WoW Forever launch guide

Before launch

1. Agree on faction and ruleset with your friends. Grouping only works within one faction and one ruleset. Normal, PvP, Roleplay and RP-PvP are available at launch; Hardcore arrives in winter. On the PvP ruleset each account is locked to one faction. Read rulesets.
2. Prepare two or three name pairs. Every character has a first and last name and the pair must be unique in your region. Blizzard's filter was strict in the beta (names containing "con" were refused until a fix); have alternatives ready.
3. Pick a class with the leveling ranking, then a race with the per-class race pages, and bookmark the calculator link for your build so you can follow the point order in game.
4. Update your graphics driver. The new lighting pass crashed older AMD and Mac setups in the beta; the Secondary Lighting workaround is on the requirements page.

Install the client

1. Open Battle.net and select World of Warcraft.
2. In the Game Version menu choose World of Warcraft: Forever and install (about 128 GB on an SSD). A greyed-out Install button was fixed by restarting Battle.net or switching regions and back.
3. Press Play. On first login choose Classic or Enhanced presets (SD or HD models, lighting), then your ruleset, then create a character.

Pick a ruleset

There are no realms. You choose a ruleset and the game layers busy areas behind the scenes. Each ruleset has its own auction house economy. Battlegrounds can mix rulesets except Hardcore. Oceanic players are hosted on Australian servers inside the Americas region and share the US auction house; create RP and RP-PvP characters before Normal or PvP ones on Australian servers while a known bug persists.

The first hour

• Finish the starting quests and take The Great Outdoors, which teaches the Basic Campfire and the Boosted Rest buff. Camping unlocks around level 5.
• Learn Cooking and Fishing at the first trainer you pass. Cooking is the entry to the whole camping system, and cooked food is 5% kill experience.
• Start one gathering profession early. Humans can loot the Nibbled-On Book from Northshire kobolds and run Brother Paxton's eight-quest chain to a Mining, Skinning or Herbalism manual.
• Keep every Waylaid Crate you loot from level 10. Filled with the listed materials and handed in, they pay Merchant's Favor, the currency for profession recipes.
• Check the spellbook after each trainer visit. New spells no longer land on your bars by themselves, and looted bags no longer equip themselves.

The first ten levels

• Talent points start at 10 (or at 5 with the Talented Legacy perk on an account that already has points). Follow your build's point order.
• Fishing trainers stand beside water in every starting zone; Journeyman Fishing opens at 50 skill and level 10. Fishing takes no profession slot.
• By 10 you should have a talent point, two professions started, and a first camp feature in sight at skill 20. The first dungeons open soon after: Hall of Thanes (13–18), Ragefire Chasm (13–18) and Ruins of Lordaeron (15–20).
• Starting zones respawn fast for launch week; the rate slows as you move out. Group for kill quests when the zone is crowded.

Two Classic habits to drop

• The bank alt. Account bank tabs cost 1 silver to 2 gold 50 silver; a character's sixth to eighth bank tabs cost 100, 200 and 400 gold. Shared storage is the cheap option, and the Personal Banking Legacy perk lets innkeepers open your bank. A bank alt still parks you in a capital, but it costs one of your three reservation slots.
• Planning around the early quest bag. The Cozy Sleeping Bag chain hands out a 12-slot bag that testers report was nerfed; run the chain for the rest XP buff (1% per minute to 3%, stacking with food), not the bag.

Invite-A-Friend codes from the packs work from 4 to 11 November without a subscription. Raids unlock 9 December.