In late September and early October 2026, the Blizzard forum and the r/wowforever subreddit lit up with discussions about which features of the original WoW deserve a place in Forever — from the combat system to the opening Azeroth map animation.

In late September and early October 2026, players in several threads on the Blizzard forum and the r/wowforever subreddit argued over what exactly makes Classic "Classic" — and which of those traits should carry over into Forever.

On September 30, a player on the Blizzard forum offered their own definition of Classic at its core: focused single-target combat. In their view, AoE in vanilla only worked against regular mobs, while elites always had to be taken down with single-target abilities — which demanded crowd control (Polymorph, Stun, Trap) and a deliberate rotation.

The situation changed with the arrival of the Death Knight class: it came with so much AoE that groups almost abandoned crowd control. Blizzard began designing tanks capable of holding an entire pack and handing out AoE tools to everyone. According to the post's author, this was "the beginning of the end of WoW."

The biggest threat in Forever, the author argues, is balance — not design. Blizzard wants to give players a sense of power and make more builds viable through items and class updates. But if the content becomes too easy, the same "AoE the pack down" problem will appear as in the modern version. "If you want to blow through mobs — that's what Diablo and retail are for, leave Forever alone," they wrote.

On October 1, a short post appeared on r/wowforever asking for the opening Azeroth map animation — the one players remember from vanilla — to return in Forever.

The same day, a thread titled "Blizzard, is this Classic or not? Please be transparent" opened on the Blizzard forum. In the author's view, Blizzard is building a retail-Classic hybrid to attract the widest possible audience, even though the product was originally marketed to the Classic+ crowd that asked for it. "Is this retail-lite? Classic+? A hybrid? Who is this for?" wrote one participant. Without clarity, the two camps will end up on opposite sides, each convinced the game is for them.