WoW Forever beta passes a million characters, tracker says
Entry to the Classic Plus beta costs a $60 pack, the level cap is 30, and Blizzard says its simpler, slower classes show where the full game is heading.
By
Freya Donnelly
In brief
- A community tracker counts 1,003,125 Classic Plus characters in the WoW Forever beta.
- Beta access mostly comes with the $60 Skyborne pack, and the level cap is 30.
- Blizzard says it favors simpler classes with engaging depth and slower combat.
- The full game launches November 4, and beta characters will be wiped.
The figure comes from classicplus.io, a community website that takes snapshots of data from World of Warcraft Forever. Its tally of characters created in the Classic Plus mode stands at 1,003,125. That number belongs to the fan-run tracker rather than to Blizzard, but it gives a first sense of how many people are already testing the game.
Who gets into the beta, and what they can do
Creating a character requires beta access, and, as IGN reports, the main way to get it is to buy the $60 Skyborne pack. So the million-character mark reflects players who paid to get in early, not an open test.
The Skyborne race is not the dominant choice. It accounts for only 18.7% of characters created across both factions. Humans are the most common pick for Alliance players, at 32.3%, while Undead lead for the Horde at 33.5%.
The beta entered its test phase last month, according to IGN, and one Blizzard developer said it was putting up “the craziest numbers” they had ever seen. Beta players only have access to limited parts of the world. The level cap sits at 30 at the time of IGN’s writing, and every character will be wiped when the full game comes out on November 4.
Blizzard’s case for simpler classes and slower combat
PC Gamer describes combat in WoW Forever as considerably slower than in regular WoW. Players start with few buttons, and the outlet cites one fight against a scorpion that lasted 38 seconds. That pacing appears to be intentional. Blizzard developers, speaking to TechRadar, said they would rather lean toward simpler classes while keeping “engaging depth,” and that they want to stay faithful to the old MMO’s “core design, pacing, and tone.”
Blizzard also addressed the matter directly, in a statement reported by PC Gamer:
“The level of mechanical complexity found in the beta classes is indicative of our intentions”
Blizzard
The same thinking applies to group encounters. Blizzard says encounter design will remain relatively simple, so the challenge comes from preparation: gear sets, consumables and the makeup of the team, rather than from complicated mechanics during the fight itself.
Progression follows a similar logic. Blizzard’s stated goal is to keep it incremental and “horizontal.” Players have already found a mage sword that deals bonus fire damage to frozen targets, an item that adds a twist to how a class plays without handing it a new ability.
The launch window and Blizzard’s housekeeping
IGN points out that WoW peaked at 12 million players 16 years ago, a benchmark that frames the attention on this relaunch. Grand Theft Auto 6 is scheduled to launch two weeks after WoW Forever.
Blizzard has also been tightening the rules during the test. It has cracked down on player names and on gold selling. It added the “Kyle’s Gone Missing” quest to the beta, a quest that was not introduced until Burning Crusade in the original game.
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