Blizzard rules out Summoning Stones and new races

World of Warcraft: Forever gets no Summoning Stones and no races from later expansions, Blizzard says in an interview. Teleports would shrink the world. Classes stay close to the original, with a few extra mechanics where they were too simple.

The team tests every change against four design pillars: Nurture and Protect Social Experiences, Approachable and Familiar, World as the Main Character, and Journey before destination. Together they should keep the core design, pacing and tone of the original game, says Blizzard.

No Summoning Stones

Meeting Stones that summon players to a dungeon or raid came after the original game. Forever will not have them. Convenience changes can easily erode one or more of the pillars, says Blizzard, and Summoning Stones are one of those.

Easy, quick access to teleports shrink the world, and marginalize part of the identity of a class like Warlock. Thus, it fails muster against ‘Nurture and Protect Social Experiences’ and ‘World as the Main Character’.

Blizzard has 22 years of data on how convenience changes affected the social fabric of the game. Forever takes a different path, the team says, and every update will be measured against the pillars.

Simpler classes, with depth

Classes will not be modernized. Blizzard wants “simpler classes, but with engaging depth”. Some classes in Classic were too simple and have gained a few mechanics. The complexity of the classes in the beta shows where the team wants to go.

Some classes and specs had wild power swings or dull gameplay, says Blizzard. The team wants to improve that without speeding up combat or making the game hard to learn. The class highlights show many of those changes.

Dual Spec and respecs

Dual Spec can be learned at level 40 for a fee, and there are no plans to go beyond two specs. Respecs will not be cheap. On the beta the first respec each hour is temporarily cheap. At launch the price climbs quickly and only drops once a week.

Players’ talent choices should be meaningful, says Blizzard. Some extra respec options may come to the Legacy talents later.

Balance every week at first

Class changes during the beta come in batches, all at once. In the first six months after launch, Blizzard expects frequent balance changes, at first once a week. Design changes after the launch on 4 November should stay rare.

No Goblins or Vulpera

“We have no plans to add races from WoW’s expansions at this time,” says Blizzard. Vulpera, Goblins and Haranir will not come. The new race of Forever is the Skyborne, which was made for this game.

Forever has its own continuity and builds on the lore of the Warcraft strategy games, starting after the new Warcraft 3 campaign Forsaken Kingdom. The stories stay grounded, says Blizzard. Players take part in larger events in a more subtle way, as in the original game.

You aren’t THE hero in WoW: Forever, you are just A hero.

Forever may still visit places from later expansions, says Blizzard, but then in its own version of those places.