WoW Forever PAX Aus 2026: New Dungeon Deep Dive

World of Warcraft: Forever has another major public showing coming before launch, and this one should be especially interesting if you care about dungeons rather than just feature lists.

Blizzard has confirmed that WoW Executive Producer Holly Longdale will open PAX Aus 2026 as the event’s Storytime keynote speaker, with Associate Production Director Clay Stone joining her for an in-depth look at one of the new dungeons being built for World of Warcraft: Forever.

That last part is the reason I will be watching. We already know Forever launches with nine new dungeons spread across the leveling journey, but a proper developer walkthrough can tell us far more than a bullet point on a roadmap: how long these places are meant to take, how trash is paced, how bosses are built, and most importantly, how Blizzard is trying to make new content feel like it actually belongs in old Azeroth.

PAX Aus runs from October 9 through October 11, 2026 in Melbourne, Australia, while the keynote itself will be streamed globally on the Warcraft and PAX Twitch channels.

Quick answer:
The WoW Forever PAX Aus keynote airs October 8 at 6:00 p.m. PDT / 9:00 p.m. EDT, or October 9 at 2:00 a.m. BST, 3:00 a.m. CEST and 12:00 p.m. AEDT. Holly Longdale will discuss Warcraft and MMO communities, while Clay Stone will present an exclusive deep dive into one of Forever’s new dungeons.

WoW Forever PAX Aus 2026 - Quick Details

Event — Confirmed information: PAX Aus 2026, Melbourne
WoW presence — Confirmed information: World of Warcraft: Forever booth from October 9-11 AEDT
Keynote speaker — Confirmed information: Holly Longdale, World of Warcraft Executive Producer
Dungeon segment — Confirmed information: Clay Stone, Associate Production Director
Main gameplay reveal — Confirmed information: In-depth look at one new World of Warcraft: Forever dungeon
Livestream — Confirmed information: Warcraft Twitch and PAX Twitch
Hands-on beta — Confirmed information: Available at the WoW Forever booth for PAX attendees
Dungeon name — Confirmed information: Not announced yet

When Is the WoW Forever PAX Aus Keynote?

Blizzard has published the livestream schedule in several time zones. The presentation is a 90-minute opening keynote, although that does not mean all 90 minutes will be devoted to WoW Forever gameplay.

US Pacific (PDT) — Watch time: October 8, 6:00-7:30 p.m.
US Eastern (EDT) — Watch time: October 8, 9:00-10:30 p.m.
United Kingdom (BST) — Watch time: October 9, 2:00-3:30 a.m.
Central Europe (CEST) — Watch time: October 9, 3:00-4:30 a.m.
Australia (AEDT) — Watch time: October 9, 12:00-1:30 p.m.

If you are in Europe, yes, this is one of those Warcraft events where the sensible option is probably to watch the VOD with coffee instead of pretending 3 a.m. is a normal hour to inspect dungeon trash packs.

Blizzard says the stream will be available through the official Warcraft Twitch channel and the PAX Twitch channel.

What Will Holly Longdale Talk About?

Longdale’s section is broader than a normal WoW feature presentation. Blizzard says she will draw on more than two decades in the games industry, talk about the continued evolution of the Warcraft universe, and discuss the role online communities play in MMO development.

That makes sense for Forever in particular. Blizzard is trying to build a permanent level-60 branch of WoW that feels familiar to Classic players without freezing Azeroth in 2006 forever. Community expectations are therefore a huge part of the design problem: change too little and Forever becomes another museum server; change too much and the Classic identity disappears.

PAX Aus previously described Longdale’s Storytime around exactly that relationship between long-running online worlds and the communities that keep them alive, so I would expect the keynote to be more reflective than a standard patch-preview presentation.

Clay Stone Will Show One of WoW Forever’s New Dungeons

The more concrete part of the presentation belongs to Clay Stone. Blizzard says he will give the audience a behind-the-scenes look at one of the new dungeons coming to Forever, including the team’s design philosophy, creative process and approach to building new gameplay experiences.

Importantly, Blizzard has not named the dungeon yet.

Forever is launching with nine new dungeons, and that makes the presentation more interesting than it may sound at first. Blizzard is not simply remastering Deadmines or giving Scarlet Monastery another coat of paint. These are new instances built into places players have known, speculated about or literally walked past for years.

If you have been following the beta, this is exactly the sort of developer explanation Forever needs. Seeing a dungeon is useful. Hearing why a room, pull or boss was designed that way tells us whether Blizzard actually understands the pacing that made old-school dungeons memorable.

All Nine New WoW Forever Dungeons

Blizzard has confirmed nine new launch dungeons for World of Warcraft: Forever. Current beta information and Wowhead’s dungeon overview place them across a wide level range, so these are not all endgame instances waiting at level 60.

The Hall of Thanes — Current level range: 13-18
Ruins of Lordaeron — Current level range: 15-20
Excavation Site: Wetlands — Current level range: 24-29
City of Dalaran — Current level range: 28-33
The Drowned City — Current level range: 35-40
Krol'dok Stronghold — Current level range: 40-45
Alcaz Prison — Current level range: 48-53
Blackmaw Hold — Current level range: 55-60
Shaper's Terrace — Current level range: 58-60

Those level ranges are based on current beta information and can still change before launch. The more important point is the spread: Forever is adding dungeon content throughout the leveling journey rather than saving everything new for the cap.

That is one of the choices I like most about the project so far. In original WoW, dungeons are part of leveling culture. You remember the first Deadmines group, the trip to Scarlet Monastery, getting hopelessly lost in Maraudon, or convincing five people that spending the evening in Blackrock Depths is somehow a reasonable plan. New instances at levels 13, 28 or 40 fit that structure far better than dropping nine new level-60 corridors into the game.

Which Dungeon Could Blizzard Show?

Blizzard has not given us the answer, so anything here is speculation.

The obvious candidates are dungeons the team is comfortable showing publicly and that demonstrate what “Classic+” design looks like in practice. The Drowned City has already been playable at earlier events, which could make it an easy choice for a design retrospective, while locations such as City of Dalaran, Ruins of Lordaeron or Hall of Thanes have enormous nostalgia value because players have known those places for years without exploring them as full dungeons.

Personally, I would rather see something we have not already watched players run. City of Dalaran would be a particularly good showcase because turning the old pre-floating Dalaran into an actual dungeon is exactly the kind of “what was behind that wall?” idea Forever should be built around.

Again, that is editorial preference, not a Blizzard hint. The only confirmed detail right now is that one new dungeon will receive a proper deep dive.

What We Want to Learn From the Dungeon Deep Dive

The dungeon name will get the headline, but the design details are what will matter once Forever launches. There are a few questions I hope Stone actually answers rather than simply walking through the art.

How long does Blizzard expect a normal leveling dungeon run to take?
Are dungeons built around Classic-style exploration and optional rooms, or a more linear modern layout?
How dense are trash pulls, and how much crowd control is expected?
Will bosses have more mechanics without becoming miniature Retail encounters?
How important are dungeon quests, keys, professions and world interactions?
Is loot designed to contain memorable one-off items rather than interchangeable stat sticks?
How much faction flavor or alternate routing exists inside the new instances?
How does the team decide what feels “Classic” without simply copying 2004 encounter design?

Forever will live or die on questions like these. Updated class kits and new zones are exciting, but dungeons are where the systems, world design and social side of Classic-style WoW collide. A beautiful instance with modern corridor pacing would feel wrong. A deliberately frustrating maze with nothing learned from twenty years of MMO design would not be much better.

The sweet spot is keeping the sense that you are entering a dangerous place in Azeroth, while quietly removing some of the friction that was never actually fun.

PAX Attendees Can Play the WoW Forever Beta

The keynote is not the only Forever presence at PAX Aus. Blizzard says attendees can visit the World of Warcraft: Forever booth throughout the weekend and get hands-on time with the beta.

The booth also includes a themed photo experience and a “Raid for Riches” quest card. Players who complete the event quests can earn a WoW Forever Pinny Arcade pin while supplies last and receive entry into a prize draw.

After the Friday keynote, Longdale and Stone are also scheduled for an informal meet-and-greet and signing session from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. AEDT.

None of that changes the game, obviously, but hands-on event stations matter during a beta. Forever has already generated a lot of discussion around class redesigns, new race/class combinations and how far Blizzard should push changes. Putting the current build in front of more people means more feedback before the November 4 launch.

Why This PAX Aus Presentation Matters for WoW Forever

BlizzCon gave us the big pitch. The weeks since have been about filling in the details: professions, classes, race combinations, the Legacy System, dungeons, raids and the rules Blizzard is using to decide what Forever should be.

PAX Aus is a chance to move from “here is a list of nine dungeons” to “here is how we actually build one.”

For a project like Forever, that distinction matters. The game is not trying to compete with Retail by having more mechanics per boss, and it is not supposed to be Classic Era with a few fan-service quest chains taped to the side. Blizzard’s stated plan is to keep level 60 as the permanent cap and continue expanding the world over time. That makes the design language of the first nine dungeons a blueprint for whatever comes next.

If the team gets that language right, Forever can make old Azeroth feel larger without making it feel replaced.

Catch Up on WoW Forever Before PAX Aus

If you have only been loosely following the beta, we already have several useful WoWStats pages that will make the PAX presentation easier to follow. Start with our World of Warcraft: Forever hub for current news and guides, then use the WoW Forever Talent Calculator if you want to inspect the current beta talent trees for all nine classes.

For the broader changes beyond dungeons, our WoW Forever changes overview covers professions, race/class combinations, bank space, Barber Shops and Blizzard’s decision to keep raid loot hidden until players actually discover it.

And if you are still confused by the various paid bundles, our WoW Forever Collector's Edition guide explains what is optional and what you actually need to play at launch.

WoW Forever PAX Aus 2026 FAQ

When is the WoW Forever PAX Aus keynote?

The keynote streams October 8 from 6:00-7:30 p.m. PDT / 9:00-10:30 p.m. EDT, or October 9 from 2:00-3:30 a.m. BST and 12:00-1:30 p.m. AEDT. That is 3:00-4:30 a.m. CEST in Central Europe.

Where can I watch the WoW Forever PAX Aus stream?

Blizzard says the Storytime keynote will stream live on the Warcraft Twitch channel and the PAX Twitch channel.

Who is speaking at the WoW Forever PAX Aus presentation?

World of Warcraft Executive Producer Holly Longdale is the Storytime keynote speaker. Associate Production Director Clay Stone will join her for the WoW Forever dungeon deep dive.

What will Blizzard show from WoW Forever?

Clay Stone will present an in-depth look at one new WoW Forever dungeon and discuss the team’s design philosophy and creative process. Blizzard has not named the dungeon yet.

How many new dungeons are in WoW Forever?

WoW Forever is currently planned to launch with nine new dungeons spread across multiple leveling brackets, from early-game instances such as Hall of Thanes to level-60 content such as Shaper’s Terrace.

Can PAX Aus attendees play WoW Forever?

Yes. Blizzard says the WoW Forever booth will offer hands-on beta opportunities during the event from October 9-11.

When does World of Warcraft: Forever launch?

World of Warcraft: Forever is scheduled to launch on November 4, 2026.

Final Thoughts

I do not expect PAX Aus to suddenly reveal the entire future of World of Warcraft: Forever. Blizzard has already done the giant announcement show. What makes this presentation interesting is that it can be much more specific.

A dungeon deep dive is exactly where the Forever pitch gets tested.

It is easy to say you want to preserve the spirit of Classic while building new content. It is harder to show a new instance and convince Classic players that the pulls, quests, rewards, boss mechanics and overall pace belong in the same world as Deadmines, Zul’Farrak or Blackrock Depths.

That is what I want to see from Clay Stone’s segment: not just a tour of a pretty dungeon, but the reasoning behind it.

If Blizzard can explain why these new places are built the way they are, PAX Aus may give us one of the clearest looks yet at what “Forever” actually means once you stop talking about features and start playing the game.

WoW Forever Is Coming to PAX Aus 2026 - New Dungeon Deep Dive Announced