Rares, snakes and rings: Forever's new item sets explained

In Classic, item sets were something you chased at level 60. In Forever they start in the Barrens. The first week of the beta has already turned up sets on rare spawns, in dungeons, and one that deliberately links a level 17 ring to an item you can only use at 60.

Rares are worth hunting again

Three Barrens rares, Humar the Pridelord, Swiftmane and Takk the Leaper, each drop one piece of a set called Blessing of Kalimdor: a ring, a neck and a cloak, all bind-on-pickup and aimed at players in their late teens. Wear two and you move faster while you're in the Barrens or Stonetalon. That's a small bonus, but it gives a reason to go after a rare you'd normally skip. Wowhead expects more zone sets like this. Blizzard hasn't confirmed that yet.

The Wailing Caverns snake

Embrace of the Viper is a five-piece set, and each piece comes from a different creature in Wailing Caverns. Its tooltip bonuses are ordinary. The hidden part is the full set: a druid wearing all five turns into a snake. A Blizzard designer confirmed on social media that the snake's colour depends on your druid's race and that it has its own stealth animation. It's exactly the kind of secret Blizzard said it had hidden around the world, and it was found by a player, not a datamine.

A ring waiting for its partner

The Partners in Crime set has two rings. First Mate Band reportedly drops from Mr. Smite in the Deadmines and suits a level 17 character. Its partner, Band of the Better Half, is a level 60 epic with a source nobody knows yet. Together they give Strength and a chance for your swings to make you "Angry" for a burst of extra Strength. It's a clever hook: a ring you keep in the bank for forty levels because you know it will matter one day.

More where that came from

Blizzard told MMORPG.com there are hundreds of effects tied to biomes and creature types, a dragon-slaying set among them. Deadmines' Defias Leather set has also been updated since Classic. And because most Forever items are encrypted until they drop (see our article on hidden loot), every new set is found by players, one drop at a time.

When one of these drops for you, the upgrade checker tells you if its stats beat what you wear. It doesn't count set bonuses, so read those yourself.