WoW Forever Server & Realm List: Rulesets Explained

There is no WoW Forever realm list. World of Warcraft: Forever doesn’t have traditional realms. Instead of picking a server from a long list, you pick a ruleset. Each ruleset in your region works as one big community for questing, grouping, dungeons and raids.

“Instead of choosing from a long list of realms, players will select a ruleset.” (Blizzard)

The four rulesets

Ruleset	What it is	Available
Normal	Questing, exploration and PvE. PvP only when you choose to engage.	Launch (4 Nov)
PvP	Open-world combat in contested territory. One faction per account.	Launch
Roleplaying	For players who want to roleplay.	Launch
Hardcore	Permadeath. One life per character.	After launch, date not announced

Rules to know before you pick

• No grouping across rulesets for dungeons or raids. Your ruleset is your community.
• Battlegrounds can mix rulesets, except Hardcore, which is fully separate.
• Horde and Alliance still can’t group together.
• PvP ruleset: one faction per account. You can’t have Horde and Alliance characters there on the same account.
• Faction balance: Blizzard will use limits like Season of Discovery’s, so the more popular faction may face temporary restrictions on new characters.
• No free moves between rulesets. To play on another ruleset you make a new character. Warcraft Tavern’s developer Q&A mentions a paid service, but Blizzard hasn’t detailed one.
• Hardcore deaths aren’t the end. A Hardcore character that dies can move to any other ruleset, including PvP.
• Collections and Legacy are account-wide across Normal, PvP and RP. Hardcore doesn’t share Legacy rewards earned elsewhere.

Regions

Forever is split by region, and character names are unique within a region (see name reservation). Blizzard hasn’t published a full region list yet.

According to Warcraft Tavern’s developer Q&A, Oceanic players will mostly play on Australian servers and can group with US players at higher latency. Blizzard hasn’t confirmed this itself.

Will it be crowded?

Blizzard says it’s “not one giant realm for everyone”. Behind the scenes, layering splits busy areas. In the beta, a Blizzard community manager said Day 1 saw heavy layering that settled down afterwards. Expect the same at launch.

Which ruleset should you pick?

• Want a relaxed time, or you’re new? Normal.
• Want world PvP and faction pride? PvP, but pick your faction carefully. Alliance vs Horde →
• Want to roleplay? Roleplaying.
• Want the ultimate challenge? Wait for Hardcore after launch.

---

Sources: Blizzard: Choose your ruleset in WoW Forever, Forum mirror with blue replies, Wowhead: no more realms, Warcraft Tavern: Hardcore Legacy, Warcraft Tavern: developer Q&A.