Good evening and welcome to Azeroth After Dark. I'm Grukk, and tonight we're cooking, literally, because the story comes out of World of Warcraft Forever, the reimagined original Azeroth that is its own game, separate from Retail and Classic. Beside me is Durgan Stoutbrew, the dwarf who has been playing since the original launch and who handles the Classic and Forever beat on this desk. Durgan, good to have you.

Good to be here, Grukk. A story about Cooking finally mattering is one I have waited about twenty years to read on air. Here is the headline. Wowhead, in an article by Jurdi published September 26th, has compiled every Cooking recipe in the Forever beta that currently grants an experience buff. The context is a new Forever feature called Camping. According to the article, Forever puts a heavy focus on tradeskills, not only at endgame but during the leveling journey, and that pushes professions to the front of players' minds.

And none more so than Cooking. Durgan, where did the experience buff itself come from? From the BlizzCon WoW Forever Deep Dive. Developer Josh Greenfield, known to players as Aggrend, broke down the Campfire feature, and that is where the new addition was explained: the Well Fed experience boost. The mechanic is simple. Along with the usual well fed buff giving Strength, Stamina, Intellect or another stat, there is an additional 5 percent experience gained on top.

That is the part a vanilla veteran notices. Food used to be something you ate to sit down and recover health. Now it is a leveling tool, and I will say plainly that is the modern game doing something better. One caveat up front, and it is an important one. All of this is from the Forever beta, so it is test data and subject to change. Wowhead notes that directly. Not every food has had an experience bonus added so far, which is why they compiled the list of recipes that currently do have one.

Let's walk the categories. The list is long, so we'll take it section by section with the highlights. Durgan, start us at the shallow end. Attack power food runs seven recipes. Brilliant Smallfish sits at Cooking skill 1 for 2 attack power, and the top end is Poached Sunscale Salmon at skill 250 and Mightfish Steak at skill 275, both listed at 40 attack power. Spell damage has eight entries. Rainbow Fin Albacore starts at skill 50 for 1 spell damage, and the largest number on the list is Sunny Tea at skill 200 for 33 spell damage.

That one is worth a second look. Sunny Tea needs skill 200, and it is listed higher than Baked Salmon at skill 250 with 28 spell damage. If that holds through beta, it is a very efficient stop on the way up. Healing food is a short section, six recipes. Peace Tea at skill 25 for 2 healing power at the bottom, and Sage's Tea at skill 250 for 44 healing power at the top. Stamina is the biggest block, seventeen recipes, starting with Herb Baked Egg at skill 1 for a single point of Stamina and topping out at Savory Turtle Stew at skill 275 for 20 Stamina.

Agility runs thirteen recipes, from Spiced Wolf Meat at skill 25 for 1 Agility up to Swiftstrike Steak and Flank au Poivre, both at skill 275 for 20 Agility. Intellect is seventeen entries, and there is a standout. Bat Hachee is listed at Cooking skill 175 for 20 Intellect, matching the top tier recipes that sit at skill 275. That is the kind of line that either stays or gets tuned. It is beta data, so we'll flag it rather than plan around it.

Spirit food is six recipes and they are all smoothies, from the Venomous Smoothie at skill 25 for 1 Spirit to the Wicked Smoothie at skill 250 for 20 Spirit. Then the miscellaneous section, which is where the interesting effects live. Westfall Stew at skill 75 and Sweetpaw Jam at skill 275 both give 15 percent movement speed. There is also Grilled Squid and Hot Smoked Bass, both at skill 240, each giving 1 percent critical strike chance, and Plated Armorfish at skill 225 for 150 armor.

And a set of profession helpers. Six fishing foods, ranging from 3 up to 18 fishing, plus Goldthorn Tea at skill 100 for 15 herbalism. Which tells you something about Forever's design. A cooked meal can now feed your leveling, your combat stats and your other tradeskills at the same time. So what does it mean for you. Durgan, your analysis, clearly labelled as opinion. My take is this. If a 5 percent experience bonus rides along with any well fed buff, then Cooking stops being the profession you skip, and I think that is a genuine change to how you plan a leveling route.

My own read is that the low skill recipes matter most. Brilliant Smallfish and Herb Baked Egg both sit at Cooking skill 1, so the entry cost to being well fed is close to nothing. The practical advice is patience. Wowhead notes some food buffs appear not to be updated with the experience buff yet, and they say they will check back in later builds. That list came from Wowhead, written by Jurdi, drawing on the WoW Forever Deep Dive at BlizzCon.

The full post is linked with this episode if you want every recipe and skill number. And remember, nothing here is final. It is beta data from a game still in testing. That is our report on Cooking in WoW Forever. For Durgan Stoutbrew, I'm Grukk. Keep the campfire lit, and we'll see you next time on Azeroth After Dark.