Yes, the WoW: Forever beta is over. Blizzard kept it running two days past the planned October 21 end and closed it for good at 10:00 a.m. PDT on Friday, October 23, 2026, after five weeks of testing. The next steps are character creation and Early Name Reservation from October 27, then the full launch on November 4 at 3 p.m. Pacific.
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Forever beta to launch: the key dates
| Beta opened | September 17, 2026 |
| Level cap on the beta | 20 at first, raised to 30 on October 1 |
| Open stress test | October 21, 2:00–6:00 p.m. PDT, run on the launch hardware; stress-test characters were deleted afterward |
| Beta closed | October 23, 10:00 a.m. PDT (17:00 UTC), two days later than first planned |
| Character creation and name reservation | October 27 – November 3 |
| Launch | November 4, 2026, 3 p.m. Pacific |
| Raids unlock | December 9, 2026: Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit and Onyxia's Lair |
What is Blizzard doing until launch?
Blizzard's message when the beta closed was short. The team is now doing focused work on priority issues and on the game service itself to get ready for launch day. The official WoW: Forever Podcast continues next week; episodes 1–5 are already out. Blizzard also put up a personal beta stats page that shows your hours played, deaths and jumps.
No beta servers are open anymore, and there is no way left to get into the beta. Characters made on the beta stay behind, so everyone starts fresh.
Forever Secondary Skills: Cooking, First Aid & FishingAll three secondary skills to 300 on your character.from 282 EURGet it doneWhen can I create my Forever character and reserve a name?
Early Name Reservation opens on October 27 at 18:00 CET in Europe and 1:00 p.m. PDT in North America. Korea and Taiwan follow on October 28 at 07:00 local time. It runs through November 3. You need the Skyborne Heroic Pack, Skyborne Epic Pack, Warcraft Forever Collection or Collector's Edition on that account.
- Open the Battle.net app and select World of Warcraft.
- Pick the Game Version "World of Warcraft: Forever", then Install and Play.
- Choose a ruleset and create up to three characters. The limit is three across all rulesets combined.
Names are first come, first served, and nobody is guaranteed one. Every Forever name has two parts, a first name and a last name, and it must be unique across the whole region.
Which rulesets can I pick at launch?
Four rulesets are planned for launch: Normal, PvP, Roleplaying (RP-PvE) and Roleplay-PvP. Blizzard added RP-PvP on October 22, a week after saying it had no plans for one. It also said it is working to let players reserve names on RP-PvP when reservation opens. Whether that will be ready on October 27 itself is not confirmed. Hardcore arrives after launch.
Will the end-of-beta event items be in the live game?
No. During the final 24 hours, world bosses such as Azuregos and Lord Kazzak appeared in the starting zones. The world bosses dropped legendary weapons, and starter-zone mobs dropped Tier 1 sets. Blizzard said these items and experiences will not be in Forever after launch. The event was a send-off for testers, and it tells you nothing about launch loot.
What else changed in the final beta week?
Two pieces of news matter for planning. First, Blizzard's raid overview confirms that Onyxia's Lair requires every raider to carry the Drakefire Amulet. You earn it through a long faction attunement chain that runs through Blackrock Depths and Blackrock Spire. Second, the Roleplay-PvP ruleset was added for launch. When Molten Core opens is still unannounced.
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