The Drowned City

23:31 The Drowned City is a five-player dungeon for levels 35 to 40 in World of Warcraft: Forever: ancient troll ruins off the coast of Stranglethorn Vale, west of Grom'gol, that lay under the waves for as long as anyone remembers and have suddenly risen out of the ocean. "It appears to be some sort of city," Nora Mills told the What's Next panel at BlizzCon on Sep 12, 2026; trolls and naga have been seen there, and a pirate ship seems to have crashed into it. Blizzard's dungeon article of Oct 20, 2026 adds that the entrance is underwater and that the open-air dungeon shifts from mist and rain into a full storm before the final fight. It was the one dungeon BlizzCon visitors could play, and it opens with the game on Nov 4, 2026.

Quick facts

Setting

The Drowned City is a new place rather than an old one revisited. Blizzard's article describes sunken troll ruins that have surfaced off Stranglethorn Vale, with trolls and naga now patrolling their streets and a wrecked pirate ship nearby. Players dive to find the underwater entrance, then fight through an open-air area as the weather turns, "from mist and rain into a full storm", before the final battle.

1:18:30 At Blizzard's Creator Showcase on Sep 12, 2026, senior encounter designer Rowan Ryder set it apart from the City of Dalaran and the Ruins of Lordaeron, familiar places given a new spin: the Drowned City is a troll city risen from the ocean floor off the western coast of Stranglethorn Vale, and the demo's characters were level 38.

The BlizzCon demo

1:16 The Drowned City was on the BlizzCon 2026 show floor. Opening the Deep Dive panel on Sep 13, Clay Stone hoped visitors had tried the demo and experienced either the start of the Skyborne leveling journey or "our all new to classic WoW dungeons, the Drowned City with a few friends". What creators recorded there is an in-development build, not what players will get at launch.

2:15 GameSpot, which played the demo, found the dungeon "very impressive". "As soon as you walk in, you're kind of treated to this giant fish skeleton," its reporter said, in an open-air troll dungeon whose lighting and water effects do not "really look like anything in WoW Classic" while keeping "that true kind of classic feel" (see Graphics and Visuals).

1:35 Xaryu played the show-floor build as a Fire Mage in a group of streamers. As they set off, the group calls out "Drowned City", and one player warns that "this place is actually hard". His video of Sep 13, 2026 is titled as a first look at a level 40 dungeon.

12:36 A shark circles in the water below. It is level 45, well above the group, and dropping down to the fish-like enemies below it turns up a rare spawn, which the players take to be a "super rare" nobody had killed yet.

17:57 Their first pull on the shark goes badly: the tank's taunt misses and a tail swipe kills the tank in one hit. The group concludes it needs "more gear, more skill, more keybinds".

22:21 With the demo's time running out, the group decides it cannot kill the shark and goes looking for a different boss, ending the session asking for more time.

7:07 Esfand ran the same dungeon as a Retribution Paladin. Looking around, he says something about it "does feel like a retail dungeon", then confirms for his viewers that it is the Drowned City.

21:38 Later his group gets a boss stuck on some stairs, where it stops targeting anyone, and they decide to skip it: a bug in the show-floor build.

24:19 Esfand's verdict is mixed. He likes the new lighting, saying Blizzard updated the graphics without making them look like modern WoW, but still feels the dungeon's design is "kind of retaily". Swimming through a flooded passage, the group has to look for an air bubble to breathe.

6:01 Sodapoppin, gearing a level 38 Skyborne Druid for the Drowned City, kept stopping to read the items: casters "actually get weapon upgrades while leveling", he noted. Blizzard has not published the dungeon's loot list; Forever's unique dungeon boss items are rare (blue) quality (see Items and Stats).

Where it fits

The Drowned City sits between the City of Dalaran (levels 28 to 33) and Krol'dok Stronghold (40 to 45) in the leveling journey, at the level of Stranglethorn Vale itself; the new zone for the mid-30s to mid-40s is The Riverglades. The beta's level cap was 30 as of Oct 20, 2026, so the Drowned City has not been tested there; it opens with the full game on Nov 4.

Frequently asked questions

What level is the Drowned City in WoW Forever? Levels 35 to 40. The World of Warcraft: Forever demo at BlizzCon 2026 used level 38 characters.

Where is the Drowned City? Off the coast of Stranglethorn Vale, west of Grom'gol. World of Warcraft: Forever's Drowned City is entered underwater.

Was the Drowned City playable at BlizzCon? Yes. It was the World of Warcraft: Forever dungeon on the BlizzCon 2026 show floor, beside the Skyborne starting experience; Xaryu's "level 40 dungeon" video and Esfand's first look both show it.

Who lives in the Drowned City? Trolls and naga, Blizzard says, among sea creatures; a pirate ship has crashed into the ruins.

Is the Drowned City in the beta? No, as of Oct 20, 2026: the World of Warcraft: Forever beta stopped at level 30, below the Drowned City's 35 to 40.

Sources

• Explore the New Dungeons of World of Warcraft: Forever, Blizzard Entertainment, Oct 20, 2026
• World of Warcraft: Forever What's Next Panel Recap, Blizzard Entertainment, September 2026
• World of Warcraft: Forever - What's Next Panel | BlizzCon 2026, World of Warcraft, Sep 13, 2026 (video)
• World of Warcraft: Forever - Deep Dive | BlizzCon 2026, World of Warcraft, Sep 13, 2026 (video)
• World of Warcraft: Forever - Creator Showcase | BlizzCon 2026, World of Warcraft, Sep 13, 2026 (video)
• WoW Forever Preview Impressions | Blizzcon 2026, GameSpot, Sep 14, 2026 (video)
• First Look at WoW Forever's NEW Level 40 Dungeon, Xaryu, Sep 13, 2026 (video)
• First Look at World of Warcraft Forever's New Dungeon, Esfand, Sep 13, 2026 (video)
• Sodapoppin Actually Plays WoW Forever for the First Time!, Sodapoppin, Sep 13, 2026 (video)