WoW: Forever Classes Guide: Roles, Specs and Races

You pick your WoW: Forever class before you ever reach a starting zone, and it decides whether a dungeon group wants you as a tank, a healer or damage. Forever's nine classes share names with the 2004 originals, but Blizzard rebuilt their talents and moved some old talents into the baseline kit, so a Classic guide is only a rough map. This guide uses Blizzard's five Forever class deep dives, its "Create the Hero You Want to Be" class post and Warcraft Wiki's Forever ability pages to answer three questions: what each class can do in a group, who can play it and what it asks of you. If you have not created a character yet, our first 10 levels guide covers the rest of the creation screen.

From the "New and Notable Combinations" section of Blizzard's class and race post.

The nine classes at a glance

Blizzard's class post says "the nine available classes each bring their own abilities and roles." The roles below come from the closing summary Blizzard wrote for each class in its deep dives. The spec names come from Warcraft Wiki's Forever ability pages.

That is three full tanks (Druid, Paladin, Warrior), four healers (Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman) and four pure damage classes (Hunter, Mage, Rogue, Warlock).

Two of those cells need a caveat. Blizzard's Shaman deep dive describes Enhancement as able to "serve as a temporary tank in small group gameplay," built around the Rockbiter Weapon threat bonus from the Spirit Weapons talent. That is not the same as a dedicated tank spec, and Blizzard does not claim it is. And the Hunter summary says Hunters "only have one combat role, damage," with the pet taking hits while you solo or play in a small group.

Which races can play which class

This is where Forever differs most from Classic at character creation. Blizzard added six new pairs: Orc Mage, Troll Warlock, Undead Paladin, Human Hunter, Gnome Priest and Dwarf Shaman. The table follows Blizzard's race and class grid, and Warcraft Wiki's Forever class-by-race table agrees with it.

Three things stand out:

• Horde Paladins are Undead only, and Alliance Shamans are Dwarf only. Forever has no Blood Elves or Draenei, so each faction's new hybrid has exactly one race.
• Skyborne Mage and Shaman are faction-locked. Per Blizzard, Alliance-aligned High-Order Skyborne can be Mages and Horde-aligned Windshapers can be Shamans. Both factions' Skyborne can be Druid, Hunter, Rogue or Warrior. Skyborne need the Skyborne Heroic Pack or a higher upgrade; our WoW: Forever explainer covers the editions.
• Warrior is the only class open to every race in the grid.

The second image from the same section of Blizzard's class post.

When your role actually opens up

A level 1 character is not yet a tank or a healer. Warcraft Wiki's Forever ability pages show when the key tools arrive, and several come from class quests rather than the trainer:

Talents start at level 10 for every class. Blizzard's Hunter and Druid deep dive lists one-point milestone talents at 11, 21 and 31 points plus a new milestone at 16 points. Dual Specialization unlocks at level 40, and Warcraft Wiki lists its trainer cost as 50 gold. After that you can swap between two specs out of combat, so a Paladin, Druid, Priest or Shaman can carry a healing spec and a damage spec. To reset talents, including Legacy talents, Blizzard says to visit a class trainer in a major city.

How hard is each class?

Blizzard has not published a difficulty rating for Forever's classes in any of the class posts listed in the sources. Forever's classes have also changed enough from Classic that a Classic-era difficulty ranking does not transfer. What Blizzard did publish is a short list of strengths and weaknesses at the end of each deep dive. That is a better guide to what a class asks of you than any score, so here it is, condensed:

Read that table as a list of trade-offs, not a ranking. A Shaman's totem placement and a Druid's heal-over-time planning are skills you learn over time. A Mage's fragility and a Hunter's dead zone come up in your first fight, and they need positioning from day one.

Class by class

Druid. Blizzard calls it "an extremely versatile class." Forever makes shapeshifting less of a chore: shapeshifted Druids can use more consumables and racial abilities without leaving form, and Nature's Grasp (level 10) and Omen of Clarity (level 20) are now baseline. The cost is utility: groups still need other classes for interrupts and snares.

Hunter. Aimed Shot is now baseline at level 20, traps work in combat, pets scale with your gear and Foxes are a new pet family. Blizzard's summary says the pet can tank for you in solo and small-group play.

Mage. Forever adds Frostfire Bolt at level 40, a spell that counts as both Fire and Frost, so mixed Fire and Frost talent builds have a spell that benefits from both. Arcane Blast returns as an 11-point talent built to push you into casting your other spells, not to spam one. Mages also get Comprehension, a Mage-only minor tradeskill for reading scrolls dropped in the world.

Paladin. A new Seal of Fury at level 10 is the tanking seal, and its Judgement taunts from 10 yards. Blizzard notes that Growl and Taunt reach only 5. Consecration is baseline at level 20 but now damages only the first 4 enemies to enter it, which Blizzard says keeps its threat in line with the Warrior's Thunder Clap. Retribution gets Twist of Light, which Blizzard says makes Seal Twisting "more intuitive and less stringent on timing windows."

Priest. Three specs covering protection, healing and damage. Discipline leans into Power Word: Shield, Holy gains Prayer of Mending as a 31-point talent, and Shadow is a damage-over-time caster that, per Blizzard, lacks the Warlock's full utility.

Rogue. Blizzard lists Pickpocket, Distract, Sap and Garrote among the abilities usable from Stealth, and Sap no longer breaks Stealth. Poisons can now run alongside sharpening stones and weightstones. Per Blizzard, Assassination specializes in daggers, while Combat and Subtlety support all weapon types.

Shaman. The update targets setup time: longer weapon imbues, faster and longer-lasting totems, totem tracking, Call spells, Totemic Recall and Totemic Projection. Elemental lost Elemental Mastery, and Restoration gains Water Shield and Riptide.

Warlock. Pets now scale with your stats. Blizzard says a tanking pet like the Voidwalker gains extra threat and a non-tanking pet like the Imp does not. Each spec plays differently: Affliction drains, Demonology empowers you and your pet, and Destruction mixes Shadowburn and Conflagrate with a new Incinerate.

Warrior. Armor no longer reduces the Rage you gain from taking damage, and Tactical Mastery is baseline at level 14, so you keep 10 Rage when you change stance. Victory Rush arrives at level 20 and heals you for 10% of your maximum health after a kill.

The Forever talent window for Shaman, from Blizzard's Mage and Shaman deep dive.

What has changed since launch

The deep dives were written during the beta, and Blizzard warned that abilities and talents could still change. Some already have. The biggest so far is Enhancement Shaman: Blizzard's November 10 hotfixes pulled Stormstrike, Mental Dexterity and Maelstrom Weapon back toward a Windfury-focused melee build. The same day, Hunter pets lost health that a bug had wrongly given them (150% of normal down to 115%), and the Warlock's Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus and Incubus gained about 15% base health. Our November 10-11 hotfix breakdown has the numbers. Earlier class fixes are in the November 5-6 and November 9 posts.

Picking one

Start from what you want to do in a group:

• You want to tank: Warrior, Paladin or Druid. On the Horde side that means any Warrior, a Tauren or Skyborne Druid, or an Undead Paladin.
• You want to heal: Priest, Paladin, Shaman or Druid. All four exist on both factions without the Skyborne purchase, but the hybrids are narrow: Alliance Shamans must be Dwarves, Horde Paladins must be Undead, and each faction has one base Druid race (Night Elf or Tauren).
• You want a pet to take the hits while you solo: Hunter or Warlock. Blizzard's deep dives say the Hunter's pet can tank in solo and small-group play and that Warlocks depend on their demons for protection.
• You want one character for every role: Druid or Paladin. Blizzard's deep dives describe both as able to tank, heal and deal damage, and the Druid adds a ranged damage spec (Balance) on top. Dual spec at 40 lets you carry two of those roles at once.

Whatever you pick, check the race table before you settle on a look. Then read the hotfix list before you follow a build from the beta, because Blizzard is still tuning classes.