WoW Forever New Zones, All Four and How to Reach Them

World of Warcraft: Forever adds four new zones to the original Azeroth and rebuilds a long list of old ones. They sit across the whole levelling curve rather than stacked at the cap, so one is a starting zone and another holds the endgame.

The four are Zephras Isle at levels 1 to 12, The Riverglades at 35 to 45, Shen’Dralas at 40 to 45 and Mount Hyjal at 60.

Forever sits at year one of the timeline, after the Warcraft III: Forsaken Kingdom campaign and before the Dark Portal reopened. There are no flying mounts and no level scaling anywhere, so every zone is crossed on the ground and entered at the level it was tuned for

Zephras Isle, levels 1 to 12

The Skyborne starting zone, and rolling one is the only way to see it.

Zephras Isle floats in the elemental plane, anchored in Skywall by wind spirits after rebels fled Eldre’Thalas following the War of the Ancients. Those spirits have since vanished and the anchor is failing. Failing structures and isolated communities set the tone, so this is not a pastoral starting valley.

The faction choice happens at character creation, and the reason behind it is lore rather than balance. Horde-aligned Skyborne keep the elemental traditions that saved them, which is why they get Shaman. Alliance-aligned Skyborne pursue the arcane legacy their ancestors ran with, which is why they get Mage. Both sides also play Warrior, Hunter, Rogue and Druid, with druid forms built specifically for the race.

The island runs to 12 and then hands you to your faction’s usual 10 to 20 zones. It is a prologue rather than a parallel track, and it needs the Skyborne Heroic Pack or higher

The Riverglades, levels 35 to 45

The zone that fixes the worst stretch of Classic levelling.

The Riverglades fills the empty ground bounded by Redridge Mountains, the Burning Steppes, the Badlands and the Swamp of Sorrows. Rivers, grassland and trade routes rather than a war front, with over 150 new quests.

Blizzard put it plainly. The Riverglades is not about saving Azeroth, it is about living in it. Struggling communities, old grudges and trade are the material.

Alliance reconnect with the Brotherhood of the Horse, absent since Warcraft II. Horde meet the Boulder Rock ogre clan. The Twilight’s Hammer is in there with them, and a neutral goblin port serves both sides.

The high thirties are exactly where Classic runs dry, Stranglethorn Vale becomes compulsory and Scarlet Monastery blurs together. You do not have to commit to the zone either. Break off from Stranglethorn, Desolace or Arathi Highlands, spend a few levels here, rejoin your route afterwards

Shen’Dralas, levels 40 to 45

Tucked between Mulgore and Desolace, with Feralas off its southern edge.

The zone is about the Shen’dralar, the night elves who stayed in Dire Maul. Eldre’Thalas was a Highborne library and court before the Sundering, and losing the Well of Eternity cost them their power source. Prince Tortheldrin’s answer was to bind a demon behind pylons and drain it. The court survived and hollowed out.

For twenty years the Shen’dralar existed as a reputation grind behind a dungeon door. This takes the story out into the open.

Running alongside it is the war between the Gelkis and Magram centaur clans, who have split Desolace between them since vanilla and whose conflict Forever treats as live rather than flavour text.

Its quests send you into Maraudon and Razorfen Downs. Both sit close enough to make the trip short, and that is the pattern across Forever. Old instances get new reasons to exist rather than new bosses

Mount Hyjal, level 60

The finale of the levelling journey and the home of the endgame.

Hyjal sits in the aftermath of Archimonde’s defeat, with his skeleton still lying by Nordrassil. Forever runs before Cataclysm and before the Caverns of Time version of that fight, so the wreckage is recent history rather than a memorial.

It is built as an endgame levelling zone rather than a raid antechamber. Reputations, quest chains and group content run alongside each other, and a mixed Horde and Alliance camp holds an uneasy truce inside because neither side can leave.

The route through the mountain goes down into Darkwhisper Gorge before it goes up. In the original game the gorge was not part of Hyjal at all. It shipped as a corner of Winterspring, tuned at 60, and the quest text always placed its demons in Hyjal’s foothills. Forever finally runs a road through it.

Hyjal has been drawn on the Kalimdor map since 2004 without being a place you were meant to go. Players climbed in anyway and found scenery and silence. It returned as a TBC raid, became playable in Cataclysm, and Season of Discovery sent people up for one quest. This is the first release to build it out inside original Azeroth

What opens on December 9

Neither raid is available at launch. Forever goes live on November 4 and the raid tier follows five weeks later, so the first month at 60 is spent on the mountain rather than inside it.

Hyjal Summit is the 20-player raid and sits at the top of the mountain. Barrow Deeps is the 10-player maximum-level challenge, and one of its three entrances opens inside Hyjal. New tier sets and a legendary reward are attached to the pair.

Onyxia’s Lair opens the same day as the original 40-player raid. It is not in Hyjal and never has been, it simply shares the date

Every new dungeon and where it is

Nine of them, spread across the whole climb.

Hall of Thanes and Ruins of Lordaeron both open before level 20, far earlier than Classic ever allowed group content. Krol’dok Stronghold is an outdoor ogre stronghold rather than an instance cut into a hillside, and its fifteen-level window makes it a real alternative to running Scarlet Monastery another forty times

The old zones that changed

Four new zones is the headline. The rebuild of the existing world is bigger, with the 1,000-plus new quests spread across the whole 1 to 60 range.

Desolace and the Wetlands are the two Blizzard singled out for major quest additions, both zones with a reputation for feeling empty. Mulgore gains a plateau overlooking Thunder Bluff.

Tirisfal Glades opens the Whispering Wood, sealed in Classic, where Bandarion Keep anchors the Forsaken Paladin story. Dalaran returns rebuilt with its barrier down and the Kirin Tor asking for help. North Azshara opens the Furbolg Gates onto a great furbolg city.

Every starting zone gains new NPCs and quests layered alongside the original content rather than replacing it, so the Classic route you remember still works

Getting around

Three new ports, and two of them fix complaints twenty years old.

• Steamwheedle Port to Powderfuse Port, the main way into the Riverglades
• Redridge through the Burning Steppes, the overland route into the Riverglades if you are already questing in the Eastern Kingdoms
• Southshore, whose dock has been unused for twenty years, becomes a Menethil to Auberdine stop
• Stormwind Harbor arrives early, connecting Auberdine and the Wetlands to Stormwind City

Mount Hyjal sits above Winterspring and Felwood in northern Kalimdor. Shen’Dralas opens off the Mulgore and Desolace borders. Zephras Isle is the exception, since you reach it by rolling a Skyborne and no other way

The graphics toggle

Water and lighting both got rebuilt and all of it is optional. The Classic art underneath is unchanged. What changes is the rendering on top.

Water gets a new renderer. Lighting takes the larger share, with global illumination, real-time shadows and volumetric particles, and the difference shows across a day cycle rather than in one screenshot. Rivers run through Elwynn Forest, mist sits on the water in Darkshore, moonlight breaks through the canopy in Ashenvale.

The 2004 look stays available untouched, and character models work the same way with SD and HD both available

What to do first

• Roll Skyborne if you want Zephras Isle. It is the only zone behind a purchase
• Decide Horde or Alliance before you make one. That choice picks Shaman or Mage as your bonus class
• Run Hall of Thanes or Ruins of Lordaeron before 20. Group content opens earlier than Classic ever allowed
• Head for the Riverglades at 35. It fills the exact stretch where Classic quests run out
• Take the boats. Four routes now exist and nothing flies
• Save Hyjal for 60. Spend the first month on the mountain, because the raids open December 9

Forever spreads four zones across the whole climb rather than parking them at the cap. KingBoost handles WoW Forever levelling from launch day if you would rather reach Hyjal sooner