World of Warcraft: Forever is currently in beta, but Blizzard plans to update it ahead of the full game’s release. Coming soon: heavy rain.
This is a bigger deal than it sounds! Weather effects can make all the different in terms of variance of atmosphere when you spend a huge amount of time questing in certain zones, so having the look and feel of the great outdoors change as you bash monsters on the head is sure to make Azeroth feel ever more immersive. And as someone who played World of Warcraft back when it launched, the prospect of going on a gnoll murder spree in the pouring rain is particularly enticing.
“Starting soon you will see increased weather effects in certain WoW: Forever Beta Zones!” Blizzard said, alongside a clip of the heavy rain in action in Elwynn Forest, World of Warcraft’s iconic human starter zone. If you’ve been playing the WoW: Forever beta — as so many have — you’ll be familiar with the sights and sounds of this place. Soon, you’ll have heavy rain added to the mix.
Players reacted positively to the news. “I’m never leaving this place,” one person said in the WoW: Forever subreddit. “INJECT IT INTO MY VEINS,” added another. “Damn that’s cozy as hell,” commented another fan.
The question is, how extensive will these increased weather effects be, and where in the world will we see them? Some are wondering if we’ll get thunder and lightning, dust storms, and maybe even snowing (a blizzard from Blizzard, perhaps?). It won’t be long until we find out.
For the uninitiated, Blizzard ended BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony with the announcement of World of Warcraft: Forever, a “Classic Plus” MMO developed by the World of Warcraft Classic team, and set during the first year of World of Warcraft.
While Forever doesn’t launch until November 4, the beta was made available last week and it was flooded by players. World of Warcraft Classic developer Josh Greenfield took to X / Twitter to provide some insight into the popularity of the beta. “Man, it was hard to sleep last night, I was so excited,” Greenfield said. “Beta has been… crazy. The craziest numbers I’ve seen in 17 years working at Blizzard and almost eight years on classic. We’ve got something really special here.”
Blizzard intends to maintain Forever’s Classic+ identity, even if that means avoiding adding some quality-of-life features the game’s retail version has had for years. That means you won’t see Forever get shared drops and tagging, which one Blizzard developer said is “one of those things that we simply must hold the line on.”
Wesley Yin-Poole
Director, News
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].