Level 30, a new dungeon, and less XP from dungeon quests: The major patch for the WoW Forever beta is finally here and brings a lot of changes. We have the complete patch notes for you.

For two weeks, level 20 was the cap. Since the maintenance on October 1, beta testers in WoW Forever can now level up to level 30. The new build adds a completely new dungeon, two classic instances, and a list of class changes that, in some cases, go deeper than a typical beta patch.

Level 30 and a Dungeon That Never Existed in the Original

The biggest change is easy to explain: The level cap is rising from 20 to 30. This unlocks zones such as the Foothills of the Hillsbrad, the Wetlands, and the Stoneclaw Mountains.

The Wetlands also feature the third new “Forever” dungeon, “Excavation Site: Wetlands,” following the Hall of the Thanes and the Ruins of Lordaeron. Blizzard states in the patch notes that you’ll gain access here starting at level 26.

In addition, two Classic dungeons will be unlocked: the Hills of the Bladeforge starting at level 25 and Uldaman starting at level 30. Those hoping for the Dalaran dungeon, which was also announced, will have to be patient, as it is scheduled to arrive in a later beta update.

Another change is likely to generate less enthusiasm: Dungeon quests now grant 50 percent less bonus experience. This refers to the extra portion that goes beyond normal quest rewards, not the total reward. Blizzard cites feedback on leveling speed as the reason for this and has also readjusted some quest rewards.

Druids Lose a Core Ability

However, the majority of the patch notes are dedicated to the classes, and Blizzard is making some significant changes in certain areas. Druids are losing Tiger’s Fury entirely and gaining a new talent, Shifting Power, which converts mana into energy. Bears and Warriors generate significantly more Rage on critical hits, but Fury Warriors must make sacrifices with their off-hand in return.

You can find all class changes and the complete patch notes on the next page.

The complete patch notes for the WoW Forever beta update

Bug Fixes

• Visibility in the rain has been improved.
• The “Ray-Traced Shadows” option has been removed. This setting will be reintroduced in a future update once the functionality has been fixed.
• Fixed an issue where the Night Watchman’s torch caused unintended delays in certain situations and could not be canceled.
• The visual size of weapons when held in hand or carried in a sheath on the back has been adjusted for all races to ensure a more consistent appearance.

Changes and Updates

• Players can now reach a maximum level of 30.
• New Dungeon – Excavation Site: Wetlands (26–31).
• Players now have access to Razorfen Downs (25+) and Uldaman (30+), in addition to the following dungeons that are already available:

  • • Ragefire Gorge
    • Hall of the Thane
    • Ruins of Lordaeron
    • Howling Caves
    • The Deadmines
    • Shadowfang Keep
    • The Stockade
    • The Depths of Blackfathom
    • Gnomeregan
    • Razorfen Kraul
    • The Scarlet Monastery

• There are now barber shops in Darnassus and Thunder Bluff; all barber shops now have barbers working in them, and city guards will direct you to the barber shops.
• Camping

  • The “Boosted Rest” debuff caused by this camping feature now has a different icon to make the effect clearer, and the tooltip has been revised to make it easier to understand.
  • The wording for the camping features has been adjusted so that the term “mutually exclusive” is now used instead of simply “exclusive” to reduce confusion regarding how they work.
  • Campfires no longer deal damage to players below level 5 and deal reduced damage to players with less than 90% health.

• Items

  • “Savory Whimsyfin Delight” now uses an Orc equivalent of the ninja and pirate outfits from “Savory Deviate Delight.”

    • Developer Notes: The previous transformations were just placeholders, but we may reintroduce similar ones in the future!

  • If you sell a BoE item whose appearance you haven’t collected yet to a vendor, the item will now become soulbound (previously account-bound).

Classes

• Druid

  • Bear Form and Fearsome Bear Form now generate 75% more Rage when a critical hit lands.
  • Fixed a bug where “Strike” did not scale with Attack Power. The effect now correctly receives 3% of the druid’s Attack Power.

    • Developer Notes: The tooltip will not be correctly updated until a future update.

  • “Tiger’s Fury” has been removed.
  • All transformation forms are now IMMUNE to disarming effects.

    • Developer Notes: This is a gameplay adjustment to align the feel of the game with the original WoW. If a druid is disarmed before assuming a form, their form will not remove the disarm effect, and they will also deal reduced damage for the duration of the disarm effect. Disarming a druid before they take a form will therefore cause them to deal reduced damage.

  • “Fairy Fire” no longer resets the Swings timer when used.
  • Feral

    • “Primal Bite”: The threat generated by this ability has been roughly doubled.
    • The talent “King of the Jungle” has been removed.
    • “Tiger Fury” has been removed.
    • A new talent—“Transformation”—is now associated with the “Tear Attacks” in Row 4.

      • Only in cat form. 16-second cooldown. Costs 55% of base mana.
      • Instantly converts 55% of base mana into 40 energy. The cost of “Power Shift” is reduced by effects that lower the cost of shape-shifting.
      • “Power Shift” costs the same amount of mana as Cat Form.

    • A new talent is associated with “Power of Transformation” in Tier 5—“Enhanced Power of Transformation” .

      • Reduces the cooldown of your “Power of Transformation” spell by 4/8 seconds.

• Hunter

  • Sniper’s Art

    • The icon for “Improved Stabs” has been changed to better match the “vanilla” style.
    • The 31st talent, “Sharpshooter’s Shot,” now has a range of 45 yards and increases the range of your next 3 shots fired within 10 seconds by 10 yards.

  • Survival

    • The icon for “Predator’s Edge” has been adjusted to better match the “vanilla” feel.
    • The parry chance for “Distraction” has been changed to 1/2/3/4/5% (previously 2/4/6/8/10%).

  • Companions

    • “Aggressive Mode” has been reintroduced and can be found in the Mount tab of your spellbook.
    • Developer Notes: There were some tamable beasts whose mount skill ranks were too high for that creature. This has now been fixed. This could have caused a bug where your mount “forgot” the mount ability, which should no longer occur following this fix.

• Mages

  • All mage scrolls in the “Insight” category have undergone an additional balance overhaul and can no longer be cast while moving.
  • Fire

    • “Hot Streak” has been renamed to “Heat Up” since it is no longer dependent on a “streak.”
    • The number of charges for “Burn” has been reset to 3 (previously 4).
    • The fire vulnerability of “Improved Scorch” is not rolled a second time to check for resistance.

  • Frost

    • When casting “Winter’s Chill,” no roll is made to determine whether the spell is blocked, since the original spell had to hit.

• Paladin

  • Protection

    • The block chance of “Redoubt” has been changed to 4/8/12/16/20% (previously 6/12/18/24/30%).
    • The block chance of “Holy Shield” has been changed to 30% (previously 20%).

  • Retribution

    • The intelligence-to-spell damage ratio for “Champion of Light” has been changed to 20/40/60% (previously 33/66/100%).
    • Developer Notes: There was an issue with the tooltip description for “Champion of Light” that stated healing would be increased; however, this was not the case. This tooltip has been removed.

• Priests

  • “Devouring Plague” can now correctly land critical hits.
  • Fixed an issue where “Shadow Word: Death” always benefited from the “Premature Death” talent, regardless of the target’s health percentage.
  • Discipline

    • “Inner Focus” no longer applies its critical strike increase to periodic effects.

  • Shadow

    • “Shadow Weaving” can no longer fail.

• Rogue

  • Fixed an issue where failing “Strip Armor” caused you to lose all your combo points.
  • Subtlety

    • “Preparation” now only adds combo points to your current target if it is the target whose spell you dodged or resisted.

• Shaman

  • “Spirit Wolf” should now be more visible in well-lit areas.
  • Fixed an issue where “Totem of Purification” did not have a 5-minute duration.
  • Fixed a bug where “Totemic Recall” did not restore mana.

• Warlock

  • “Soul Drain” is now correctly interrupted when the warlock begins casting another spell.
  • The model for the “Incubus” companion has been replaced with a lower-resolution model.
  • “Hellfire” can now land a critical hit.
  • Affliction

    • “Soul Harvest” has been renamed to “Soul Harvest.” It now correctly grants a 50/100% increase to mana regeneration.

  • Companions

    • “Aggressive Mode” is back and can be found on the “Companions” tab in your spellbook.

• Warrior

  • Players now generate 75% more Rage when they land a critical hit with a basic attack.
  • “Tear” and “Shatter Armor” now instantly pull enemies toward the Warrior.
  • Charging “Heroic Strike” no longer increases the off-hand’s hit chance.
  • The additional rage generated by critical hits has been increased to 100% (up from 75%).
  • Fixed a bug where the “Dual Wield” specialization applied the hit chance increase to both weapons.

    • Developer Notes: Due to the bug mentioned above, our tests had to be corrected, so we have re-evaluated the Fury Warrior.

  • Weapons

    • “Spear Thrust” no longer requires a two-handed weapon. “Spearing Strike” requires the combat stance.

  • Rage

    • The “Dual Wield” specialization no longer grants a 20/40/60/80/ 100% increase to rage generation from your off-hand weapon.
    • Fixed an issue where “Unbridled Rage” had a lower trigger chance than intended.
    • Developer Notes: Our goal is to make the “Rage” specialization branch to offer more useful abilities and meaningful choices for leveling early in the tree, and to unlock points for additional options later on, rather than forcing players to invest points in “Enrage” to obtain “Flurry.”
    • “Booming Voice” now increases the range of your “Screams” by 10/20/30/40/50% and reduces their Rage cost by 5/10/15/20/25%.
    • “Unbridled Fury” no longer grants two-handed weapons double the amount of Fury.
    • New talent “Sustained Fury” in Tier 2 of “Fury.” “Sustained Fury” extends the time before your Fury begins to decrease after leaving combat by 2/4/6/8/10 seconds.
    • “Blood Rush” is no longer triggered by casting “Bloodthirst.”
    • The talent “Improved Cleave” has been removed.
    • The talent “Boundless Rage” has been removed.
    • New talent “Furious Precision” in tier 3 of “Rage.” “Furious Precision” increases your chance to hit with off-hand attacks by 4/7/10%.
    • “Furious Strikes” now reduces the rage cost of your “Cleave” and “Whirlwind” abilities by 3.
    • “Furious Strikes” no longer causes your “Whirlwind” to strike with your off-hand. “Whirlwind” now always strikes with both weapons without requiring a talent point.
    • The “Dual Wield” specialization no longer grants your off-hand attacks a chance to hit.
    • “Enrage” is no longer required to unlock the “Flurry” talent.
    • “Death Wish” is now required to unlock the “Flurry” talent.
    • New talent “Gore Drinker” in row 6 of “Fury,” requires the “Enrage” talent . Your “Enrage,” “Berserker Rage,” “Bloodrage,” “Death Wish,” and “Bloodthirst” abilities cause your next 3 melee attacks to restore 0.5/1% of your maximum health.
    • “Improved Berserker Rage” has been moved to row 5 of “Fury” (previously row 6).
    • “Berserker Rage” is now available at level 30 (previously level 32)
    • The attack power ratio of “Bloodthirst” has been increased to 45% (previously 35%).

  • Protection

    • Developer Notes: Our goal is to provide players without a shield with a clear path to the center of the tree, where “Protection” could serve as a secondary specialization for PvP, with better access to “Enhanced Bloodrage,” “Iron Will,” “Enhanced Disarm,” “Last Stand,” and “Improved Shield Bash.”
    • “Iron Will” has been moved to row 1 of “Protection” (previously row 2 of “Fury”).
    • “Premonition” has been moved to row 2 (previously row 1).
    • “Tenacity” has been removed.
    • “Enhanced Blood Rage” has been moved to row 1 (previously row 2).
    • “Enhanced Vengeance” has been moved to row 2 (previously row 3).
    • “Enhanced Disarm” has been moved to row 3 (previously row 4).
    • “Improved Shield Bash” has been moved to row 4 (was previously in row 5).

Cooldown Manager

• Race abilities are now supported.
• Rogue is now supported.
• Duplicate entries for each spell rank in already supported classes should no longer exist.

Gamepad Support

• The Companion Stable interface has been updated for gamepad support.
• Gamepad button mappings are now static, and any reassignment of gamepad buttons only affects the keyboard and mouse interface.
• The compact frames in the Raid and Group Manager have been updated for gamepad support.
• Fixed an issue where macros placed on a gamepad action bar could not be moved.

Player vs. Player

• The Honor Point costs for PvP gear and upgrade tokens have been adjusted, with the costs for most items increased by approximately 50% to better align with gear acquisition goals.
• The Honor Points cap has been increased from 15,000 to 25,000 to better accommodate the new costs mentioned above.

Professions

• Shenthul in Orgrimmar now teaches “Windshaper – Skyborn.”
• A number of blacksmithing and leatherworking recipes that appear as random loot in dungeons are now available.
• Enchanting

  • All crafted wands of the “Common” and “Uncommon” quality tiers are now sold by vendors for 1 copper.

• Mining

  • The number of “Low-Quality Copper Veins” in beginner zones has been reduced.

• Skinning

  • Creatures can once again only be skinned once before they disappear.

Quests

• Developer Notes: We appreciate the feedback on leveling speed as we continue discussions about the beta. As part of these discussions, we have decided to reduce the amount of XP awarded for dungeon quests with this update. Certain quest rewards have also been adjusted.
• Dungeon quests now grant 50% less additional experience beyond the normal quest values.
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from starting escort quests if their quest log contained 25 or more quests.
• Fixed an issue that caused certain quest items to drop multiple times.
• Fixed an issue that allowed some quests that grant items at the start to be shared.
• An issue was fixed that allowed some quests originating from items to be shared.
• The respawn rate of many different creatures and objects in the Hillsbrad Foothills, Ashenvale, the Wetlands, Duskwood, and the Thousand Needles has been increased.

  • Developer Notes: The Redridge Mountains and the Stonetalon Mountains were already adjusted in an earlier build. Please continue to report any areas where you’re having trouble completing quests so we can make further adjustments.

• Darkshore

  • An issue with the item “Tharnariun’s Hope” during the “Plagued Lands” quest has been fixed.

• Deadmines

  • “Destruction in the Deadmines” is now sorted correctly in the dungeon quest log.

• Druid

  • An issue has been fixed where players did not reliably receive loot during the quests “The Great Cat Spirit” and “The Great Wind-Borne Cat Spirit.”
  • High Order Celestials can now complete the quest “Mastery of Poison” to learn the spell “Heal Poison.”

• Dun Morogh

  • The trolls on the Shimmering Ridge now spawn more consistently and quickly in areas where they previously appeared only sporadically. Must be the cold, man.

• Loch Modan

  • Troggs in the Hole now respawn slightly slower for the quest “In Defense of the King’s Lands.”

• Mulgore

  • The quest “Kyle Is Missing!” has been added.

• Orgrimmar

  • Smooth boulders should now appear much more frequently and can be collected for the quest “Stones for Rest”

• Red Mountains

  • The quest “Blockade of Blackrock” has been updated. Spawn rates have also been adjusted.

• Ruins of Loraderon

  • “A Fearful Plea” is now correctly sorted under the dungeon in the quest log.
  • An issue has been fixed that allowed players to obtain multiple copies of the quest item “Bloodstained Insignia.”

• The Howling Caves

  • Snakes of the Serpent Blossom now disappear after a few minutes. Why did it have to be snakes, of all things?

• Westfall

  • The respawn rate of the pocket watch in Furlbrow’s closet for the quest “The Forgotten Heirloom” has been significantly reduced.
  • The respawn rate of the undead for the quest “Collecting Memories” and of Foreman Thistlenettle for the quest “Oh Brother…” has been increased.

Races

• Gnome

  • “Eureka!” no longer benefits from periodic effects at all. Channeled spells do not count as periodic effects.

• Undead

  • “Cannibalize” cannot be cast if the caster is immune to physical damage.

User Interface

• When you hover your mouse over “Spell Damage” and “Spell Healing” in the character window, a tooltip now explains that spells cast at spell levels far below your current level benefit less from “Spell Damage” and “Spell Healing” and have a lower chance of triggering class abilities and talents. (Examples: “Frostbite” and “Omen of Clarity”)

  • Developer Notes: Another example of this reduced trigger chance—casting a level 1 “Frostbolt” at level 60 results in a 0% chance to trigger “Frostbite” . So you must now decide whether to quickly apply a slow or cast a spell that might trigger “Frostbite,” rather than getting both.

• During character creation, appropriate icons are now displayed when switching between the default definition models.
• The stable frame graphics have been updated.
• The graphics for combination points in the target frame and the personal resource display have been updated.
• An issue where a player’s full name was not displayed in chat during loot rolls has been fixed.
• The Auction House now displays item suffixes correctly.

World

• Adjustments have been made to world instances.
• Group leaders should no longer be moved when creating or updating the group composition.
• Developer Notes: As we continue to work on features that affect player numbers and group formation, we look forward to your feedback and bug reports.

Known Issues – New in This Build

• When chaining spells, the pre-cast effects and sounds of the next spell will not play until the first spell has finished.

  • Example: If you cast “Fireball” and immediately cast another “Fireball,” you finish the first “Fireball” spell; your hands won’t glow, and you won’t hear the crackling sound of the new “Fireball” you’re currently casting. Only when your hand comes down after the first “Fireball” spell does the preparation animation for the next “Fireball” spell begin.

• Enemies can parry and block from behind if the player is near them. Until this issue is fixed, you can avoid this by not getting too close to targets.
• The total installation size of “WoW: Forever” is larger than intended. We’re working to reduce it in a future beta update.
• When switching to or from Gamepad UI mode, the layout of the active editing mode is reset to the default setting.
• The “Scroll of Liminal Passage” does not function correctly.
• Dwarves do not have updated splash sounds in water. This was fixed in a later build.
• “Eureka” does not affect every damage or healing spell for some classes. This was fixed in a later build.
• Several debuffs, such as “Fairy Fire” and “Demoralizing Shout,” do not generate threat.
• Mages who learn “Research” may be prevented from accessing it.
• The Warrior’s “Dual Wield” specialization grants a 2/4/6/8/10% hit chance to both the main and off-hand weapons. This should only apply to the off-hand.
• “Aura of Retribution” uses the target’s spell power instead of the paladin’s.
• The Taillasher eggs for the quest “A Few Eggs Broken” do not respawn as quickly as intended. This will be fixed in a future update.
• Anduin Wrynn —and many other children—are accidentally wearing hats. We’re currently in the process of removing them, but they keep giggling and running away, so this will take a while.

Article, News, World of Warcraft: Forever, Blizzard Entertainment, Blizzard Entertainment, Role-playing game, Online role-playing game, PC