Official news · Blizzard
WoW: Forever—What’s New and What Feels Familiar
Blizzard compares WoW Forever with the modern game for players choosing where to start, covering the two Experience Presets, new dungeons and Skyborne.
Highlights
- Experience Presets: Classic or Enhanced, which change presentation and defaults but not your Ruleset
- Cooldown Manager and a Damage Meter come with the Advanced options; gamepad support is in a beta state
- Nine new five-player dungeons for levels 13 through 60, with a level cap of 60
- Skyborne are a new race:
Windshaper for the Horde, High Order for the Alliance - At launch each character can spend up to 16 Legacy Points
- Characters group, guild, run dungeons and raid only within the same Ruleset and faction; Hardcore is planned a little after launch
What this means for players
If you come from the modern game, the Enhanced preset is the closest start, and every preset setting can still be changed later. Agree on a Ruleset and faction with friends before you create characters, because grouping depends on both. 
Hunters should re-read their abilities and traps, and the new race-and-class pairings are worth a look when planning a character.
Controls and conveniences
Two Experience Presets bundle the starting visual and interface settings. Enhanced turns on quest guidance, a one-bag view, transmog, strafing keybindings with a centralized screen layout, and HD character models. Classic begins with SD models, a classic layout and camera-turning keybindings, with quest guidance, one-bag view and transmog off. The choice affects presentation only, not your Ruleset, and each setting can be changed in Game Menu > Options. Advanced options add the Cooldown Manager and a Damage Meter. Gamepad support covers selecting allies and enemies, casting, looting and menus; it is in a beta state with improvements to come, and chat still needs a keyboard.
Leveling 1 to 60
Leveling stays on the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, with new and expanded zones and quests, and the cap stays at 60. Nine new five-player dungeons span levels 13 through 60. The Skyborne start on Zephras Isle: choose Horde-aligned Windshaper Skyborne or Alliance-aligned High Order Skyborne at character creation.
Classes and races
Blizzard reworked talents and abilities for each class, drawing on original WoW, so a familiar class is not the same build as in the modern game. Hunters can use traps in combat, and pets scale with gear and get unique family abilities. New race and class pairings are 
Undead 
Paladin, 
Dwarf 
Shaman, 
Gnome 
Priest, 
Human Hunter, 
Orc 
Mage and 
Troll 
Warlock. Racial abilities have also been updated.
Legacy and camping
The Legacy System adds progression shared across the account: challenges, Legacy Points, perks for a single character, and cosmetic rewards. Points are spent across Professions, Adventure and 
Resourcefulness, up to 16 per character at launch, a cap one character can reach alone. Campsites bring players together, and resting briefly by a campfire to become rested grants campsite buffs, though the dangers of the world stay.
Rulesets and factions
You pick a Ruleset instead of a realm: Normal, PvP, Roleplay-PvP or Roleplay, with Hardcore planned a little after launch. Grouping, guilds, dungeons and raids work only for characters sharing both Ruleset and faction, and PvP realms restrict you to one faction. A World of Warcraft Subscription or Game Time covers both Forever and the modern game.
Not announced yet
- Gamepad improvements beyond the current beta
- When Hardcore arrives, beyond a little after launch
Guides this affects
SurvivalRelated news
This is our own summary of what Blizzard posted, not Blizzard’s text. The original is the authority.