Position 17,170 in the queue, 36 minutes estimated. That is what one player’s screen showed on the night the beta opened, on September 17. On November 4 the game launches, and I will be in that queue with fifteen days off work and the whole Horadrim Legacy guild, chasing one goal: level 60. This WoW Forever survival guide grew out of those fifteen days.
Fifteen days is 360 hours. Estimates for reaching 60 range from 50 to 200 hours of play, according to the numbers we gathered. On paper, that leaves plenty of room. Except those 360 hours also have to fit meals, showers, nights and a family that would like to see you now and then. That is where rushes fall apart.
So this guide ranks everything that happens away from the keyboard: food, drinks, showers and sleep. As tier lists, because that is the only language a WoW player truly speaks. The grades come from twenty years of raid nights and from the guild’s habits. They are final. Unless you have a better dish, in which case the comments are open.
The five criteria of a rush meal
A rush meal is judged by what it costs your character, long before its taste. Every food in this guide is graded on five criteria, shown on each card:
The first one matters most. Your right hand belongs to the mouse from November 4 to November 18. Anything that needs a knife and fork, or two chopsticks, starts with a handicap. AFK time (time spent away from the keyboard) counts almost as much: ten minutes at the stove means a missed pull or a group that left without you. The last criterion is about the guild. Nobody wants to hear your chips on voice chat for three hours.
The air fryer, the only legendary gear of the rush
You cannot eat it, so it has no place in the tier list. It still gets one, right at the top, because it changes the ranking of everything else. The air fryer is the pay-to-win option of this WoW Forever survival guide: an advantage you buy, and we own it.
Legendary item · Binds when picked up
🔥 Air fryer
« It beeps when it’s ready. Like a pull coming back. »
- No preheating: nuggets, cordon bleu, pizza or fries in 10 to 15 minutes.
- A beep when cooking ends, so you watch nothing.
- Passive effect: everything you put inside gains a tier. Frozen pizza goes from B to A.
- Add it to your Christmas list. Or buy it before November 4, Christmas comes too late.
The food tier list, from fried rice to chips
The tier list in this WoW Forever survival guide follows the five criteria. One golden rule runs through every tier: what you prepare the day before always beats what you prepare during the session. On the Sunday before launch, a pot of soup and a dish of chili are worth more than any delivery.
Improvised fried rice
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 none
- ⏱️ 5 min
- ⛽ 5 h
- 🎙️ silent
Rice cooker rice, bacon bits, egg and fish sauce. The rice cooker works alone while you level, the pan takes five minutes and the sauce does the rest. Eaten with a spoon, one-handed. The guild’s official dish.
Homemade soup, drunk from a mug
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 none
- ⏱️ 2 min
- ⛽ 3 h
- 🎙️ silent
A big pot on Sunday, then one mug in the microwave at a time. No crumbs, no noise, and you can drink it during a flight. The rusher’s mana potion.
Banana
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 none
- ⏱️ 0 min
- ⛽ 1 h 30
- 🎙️ silent
Packaging included, no preparation at all, and it is gone before your gryphon lands. The perfect consumable.
Wraps made in advance
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 few
- ⏱️ 0 min
- ⛽ 3 h
- 🎙️ silent
Chicken, cream cheese, raw veggies. Rolled on Sunday, they keep three days in the fridge. The raider’s waybread.
Overnight oats
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 none
- ⏱️ 2 min the night before
- ⛽ 4 h
- 🎙️ silent
Oat flakes, milk, a mashed banana and a night in the fridge. In the morning it is ready, and it lasts until the noon dungeon.
Pasta with jarred bolognese
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 none
- ⏱️ 10 min
- ⛽ 4 h
- 🎙️ silent
The indestructible classic: one pot, one jar to heat. On one condition: short pasta, in a bowl. Spaghetti sits in D.
Pasta with tuna and tomato
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 none
- ⏱️ 10 min
- ⛽ 4 h
- 🎙️ silent
A can of tuna, some tomato sauce, done. Cheap and filling. Every student’s survival recipe, approved by raiders.
Chili or lasagna in a big dish
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 none
- ⏱️ 2 min
- ⛽ 4 h
- 🎙️ silent
Cooked once, eaten four times. Only weakness: the sauce that ends up on the mouse pad.
Hard-boiled eggs
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 none
- ⏱️ 10 min for 12
- ⛽ 2 h
- 🎙️ silent
A dozen at once, and you are set for three days. Big bonus to staying full, odor penalty in the room.
Air fryer pizza
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 some
- ⏱️ 8 min
- ⛽ 3 h
- 🎙️ silent
Promoted from B thanks to the legendary item. A slice is eaten one-handed, and it cooks twice as fast as in the oven.
Skyr or drinkable yogurt
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 none
- ⏱️ 0 min
- ⛽ 1 h 30
- 🎙️ silent
Drunk during a quest. Perfect as a snack, too light to carry a night of dungeons.
Almonds and nuts
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 few
- ⏱️ 0 min
- ⛽ 2 h
- 🎙️ light
A handful between two quests. Some chewing noise, bearable on voice chat.
Frozen pizza in the oven
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 some
- ⏱️ 15 min
- ⛽ 3 h
- 🎙️ silent
Fifteen minutes of oven is a real AFK. You can finish a quest meanwhile, but you come back with greasy fingers on the mouse.
Store-bought sandwich
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 some
- ⏱️ 0 min
- ⛽ 1 h
- 🎙️ silent
Zero preparation, but hunger is back two zones later.
Croque-monsieur
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 yes
- ⏱️ 8 min
- ⛽ 2 h
- 🎙️ light
Good effort-to-pleasure ratio. Melted cheese remains a threat to the keyboard.
Instant noodles
- 🖱️ no
- 🍞 none
- ⏱️ 3 min
- ⛽ 1 h
- 🎙️ slurp
Three minutes of waiting, but chopsticks, so two hands. And hunger returns an hour later. A trap in disguise.
Delivered burger
- 🖱️ no
- 🍞 yes
- ⏱️ 40 min wait
- ⛽ 4 h
- 🎙️ light
The delivery driver always rings in the middle of a pull. Two hands required, sauce guaranteed.
Sushi
- 🖱️ no
- 🍞 none
- ⏱️ delivery
- ⛽ 2 h
- 🎙️ silent
Chopsticks and soy sauce ten centimeters from the keyboard. Everything is in place for a disaster.
French tacos
- 🖱️ no
- 🍞 yes
- ⏱️ delivery
- ⛽ 8 h
- 🎙️ light
Legendary staying power, but a forced two-hour nap. The guild leaves for the dungeon without you.
Cereal with milk
- 🖱️ no
- 🍞 none
- ⏱️ 1 min
- ⛽ 1 h
- 🎙️ crunch
A bowl that needs both hands, milk that spills, and hunger that comes back fast.
Chips
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 everywhere
- ⏱️ 0 min
- ⛽ 30 min
- 🎙️ unbearable
Crunching in the whole guild’s headset and greasy fingers on the movement keys. The worst combo.
Cheese puffs
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 orange dust
- ⏱️ 0 min
- ⛽ 30 min
- 🎙️ loud
An orange dust that stays on the keyboard for three expansions.
Raclette
- 🖱️ no
- 🍞 none
- ⏱️ 2 h
- ⛽ 10 h
- 🎙️ AFK
Two hours at the table, then a food coma. The guild is level 40, you are still 32.
Spaghetti bolognese at the screen
- 🖱️ no
- 🍞 sauce
- ⏱️ 10 min
- ⛽ 4 h
- 🎙️ slurp
T-shirt, desk, mouse: everything gets hit. Same sauce, same pasta, but the shape changes everything.
Oysters
- 🖱️ no
- 🍞 shells
- ⏱️ 20 min
- ⛽ 30 min
- 🎙️ silent
Twenty minutes to open them, and a one-in-three chance of stabbing your hand. You spend the week playing one-handed, just not the way you planned.
Barbecue chicken wings
- 🖱️ no
- 🍞 sauce on 10 fingers
- ⏱️ delivery
- ⛽ 2 h
- 🎙️ light
Ten sauce-covered fingers to wipe before touching the mouse. You die while looking for the paper towels.
Popcorn
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 under the keys
- ⏱️ 3 min
- ⛽ 30 min
- 🎙️ loud
The noise of chips, plus kernels that slip under the keys. You will find some at the next patch.
Mille-feuille
- 🖱️ no
- 🍞 explosion
- ⏱️ 0 min
- ⛽ 1 h
- 🎙️ light
It explodes on the first bite. The guild hears the crumbs land.
Extra-spicy noodles
- 🖱️ no
- 🍞 none
- ⏱️ 5 min
- ⛽ 1 h
- 🎙️ coughing
Tears, sweat, runny nose: you cannot see the screen for ten minutes. A wipe (the whole group dying) is guaranteed.
Corn on the cob
- 🖱️ no
- 🍞 kernels
- ⏱️ 10 min
- ⛽ 1 h
- 🎙️ light
Two hands, head tilted, and kernels stuck in your teeth for the rest of the night.
Homemade crêpes
- 🖱️ no
- 🍞 sugar
- ⏱️ 1 h
- ⛽ 2 h
- 🎙️ AFK
An hour glued to the pan, one crêpe at a time. The guild finishes the dungeon before the third one.
Cassoulet
- 🖱️ yes
- 🍞 none
- ⏱️ 5 min
- ⛽ 8 h
- 🎙️ side effects
Outstanding staying power, but side effects noticed on voice chat all evening. The guild muted you.
This WoW Forever survival guide applies to your character too: it has to eat, and its food buffs matter more than yours. For it, the WoW Forever cooking guide is the reference.
Drinks: water in S, the fourth can in D
In this WoW Forever survival guide, the drinks ranking comes down to one idea: whatever spills is an enemy, and so is whatever keeps you awake. An open glass next to the keyboard always ends up knocked over, hence its D with no discussion.
Water in a closed bottle
Zero sugar, and the cap prevents the keyboard tragedy. The true legendary consumable, which nobody takes seriously.
A 1.5 liter bottle by the desk
One refill per session, no AFK to fill a glass. When it is empty, it is time to stand up.
Morning coffee
One or two, the essential opening buff. Beyond that, it turns into a debuff.
Homemade iced tea
Lightly sweetened, made by the liter the day before and kept in the fridge.
Evening herbal tea
For the night session. It takes away the urge to snack on D tier.
Soda
An effective sugar boost, then a big crash an hour later. One a day, no more.
Sparkling water
Excellent, but the hiss of the bottle carries on voice chat.
Coffee after 6 p.m.
At 4 a.m., you are still staring at the ceiling, thinking about your rotation.
The first energy drink
It works, true. It is also the start of a slippery slope.
The fourth energy drink
Heart at 140, shaking hands, and you miss every interrupt (the spells that cut enemy casts). Your healer is worried about you.
A beer in a dungeon
The first one is fine. By the third, you charge the boss before the tank.
An open glass next to the keyboard
It is waiting for its moment. That moment always comes during a fight.
Boiling hot chocolate
Undrinkable for twenty minutes, then spilled at the first mouse movement.
Strategic showers, or the art of washing during an AFK
During a rush, showering stays mandatory. Your guild cannot smell you, your family can. The trick is picking the right moment, the one where the game cannot cost you anything. It is the section of this WoW Forever survival guide your family will read first.
The launch queue
Forty minutes of queue: shower, breakfast, and you are back just as it lets you in. The only time the queue works for you.
Server maintenance
The game closes for everyone, you miss nothing. A full shower, shampoo included. Pure luxury.
The four-minute commando shower
The reference technique: water, soap, rinse, out. Timed while the guild sells its loot.
While the guild looks for a tank
It always takes longer than planned. You have time.
Right after a wipe
By the time everyone is back, rebuffed and yelled at, you are already dry.
A long gryphon flight
Commando shower only. Otherwise you land in a towel in front of the flight master.
The group bio break
Everyone is AFK for five minutes, but nobody comes back on time. Neither do you.
The ghost run back to your corpse
If you died far away, it lasts longer than a commando shower. Half the time, you got the math wrong.
Five minutes before servers open
You come back to 12,000 players ahead of you in the queue. All that to be clean.
During a boss pull
« Back in five minutes. » Nobody waited for you.
No shower at all
Day 6: even the pizza driver keeps his distance.
Sleeping during a rush to 60: yes, it is mandatory
Your character gets its cozy sleeping bag. You get a bed too. No WoW Forever survival guide will excuse you from sleeping. Sleep is the one buff nobody wants to take and everybody regrets skipping by day three.
A real 7 to 8 hour night
Rested, you level faster than the zombie who stayed up thirty hours straight. And you do not die stupidly in a level 45 dungeon.
The 20-minute nap
Short enough not to sink, long enough to carry you through the evening.
Going to bed with the guild
You miss nothing, and nobody gets ten levels ahead while you sleep.
« One more quest and I’ll sleep »
It is 3 a.m. You did nine quests.
The launch all-nighter
On day two, you fall asleep mid-dungeon. So does the tank.
Sleeping on the keyboard
Four hundred lines of « jjjjjjjjj » in guild chat, and your character running into a wall.
The WoW Forever survival guide checklist, before November 4
Launch falls on a Wednesday. Sunday, November 1 is therefore your last real day of preparation. Here is what must be done before then.
- Groceries: rice, bacon bits, eggs, fish sauce, short pasta, bolognese sauce, tuna, tomato sauce, bananas, oat flakes, wrap ingredients. And a water bottle.
- Sunday batch cooking (cooking once for several days): a pot of soup, a dish of chili or lasagna, a dozen hard-boiled eggs, the wraps.
- Telling the people around you about your time off. With precise dates, and a promise to go outside at least once.
- Your build, prepared in advance in the WoW Forever talent calculator, so you do not have to think at 2 a.m.
- The items to aim for, spotted in the BiS List (the best items for each specialization).
- Your professions, chosen with the profession bonuses in front of you.
- Your leveling addons, installed and tested thanks to our selection. On launch night it will be too late.
- Cleaning the keyboard. Enjoy it, it is the last time you will see it clean before December.
A typical day of rushing to 60 in WoW Forever
The plan is simple on paper. Here is what this WoW Forever survival guide looks like once applied, based on our beta nights.
- 9:00 a.m.The alarm is set. It is 10:40 when you open your eyes.
- 10:45 a.m.Overnight oats, coffee, log in. First dungeon of the day.
- 12:30 p.m.The rice cooker starts during a string of quests. Fried rice at 1 p.m.
- 3:00 p.m.The guild is looking for a tank. Four-minute commando shower.
- 4:30 p.m.A banana and a big glass of water during a gryphon flight.
- 7:30 p.m.Air fryer nuggets. The beep goes off right between two packs of monsters.
- 9:00 p.m.Dungeon night with Horadrim Legacy. Nobody eats chips, everybody watches everybody.
- 11:30 p.m.« One more quest and I’ll sleep. »
- 2:10 a.m.In bed. You gained a level and a half since 11:30.
Raids only open on December 9. Nothing is as urgent as the guild wants you to believe: a level 60 character on November 18 or on November 25 is the same character in front of Molten Core.
The only serious advice in this guide
This is the least funny part of this WoW Forever survival guide, and the most useful. Fifteen days in front of a screen are paid for with dry eyes and a stiff back. Two habits cost almost nothing. The first is the 20-20-20 rule, which Medical News Today explains here: every 20 minutes, look at something about 20 feet (6 meters) away for 20 seconds. A gryphon flight often lasts longer than that.
The second: stand up once an hour, if only to refill your water bottle. Level 60 takes fifteen days. Your back stays with you a lot longer.
1 Commentaire
A ben voila enfin un article intéressant concernant WoW Forever 😉
Merci Kami !
*/troll off*