In two days, a whole lot of us are going to be staring at a character creation screen at 3pm PST like it owes us money. Some of you have been playing since vanilla. Some of you are coming back after a long break. And some of you are about to set foot in Azeroth for the very first time. (Hi. Welcome. We’re so glad you’re here.)
WoW Forever goes live worldwide on November 4 at 3:00pm PST. That’s 6pm Eastern, 11pm in the UK, and midnight on November 5 for most of Europe
Here’s my take: the first ten minutes matter more than the first ten levels. A couple of choices you make before you ever take a step are hard to walk back. Everything after that? Slow down and enjoy it. You only get one first trip through this version of Azeroth.
So here’s what I’d actually do first, in order.
Before Launch: Get Set Up
Team Mooseallaneous raids Wednesday and Friday from 7:30 to 10:30 PM Eastern.
- Raid Leader: Mierah
- Raid Assist: Mikey
We built the schedule around the teams Autonomous already runs on purpose. If you’re already raiding with Bread, Last Pull Magic, Floyd’s Farm or Cool Cats and want to bring an alt into Mythic, you can. Just get your current raid leader’s blessing first.
What our goals are for Midnight Season 2
Forever is included with an active WoW subscription or Game Time. You’ll need a Battle.net account and the Battle.net desktop app, then you just pick Forever from the game versions list. It runs on Windows or Mac with keyboard and mouse, and also supports controllers.
One thing to check now, not at 2:59pm PDT on launch day: if you want to play Skyborne, you need the Heroic Pack or a higher digital upgrade. Don’t find that out with the queue already open. And please, install early. Nobody wants to spend launch night watching a progress bar while their guildies are already running around.
Step 1: Pick Your Experience Preset
The very first thing Forever asks you is how you want the game to look and feel.
- Classic gives you simpler visuals and less automatic guidance. It’s the old-school feel.
- Enhanced gives you higher visual fidelity and more interface features to help you along.
Blizzard suggests Enhanced if you’re new or not sure. I agree. The good news is this setting isn’t permanent. You can change individual settings later under Game Menu > Options, so don’t overthink it.
Step 2: Choose Your Ruleset
This is the big one. Forever doesn’t do traditional realm selection. You pick a ruleset instead:
- Normal for PvE players who want to quest in peacen (you can still flag yourself for PVP if you want)
- PvP if you enjoy being ganked in Stranglethorn (you masochist)
- Roleplay (RP)
- Roleplay (RP) PvP
- Hardcore, where death can end your character, comes later, not at launch
Here’s why this matters so much: you can only group, join guilds, run dungeons, and raid with players on the same ruleset and faction. Choose the wrong one and unlike in retail, you can’t play with your friends. That’s it. That’s the whole warning.
So before launch, ask your people where they’re going. If you’re coming with us, Autonomous is Horde on the Normal (PvE) ruleset. Plan accordingly.
Step 3: Make a Character You’ll Love
Your faction decides your starting communities and stories. Your race decides how you look, where you start, and your racial abilities.
Forever also opens up some fun new combos: Orc Mages, Troll Warlocks, Undead Paladins, Human Hunters, Gnome Priests, and Dwarf Shamans. Undead Paladin. We are living in the future.
Then there’s the new race, the Skyborne. They start on Zephras Isle, which covers levels 1 to 12. Horde Windshapers can be Shaman and Alliance High-Order Skyborne can be Mages.
A few more things to know at character creation:
- HD or SD models. This changes appearance only, so pick whatever makes you happy.
- Two-part names. Every character gets a main name and a secondary name, and the combination has to be unique across your whole region, not just one realm. Have a backup or two ready. Launch night is a name land rush.
My honest advice? Don’t pick a class off a tier list. Pick the one that looks cool to you and what you actually WANT TO PLAY. You’re going to be staring at this character for a very long time.
Step 4: Fix Your Settings Before You Venture Out
Before you run off to save the world, open Game Menu > Options and take five minutes with your interface, keybindings, and accessibility settings. Moving your most-used abilities to keys you can reach without looking is a quality-of-life upgrade you’ll feel for the next 59 levels.
Future you will thank present you.
Step 5: Build Good Habits Early
This is the stuff veterans do without thinking, and the stuff new players learn the hard way. Blizzard’s own starter guide covers most of it:
- Read your quest text and ability tooltips. They explain the world and how your class actually works. Forever has more than 1,000 new quests, so there’s a lot of story worth reading.
- Pull one enemy at a time while you’re learning. Two is a fight. Four is a corpse run.
- Carry food and water to recover between fights.
- Grab every flight path you pass and keep your Hearthstone handy.
- Sell your gray items, repair your gear, and use your bank before your bags fill up.
- If you die, you can run back to your body or use the Spirit Healer. The Spirit Healer costs you gear durability and gives you Resurrection Sickness, so walk back if you can.
Step 6: Pick Your Professions
Every character gets two primary professions and all three secondary ones.
- Gathering: Herbalism, Mining, Skinning
- Crafting: Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Engineering, Leatherworking, & Tailoring
- Secondary: Cooking, Fishing, First Aid
If you’re not sure, two gathering professions make gold while you level, and you can figure out your crafting path later. Either way, pick up First Aid right away. It’s free healing and you will need it.
Professions also feed into Camping, which is new. Players can build shared campsites with up to three profession-crafted features, and sitting or crafting there for at least a minute gives you benefits. Cozy and useful. My favorite combo.
Step 7: Find Your People
WoW is a completely different game once you have people you recognize. Dungeons are five-player groups with a tank, a healer, and damage dealers, and Forever has nine new ones for levels 13 to 60 . They’re so much more fun with friends.
If you’re new, Blizzard runs an official WoW Portal Room on Discord where you can ask questions and meet other players. I also highly recommend Dungeon Dojo, an official WoW Ambassador community that teaches people how to play WoW. They will also have an in-game guild on both North America and EU servers. Join their discord to learn more!
And if you’re Horde and looking for a home, you know where to find us. Autonomous is building a PvE crew for Forever’s raids and group content, and we’d love to have you.
What Not to Worry About Yet
Raids. Seriously. The first three, Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit, and Onyxia’s Lair, open December 9 for level 60 players. That’s five weeks away.
Alts can wait too. The new Legacy System is account-wide progression, but Blizzard says every advantage can be unlocked on just one character. You don’t have to level five characters to keep up. Breathe, take the time to smell the in-game flowers, and ENJOY the gameplay!
My Launch Night Checklist:
Install a leveling addon if you want a little help. I have used Zygor Guides for many years and highly recommend them. Not only do they have a leveling guide for Forever, but they have guides for Retail and Classic as well. Their guides cover everything from leveling, to professions, achievements, mount farming, and everything in between.
The optimizing can come later. Launch night is for the journey. See you in Azeroth.
