Four new zones and a thousand quests: Forever's open world so far
Mount Hyjal, Shen'dralas, the Riverglades and Zephras Isle, new harbours, gear that only works in certain places, and a stable of new mounts waiting in the files.
Forever's map is the one you know, with the gaps filled in. Four new zones, more than a thousand new quests and a handful of new harbours make the old continents feel bigger, not smaller.
The new zones
- Zephras Isle: the Skyborne starting zone, levels 1 to 12.
- The Riverglades: a mid-30s to early-40s zone with the new Kor'Dok Stronghold dungeon and Powderfuse Port, a new goblin town reached by boat from a new Steamwheedle Port.
- Shen'dralas: between Mulgore and Desolace.
- Mount Hyjal: the endgame zone, home to the Hyjal Summit and Barrow Deeps raids that open on 9 December.
The old world gets attention too. Every starting zone gets new content, Desolace and the Wetlands get large quest additions, and new or revived ports appear at Stormwind Harbor and Southshore.
Gear that cares where you are
Blizzard told IGN Nordic that some Forever gear works only in certain places or against certain enemies: speed in a desert, damage against dragons. You can see it already in the Barrens rare set (our item-sets article). Blizzard also says item power will rise "responsibly", so old raid gear stays useful rather than being replaced by the next dungeon.
Raids without homework
There are no attunements for the launch raids. Blizzard wouldn't commit on later ones. Raids have fixed sizes of 10, 20 and 40 players, with no scaling, and no public test realm either, so the first clears will be blind.
Mounts and cosmetics
The beta files list a long line of mounts: devilsaurs, moose, warden sabers, several kodos, cranes, Galestriders, skeletal horses, a Venomhide Ravasaur, a Striped Dawnsaber and the Spectral Bear from Legacy. Many are encrypted, so there are no models or sources yet. The first cosmetic-only reward has also appeared: a cowl from the Gadgetzan reputation vendor, for the opt-in transmog.
Want to see it on a map? Wowhead has launched a Forever world map tool with rares and boat routes. The zone art on our What's new page shows how the old zones look now.
- Wowhead: what we know about the open world
- IGN Nordic interview
- Wowhead: new mounts in datamining
- Wowhead: cosmetic-only reward
- But Why Tho? interview: no attunements
- Wowhead: Forever world map tool
Written by the Companion team in our own words. Quotes and figures belong to their sources.
