World of Warcraft: Forever

This week

• October 8, new build: City of Dalaran (levels 28 to 33) is open for testing, dungeon kills give about 20% more experience, and the party XP penalty is back to Classic Era rules.
• October 8, Legacy: every tester was granted the 16 Legacy points. Plan them in the Legacy planner.
• October 7, PvP: Blizzard explained how PvP progression works: Honor to spend, Rank Points for the 14 ranks, a blue and an epic gear set joined by Emboldened Seals, and a seasonal weekly journey. Darkspear Islands is a 15v15 battleground for levels 30 to 60.
• PAX Aus: Clay Stone's dungeon deep dive was scheduled for the October 8 keynote (US time). Blizzard hasn't published a written recap yet, so nothing from it is on this site. A Server Slam date is still to be announced.

What the October 8 build changed

The October 8 build is the newest. The level cap stays at 30, where the October 1 build put it. The changes that matter most when planning:

• Dungeons and XP: City of Dalaran (28 to 33) is open, dungeon kills give about 20% more experience, and a higher-level party member no longer cuts everyone's XP. Dungeon quests still give 50% less bonus experience, as since October 1.
• Rage: Rage from taking damage was fixed and rebalanced around 20 to 40% armor. Bear Form crits give 100% more Rage (was 75%) and bear threat is up to 50%.
• Talents: Arms needs Deep Wounds again to reach Impale, Feral's Predatory Instincts became Natural Instinct (it also adds spell healing from Intellect), and Survival's Expose Prey lasts 10 seconds. The planner has all three.
• Tuning: Retribution Aura and Thorns are back to Vanilla damage with a 6% spell power ratio, Penance does less damage and healing, and the low ranks of Wrath, Frostbolt, Fireball, Arcane Missiles, Smite, Lesser Heal, Heal, Lightning Bolt and Shadow Bolt were retuned so each new rank is an upgrade.
• Everything else: the Cooldown Manager covers every class, racial abilities and trinkets; critical strikes no longer have reduced effect in PvP; several dungeon quest rewards dropped from Rare to Uncommon.
• October 1, for context: the level cap went from 20 to 30, Fury was reworked, the Protection Warrior tree was rearranged and Shifting Power replaced Tiger's Fury.

Sources: Blizzard's development notes, updated October 8 ↗ · Aggrend on the dungeon XP fix ↗ · How PvP Progression Works ↗ · Every class, line by line: beta changes by build. Still broken: known issues.