Loading screens are the one piece of art in World of Warcraft that everybody sees and nobody asks for. WoW Forever redrew them anyway. The wait between zones now comes with a picture that rewards the few seconds it hangs there, and some of them say more about the world than any feature list.
The art doubles as a map. Part of it belongs to places Classic never had, part of it hides landmarks you can walk to on foot, and a few corners of the old game were left exactly as they were. Every new screen is below, with what is drawn on it and which door it sits behind.
WoW Forever launches on November 4, 2026, and its loading art is already drawn. The new screens cover both continents, the Skyborne starting zone, the Darkspear Islands battleground and four of the nine new dungeons.
The style is the bigger change. Classic loaded the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor on group portraits of the races: a human, a dwarf, a gnome and an undead on one, an orc, a night elf, a troll and a tauren on the other, logo in the corner. Forever draws the continents themselves instead. Each one is an ink-and-wash map in a single colour, seen from high above the southern sea, and the dungeon screens are painted scenes of the room or the valley waiting behind the loading bar.
Old content keeps its old art. Deadmines still opens on its flooded cave, Molten Core on its lava, and every other Classic dungeon and raid loads with the screen it has always had.
| Loading screen | Where it appears |
|---|---|
| Eastern Kingdoms | Travelling into the Eastern Kingdoms continent |
| Kalimdor | Travelling into the continent of Kalimdor |
| Zephras Isle | Skyborne starting zone, levels 1 to 12 |
| The Hall of Thanes | Dungeon beneath Ironforge, levels 13 to 18 |
| Ruins of Lordaeron | Dungeon in Lordaeron, levels 15 to 20 |
| Excavation Site: Wetlands | Dungeon above Whelgar's Excavation, levels 24 to 29 |
| City of Dalaran | Dungeon inside Dalaran, levels 28 to 33 |
| Darkspear Islands | Battleground off the Kalimdor coast, level 30 and up |
Our WoW Forever overview covers the rest of what launch brings, from the full dungeon list to the raids.
WoW Forever Overview
The Eastern Kingdoms screen is a blue ink drawing of the whole continent, seen from out over the southern sea. It looks sketched from a zeppelin. Hatched water, hatched cloud, every mountain range drawn by hand, and Stormwind down on the west coast with ships standing off it and dotted sea lanes trailing away.
The centre belongs to Blackrock Mountain, smoking between the ranges, with the tower of Karazhan off to the right. Further north the horizon fills with capitals. Gilneas sits behind its wall at the far left, the spires of Lordaeron rise in the middle distance, and Dalaran stands there in full — on the ground, dome and all.
Ships matter in the game itself now. Forever opens a Stormwind Harbor with a boat to Auberdine, an early path between the two continents, and it is one of three new sea routes.
Kalimdor gets the same treatment in red-brown. The mesas of Thousand Needles fill the foreground with rope bridges strung between them, and the east coast runs up the right of the frame past a walled island fortress with piers and ships of its own. That one is Theramore Isle.
Orgrimmar holds the north-east under a zeppelin coming in low, and the hut-covered islands off that coast are the Darkspear Islands, the new battleground. Two great trees close the horizon: Teldrassil over the sea to the north-west, whole and green, and the second one standing on Mount Hyjal away to the north-east.
Kalimdor picks up a sea route of its own, too. The Steamwheedle Cartel in Tanaris runs boats out to the Riverglades, the new zone across the water.
Four of the nine new dungeons have a screen of their own, and they are the four you meet first on the way up. None of them is a map: each is a painted scene of the place itself, framed like the last thing you see before the doors load in.
Gold light, knotwork carved down every pillar, a lantern hanging on a chain over a stone floor. This is Old Ironforge, the hidden chamber deep beneath the High Seat of Ironforge, and time has not been kind to it: the ceiling is cracked and a ragged hole has been broken clean through the back wall. Nothing in frame says what.
The Hall of Thanes is the dungeon behind that door, a levels 13 to 18 run under the mountain.
Green twilight. A spiked iron fence runs across the frame with the gate torn open where something came through. Webs hang off the ironwork in sheets, a sword stands driven into the ground on the left, and the arched windows of the old palace watch from behind the trees. It is the quietest of the new screens and the least comfortable.
The Ruins of Lordaeron is a levels 15 to 20 dungeon, and the work there is helping the Forsaken take the place back.
Amber and brown, a river valley under heavy trees. A horned skull and a scatter of ribs lie in the grass on the left, stone arches stand along the hillsides, and on the right a barrel rides a wooden cart beside a lit lantern. Someone is working this dig tonight.
Excavation Site: Wetlands runs levels 24 to 29, above Whelgar's Excavation in the Wetlands, and the bones on the loading screen are the ones lining the riverbeds outside.
Violet, top to bottom. Domed rooftops carry lit crystal finials, lamp posts glow between the conifers, and the Violet Citadel rises through the middle of the city. The picture looks calm, and the dungeon is anything but: the magic in Dalaran has gone wrong, and the Kirin Tor want their city back.
City of Dalaran is a levels 28 to 33 dungeon.
Pale blue and green, tiered towers under round domes, a colonnaded hall standing on a rock shelf with cloud piled behind it. Pines frame both edges of the drawing. Look down at the foreground, though, and the other half of the story is already there: columns snapped off at the base and an arch that has come down across the road.
Zephras Isle is the Skyborne starting zone, levels 1 through 12, a floating island that blends Classic looks with architecture taken from Skywall. The pylons holding it together are failing and parts of the island are falling into ruin and darkness, which is exactly what the broken stonework in the frame is showing.
WoW Forever Skyborne Race Guide
Sepia, and this time the view stands on a plank bridge. A carved troll arch with a mask set in the keystone waits at the end of it, two figures under the span, tusks and bound posts the height of a house on both sides, palms behind them and a zeppelin drifting in from the left.
The Darkspear Islands battleground runs 15 versus 15 off the coast of Kalimdor, opens at level 30, and combines strategic control points with Arathi Basin-style flag captures and defence. A side wins at 1500 resources. The islands are spiritual ground for the trolls, and the Alliance is pushing in off theDurotar coast.
