WoW Forever Beta Updates & Gold Buying Bans — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] Hey folks, this is Kalani. The gold buying drama in World of Warcraft Forever has finally come to a head, with some of the worst offenders, even popular streamers, getting banned from the beta. The dev team has also reiterated their stance on gold buying, and we'll even see a new warning added when you open trades in-game.

[00:19] We also have a new WoW Forever beta build which introduces some huge class changes, updates to the SD toggle, bigness to dungeon quests, and some large changes to how certain professions work.

[00:32] There's a lot to talk about, so let's break it all down in today's WoW Forever News video. Now before we jump in, be sure to hit on that like button and subscribe so you never miss another video. To start with, the WoW Forever beta was just updated with a new build, which includes a

[00:46] lot of changes across the entire game, but specifically quite a lot of class changes, and these are more than just numbers going up or down. Several classes have completely new talent, some have old functionality being returned to them, and warriors specifically

[01:02] may have been saved from their rage-starved scenario. The level cap has been raised to and that will be the highest that we can get to in the beta from what we know so far. It's not supposed to go past that, so we won't have any information about levels 30 to 60,

[01:17] how that's all going to play out, or how endgame will unfold after the leveling journey is over. So there will be a lot of unknowns when the game launches, which is incredibly exciting. We also know the new Darksphere Islands 15 vs 15 Battlegrounds will be available to play in this beta build,

[01:34] so the PvPers have something new to sink their teeth into and you'll be able to explore the new excavation site dungeon in the wetlands. So we have lots of new content to check out on our way to level 30.

[01:46] Let's go over these massive class changes first and we have some more information about certain classes from these cool deep dive blue posts and the most recent WoW Forever podcast was all about classes

[01:59] so we'll cram all that info together and go over some major class updates. Druid will see the return of power shifting, sort of. There's a new talent in the Feral Tree called Shifting Power, which costs the same mana as your cat form Shake Shift, and

[02:15] it will give you 40 energy. So you're just turning your mana pool into more energy, so you can use more abilities to deal more damage, which is kind of what power shifting used to do, but now it's far more intuitive. The ability starts with a 16 second cooldown,

[02:29] but you can talent it to reduce it down to 8 seconds, and any effects that reduce the cost of shape-shifting will also reduce the cost of shifting power. So you get that mana-to-energy-conversion-style gameplay

[02:41] that power-shifting offered, but you won't have the nitty-gritty weird stuff like having to use a specific helmet for the rest of your life if you want to play a feral druid. What's super interesting about the way this talent works

[02:53] is that it also increases the value of both intellect and spirit on gear for a feral druid. Intellect is going to increase your mana pool to let you use the ability more often before you run out of mana, while Spirit will increase your mana regen to let you use it more often throughout longer encounters.

[03:10] You're also going to want to keep a mana reserve for other abilities you may want to use in a pinch, so managing your mana does become important as well. To make room for these talents, King of the Jungle and Tiger's Fury have been removed.

[03:23] Now, Bear Form and Dire Bear Form now generate 75% increased rage when landing a critical strike, which will become very important later on as we talk about Warriors.

[03:35] Slythe will properly scale with attack power now. All shapeshift forms are now immune to disarm effects, but you can still disarm a Druid before they shapeshift to reduce their damage output, and then Fairy Fire no longer resets your swing timer when used.

[03:49] From the deep dive, we know that druids will be able to use most potions and consumables while shapeshifted, and it won't remove your shapeshift form. This includes rage potions and thistle tea, which is quite interesting.

[04:02] The main exception given is engineering bombs, though a few items can still be used in shapeshift forms. Weapon enhancements and procs now work while shapeshifted too, including weight stones, crusader enchants, and wind fury totem,

[04:16] which could be a huge overall increase to your potential damage, or at the very least, it's going to open up a lot of gearing options for you. Damaging Cat or Bear form will now match the DPS of your equipped weapon, and just change your attack speed to 1 or 2.5, depending on the form,

[04:31] and then most doors and objects can be used while shapeshifted, and most racial abilities can be used without breaking your shapeshift form too. So a lot of quality of life updates for Druids in their many forms, which may make them much easier to play, especially for newer players.

[04:46] Hunters have some big updates as well Sniper shots now have a 45 yard range It increases the range of the next 3 shots within 10 seconds by 10 yards This is going to be insane

[04:58] Especially with the extra 6 yards you can get from talents Hunters are going to be sniping folks from over 50 yards away Hunter pets have also been given their aggressive mode back So if you want your pet to just attack everything all the time

[05:12] Like it could back in vanilla That's going to be an option once again From the recent WoW Forever podcast we also know that hunters will be getting some extra stable slots in the future We don know exactly how many but you will be able to store more than just two pets when WoW Forever launches Something else we learned is that auto timers are still bugged and might actually be more bugged this week but they should get auto fixed in the next couple of builds

[05:39] For the Paladins, protection for a few changes to where their block power is going to come from. Redat's chance to block was reduced down to 20% total, but Holy Shield's chance to block was increased by 10%, and then for Rett, Champion of the Light's intellect to

[05:53] cell damage ratio was cut down to 60% when fully talented, and the talent no longer says it increases healing done, so homely paladins won't have to worry about going all the way down the rectory to pick this talent up.

[06:06] And then for the warriors, the way in which they obtain rage has changed slightly. To start with, warriors will now get more rage when they crit. This was initially set at 75% extra, but a tweet updated it to 100% extra rage on critical strikes, which apparently

[06:21] will also apply to bear druids, so just keep that in mind. That should help out a little bit, but then the dual wield specialization talent will end up at 50% extra rage from offhand attacks. These changes will increase the value of crit by quite a bit, and give

[06:35] you more range to use some of those heavy hits more often. That's not all, though. Getting rage from taking damage has changed as well. Your range generation will ignore your armor, so it's not reduced the more armor you get, which is definitely a nice change, but the

[06:50] The big one is that absorption effects no longer decrease rage gained either. Priest Shields are a huge nitpick for Warrior Tanks especially, to the point where you didn't really want a Priest Healer if you were a Warrior Tank,

[07:03] but that will no longer be a problem in WoW forever, as you'll get the rage through the absorption. There was also a bug causing Dual Wheel Specialization to grant its increased two-hit chance on both weapons, and with that being fixed, the Ducky needed to take another look at Fury,

[07:18] so they actually have a lot of changes. Quite a few talents were removed, they have three new talents that let your range stick around longer at the combat end, one increases the hit chance of your offhand, and the other gives you some extra self-sustain options.

[07:32] The talent tree has shifted around quite a bit too, so you may take a different path depending on the talents you want to pick. The protection tree has also been shifted around quite a bit, apparently to give non-shield warriors a better chance of picking up some defensive options in the tree

[07:47] without wasting too many talent points. In addition to those changes, Rend and Thunder Armor will now instantly cap enemies to the warrior, so you don't have to worry about other classes dealing instant damage and stealing your mobs.

[08:01] Cuing Heroic Strike will no longer increase your offhand hit chance, and then Spearing Strike no longer requires a two-handed weapon, but it will require battle stance. That's all of the class changes for this beta build,

[08:13] but we should expect to see more as the weeks go by, from the WoW Forever podcast about classes, we know the dev team has a clear goal for each class or spec, and they will continue to change things until they reach those goals.

[08:25] For example, according to the dev team, they're not super happy with how some parts of Rogue are playing out, but Rogue should be the highest single target damage in the game. So if you're up against a patchwork boss with not much going on,

[08:37] and you have just one target, Rogue apparently should be on top. But when you start adding in some queens, warriors are going to begin to shine. So if we end up in a situation where a class isn't fulfilling their role or fantasy

[08:50] the dev team will make adjustments. The podcast was super interesting if you're curious about class design in general and how they balance things so I would recommend you go give it a watch. They're being very careful with how many tools they give classes

[09:03] and they specifically want to maintain strengths and weaknesses which I think is super important if you want to keep that old RPG feeling alive. It's not just class changes though This build has a bunch of smaller but still very impactful updates in it

[09:18] For example, when you swap your character model preference on the character creation screen the icons for the races are going to swap as well So you can now see the SD icons once again which gives you the sense that they do actually care about making the SD toggle apply to the game as a whole

[09:35] We'll see how that particular piece of this puzzle evolves over time During this week's podcast, they did briefly mention that the dev team are talking about the Skyborne problem and how to address the concerns with their models and their druid forms.

[09:48] They didn't have anything concrete to announce beyond that, but we could see SD models be introduced for the Skyborne or see some changes to their models so they fit into the classic world a bit better. Keep your eyes peeled for more updates on that front.

[10:03] We also have a few changes to professions. All classic, common, and uncommon quality ones now sell at vendors for just one copper. so you won't be able to craft ones to sell to vendors for easy gold anymore.

[10:15] You'll find far fewer poor copper nodes in the starting areas, so you won't be able to kickstart your mining adventures quite as quickly. Skinning was also changed back, so creatures can only be skinned once before disappearing, so if you heard about parties or raids being able to take advantage of that skinning change,

[10:31] that will no longer be a thing, which should maintain skinning prices as we progress up to level 60 and at endgame. There have also been some major changes to quests and experience gains. Quite a lot of

[10:43] quests had their respawn rates increased or decreased, and many creatures in Hillsbrad, Ashenvale, Wetlands, Duskwood, and Thousand Needles had their respawn rates increased, probably in anticipation of everyone questing through those areas now that we can get up to level 30 The dev team also massively nerfed the experience from dungeon quests This has been a hotly contested topic since the beta started

[11:07] but I guess the dev team agrees that the quest rewards were a bit too high, so they dialed it back down. Dungeon quests now reward 50% less extra experience beyond normal quest rewards. So both the experience rewards and the gear rewards from dungeon quests have been reduced at this point,

[11:23] but even with these nerfs in play, the dungeons are probably still worth doing at least once to get all of your quests done, and you always have a chance at a few good gear upgrades. I wonder if we'll see an increase to dungeon mob experience to offset these nerfs,

[11:37] or maybe the dev team just wants dungeons to be a bit less rewarding overall. Be sure to give your feedback on these changes if you feel strongly one way or the other. The dev team are definitely listening, and that's why these nerfs are coming through in the first place.

[11:52] There are also some more nerfs for racial abilities For gnomes, Eureka no longer benefits periodic effects at all But channeled spells do not count as periodic So you can no longer super amp up your next three dots to deal big damage

[12:06] And then for undead, you won't be able to use cannibalize while immune to physical damage Which only really applies to paladins, I guess So you won't be able to bubble and eat your way back to full health anymore

[12:18] And then another pretty big change is that spell damage and spell healing will now explain that your spell casts using super low ranks for your level will receive less benefit from your spell power, and have a reduced chance to trigger class abilities or talents, so you won't have to spam lower rank spells to benefit from things like fast for slow applications, or fish for procs at the same time, so using the most up-to-date spell ranks that you have will almost always be the better choice.

[12:46] Now, moving on, there's been a lot of drama recently about players buying gold in the WoW Forever beta. Specifically, streamers buying gold or getting large donations of gold from their viewers,

[12:58] which seem to be incredibly suspicious. This culminated this week in a few streamers actually getting banned from the beta, or at the very least, they lost access to the beta on one or more accounts. There have been multiple instances of streamers being traded large amounts of gold from level 1 characters,

[13:15] which was throwing up red flags left, right, and center, especially when the dev team had outright said they were going to be much harder on gold buyers in World of Warcraft Forever and much stricter than they have been in the past.

[13:27] The dev team even admitted that they were probably too lenient on gold buyers in the past, and while they had always actioned the accounts of gold sellers as quickly as possible, the gold buyers usually got off with a slap on the wrist.

[13:39] That was supposed to be different in WoW Forever, with stricter punishments for the accounts of gold buyers as well. This was supposed to include permanent bans, so you would think that players, especially those who play this game as part of their livelihood,

[13:53] would be a bit more careful moving forward. Well, apparently not. Several streamers accepted large gold donations on stream, some were caught asking for thousands of gold, which, in a level-limited beta, seems absolutely insane,

[14:07] some were straight-up asking their chat to buy gold for them, and apparently because everyone was doing it, that made it totally fine. The streamers in question didn't get off scot-free. Some lost all of their gold, which includes the gold they received in trades,

[14:21] but also their own gold they already had on those characters, so they actually ended up worse off. That seemed like the worst that would happen for a little while, but then the bans started trickling in.

[14:33] A few streamers were banned from the beta for gold buying. Now, the bans were for the accounts that were involved in the trades or transactions, so it wasn't an actual account-wide ban. Those players could just drop another 60 bucks on another copy of Raft Forever and jump straight back in, but they would have to start over, which is fine in my opinion.

[14:51] If they end up buying gold again on that new account, they just get banned again and have to start the process all over again. That might seem like just a nuisance to some folks, but remember that for any content creator or streamer that has close ties with Blizzard,

[15:06] your account standing is actually pretty important. Getting banned, even from a beta, could ruin your chances of future promo opportunities. So I'm kind of surprised that so many of them were playing with fire to begin with.

[15:21] Now you may be thinking, well, should streamers get banned for accepting gold from viewers? They aren't buying it themselves, even if they're advocating for it or even encouraging it. And according to the dev team, yes, they should.

[15:33] We've had several blue posts at this point reiterating their stance. RMT is not acceptable, and they will be taking more action against buyer accounts in the future, which includes removing ill-gotten gold,

[15:45] and they may take further actions which can include closing accounts. They also note that everyone should be very cautious when it comes to accepting gifts from strangers or large one-sided transactions.

[15:57] If it becomes apparent that a recipient knew or should have known that gold wasn't from a legit source, they may be subject to account actions as well. So if you accept large amounts of gold from random players, you can get banned.

[16:09] From the ban being handed out to streamers, that apparently goes for them as well. The dev team are even doubling down on this stance with a new addition to the beta. In a future build, a new warning will be added into the game that pops up whenever you trade

[16:23] with strangers that reads be wary of accepting gold from unknown or suspicious sources If the provider is engaged in R you could put your account at risk of closure So that a warning in as well

[16:37] Many streamers have complained that they wouldn't be able to accept donations from their chat or viewers because they wouldn't be able to vet these kinds of transactions, which kind of sounds like the point. Many players may have been using that exact scenario

[16:50] to buy gold in a roundabout way, so putting a stop to that is more important for the overall health of the game. Now, when it comes to streamers specifically, the important part here is the stranger bit.

[17:03] If you trust someone in chat, and they've been around for a long time, and they are giving you a reasonable amount of gold, instead of thousands of gold from a level 1 character in a level limited beta, where no one should have thousands of gold if they were playing in a legit way,

[17:18] that's fine. You'll only catch a ban if you're being traded bought gold. So don't accept crazy gold amounts from total strangers, and you'll be fine. No one should have a problem with that.

[17:30] Now, you may be thinking, why would anyone ever buy gold in the first place, and in a beta especially? None of this stuff carries over when the game launches for real. All of your progress on beta will get wiped, totally and completely.

[17:45] It's literally all temporary. So why would anyone ever buy gold, even if there weren't any risks of getting banned? That just seems like a complete waste of money. Unless, of course, you can use that bought gold to win a lot more money.

[17:59] The reason why this has been so rampant in a beta of all places is due to the WoW Forever Open 1v1 tournament, which has a crazy prize pool of $100,000. Most big streamers will probably be entering that tournament,

[18:13] and you'll need to get your characters powered up as much as possible. Skill still plays a large part in WoW Forever PvP, but your character's stats and gear are far more important. That gold not only lets you buy whatever gear you want or need, and all the enchants and consumables you could ever use,

[18:32] but it also lets you get a significant power advantage thanks to the new legacy system. Most legacy talents don't offer player power, but there are a few which could be useful in this tournament specifically.

[18:44] The first one is called Talented, which lets you start earning talent points five levels earlier. You don't end up with more talent overall, you just get more talent at lower levels, which is huge when we are level capped to 30.

[18:58] That gives you five extra talents to play around with that no one else would have access to, so that's a huge power spike, and basically anyone with those talents unlocked would have a huge advantage over anyone else, so everybody wants to get them.

[19:11] You might also benefit from the High Alert talent, which increases your ability to detect stealth enemies, as well as Field Medicine, which reduces the duration of the recently bandaged debuffs. But how does this tie into buying gold?

[19:24] Well, there are only two realistic ways to unlock legacy points in the beta. The first is by leveling classes to level 25. For each class that you get to 25, you'll get one legacy point, but that's going to take a long time.

[19:37] The other way to earn points is by leveling up your professions. You get one point for each profession you get to 150, and another one point for getting into 225. That's going to be much faster, but it's also going to be significantly more expensive.

[19:52] That's why people are buying gold, so they can power level professions to a skill they shouldn't be able to reach to earn legacy points for extra player power to gain an advantage in this big PvP tournament.

[20:04] The most hilarious part about all of this is that the dev team just announced they would be giving everyone on the beta 16 legacy points in the future to help them test that system.

[20:16] That is the most you can get to use in these new talent points. So not only did people spend real money on gold and get banned, or accept suspicious gold and lose access to their beta account, but none of it mattered anyway,

[20:29] because the sole reason to buy that gold was completely removed as well. Kudos to the dev team for that specific update, assuming at least that the 16 legacy points come into play before the big PVP tournament kicks off.

[20:42] Either way, I'm glad the dev team are sticking to their guns and actively going after both gold sellers and gold buyers. That's the only way to reduce their impact on the game and its economy. I just hope they maintain this stance when the game launches for real.

[20:56] But that's all the update in this week's WoW Forever beta build and how some streamers got themselves banned from the beta. So that's it for this video. How do you feel about the gold buying drama in WoW Forever and do you think it will continue to be a problem when the game launches?

[21:11] And what changes are you hoping to see in future beta builds for your favourite class before the game goes live in November? Leave all your thoughts in the comment section below. A big thank you to all of our supporters over on Patreon

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[21:36] you're always kept up to date. Thanks for watching folks, good luck and have fun, and as always I will see you next time.