News
WoW Forever: some cooked food gives 5% bonus experience
Some cooked food in WoW Forever gives 5% more experience on top of its stats, one report says. Blizzard's own recap mentions only a small bonus.
Food in WoW Forever can do something it never did in the original game: give extra experience. Blizzard first described the change at BlizzCon, and its recap of the WoW Forever Deep Dive panel, published on 13 September, says crafted food has been adjusted so it can give a small experience bonus as well as stat boosts. The recap gives no figure. According to a report published on 26 September, the bonus is 5% more experience, on top of the stats that the familiar Well Fed buff gives; the report says this came up when senior game designer Josh “Aggrend” Greenfield talked about camping during that panel.
The same report lists the foods that already give the bonus on the beta, and the list starts at the very bottom of Cooking. Herb Baked Egg, which needs a Cooking skill of 1, gives +1 Stamina along with the experience bonus, and Roast Raptor, at skill 175, gives +5 Intellect; the list runs up to recipes that need a skill of 285. Not every food has the bonus yet: the report says some foods appear not to have been updated in the current beta build, and that it will check later builds. The report does not say how long the buff lasts.
A second report, published on 28 September, gives the same 5% and describes it as extra experience for defeating enemies, which would leave quest rewards unchanged; it does not say how this was checked. By its estimate, a character who went from level 1 to 60 only by killing enemies would save roughly 3 levels' worth of experience, but since most experience comes from quests, the real saving is more likely 1 to 1.5 levels. The bonus arrives in a game that, by Blizzard's own beta data, levels at about the same pace as Classic Era so far: 20.5 hours on average to reach level 20, against 20.4.
Food is not the only source of extra experience on the beta. The Cozy Sleeping Bag, a quest reward found there, gives up to 3% more, and a report on it said the 2 bonuses can be combined; Blizzard has not said how experience bonuses add up. The list of foods comes from one report based on the beta, the second report does not say where its figure comes from, and Blizzard has not confirmed the 5% in writing; details could still change before launch. 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.