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The WoW Forever Podcast: Episode 7 - Turbo Nerds Lore-ing Out & Platinum WoW

Kaivax
Watch it on Blizzard’s World of Warcraft channel

Summary

Blizzard’s original post

The WoW Forever podcast’s lore episode opens with a faction update: developers said character creation for the larger faction is tightened on PvP rulesets. The rest covers how Forever tells its story, why the Skyborne join both factions, and how Riverglades came about.

Highlights

  • Character creation for the larger faction is tightened on PvP and Roleplay-PvP: the Horde in most regions, the Alliance on Europe's Roleplay-PvP
  • Blizzard lets the factions drift about 10% apart at launch, and the Horde to Alliance split reached 55 to 45, the most it allows
  • Trial accounts and level one characters have no effect on faction balance
  • Forever is its own continuity, apart from the main game’s story, as Hearthstone is
  • Developers said Forever is not going through the Dark Portal: no higher level cap and no Burning Crusade Outland
  • The next episode covers systems, classes and the PvP system

What this means for players

On a PvP or Roleplay-PvP ruleset, the larger faction may be closed to new characters: in most regions that is the Horde, and on Europe's Roleplay-PvP it is the Alliance. If you haven’t made a character there yet, check before you plan around it. The class and race guides are unchanged.

Faction balance on PvP

A developer said on the podcast that Blizzard has tightened character creation for the larger faction on the PvP and Roleplay-PvP rulesets. In most regions that limits the Horde; on Europe's Roleplay-PvP ruleset it limits the Alliance. At launch Blizzard lets the factions drift about 10% apart so people can make characters where they want, and the split reached 55 to 45 Horde to Alliance, which is the upper limit.

Said in the video

Zones and crowding

Developers said balancing inside each zone was also adjusted, and that player caps were lowered in zones that had been too crowded, by more on PvP than on the Normal and Roleplay rulesets. Blizzard plans to keep tuning zone populations as players spread out.

Said in the video

Trial and level one characters

Trial accounts and level one characters do not affect faction balance. At the ruleset level, Blizzard counts characters that actually play the game over time.

Said in the video

Forever’s own story

Forever is a separate continuity from the main game, as Hearthstone is, so its story does not have to fit what came after. Developers said it tells its story the way the original game did, through quests rather than cutscenes, with the player as one hero among many. They have a story plan for the next several years, and Molten Core is planned, with no date given.

Said in the video

Riverglades and the Skyborne

Developers said on the podcast that Riverglades fills the mountains east of Burning Steppes and was first planned as three small zones before becoming one large one. The Alliance side follows the Brotherhood of the Horse, knights who left Stormwind after the battle for Blackrock Mountain. The Horde side works with the Bolder'ok ogres, who left the Twilight's Hammer. The Skyborne join both factions partly for balance: giving a popular race to one side would pull more players to it.

Said in the video

What is and is not coming

Blizzard says Forever is not going through the Dark Portal: no higher level cap and no Burning Crusade Outland. A developer said the Scarlet Enclave and the Ashbringer are planned to return, with no date given. The next episode covers systems, more on classes and the PvP system.

Said in the video

Guides this affects

This is our own summary of what Blizzard posted, not Blizzard’s text. Go by the original.