Raid gear upgrades in WoW: Forever

Will new raid tiers have stronger gear?

Yes. In Inven’s 8 October 2026 interview, Associate Production Director Clay Stone says new WoW: Forever raid tiers will increase gear power. The team aims to keep the gap between tiers as small as possible, so some best-in-slot items from older raids or dungeons can remain useful for a long time.

There is no published percentage for that increase in the interview. The 10 October WoW Forever NOW post accurately points to the intended small gap, but its headline should not be read as a measured result. No complete comparison of successive Forever raid tiers is provided there.

This matters when you decide whether an older run is worth doing. A new tier opening is not, by itself, evidence that every earlier drop has become obsolete. It also does not prove that your particular weapon or trinket will survive the next update. You still need to compare the actual items for your role.

What does horizontal progression mean here?

Stone distinguishes broader world growth from gear progression. Horizontal growth means adding places and activities: zones, dungeons, raids, quests, profession depth and Legacy systems. Gear is not entirely horizontal; it still has a vertical power increase.

The distinction was already public. In IGN Nordic’s September developer interview, Tim Jones described later tiers having better loot while aiming to preserve older items’ usefulness. The October interview clarifies the policy rather than announcing that raid upgrades have just been invented.

For players, there are two separate questions: what new adventures can I choose, and how much stronger will their rewards make me? The first can grow substantially even if the second grows slowly. A new dungeon’s route, quests, encounter preparation and social experience can give you reasons to visit beyond a large stat increase.

Will older raid and dungeon loot stay best in slot?

Some pieces are intended to remain competitive across tiers. Stone’s comparison is with older Classic items that stayed desirable long after their original content. He also explicitly allows eventual replacement. This is a goal for lasting relevance, not a promise that every launch item stays best in slot forever.

Blizzard’s official Deep Dive recap gives another reason to look beyond a universal ranking. It describes situational trinkets and bonuses tied to environments or creature types. Those effects can change an item’s value depending on where you are and what you fight; raw stats are only part of the comparison.

Treat a future BiS list as specific to a specialization, encounter and current build. A damage bonus against one creature type may not help against another. A useful set interaction can also make a modest-looking individual drop worth considering. These are comparison questions, not confirmed rankings for unreleased tiers.

The community post’s suggestion that your first Barrow Deeps item will stay valuable is the author’s interpretation. The interview does not identify a particular Barrow Deeps drop or guarantee how long you will wear it. Keep that distinction when deciding what to farm or sharing the news with your raid.

Has Blizzard confirmed a gear soft reset?

No. Stone says it is too early to determine whether gear progression will ever need a soft reset. Keeping players’ experiences and rewards meaningful is the stated intention, while maintaining that perfectly forever may be impractical.

That leaves an open design question. It is neither a scheduled reset announcement nor a guarantee that no reset can ever happen. The interview gives no reset date, frequency, trigger or implementation. It does not say that an expansion-style replacement of your entire equipment set is coming.

A useful future announcement would explain what changes, which items or systems are affected, and when. Until then, a claim about annual resets, a specific season wiping raid gear, or permanently frozen item power goes beyond the available evidence. Judge those claims against an actual developer statement rather than a discussion-thread headline.

How should you prepare your gear collection?

Build around the content you can actually play. Record what an item does, why you keep it and which encounter or loadout needs it. That makes later comparisons easier than relying only on the fact that one item came from a newer raid.

Keep a selective collection rather than assuming every old drop deserves a bank slot. Compare role-relevant stats, situational bonuses and set effects before replacing something. A possible future use is a reason to investigate an item, not proof that it is mandatory.

Raid groups can use the same approach when discussing loot. Ask who can use a drop now and which existing piece it replaces. Small tier gaps may reward thoughtful comparisons, but the interview does not prescribe a loot system or settle how rewarding those upgrades will feel in practice.

1. Check the current tooltip and beta build before relying on an item database entry.
2. Compare new loot against your current role and encounter, including relevant set effects.
3. Keep situational pieces you can name a use for, and review them when new encounters arrive.
4. Wait for actual later-tier loot tables before treating an early item as permanently best in slot.

What still needs real raid-tier evidence?

The policy is clear enough to explain: newer raid gear gains power, and Blizzard wants older content to stay relevant. The outcome still needs item tables, encounter context and testing. We cannot yet put a percentage on the tier gap or list which early drops will survive several later raids.

Our broader horizontal-progression guide covers the world and system side of the plan. This article tracks the narrower raid-loot question and will be updated when Blizzard publishes later-tier details or a concrete reset policy.