WoW Forever: new beta set bonuses, one turns druids into snakes

Players on the WoW Forever beta have found new and reworked item sets. Wearing more pieces of the same set gives extra bonuses. One is Embrace of the Viper from the Wailing Caverns dungeon: 5 pieces of leather armour, each dropped by a different creature there. Its bonuses have been changed for Forever. On 19 September a player shared screenshots showing that a druid wearing all 5 pieces turns into a snake. The item tooltips list 4 set bonuses, and the snake form is not one of them.

Blizzard has not announced the snake form in an official post, but 2 Blizzard staff members responded on their personal social media accounts the same day. Clay Stone, associate production director for WoW Classic, shared the player's post and applauded Aidan 'Zirene' Moon, a senior game designer on WoW Forever. In a reply, Zirene added that the snake has a different colour for each druid race, and that when the druid prowls or goes into stealth, the snake sinks to the ground and slithers. Neither of them said whether the snake form will be in the launch version.

Some rare monsters in the open world now drop set pieces too. In the Barrens, the rares Humar the Pridelord, Swiftmane and Takk the Leaper can drop pieces of a 3-piece set called Blessing of Kalimdor: a cloak, a ring and an amulet. Wearing 2 of them increases movement speed by 5% in the Barrens and Stonetalon Mountains. The report on these rares expects more gear like this from other rares across Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, but Blizzard has not said so.

A third set, Partners in Crime, is made of 2 rings. First Mate Band, which requires level 17, has been reported to drop from Mr. Smite in the Deadmines dungeon. The other ring, Band of the Better Half, is an Epic-quality item for level 60, and where it drops is not known yet. Blizzard opened the beta with a level cap of 20 and says it will raise it to 30 later in the test, so under that plan the level 60 ring cannot be worn on the beta. With both rings on, a player gets +20 Strength and a chance on each melee swing to become Angry, which adds another 50 Strength for 10 seconds. The report on the rings suggests players may keep hunting Deadmines loot, and keep bank space for it, long after they outgrow the dungeon, and that other dungeons could get similar sets. It is not the only reworked Deadmines item: the Rockslicer weapon now lets whoever wields it mine ore without the Mining profession.

Blizzard has not commented on the Barrens set or the rings; so far each is known from a single report of finds on the beta. All 3 sets are beta content, and Blizzard has not said whether they will reach the launch version unchanged. 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.