WoW Forever New Zones Guide: Riverglades, Mount Hyjal, Shen'dralas, Zephras Isle

World of Warcraft: Forever launches on 4 November 2026 at 3:00 PM PST with 4 new zones and 1,000+ new quests across the 1 to 60 journey. Beta testing runs 17 September through 21 October. The beta caps characters at 20, and later at 30. It shows Zephras Isle, the revamped starting zones and the expanded Wetlands. The Riverglades, Mount Hyjal and Shen’dralas wait for launch.

Blizzard builds the new zones into the world you know instead of adding a new continent. 2 sit in the Eastern Kingdoms, 2 in Kalimdor, and 3 existing zones were expanded around them. Blizzard’s roadmap lists more world content and more 1 to 60 quests after launch, without dates yet.

Zephras Isle is the starting experience of the Skyborne, the new playable race, for levels 1 to 12. Thousands of years ago a group of highborne exiles made a pact with the wind spirits and built a civilization in Skywall. Now the air spirits have vanished, the ancient structures are failing and the Skyborne are divided over what comes next. That is the story you play through.

Skyborne pick Horde or Alliance at character creation. Horde Skyborne can be Shaman, Alliance Skyborne can be Mage, and both sides can be Warrior, Hunter, Rogue or Druid, with new Skyborne druid forms. Around level 12 the isle hands you over to the shared world.

The race and the isle need the Skyborne pack. A subscription plays everything else in Forever. Any other race starts in its Classic starting zone, which has new NPCs, quests and profession hooks.

The Riverglades sits on the eastern coast of the Eastern Kingdoms, between Redridge, the Burning Steppes, the Badlands and the Swamp of Sorrows. Blizzard built it in a part of the Classic map that was never accessible, and it is about the size of Stranglethorn Vale. A new fork off the Redridge road leads in, and a ship from Tanaris lands at Powderfuse Port, the neutral goblin port on its coast.

The story is about living in Azeroth. Generations ago human forces chased retreating orcs here, help never came, and the settlers stayed. Their descendants share the land with orcs, ogres, gnolls, goblins and murlocs, with the Twilight’s Hammer as the enemy and the Brotherhood of the Horse as an old ally.

The zone spans the mid 30s to the mid 40s with more than 150 quests for both factions, new reputations and new rewards. Krol’dok Stronghold, an outdoor dungeon run by an ogre clan, sits inside it for levels 40 to 45. This is the stretch where Classic leveling always thinned out, and Blizzard built the zone as the alternative to running the same instance again.

Mount Hyjal picks up after Archimonde’s defeat. Blizzard asks what happened next: how the forests heal from the corruption, how the wild gods were affected and what dangers remain. You travel through Darkwhisper Gorge and a part of Warcraft history the game never showed before.

Blizzard calls Hyjal its endgame leveling zone. It has new stories, new rewards, new reputations, and both solo and group content. Blizzard has not published a level range for it yet.

Hyjal is also the raid zone. It is home to Hyjal Summit, the 20-player raid, and it holds 1 of the 3 entrances to the Barrow Deeps, the 10-player raid. Both open on 9 December 2026, 5 weeks after launch, and both need a level 60 character. Details are in the raids guide.

Every zone on this page is a stop on the road to that 60. The whole road is about 150 hours of play.

On every calendar the Riverglades falls around the middle of the road and Hyjal comes at its end.

Anyone who flew between Mulgore and Desolace in Classic saw a set of ancient ruins far below. That is Shen’dralas. You enter it from the south of Desolace through the Valley of Bones, and Blizzard describes dozens of new quests there.

The zone belongs to the Shen’dralar, the people tied to Eldre’Thalas, Dire Maul and Prince Tortheldrin. The Gelkis and Magram centaur storylines from Desolace continue here, and the zone gives new reasons to visit Maraudon and Razorfen Downs.

Blizzard has not announced a level range for Shen’dralas yet. Its neighbours are mid-level zones, and the guide is updated the day Blizzard publishes the band.

3 kinds of existing zones were expanded. The Wetlands gets more than 25 new quests, new characters and new leveling paths, plus a new dungeon: Excavation Site: Wetlands, above Whelgar’s Excavation, for levels 24 to 29.

Desolace gets centaur faction quests with new rewards, and its south road now leads into Shen’dralas.

Every starting zone gets new NPCs, quests and profession hooks, so a profession is worth picking before you leave. Bandarion Keep in the Whispering Wood of Tirisfal is where the Forsaken Paladin story begins.

Quest rewards were updated across the old world too. Mor’ladim in Duskwood now also hands over the Ladimore Heirloom Ring, a spell power ring, and Nesingwary’s chain in Stranglethorn ends in the Master Hunter’s Spellsword.

Blizzard added 3 ship routes so that the new zones and the old ones connect without the longest Classic runs.

Route	Connects	What it changes
Stormwind Harbor to Auberdine	Eastern Kingdoms to Kalimdor at low level	Alliance friends on both continents can quest together from the starting zones
Menethil to Southshore to Auberdine	Wetlands, Hillsbrad and Darkshore	1 route with 3 stops links 3 leveling regions
Tanaris to Powderfuse Port	Steamwheedle Cartel to the Riverglades	Kalimdor characters reach the new zone by sea

There are no flying mounts in Forever. Your ground mount comes with the riding skill, and Blizzard has not announced its gold cost yet. Blizzard has not announced new flight paths either. Mount detail: mounts guide.

The new and expanded zones stitched to Blizzard’s 9 new dungeons and their level ranges. There is no level scaling, so a bracket means what it says.

Levels	Zone	New dungeon
1 to 12	Zephras Isle for Skyborne, or your starting zone	None yet
13 to 20	Classic 10 to 20 zones	Hall of Thanes 13 to 18, Ruins of Lordaeron 15 to 20
20 to 29	Wetlands, expanded	Excavation Site: Wetlands 24 to 29
28 to 34	Classic 25 to 35 zones	City of Dalaran 28 to 33
35 to 45	The Riverglades, Desolace	The Drowned City 35 to 40, Krol’dok Stronghold 40 to 45
45 to 53	Classic 45 to 55 zones, Shen’dralas	Alcaz Prison 48 to 53
55 to 60	Classic endgame zones, Mount Hyjal	Blackmaw Hold 55 to 60, Shaper’s Terrace 58 to 60

Run each new dungeon once for its quest XP, then return to the zone. The 1 to 60 route with hours per bracket is in the leveling guide; every dungeon in detail is in the dungeons guide.