As players continue to prep for the release of WoW Forever, Blizzard has been busy revealing new information. In a recent interview with IGN, Blizzard stated that their plan is to release a new Raid Tier every four months!
New Raid Tiers Every 4 Months
Principal Game Designer Kris Zierhut stated that the 8-week patch cycle in Retail feels too fast, while going over 6 months without new content makes the game feel stale. After experimenting in Season of Discovery, the team found that new major content every 17 weeks was the sweet spot.
| But Season of Discovery, we cut it down to closer to that eight week or 10 week schedule. It felt way, way, way too fast. So we’ve done a lot of experimentation to see what is the correct rate, and we’re fairly convinced the correct rate is something closer to once every four months or 17 weeks or three times a year, whatever you want to call it. That is a cadence we have in mind for releasing new content. |
In addition to new Raid Tiers being released every 4 months, there are also plans to sprinkle in smaller content patches between major releases. These in-between patches could include new leveling content, profession updates, or new game modes, such as Hardcore.
| We come up with enough local stories that it’s appropriate for a four month development period and then we release that four months and then we can have dangling threads to the story that we finish later. But the cadence intent is about four months, at least between raid tiers is four months. And then one nuance on that is we do plan on making content that unlocks in between. So you might have patches with major releases four months apart, but there may be things that unlock two or three months in or one month into that. So you want to stagger out some content across those four months. It’s not just patch day comes [around], here’s a content fire hose, and now we’re silent for four months. A lot of that is, hey, there’s a time event calendar that gradually unlocks things and opens them up over those four months to give things a little bit more life instead of that all at once effect. |
PvP Seasons
In addition to new Raids, PvP Seasons will also align with this 4-month cycle. Reaching Rank 14 each Season will allow players to unlock new cosmetics and powerful equipment.
| Our plan for PVP seasons, and there will be PVP seasons, is four months between seasons. So it’s a little more laid back than Retail, but not as laid back as some Classic era expansions, where you might go six months or longer between new raid tiers and new things to do. |
The first WoW Forever raids will release on December 9th. Additionally, the 2026-2027 roadmap shows new Raids coming in Spring and Summer of 2027. If Blizzard remains consistent, players should expect an additional Major Update in late Autumn of 2027 as well.
