WoW Forever Classic vs Enhanced: pick Enhanced if unsure, because the preset only sets your starting defaults

Pick Enhanced if you are new to Forever, if you play modern World of Warcraft, or if you have no strong feeling. Blizzard describes it as 'An updated presentation with higher visual fidelity and additional interface features enabled by default', and says it 'puts several conveniences within easy reach for players accustomed to modern WoW'. Quest markers are the conveniences that matter most to a first-time player, because they show where to go next.

Pick Classic if you specifically want to find your own way. Blizzard's description is 'A more traditional presentation with simpler visuals, standard character models, and fewer modern interface features enabled by default for a cleaner, more original-style experience with less automatic guidance.' The phrase to weigh is 'less automatic guidance'. With quest points of interest and objective blobs off, there are no marked objective areas to follow, so finding the spot is left to you.

The two choices are closer than the names suggest. Both give you the same game, the same quests and the same class abilities, and neither is the 'real' way to play. Blizzard is direct about this: 'The preset names describe defaults, not player skill.' Nothing about choosing Enhanced marks you out, and nothing about choosing Classic earns you anything.

One small point in the record favours taking the question lightly. Blizzard's launch post and New Player's Starter Guide both include the 'start with Enhanced' advice, while its returning-player post, 'Return to Azeroth', leaves that sentence out and simply says you can change the selection later. That suggests the advice is meant for people who are unsure, not for veterans who already know what they want.

Blizzard lists six starting settings for each preset, and the Enhanced column is the Classic column with each one reversed. The table adds what each setting actually does, taken from Blizzard's 3 November article 'What's New and What Feels Familiar', because the launch post only names them. Where Blizzard names a setting without explaining it, the table says so.

Read the table as a list of switches and not as two products. You can take the Classic look and keep the quest markers, or the Enhanced layout with one-bag off. Blizzard says 'Individual settings remain adjustable in Game Menu > Options', and you can 'favor that presentation without giving up the option to adjust individual settings'.

The preset is not a Ruleset. This is the mix-up the screen order invites, because the two questions come one after the other. You choose a preset, and then you choose a Ruleset (Normal, PvP, Roleplay or Roleplay-PvP at launch, with Hardcore planned for later), and Blizzard keeps them apart in plain words: 'The choice affects presentation, not which Ruleset you play on.' Your Ruleset decides how PvP works and who you can group with. Your preset does not. So two friends on different presets can play together, as long as they share a Ruleset and a faction, because those are the conditions Blizzard sets for grouping.

It is also not a separate version of the game. Blizzard describes the presets as bundling 'the game's initial visual and interface settings into two options', which is the whole of what they do. The word 'Classic' here means a screen layout and a set of defaults. It does not mean World of Warcraft Classic, which is a different game and which the WoW Forever vs Classic page compares. Nor is it a mode with tougher enemies. None of Blizzard's four descriptions of the presets connects them to difficulty, rewards or Legacy Points.

Your models are decided in two places, which is why this causes confusion. The preset sets the starting point, HD for Enhanced and SD for Classic. Then 'Each time you create a new character, you can select either High Definition (HD) or Standard Definition (SD) character models and animations.' Blizzard calls this a 'character-specific choice', and it 'affects only appearance—not abilities or progression'. On that wording, one character can be SD and the next HD whichever preset you picked, and you can change either one 'later in the Options Menu or by visiting a Barbershop in game'.

The difference covers animations as well as models. Blizzard's choice is between 'character models and animations', and its BlizzCon recap mentions 'restored Classic animations for HD character models'. So HD does not simply mean modern animation. Blizzard has not published a full breakdown of which animations each option uses, and the HD or SD switch is described only for characters. It says nothing about the world, spell effects or lighting.

There is one real gap. Blizzard says the toggle was built around the races from original World of Warcraft, and that SD Skyborne player characters 'are in development and arriving early 2027'. Until then a Skyborne character has HD models only, even on the Classic preset. If that matters to you, it is a reason to weigh your race choice and not your preset.

You will not be asked again. 'After your initial log in to the game, you will no longer see this screen.' That sounds final, but it only means the prompt disappears. Blizzard gives two routes afterwards, in different posts. The launch post and the Starter Guide say you can change individual settings 'later under Game Menu > Options'. The returning-player post is more specific: 'You can change the selection later or fine-tune your experience in the Options Menu under System – Preset.' So look under System for the preset as a whole, and in the wider Options menu for single settings. For one character's models, use the Options Menu or a Barbershop.

Blizzard has not said whether a preset belongs to your account, your character or your installation, or whether switching later overwrites settings you already adjusted by hand. Before changing it on a character you have set up carefully, note the settings you care about, so that you can put them back if they move.

Combat information sits in a separate place from both presets. 'For more information during combat, Advanced options in WoW: Forever provide access to elements such as the Cooldown Manager and a Damage Meter.' Blizzard adds that these sit 'Alongside the preset settings', which means they are not part of the Enhanced bundle. The six-item starting lists above do not include them, for either preset. Blizzard has not given the exact menu path or said whether they are on by default, so on either preset, look through the Advanced options if you want them.