WoW Forever: any class can collect books for a necklace and ring

Reports from the WoW Forever beta, published on 21 and 28 September, say that players of every class can now collect books found around Azeroth and hand them in for rewards. Blizzard has not announced this, and we found no statement from Blizzard about it: what follows comes from players testing the beta, and details could change before launch. The books are the ones Mages collected in Season of Discovery, where handing them in earned a Rune. In Forever the reward is a necklace or a ring instead, and the task is no longer for Mages only.

The books lie in the open world: some are in easy, safe spots, while others are harder to reach, and one report counts 40 places where a book can be found. You hand them in to your faction's librarian: Garion Wendell inside the Mage Tower in Stormwind for the Alliance, and Owen Thadd in the Magic Quarter of Undercity for the Horde. At 10 books you get the quest Friend of the Library, which lets you choose one of 2 necklaces, the Scholarly Pendant or Erudite's Amulet. At 20 books the quest Greater Friend of the Library offers a choice of 2 rings, Field Researcher's Loop or Philanthropist's Ring.

Collecting 20 books by level 20 is a stretch, but one tester managed it as an Alliance Paladin at that level. On the beta, the ring meant for characters who do not cast spells is currently marked as usable by Rogues only; this may be a bug, but it is too early to tell. On Blizzard's forums, a beta player wrote on 26 September that the Friend of the Library quest did not appear after handing in the first 10 books, and nobody in the thread knew a workaround. It is not yet known whether collecting more than 20 books gives anything else.

Mages get something extra. According to one report, when a Mage hands in their first book, they learn an ability called Study, linked to a new spell, Decipher Scrolls, which is learned from a trainer at level 6; another report describes Study as part of a new Mage profession called Research. Standing in the library, a Mage can Study, using up a Light Feather, to receive a bundle of spell scrolls. One report says this can be done once a day, the other once an hour. Scrolls received so far include Minor Evocation, Rat Familiar, Imbue Lesser Flame, Comprehension and Imbue Chillknife, and more are expected to unlock as the Mage levels up.

On the beta the Mage part does not work properly yet. Both reports say the ability can disappear, and one tester found that trying to Study opened the Cooking window again and again, then crashed their computer, after which the ability was gone and could not be learned again. 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. Blizzard has not said whether book collecting will work the same way at launch.