World of Warcraft: Forever has redesigned raid loot: each boss drops a rare item with a low chance and a strong effect, tier set pieces drop in 10, 20, and 40-player raids alike, and the pace of item power growth has been deliberately slowed so that older raids don't lose their value.

World of Warcraft: Forever has redesigned raid loot. Each boss will drop a rare item with a low drop chance and a strong effect, tier set pieces drop equally in 10, 20, and 40-player raids, and item power growth has been slowed — older content should stay relevant longer.

Rare item from every boss

Blizzard developers Chris Zirhut and Michael Natals said in an interview at BlizzCon that each raid boss will have an item with a very low drop chance. According to the team, its effect is so strong that it's worth going back to a boss you've already killed.

They gave their own benchmark for power: it's a trophy from Burning Crusade that people once hunted for months. The meaning is clear — give a reason to revisit a boss, the way legendaries did in classic, but spread such things across the whole raid instead of leaving the chance to a chosen few.

Tier set in every raid size

The main change for guild planning: tier set pieces drop in 10-player, 20-player, and 40-player raids alike. This removes the question that would otherwise come up in the first month: whether a small raid would end up 'second-class'. It won't — a built 10-man can gear up in the set without needing a 40-man roster.

Sizes are fixed, there will be no flexible raid size. Three raids are announced for launch:

• Barrow Deeps — 10 players
• Hyjal Summit — 20 players
• Onyxia's Lair — 40 players

Items grow more slowly

It was also said that the pace of item power growth has been intentionally slowed. The goal is for content not to lose value with the very next patch. In classic, the transition to a new raid zeroed out almost the entire previous set; here they want to avoid that.

For the player, this means a run through an older raid doesn't lose its meaning a month after a new one comes out. For the guild — the roster doesn't have to chase every patch to stay combat-ready.

Dungeon leveling: not cancelled, but rearranged

The team also explained how the change ties to leveling. The XP curve wasn't touched, but XP inside dungeons was significantly cut, while the reward for turning in dungeon quests was noticeably raised. The point is what's actually worthwhile.

Your first run for quests remains a good way to gain levels. The tenth lap around the same corridors for XP — no longer. This is the concrete side of that measure against 'leveling by other hands' that was discussed in connection with the rejection of tokens and boosts.

Molten Core — not at launch

About the legendary classic raid they said it straight: the opening has been postponed. The reason — it was run too many times, and starting with it would mean starting from the familiar. This matches Forever's place in the chronology: events run up to Molten Core, and the starting point is the same as it was in November 2004.

What this means for you

• Small guilds aren't at a disadvantage: tier set drops equally in 10, 20, and 40-player raids. A built 10-man can gear up in the set without rounding up forty people.
• Three raids at launch with fixed sizes: 10, 20, and 40. There will be no flexible raid size, so pick the one that fits your roster right away.
• Rare items give a reason to come back: each boss drops a very strong item with a low chance — the run for it becomes the same kind of goal as Burning Crusade trophies once were.
• Old raids don't lose value quickly: item power growth has been slowed, so a run through the previous raid a month after a new one comes out still makes sense.
• Dungeon leveling now works differently: mob XP has been cut, quest XP has been raised — spamming corridors for levels is no longer worth it.
• No Molten Core yet: it's promised for later, so Forever starts with fresh content rather than nostalgia.

The Forever beta runs until October 21, 2026; release — November 4, 2026 at 23:00 UTC (05.11 02:00 MSK).