WoW Forever's racials should be flavourful and uneven, but they should have equal impact. That's very hard to do when they don't all change the same kind of thing, so balancing is necessary. Blizzard's beta development notes, updated on 15 October, replaced the Human, Orc, and Dwarf weapon specializations with flat critical strike bonuses and reworked racials across nearly every race.
I'm playing an Undead Paladin in the beta. Here's what changed, what players are saying, and what I'm doing before the beta ends.
What Racial Changes Are in the WoW Forever Beta?
The WoW Forever beta's racial changes are in Blizzard's development notes updated October 15, posted by Blizzard's Kaivax. Blizzard's own summary is simply "Racial abilities have been updated." The biggest changes replace the three weapon specializations:
| Race | Old Racial | New Racial |
|---|---|---|
| Human | Sword Specialization | Ruthless: 2% increased critical strike chance |
| Orc | Axe Specialization | Savage: 1% increased critical strike chance |
| Dwarf | Mace Specialization | Earth Fury: 2% increased critical damage and healing |
Other races received changes as well:
- Tauren Endurance now gives 2% increased critical damage and healing instead of 1% hit chance, and War Stomp's cooldown drops to 90 seconds.
- Troll Regeneration bonuses increase from 10% to 20%.
- Orc Blood Fury's cooldown rises to three minutes.
- Night Elf Quickness now stacks with other movement speed increases.
- Gnome Eureka! becomes an eight-second buff that also works with Power Word: Shield.
What Changed for Undead in WoW Forever?
Undead received three changes in the same notes:
- Touch of the Grave had its proc chance and cooldown adjusted to make the benefit more consistent.
- Touch of the Dead now has a 30% proc chance for casters and 20% for Paladins, Rogues, and Warriors, with a 25-second internal cooldown. Blizzard notes it no longer scales with Shadow increases because "it's a racial, not a Class spell or ability."
- Will of the Forsaken can no longer be used while under Scatter Shot.
The Undead racial I actually noticed most in the beta was underwater breathing , and more through stupidity than anything else. I was fighting something and didn't realise I was actually underwater.
Should WoW Forever Racials Be Balanced?
Yes, I think WoW Forever racials need to be balanced. They should be flavourful and uneven, but they should have equal impact, and that's very hard to achieve without them all changing the same kind of thing.
Not everyone agrees. One forum thread is titled "Congratulations on crying over racials, you just homogenized the game", arguing that Human swords and Orc axes were racial flavour. The top reply argues the opposite: "Good, racials should never dictate the race you play."
Blizzard didn't give a reason in the notes for removing the weapon specializations. The same notes do explain a related change for mages: a new Frost Blast spell at level 24 "to provide the functionality formerly granted by Rank 1 Frostbolt despite the penalization of 'down-ranking'."
When Is the WoW Forever Stress Test?
The WoW Forever stress test is now on 21 October, moved from 19 October as first announced. Blizzard made the change on 16 October: Kaivax wrote on the stress test thread that "we will do the Stress Test on October 21, not two days earlier as previously stated."
- Starts at 2:00 pm PDT for the Americas and Oceania
- Starts at 19:00 CEST in Europe
- Any player with a WoW account can join , no active subscription needed
- All progress is wiped afterwards
Wowhead has the full breakdown of the date change.
I'll be playing the stress test for sure , I've already got it on my laptop and have played a little already. My earlier piece on the WoW Forever stress test was written when it was still set for 19 October. If you're still choosing a class, I covered the best class for a returning player and the new Skyborne race. You can find more on games.gg's World of Warcraft page.
