Rulesets | World of Warcraft: Forever

Blizzard’s Rulesets video explains why Forever drops realms: your ruleset sets your outdoor world, economy, auction houses and guilds. Developers say PvE and PvP cannot be flipped between, that Horde and Alliance still cannot team up in groups, raids, guilds or battlegrounds, and that PvP takes one faction across the whole regional ruleset. Hardcore stays isolated and is not available at launch.

Highlights

• Players pick a ruleset instead of a realm: PvE (Normal in our guides), PvP, RP, or Hardcore later.
• PvE or PvP rules apply outdoors at all times, and you cannot switch between the two.
• Economy, auction house access and guilds stay inside one ruleset; PvE and PvP economies never mix.
• Horde and Alliance stay apart in groups, raids, guilds and battleground teams.
• Your first faction on PvP applies to every PvP character you create in that region.
• Blizzard says it will add temporary character-creation limits when one PvP faction outgrows the other.

What this means for players

Choose your ruleset deliberately, because you cannot flip between PvE and PvP later. A duo needs one faction for both partners, since there are no cross-faction parties or guilds, and on PvP that faction then holds for every character either of you makes in the region. A fallen Hardcore character can move to any of the three other rulesets, but the PvP faction rule still applies. Nothing in the class guides moves.