WoW Forever’s Nine New Dungeons Turn Classic Azeroth’s Missing Places Into Adventures

Some of World of Warcraft's most interesting locations have spent more than twenty years sitting just beyond the player's reach. World of Warcraft: Forever is finally opening several of them, launching on November 4 with nine completely new five-player dungeons spread across its level 1–60 journey.

Some of World of Warcraft's most interesting locations have spent more than twenty years sitting just beyond the player's reach. World of Warcraft: Forever is finally opening several of them, launching on November 4 with nine completely new five-player dungeons spread across its level 1–60 journey. Blizzard's latest dungeon showcase concentrates on three of the earliest — Hall of Thanes beneath Ironforge, the undead-infested Ruins of Lordaeron and Excavation Site: Wetlands — while briefly showing the restored City of Dalaran that players will explore later in their progression.

The locations are new, but Blizzard is deliberately resisting the temptation to design them like modern World of Warcraft instances. The philosophy is much closer to original WoW: dangerous trash, patrols capable of ruining careless pulls, valuable dungeon quests, limited convenience and groups expected to communicate rather than sprint through a perfectly optimised corridor. Blizzard's own description is succinct: clear pulls, real stakes, valuable quests and necessary teamwork.

Nine new dungeons are being woven through the entire 1–60 journey

Forever's dungeon lineup begins early and continues almost all the way to the level cap. The current beta progression places Hall of Thanes around levels 13–18 and Ruins of Lordaeron around 15–20, followed by Excavation Site: Wetlands in the mid-20s and City of Dalaran around the late-20s to early-30s.

Later adventures move into The Drowned City, Krol'dok Stronghold and Alcaz Prison, before the journey reaches the high-level Blackmaw Hold and Shaper's Terrace. The latter two push directly toward level 60, effectively giving Forever new dungeon content at both ends of the levelling experience rather than reserving most of its original additions for endgame.

Those level bands are still being adjusted during beta — Excavation Site has already shifted during testing — so players should expect final launch numbers to differ slightly. The underlying structure, however, is clear. Forever is not asking everyone to level through the same Classic instances again before discovering something new at 60. New adventures begin almost immediately.

Hall of Thanes finally opens the doors beneath Ironforge

Alliance players will encounter one of Forever's most evocative ideas extremely early. Hall of Thanes lies directly beneath Ironforge's throne room, exploring the ancient dwarven burial halls that have effectively existed underneath players for decades without becoming a proper dungeon.

Its story begins after Dark Iron dwarves tunnel into the crypts searching for treasures belonging to Ironforge's dead rulers. The disturbance awakens the spirits buried within, turning what should have been a sacred historical site into a mixture of tomb raiding, elemental danger and restless dwarven dead.

Blizzard has designed it as an introductory Alliance dungeon comparable in function to Ragefire Chasm for Horde players. That does not mean it is completely forgiving. Patrols can complicate otherwise simple pulls, trash packs become increasingly dangerous deeper inside and careless positioning around knockbacks or fears can easily turn one manageable encounter into several simultaneously.

The beta version currently contains four bosses — Faldrim Anvilmar, Magmatus, Plunder and Durgen Dirgehammer — alongside five Alliance dungeon quests. It is deliberately uncomplicated compared with modern Mythic+ encounters, but that simplicity shifts responsibility toward preparation, crowd control, threat management and deciding exactly what the group should pull next.

For a new player, it teaches how a Classic-style dungeon works.

For somebody who played vanilla twenty years ago, it checks whether they still remember.

Healers may notice Forever’s dungeon philosophy before everyone else

The trailer repeatedly stresses something modern WoW players can easily underestimate: resources matter across the entire dungeon, not merely inside boss encounters.

Original World of Warcraft regularly asked healers and casters to manage mana from one trash pack to the next. Drinking between pulls was normal. Accidentally adding another patrol could turn a comfortable resource situation into disaster. The tank pulling because everyone technically survived the previous fight was not necessarily the correct decision.

Hall of Thanes has been built with that rhythm in mind. Hard-hitting trash, patrol routes and groups of enemies where crowd control can meaningfully reduce incoming damage make the dungeon less about solving elaborate encounter scripts and more about executing the fundamentals consistently.

That theme extends across Forever's wider class design. Blizzard has said that it does not want to modernise Classic combat until every character behaves like a contemporary WoW spec. Dungeon encounters are therefore being constructed around the mechanical complexity and pacing of Forever's classes rather than importing Retail's much faster ability density into an older ruleset.

Ruins of Lordaeron is both a dungeon and a Warcraft history lesson

If Hall of Thanes explores somewhere players always knew existed, Ruins of Lordaeron revisits somewhere players already understand intimately.

The dungeon takes place above the Undercity in the remains of Lordaeron's former capital, an area central to Warcraft III and the origin of the Forsaken. Scourge remnants continue haunting the ruins, leaving players to clear undead threats and help release spirits still trapped by what happened there.

It is one of the earliest demonstrations of Forever's approach to continuity. Blizzard is setting this version of Azeroth after the events of Warcraft III: Reforged – Forsaken Kingdom but before the traditional beginning of WoW's raid progression at Molten Core. That provides room to examine consequences that original World of Warcraft often left sitting in the background.

Lordaeron is an obvious example. Players have run underneath the ruined capital since 2004. Forever asks what is actually still happening above it.

Lordaeron refuses to become another straight corridor

The dungeon's structure also pushes against a design trend that eventually became standard across MMO instances. Ruins of Lordaeron is substantially nonlinear.

Its six bosses can be approached in different orders, optional discoveries are hidden around the ruins and some encounters require players to recognise environmental clues rather than simply following a corridor until another boss arena appears. One beta encounter, Viktor the Vile, is triggered through an interactable fireplace and waves of enemies, meaning groups can potentially walk straight past it if nobody investigates.

Witherfang, The Baron, Viktor the Vile, The Abandoned, Bjork and Rath'mael make up the known boss roster, with both Horde and Alliance questlines providing additional reasons to explore the space rather than simply eliminate the final target as quickly as possible.

That design fits Forever's broader objective. Blizzard wants Azeroth itself to remain important, and a dungeon that resembles an actual ruined district rather than an obvious theme-park route supports that philosophy considerably better.

Forever’s new lighting system becomes an actual dungeon hazard

Ruins of Lordaeron is also unusual because much of it takes place outdoors. That gives Blizzard an opportunity to show Forever's updated rendering technology inside dungeon gameplay rather than merely using it to make Elwynn Forest prettier.

Moving shadows, fog and deeper contrast can make enemies harder to read when they are standing in dark sections of the ruins. Blizzard consequently recommends pulling packs into open, illuminated spaces where the group can maintain cleaner sightlines.

It is a small mechanic, but conceptually important. Forever's graphical changes are intended to preserve original WoW's stylised visual identity rather than replace everything with Retail assets. If lighting can affect how a party actually approaches a pull, the rendering overhaul becomes part of gameplay instead of simply a before-and-after comparison for screenshots.

A dungeon about haunted ruins benefits enormously from the atmosphere.

A healer discovering another ghoul in the fog may appreciate it slightly less.

Excavation Site turns Wetlands archaeology into a disaster

The third dungeon receiving significant attention in the trailer is Excavation Site: Wetlands, positioned around Whelgar's Excavation Site. Players familiar with Classic will recognise the location as an Explorer's League archaeological operation already present in the open world.

Forever asks the natural question: what did those dwarves eventually find?

Predictably, the answer appears to have been something they should probably have left underground.

Players enter after an expedition goes wrong, crossing open water and moving through an area increasingly dominated by hostile wildlife and whatever mystery lies behind the excavation. Unlike Hall of Thanes' narrow underground spaces or Lordaeron's ruined streets, the Wetlands dungeon uses its surrounding zone as the basis for encounter design.

That includes a surprisingly dangerous quantity of reptiles.

The tall grass has raptors, because apparently Wetlands needed Jurassic Park

The trailer singles out tall grass containing several types of raptors, including enemies capable of remaining hidden before attacking the group.

Blizzard's advice is essentially to slow down.

Moving carefully, controlling pulls and keeping vulnerable party members — particularly the healer — away from suspicious vegetation becomes part of navigating the dungeon. It is an old-school form of danger: not a giant floor indicator announcing where damage will appear three seconds later, but environmental knowledge that groups acquire after somebody makes the mistake once.

That distinction captures what Forever appears to want from its dungeon design. The challenge does not necessarily come from mechanically dense bosses requiring add-ons and precise timers. It comes from the dungeon itself being capable of killing an inattentive party.

Overpull something in Hall of Thanes. Lose track of enemies in Lordaeron's fog. Walk into raptor-infested grass in Wetlands.

The lesson is different each time, but the punishment is remarkably consistent.

Dalaran finally exists as somewhere you can actually enter

The brief look at City of Dalaran may ultimately be even more significant for long-time Warcraft players.

In original World of Warcraft, Dalaran is inaccessible beneath its enormous magical dome in the Alterac Mountains. Lore explains that the Kirin Tor are rebuilding following Archimonde's destruction of the city during Warcraft III, but players cannot simply walk inside and see how that recovery is progressing.

Forever removes the barrier.

The city has been restored, but things have gone badly enough that it becomes a dungeon rather than a friendly capital. The Kirin Tor remain suspicious of outsiders, and players begin by entering through dangerous sewers before fighting upward toward the city streets.

For Alliance characters, access is comparatively direct once they reach the relevant entrance. Horde players have a more involved route tied to gaining access through a quest chain and the sewers.

It is exactly the type of location Forever was created to explore: not a new continent appearing beyond the ocean, but an unanswered question that has been sitting on the original map since 2004.

The other five dungeons dig even deeper into unfinished Azeroth

Blizzard is still withholding most details for the later instances, but their locations already reveal the project's direction.

The Drowned City involves naga and pirates, while Krol'dok Stronghold continues the expansion's interest in uncovering places that existed conceptually around the original world without receiving full dungeon treatment. Alcaz Prison brings players to the mysterious Alcaz Island, another location with deep Classic associations.

Then comes Blackmaw Hold, described as a large furbolg settlement hidden behind the gates in northern Azshara. Blizzard has already teased unsettling corruption within its depths, and its high-level range suggests it will be one of Forever's more substantial pre-60 adventures.

Finally, Shaper's Terrace pushes players into Titan mysteries connected with Un'Goro. As one of the highest-level launch dungeons, it naturally sits close to Forever's first raid tier and the broader ancient-history threads running through the original game's world.

The pattern is consistent. Blizzard is prioritising locations players could point toward on an old map and ask, “Why was there never anything there?”

Forever's answer is increasingly: there is now.

The original dungeons are not disappearing

Nine new dungeons would already constitute a substantial launch lineup, but Forever also retains the original Classic dungeon catalogue.

Deadmines, Wailing Caverns, Shadowfang Keep, Scarlet Monastery, Uldaman, Dire Maul, Scholomance and the rest remain part of the levelling and endgame journey. Blizzard has also revisited their itemisation, adding new rewards, improving weaker drops and expanding quest reward choices so more roles have something meaningful to earn.

That produces a dungeon pool far larger than the nine-new-instance headline suggests.

It also solves one of the fundamental risks of a Classic-plus project. If Blizzard simply replaced the old content, Forever would stop feeling like original Azeroth. If it added nothing substantial, players who have levelled through Classic repeatedly would know almost every route before creating their character.

The new dungeons sit between familiar milestones, letting an experienced player run Deadmines one evening and enter Hall of Thanes for something they genuinely have never seen the next.

Dungeon quests matter more than endless mob grinding

Forever is also changing the levelling incentive surrounding dungeons. Beta adjustments have reduced the value of repeatedly grinding dungeon enemies while placing greater emphasis on completing dungeon questlines.

That discourages players from treating an instance as an endlessly repeatable XP corridor. Blizzard instead wants dungeon runs to feel like part of an adventure through the surrounding zone: gather the relevant quests, travel to the entrance, complete objectives, collect meaningful rewards and then continue the journey.

The exact beta XP tuning has already changed and may move again before November 4, but the intent is clear. Forever's dungeons are meant to complement open-world levelling rather than replace it.

That fits one of the project's core rules: journey before destination.

Finding the dungeon is deliberately part of the dungeon

Modern convenience has also been restricted. Forever includes tools for helping players find other adventurers, but it does not automatically teleport the party into the instance.

Blizzard has similarly confirmed that Summoning Stones will not function as instant transportation. If a group decides to run a dungeon, its members are generally expected to travel there through the world. Warlocks retain their traditional summoning utility, giving the class an actual social advantage rather than allowing every stone outside an instance to perform the same service automatically.

That can sound unnecessarily inconvenient when viewed purely through the lens of efficiency. Blizzard's argument is that convenience has consequences. Instant dungeon teleportation removes journeys across Azeroth, reduces spontaneous encounters and makes the physical position of an instance almost irrelevant.

Forever wants Hall of Thanes to feel as though it is beneath Ironforge.

It wants reaching the Wetlands excavation to involve actually going to the Wetlands.

Dungeon completion feeds into Forever’s account-wide Legacy System

There is another reason the full dungeon catalogue matters beyond loot. Forever's Legacy System includes account-wide challenges for completing dungeon brackets.

Players can earn Legacy Points by defeating the final bosses across level 15–25, 26–45 and 46–60 dungeon ranges. Those points contribute to a horizontal progression system shared across the account, allowing individual characters to invest in perks covering adventure, professions and resourcefulness while cumulative points also unlock cosmetic rewards.

That makes exploring the dungeon catalogue part of Forever's long-term progression rather than something players abandon forever after replacing the loot.

The system is particularly relevant for alts. Blizzard wants players to repeatedly experience the 1–60 world with different classes, professions and routes, and nine new dungeons create more ways for subsequent characters to avoid following exactly the same path.

Raids are deliberately waiting until December

The dungeon emphasis will be particularly noticeable at launch because Forever's new raids do not open immediately.

World of Warcraft: Forever launches globally on November 4, while its first raid content unlocks on December 9. Barrow Deeps arrives as a 10-player challenge, Hyjal Summit as a 20-player raid and Onyxia remains part of the initial level-60 raid progression.

That gives players more than a month to level, explore the new zones, run both classic and new dungeons, develop professions and prepare characters without feeling pressured to reach raid readiness during the opening week.

For a game built around deliberately slowing the journey down, that spacing is important.

November is about Azeroth.

December can start worrying about the raid calendar.

Forever originally planned four new dungeons — then Blizzard kept building

Perhaps the strongest indication of how central these instances became during development is that Blizzard reportedly began with a substantially smaller ambition. The internal concept originally involved four new dungeons.

That eventually became nine.

The expansion mirrors what happened to Forever itself. What could have been another experimental Classic season grew into a permanent parallel version of World of Warcraft, informed by Classic, Hardcore and Season of Discovery but designed to keep expanding indefinitely.

Blizzard now describes Forever as neither a season nor another temporary Classic mode. The intention is an evergreen Azeroth rooted in the game's original era, with additional quests, dungeons, raids and regions continuing to arrive over time.

Nine launch dungeons are therefore only the starting set. The current roadmap already promises additional dungeons in later updates.

These dungeons explain the entire point of World of Warcraft: Forever

A new version of vanilla WoW was always going to face one awkward question: why start again?

Hall of Thanes, Ruins of Lordaeron, Excavation Site and City of Dalaran provide one of Blizzard's strongest answers.

They look as though they could have existed in 2004.

They occupy places that were already part of Warcraft's geography or lore.

Their combat follows rules familiar to players who remember Classic.

But nobody completed them twenty years ago because they did not exist.

That balance between recognition and discovery is exactly what Forever has to achieve if its version of Azeroth is going to survive as something more interesting than another fresh Classic server.

World of Warcraft: Forever launches globally on November 4, 2026, with nine new dungeons alongside the original game's existing instances. Hall of Thanes and Ruins of Lordaeron are already available in the ongoing beta, additional dungeons are being introduced as testing continues, and the beta itself remains scheduled to conclude on October 21.

Blizzard is not replacing old Azeroth.

It is finally opening some of the doors that have been locked since 2004.