When Blizzard announced WoW Forever with "horizontal progression", many players read it as a promise that their raid gear would never be replaced. The developers have since explained what they meant: the world grows sideways with new zones, dungeons, raids and professions, while gear still gets stronger with every raid tier, only in smaller steps than usual. Your best item can come from an older raid and stay with you for a long time, but it will be replaced eventually. Below, we explain how that model works, how to gear up while leveling, where pre-raid gear comes from at 60, what the December 9 raids and tier sets add, and what the 2027 roadmap means for your character.
WoW Forever keeps the level cap at 60 for good. Blizzard has said no level cap increases are planned, so the game grows by adding content across all levels instead of releasing expansions that make old gear and old zones obsolete. That is the "horizontal" part of the design, and it is about the world rather than your item level.
In interviews after the beta, the developers explained that horizontal progression primarily means expanding the world sideways: new zones, dungeons, raids and quests, deeper professions and profession trees, and new layers of the Legacy system over time. Nine new dungeons arrive at launch, and new ones will keep coming across the whole leveling range, not only at 60.
Gear is a different story. Each new raid tier brings some increase in power, but Blizzard aims to keep the jump between tiers as small as possible. In practice, some of your best-in-slot items could come from an earlier raid and stay in your bags for a long time. They will still be replaced eventually, and the developers say it is too early to decide whether there will ever be a soft gear reset.
The two kinds of progression work side by side:
| Progression | What grows | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Horizontal | Zones, dungeons, raids, quests, professions, the Legacy system | More places to go and more systems to build, with no new level cap |
| Vertical | Item power between raid tiers | Each tier is a bit stronger, so gear lasts longer but is still replaced |
| Account-wide | Legacy Points and collections | Progress that carries over to every character on your account |
Blizzard wants players to keep returning to earlier content even after new tiers arrive. The tool it has described for this is the chase item: a rare drop with a low chance and an unusually strong effect, placed on raid boss loot tables. Like the trinkets that kept players clearing old raids in past versions of WoW, a chase item can be worth farming long after its raid stops being current.
Item effects add a second layer. Every tier set's 4-piece bonus adds damage against one creature type, such as Demons, Undead or Elementals, so the best item for one boss is not always the best for the next. The developers have also hinted at items hidden in the world that change how a class plays, such as a sword that can turn a Mage into more of a battle mage.
There is no gear catch-up system in the usual sense. Blizzard's own rule for WoW Forever is that the catch-up system is playing the game, so a player who arrives late gears through the same dungeons and raids as everyone else, with smaller jumps between tiers making that climb shorter.
To see the whole Legacy system and what each perk does, read our WoW Forever Legacy Points guide.
From 1 to 60, gear comes mostly from quests and dungeons, and it changes every few levels. Blizzard has said it places strong rewards in dungeons so players have a reason to return, but it also tuned dungeon experience so the best way to level is out in the world. The result is a mix: quest in the open world, and run each dungeon when its quests and loot line up with your level.
A few rules from Classic no longer apply, and they change how you read item tooltips. Spell, melee and ranged hit are now one Hit stat, and critical strike chance is merged the same way, so a hit ring is useful for casters and melee alike. Bonus healing also gives one third as much bonus spell damage, which makes healer gear a little more useful for solo questing.
Early drops have been reworked too. On the October beta builds, several white items from the starting zones were turned into green items with real stats, such as the Ice-covered Bracers, the Wispy Cloak and the Ratty Old Belt. More of these changes are expected before launch.
Nine new dungeons cover the whole range, so there is a dungeon with new loot roughly every five to ten levels. Bind-on-pickup green and blue drops from dungeons also grant their appearance to every eligible player in the group, so nobody has to roll against you only for the look.
| Dungeon | Levels | Where |
|---|---|---|
| The Hall of Thanes | 13–18 | Beneath Ironforge, Alliance-centric |
| Ruins of Lordaeron | 15–20 | Lordaeron, Horde-centric |
| Excavation Site: Wetlands | 24–29 | Wetlands |
| City of Dalaran | 28–33 | Alterac Mountains |
| The Drowned City | 35–40 | Off the Stranglethorn Vale coast |
| Krol'dok Stronghold | 40–55 | The Riverglades |
| Alcaz Island Prison | 48–53 | Alcaz Island |
| Blackmaw Hold | 55–60 | Azshara |
| Shaper's Terrace | 58–60 | Un'Goro Crater |
The beta stops at level 30, so loot tables for the dungeons above that level have not been tested in public yet. Treat any pre-raid list for Blackmaw Hold and Shaper's Terrace as provisional until launch.
Every dungeon with its quests, bosses and best rewards is listed in our WoW Forever dungeons overview.
Over 600 new recipes are spread across all the professions, and some advanced Blueprint recipes drop from dungeon bosses. A crafter can keep their own gear current at several points of the leveling range, and one of the crafted items is a bag, which matters as much as any armor slot early on.
Buying leveling greens on the auction house is rarely worth it. Quest rewards and dungeon drops replace them within a few levels, so save your gold for bags, your riding training and profession materials, and only buy gear when the price is a clear bargain.
The new recipes and camp objects for each craft are covered in our WoW Forever professions guide.
You have five weeks between launch on November 4 and the first raids on December 9. Pre-raid gear in WoW Forever comes from four sources, and they work best together: dungeons fill most slots, reputations and crafting unlock the pieces that lead into tier, and PvP gives a steady path for anyone who prefers battlegrounds.
| Source | Available from | What it gives | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 60 dungeons | Level 55–60 | Most pre-raid slots, Blueprint recipes for camp stations | Loot above level 30 untested on the beta |
| Reputations | Level 60 for Mount Hyjal | Access to tier recipes and the second crafted tier slot | Takes the longest of all four |
| Crafting | 300 skill | Crafted tier pieces and strong profession items | Needs raid materials from December 9 |
| PvP vendor | Level 55 | Rare armor for Honor Points and marks, epic upgrades with rank | Weekly Honor Points cap slows the climb |
The two new endgame dungeons, Blackmaw Hold at 55–60 and Shaper's Terrace at 58–60, are the main new pre-raid sources. The tunnels of Blackmaw Hold even lead to one of the entrances of the Barrow Deeps. The classic level 60 dungeons such as Blackrock Depths return as well, with reworked loot and quests.
Dungeon bosses are also where Blueprints drop. These recipes teach advanced camp stations, and the stations are required for the highest crafts, including tier armor.
Mount Hyjal is the new endgame zone, and its reputation with the Guardians of Hyjal is the longest gate in the whole gearing path. Friendly unlocks the first tier recipe, higher standing unlocks the rest, and Revered lets you buy the Rousing Seed Pod that raises how many crafted tier pieces you can wear.
Start this reputation as soon as you reach 60, even before your dungeon gear is finished. A character who arrives on December 9 already at Revered can use two crafted tier pieces from the first raid week.
Crafting is the bridge between pre-raid gear and tier. Tailoring, Leatherworking and Blacksmithing at 300 skill can make four tier slots, legs, hands, shoulders and feet, but every craft needs Malleable Essence of Nature, which only comes from disenchanting raid loot. Nobody crafts tier before December 9, so the work before the raids is getting the skill, the reputation and the camp station ready.
Only one crafted tier piece can be equipped by default, and two with the Rousing Seed Pod. The crafted route gives you a set bonus, not a full set.
The PvP vendor works in two steps. From level 55 you buy rare armor with Honor Points and Marks of Honor from a specific battleground, and later an Emboldened Seal, unlocked between Rank 8 and Rank 13, upgrades that piece to epic. PvP weapons are epic only and need Rank 14.
PvP also runs in seasons that roughly line up with the raid tiers, with rewards tied to each season. On the October 1 beta build Blizzard raised the weekly Honor Points cap from 15,000 to 25,000 and most gear prices by about 50%, so a full rare set costs roughly 64,000 Honor Points at current beta prices.
Every slot, mark and seal price is broken down in our WoW Forever PvP gear costs guide.
The first raid tier opens on December 9, 2026, with three raids at once instead of one. Unlike Classic, where Molten Core came first, WoW Forever starts with two new raids and a returning Onyxia, each sized for a different group.
| Raid | Players | Bosses | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barrow Deeps | 10 | 8 | Mount Hyjal, with three entrances |
| Hyjal Summit | 20 | 13 | Mount Hyjal |
| Onyxia's Lair | 40 | 1 | Dustwallow Marsh |
The two new raids bring the new tier sets and a legendary reward, while every boss can drop a rare chase item on top of its normal loot. Blizzard has also said that resistance gear will not be needed for the opening raids, so there is no fire or frost resistance set to farm before December 9. Clearing each raid also pays one Legacy Point: one for Onyxia, one for all 13 Hyjal Summit bosses and one for all 8 Barrow Deeps bosses.
Boss counts, entrances and what is still unknown about each raid are collected in our WoW Forever raids overview.
Every class has its own tier set, and hybrid classes get one per role, which makes 18 sets in total. A Protection Warrior and an Arms Warrior chase different sets that never count toward each other's bonuses. Each set has six pieces with bonuses at 2, 3, 4 and 5 pieces, and the pattern is the same for everyone.
| Pieces | What the bonus does |
|---|---|
| 2 | A core stat for the role: Hit for casters, Haste for melee and Hunters, Spirit for healers, Defense for tanks |
| 3 | A utility or defensive spell gets better |
| 4 | Extra damage against one creature type, or more healing for healers |
| 5 | The spec's signature ability gets stronger or comes back faster |
Four of the six slots, legs, hands, shoulders and feet, are crafted from recipes sold on Mount Hyjal, and the crafted pieces are item level 61. The head and chest are in the set data but have no source yet; they are expected to drop in Hyjal Summit or the Barrow Deeps, but Blizzard hasn't confirmed it.
All crafted pieces share the Artisan's Tier category, and only one of them can be worn by default. With the Rousing Seed Pod that limit rises to two, which is enough for the 2-piece bonus. Anything beyond that will need the raid pieces.
All 18 sets, their crafting costs and the recipe vendor are covered in our WoW Forever tier sets guide.
The spring 2027 update adds two more raids, one for 10 and one for 20 players, and summer 2027 brings another new raid plus a revamped iconic raid. Each of those will carry somewhat better loot than the tier before it, but the gap is meant to stay small. Your December pieces, and especially any chase item you win, can stay in your best-in-slot list well into the next tier.
Reaching 60 in WoW Forever is not the end of the road, because the level cap never moves and new content keeps arriving at every level. The roadmap Blizzard has shared runs through summer 2027, and each update adds both gear and things to do outside raids.
| When | What arrives |
|---|---|
| December 9, 2026 | Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit and Onyxia's Lair |
| Winter 2026 | Hardcore ruleset, exact date not announced yet |
| Spring 2027 | 2 new raids (10 and 20 players), 2 new dungeons, a new playable area and quests, a new legendary questline, PvP season refresh |
| Summer 2027 | A revamped iconic raid, a new raid, expanded world content, 2 new dungeons, PvP season refresh, profession and Legacy updates |
The revamped iconic raid has not been named. The developers have only said that Molten Core is not part of the opening raids, which keeps it a likely candidate.
Gold for consumables, crafts and your epic mount is a bigger part of endgame than gear. The developers have said they plan to make gold more plentiful at 60 by rewarding players for taking part in activities that already exist, rather than adding a list of daily chores. They have also learned from Season of Discovery how to manage prices, for example by putting a rare material on a vendor so it never sells above a set price.
The Legacy system keeps paying after your main hits 60. Raid clears, PvP ranks, battleground reputations and higher crafting skill all add Legacy Points, and a character can spend up to 16 of the 65 points available at launch. Points earned past that keep filling the Progress Track with cosmetic rewards, from the Spectral Bear Cub pet at 25 points to the Reins of the Spectral Bear mount at 55.
The fastest sources and the order to collect them are laid out in our WoW Forever Legacy Points farming guide. Every update on the calendar, with a live countdown, is in our WoW Forever roadmap.
These are the questions players ask most since the developers explained how progression will work.
Not entirely. Horizontal progression in WoW Forever mainly means expanding the world with new zones, dungeons, raids, professions and Legacy content. Gear still gets stronger with each raid tier, but Blizzard aims to keep the jump between tiers as small as possible.
Not right away. Some best-in-slot items can come from an earlier tier and stay useful for a long time, especially rare chase items. Over several tiers most pieces will still be replaced.
Blizzard says it is too early to decide whether there will ever be a soft reset. The stated goal is that the items you earn keep their meaning for as long as possible.
By playing the same content as everyone else. There is no separate catch-up gear system, but the smaller jumps between raid tiers and the rare drops in older raids are meant to keep those raids worth running and easier to find groups for.
From December 9, 2026, when Hyjal Summit and the Barrow Deeps open. The crafted tier pieces need Malleable Essence of Nature, which only comes from disenchanting loot from those raids.
No. Blizzard has said resistance sets are not part of the opening raid tier, though they may return in later raids.
No. Blizzard has no plans to raise the level cap, and new content is added across all levels instead.
Yes. PvP runs in seasons that roughly line up with the raid tiers, each with its own rewards, and both 2027 updates include a PvP season refresh.
These guides go deeper into the raids, sets and systems behind your gear.
