Updates

World bots no longer deliberately mix enemy factions around players. Home zones and capitals now select their own faction even when the nearby player is an enemy visitor. Bots and bot-owned pets cannot target, melee-attack or damage open-world guards, civilians and service NPCs such as quest givers, vendors and trainers. Area and periodic damage are covered too. Normal hostile mobs, human players and dungeon/battleground objectives retain their usual rules. The patch is deployed; policy tests and server startup passed, but an in-game combat walkthrough is still pending. Background login from old saved positions is disabled; bot population around active players stays enabled.

If a download host stalls, the launcher now waits 20 seconds and tries the next one, then stays with the host that answers. Fully quit the launcher and open it again to get 1.8.28. Build 70532 is still only a pre-download under Settings, Client, Forever. Play still starts the current beta. This is not a realm switch.

Al'Aketh Stormchaser and Al'Aketh Healer now cast Healing Wave on themselves. Lightning Bolt and Shock still hit their target.

The line "I want to browse your goods" now opens Lee Brown's shop: fishing poles, bait, lures and a few fish recipes. "Bottles and Baubles" is still the quest, not the shop. Close the window and talk to him again.

The /who list now leaves out companion bots. Game masters who can already see every security level still see them.

Warrior: the automatic Victorious proc now requires knowing Victory Rush (402927). This addresses the readiness buff appearing before the ability is learned without changing trainer requirements. Wounds of Betrayal (94489): restored Jorel interaction by correcting his NPC flag. Mercy Falls on Deaf Ears (93165): added quest/reward item data in English/Russian and removed an empty reward package while retaining the three existing reward choices. Fields of Grief (365, pumpkin collection): added canonical English/Russian pumpkin item data and explicitly linked the world pumpkins to the collection quest. The reported character/journal mismatch is still under investigation; the specific player issue is not confirmed resolved. All changes are deployed. Full gameplay tests remain pending. The separate delivery quest 407 was not replaced by the collection quest.

Stolen Enchanting Supplies (91725): corrected the height of eight supply crates, including one buried about 14 metres underground. Added missing English hand-in/completion dialogue, item data in English/Russian and Russian NPC/object names. Blixie is near the Tower of Azora (63.2, 72.6). Bottles and Baubles (99143): moved eight containers onto dry shore terrain, added missing quest-item data, English/Russian hand-in and completion dialogue and the Russian reward-coin name. The empty reward package was removed while retaining the coin reward. Some NPC/object models remain provisional. Full client pickup and turn-in tests are still pending; these are deployed data fixes, not a claim that every quest has been fully playtested. Relog and reopen the quest window.

Launcher 1.8.27 is published. Installing client 70532 now shows preparation, plan download, speed and verification stages. Folder selection checks write access, remembers the release folder and avoids nesting a second installation folder. Failures display a message and a dedicated forever-release.log path. The Addons page has separate beta and release profiles, installs release addons into _forever_/Interface/AddOns, can copy missing addon folders from beta, records installation/update dates and offers sorting and newer CurseForge versions when available. 70532 remains a pre-download: playing this release has not been enabled. These changes do not announce a server migration. Update the launcher before downloading.

Launcher 1.8.20 paused the whole game and read about 3 GB of memory on every login. That took several seconds each pass, and on a slow PC the client never got time to finish signing in. Launcher 1.8.22 keeps the game running and only pauses for the instant the login key is written. Close the game, update the launcher, then press Play.

442 quests turned in by real characters (bots excluded) are now marked working in the Forever codex. Five quests staff already marked partial keep that note. If one of these still breaks for you, report it from the quest page.

The client check listed the same 47 patch records as corrupt and deleted a cache file on every run. They are normal ZBSDIFF1 patches, and the client is intact. Launcher 1.8.21 leaves them alone. Update the launcher, press Play, and log in with the site email and password.

A new Forever install could disconnect on the login screen with WOW51900317 before the account was checked. Launcher 1.8.20 writes the login key as soon as the connection opens. Let the launcher update, then press Play. Use the same email and password as the site. Do not start Wow.exe by hand.