WoW Forever Beta Shuts 3,700 RMT Accounts, Tunes Dungeon XP

Four weeks in, the World of Warcraft Forever beta isn't slowing down. It's speeding up.

Testers now have a higher level cap of 30 and a fresh dungeon in the City of Dalaran. Blizzard has also made it clear that people trying to buy their way ahead in the test aren't welcome. Add a new episode of the official podcast that digs into dungeons, experience points and a few longer-term plans, and this was a busy week for anyone following the project.

Here's what changed, and why it's worth paying attention to.

Level 30 and a trip to Dalaran

The headline change for testers is the level cap. With the limit raised to 30, players can push further into the game than in earlier rounds, and the City of Dalaran dungeon opens alongside it. If you've been following our coverage, this builds on the update that first raised the level cap to 30 and added new dungeons, and the fourth week is where that content is really being put through its paces.

That isn't the only thing in motion. Class tuning is happening at a pace that has probably left some testers with whiplash. Builds that felt right a few days ago may not feel the same now. That's the nature of a beta, of course, but the scale of the current changes is notable. It follows earlier work that reworked Druids, Warlocks and Priests, so anyone who mains one of those classes has had plenty to relearn.

There's one constant amid the churn: testers have access to all 16 legacy points for the entire duration of the beta. With so much moving around, that at least gives players a stable foundation to experiment with, instead of having to grind for it while the ground shifts beneath them.

Blizzard follows through on RMT

Real-money trading, usually shortened to RMT, is the practice of buying or selling in-game currency and goods for real cash outside a game's official systems. It's been a thorn in the side of MMORPGs for as long as the genre has existed, and Blizzard had promised to act quickly against it in the Forever beta.

It appears to be keeping that promise. On a recent podcast, the developer gave hard figures:

"We've actually closed over 2,100 gold-buying accounts, and we have closed almost 1,600 gold-selling or botting accounts on the beta."

Put those together and you're looking at roughly 3,700 accounts shut down. And this is a test, not a live launch.

The split matters, too. Blizzard isn't just going after the gold sellers and bots that supply the market. More than half of the closures hit the buyers. That's a pointed message: if you pay for gold, you're part of the problem, and your account is on the line as well.

Podcast episode 3: dungeons, XP and attunements

The third episode of the official podcast is out, and dungeons are the main topic. A big part of the conversation focused on an ongoing balancing act - how much experience players should earn from killing mobs compared with completing quests.

It sounds like a small thing. It isn't. That ratio shapes how people level. Lean too hard toward mob kills, and dungeon grinding becomes the obvious route while quests feel optional. Lean too hard toward quests, and dungeon runs start to feel like a detour rather than a reward. Blizzard calls this an ongoing effort, so testers should expect the numbers to keep moving.

The podcast also promised that racial abilities will be revisited. No specifics were given, so it's unclear which races or abilities are in line for changes, but it's on the list.

Then there's the tease. The team hinted that more attunement-style quests could arrive down the line. For those unfamiliar with the term, attunements are quest chains that players complete to unlock access to certain content. They're a divisive tradition - some players love the sense of earning their way in, others see them as a hurdle - so even a vague hint is likely to spark debate.

The Bigger Picture

This week suggests that Blizzard is treating the Forever beta as more than a quick preview. The class tuning, the XP debate and the dungeon focus all point to a team still actively shaping the game rather than simply polishing a finished product. For readers, that means anything you see in the beta right now should be taken as provisional. Class balance in particular seems far from settled.

The RMT numbers are arguably the most telling detail. Closing thousands of accounts during a test signals that Blizzard wants to set expectations early, before a gold-buying culture can take root. Targeting buyers as well as sellers is a deliberate choice, and it's worth watching whether that same approach carries over once the game is live and the stakes are much higher.

It also fits a broader pattern in the beta's recent updates, from class reworks to PvP changes like the Darkspear battleground and rank overhaul. Blizzard appears to be revisiting systems one by one.

What to watch next? Whether the mob-versus-quest XP balance lands somewhere players are happy with, what the racial ability review actually changes, and whether those attunement teases turn into concrete plans. Any one of those could shape how World of Warcraft Forever feels to play. None of them are settled yet.