Project Balance opens level 60 on its hardcore realm

Project Balance released level 60 on 2 October 2026, the last of the level cap phases on its hardcore 3.3.5a realm. The cap rose from 20 at the July relaunch to 30 on 12 August, 40 on 4 September and 50 in mid-September.

Death is still permanent, and the world is still harder than standard. Any NPC above level 30 can be dangerous if you don't interrupt its casts, and crafted items were buffed because you will need them to survive. Battlegrounds are open, and dying in PvP does not end the character.

Class changes

The developers' list of PvE class changes:

• Rogue: Subtlety is buffed and viable in PvE, and Combat and Assassination are buffed for levelling
• Warrior: better rage generation when rage is low, and one-handed Fury buffed
• Priest: Blackout is back, plus a new passive damage-over-time effect
• Mage: Arcane Blast from level 3, Fire buffed for levelling, and Frost gets more procs and better PvE scaling
• Paladin: a small change to Seal of Righteousness
• Hunter: all pets scale better with gear, and melee and petless builds work
• Warlock: a new Demonology proc and a Destruction buff
• Druid: Bear Form attacks 50% faster and generates more rage when rage is low, and Cat Form is stronger early on
• Shaman: Elemental hits harder while levelling and gains a stun, Enhancement gets a two-handed weapon buff, and Windfury scales better

PvP balancing is to follow. Since mid-September there has also been a catch-up option the developers call a "broken pact": you take more damage and earn more experience, with an extra bonus in a group of up to five.

Few players left

In early September the developers counted 42 active accounts and a peak of 14 players online, up from 25 and 10 a few weeks earlier. With level 60 out, they wrote that the WoW: Forever beta "has taken most of our players", but that "the server will stay until the last members are gone". They want enough players to raid later on, and no raid dates have been announced.

Source: the developers' posts on r/wowservers and r/WoWPrivateServers (11 August to 2 October 2026).