WoW Guides for Classic Era and Forever

Classic Era and WoW Forever, both covered

Two versions run on the same Azeroth and look alike from the outside, which is exactly why a number from one does not belong on the other. Pick the one you are on and every page under it is written for that version alone.

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  Covered in full

  WoW Classic Era

  The permanent vanilla realms, running patch 1.12. Profession routes from 1 to 300, class guides, an item database and the character tools — every figure read out of that patch's own world database.

  • 12professions1 to 300, each a route
  • 432talentsacross 9 classes
  • 1,095recipesevery craftable in 1.12
  • 1,423itemsmaterials and recipes
  Open Classic Era
• 

  Launches 4 November 2026

  WoW Forever

  Blizzard's Classic+: the same world and the same level-60 cap, with the talent trees rebuilt, two new races and new profession recipes. Read from the beta client at build 1.60.1.70658, one page per class and one per profession.

  • 12professionsthe same twelve vanilla has
  • 466talentsrebuilt, not added to — 432 before
  • 2,008recipes1,095 vanilla + 913 new
  • +4,972itemsnew, and 64 Classic sets re-tuned
  See what changes

The difference is not cosmetic, which is why each page states which version it is about. Spell critical strikes multiply by 1.5 in Classic Era and by 2 in every version after it; Stranglethorn Vale is one zone here and two in Cataclysm, so a map coordinate does not carry across; and Forever rebuilds the talent trees outright, so a build, a rank or a stat weight from the Classic Era pages is the wrong answer there. Hardcore and Season of Discovery change the rules again and are not covered at all.

Read the two columns against each other and the shape of the change shows: the talent counts replace one another, because Forever rebuilds the trees rather than extending them, while the recipes and items are added to what vanilla already had. The 64 re-tuned sets are the only figure here that is neither — Classic Era kit the beta gave a set bonus it never had. Every Forever number is read from the beta client at build 1.60.1.70658; every Classic Era one from the 1.12 world database.

Profession leveling guides, 1 to 300

Every craft and gather skill the 1.12 client has, taken from skill 1 to 300 without buying your way there. A guide is a route you move through rather than a wall of text: you are told what to make at each skill, how much of everything to bring, and which trainer to see before the next tier locks you out.

• Alchemy
• Blacksmithing
• Engineering
• Herbalism
• Mining
• Skinning
• Leatherworking
• Tailoring
• Enchanting
• First Aid
• Cooking
• Fishing

What is in one, and where it comes from: the skill at which each recipe turns orange, yellow, green and grey, read from the client's own skill table; the material total, added up from the recipes themselves rather than typed out, so correcting one recipe corrects every guide that uses it; the trainers for both factions, with coordinates converted from the 1.12 spawn table rather than copied from a wiki describing the modern game; and the zone maps, assembled from the Classic Era client's own textures with the farming route drawn onto them. Tick a step off and the next opens — your place is kept in the browser, with no account needed. Compare all 12, or see which two go together.

The items database

1,423 crafting materials and recipes, 1,095 of them carrying a full ingredient list with the quantities each one needs. Every page shows the item's in-game icon and quality, what it takes and what it makes, and which professions consume it — so a flask traces down through its reagents to the herb, and the herb's own page tells you which zones it grows in and how thickly.

Where an item comes from is answered from the game's tables rather than guessed: which creature drops it and how often, which vendor sells it and for how much, which container it is found in, whether it is skinned or pickpocketed, and the band of gear it disenchants out of. Nothing here says “a world drop” unless the tables genuinely give no source — that phrase was wrong on 34 pages once, and the fix was to read the source rather than to soften the sentence.

Plan a character

Three things you do to a character rather than read about. Each keeps its whole state in the address bar, so sharing a build is copying the link — no account, nothing stored, and the link still works a year later.

• Talent calculatorVanilla’s own gates enforced, so an impossible build cannot be drawn.
• Gear plannerSeventeen slots, every total, and the set in the link.
• Rotation trainerShared shock timers and the five-second rule, which is what makes it timing.

The talent calculator enforces vanilla's two rules — a talent in row N needs five points per row below it, and one with a prerequisite needs that prerequisite at full rank — so it is a calculator rather than a drawing. The rotation trainer models the global cooldown, the category cooldown that makes a shaman's three shocks share one six-second timer, and the five-second rule that stops Spirit regeneration while mana per five seconds keeps ticking; those three are what make a Classic rotation a timing problem rather than a list. The gear planner ranks 7,856 pieces across seventeen slots and totals what the set adds up to.

What the game never explains

Five questions the game expects you to have an answer to and tells you nowhere. Each is answered out of the 1.12 tables rather than from a sentence somebody remembered — which is why the stat weights here carry a class and a level instead of one number, and why the mob ranks are measured rather than described.

• Elite, rare, rare elite and bossWhat the dragon around a mob's portrait means, and how much harder each rank actually is.
• Creature typesThe ten types a creature can be, what can be tamed or skinned, and which spells only work on one of them.
• Schools of magic, and resistanceThe six schools plus physical, what resistance does to a spell, and which creatures are immune.
• Attributes, and what a point is worthStrength, Agility, Stamina, Intellect and Spirit, with the per-class numbers the server itself uses.
• Which weapons each class can useEvery weapon and armour type by class, what you start with, and where the eight weapon masters stand.

Step-through guides

The 12 profession guides are a route hooked to one number. These are the same idea hooked to the world instead: go to this place, do this here, and move on when you hit a level or the item drops. Every step carries the zone map with its own route drawn on it and the quests, mobs and trainers marked, and a phone shows them one at a time with the condition that ends each one.

They are written by readers and published once an editor has read them, which is the claim that makes a reader-written guide worth having on a site whose whole argument is that its numbers are derived rather than copied. Read what has been written, or write one yourself — the editor draws its maps with the same component the reader sees, so what you place is what ships.

FAQ

• Which version of WoW does this site cover?

  WoW Classic Era, the permanent vanilla realms on patch 1.12, in full — the professions, the 9 classes, every crafting material and recipe in the game, the equipment and the quests, each one read out of that patch's own world database rather than out of another guide. World of Warcraft: Forever has its own section, read from the beta client's tables, but the site does not cover it the way it covers Classic Era.

• Is WoW Forever the same as Classic Era?

  No, and it is the version most easily mistaken for it. World of Warcraft: Forever launches 4 November 2026 on the same world with the same level-60 cap, but the talent trees are rebuilt — 466 talents against Classic Era's 432 — and hit and critical strike are reported merged. A talent, a spell coefficient or a gear number from the Classic Era pages does not transfer to it.

• Where do the numbers on this site come from?

  The vmangos 1.12 world database and the game clients' own data tables — not from other guide sites. Drop chances are computed with the game's own loot-group rules, trainer coordinates are converted from the spawn table, and the zone maps are assembled from the client's own textures. The provenance page states each source and what is deliberately missing.

• Do I need an account or an addon?

  Neither. Every guide, map, database page and tool works signed out, with nothing to install. Progress through a guide is kept in your browser and only mirrors to a profile if you choose to sign in; talent, gear and rotation builds live in the address bar, so sharing one is copying the link.