Blizzard is changing how World of Warcraft: Forever rewards quests at high level after removing the game’s max-level XP-to-gold conversion drew complaints from players. Community manager Kaivax said on the official forums that a hotfix will go live “in the next 24 hours or so,” and that it will add more gold to most quests at level 48 and higher.
The fix addresses a launch-week change that removed a long-running piece of World of Warcraft economy behavior. For nearly 20 years, experience from quests completed at max level had been converted into gold. That system helped many players, especially in Classic-style play, top up their wallets after reaching the cap. In WoW: Forever, Blizzard removed it when the mode launched last week, and players who began reaching level 60 quickly started feeling the loss.
Blizzard is not bringing the old conversion back. Instead, it is raising the raw gold reward on higher-level quests so players can keep earning money while they level through the upper end of the game. Kaivax said the studio is “preparing a hotfix that will add additional gold rewards to most quests with a quest level of level 48 or higher,” including quests above level 48 that never rewarded gold before.
The reaction that led to the change was immediate. The forum thread began with a post from Faze, who wrote four days earlier that the change “needs to be reverted.” Faze argued that quests were “basically useless at 60 if they don’t have a reward” and said the shift made the game’s design feel bad at max level.
Other players reacted even more harshly before Blizzard stepped in. Some said they would stop playing if the change stayed in place, and one poster complained that the developers seemed focused on “fixing” things that were not broken. After Kaivax’s response, the tone changed quickly. Danni replied, “Nice change. Quests giving consistent gold whether you do them at 59 or 60 makes sense, and doesn’t punish people for handing them in ‘too soon.’”
Blizzard’s explanation for the original removal centers on player behavior. According to Kaivax, the XP-to-gold conversion “created an incentive for players to hold a full quest log worth of completed quests to hand in after hitting level 60 for maximum gold returns.” Under those conditions, Blizzard said, the most efficient way to level was to grind creatures for experience and avoid turning in quests until after hitting the cap, which is not a pattern the team wants to keep in WoW: Forever.
Why Blizzard says the old system had to go
The forum post adds background on where the XP-to-gold conversion came from. Blizzard said the system was introduced in 2006, in the weeks leading up to the original Burning Crusade launch, as a way to boost gold income for players finishing original World of Warcraft content before the first expansion. Blizzard also said it kept the feature in Classic Era in 2019, but decided to remove it from WoW: Forever because of how it changed leveling behavior.
The company said the impact was larger than it first expected because only a fraction of original WoW quests pay raw gold. According to Kaivax, only about 25% of quests in the original game actually provide gold rewards, so removing the XP-to-gold conversion cut into income more than intended as players got closer to level 60. The new hotfix is meant to make up for that drop without restoring the old incentive to delay quest turn-ins.
Blizzard’s solution is limited but broad. Rather than restoring one system at max level, it will increase the reward on most quests at level 48 and above, and it will add gold to some quests above level 48 that never had a gold payout at all. That should keep high-level questing worth doing while preventing players from gaming the system by stockpiling completed objectives.
The change also fits the way Blizzard has been handling WoW: Forever since launch. The mode has already kept some classic rules intact while altering others, including group tagging and dungeon experience, and Blizzard has added content such as the quest Kyle’s Gone Missing. The new gold adjustment is another example of the team changing older rules when it thinks the original version pushes players toward behavior it does not want in the mode.
As more players reach level 60, that kind of tuning is likely to keep coming under pressure. The first wave of max-level characters is already testing the economy and the pace of progression, and Blizzard’s response here shows it is willing to adjust rewards quickly when the live game exposes a problem. The hotfix is meant to land fast, but the studio has not published exact gold values for the affected quests.
That leaves some uncertainty for players who want to know exactly how much money the hotfix will add. Jalesanda captured that mood by saying they would hold off on fully accepting the change until they see “how much gold this is, and how it compares.” Blizzard has said which quests are being targeted and why, but it has not listed a full reward table.
This update also arrives soon after WoW: Forever reached its first level 60 three days after launch, which made the missing quest gold visible almost immediately. Once players began entering the cap range, the old conversion mattered far more because completed quests stopped rewarding experience and were expected to pay out in gold instead. Without that conversion, players lost one of the easiest ways to fund spells, mounts, and other expenses while playing through the highest levels.
Blizzard’s hotfix does not solve every economy question in the mode, but it does answer the immediate complaint from the forums: quests at the top end should still feel rewarding when they are completed at the level they are intended for. By raising the base gold on those quests, the studio is trying to keep leveling efficient without reviving the old habit of hoarding turn-ins for a bigger payout at 60.
For now, the plan is straightforward. Most quests at level 48 and higher will pay more gold, some previously unrewarded quests will start paying gold, and the old XP-to-gold conversion will stay disabled at max level once the hotfix goes live.
What Blizzard said will change
- Most quests with a quest level of 48 or higher will get additional gold rewards.
- Some quests above level 48 that never rewarded gold will start paying gold.
- The XP-to-gold conversion for quests completed at max level will remain disabled.
- The hotfix is expected to go live in the next 24 hours or so, according to Kaivax.
- Blizzard says the goal is to reward players for doing quests at the appropriate level without encouraging quest hoarding.
WoW Forever reached its first level 60 only days after launch, which helps explain why this gold change surfaced so quickly. As more players move into max-level play, Blizzard’s economy tuning is likely to stay under close watch.
48+ quests getting more gold is fair
yeah, 48+ was the right range
i’d rather keep the conversion and lower the raw gold gap a bit. the old system at least made max level feel less stingy.
i get that, but then everyone just banks quests for 60 again. that part seems way more annoying than losing the old payout trick.
Removing the max-level conversion and not touching quest gold was a bad call. If Blizzard wants people to keep questing at 60, the reward has to feel real, not like pocket lint.
the lever thing makes sense, but is it really the same problem if they keep the conversion off? feels more like they just made 60 quests dead money for a week and then had to patch it.