MYTHICSIMBeta

WoW Forever sims

Sim, rankings and class changes for Blizzard's Classic+

World of Warcraft: Forever is Blizzard's Classic+. The beta opened on 17 September 2026 and launch is 4 November 2026. MythicSim sims it on its own open-source Forever engine, since SimulationCraft doesn't support Classic. This page covers the sim and what Forever changes for each class.

Level cap
60
Classes
9
Specs simmed
30
New race combos
6

Sim a Forever class

Forever has the nine original classes. Death Knight, Monk, Demon Hunter and Evoker aren't in it. Each class page covers the new spells, the talent changes, which races can play it now and what the sim models for that class. Spec links open that spec's trinket board.

Rankings

The Forever trinket hub ranks every level 60 trinket for each spec, and the Forever DPS tier list (beta) compares the specs on preset builds, with each preset's race shown next to its DPS. To see how race alone changes a build, use the race comparison, and APM by spec shows how many buttons each spec's rotation presses a minute. New to Forever? The spec difficulty rankings go from the easiest rotation to the hardest.

What changes for sims

On top of the new talent trees, the BlizzCon deep dive panel described six engine rule changes that affect how gear is valued. A Forever sim has to model each of them to get stat weights right.

  • One hit stat, one crit stat

    Melee, ranged and spell hit are merged into a single hit chance, and the three crit stats merge the same way. A piece of gear with hit on it is worth the same to a Warrior and a Warlock, which changes how loot lists read for hybrids.

  • Expertise exists

    Dodge and parry reduction is now its own stat. It used to come from weapon skill. Weapon skill racials and the old weapon-type talents are gone, so the value of a given weapon no longer depends on your race.

  • Most healing gear adds spell damage

    Most gear that adds healing now adds spell damage as well, so Shadow Priest, Balance Druid and Elemental Shaman gear lists overlap with their healing sets, which never happened in Classic. Healing alone still adds no damage: gear that only heals stays out of a damage sim.

  • Periodic damage can crit

    Damage over time effects crit. Affliction Warlock, Shadow Priest and every bleed spec get more value from crit than the Classic sims assumed.

  • Racials rebuilt to be unique

    No two races share a passive any more, and weapon skill racials are gone. Race makes a small difference in the sim, and Human for its sword skill is no longer the automatic pick.

  • Milestone talents at 11, 16, 21 and 31 points

    A fourth one-point signature talent sits at 16 points in every tree. Most of the later-expansion spells (Lava Burst, Mutilate, Penance and so on) are placed in rows three to seven, so they are available before level 40.

Four buff talents are also baseline now: Blessing of Kings, Divine Spirit, Improved Mark of the Wild, Improved Battle Shout, so raid buffs no longer depend on someone in the group taking the talent.

Talent rework counts

Blizzard's stated goal is to replace passive percentage talents with ones that change how you play. Here's how the BlizzCon demo build breaks down.

Talents in the demo build470
Brand new119
Reworked263
Moved, unchanged19
Identical to Classic69
Classic talents removed81
New capstones14 of 27
Milestone rows11 / 16 / 21 / 31

Counts from the BlizzCon 2026 demo build. The beta will change some of them.

New race and class combinations

Six new combos on the original races, and the Skyborne, a new neutral race of Highborne descendants from Zephras Isle. Racials are rebuilt and no two races share a passive, so the race you pick changes your DPS in the sim.

Skyborne classes: Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Druid, Shaman (Horde), Mage (Alliance). The race and its starting zone need the Skyborne Heroic pack or higher.

Dungeons, raids and zones

9 new dungeons were announced and 7 have been named. Two new raids ship at launch, sized at 10 and 20 players. Loot tables haven't been published, so there's no Forever Droptimizer yet.

Dungeons

  1. Hall of Thanes13 to 18
  2. Excavation Site24 to 29
  3. The Drowned City35 to 40
  4. Krol'dok Stronghold40 to 55
  5. Alcaz Island Prison48 to 53
  6. Blackmaw Hold55 to 60
  7. Shaper's Terrace58 to 60

Raids

  • The Barrow Deeps10 player
  • Hyjal Summit20 player

Zones

  • Mount HyjalNew levelling and endgame zone
  • Shen'dralasNew levelling and endgame zone
  • RivergladesNew levelling and endgame zone
  • Zephras IsleSkyborne starting zone, levels 1 to 12 (pack-gated)

Battleground

Darkspear Islands15v15

How the Forever sim is built

The retail sims on MythicSim run SimulationCraft, which has never modelled a Classic client. Forever sims run on the MythicSim Rust engine, a new engine written for Forever and open source under the MIT licence. Quick Sim, Best Gear and every ranking board run on it, with all nine classes on the new trees, the unified hit and crit rules, dot crits, bonus healing as spell damage, the reworked racials and the Skyborne.

It began as a port of the wowsims Forever engine, the MIT-licensed wowsims Classic engine that ElliotWood's community conversion brought to Forever, by way of our Go fork. Its tests still check it against that fork, though the Go engine no longer runs any sims. Credit for the engine it builds on goes to the wowsims authors and ElliotWood, with thanks. Each result and ranking board shows the engine and revision it was simmed on.

The retail sims aren't affected. Midnight Season 2 boards, droptimizers and stat priorities still run on the pinned SimulationCraft build.

Common questions

Is there a WoW Forever sim yet?

Yes. Quick Sim and Best Gear are open at /wow-forever/sim. Export your character with the MythicSim addon, paste it and you get a DPS number for your talent spec. SimulationCraft, which runs the retail sims here, has no Forever branch, so Forever sims run on MythicSim's own Rust engine, open source under the MIT licence. It began as a port of the wowsims Forever engine.

When does WoW Forever release?

World of Warcraft: Forever launches worldwide on 4 November 2026 at 3pm Pacific. The beta runs from 17 September 2026 to 21 October 2026 for Epic and Collection pack owners. The first content tier on the announced roadmap is 9 December 2026.

Is WoW Forever the same as Classic+?

Yes. Forever is Blizzard's name for the Classic+ idea: original Azeroth with the level cap kept at 60, no flying and no level scaling, then new zones, dungeons, raids, quests, race and class combos and a full talent rework added on top rather than replaying the expansion timeline.

How many talents changed in WoW Forever?

Of the 470 talents in the BlizzCon demo build, 119 are new, 263 were reworked, 19 moved without changing and 69 are identical to Classic. 81 Classic talents were removed, and 14 of the 27 capstones are new.

What are the new race and class combinations in WoW Forever?

Human Hunter, Dwarf Shaman, Gnome Priest, Orc Mage, Undead Paladin, Troll Warlock. The new Skyborne race can be Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Druid on either faction, plus Shaman on the Horde and Mage on the Alliance.

Can I use my retail /simc string for WoW Forever?

No. Retail /simc strings use a different format. Install MythicSim addon 0.3.0 or newer in Forever, click its minimap button or type /msim, then paste the JSON on the Forever sim page.

Why not just use SimulationCraft for Forever?

SimulationCraft has never supported Classic clients and has no Forever work in its repository. The wowsims Classic engine already modelled 1.12 combat, and a Forever conversion of it with the new talent trees and combat rules already existed. MythicSim started there, then ported it to a Rust engine of its own written for Forever. That was months faster than teaching SimulationCraft a second game.