World of Warcraft: Forever launches November 4 with no raids in it. The first wave opens December 9, 2026, five weeks later, and it is three raids rather than the two most coverage is reporting:
- Barrow Deeps, 10 player
- Hyjal Summit, 20 player
- Onyxia's Lair, 40 player
Blizzard has teased new tier sets and a legendary reward alongside them without detailing either. Whether Onyxia's Lair is a straight re-release or comes back with reworked mechanics has not been confirmed.
Nobody is hiding this, but it is buried under reveal coverage, and it changes what your first month actually looks like. If you pre-purchase expecting to be progressing a tier in November, you will spend that month doing something else.
What you do for those five weeks
Dungeons, mostly, and there are nine of them. The notable thing is how they are spread: this is not an endgame pile, it is one roughly every five levels from the teens onward, which is the strongest signal yet that Forever means what it says about the levelling game being the game.
| Dungeon | Levels |
|---|---|
| The Hall of Thanes | 13 to 18 |
| Ruins of Lordaeron | 15 to 20 |
| Excavation Site: Wetlands | 24 to 29 |
| City of Dalaran | 28 to 33 |
| The Drowned City | 35 to 40 |
| Krol'dok Stronghold | 40 to 45 |
| Alcaz Prison | 48 to 53 |
| Blackmaw Hold | 55 to 60 |
| Shaper's Terrace | 58 to 60 |
Two of those are worth flagging. City of Dalaran at 28 to 33 puts a version of Dalaran in the game two decades before the one most players know, and Alcaz Prison turns a vanilla island most people only ever saw for one quest into a full dungeon. Blackmaw Hold and Shaper's Terrace both cap out at 60, so there is a genuine pre-raid gearing path rather than a cliff.
On top of that, the launch build carries over 1,000 new quests spread across the entire 1 to 60 range, three new zones (Zephras Isle at 1 to 12, The Riverglades at 30 to 45, and Mount Hyjal), and a new 15v15 battleground on the Darkspear Islands that mixes control points with Arathi Basin style captures.
Mount Hyjal is the one that will pull returning players. It sits after Archimonde's defeat, which means Forever is finally letting vanilla characters walk into a zone that has been visible and closed since 2004.
The shape of the schedule
Look at the cadence rather than the individual dates, because it tells you what Blizzard is doing:
| When | What |
|---|---|
| September 17, 2026 | Beta opens |
| October 21, 2026 | Beta closes |
| October 27 to November 3 | Early name reservation, upgrade pack owners only |
| November 4, 2026 | Launch, 3:00 PM PST |
| December 9, 2026 | Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit, Onyxia's Lair |
| Spring 2027 | A fourth zone, two more raids at 10 and 20, two dungeons, a legendary questline, a PvP refresh |
| Summer 2027 | A returning classic raid plus a new one, two more dungeons, another PvP season, profession and Legacy updates |
This is aggressive. A playable demo at BlizzCon, a beta four days later, live in seven weeks, first raids five weeks after that. Smaller raid sizes go first and the tiers stack rather than replace, which is consistent with a level cap Blizzard has said is not moving off 60. The 2027 entries come from panel coverage rather than a published roadmap page, so treat the specifics as firm in shape and soft in detail.
If you are buying in for the beta
One correction worth having before you spend $59.99 on guaranteed beta access: almost every write-up says the test is capped at level 30. Thirty is the ceiling, but it is not where the test starts. Blizzard's Clay Stone and Nora Mills said in a developer interview that the beta opens at a level 20 cap and raises it to 30 after roughly two weeks.
So on September 17 you are getting the first twenty levels. That covers Zephras Isle and the two lowest dungeons, The Hall of Thanes and Ruins of Lordaeron, and nothing above them. The Riverglades starts at 30. Mount Hyjal is well past that. No raid content exists in the beta at all, because no raid content exists in the game until December.
That is not a reason to skip it. It is a reason to be honest about what you are paying for, which is an early look at the levelling experience and the new systems, not a head start. Beta characters are not expected to carry over either.
The free opt-in costs nothing and is worth doing regardless. It is a lottery rather than a queue, so opting in early does not move you up, but it also does not cost you anything.
What this means for launch month
If you were planning your November around a raid lockout, plan it around levelling instead. Sixty at Forever's pace is not a weekend, the kill speed alone is slower than anything since 2006, and there are nine dungeons on the way up that you have never run.
The people who will have the best December 9 are the ones who spent November doing professions, working the Legacy System and finishing Blackmaw Hold and Shaper's Terrace, not the ones who rushed 60 in week one and then sat in a capital city for a month waiting.
We track the dates on the Forever hub, and the FAQ covers what does and does not come with a subscription.
Cover and section art: Blizzard Entertainment, from the official World of Warcraft: Forever product page. HostedGG is not affiliated with or endorsed by Blizzard.
Sources: Blizzard Watch's breakdown of Forever's zones, quests, dungeons and raids for the dungeon list and level ranges; the Hyjal Summit and Barrow Deeps blue post coverage for raid sizes and the December 9 date; Warcraft Tavern, Output Lag and Mobalytics for Onyxia's Lair joining that wave and the 2027 roadmap; Icy Veins for the level 20 beta opening cap, sourced to a developer interview with Clay Stone and Nora Mills; Game Informer for the quest count, zone names and the Darkspear Islands battleground.
