WoW: Forever is the newest way to play World of Warcraft, and it launches this week.
Blizzard describes it as a permanent home alongside modern WoW and Classic: the original continents, reimagined from level 1 to 60 with more than 1,000 new quests, set after the Forsaken Kingdom campaign in Warcraft III: Reforged and before Molten Core.
If you have been searching for the WoW Forever launch time, whether WoW Forever needs a subscription, or what Classic vs Enhanced actually changes, the answers are spread across several Blizzard posts from September and October.
This guide pulls them together: the launch time in every region Blizzard listed, five steps to get from the Battle.net app to your first character, a side by side table of the two presets, and the things to settle with friends before you pick a ruleset, because that choice is much harder to undo than a preset.
At the end you will find a simple way to keep your first World of Warcraft raid kill as a clip. All details are as of November 3, 2026.
WoW Forever launch time in every region
WoW: Forever goes live at the same moment everywhere: 23:00 UTC on Wednesday, November 4, 2026. Blizzard's October 29 launch post lists that moment as 3:00 p.m. PST on November 4 in the Americas, 8:00 p.m.
BRT in Brazil, 11:00 p.m. GMT in the UK, 12:00 a.m. CET on November 5 across central Europe, 7:00 a.m.
on November 5 in Taiwan, 8:00 a.m. KST on November 5 in Korea and 10:00 a.m. AEDT on November 5 in Australia and New Zealand.
On the US East Coast that works out to 6 p.m. EST, and in US Central time to 5 p.m. CST.
These are standard time values: daylight saving ended in the US on November 1 and in Europe on October 25, so make sure any calendar invite you share uses PST or CET rather than PDT or CEST. Access is simple.
Blizzard's new player guide says WoW: Forever is included with an active World of Warcraft subscription or Game Time, so if you already subscribe for retail or Classic, there is nothing extra to buy to play.
The upgrade packs are optional: the Skyborne race and its Zephras Isle starting zone need the Skyborne Heroic Pack or higher, and the Skyborne Epic Pack and Warcraft Forever Collection add 30 days of Game Time to your account starting November 4.
After those 30 days, play continues on a subscription or more Game Time. Check the Blizzard Shop for current prices.
Your graphics card needs a check too: Blizzard's GPU requirements post (published in September, current as of November 4) says WoW: Forever needs a GPU built on AMD Graphics Core Next 1 (GCN 1, 2012), NVIDIA Maxwell (2014), Intel Skylake (2015) or a newer architecture.
Older GPUs are unsupported from launch, so you would need to upgrade your hardware before you can play. Blizzard's compatible examples are the AMD Radeon HD 7850, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 9xx and 750/750 Ti, and Intel HD Graphics 530.
Its unsupported examples are the AMD Radeon HD 6950, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760/770/780 and GTX 8xxM, and Intel HD Graphics 6000. Model numbers can mislead here: the GTX 750 Ti is on the compatible list while the higher numbered GTX 780 is not.
Blizzard also stresses that those compatible examples are still well below the game's minimum requirements, so check the full list on the Battle.net Shop. To see which GPU you have, open Device Manager in Windows and expand Display adapters.
How to start WoW: Forever in five steps
- 1Check your subscription or Game TimeWoW: Forever is included with an active World of Warcraft subscription or Game Time. If you are new, create a Battle.net account, verify your email and, as Blizzard's guide suggests, turn on two factor authentication. Do this the night before so a payment or login check does not hold you up at launch.
- 2Pick Forever in the Battle.net appInstall the Battle.net desktop app on Windows or Mac, sign in, install World of Warcraft, then choose World of Warcraft: Forever from the game versions list. If you already have retail or Classic installed, you only need to switch the version and install it.
- 3Choose a preset on first loginThe first screen asks for Classic or Enhanced. It sets character models, quest markers, bags, transmog, default keybinds and UI layout in one go. It is a starting point, not a lock: every setting can be changed later under Game Menu > Options. The screen only appears on your first login, so if you are unsure, start with Enhanced.
- 4Choose your rulesetRulesets replace the old realm list. Normal focuses on adventuring with optional PvP, PvP means risk of attack from the other faction through much of the open world, Roleplay adds naming and behavior rules, and Roleplay PvP combines both. If you are unsure, Blizzard's starter guide calls Normal a welcoming place to learn. You cannot freely hop between rulesets; playing on another one means making a new character there, so agree on one with your friends or guild first.
- 5Create your character and namePick Alliance or Horde, then a race and class. New combinations include Orc Mage, Troll Warlock, Undead Paladin, Human Hunter, Gnome Priest and Dwarf Shaman. Skyborne (Skyborne Heroic Pack or higher) can join either faction: Horde Skyborne gain access to Shaman, Alliance Skyborne to Mage, and both begin on Zephras Isle, a level 1 to 12 starting zone. Names have two parts, a main name and a secondary name, and the full combination must be unique within your region.
WoW Forever Classic vs Enhanced presets compared
| Setting | Classic preset | Enhanced preset |
|---|---|---|
| Character models | Standard definition (SD) models | High definition (HD) models; each character can switch between HD and SD later in Options or at a Barbershop |
| Quest markers | Off: no quest points of interest or objective areas, so you read the quest text | On: quest points of interest and objective areas show on the map |
| Bags | One-bag off, each bag opens in its own window | One-bag on, all bags in a single window |
| Transmog | Off | On |
| Default keybinds | Camera turning: the side keys turn your character | Strafe movement: the side keys step sideways |
| Screen UI layout | Classic layout | Centralized layout |
| Best for | Players who want the original feel with less on screen help | New players and anyone unsure (Blizzard's recommendation) |
Before and after launch: WoW Forever checklist
- Match ruleset and faction with your friends: grouping, guilds, dungeons and raids only work within the same ruleset and faction. Battlegrounds can mix in players from other rulesets, except Hardcore.
- The PvP ruleset is one faction only: once you create an Alliance character there, you cannot create a Horde character on that ruleset, and vice versa. Character creation for a faction may also be limited for a while to keep populations balanced. Normal, Roleplay and Hardcore allow both factions.
- Set your preferred online language carefully: it applies to your whole account and has a 24 hour cooldown before you can change it again.
- Mark December 9: level 60 players can enter Barrow Deeps (10 players), Hyjal Summit (20) and Onyxia's Lair (40), and raids are currently planned to reset weekly. Every raider needs the Drakefire Amulet in their bags to enter Onyxia's Lair, earned through a faction attunement questline that starts in the Burning Steppes for Alliance and the Badlands for Horde, so start it early. No unlock hour has been posted yet.
- Hardcore comes later: Blizzard only says sometime after launch, with details and timing to follow. Collections and Legacy Points are account wide across rulesets, but Hardcore is a closed ecosystem, so progress from other rulesets does not carry into it.
Keep your first WoW Forever raid kill as a clip
The December 9 raids will mean long nights of pulls. DOR is a free Windows app that detects supported games when you launch them and records automatically, collecting everything in the app's My Clips. For World of Warcraft, it records the whole session from launch to exit.
Because Forever is a brand new game version, check on your first night that the session shows up in My Clips, and you can always start screen recording yourself (default hotkey F7).
Afterward, trim just the boss kill and save it in 16:9, 9:16 or 1:1, or open DOR Studio to merge several pulls, add text and BGM, then export an mp4 or share a dor.gg link that your raid can play straight from a phone browser.
For settings that hold up over a three hour raid, see how to record long gameplay sessions without stutter, and for disk planning see how much space an hour of recording takes. Full session videos are kept within a storage budget (5GB by default): older videos are cleared first while recent recordings and liked videos stay, so cut the kill you want to keep the same night. The guide to trimming game clips covers the cutting itself, and how to VOD review yourself helps you work out why a pull wiped.
