Blizzard Reveals Taldramir, the Whispering Wood, Ahead of World of Warcraft: Forever Launch

Blizzard has revealed a new legendary weapon for World of Warcraft: Forever, and it was shown off on a live stream. The weapon is called Taldramir, the Whispering Wood. Legendary weapons are rare, top-tier items that players work hard to earn in the game.

The reveal ran on the Warcraft channel on Twitch, a live video platform where people watch games being played and made. According to GameSpot, the stream showed the creation of a full-scale staff with a night elf theme. Weta Workshop built a physical replica of Taldramir for the video. The stream's file name, Camelot_revealv2_final.mp4, pointed back to the project's development codename, Camelot, which is the name the team used for World of Warcraft: Forever while it was in production.

The game itself is now out on PC. Twitch's blog says it launches at 3:00 p.m. PST, and its post is titled "Begin Again in Azeroth," after the world where the game takes place. Everyone starts at level 1. The game returns players to the original continents and takes them up to level 60. New characters can roll a Skyborne character, who begins on Zephras Isle.

Some of the hardest group content has a later date. According to GameSpot, the raids Hyjal Summit and the Barrow Downs do not unlock until 9 December. Raids are multi-player challenges that groups of players tackle together over several attempts.

For fans who watch the game on Twitch, several new features arrived with the launch. Twitch added Stream Recaps, shelves on category pages that collect short highlight reels. World of Warcraft is the first category to get them, and every other category is due to receive them later that week. A recap is built from clips made by the streamer, their editors and their viewers.

Twitch also released the WoW: Forever Armory extension. It displays a streamer's abilities, build and equipment directly on their channel. Subscribing to a World of Warcraft streamer, or gifting a subscription, now earns limited-time Horde and Alliance chat badges. Horde and Alliance are the two opposing factions in the game, and the badges show which side a viewer belongs to in chat.

Blizzard has not said when Taldramir itself will be available to players. The stream showed the weapon's making, and the rest of the details will come from Blizzard.