WoW Forever: the official development notes and class tuning

WoW Forever: why Blizzard raises class damage

• UP During the beta Blizzard tried to stay close to Classic power budgets, so every new element came at the expense of another spell. They have now raised class damage and increased the health of higher-level creatures to keep the same combat pace.
• BALANCE The stated goal is not perfect numerical equality: every class must stay useful to a group and keep its own strengths, rather than resembling the others.
• BALANCE Apart from bugs and serious outliers, no big tuning before raids open. A large balance pass is planned once enough players are past level 30.
• BALANCE Several talents no longer have a trigger penalty on low-rank spells. It stays for Blizzard with ranks learned more than 12 levels earlier.
• BALANCE Learning a new spell no longer puts it on your action bars automatically. Training the abilities from 1 to 60 costs about 206 to 207 gold for every class.

Shaman in WoW Forever: Lightning Bolt, Stormstrike and Lightning Overload

• UP Lightning Bolt: base damage raised, more on higher ranks. Each rank is worth about 78% of the Classic Era version, with a shorter cast. Chain Lightning goes to a 2.5 s cast, about 145% of a same-rank Lightning Bolt's base damage and about 225% of its mana cost.
• UP Shocks: base damage goes back to Classic Era values, higher than in the beta.
• UP Elemental: Lightning Overload goes to 10/20/30% chance of a duplicate cast (3/7/10% before). Lava Burst is removed, replaced by Call of Thunder (+5% crit on Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning).
• UP Enhancement: Stormstrike deals 150% normalized weapon damage (100% before) with a 6 s cooldown (8 s before). Maelstrom Weapon triggers twice as often, Mental Dexterity goes to 50/100/150% of Intellect and Flurry to 6/12/18/24/30% attack speed.
• BALANCE Windfury Totem and Windfury Weapon animate an extra swing. Totemic Projection becomes Totemic Call: it brings the totems to the Shaman, with a 30 s cooldown.
• BALANCE Restoration: Riptide costs about 40% less mana and no longer heals up front, only over time, with a 12 s cooldown (6 s before).

Rogue in WoW Forever: Shank, Poised and stronger poisons

• UP New spell Shank (level 24): 5 energy, 10 s cooldown, strikes with the off hand for 50% weapon damage and generates 15 energy, and cannot miss (25 energy at rank 2, level 44). Poised (level 18) cuts the cost of your next ability by 10 when you enter combat with full energy.
• UP Deadly Poison's attack power coefficient goes to 0.009 (0.0045 before) and Instant Poison's to 0.01 (0.005 before).
• BALANCE Assassination: Mutilate deals 90% weapon damage (75% before), Murder is removed and Lethality has only 2 ranks for +10/20% crit damage. New talent Blood Splatter: +6 s on Rupture, +9 s on Garrote. Relentless Strikes goes to 5 ranks.
• BALANCE Combat: Aggression raises Sinister Strike and Eviscerate by 5/10/15%, Dual Wield Specialization goes to 2 ranks for +25/50% off-hand damage. New talents Composure and Flash of Steel tied to Shank and Poised.
• BALANCE Subtlety: Opportunity goes to 5 ranks for +4/8/12/16/20%, Hemorrhage also raises Garrote damage, and Death Mark becomes a row-7 talent. Quietus, Cutthroat and Thousand Cuts are removed.

Hunter in WoW Forever: more damage at range

• UP Aimed Shot: bonus damage raised by about 110% on all ranks. Arcane Shot: base damage about +30% and an attack power coefficient of 0.15 (0.1 before).
• UP Serpent Sting: 5% coefficient per tick (3% before) and about +20% base damage. Aspect of the Hawk gives 20, 35, 50, 70, 90, 110 ranged attack power from rank 1 to rank 6.
• UP Marksmanship: Barrage goes to 5/10/15% (3/7/10% before), Sniper Shot deals 100% more bonus damage and Trueshot Aura gives 20, 35, 50, 75, 100. Survival: Lightning Reflexes at 3/6/9/12/15% Agility.
• BALANCE All traps now share one 30 s cooldown instead of two (fire and frost). Hunter's Mark can no longer be stacked by alternating ranks.

Druid in WoW Forever: Feral, Balance and Restoration

• UP Cat: Shred goes to 200% weapon damage (155% before), Claw to 140% (110%), Ravage to 435% (350%). Rip, Rake, Ferocious Bite and Pounce gain about 25% base damage and attack power scaling.
• UP Bear Form: threat bonus of 115% (50% before), to replace the removed Blessing of Salvation. New Poised passive at level 32 for the cat. Starfire: base damage about +40%.
• BALANCE Feral: Lacerate becomes a row-4 talent, Berserk is removed, Predatory Discipline is added, Rend and Tear goes to 3/6/9/12/15%, Primal Bite drops to 3 ranks and Shifting Power requires Predatory Discipline. Heart of the Wild moves to Restoration and Furor to Feral.
• UP Balance: Genesis doubles its ranks (2/4/6/8/10%). Restoration: Naturalist at 2/4/6/8/10% damage and a shorter Wild Growth cast. Gift of the Earthmother is replaced by Bloom.
• NERF Swiftmend requires the Rejuvenation or Regrowth to be the Druid's own, and Wild Growth has a 3 s base cast.

Paladin in WoW Forever: threat now runs through Righteous Fury

• BALANCE Salvation, Mass Salvation and Revoke are removed, as is Blessing of Light. Righteous Fury (level 10) now gives +33% threat generated and +90% extra threat on Holy damage.
• BALANCE Holy: new talents Oath of Light and Boundless Light. Holy Power raises the crit healing bonus by 10 to 50%. Divine Precision goes to 2 ranks (+4/8% hit) and shortens silences.
• UP Protection: Improved Righteous Fury at 3/6/9%, new talents Stoicism and Shieldsworn (Holy Strike hits with the shield, cooldown cut by 4 s). Swift Judgement unleashes the active seal without sharing Judgement's cooldown.
• BALANCE Retribution: Conviction gives 2/4/6% crit to all spells and attacks, Two-Handed Weapon Specialization goes to 2/4/6% Holy and Physical damage but lowers threat. Instrument of Law and Twist of Light are removed, Unsealed Wrath becomes the row-7 talent.
• NERF Judgement of Fury lasts 3 s (4 s before).

Warrior, Mage, Priest, Warlock: the other changes

• UP Warrior: Defensive Stance threat bonus goes from 30 to 80% and Slam has a 15 s cooldown (18 s before). Defiance gives 7/13/20% threat.
• BALANCE Fury Warrior: Flurry goes to 3 ranks for +10/20/30% attack speed and no longer needs Death Wish, but Bloodthirst now requires Death Wish. New talents Reckless Swings (4 attacks give 5 extra rage, at the cost of 25% base health) and Improved Whirlwind.
• BALANCE Arms Warrior: Improved Tactical Mastery goes to 3 ranks (5/10/15 rage kept), Two-Handed Weapon Specialization rises to 2/4/6%, Bloodthrill drops to 2 ranks for a 10/20% chance to enable Overpower.
• BALANCE Mage: Arcane Blast costs 100% more mana per stack (175% before), drops to 12% of Intellect as damage per stack and lasts 18 s. Frost Blast is removed. Ice Barrier gives +15% Frost damage for 1 minute, Ice Lance has an 8 s cooldown and deals 300% to frozen targets. Critical Mass returns to 3 ranks (6%).
• NERF Priest: Shadow Word: Death deals 30% of maximum health to the caster if it fails to kill (10% before). Binding Heal is removed in favour of Holy Binding.
• UP Warlock: Wrack doubles its spell coefficient, which is 86 base damage per second at level 60 (36 before). Shadow and Flame goes to 4/8/12/16/20%. Pets gain 2 health per point of the master's Stamina (7.5 before).

Races and bug fixes in WoW Forever

• BALANCE The racial adjustments already announced are included: Human, Dwarf, Orc, Tauren, Troll, Undead and Skyborne change. See the details on our races page.
• BALANCE Every race gets its correct base stats: a Tauren Warrior starts with +5 Strength relative to a Human (+2 by mistake before). Same fix for both Skyborne.
• BALANCE Roots from procs (Frostbite, Entrapment, Improved Wing Clip) now have diminishing returns. The quitter debuff lasts 40 s (5 minutes before) and the stun 2.5 s (3 s).

What it means for your character

• Rebuild your talents: every tree moves. Go through your class talent calculator before launch.
• Enhancement Shaman and Rogue are the big winners on paper: Stormstrike, Maelstrom Weapon and Shank hit the rotation directly.
• The site's rankings account for these notes: where the game client (build of November 2) does not hold a value yet (Lightning Bolt, Stormstrike, Shred, Wrack, Aimed Shot...), we apply it from the notes. Moved or new talents whose position is not published are not simulated, and the talent calculators say so.

This article restates and summarises Blizzard's notes relayed by Wowhead; the DPS numbers are in the ranking, not here. The talent trees come from the November 2 client (build 1.60.1.70753): the changes of the notes that are not in it yet (positions, new talents) will be re-read from the client as soon as it carries them.