WoW Forever: level 30 build adds 3 dungeons and cuts quest XP

Blizzard installed the new build on the WoW Forever beta during the downtime on the evening of 1 October, and community manager Kaivax posted the full change log in the early hours of 2 October, Central European time. The main change is the one Blizzard had already named when it announced the maintenance: characters can now level up to 30. The higher cap opens 3 more dungeons. Excavation Site: Wetlands is new to the test and built for levels 26 to 31, while Razorfen Downs, from level 25, and Uldaman, from level 30, join the 11 dungeons that were already in the beta.

Several of the fixes are about what players see. Blizzard says it has improved rain visibility, after the stronger weather it promised for some beta zones. The Ray Traced Shadows option has been taken out of the settings, and Blizzard says it will be added back in a future update once the feature is fixed. A fix has also gone in for the Night Watchman's Torch, which was causing unintended lag in certain situations and could not be cancelled. The visual size of weapons, both held in hand and sheathed on the back, has been made more consistent across all races.

The build also slows levelling down. Dungeon quests now reward 50% less extra experience beyond normal quest values, and Blizzard says certain quest rewards have been recalibrated as well. In its developers' notes Blizzard thanks players for the feedback on levelling speed and says the cut is part of ongoing discussions about the beta. One report says dungeon quests had been given far more experience than usual while experience from killing enemies was cut, and that players objected from both sides: some that levelling had become too fast, others that weaker rewards for kills left no reason to run a dungeon again. Blizzard has also raised respawn rates for many creatures and objects in Hillsbrad Foothills, Ashenvale, Wetlands, Duskwood and Thousand Needles, and asks players to keep reporting areas where quests are hard to finish.

Professions and PvP take their own cuts. All crafted common and uncommon quality wands made with Enchanting now sell to vendors for 1 copper; one report says they used to sell for silver, which made crafting them and selling them on a steady way to earn money, and that this route is now closed. Creatures can once again only be skinned a single time before they disappear, and starter areas have fewer Poor Copper Vein nodes. In PvP, honor costs for gear and upgrade tokens go up by roughly 50% for most items, which Blizzard says brings them in line with how quickly players get gear, and the honor cap rises from 15,000 to 25,000 to match.

Among the racial traits, the Gnome ability Eureka! no longer benefits periodic effects at all, and Blizzard notes that channelled spells do not count as periodics; it is the second time the trait has been weakened, after the cut in the previous build. The Undead trait Cannibalize can no longer be used while its caster is immune to physical damage. Blizzard's updated list of known issues warns that enemies can parry and block attacks from behind when the player stands very close, and says this can be avoided by not standing too close until it is fixed; it also says the full installation of Forever is larger than intended and that Blizzard is working to reduce it. Shortly after the build went in, Blizzard said it was working on an issue that appeared to be stopping testers from logging into the beta; whether it has been fixed was not known when this article was published. The beta runs until 21 October, and WoW Forever launches at 23:00 UK time on 4 November, which is midnight on 5 November in Central Europe.