Everything a newcomer needs before the first battleground
Crowd control (CC) means stuns, roots, fears, sheep and the like. In Forever, CC is grouped into diminishing returns (DR) groups. If you hit the same target with CC from the same group again, it lasts a shorter time. Blizzard has not published the full group list, the exact shortening, or the reset timer for Forever. 1234
Blizzard's Nov 3 notes: roots that occur from procs now correctly have diminishing returns, and lists these five. Entrapment got its DR fix on Oct 8. One fan site says these five share one DR group; Blizzard's notes do not say whether they share a group with each other or with other roots.
Not published for Forever. A fan site counts about 85 to 90 class, talent and racial spells (each rank counted) in DR groups, but does not name the groups or cite a source. Do not assume the Classic groups or timers carry over.
Greater Insignia of the Alliance / Greater Insignia of the Horde. Unlocks at Rank 2 (Corporal / Grunt). Use: removes all movement impairing effects and all effects which cause loss of control of your character. 5 minute cooldown. It is the same trinket for every class, unlike the class-specific Classic insignias.
Casters need to see you. If a Mage or Warlock is hitting you, step behind a wall, tree, rock or building. Their cast fails and they have to move to find you.
Run around a pillar or corner when you are losing. Melee chase you around it while your healer catches up. Casters lose their target every time you vanish behind it.
Keep 20 to 30 yards from melee. Stand behind your own front line, not in front of it. If melee reach you, slow, root or step away before you keep casting.
Stay on your target's back. Use your gap closer and slow early so they cannot walk away. Do not swap targets every few seconds.
Healers have range limits and need line of sight to you. If you run far ahead or around a corner, you get no heals. Fight where your healer can see you.
Enemies there come back to life in waves at full health and mana. Your group wears down while they reset. Pull back to a spot closer to your own side.
Ledges, bridges and slopes force melee to run the long way up. Casters on high ground get free time. Watch for knockbacks near edges.
A fleeing enemy at low health often leads you into their team. If they are past your group or near their base, let them go and get back to the objective.
Glance at it every few seconds. It shows where your team is, which bases are under attack, and gaps in your defense. Most newcomer deaths come from not seeing a group coming.
Do not stack on top of each other. Area spells and fears hit everyone in one spot. A few yards apart is enough.
Real moments you will hit in your first battlegrounds. Read the first step, then the rest.
Why: The trinket has a 5 minute cooldown. Using it on a short stun when you are safe means you have nothing left for the CC that would get you killed.
Why: You will lose a 1v2 alone. Your goal is to survive long enough for help to arrive or to turn it into a fair fight.
Why: Many roots are magic and can be removed by a friend for free. Save your trinket for the moment it decides the game.
Why: As long as the healer is free, the tank will not die. Removing the healer for even a few seconds makes the kill possible.
Why: A Rogue opener chains stuns. A healer who is stunned cannot heal themselves. Every second you wait is health they will not get back.
Why: Every second they spend on you is time for help to arrive. A dead defender gives them the base for free.
Why: Fleeing to your team turns their chase into a fight on your terms. Running alone into the open only makes you an easy kill.
Why: Fighting in small groups feeds the enemy kills and Honor. A regrouped team at full strength can win the next fight.
Why: Polymorph has a cast time, so pressure and interrupts stop it. A Mage under attack spends their time saving themselves, not locking your healer.
Why: Gankers want easy kills. If you keep coming back to the same spot alone, you feed them. Changing your spot or bringing help ends it.
Why: Your team plays differently if they know heals are stopping. A healer who goes silent and dies OOM loses the whole fight.
Why: A slowed carrier lets your whole team catch up. A call lets players across the map help instead of guessing.
Why: Fears are dangerous because of where they send you. Getting out of the enemy group matters more than the fear itself.
Why: One player against a group dies and waits at the graveyard. A small group or a trade of bases keeps the score close.
Why: Hunters are strongest at range and traps work in combat in Forever. Breaking line of sight forces them to come close, where you are stronger.
Why: Coming back alone into a group gives them free kills. A grouped wave can push them off or slip past them.
Why: Running straight to the nearest enemy wastes time. A minute of looking tells you where you are most useful.
Why: Diving deep into a group alone gets you killed. Steady pressure plus a chance to catch the healer wins more fights.
Why: Immunity lasts about 10 seconds. Hitting it does nothing, so spend those seconds on something useful.
Move with WASD and steer the camera with the right mouse button held down. Never click spells on your bar and never turn with A and D as keys: keyboard turners are slow and easy to catch. Put the spells you press most on keys your left hand reaches without lifting off WASD. Forever has a Quick Keybind mode: hover a bar slot and press a key to bind it. 5
| Key | Put here | Why |
|---|---|---|
| W A S D | Move forward, strafe left, back, strafe right. Set A and D to strafe, not turn. | Strafing keeps you moving while the mouse turns you. Turning with keys is slow and leaves you open. |
| Right mouse button (held) | Turn and aim your character. | Fastest way to face a target, run backward away from melee, or turn to cast. |
| 1 2 3 4 | Your main damage or healing spells, in the order you use them most. | Closest keys to WASD. You press these the most. |
| Q and E | Interrupt on one key, your main crowd control on the other. | Interrupts and CC must be instant. Q and E are next to your movement fingers. |
| R and F | Defensives and escapes (blink, sprint, shield, heal-self). | You press these in a panic. They need to be easy and fixed. |
| Shift + 1 to 4, Shift + Q/E | Second-tier spells: slows, dispels, short cooldowns. | A modifier doubles your easy keys without moving your hand. |
| Z X C V | Big cooldowns, PvP trinket, healing potion, bandage. | Used less often but must still be bound. Never click them. |
| Tab | Target nearest enemy (set it to players only for PvP, see settings). | Quick target swap without hunting with the mouse. |
| Mouse side buttons | Focus target, or a second interrupt. | Free buttons that do not take a finger off WASD. |
| Space | Jump. | Jumping while turning keeps you moving and is used to clear small obstacles. |
You see every enemy and their health over their head in big fights. 56
You see who is casting, so you know when to interrupt. 6
Shows who your target is attacking, so you know if a healer or friend needs help. 56
Stops Tab from picking pets and summons instead of real players.
Lets you cast on a party frame you hover without changing target. Shown in Blizzard's modern Combat options; not tested in Forever. 7
Your eyes stay on the fight. Edit Mode moves and resizes frames without addons. 68
#showtooltip Polymorph /cast [@focus,harm,nodead][@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Polymorph
Set an enemy healer as focus, then sheep them without losing your current target. Falls back to mouseover, then target. 910
#showtooltip Renew /cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][] Renew
Heal the party frame you hover without changing target. 9
#showtooltip Fade /stopcasting /cast Fade
Cancels your current cast so the escape fires right away. 9
#showtooltip Heroic Strike /startattack /cast Heroic Strike
Makes sure auto attack is on when you hit. 9
Yes. Addons that change the interface are allowed, but Forever uses modern API limits: addons cannot read the combat log, and enemy auras and crowd control on you are hidden from addons during matches. Classic Era addons need a Forever build (interface 16001 for game version 1.60.1 at launch). Blizzard has no approved list; addons must be free with readable code. Developers said they will restrict addons that automate communication or marking.
Confirmed: Forever has native controller support, labeled Gamepad (Alpha) in the game options. Blizzard added class flyouts (Druid forms, Hunter and Warlock pets, Paladin auras, Warrior stances), a Compact Action Bar option, Fixed Party Targeting, and options to swap targeting sides. Switching to gamepad mode changes the UI and uses radial menus. The bumpers target allies and enemies; the triggers are modifiers for your action buttons. Reported limits from beta: native gamepad binds are fixed (rebinding in Keybinds only changes keyboard), plain A/B/X/Y are locked to basic actions, ground-target spells cannot be aimed freely, and turning the gamepad UI on resets your Edit Mode layout. Steam Deck and Linux are not officially supported. ConsolePort has not announced Forever support and is untested. 121314151617
Forever has no realms. You pick a ruleset. On PvP (and Roleplay PvP), Blizzard says you are almost always at risk of being attacked by the other faction. You can only make characters on one faction there. Beta guides say you are flagged automatically in contested and enemy zones.
On Normal (and Roleplaying), PvP is at your own discretion. You fight other players only if you choose to: flag yourself (beta guides say /pvp or the portrait menu), duel, or join a battleground. Both factions are allowed.
Hardcore is one life per character and arrives sometime after launch, not on Nov 4. It is its own closed ecosystem. Hardcore players are not mixed into battlegrounds with other rulesets. A Hardcore character that dies can transfer to another ruleset, including PvP. PvP Legacy challenges cannot be done on Hardcore. Hardcore flagging and duel rules are not published.
Blizzard says faction balance on the PvP rulesets is an important consideration. It plans systems like Season of Discovery, where new character creation can be limited for one faction for a while. Exact thresholds are not published. Beta players saw creation locked to the smaller faction in early October.
Rank goes up by Rank Points, and ranks have a weekly cap (Blizzard confirmed). Honor is a separate currency for gear. Rank 14 cannot be reached before week 10. 421920252627
Ticks are saved in this browser only and clear each week.
You can queue at level 10. Each battleground opens at its own level. Below 60, brackets are ten levels wide (10-19, 20-29 and so on), and level 60 is its own bracket. Blizzard has not published Forever's brackets; this comes from the beta client. 2519
| Levels | Battlegrounds | What it is like |
|---|---|---|
| 10-19 | Warsong Gulch | Only Warsong Gulch (10v10) is open. |
| 20-29 | Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin | Arathi Basin (15v15) opens at 20. |
| 30-39 | Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, Darkspear Islands | Darkspear Islands (15v15, new) opens at 30. |
| 40-49 | Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, Darkspear Islands | |
| 50-59 | Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, Darkspear Islands, Alterac Valley | Alterac Valley (40v40) opens at 51 and is one 51-60 bracket. Rare PvP gear needs level 55. |
| 60 | Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, Darkspear Islands, Alterac Valley | WSG, AB and Darkspear Islands get a separate level 60 bracket. Epic PvP gear and Rank 14 weapons need level 60. |
No match. Try a shorter word.
Not published yet: Forever DR groups beyond procced roots, how much each repeat shortens CC, and the DR reset timer. Any PvP duration cap on CC in Forever. Which spell had its stun cut to 2.5 seconds in the Nov 3 notes (the line has no spell name in our sources). Exact flagging rules, flag timer and contested zone list per ruleset. Honorable kill level range, honor per kill, and whether repeat kills give less honor. Whether dishonorable kills exist in Forever. Hardcore PvP flagging and duel rules; whether Hardcore gets its own battlegrounds. Faction balance thresholds on the PvP ruleset. Weekly reset clock time and the exact Call to Arms bonus size. Whether Rank Points earned above the weekly cap carry over. Season length and whether ranks fully reset each season (Blizzard has not said; Conquest Capped says they do). Twinking: no Forever source covers XP lock or twink brackets. Exact console variable names (such as GamePadEnable) for Forever. No source confirms them. Whether ConsolePort works on Forever. Its author has not announced support; one guide claims an interim version but this is not confirmed. Whether native gamepad binds can be changed at launch. Beta reports say they were fixed. Whether a click-to-move option exists or is off by default in Forever. Whether a Loss of Control alert option exists in Forever. Whether Gladius, sArena, Gladdy, BigDebuffs or OmniCC have Forever builds. Whether mouseover cast in Combat options behaves the same in Forever as in the modern game. The Tab 'nearest enemy player' bind name in Forever's Keybinds menu is assumed from the modern game, not seen in a Forever source. Steam Deck performance.