On September 17, 2026, Blizzard held a live World of Warcraft Developer Q&A on the official Warcraft YouTube and Twitch channels. After BlizzCon 2026, developers from the World of Warcraft: Midnight and World of Warcraft: Forever teams answered questions players had sent in.
Blizzard's description of the video reads: "We are gathering your questions from across forums and social media, and bringing the World of Warcraft Midnight and Forever development teams together to answer them."Blizzard: World of Warcraft Developer Q&A, checked Sep 26, 2026.
The replay is embedded above. This page covers the Forever half.
For the shorter decision index, see the confirmed Live Q&A answers.
Stream quotes below keep the wording of YouTube's automatic captions for the replay, filler words included. Square brackets mark a word the captions misheard, and "…" marks a dropped caption tag. The captions don't say who is speaking, so answers are credited to the developers on stream, not to a named person.
Click any time to jump to that moment in the replay.
Clock times are approximate, counted from the stream's recorded start time of 16:31:23 UTC.
Stream Format
Blizzard's question-call post set the schedule as "Thursday, September 17 at 10:00 a.m. PDT for modern, and 10:30 am PDT for Forever"
and said a VOD would be available after the stream.Blizzard: Submit Your Questions for the World of Warcraft Live Q&A September 17, checked Sep 17, 2026. In the replay the Midnight half runs about 24 minutes.
The Forever half starts at about 10:30 a.m. PDT and runs about 34 minutes, ending a little after 11:00 a.m. PDT.
The community host introduced himself at 00:28:58: "I am Randy Jordan."Blizzard: World of Warcraft Developer Q&A, checked Sep 26, 2026.
At 00:29:06 he set out the plan:
Blizzard
"We're going to answer your questions that you asked us following Blizzcon."
For the second half he introduced the Forever panel at 00:59:25 as Josh Greenfield, Nora Mills and Tim Jones (caption spelling).
What Players Wanted Answered
The stream didn't cover client installation or give raid unlock dates; for those, we cite Blizzard Support and the content roadmap. Four topics from BlizzCon weekend frame the answers below.
Getting into the beta. Blizzard Support's beta access article says: "If you have Beta access, the Beta client will be available for installation in the Battle.net App once testing begins."Blizzard: World of Warcraft Alpha or Beta Access, checked Sep 17, 2026.
That line comes from Blizzard Support, not from the stream, which did not cover client installation.
How realmless rulesets work. Forever replaces the realm list with realmless rulesets: Normal, PvP, Roleplaying and, after launch, Hardcore.
Class and combat design. The Deep Dive panel recap covered Paladin additions and stat changes. At the BlizzCon panel a developer said Hit now counts for melee, ranged and spell attacks at once, and critical strike chance was merged the same way (BlizzCon Day Two main-stage replay, 00:54:31).
Raid pacing. The content roadmap schedules raids and the later Hardcore ruleset. The stream gave no raid unlock dates.
Getting the Beta Client
Blizzard's beta-live post says to open the Game Version drop-down in the Battle.net App, choose the World of Warcraft: Forever Beta option under In Development, and install it. The stream didn't cover installation. If the option is missing, Blizzard Support says to close and restart the Battle.net App and check that you're logged in with the right account.
Our beta access guide covers eligibility.
What the Forever Developers Said
The developers ruled out GDKP, cross-faction play, heroic difficulty and rated PvP, and said Hardcore comes after launch. The entries below run in replay order.
Classic and Enhanced Modes (01:08:01)
The developers said players can pick a classic or enhanced mode at first login, and that the HD and SD models share skeletons. They were answering a question about character models. At 01:08:01:
Blizzard
"when you first log into the game, there will be a classic and an enhanced version um that you can opt mode options that you can select."
At 01:08:12 they added that choosing classic mode turns off quest tracking and transmog. A toggle at the bottom of character customization switches between SD and HD models, and the same toggle is in the graphics settings.
How Realmless Works (01:09:19)
You pick a ruleset rather than a realm and play with others on that ruleset, though battlegrounds may mix in players from other rulesets. At 01:09:19 the developers explained realmless:
Blizzard
"really it's all about trying to decouple the, uh, players social experience from the kind of old method of just selecting a fixed realm."
At 01:09:54: "in WoW forever you will be selecting a specific rule set rather than a realm"
. You play with others on the same ruleset. Battlegrounds are the exception. At 01:10:15: "I guess a good caveat is battlegrounds, in which case you may end up with players from other rule sets".Blizzard: World of Warcraft Developer Q&A, checked Sep 26, 2026.
Blizzard's ruleset article says the same, and adds that Hardcore stays separate.
On moving a character between rulesets, the developers said at 01:10:38:
Blizzard
"without a character transfer, you're not just going to be able to like flip-flop between"
The written ruleset article, published September 21, words it differently: to play under a different ruleset, players "need to create a new character in that ruleset."Blizzard: Choose Your Ruleset in World of Warcraft: Forever, checked Sep 26, 2026.
The stream mentions a character transfer and the article does not. We have not found a Blizzard statement that settles which applies.
Hardcore (01:11:55)
At 01:11:55: "We don't have hardcore coming at launch. That's coming later."
At 01:12:00 the developers added that when it arrives, "it will be a choice like RP or PvP."Blizzard: World of Warcraft Developer Q&A, checked Sep 26, 2026.
The stream didn't say what happens when a Hardcore character dies. The answer comes from BlizzCon: at the Deep Dive panel a developer said Hardcore is a closed ecosystem, and a character that dies there can transfer to another ruleset, now including PvP (BlizzCon Day Two main-stage replay, 00:47:23). The ruleset article gives the same rule. See the Hardcore guide.
Oceanic Players and the Auction House (01:12:38)
Asked whether Oceanic players get Sydney servers, the developers said at 01:12:38: "we are going realmless but not regionless."
At 01:12:45: "oceanic players are going to be for the most part hosted on Australian data centers."Blizzard: World of Warcraft Developer Q&A, checked Sep 26, 2026.
Oceanic players can still play with US friends, and at 01:12:58:
Blizzard
"you're also actually going to share a uh the same rule setwide [ruleset-wide] auction house with uh your US friends as well."
Players who mostly group with people far away may connect to those players' local data centers, so latency can vary.
Surnames and Region-Wide Names (01:14:02)
Asked whether a second name is required, the developers answered at 01:14:02: "So, yes, you do have to put something in that field."Blizzard: World of Warcraft Developer Q&A, checked Sep 26, 2026.
Names are region-wide, not per ruleset: a name created on the Roleplaying ruleset is also taken on PvP (01:14:40). At 01:14:56:
Blizzard
"Second Name is a kind of a roleplay forward way to reinforce that player identity"
GDKP and Gold Buying (01:16:11)
The developers said gold-bid (GDKP) raids won't be allowed and gold buyers will be punished. On GDKP raids, they said at 01:16:11:
Blizzard
"the short answer is that no, we were not are not going to allow GDK[P]."
The reasons given were protecting the traditional guild structure, the barrier to entry for newer players, and gold laundering. The Tarnished Undermine Real system (caption spelling) returns, described at 01:19:09 as "kind of like a emblem of justice system essentially."
At 01:19:39: "we are going to very aggressively punish gold buyers."Blizzard: World of Warcraft Developer Q&A, checked Sep 26, 2026.
Add-Ons (01:20:52)
The developers chose the modern add-on API for Forever, not the classic one. Asked whether Forever uses Midnight's add-on API restrictions or the classic API, they said at 01:20:52:
Blizzard
"we did opt for the modern API approach."
They said Forever's simpler encounters mean the combat restrictions should matter less. The game includes a damage meter and a cooldown manager (01:21:51), and a swing timer is "perhaps coming soon"
(01:22:00).Blizzard: World of Warcraft Developer Q&A, checked Sep 26, 2026.
Guide addons are building on that modern API. RestedXP's free addon already ships Forever route updates, and its paid Forever guide is on sale while still being built.Source: RestedXP addon releases, v4.11.10, Sep 25, 2026. RestedXP for WoW Forever and Zygor vs RestedXP track both guide makers.
Raid Sizes (01:23:55)
The developers said every tier gets a 10-player and a 20-player raid, and there is no flex raiding at the start (01:23:55). At 01:24:28:
Blizzard
"Every single tier that we will ever do will have both a 10player raid and a 20 player raid."
The first 10-player raid, the Barrow Deeps, has "eight or so bosses"
(01:24:59). Onyxia's Lair is the launch 40-player raid. At 01:26:09: "So, for for for launch, we have um Onixia's Layer [Onyxia's Lair]."
At 01:26:14: "we aren't going to have a 40 player raid every single tier".Blizzard: World of Warcraft Developer Q&A, checked Sep 26, 2026.
Molten Core came up only as an original-WoW story beat (01:02:30), not as a Forever raid. The raids guide tracks the full raid list.
No Cross-Faction Play (01:25:40)
There will be no cross-faction play, the developers said. Asked about cross-faction raiding, they answered at 01:25:40:
Blizzard
"The Horde and Alliance hate each other. We want to embrace the war in Warcraft and … so there's not going to be any cross faction play."
Dungeons and Raids Have One Difficulty (01:27:08)
The developers said every dungeon and raid has a single difficulty, with no heroic version. At 01:27:08:
Blizzard
"Well, we are taking a hard stance on across both dungeons and raids. The the instance is a single difficulty. There's there's no heroic difficulty."
The color variations of armor players have seen are for "offset pieces"
, not difficulty tiers.Blizzard: World of Warcraft Developer Q&A, checked Sep 26, 2026.
How dungeons play came up at BlizzCon rather than here: at the Deep Dive panel a developer said crowd control matters and tanks hold threat on only three or four targets, so a whole dungeon cannot be pulled at once (BlizzCon Day Two main-stage replay, 00:53:10).
PvP (01:30:12)
At 01:30:12: "there won't be any rated PvP, though."Blizzard: World of Warcraft Developer Q&A, checked Sep 26, 2026.
A new seasonal PvP track, aligned with raid tiers, replaces it. Darkspear Islands is a new battleground with its own reputation (01:30:49). The PvP guide has more.
Weekly Podcast (01:31:18)
At 01:31:18: "starting next week, I'm really excited to announce that we will be having a weekly podcast."
At 01:31:33: "we'll have be having that weekly all throughout the beta for the next 6 weeks."Blizzard: World of Warcraft Developer Q&A, checked Sep 26, 2026.
Sign-Off and Beta Launch (01:32:14)
The developers ended the stream by saying they were going to put the beta live. At 01:32:14:
Blizzard
"There's a Wow Forever beta waiting for one of you to press a button and send that thing live. So, we're going to go do that right now."
At 01:32:24:
Blizzard
"Thank you everyone out there who asked so many questions. It was our pleasure to meet you at Blizzcon, to see you online, and to try to answer some of your questions. We will see you in the Wow Forever beta in a few minutes."
The stream didn't state the beta's level cap. Blizzard's beta-live post says it starts at 20 and rises to 30 later in the beta, with testing running through October 21. A September 30 forum post confirms the October 1 beta build raises the cap to 30; see the level 30 report. The beta guide tracks access and phases.
Quest Log, 23/39
- WoW Forever Developer Q&A: Quotes From the September 17 ReplayEvents
- WoW Forever Deep Dive Panel RecapEvents
- WoW Forever Beta Started September 17Beta
- WoW Forever Classes and ProfessionsSystems
- WoW Forever Roadmap AnnouncedRoadmap