly Longdale and Clay Stone told the streamer Fiamma at PAX Australia that the character cap at launch has not been announced yet, but that there are technical limits. Playing across regions is technically difficult. We have not seen the interview itself.

Rumours

A new scavenger hunt. The group that has hunted WoW's secrets for years is at it again in Forever, according to Wowhead: hidden objects that refer to the old printed game manuals have turned up in the Arathi Highlands, Undercity, the Riverglades, the Blasted Lands, Un'Goro, Stonetalon and Stranglethorn. Clues point to a chain that might lead to Uldaman; what waits at the end, nobody knows. Blizzard has said nothing.
A stress test from 19 October. Since the night to 14 October testers have reported a new entry in the Battle.net launcher, "WoW Forever - Stress Test", available from 19 October. Who may take part and for how long is written nowhere; in the forums people assume it is the promised Server Slam. Blizzard has not announced it. Update: on 15 October Blizzard confirmed it for the 19th and on the 16th moved it to 21 October, see the week to 23 October.
Demon hunter voices in the new client. Among the sounds 70374 changes are the voices of playable demon hunters - blood elves of both sexes and female night elves - and that of Korvas Bloodthorn, who instructs demon hunters in Legion. That fits the survey above. But these files have been in every client since Legion, Classic ones included, and changed does not mean added. The same pass also changes the voices of Dark Iron dwarves, Mechagon soldiers and infinite drakonids - which looks more like a rework of many old sounds than like a class. None has been announced.
A paladin cloak for the Alliance only. The quest line for the Divine Storm rune, which starts in northern Darkshore and ends with Delgren the Purifier in Ashenvale, rewards the Cloak of the Divine Storm. Testers report that Horde paladins currently cannot finish it. Whether that is intended, Blizzard has not said.
A weapon quest for shamans at level 30. One tester describes the quest line "The Tempest's Weapons" with Lightning's Grasp, Tidebringer's Claw, Rage of the Storm and Elementalist's Guard as rewards. That class-specific weapon quests exist, Blizzard's trailer says too; which ones, it does not.

What comes next

The maintenance on 15 October brings a new build; the notes for it are to follow once it has been tested. The beta runs until 21 October according to Blizzard. Blizzard has still not given a date for the Server Slam - the launcher entry points to the 19th.