What layering does to world PvP in WoW: Forever

Forever runs several copies of a busy zone at once, called world instances, and players call it layering. Hundreds of players share each copy, which Blizzard pitches as room for big world PvP fights. The catch is that a player can move to another copy mid-fight, and from your side they simply fade out.

Beta players reported it in the first week. Icy Veins collected forum reports on 24 September of fights cut short by world instance changes, including players escaping a PvP fight by crossing a zone border. A 3 October forum thread titled Layering Breaks World PVP describes allies being layered out in the middle of a fight.

On episode 1 of The WoW: Forever Podcast, posted 24 September with Josh Greenfield, Tim Jones and Xaryu, the developers called an opponent vanishing into another layer not intended, according to player summaries of the episode. Blizzard has not published a fix or a date for it.

Dee swinging a sword at an orc warrior who dissolves into sparkling mist in a Stranglethorn jungle, a silverback gorilla fading behind as a human priest appears in golden light.
A new party member arrives. The orc and the rare both slip away.

Why a rare vanishes when you invite someone

Grouping can move you too. Blizzard's 24 September known issues said creating or changing a party may transfer players to a different world instance. On the same podcast, the developers called losing a rare to a group invite a bug.

The 1 October beta notes fixed part of it: party leaders should no longer be transferred when a party is created or changed. That note says nothing about other members, so the player who accepts the invite can still land in a different copy, with a different rare or none at all.

Rare hunters have a second problem. A copy that has just opened may not have spawned its mobs yet, and one player report on 3 October argues that long-timer rares like Humar the Pridelord cannot appear until a new copy has run for hours. Blizzard has not said how rare timers work per world instance.

How to keep a target in your world instance

Until both problems are fixed, a few habits cut the odds of losing a kill.

Wowdee cannot see world instances. The Wowdee add-on + app will let your group agree on the rare, the meeting spot and who leads before anyone sets out, so the invite goes out long before the pull.

  1. Have the player already standing at the rare send the invite. Since 1 October the party leader stays put, so the new player is the one who moves.
  2. Group up before you reach the rare or the fight, not during it.
  3. In world PvP, keep the fight away from zone borders, which beta players report can swap your world instance.
  4. If a target fades out, stop chasing it. You are in different copies of the zone and cannot reach each other.

Still to come

Not yet settled by our sources or tested in game:

  • A fix, or a date, for PvP targets moving between world instances mid-fight.
  • Whether players other than the party leader still change world instance on an invite.
  • How rare spawn timers work in a newly opened world instance.
  • Whether Forever delays world instance transfers after PvP combat, as WoW Classic did.

Sources

Beta notes are dated because Forever is still changing.