WoW Forever beta day two: players push back on mob tagging, easy leveling and surnames

Crashes and lag took up most of the first day of the WoW Forever beta. A day later, the players who got in are talking about the game itself. Three debates lead the official forums, and none has a Blizzard reply yet.

1. Mob tagging: “3 hours to kill 20 boars”

The largest gameplay thread asks Blizzard to switch to retail-style mob tagging, where everyone who hits a mob gets credit. It has more than 130 replies and over 200 likes. The original post describes 100 or more players camping the same 30 boars, and argues this will not go away with only a handful of servers.

The replies are split. One side says the game is unplayable without shared tags, and that the problem will come back at level 60. The other side says it is the normal launch crush: everyone was dropped into the same starting zones at once, layering is still being tuned, and the rush will spread out. Several players asked others to wait until later in the beta before deciding.

Both sides have a point. Classic launches had the same crowded starting zones, and they thinned out within days. But Forever puts all players on fewer shared realms, which is new. Watch whether Blizzard changes layer sizes or tagging rules in the next builds.

2. Leveling feels too easy

Three separate threads say leveling is too fast and too easy. One level 5 Warlock says level 4 Defias hit them for 4 damage, or for 1 with Curse of Weakness up. Another player saw characters fighting two or three mobs at once without dropping below half health. Paladin comes up again and again as the class that is far too strong.

Players suggest two causes. More quests means more experience per zone, and some classes got a power boost from the reworked talents and new abilities. One poster claims experience is up by about 50%, but nobody has shown proof and Blizzard has not said so, so treat that as unconfirmed.

Many posters point back to the live Q&A, where they remember developers saying the world should feel dangerous. The pushback has limits, though. One of the most-liked replies jokes about asking for quadruple the experience per level and naked corpse runs next.

The beta caps at level 20 for its first two weeks. Class tuning at those levels is the easiest thing to change, so this feedback may well land before level 30 opens up.

3. The surname backlash

The most-liked complaint of the beta is not about gameplay. “2 names is a TERRIBLE IDEA” has more than 200 likes. It objects to Forever asking every character for a first name and a surname. The poster’s argument is that anyone can now take the same first name with a different surname, which makes names less unique. They want surnames to be optional, for roleplayers only.

The replies push back hard: people share first names in real life, and roleplayers welcome the chance to name a character with some care. Still, the likes suggest many players dislike it quietly. It matters beyond Forever, too. Ion Hazzikostas has said surnames could come to retail “depending on how that plays out and how players feel about that in Forever.” This is that feedback.

Smaller things players keep mentioning

• A quest that blocks progress. “Among the faithful” is broken for some players, and they are stuck in their starting area. The thread has 20 replies.
• Bags fill up fast. Starter-zone quests need a lot of pickups, and with food, water and profession materials, the backpack runs out after about one quest. Forever does give out free starter bags, but players say they fill up quickly.
• Hide Helm and Hide Cloak are missing in Classic model mode.
• Shadowmeld is being compared unfavorably with the new racials.

What happens next

Blizzard’s only staff posts so far are the launch updates and the September 17 known issues list. Feedback threads usually get a reply once the team has something to say, often alongside a new beta build. The datamine still shows build 1.60.1.69913, so no new build has shipped since launch. We will cover it when one does.

Based on the official WoW Forever beta and general discussion forums on September 17–18, 2026, including the threads on mob tagging, leveling and surnames. Reply and like counts were taken at the time of writing.