WoW Forever launches on November 4, and for the next two weeks most players are doing the same thing: building the interface they will level in. The good news is that the addon scene is already huge. CurseForge lists more than 6,000 projects tagged for Forever, from old staples like Questie, Details! and Leatrix Plus to new tools written only for this game, such as GearQuest Forever and Talents Forever.
There is one catch that surprises Classic veterans. Forever runs on the modern WoW client, and Blizzard confirmed that the Midnight addon restrictions apply here too. Combat addons work within limits, WeakAuras is not coming back, and an addon built for Classic Era only works if its author has shipped a Forever version. That is why every addon in this guide was checked for a Forever file on CurseForge before it made the list.
Below you will find the short must-have list in one table, then leveling and quest addons, UI and unit frames, dungeon and PvP tools, a step-by-step install guide and answers to the questions players ask most.
Before you install anything, check what the game already does for you. Forever ships with the modern interface, so a damage meter, a swing timer, a Cooldown Manager for tracking spells and buffs, and Edit Mode for moving bars and frames are all built in. You can find them under Options → Advanced and in Edit Mode. That removes the need for several addons Classic players used to install on day one.
What the base UI does not cover is information: where quests are, what a dungeon drops, which upgrade to chase next and what an item is worth. The addons below fill those gaps. Most players need five or six of them, not all fourteen, so treat the table as a menu rather than a shopping list.
| Addon | What It Does | Forever Version on CurseForge |
|---|---|---|
| Questie | Shows quest givers, objectives and turn-ins on the map and minimap | Yes, Forever build |
| RestedXP Guide | Step-by-step leveling route; levels 1 to 22 are free | Yes, Forever build |
| Leatrix Plus | Dozens of quality-of-life toggles: auto quest, auto repair, max camera zoom | Yes, Forever build |
| Leatrix Maps | Reveals unexplored map areas, zone levels, dungeon entrances and flight points | Yes, Forever build |
| Dungeon Journal | Retail-style journal with every Forever dungeon, its quests, maps and loot | Yes, made for Forever |
| GearQuest Forever | Best upgrades for your class, spec and level, and where each one comes from | Yes, made for Forever |
| Talents Forever | Plans the reworked Forever talent trees and loads popular builds | Yes, made for Forever |
| What's Training? | Lists the spells and weapon skills waiting at your trainer, with costs | Yes, Forever build |
| Auctionator | Fast full scans, auction prices in tooltips, one-click posting | Yes, Forever build |
| Baganator | Category or single-bag view and a search across all your characters | Yes, Forever build |
| BlizzMove | Lets you drag windows the game keeps locked, like bags and the spellbook | Yes, Forever build |
| Deadly Boss Mods | Boss timers and warnings for dungeons and raids | Yes, Forever build |
| Details! Damage Meter | A deeper damage and healing meter than the built-in one | Yes, Forever build |
| ClassicUI Forever | Restores the 2004 look of frames, bars, windows and minimap | Yes, made for Forever |
If you are short on time, start with Questie or RestedXP, Leatrix Plus, Dungeon Journal and GearQuest Forever. That covers routing, comfort, dungeons and gear, and everything else can wait until you know what bothers you. For a full plan of what to sort out before the servers open, see our WoW Forever launch checklist.
Leveling from 1 to 60 is where addons save the most time. Forever added more than a thousand new quests on top of the original ones, so even players who know the Classic routes by heart will meet unfamiliar quest givers in every zone.
Questie is the free choice. It marks every available quest, objective and turn-in on your map, so you decide the route yourself and simply see where to go. RestedXP Guide takes the decisions away: it gives you a step-by-step route with arrows and an order of quests built for speed. Levels 1 to 22 are free, and the paid guides are planned to cover the route up to level 35 at launch, with the rest added later.
Most players pick one of the two. If you enjoy exploring, take Questie. If you level several characters or play with half an eye on a second screen, RestedXP pays off. Quest Master - Forever is a lighter free alternative that pins quests you have not picked up yet on the map and can point you to the nearest one.
Three addons answer the questions every leveling player asks at each new level. Talents Forever plans your build on the reworked Forever trees, loads the most popular builds for your spec and can remind you where the next point goes. What's Training? adds a list to your spellbook that shows what the trainer will teach at the next levels and what each rank costs. It also shows which weapon skills you are missing and which city teaches them. If the next ranks are minor, you can skip a trip to town and keep questing.
GearQuest Forever is the addon most creators call the best new tool of the beta. Right-click any gear slot and it lists the best upgrades for your class, spec and level, with the exact source: a quest reward, a dungeon boss, a crafted item or a rare spawn. You can track an item like a quest and get a pop-up when it drops. Two tips make it more useful:
For talent builds you can test outside the game, our WoW Forever talent calculator covers every class.
If you want to see which quests are new, two small addons help. Forever Quest Tint tints the quest text teal whenever the quest did not exist in original Classic. Forever Loot Sparkles brings back the sparkle on lootable quest items and also makes herbs and ore veins sparkle, so you stop hovering over every object in the area.
The most talked-about addons of the beta are not about speed at all. Spoken reads quest text aloud with AI voices that differ by NPC, so you can accept a quest and keep moving while the story plays. The voices come in separate audio packs: shared, Alliance and Horde quests, gossip, places and readable books. Install the core addon plus the packs you want, and expect a large download. Lore Forever tells you the history of every zone and subzone you enter, can narrate it and keeps a library of everything you have unlocked.
Neither addon makes you level faster. They are for players who want this run to feel different from the speedruns of 2019. Some players dislike AI-generated voices, and both addons can be muted or turned off at any time.
If you are still choosing a character, our best leveling class in WoW Forever guide compares all nine classes.
Forever's interface is the modern one: new frames, a bronze action bar, a different minimap and Edit Mode for moving everything. Some players love it and some want 2004 back. Interface addons cover both camps, from a full Classic restoration to a modern suite that replaces every frame.
ClassicUI Forever puts the original Classic art on top of Forever's interface: the gryphon action bar, the old unit frames with elite dragons, the 1.x spellbook, quest log and talent window, the round minimap and the old loot frames. Every piece is a separate toggle in /fcui, so you can keep any modern window you like. Download the version by justawower, because several projects with almost the same name sit next to it in search results.
The addon is only one part of the old look. Character models, quest markers and the screen layout are game settings. Our WoW Forever Classic look guide walks through each of them along with the addon's full command list.
If you like the modern interface and only want it tidier, start small. BetterBlizzFrames keeps Blizzard's unit frames but adds a dark mode, class colors, cleaner cast bars and ready-made profiles from streamers you can import. Its sister addon BetterBlizzPlates does the same for nameplates. Both are marked "WoW Forever ready" by their author.
Players who want to replace the whole interface have three options with Forever builds:
A few tiny addons fix what bothers most players in the first hour. BlizzMove lets you drag windows that Edit Mode does not touch, such as the spellbook, bags, character panel and professions. MoveAny does the same and also resizes them. MinimapButtonButton collects the buttons that every addon drops around the minimap into one button. Once you run ten addons, the minimap is otherwise unreadable.
Dungeons in Forever are worth running with the full quest set in your log. In one beta run of Shadowfang Keep at level 24, clearing the whole instance gave about 1,800 experience from mobs, roughly the same as a single quest out in the world. The quests and their rewards are what make the trip pay off, and that is exactly what the dungeon addons track.
Dungeon Journal is the addon almost every creator puts in their top three. It works like the retail journal, rebuilt for Forever's dungeons. For each instance you get the level range, the route to the entrance, a map with boss locations, the loot of every boss, and the quests for both factions with the exact spot where each chain starts. Quests you have finished turn green, and you can search for an item or save favorites.
Three more addons fill the gaps around it:
We list every dungeon quest, where to pick it up and what it rewards in our WoW Forever dungeon quests guide.
Deadly Boss Mods and BigWigs both have Forever builds. Pick one, not both, because they do the same job of timing and announcing boss abilities. Keep in mind that the Midnight restrictions apply in Forever, so boss and combat addons work within the limits Blizzard sets and some old features are gone.
Tanks and threat-sensitive damage dealers should add ThreatClassic2, a simple threat meter with a Forever version. Forever's leveling hands out several on-use trinkets by level 30. ItemRack TBC Classic & Forever puts your trinkets on quick-swap buttons and saves whole gear sets, such as a tanking set or a PvP set, under one key.
For a list of every Forever dungeon by level, see our WoW Forever dungeons overview.
The biggest PvP addon of the beta is Overlord Forever. It turns world PvP into a game of its own: zones are split into capturable fronts with guild keeps and outposts, a map shows which faction controls what, and players can send a call to arms for reinforcements. It also keeps a leaderboard of honorable kills. The big world PvP raids led by streamers in the beta ran on it, though it is ambitious and can still be buggy.
For battlegrounds, DBM PvP Mods adds objective and capture timers, and Capping Battleground Timers is a lighter alternative. Both have Forever versions.
If you plan to chase ranks this season, our WoW Forever PvP overview explains the honor system, rulesets and rewards.
Forever has its own entry in addon managers, separate from Retail and Classic Era. Most install problems come from downloading the right addon for the wrong game version, so the one thing to watch is that the Forever flavor is selected.
The CurseForge app is the easiest way, because it also keeps every addon updated. Updates will come often in the first weeks after launch.
If you prefer not to use an app, every CurseForge page has a Files tab. Download the file whose game version is listed for Forever, not the Retail or Classic one.
The addon list on the character screen shows a reason next to anything that fails. The three common ones:
Settings for most addons are saved in the WTF folder next to Interface. Copy it somewhere safe before launch day, so a client reinstall or a reset does not wipe the interface you spent an evening setting up.
These are the questions players ask most in beta threads and under addon videos.
Only if the author has released a Forever version. Forever runs on the modern WoW client, so an addon written for Classic Era will not load as it is. Addons that already work in Midnight are much easier to port, which is why many retail favorites had Forever builds within weeks of the beta.
No. Blizzard confirmed that the Midnight addon restrictions are active in Forever, and WeakAuras stopped development because of them. The built-in Cooldown Manager tracks spells and buffs instead. Forks built for Forever exist, but they work within the same limits.
Yes. Forever has a damage meter, a swing timer and a Cooldown Manager in the base interface. Details! is still worth installing if you want more detail than the built-in meter shows.
No. Addons from CurseForge use the game's own addon interface, and Blizzard limits what they can do through that interface rather than banning players for using them. Third-party programs that automate gameplay outside the game are a different matter and break the rules.
The addon is free, and so is the guide for levels 1 to 22. The guides past that point are paid. Questie and Quest Master - Forever are free alternatives that show quests on the map without a fixed route.
Partly. Edit Mode's Classic preset moves the frames to their old positions, but the art stays modern. The old frames, bars and windows come from ClassicUI Forever.
Five to ten is plenty. Every addon is one more thing that can break after a patch, and the first weeks after launch bring frequent client updates. Start with the must-have table above and add tools only when you miss something.
Once your interface is ready, these guides cover the rest of your launch prep:
