WoW: Forever Racials: Every Race Ability and Class Fit

If you are coming from Classic, forget most of what you know about racials. WoW: Forever removed the old weapon skill bonuses, gave races new or reworked abilities, and then had Blizzard rework them again about a week before launch. A Classic "best race" chart will steer you wrong here. This guide lists what each Forever racial does now, with numbers taken from Blizzard's own beta development notes and hotfix page where Blizzard gives them. Where Blizzard is silent, we only use a number when Warcraft Wiki and Wowhead's Forever database agree on it.

Which races can play which class is already covered in the race and class grid in our classes guide, so we do not repeat it here. This post answers the next question: once you know your class, what does each eligible race actually give you?

Header art from Blizzard's Forever race and class post.

How racials work in Forever

Warcraft Wiki's Forever page says each race has "two active abilities and two passive traits," and Wowhead's Forever racials guide lists four for every race. We checked all ten race lists in both, and they match.

Blizzard explained the design in its October 26 beta notes. After players complained that some new racials "feel too generic" and others were "objectively stronger than others," Blizzard says its final pass "prioritized racial identity, which means that some races will naturally be slightly more effective than others at certain combat roles." The exception is weapon specialization racials like the Human Sword Specialization and the Orc Axe Specialization. Blizzard says it is "not healthy in the long run" for raid and dungeon loot to be judged by "required" weapon types, so those are not coming back.

So yes, race matters a little, by Blizzard's own design. But Blizzard has not published a ranking, and neither do we. The tables below say what each racial does. Whether 1% hit beats 1% crit for your build is your call.

Alliance racials

A few of these need more context:

• Eureka! only boosts non-periodic effects. Blizzard's October 1 notes say it "no longer benefits periodic effects at all," but channeled spells do not count as periodic. Its October 15 notes made it an 8-second buff with no charges and added Power Word: Shield. So it helps direct heals and direct damage spells, not damage-over-time or heal-over-time spells.
• Quickness now stacks. Blizzard's October 15 notes say its movement speed bonus now stacks with other movement speed bonuses.
• Human Spirit was doubled and Ruthless was halved in Blizzard's October 26 pass, from 5% to 10% Spirit and from 2% to 1% crit. A guide written before late October will have the old numbers.

Horde racials

More context:

• Shatter Curse is a cleanse, not an immunity. Blizzard's October 15 notes changed it to dispel Curses and Banes (it used to grant immunity) and cut its magic damage reduction from 15% to 5%. Wowhead's racial guide still describes the immunity version, but Wowhead's Forever spell entry matches Blizzard's notes: it removes Curses and Banes and cuts magical damage taken by 5% for 8 sec.
• Plainsrunning has rules. Blizzard's October 15 notes say you must keep moving a minimum distance each second to keep it, so stutter-stepping does not work. Its October 26 notes doubled it to 2% per stack and a 60% cap, and removed the mounted speed bonus. Our PvP guide covers the battleground flag rule.
• Cultivation has a level gate. Per Blizzard's November 2 beta notes, the player level you need equals the herb's required Herbalism skill divided by 5, and herbs that need more than 300 skill can be cultivated at level 60. Our professions guide covers where this fits.
• Touch of the Grave's numbers come from Blizzard. The October 15 notes set the 30% and 20% proc chances. The October 26 notes cut the internal cooldown from 25 to 15 seconds. Its November 2 notes say it no longer triggers from spells with no damage component and no longer breaks crowd control. Warcraft Wiki and Wowhead's racial guide both put the drain at up to 5% of your maximum health.
• Endurance is plain health now. Blizzard's October 26 notes say it no longer gives "any modifiers beyond 5% increased Health." Earlier beta versions added hit chance and then critical damage.

Skyborne racials

Skyborne are the one race whose racials differ by faction. Both versions share two passives and Walk on Air. The fourth racial depends on which side your Skyborne joins.

Per Blizzard, Attuned and Charged both persist through death and are removed when you enter a raid, and Read Leyline cannot be used while Innervate is active. One warning: Blizzard's own "Meet the New Skyborne" post still shows the launch-announcement numbers, 1% Haste for Wind Blessed and 10% speed for Skysight. The beta notes later raised Wind Blessed to 3% and then cut it to 2%, and raised Skysight to 15%. The current values are the ones in the table.

A Skyborne character in Blizzard's "Meet the New Skyborne" post.

Priests get two more race spells

For Priests, race decides more than four racials. Blizzard's Priest deep dive says "each race of Priest has two spells unique to their Race." Fear Ward and Devouring Plague, which used to be race-locked, are now available to every Priest at level 20. Gnome Priests are new, so their two spells are new too.

The descriptions in parentheses for the "unchanged" spells come from Warcraft Wiki's Forever ability pages, and its Forever priest ability list names the race quest that teaches each one. Blizzard's post lists 5-minute cooldowns for Contingency Plan and Divine Grace, but Warcraft Wiki's current Forever tooltips show 10 minutes. We have left those cooldowns out of the table until a source settles it.

Which racials touch which class

These are mechanical interactions, not rankings. Check the race grid for which pairs exist.

• Hunter. Command is the only racial that names Hunters: Orc Hunters get 5% more pet damage. Dwarf Hunters (Big Game Hunter) and Troll Hunters (Beast Slaying) both deal 5% more damage to Beasts. Wind Blessed's Haste applies to ranged attacks for Skyborne Hunters.
• Warlock. Command also covers Warlock pets, so Orc Warlocks get 5% more pet damage. Blizzard's November 6 hotfix fixed some Warlock pet abilities that were benefiting too much from it. Eureka! does nothing for damage-over-time spells, which matters for Gnome Warlocks. Undead Warlocks get the higher 30% Touch of the Grave chance that casters get.
• Rogue. Quickness makes Night Elf Rogues harder to see in Stealth. On the other side of that fight, Human Perception sharply raises stealth detection for 20 seconds.
• Druid. Blizzard's Druid deep dive says racials are now usable without leaving your form, and it names Shadowmeld, War Stomp and Walk on Air as examples. So a Tauren bear can War Stomp and a Night Elf cat can Shadowmeld without shifting. Blizzard's November 6 hotfix fixed a bug that gave Shadowmelded Druids access to Ravage and Pounce.
• Priest. The race spells above matter more than the four standard racials. There are six Priest races (Dwarf, Gnome, Human, Night Elf, Troll and Undead), and each pair of spells is different.
• Paladin. Alliance Paladins are Human or Dwarf. The only Horde Paladin is Undead, so a Horde Paladin gets Will of the Forsaken and the 20% Touch of the Grave chance.
• Shaman. The only Alliance Shaman is the Dwarf, with Stoneform and Artisan's Precision. Horde Shamans can be Orc, Tauren, Troll or Windshaper Skyborne.
• Mage. Mage races include the Alliance-only High Order Skyborne, with Read Leyline. Orc Mages are new in Forever, and Blood Fury raises spell power as well as attack power.
• Warrior. Every race can be a Warrior, so every racial is available. For stuns specifically, Human Will to Survive removes them and Orc Hardiness shortens them.

What changed before and after launch

Here is the order of the main racial changes from the last month of beta onward:

• October 15. Human Sword Specialization became Ruthless, Dwarf Mace Specialization became Earth Fury, and Orc Axe Specialization became Savage. War Stomp's cooldown dropped to 90 seconds, Cultivation's to 15 minutes and Walk on Air's to 90 seconds, and Blood Fury's went up to 3 minutes. Troll Regeneration went from 10% to 20%.
• October 26. Earth Fury and Savage were removed. Artisan's Precision (Dwarf) was added, and Orc Command came back. Blood Fury returned to a 2-minute cooldown, and Berserking went from 10 to 15 seconds.
• November 2. Blizzard's final pre-launch beta notes added a level requirement to Cultivation and changed what triggers Touch of the Grave. They also changed Eureka! to a 10% Mana, Rage or Energy discount on every class.
• Since launch. Blizzard's running hotfix page lists racial fixes on three days. On November 5, Plainsrunning stopped stacking in battleground preparation and its stacks are now cancelled when you carry a flag. On November 6, Blizzard fixed the Shadowmelded Druid bug and the Orc Command bug with Warlock pets. On November 9, Cultivation started going on cooldown only after you finish the cast. The November 10 change making racial vendor mounts Bind-on-Pickup is about mounts, not abilities. Our mounts guide covers it.

What we could not pin down

• Expansive Mind's exact number. Warcraft Wiki's Forever tooltip and Wowhead's Forever spell tooltip both say "Maximum Mana increased by 5%." But Wowhead's racial guide says only that it increases your maximum resource, and the effect data on Wowhead's spell entry lists a 5% debuff resistance modifier, not a mana bonus. Until Blizzard states it, we have left the number out of the table.
• Two Priest cooldowns. As noted above, Contingency Plan and Divine Grace show 5 minutes in Blizzard's pre-launch deep dive and 10 minutes on Warcraft Wiki.

Blizzard is still posting new Forever hotfixes. Check our hotfix tracker before you reroll for a racial.