WoW: Forever Tank and Healer Guide for Dungeons

Every dungeon group in WoW: Forever runs out of the same two things first: a tank and a healer. They are also the two roles where the 2004 instincts are least reliable, because Blizzard rewrote a lot of the threat and mana tools in its Forever talent trees. Our classes guide covers who can tank or heal. This one covers what you actually do with it once the door closes behind you: which buttons hold threat, which ones save a pull, how mana works now, and which hotfixes have already moved the numbers.

Sources are Blizzard's five Forever class deep dives, its New Player's Starter Guide and the running hotfix page, with Warcraft Wiki and Wowhead's Forever spell data for the few numbers Blizzard's posts leave out. Those deep dives were written during the beta, and Blizzard said the changes in them were "subject to additional changes," so where a hotfix has since moved something, that is noted.

The header image from Blizzard's Forever Paladin deep dive. Holy heals, Protection tanks and Retribution deals damage.

What the tank and healer are for

Blizzard's starter guide keeps it short. Dungeon groups "are generally made of five player groups." The tank "draws enemy attention," the healer "keeps the party standing," and the damage dealers kill things. Its general advice for new players includes two habits that carry straight into tanking and healing: "Pull one enemy at a time while you learn," and carry food or drink to recover between fights.

That is the whole job description. The rest of this guide is the toolkit.

Threat basics in Forever

None of the Blizzard Forever posts we read explains threat from scratch, but the talent notes show how it works. Restoration Shamans get a talent, Natural Grace, that "reduces all threat from spells," so healing makes threat. Priests, Rogues and Warlocks get threat drops, so damage makes threat. And Blizzard describes Sap as the answer when a pack has "too many monsters in a group to be safely tanked," so a tank can only hold so much.

For the tank, that makes threat a contest to win on every enemy for the whole fight. Three things decide it:

• The tank's threat tools. Stances, Righteous Fury and high-threat attacks, covered class by class below.
• Taunts, which pull an enemy back to you when you lose it.
• Everyone else's threat drops, so damage dealers and healers stay below you.

Blizzard changed several of those threat drops in Forever, and they are worth knowing whatever you play:

Blizzard also gave each Mage its own Ignite debuff, which it says fixes "some problems with threat and damage attribution."

The three tanks side by side

Sources for the table: Blizzard's deep dives, except the 90% Righteous Fury figure, which comes from Warcraft Wiki's Forever tooltip and Wowhead's Forever tooltip. Wowhead's current tooltip also lists a 33% increase to all threat on top of the 90% for Holy attacks; Warcraft Wiki's does not. Blizzard's Paladin post says only that the Holy bonus "has been reduced."

The Forever Warrior talent window from Blizzard's Priest and Warrior deep dive.

Warrior

The Forever Warrior tank is still a Rage tank, but Blizzard took two old frustrations out of it. Armor no longer reduces the Rage you get from being hit: the formula now acts as if you always had 50% damage reduction from armor. And Rage gain "ignores all damage absorption effects, so Power Word: Shield will no longer decrease Rage gained." In practice, a Priest can shield a Warrior tank without starving them of Rage.

The rest of the Warrior's tanking changes, per Blizzard:

• Thunder Clap works in Defensive Stance now, with a 6-second cooldown and lower threat to make up for it.
• Defiance only raises threat in Defensive Stance while you have a shield equipped.
• Sunder Armor threat scales with Attack Power, and it works even when a stronger Expose Armor is on the target.
• Shield Specialization gives a chance for 5 Rage on a block, up from 1. Master of Defense gives a chance for 5 Rage on a dodge or parry with a shield.
• Shield Slam scales more from Block Value, and Improved Revenge now adds damage instead of a stun chance.
• Shield Wall is down to a 15-minute cooldown, and Improved Taunt is baseline.
• Tactical Mastery is baseline at level 14, so you keep 10 Rage when you switch stances.

Blizzard's beta post also warned about Rage generation bugs that might take "a couple weeks" to track down.

Paladin

The Paladin's taunt comes from a seal. Seal of Fury (level 10), which Warcraft Wiki marks as a Forever-only ability, adds Holy damage to each swing. With a shield on, each hit also gives you an absorb shield worth 50% of that Holy damage, which Blizzard says does not stack. Judging the seal taunts the target, and Blizzard notes it has "a uniquely longer 10-yard range" than Growl or Taunt.

Three other Forever changes shape how a Paladin tanks:

• Judgement no longer consumes your Seal, so judging Seal of Fury for the taunt does not cost you the seal. Since a November 11 hotfix, Judgement counts as a Ranged Attack.
• Consecration is learned by every Paladin at level 20, but now "reliably generate[s] threat on only 4 targets at a time," which Blizzard says keeps it in line with the Warrior's Thunder Clap. Count the pack before you lean on it.
• Righteous Fury is the Paladin's tank switch. Improved Righteous Fury no longer adds threat; it now gives up to 6% less damage taken while Righteous Fury is on. A Retribution Paladin with the Instrument of Law talent generates 20% less threat while Righteous Fury is off, and Blizzard notes they can still turn it on when they need to off-tank.

For a bad pull, the Protection talent Templar's Bulwark gives an absorb shield equal to 100% of your maximum health for 8 seconds on a 5-minute cooldown. Warcraft Wiki's tooltip adds that it applies Forbearance, so you cannot follow it with Divine Shield or Blessing of Protection for a minute. Lay on Hands is down to a 20-minute cooldown from an hour. Paladin tanks also get some mana back from blocking through Shield Specialization (see the last section for the numbers, which disagree).

Druid

Bear tanking got a threat overhaul. Blizzard took the threat bonus off Feral Instinct (it now boosts Swipe damage) and put the threat into abilities instead: Lacerate, a bleed that stacks up to 5 times over 15 seconds and "generates high Threat," and Primal Bite, a 16-point talent that costs 20 Rage and "generates very high threat."

The rest, per Blizzard:

• Growl's cooldown now matches the Warrior's Taunt.
• Swipe gets more damage from Attack Power and still hits up to 3 targets, one fewer than the 4 that Consecration reliably threatens.
• Frenzied Regeneration "now heals the Druid for 100% of max health over the duration (given sufficient Rage)." It is your Shield Wall, but it costs Rage.
• Thick Hide scales armor with Defense, so Defense gear helps a Druid like it helps other tanks.

Bear Form and Growl come from the level 10 "Body and Heart" class quest, per Warcraft Wiki's Forever Druid page, and the same page lists Dire Bear Form at level 40.

The Forever Druid talent window from Blizzard's Hunter and Druid deep dive. Bear tanking lives in Feral Combat.

The stand-ins: Enhancement Shaman and pets

Two more options will tank in a pinch, and Blizzard is clear that they are pinch options:

• Enhancement Shaman can "serve as a temporary tank in small group gameplay." The Spirit Weapons talent raises threat while you use Rockbiter Weapon and lowers it otherwise, and Anticipation now gives twice the dodge. Rockbiter now lasts 60 minutes, so you are not reapplying it every pull.
• Hunter pets can tank in solo and small-group play, per Blizzard. A November 10 hotfix took away health a bug had given them (150% of normal, now 115%).
• The Warlock's Voidwalker is the Warlock's tanking pet. Blizzard says the high-threat Shadow damage from the Demonology talent Demonic Brand applies to a tanking pet like the Voidwalker but not to the Imp. The Voidwalker's base health has gone up twice since launch (about 40 on November 6, then about 15% on November 10).

The four healers side by side

A few Forever changes are worth knowing before your first run:

• Priest. Renew can now be on one target from several Priests at once. Binding Heal is a new 16-point Holy talent with no cooldown. Divine Aegis puts a 12-second absorb shield on targets after your critical heals.
• Paladin. Infusion of Light cuts up to 1 second off Holy Light's cast after a Holy Shock or Flash of Light crit. The Paladin still has no interrupt and no slow, per Blizzard.
• Druid. Wild Growth "heals every 1 second for 7 seconds, decreasing the healing amount every second." It is the healing spell that has changed most since launch (see the hotfix section). Gift of the Earthmother takes 0.5 seconds off the global cooldown of Rejuvenation, Swiftmend and Wild Growth.
• Shaman. Healing Stream Totem gets twice the bonus from Restorative Totems. Windfury Totem is now a party-wide buff, but a party cannot have it alongside Grace of Air or Flametongue Totem. Tranquil Air Totem is gone.

The Forever Priest talent window from Blizzard's Priest and Warrior deep dive. Prayer of Mending sits at the bottom of Holy.

Mana basics for healers

Forever's mana rules are not retail's. The most important one is visible in Blizzard's own talent text: your Spirit-based mana regeneration does not keep running at full rate while you cast. That is why every healing class has a talent to keep part of it going:

Warcraft Wiki's Forever tooltips give Meditation and Reflection the same 17/33/50% ranks as Mindfulness.

On top of regeneration, each healer has its own way to get mana back:

• Priests learn Divine Spirit at level 30 as a baseline spell, and Improved Healing cuts the mana cost of Penance and Prayer of Mending.
• Paladins get Illumination, whose refund is now capped at 50% of the spell's base cost. Twist of Light cuts Seal costs by 20%, and Purifying Power cuts Cleanse and Purify costs by up to 20%.
• Druids got a big cut to Regrowth's cost, per Blizzard. Warcraft Wiki lists Innervate at level 40.
• Shamans have Water Shield (an 11-point talent that gives mana when you are hit or land a critical heal), Mana Tide Totem (moved to the 16-point slot), and Totemic Recall, which refunds 25% of your totems' mana cost.

Then there are the basics no talent replaces. Blizzard's starter guide says to "carry food or drink to recover between fights," and innkeepers sell both. Blizzard's Mage deep dive also lists conjured food and water among the Mage's group perks.

What this means at the keyboard: drink after a big pull, before the tank pulls the next one, and tell the tank when you are low, so the next pull waits for you.

Who does what in a pull

Forever gives each role specific jobs in a pull, and Blizzard's posts name most of them:

Sap in Forever no longer breaks Stealth, so a Rogue can Sap one enemy and stay hidden. Warcraft Wiki's tooltip says it works only on Humanoids that are not in combat, and only on one target at a time.

Three hotfixes change dungeon pulls directly:

• Hunters could sometimes pull enemies from very far away just by targeting them. Blizzard fixed that on November 9.
• In Stratholme and the Eastern Plaguelands, enemies sometimes aggroed unexpectedly. Blizzard fixed that on November 13.
• In The Drowned City, non-boss enemies now respawn after 2 hours instead of 1 (November 13), so a slow group is less likely to meet cleared packs again.

One more from November 13 matters for who you bring: killing a dungeon enemy now gives zero experience to the whole party if it is trivial to any party member's level. A high-level friend carrying your group costs everyone the kill XP. Our leveling guide covers that rule, and the dungeon list has the level ranges for picking a dungeon.

Hotfixes that touch tanks and healers

Blizzard's running Forever hotfix page had these tank and healer entries through November 13:

For the full lists, see our hotfix tracker.

What we could not confirm

• Lacerate's level. Blizzard's beta Druid deep dive calls Lacerate "a new baseline ability" added at level 42. Warcraft Wiki's Forever Druid page lists it as a Feral talent with a Savage Fury prerequisite instead. We could not settle it, so check your trainer at 42.
• Paladin Shield Specialization's mana return. Blizzard's beta post says blocks have "up to 100% chance to restore 6%" of maximum mana. Warcraft Wiki's current Forever tooltip says 4%, no more than once every 3 seconds. We left the number out of the tank table.
• How long casting pauses regeneration. Blizzard's talent text tells you casting cuts your Spirit regeneration, but none of the Forever posts we read say for how long. Classic-era guides call it the five-second rule. We found no Blizzard Forever source stating the duration.
• Tier lists. Some sites already rank Forever tanks and healers. None of the Blizzard posts we used ranks them, so we did not use them.