WoW Forever Beta Build of October 8: Dungeon XP, Dalaran and Legacy Points

Dungeon experience goes up

• Approximately 20% more per kill. The experience earned from killing creatures in dungeons has been increased by approximately 20%.
• Your own level decides again. Until this build, experience for lower-level enemies in a party was cut according to the highest-level member. Blizzard calls that a bug and went back to Classic Era’s rule, where each member’s own level is compared with the creature. Aggrend’s example: four level 20s and a level 25 in the Deadmines, where the level 20s were getting very little per kill.
• One limit stays. If a member of the party is vastly higher level than the enemy, nobody in the party gets experience, as before.
• A week after the cut. On October 1 Blizzard had halved the extra experience dungeon quests give. The notes expect the two new changes together to “dramatically increase” dungeon experience for most players.

Aggrend, a designer on the team, gave the reasoning on the forums the same day. Experience in dungeons won’t be what it was in Classic Era. After the changes, a perfectly played dungeon run levels “very close, if not equal” to optimal questing, and he says that shows how much better dungeons were in Era. Dungeon cleaving to 60 as the best way to level doesn’t fit the game’s pillars, the world as the main character and protecting social experiences, so Blizzard will hold firm there. The designers said more on the WoW Forever Podcast episode 3: dungeons shouldn’t be “one and done”, and the first completion of a dungeon quest stays the most rewarding part. What that means for your route is in the WoW Forever leveling guide.

The City of Dalaran dungeon is open for testing

The fourth of the nine new dungeons is in the beta: the City of Dalaran, levels 28–33, under the city in the Alterac Mountains. The beta’s level cap stays at 30, and the other three new dungeons already open are the Hall of Thanes, the Ruins of Lordaeron and Excavation Site: Wetlands.

• The Horde and the city. In the beta, Wowhead found that Horde players are let into Dalaran after the dungeon: the Heart of Disruption quest line awards the Dalaran Sewer Key and leads to a quest called Shrewd Negotiations, after which the guards turn from hostile to neutral. Many citizens still offer the Horde no services. This is Wowhead’s hands-on report, not a Blizzard statement.
• Where to go. The way in for each faction and what Blizzard has said about the place are on our City of Dalaran dungeon guide.

Legacy: 16 points for every tester

• 16 Legacy Points, beta only. All beta players were granted completion of the Legacy Challenge, which awards 16 Legacy Points to fully test the system. Sixteen is also the most one character can spend at launch.
• Re-specs for 1 silver, beta only. The cheapest Legacy re-spec now costs 1 silver, and the cost steps down by one re-spec per hour, similar to class talents in the beta.
• Try a plan first. Lay out the 16 points in the WoW Forever Legacy planner before you spend them in game.

Class headlines

• Warrior and Druid: more Rage from damage taken. Several bugs in that calculation are fixed, and Rage gains are now balanced around 20% to 40% Armor by level, not a tank’s 50%.
• Druid: Bear Form and Dire Bear Form give 50% bonus threat (was 30%), Thorns goes back to its Vanilla base damage with a 6% spell power ratio (was 13.3%), and Mana Potions work in Bear and Cat Form.
• Paladin: Retribution Aura goes back to its Vanilla base damage, about 33% lower, with the same 6% ratio, and now uses the Paladin’s spell power. Reckoning can trigger once every 1.5 seconds.
• Priest: Penance deals and heals less, because it had been counted as a 3-second channel instead of a 2-second one. Rank 1 costs 50% more Mana; ranks 2 and 4 heal for more.
• Casters while leveling: the early ranks of Wrath, Frostbolt, Fireball, Arcane Missiles, Smite, Lesser Heal, Heal, Lightning Bolt and Shadow Bolt were re-tuned so that a new rank is always an upgrade.
• Hunter: Disengage’s threat reduction is doubled, as was intended, and Expose Prey lasts 10 seconds (was 5). For Arms Warriors, Deep Wounds is once again required to reach Impale.

Every class page has its own list of what changed: pick yours on the WoW Forever classes page.

Items, quests and PvP

• Dungeon quest rewards drop a tier. Various dungeon quest rewards went from Rare to Uncommon, with stats updated to match. Blizzard doesn’t list which ones.
• Wolfshead Helm now grants 5 additional Energy when Shifting Power is used; the Rage part of the helm is unchanged.
• Truthseeker’s Bow, from the Greater Friend of the Library quest, requires level 40, like the other two rewards of that quest chain.
• Desolace. The new Gelkis and Magram quests that begin with Valley of Bones need level 35 (was 30). Sixteen of their rewards were retuned and will require level 35 to equip in an upcoming hotfix.
• PvP crits are back. Critical strikes in PvP no longer have reduced efficacy, the bug a Blizzard designer had promised to remove. The rest of the system is on our WoW Forever PvP guide.
• Weapon swaps in one press. A macro can again swap several weapons within the same global cooldown, from a two-hander to a sword and shield for example. Ready-made ones are on the WoW Forever macros page.
• Dying costs less, datamined. Wowhead’s datamining of the build shows resurrecting at a Spirit Healer costing 25% durability instead of 50%, with Resurrection Sickness unchanged. It isn’t in Blizzard’s notes.

Our weapon and best-in-slot lists now read client build 1.60.1.70291 and show the quest rewards lowered to Uncommon and Truthseeker’s Bow at level 40. The Desolace rewards read the same in that client as before, so their numbers on our lists are unchanged.

Interface and quality of life

• Cooldown Manager: all classes, racial abilities and trinkets are supported. Consumables come in a later patch.
• Looting: Classic looting behavior is back, so a creature that dropped no loot can still be interacted with.
• Voice: voice chat can be set to Discord Voice under Audio settings, for the whole party by the leader’s setting, and a Group Finder listing can pick a voice mode its members are prompted to join.
• Quests: quest types are written out in the quest log, tracker and dialogue, and the tracker shows level requirements.
• Inspecting: View Talents sits below Inspect in the target frame’s menu, and the inspect window was updated.
• Gamepad: the gamepad action bar is set up in Edit Mode now, where its old options have to be set again; layouts are saved per interface type.
• Barbers: the barbers of the capital cities were replaced with local ones.

Three known issues are new with this build: the Skyborne Druid’s cat form and some creatures, mounts and pets still wait for their texture updates, a Hunter’s Ferocity talent doesn’t show its pet critical strike chance on the character sheet (visual only), and some icons in the Professions window look broken.

What this means for you

• A dungeon group is worth it again, within limits. Blizzard’s own estimate puts a perfect run about level with optimal questing, and a higher-level friend no longer drags your experience down.
• Level 28 to 30 in the beta? You can now test the City of Dalaran. The other dungeons by level are on the WoW Forever dungeons page.
• Testers can try any Legacy build now. With 16 points and 1 silver re-specs, the beta is the place to compare perks before launch.
• Warriors and Bear Druids should feel less Rage-starved while questing, where Armor is far below a tank’s.
• It’s a beta. The granted points and the 1 silver re-specs are for testing only, and numbers keep moving until launch on November 4.

Related WoW Forever guides

• Leveling
• Dungeons
• Legacy System
• Class Changes
• PvP