Blue post · Kaivax

Forever beta notes: City of Dalaran

A reply in Blizzard's thread WoW Forever Beta Development Notes – Updated October 26

8 October 2026, 21:32 UTC

Kaivax

Summary

This build opens the City of Dalaran dungeon for beta testing and gives about 20% more experience for kills inside dungeons. It also rebalances Rage gain, extends the Cooldown Manager to every class and adds voice chat options.

Highlights

City of Dalaran dungeon open for beta testing
Dungeon kill experience up about 20%
Rage gain now tuned per level, between 20% and 40% armor rather than 50%
Cooldown Manager supports every class's abilities, racial abilities and trinkets
PvP critical strikes no longer have reduced efficacy

What this means for players

Leveling through dungeons pays more now, with about 20% more experience for kills inside them. Warriors should notice the Rage change, which retunes Rage gain by level. These are beta notes and may change.

The 8 October 2026 build

A large build bringing the City of Dalaran dungeon to testing, higher dungeon XP, and a fix for party XP penalties. It also reworks Rage gain, makes many class and talent corrections, tunes many quests and vendor prices, and adds a new voice chat option, Cooldown Manager coverage and gamepad action bar edit mode. It lists 3 known issues, mostly unfinished Skyborne and creature textures, a visual-only pet crit display bug and broken Professions icons.

Druid

Druid
Change	What changed	Was	Now	Kind	Our guide
Mana Potions in forms	Fixed Druids being unable to use Mana Potions in Bear, Dire Bear or Cat Form.			Fixed	Our Druid guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Rage from critical strikes	Landing critical strikes now gives a bigger Rage bonus.	75%	100%	Buff	Our Druid guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Thorns	Vanilla WoW figures are back for its base damage, while the scaling it takes from spell power was cut.	13.3%	6%	Changed	Our Druid guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Cat Form	Fixed it lowering maximum health.			Fixed	Our Druid guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Bear Form	Threat bonus raised.	30%	50%	Buff	Our Druid guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Dire Bear Form	Threat bonus raised.	30%	50%	Buff	Our Druid guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Shapeshift-overriding effects	Effects that override a Druid's form now behave more like Classic and are far more limited, mostly allowing a transform only if it has other benefits.			Changed	Our Druid guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Demoralizing Roar	Fixed it creating no threat; it now adds some threat on every target it affects.			Fixed	Our Druid guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Wrath	Base points and points per level of ranks 1-5 were adjusted so growth across ranks 1-6 is smoother and new ranks are always an upgrade.			Changed	Our Druid guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Druid: Feral

Druid: Feral
Change	What changed	Kind	Our guide
Natural Instinct	Renamed from Predatory Instincts, and now also increases spell healing by a share of Intellect.	Changed	Our Balance Druid guide
Shifting Power	Can no longer be used while already at full Energy.	Changed	Our Druid guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Thick Hide	Now implemented in code rather than script, fixing bugs where equipping gear while shapeshifted did not trigger it.	Fixed	Our Druid guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Hunter

Hunter
Change	What changed	Kind	Our guide
Disengage	The doubled threat reduction that was intended is now in effect.	Fixed	Our Hunter guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Hunter: Beast Mastery

Hunter: Beast Mastery
Change	What changed	Kind	Our guide
Unleashed Fury	Now correctly increases your pet's damage.	Fixed	Our Hunter guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Hunter: Marksmanship

Hunter: Marksmanship
Change	What changed	Kind	Our guide
Improved Concussive Shot	Now has the correct chance to activate.	Fixed	Our Hunter guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Hunter: Pets

Hunter: Pets
Change	What changed	Kind	Our guide
Low-health healing	Fixed pets gaining health over and over when at low health.	Fixed	Our Hunter guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Hunter: Survival

Hunter: Survival
Change	What changed	Was	Now	Kind	Our guide
Improved Wing Clip	Now has the correct activation chance, which is lower when using ranks well below your level.			Fixed	Our Hunter guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Expose Prey	Duration increased.	5 sec	10 sec	Buff	Our Hunter guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Entrapment diminishing returns	Now correctly subject to diminishing returns.			Fixed	Our Hunter guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Entrapment	Now triggers only on Frost Trap's first activation, not on its periodic ticks.			Fixed	Our Hunter guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Mage

Mage
Change	What changed	Kind	Our guide
Impact	Fixed it being able to proc from Flamestrike's periodic damage.	Fixed	Our Mage guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Frostbolt	Base points and points per level of ranks 1-5 were adjusted so growth across ranks 1-6 is smoother and new ranks are always an upgrade.	Changed	Our Mage guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Fireball	Base points and points per level of ranks 1-5 were adjusted so growth across ranks 1-6 is smoother and new ranks are always an upgrade.	Changed	Our Mage guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Arcane Missiles	Base points and points per level of ranks 1-3 were adjusted so growth across ranks 1-4 is smoother and new ranks are always an upgrade.	Changed	Our Mage guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Paladin

Paladin
Change	What changed	Was	Now	Kind	Our guide
Retribution Aura: spell power source	Fixed it using the spell power of the creature being hit instead of the casting Paladin's.			Fixed	Our Paladin guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Retribution Aura	Its base damage drops by about 33%, back at Vanilla WoW levels, and spell power now scales it less.	13.3%	6%	Nerf	Our Paladin guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Paladin: Protection

Paladin: Protection
Change	What changed	Kind	Our guide
Reckoning	Can now trigger at most once every 1.5 seconds.	Changed	Our Paladin guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Seal of Fury	Fixed it returning Mana to the Paladin even without the Improved Seal of Fury talent.	Fixed	Our Paladin guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Improved Seal of Fury	No longer creates threat when restoring Mana, because the Mana restored was generating more threat than intended while tanking.	Changed	Our Paladin guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Shield Specialization	No longer creates threat when restoring Mana, because the Mana restored was generating more threat than intended while tanking.	Changed	Our Paladin guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Priest

Priest
Change	What changed	Kind	Our guide
Smite	Base points and points per level of ranks 1-4 were adjusted so growth across ranks 1-5 is smoother and new ranks are always an upgrade.	Changed	Our Priest guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Lesser Heal	Base points of ranks 1-3 were adjusted so growth up to Heal rank 3 is smoother and new ranks are always an upgrade.	Changed	Our Priest guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Heal	Base points of ranks 1-2 were adjusted so growth up to Heal rank 3 is smoother and new ranks are always an upgrade.	Changed	Our Priest guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Priest: Discipline

Priest: Discipline
Change	What changed	Kind	Our guide
Penance damage and healing	Reduced, fixing a bug that treated it as a 3-second channel instead of a 2-second one.	Nerf	Our Priest guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Penance mana cost	Adjusted so it is consistently more mana-efficient than the Heal and Greater Heal family; rank 1 costs 50% more.	Changed	Our Priest guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Penance	Healing increased on ranks 2 and 4.	Buff	Our Priest guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Shaman

Shaman
Change	What changed	Kind	Our guide
Flametongue Totem	Now uses the target's attack speed when the target is shapeshifted, rather than the speed of its equipped weapon.	Fixed	Our Shaman guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Lightning Bolt	Base points and points per level of ranks 1-5 were adjusted so growth across ranks 1-6 is smoother and new ranks are always an upgrade.	Changed	Our Shaman guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Shaman: Elemental

Shaman: Elemental
Change	What changed	Kind	Our guide
Elemental Focus	No longer triggered and used up immediately by Fire Nova.	Fixed	Our Shaman guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Shaman: Restoration

Shaman: Restoration
Change	What changed	Kind	Our guide
Water Shield tooltip	The buff tooltip now shows the mana restored accurately.	Fixed	Our Shaman guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Water Shield	No longer claims a 15 second cooldown, as it never had one.	Fixed	Our Shaman guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Mana Tide Totem	Its visual shows again on each pulse.	Fixed	Our Shaman guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Warlock

Warlock
Change	What changed	Kind	Our guide
Pet summoning	A Warlock's current pet is now stunned while a new pet is being summoned.	Changed	Our Warlock guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Shadow Bolt	Base points and points per level of ranks 1-4 were adjusted so growth across ranks 1-5 is smoother and new ranks are always an upgrade.	Changed	Our Warlock guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Warlock: Demonology

Warlock: Demonology
Change	What changed	Kind	Our guide
Demonic Brand	The bonus pet damage now causes high threat only when it deals Shadow damage.	Changed	Our Warlock guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Warrior

Warrior
Change	What changed	Kind	Our guide
Demoralizing Shout	Fixed it creating no threat; it now adds some threat on every target it affects.	Fixed	Our Warrior guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Warrior: Arms

Warrior: Arms
Change	What changed	Kind	Our guide
Deep Wounds talent requirement	It is once again required to reach Impale.	Changed	Our Warrior guide, changes of 2026-10-08
Deep Wounds	Fixed it scaling with attack power from the off-hand weapon.	Fixed	Our Warrior guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Warrior: Protection

Warrior: Protection
Change	What changed	Kind	Our guide
Last Stand	Fixed it not granting the right amount of health on use.	Fixed	Our Warrior guide, changes of 2026-10-08

Races: Undead

Races: Undead
Change	What changed	Kind	Our guide
Will of the Forsaken	Fixed it sometimes being unusable while asleep or charmed.	Fixed	Our Undead guide

Classes

Classes
Change	What changed	Kind
Weapon swapping	Several weapons can be swapped within one global cooldown again, such as a macro going from a two-hander to sword and shield.	Changed
Rage from damage taken: health source	Fixed Rage gain using the player's own health rather than that of an expected creature, which gave less Rage to those wearing more Stamina gear.	Fixed
Rage from damage taken: damage multipliers	Fixed Rage gain not handling increased damage taken from multipliers, notably critical strikes and crushing blows.	Fixed
Rage from damage taken: absorbs	Fixed absorbs being counted in the Rage calculation; they are now ignored, as if no absorb were active.	Fixed
Rage gain rebalance	Rage gains had been tuned as if a Warrior had 50% Armor, which suited a tank but not a questing Warrior. They are now set per level, using values between 20% and 40%.	Changed

Dungeons and raids

Dungeons and raids
Change	What changed	Kind
City of Dalaran	A new dungeon is open for beta testing.	New
Dungeon experience	Experience from kills inside dungeons is higher by roughly 20%.	Buff

World and quests

World and quests
Change	What changed	Was	Now	Kind
Party experience	Fixed lower-level kills giving less XP to players grouped with higher-level players; the penalty now depends only on each player's own level, as in Classic Era.			Fixed
Blood Tithe	Fixed players sometimes being unable to start the quest after completing certain other quests.			Fixed
Barbers	The barbers in the capital cities are replaced with local barbers.			Changed
Echeyakee	The Horn of Echeyakee is no longer used up during the quest.			Changed
The Principal Source	Added a map marker.			New
Desolace Gelkis and Magram quests	The quests starting with Valley of Bones now need a higher minimum level.	30	35	Changed
Farsen's Watch	Moving and turning no longer cancel Far Sight during the quest; right-click still cancels it.			Changed
Break A Few Eggs	Taillasher Eggs respawn faster and there are more of them.			Changed
Lazy Peons	The map marker now includes the northern peons.			Changed
Stitches	Is hostile again as he enters Darkshire.			Changed
Elder Knowledge	The Titan Relic is returned to the player for the follow-ups Earthen Echo or Prehistoric Prism, so another relic is not needed; the same applies to Lost Relic Carry.			Changed
Elixir of Pain	Stanley no longer gives XP, and the quest itself now gives the XP that came from him.			Changed
Resupplying the Excavation	Dark Iron Ambushers appear less often at Miran's camp.			Changed
Grim Tidings	The turn-in marker was corrected.			Fixed
Gloomrise creatures	Creatures in Gloomrise respawn more evenly, and Gloomrise Hatchlings give XP suited to their difficulty.			Changed
Hidden Enemies	A map marker and a hover tooltip were put on Neeru Fireblade.			New
Blackrock Blockade	Weapon Racks, Stolen Weapons and Blackrock Supplies respawn faster.			Changed
Plundering the Plunderers	Added map markers.			New
Storm, Earth, and Fire	Needed creatures come back sooner, and the twisted totems fall from them more frequently. Maraudine Scouts can now drop Twisted Air Totems, Ongeku a Twisted Earth Totem, and Murdaloc a Twisted Fire Totem, which Dustbelcher ogres across the Badlands can drop too. Larger camps like Dustbelch Grotto come back sooner; smaller ones do not.			Changed
Heed My Call	The Eye of the Tempest is now a multi-drop.			Changed
Jin'Zil's Forest Magic	Jin'Zil now accepts quest turn-ins after someone completes the quest.			Changed
Destiny Calls	Sethir the Ancient spawns more Minions of Sethir after a reset, and his respawn time is shorter.			Changed
Escaping Ban'ethil	Sentinel Lynessa Duskblossom moves more slowly.			Changed
Shadowvale and Bandarion Keep content	Quests and creatures around them were raised in level, because they were lower than the content before them.			Changed
Ulag the Cleaver	Fixed the Mausoleum Trigger taking a long time to reactivate.			Fixed

PvP

PvP
Change	What changed	Kind
Critical strikes	Critical strikes in PvP no longer have reduced efficacy.	Changed
Shipwreck Cove capture point	Fixed the capture point appearing in the wrong place.	Fixed

Professions

Professions
Change	What changed	Kind
Armor Kits with Attack Power	No longer wrongly give twice as much Ranged Attack Power.	Fixed
Enchant Weapon - Recovery	Fixed it not working for Druids while shapeshifted.	Fixed

Items

Items
Change	What changed	Was	Now	Kind
New armor set shoulders	Their visual size was reduced to the correct size.			Fixed
Wolfshead Helm	Its effect now grants 5 additional Energy when Shifting Power is used; the Rage part is unchanged.			Changed
Dungeon quest rewards	Various rewards were lowered in rarity, with stats updated to match.	Rare	Uncommon	Changed
Truthseeker's Bow	Level requirement corrected to match the other two rewards of the Greater Friend of the Library quest chain.			Fixed
Transformative Cocoon	Now correctly counts as a debuff.			Fixed
Revelation Enchant	Its buff is no longer removed when the caster shapeshifts into Ghost Wolf or a Druid form.			Fixed
Peace Tea recipe	Now sells to vendors for 10c.			Changed
Enchanting item vendor prices	Vendor prices set: Minor Wizard Oils 1s, Novice's Practice Wand 5c, Lesser Magic Wand 1s 10c, Greater Magic Wand 2s, Lesser Mystic Wand 4s 50c, Greater Mystic Wand 6s, Twisted Nether Wand 10s, Dreambough Wand 15s, Lesser Eternal Wand 20s, Greater Eternal Wand 25s.			Changed
Booty Bay Bruiser's Buckshot	No longer has a knockback effect.			Changed
Gelkis and Magram quest rewards	Rewards from the new Desolace quests had their power tuned, and an upcoming hotfix will make them require level 35 to equip.			Changed
Discolored Healing Potions	Damage from them no longer breaks crowd control effects.			Changed
Night Watchman's Torch	The light aura now shows only on the torch bearer, not on players it illuminates.			Changed

Legacy

Legacy
Change	What changed	Kind
Legacy Challenge	All beta players have been marked as having completed it, granting 16 Legacy Points for testing the system.	Changed
Talent point respec cost	The cheapest respec of a talent point for Legacy Points costs 1s, and the price drops by one respec each hour. This applies only during the beta.	Changed

Cooldown Manager

Cooldown Manager
Change	What changed	Kind
Supported abilities	Every class's abilities, racial abilities and trinkets now work with it. Consumables are due in a later patch.	New

Gamepad

Gamepad
Change	What changed	Kind
Hold-button indicator	The on-screen prompt for actions that need a button held, rather than tapped, was updated.	Changed
Input after looting	Fixed an issue that could stop inputs working properly after looting.	Fixed
Map focus	Opening the map now focuses the Quest Log, so players can keep running unless they are using the map cursor.	Changed
Gamepad action bar	The gamepad action bar now supports Edit Mode.	New
Edit Mode layouts	Layouts are now saved and loaded separately for each type of UI.	Changed
Gamepad action bar settings	Options such as the compact bar moved from the options menu into Edit Mode; players must set them again there as old choices did not carry over.	Changed

User interface

User interface
Change	What changed	Kind
Voice chat service	Voice Chat can now run through an outside voice service, chosen in Audio settings; the party leader's choice applies to the whole party.	New
Group Finder voice mode	A voice mode can be chosen on Group Finder postings, and party members get a prompt to join that chat.	New
Inspect window	The inspect player window was updated.	Changed
Combo points	Updated in the Target Frame and Personal Resource Display.	Changed
Quest types	Now shown as text in the Quest Log, Quest Tracker and Quest Dialogue.	New
Quest level requirements	Now shown in the Quest Tracker.	New
Buffed stats highlighting	Fixed buffed stats not being highlighted in the Character Info panel.	Fixed
Specific Macros	Fixed the Specific tab showing General Macros.	Fixed
Legacy Challenge	Clicking an earned challenge now opens the Legacy Challenge window.	Changed
View Talents	Now an option under Inspect in the target frame's context menu.	New
Character Info level and class	Now shown on the left frame of the Character Info pane.	New

Audio and graphics

Audio and graphics
Change	What changed	Kind
Large creature effects	Visual effects no longer flicker on big creatures.	Fixed

General fixes

General fixes
Change	What changed	Kind
Classic looting	Creatures that dropped nothing can be interacted with again, as in Classic.	Changed
Creature pulling	Fixed creature behavior that could drag in enemies from a long way off.	Fixed

Forever beta notes: racials reworked 16 October 2026, 00:15 UTC
Forever beta notes: Cooldown Manager test 24 September 2026, 22:23 UTC
Forever beta notes: level cap 30 1 October 2026, 22:56 UTC
World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Hunter and Druid 30 September 2026, 19:00 UTC
WoW Forever Beta Known Issues - October 8 17 September 2026, 21:47 UTC, updated 8 October 2026, 21:38 UTC

This is our own summary of what Blizzard posted, not Blizzard's text. The original is the authority.