WoW Forever patch notes and beta changelog
Every Forever beta build compared with the one before, from the game files and the server data, next to what Blizzard said.
For the big picture, everything Forever changes compared with Classic, see What’s new.
- 11beta builds compared
- 70245latest build · Oct 6
- 40,952data records compared across builds
- 52Blizzard posts
- 9main datamined finds
Every build
Build 70245Latest
Brief Beta Realm Maintenance - October 6 · Blue post
Launcher, crash reporter and client libraries: 17 files updated
Brief Realm Maintenance - October 5 · Blue post
Launcher, crash reporter and client libraries: 17 files updated
Warrior Updates in Today's Beta Build · Blue post · 25 changes · 3 developers’ notes
- Warrior 25Fury 16 · Protection 7
Beta Service Issue - October 1 · Blue post
2 interface files changed. In ChatFrameBase and SharedTalentUI: +3 −3 lines.
Launcher, crash reporter and client libraries: 17 files updated
Graphics shaders: 511 files updated
Datamined, not confirmed:Rulesets: new game data
Build 70205 in detail- 189 changes that affect play
- 107 gear changes
- 49 class changes
- 19 consumable changes
- 8 item changes
- 6 profession changes
WoW Forever Beta Development Notes – Updated October 1 · Blue post · 136 changes · 7 developers’ notes · 10 known issues
WoW Forever Beta Known Issues - October 1 · Blue post · 28 known issues
Weekly raid reset moves back on US and EU realms. Build 70009 had moved it.
USTue 16:00 UTC→Tue 15:00 UTC
EUWed 07:00 UTC→Wed 04:00 UTC
Furious Howl: Attack Power 9 → 5 … 136 → 82
Eureka! (Gnome racial): Periodic damage and healing of the affected abilities 10%: now worked out by the game when it is used (see its tooltip)
Disengage: Extra threat -140 → -280 … -405 → -810
Flametongue Attack: Damage 1 → 0
Datamined, not confirmed:Voice chat and Discord: 2 new textsPvP: new interface code12 smaller signals
Build 70170 in detailManifestInterfaceItemIcon: 1 row added
Launcher, crash reporter and client libraries: 17 files updated
20 items seen for the first time. 10 of them are not in Classic. Such as Ambassdor's Bloodrobes, Basilisk Sinew Belt, and Blisterpaw Bones.
Beta Realm Restarts Incoming - Sept. 25 · Blue post
10 interface files changed. In GameTooltip, GamepadActionBars, MapCanvas, SharedMapDataProviders, UIPanels_Game, and WorldMap: +81 −29 lines.
Launcher, crash reporter and client libraries: 17 files updated
Graphics shaders: 52 files updated
- 93 changes that affect play
- 37 gear changes
- 29 class changes
- 12 consumable changes
- 11 item changes
- 3 profession changes
- 1 collection change
Beta is Up - Development Notes Posted · Blue post
Weekly raid reset moves back on US and EU realms. Build 69977 had moved it.
USTue 15:00 UTC→Tue 16:00 UTC
EUWed 04:00 UTC→Wed 07:00 UTC
Wrath: Damage 9–11 → 14–16 … 58–64 → 86–96
Sunder Armor: Extra threat 1,013 → 206
Chastise: Now only works on Humanoids
Light's Vigil: Its effect: Range 40 yd / 20 yd → 100 yd
Datamined, not confirmed:Discord as an option for in-game voice chatClassic and Enhanced presets: new code and standard-definition race iconsStatistics: 201 new counters and 23 new categories3 more main finds · 18 smaller signals
Build 70009 in detailBeta Client Update - September 22 · Blue post · 3 changes
"A Firm Response" Hotfixed · Blue post
Weekly raid reset moves on US and EU realms
USTue 16:00 UTC→Tue 15:00 UTC
EUWed 07:00 UTC→Wed 04:00 UTC
Apply Poultice changed by server hotfix
Cast timeInstant→2.5 s
3 interface files changed. In the login and character screens: +17 −5 lines.
Almost there! · Blue post
The World of Warcraft: Forever Beta Now Live · News article
Server switches: 1 new and 1 changed
Realm groups: 1 row changed
Launcher, crash reporter and client libraries: 17 files updated
Realm groups: 2 rows changed
Launcher, crash reporter and client libraries: 17 files updated
Build 69876
The first Forever beta build. What it added to Classic Era is on the What’s new page.
Found by datamining
Not confirmedFound in the game files by our tools, not announced by Blizzard. Strongest evidence first: interface code (the game already uses it), new data rows, then texts alone, which prove little: the client carries every WoW version’s texts.Datamining in the glossaryEvery build’s datamined finds, newest first. None of them is confirmed by Blizzard.
Voice chat and Discord: 2 new texts2 new client texts about voice chat and Discord, such as “Use Your Discord Client Settings”. 2 texts about voice chat and Discord were reworded. For example, “Combat Audio Alert Say Targets Casts Voice set to …” now reads “Combat Audio Alert Say Target's Casts Voice set to …”.
PvP: new interface codeOne text about PvP was reworded: “PvP Rank's are currently unavailable” now reads “PvP Ranks are currently unavailable”. New interface code uses 2 texts that were already in the client, such as “Honorable Kills” and “Shows the honor you gain from killing other players”. The interface code gained a new function or event for it.
- Discord as an option for in-game voice chatBuild 70009 adds the texts of a new setting, “Preferred Voice Chat Service”, with two choices: Discord or Legacy. With Discord, the voice chat of a group you lead runs on Discord, and other players do not need a Discord account to join. Text-to-Speech and Speech-to-Text do not work there, so the texts send players who need them to Legacy.
Classic and Enhanced presets: new code and standard-definition race iconsThe presentation choice on the login screen (Classic or Enhanced) now goes through new functions named for Forever, which can also read the choice back (GetForeverExperiencePreset). 23 standard-definition race icons (raceicon-sd-…) join the art, and the graphics settings search gains “SD” and “HD” tags.
Statistics: 201 new counters and 23 new categoriesBuild 70009 adds 201 statistics to the achievement data, the counters a Statistics tab shows, such as Total deaths, Duels won, Most gold ever owned or Flight paths taken. 161 of them sit in 23 new categories (Deaths, Kills, Character, Combat, Quests, Travel, Social, Skills and more); the rest join existing ones (Boss Kills, Dungeons & Raids and Player vs. Player). Darkspear Islands gets its own battles, Honorable Kills and Killing Blows counters.
Age checks for chat, voice chat and mailBuild 70009 adds texts and interface code for an age check on Battle.net accounts. Chat, voice chat, mail and other social features are unavailable on accounts belonging to minors, and on accounts whose age is not verified until the age is verified in Battle.net Account Settings.
The in-game shop can name WoW: ForeverA new label for the in-game shop reads “WoW: Forever”. It joins the labels the shop already uses to tell game versions apart (“World of Warcraft: …”, “… Classic” and “Titan Reforged Realm”). It says nothing about what the shop would sell for Forever.
Controller support: new interface code10 new client texts about playing with a controller, such as “Use Compact Action Bar”, “Swap Target Modifier Sides”, and “Swap Friendly Targeting Action Sides”. The new interface code of this build already uses them. It also uses a text that was already in the client. The new code reads 6 game settings (console variables). New interface files in Forever’s own folders: ClassSpellFlyout, PetActionFlyout, PetActionFlyoutButton, and 5 more. Largely rewritten: PromptedBinding. New interface art: 4 images (gamepad-actionbar-…).
What we compare
- Blizzard’s postsBlue posts on the Forever forums (US and EU) and news articles.
- Game changesSpells, items, quests and other objects whose data changed.
- Data rowsEvery game data table, row by row, from the files and the server hotfixes.
- Interface codeBlizzard’s Lua and XML, line by line.
- Client filesAll 1.4 million files of each build on Blizzard’s CDN, by content.
Why client builds look small
During the beta Blizzard sends most changes from its servers as hotfixes. New client builds mostly fix the launcher, the login screens and crashes, so we also compare the hotfix cache the game keeps for each build.