Blizzard's September 17 live Q&A confirmed that WoW: Forever is realmless with four rulesets (Normal, PvP, Roleplay, Hardcore), that GDKP raids are not allowed, that there is no Rated PvP, and that every raid tier ships both a 10-player and a 20-player raid. Launch raids need no attunement, 40-player Onyxia joins them on December 9, and the beta opened the same day the stream aired.
The September 17 Q&A at a glance
The stream ran at 18:00 BST / 10:00 PDT on the official Warcraft Twitch and YouTube channels and took forum-submitted questions on Forever and Midnight. The points below follow Wowhead's written recap of the broadcast and the press interviews around it.
| Topic | What Blizzard said |
| Rulesets | Normal (PvP only by mutual consent), PvP, Roleplay, Hardcore (after launch). No grouping across rulesets; moving a character between them takes a transfer. |
| Battlegrounds | Shared across rulesets. |
| Regions | Realmless but not regionless. Oceanic players sit on Oceania data centers and share the US-wide auction house; regions stay separate and patches roll out staggered by time zone. |
| Names | Two-part name; the second name is mandatory and the full name is unique region-wide across every ruleset. |
| GDKP and gold | GDKP is not allowed. Blizzard will actively monitor the economy and be "very punishing towards gold buyers". |
| Raids | One difficulty, no Flex, no scaling (you can out-gear content). Each tier has a 10-player and a 20-player raid; 40-player raids begin with Onyxia but not every tier gets one. No cross-faction play. Launch raids need no attunement. |
| PvP | No Rated PvP. A 14-rank Honor track that resets each season, Honor gains rebalanced away from Alterac Valley camping, and the new battleground brings its own reputation. |
| Addons | Modern client API, a built-in damage meter, Cooldown Manager coming later. |
| Transmog | Sets store one appearance per armor type per slot. |
| Skyborne lore | They live in the Skywall and use elemental magic because they have no Sunwell. Quel'Thalas and high elves come "in the future"; HD and SD models share skeletons. |
What does realmless actually mean now?
You never pick a server. You pick a ruleset, and each ruleset is its own large ecosystem rather than one giant shard, with factions kept apart inside it. Collections and Legacy Points are account-wide across rulesets, with Hardcore as the one-way exception: progress flows out of Hardcore, nothing flows in, and a dead Hardcore character can transfer to another ruleset, PvP included. How many ecosystems each ruleset contains was not stated.
The Q&A also put a fence around the idea. Realmless is not regionless. Your region defines who you can meet and which auction house you use, and language preference decides who you are grouped with day to day.
Is GDKP or gold buying allowed in Forever?
No on both counts. GDKP runs are banned outright, and Blizzard said plainly it intends to watch the economy and be very punishing towards gold buyers. Treat that as the rule of the game: buying gold in Forever carries real account risk, and nobody should tell you otherwise.
The economy itself changes shape anyway: bank space is two to four times larger, early quests hand out a bound 6-slot bag that auto-equips, mount cost moves into riding training, and Waylaid supply crates return.
What did the Q&A settle about PvP?
There is no Rated PvP at launch and no rated arena. Progression runs through a 14-rank Honor track that resets every season, with the original battlegrounds plus The Darkspear Islands, a 15v15 map with capture points and its own reputation. Datamined rank rewards (subject to change) climb from a tabard at rank 1 through Black War mounts at rank 11 to a Weapon Arsenal at rank 14.
Did the Q&A confirm which raids open at launch?
Raids unlock December 9 per Blizzard's roadmap: Barrow Deeps (10-player, three entrances), Hyjal Summit (20-player) and 40-player Onyxia's Lair together, none requiring attunement. Every future tier keeps the 10 and 20 pairing. Whether Molten Core or Blackwing Lair exist at launch was not answered; the "before Molten Core" line describes the story timeline, not the raid list.
If you would rather hit December 9 raid-ready without grinding every evening, PewPewShop's vetted human players offer Forever pre-orders such as Leveling 1–30 from EUR 11 to EUR 13 range starts at EUR 13 and the Launch-Ready Pack (1–60, pre-raid gear, 500g) from EUR 219, as coaching or play-together progression help with no bots and a long zero-ban record.