WoW Forever Class Changes: Hunter, Druid, Priest, Warrior

The WoW Forever class changes for Hunter, Druid, Priest and Warrior touch baseline abilities, pets, shapeshifting, Rage and talent trees at once. Hunters get Aimed Shot as a baseline ability at level 20 and traps usable in combat, Druids get Lacerate and Omen of Clarity as baseline, Priests get Fear Ward, Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Death for every race, and Warriors get reworked Rage generation plus Victory Rush. Every class and specialization is being reworked, and talents now include a new 16-point milestone alongside the 11, 21 and 31-point ones.

Shared talent rules in WoW Forever

Talents unlock at level 10 and keep the familiar row structure, with one-point milestone talents at 11, 21 and 31 points, now joined by a new 16-point milestone. Some talents are unchanged from patch 1.12, while others have been adjusted, and several buffs that used to come from talents — Blessing of Kings and Improved Mark of the Wild among them — are now baseline for their classes. Changing talents, including Legacy talents, requires visiting a class trainer in a major city, and Dual Specialization becomes available at level 40. Abilities and talents may keep evolving through the beta.

Hunter changes

Hunters build through Beast Mastery, Marksmanship and Survival, and the updates push pet play, ranged precision and trap or melee options.

Baseline and pet changes:

• Aimed Shot is baseline for all Hunters at level 20, and Arcane Shot no longer shares a cooldown with it.
• Pets gain increased stats from their Hunter's gear but can no longer receive player buffs that increase their stats.
• Foxes are a new pet family with a new ability, Trickster's Dance, which increases a pet's dodge chance and attack speed for 12 seconds.
• Ferocity's critical strike bonuses to pets are decreased but now also benefit Hawk summons.
• Summon Hawk is a new 16-point gold medal talent: instant damage plus a Hawk that attacks the current target for 18 sec, up to 2 active at once, sharing a cooldown with Arcane Shot.
• Intimidation now requires Bestial Swiftness and grants the pet 100% increased critical strike chance on its next attack.
• Bestial Discipline now also grants Mana regeneration from Spirit while casting spells or spending Mana.

Marksmanship highlights:

• Hawk Eye moves from row 3 to row 1, while Efficiency moves down to row 2 and its larger Mana discount now covers Stings and melee abilities as well as Shots.
• Careful Aim is new and increases melee and ranged attack power by 20/40/60/80/100% of Intellect; Mortal Shots now requires it.
• Rapid Killing is new, reducing Rapid Fire's cooldown and granting Rapid Killing when an enemy dies, including to your Serpent Sting.
• Lone Wolf is a new 11-point gold medal talent granting 20% increased damage with all attacks while you have no active pet.
• Trueshot Aura moves from row 7 to row 4 and becomes the 21-point gold medal talent.
• Sniper Shot is the new 31-point gold medal talent, requiring Trueshot Aura: a Shot with a 4 second cast, 15 second cooldown, 45 yard base range, and 10 extra yards on your next 3 Shots.

Survival highlights:

• Improved Tracking combines Monster Slaying and Humanoid Slaying into one talent that increases damage to the creature type you are tracking.
• Entrapment now always triggers when your trap triggers, with duration scaling by talent points instead of chance.
• Savage Strikes now increases all melee damage by 2/4% instead of Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite by 10/20%.
• Surefooted moves from row 4 to row 3, its hit chance applies to all attacks, and it reduces movement-impairing effect duration.
• Counterattack moves from row 5 to row 4 and becomes the 16-point gold medal talent.
• Strider Kick is the new 21-point gold medal talent: an instant weapon damage attack that increases movement speed by 30% for 3 sec.
• New talents include Predator's Edge, Resourcefulness, Expose Prey and Survivalist's Discipline.

Hunters have one combat role, damage, but can use their pet as a tank in solo and small group play; their ranged abilities stop working inside the 8-yard dead zone, and they cannot Stun or Interrupt.

Druid changes

Druids keep Balance, Feral Combat and Restoration, with updates aimed at making shapeshifting more fluid.

• All potions and almost all similar consumables can be used while shapeshifted without cancelling the form, and Rage potions and Thistletea are usable by Druids; most Engineering bombs still cannot be used, though some new SAF-T and EZ-Thro recipes can.
• Weapon enchantments and procs now work while shapeshifted, including weightstones, Crusader enchant and Windfury Totem.
• While shapeshifted, melee auto attack DPS in Bear, Cat and Dire Bear Form equals your equipped weapon's DPS, with attack speed changed to 1.0 or 2.5 seconds depending on form.
• Enrage now generates 10 initial Rage, and Frenzied Regeneration heals 100% of max health over its duration given sufficient Rage.
• Growl's cooldown is decreased to match Warrior Taunt.
• Lacerate is a new baseline ability at level 42: a Bleed over 15 seconds stacking up to 5 times, dealing 10% weapon damage per existing stack and generating high threat.
• Rake gains increased damage from Attack Power, and Shred's damage is increased significantly.
• Omen of Clarity is baseline at level 20, and its Clearcasting effect is never consumed by Wrath.
• Genesis is a new row 1 Balance talent increasing all periodic damage and healing, and Improved Wrath now also reduces Wrath's Mana cost.

Druids can fill any combat role with the right gear and talents, but cannot snare, Silence or Interrupt, and their crowd control is weaker and less reliable than other classes'.

Priest changes

Priests keep Discipline, Holy and Shadow, with wider access to key tools.

• Fear Ward and Devouring Plague are available to all Priests at level 20 regardless of race.
• Divine Spirit is baseline at level 30, and Shadow Word: Death is baseline at level 32 — instant Shadow damage, 15 second cooldown, and 10% of the Priest's max health in damage if the target survives.
• Renew can now be active from multiple Priests on the same target, Fade's threat reduction is doubled, and Prayer of Healing heals the target's party and their pets instead of the Priest's own party.
• Gnome Priests get Confounding Flash at level 10 (confuses up to 5 nearby enemies for 3 seconds, 0.5 second cast, 2-minute cooldown) and Contingency Plan at level 20 (a 30-second ward that shields and heals a friendly target below 35% health, 5-minute cooldown).
• Starshards keeps its level 10 unlock with substantially increased damage and a new 30 second cooldown, and Elune's Grace now reduces melee and ranged hit chance against the Priest by 50% for 15 seconds or until 3 attacks miss.
• Binding Heal is a new 16-point gold medal talent: a 1.5 second cast with no cooldown that heals the Priest and their target, tuned to match Flash Heal even when the Priest needs no healing.
• Searing Light is redesigned to increase all Holy damage by a lesser percentage and can make the next Holy Nova free after Holy Fire damage.
• Vampiric Embrace moves to row 3 as the 16-point gold medal talent, lasting 30 seconds with a 1-minute cooldown, and Shadow Weaving now benefits only the casting Priest with a moderately decreased damage increase.
• Devouring Contagion is a new row 5 talent that cuts Devouring Plague's mana cost and jumps the plague to a new enemy within 5 yards when a target dies, and Early Demise is a new row 6 talent increasing Shadow Word: Death's critical strike chance on targets below 20% health.

Priests remain the most versatile healer, able to use both heal-over-time and direct heals plus damage absorption shields, but they wear cloth and have few ways to escape enemies.

Warrior changes

Warriors keep Arms, Fury and Protection, with Rage made more reliable and utility moved to baseline.

• Rage from taking damage keeps the original formula but ignores Armor, calculated as if you always had 50% damage reduction from Armor, and ignores damage absorption effects like Power Word: Shield.
• Rage from dealing damage is fully normalized to weapon speed, and critical strikes now give 100% more Rage than non-critical strikes.
• Tactical Mastery is learned at level 14 and keeps 10 Rage when changing stances, improvable with Arms talents.
• Victory Rush is learned at level 20: a 30-second cooldown instant attack that deals damage increased by Attack Power and heals 10% of maximum health, activated for 20 seconds after killing a non-trivial enemy.
• Recklessness, Retaliation and Shield Wall no longer share cooldowns, and Retaliation and Shield Wall cooldowns are reduced to 15 minutes.
• Spearing Strike is the new 16-point gold medal talent: an instant attack for 15 Rage with a 20 second cooldown that dismounts the target and deals doubled damage to mounted targets, Dragons or Giants.
• Bloodthrill is a new row 5 talent giving main hand attacks on Rend-afflicted enemies a chance to activate Overpower for 6 seconds.
• Weaponmaster is a new row 5 talent combining all weapon specialization talents: Axes and Polearms grant critical strike chance, Maces and Staves ignore some armor, and Swords can grant an extra melee autoattack.
• Flurry's total increased attack speed is reduced by 5%, and Bloodthirst no longer heals but increases movement speed by 10% for 10 seconds with damage retuned toward a base value.
• Protection changes include Shield Specialization generating 5 Rage on blocks instead of 1, Improved Bloodrage increasing both initial and over-time Rage, and Master of Defense as a new row 3 talent granting a chance for 5 Rage on Dodge or Parry with a shield equipped.
• Improved Revenge now increases Revenge's damage instead of stunning, Defiance requires a shield equipped to increase threat in Defensive Stance, and Improved Disarm reduces Disarm's cooldown instead of extending its duration.

Warriors deal sustained melee damage to multiple targets in a way no other melee class does and bring unique buffs and debuffs, but lack tools to recover easily from taking too much damage.

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