Forever Q&A: no heroic raids, no rated PvP, and a built-in damage meter

Blizzard's developer Q&A on Sept 17, streamed just before the WoW Forever beta opened, filled in a lot about how Forever plays at level 60. Randy Jordan, Josh Greenfield, Nora Mills and Tim Jones answered for the Forever team. This recap follows the write-ups from Warcraft Tavern and Icy Veins.

Raids have one difficulty. There are no heroic versions of dungeons or raids and no flex raiding, and the Horde and Alliance won't raid together, because the team wants faction friction to matter. Warcraft Tavern reports that raid tiers come in 10- and 20-player versions, with some raids built for 40. That fits the first tier, where Barrow Deeps is a 10-player raid, Hyjal Summit a 20-player one and Onyxia's Lair a 40-player one.

There are no current plans for rated PvP. Instead, Honor gets a seasonal track with its own set of rewards.

Addons follow modern WoW's rules. Blizzard told addon authors that Forever shares the retail game's interface code, including most of the APIs in patch 12.1.5, so addons that effectively play the game for you won't work. In return, a damage meter, a cooldown tracker and a swing timer are built into the game. The cooldown tracker is already in the beta, where Blizzard lists it as a work in progress.

Josh Greenfield, known to players as Aggrend, is also starting a weekly podcast that follows Forever through the beta and after launch. The same Q&A confirmed that GDKP raids won't be allowed. Greenfield also said Tarnished Undermine Reals, the Season of Discovery dungeon currency that bought gear, toys, patterns and reagents, are coming to Forever. How you'll earn them hasn't been said.