Following the TechRadar interview, Inven Global sat down with Blizzard's Holly Longdale and Clay Stone — and this one is dense. Beta scale, class design philosophy, and the questions players care most about: gear progression and dungeon XP.

Beta scale and the camping system: Blizzard confirmed this is the largest Beta they've ever run by participation, with an "overwhelmingly positive" response. The camping system has been received better than expected and is encouraging social interaction; with the level cap at 30, they're watching how camping plays past 30 and already discussing what's next for it.

Class design: no homogenization. The stated principle: "maintain distinct class identities and avoid homogenization." Classes should feel different — that matters most. And the commitment: no spec should feel unplayable or useless — every spec doesn't need to be the best everywhere, but there should be a reason to bring it to specific content. This dovetails with the TechRadar "no modernization" position.

What "horizontal" actually means: horizontally expanding the world — more professions, zones, dungeons, raids and quests over time — rather than flattening gear. Gear progression is NOT entirely horizontal: there will be power escalation, but Blizzard wants each jump as small as possible; last tier's BiS may stay usable into the next raid, though it will eventually be replaced. Old content stays relevant as long as possible. On a "soft reset": too early to say.

Dungeon XP, refined: original WoW developers are still on the team, and they never wanted 1-60 to be dungeons-only — "WoW is social" and the journey should happen in the world. Concretely: dungeon quest XP was recently nerfed while mob XP went up — a step beyond the +20% dungeon mob XP in the October 9 dev notes. Dungeon grinding still pays, but the open world's weight is deliberately back.

Practical takeaways: pick classes by taste — homogenization is officially the enemy; ease off on gear anxiety, since power jumps are being flattened. Builds in the talent library, the full change list on the class changes page, and compare with the TechRadar stance in our earlier piece.

Source: Wowhead compiling Inven Global's interview with Holly Longdale and Clay Stone, published 2026-10-14.