WoW Forever new zones by level: Zephras Isle, Riverglades, Shen’dralas and Mount Hyjal

WoW Forever new zones by level: the full table

Every new or expanded zone in World of Warcraft: Forever at launch, in leveling order. Ranges are Blizzard’s own wording where it gave one.

Blizzard says the 1 to 60 journey holds “more than a thousand new quests” across new and old zones. The Wetlands, Desolace and Azshara rows use the brackets those zones already had in Classic, since Blizzard gave no separate range for the additions.

Zephras Isle is the level 1 to 12 Skyborne starting zone in Skywall

Zephras Isle is where every new Skyborne character begins, and it covers levels 1 to 12. It is not on the Azeroth map. The Skyborne are Highborne exiles who fled Prince Tortheldrin of Eldre’Thalas by sea, made a pact with the wind spirits on an undiscovered island, and had a large part of it lifted into the sky and anchored in Skywall.

The spirits are gone now, the pylons holding the island up are failing, and the island is split three ways:

• Windshapers, the shamanistic leaders, side with the Horde. Only Windshaper Skyborne can be Shaman.
• High Order, descended from Highborne magisters, side with the Alliance. Only they can be Mages.
• A cult of Al’Akir the Windlord has used the crisis to take a large part of the island. Expect it to be the zone’s main enemy.

Both factions can also roll Warrior, Hunter, Rogue and Druid. Your faction choice happens at character creation, so the zone plays differently depending on which side you picked (our Windshapers and High Order post has the full split).

Blizzard calls Zephras a self-contained experience. In Josh Greenfield’s words at BlizzCon: “You aren’t going to go here every week to raid or to farm materials.” Once you hit 12 you head down to the main continents and do not need to come back.

Riverglades is a mid-30s to mid-40s zone with nearly 200 quests

Riverglades is the biggest new leveling zone, and it is the answer to “where do I go instead of Stranglethorn”. Blizzard describes it as roughly the size of Stranglethorn Vale, about 30 map chunks, in the mid-30s to mid-40s bracket.

The quest count changed between BlizzCon posts. On day one the What’s Next panel said “more than 150 new quests”, which is what our first Riverglades post reported. A day later, at the Found Photographs panel, lead content designer Evan put it at “nearly 200”, and Blizzard’s own recap of that panel uses the same number. We go with the later figure: nearly 200 quests, with stories for both factions.

Where Riverglades is and how to get there

It fills a stretch of the Eastern Kingdoms that was always on the map but never reachable, bordered by the Burning Steppes, Redridge Mountains, Swamp of Sorrows and Badlands. Two ways in:

• On foot: a new fork on the road from Redridge to the Burning Steppes leads into the zone.
• By ship: start with the Steamwheedle Cartel in Tanaris and sail to Powderfuse Port, the zone’s neutral goblin port. This is one of the three new ship routes.

What is in the zone

• Faction hubs: Horde players start at Rogmar, Alliance players at Farhold Keep, where you meet the Brotherhood of the Horse.
• Powderfuse Port: run by the Powderfuse goblins, neutral to both sides.
• Sunnyglade: one of the places where the Twilight’s Hammer has dug in.
• Gnoll camps that continue the stories of the neighboring zones.
• Krol’dok Stronghold: an outdoor ogre dungeon for levels 40 to 45, where outrunners have been kidnapping travelers.

Humans, orcs, ogres, gnolls, goblins and murlocs all compete here. The team pitched it as “a story about living in Azeroth”, not saving it, and that sets the tone: frontier towns, trade roads and old grudges rather than a world-ending villain.

Shen’dralas is south of Desolace through the Valley of Bones, between Mulgore and Feralas

Shen’dralas is the ruined valley you used to see from the flight path between Mulgore and Desolace. The BlizzCon map put it between Desolace, Mulgore and Feralas. You reach it from the south of Desolace through the Valley of Bones.

The zone is spelled Shen’dralas. The people it is about are the Shen’dralar, the Highborne remnant tied to Eldre’Thalas, Dire Maul and Prince Tortheldrin. If you searched for “Shendralar zone”, this is the one.

What is there:

• Mordent Evenshade, your guide into the story, and dozens of new quests about the history of Eldre’Thalas.
• Follow-ups to the Gelkis and Magram centaur storylines from Desolace.
• New reasons to run Maraudon and Razorfen Downs.

Level range: Blizzard has not published one, at BlizzCon or since. Its neighbors in Classic are Desolace (30s) and Feralas (40s), and the Maraudon and Razorfen Downs ties point the same way, but treat any exact number you see elsewhere as a guess until Blizzard states it.

Mount Hyjal is the level 60 endgame zone with Hyjal Summit and a Barrow Deeps entrance

Mount Hyjal is Forever’s endgame leveling zone, set in the aftermath of the battle against Archimonde. Blizzard did not give a level range for the zone itself, but both raids inside it are level 60, so this is where you finish leveling and keep playing.

• Darkwhisper Gorge, the area Classic players could see but never properly visit, is finally a place you quest in.
• New reputations with emerging factions on the mountain, plus solo and group content.
• Hyjal Summit, the 20-player raid near the World Tree Nordrassil.
• One of three entrances to the Barrow Deeps, the 10-player raid. The other two are in Winterspring and through Blackmaw Hold in Azshara.

Both raids open on December 9, five weeks after launch, so the zone’s questing and reputations are what Hyjal is for until then.

The Wetlands get 25+ new quests, Desolace and Azshara get new content, and every starting zone grows

Forever also goes back into vanilla zones “without disrupting what exists”, as Evan put it. The changes you will run into:

• Starting zones: whether you start as an orc in the Valley of Trials or a night elf in Shadowglen, there are new NPCs offering quests, training, recipes and professions, plus dozens of new quests across the starting areas.
• Wetlands: over 25 new quests and new leveling paths built on characters already in the zone. The Excavation Site dungeon (24 to 29) sits above Whelgar’s Excavation, near Thelgen Rock and Dun Algaz.
• Desolace: new quests and rewards for a centaur faction. It is also the way into Shen’dralas.
• Azshara: “a lot of new quests”, per Greenfield, and the long-sealed furbolg gate now opens on Blackmaw Hold (55 to 60).
• Tirisfal Glades: Forsaken Paladins get a keep in the Whispering Wood, a formerly unreachable corner in the northwest, around level 10.

The Ruins of Lordaeron are a Horde dungeon for levels 15 to 20 above the Undercity

The Ruins of Lordaeron are not a questing zone but they change how Tirisfal plays. The ruined capital above the Undercity is now a dungeon for levels 15 to 20. The Forsaken are reclaiming it, Scourge still lurk in the corners, and a necromancer is gathering power for an attack on another city.

Horde players walk in from the Undercity. Alliance groups have to sneak deep into Horde territory to reach it. The Alliance mirror is the Hall of Thanes beneath Ironforge (13 to 18).

Grim Batol’s red dragons and Azshara’s crater are teases with no date

Two places got a hint at BlizzCon and nothing more:

• Grim Batol, in the eastern Wetlands: Greenfield told players to corpse-run to the entrance and look for “a much larger red dragon presence outside of the mountain”. There is no new zone or instance behind it at launch.
• Azshara’s crater: “perhaps a crater-sized hole in the content of that zone. And I’m wondering if maybe at some point we might fill that.” The crater stays empty for now.

Blizzard’s roadmap promises “a new playable area” in the spring major update and “expanded world content” in summer. Neither is named, so do not assume either tease is the one.

A leveling route through the new zones: Zephras, Wetlands, Riverglades, then Hyjal

Forever has no level scaling, so a zone’s bracket is where its mobs actually are. A route that uses the new content:

1. 1 to 12: Zephras Isle if you rolled Skyborne, otherwise your race’s expanded starting zone.
2. 13 to 20: your faction’s capital dungeon, Hall of Thanes or the Ruins of Lordaeron.
3. 20s: the new Wetlands quests, finishing with the Excavation Site at 24 to 29.
4. 30s: Desolace’s centaur quests, then look into Shen’dralas once its quests stop going grey or red.
5. Mid-30s to mid-40s: Riverglades instead of, or alongside, Stranglethorn Vale. Krol’dok Stronghold fits at 40 to 45.
6. 45 to 60: Azshara’s new quests and Blackmaw Hold.
7. 60: Mount Hyjal for reputations until the raids open on December 9.

FAQ

Source and credit

Zone details come from Blizzard’s What’s Next and Found Photos panel recaps at BlizzCon 2026 and its dungeon and raid overviews, checked against launch. Images are Blizzard’s, captured from the BlizzCon 2026 panels. Our coverage: Zephras Isle, Riverglades, Shen’dralas, Mount Hyjal and the Wetlands and starting zones.