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WoW Forever Classes and Racials: Lock your Right Main Before November 4
15 min read
You get one shot at this. Forever has no character boosts, no WoW Token and no transfers from Classic Era, so the race you click on November 4 is the race you play for the next few hundred hours. Blizzard rebuilt every racial ability in the game for this launch, added six race and class combinations that never existed in vanilla and dropped in a tenth race split across both factions. That old advice is dead now. Undead is not automatically the PvP pick anymore, Human is no longer a melee-only choice and weapon specialisations now feed spell crit, and that quietly reshuffles the entire caster roster.
Below is the full combination table, all ten racial sets and our read on which races actually win at each job. We also flag three places where the published guides disagree with each other, because getting this wrong on day one costs you a reroll you cannot buy your way out of.
What changed
Every race now carries four racials instead of the uneven spread Classic shipped with. Two are active abilities, one combat cooldown and one utility or flavour button, and the other two are passives. That is a flat structure across all ten races, which makes comparing them far easier than it used to be.
The single biggest change is buried in the weapon specialisations. Sword Specialization, Mace Specialization and Axe Specialization now raise spell critical strike chance as well as ability critical strike chance. A Human holding a sword gets 2% spell crit, double the Dwarf and Orc equivalents, and it applies to casters who never touched a weapon specialisation in vanilla.
Wowhead’s full breakdown of the rework is in Racials for Skyborne in Forever and Racial Changes to Existing Races, and every other Forever guide is indexed in the Forever Guide Compendium.
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Every race and class combination
| Class | Human | Dwarf | Night Elf | Gnome | Orc | Undead | Tauren | Troll | Skyborne |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Druid | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Hunter | New | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mage | Yes | No | No | No | New | Yes | No | Yes | Alliance only |
| Paladin | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | New | No | No | No |
| Priest | Yes | Yes | Yes | New | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Rogue | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Shaman | No | New | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Horde only |
| Warlock | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | New | No |
| Warrior | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Six combinations are new to Forever: Human Hunter, Dwarf Shaman, Gnome Priest, Orc Mage, Troll Warlock and Undead Paladin. Blizzard has confirmed more are coming after launch.
Undead Paladin is the one on everyone’s search list. The Forsaken Paladin story begins at Bandarion Keep in the Whispering Wood of Tirisfal, which makes it the only new combination shipping with its own dedicated questline rather than just a checkbox on the character screen.
The Skyborne are two races, not one
The Skyborne are neutral in the sense that both factions can play them, but the client holds them as two separate races: High Order Skyborne for the Alliance and Windshaper Skyborne for the Horde. They do not share a class list and they do not share an active racial.
| High Order Skyborne (Alliance) | Windshaper Skyborne (Horde) | |
|---|---|---|
| Classes | Warrior, Hunter, Mage, Rogue, Druid | Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Druid, Shaman |
| Signature active | Read Ley Line | Skysight |
| Shared active | Walk on Air | Walk on Air |
| Passives | Wind Blessed, Elemental Insight | Wind Blessed, Elemental Insight |
Read Ley Line raises health and mana regeneration by 100%, lasting 15 seconds alone or a full 15 minutes cast near a ley line. Skysight raises movement and mounted movement speed by 10%, lasting 30 seconds alone or 15 minutes near an elemental convergence. Neither can be used in combat and neither works inside instances, which leaves a Skyborne raiding on 1% haste and a 5% elemental damage bonus. Walk on Air glides you downward for 10 seconds with directional control on a 2 minute cooldown and cancels fall damage outright, which is the closest thing Forever has to flight given there are no flying mounts.
Both start on Zephras Isle and level there from 1 to 12. Access requires the Skyborne Heroic Pack at $29.99 or higher, so a base subscription will not put you on that island. Wowhead’s Skyborne Race Overview covers the customisation options and Druid forms in full.
Alliance racials
Human
- Will to Survive (Active): Instantly removes all stuns
- Perception (Active): Detects stealthed enemies for 20 seconds
- Sword Specialization (Passive): Swords increase spell and ability crit chance by 2%
- The Human Spirit (Passive): Total Spirit increased by 5%
Dwarf
- Stoneform (Active): Immunity to poisons, bleeds and diseases, plus 10% reduced physical damage taken for 8 seconds
- Find Treasure (Active): Tracks nearby treasure chests, stacks with other tracking
- Mace Specialization (Passive): Maces increase spell and ability crit chance by 1%
- Big Game Hunter (Passive): Damage to beasts increased by 5%
Night Elf
- Elune’s Light (Active): Critical strike chance increased by 10% for 15 seconds, 3 minute cooldown
- Shadowmeld (Active): Grants stealth, cancels on movement
- Quickness (Passive): Dodge chance increased by 1% and movement speed by 2%
- Wisp Spirit (Passive): Movement speed while corpse running increased by 75%
Gnome
- Escape Artist (Active): Breaks all roots and snares, then grants immunity to them for 5 seconds
- Eureka! (Active): Reduces the cost of your next three spells or abilities and increases their damage or healing by 10%
- Engineering Specialization (Passive): Reduces the chance of Engineering devices failing or backfiring by 20%
- Expansive Mind (Passive): Maximum mana, rage and energy increased by 5%
Horde racials
Orc
- Blood Fury (Active): Attack power and spell power increased by 10% for 15 seconds, with no healing reduction attached
- Shatter Curse (Active): Immunity to curses and banes, plus reduced magic damage taken for 8 seconds
- Axe Specialization (Passive): Axes increase spell and ability crit chance by 1%
- Hardiness (Passive): Stun duration reduced by 20%
Undead
- Will of the Forsaken (Active): Instantly breaks all charm, fear and sleep effects, 2 minute cooldown, no lingering immunity
- Cannibalize (Active): Consumes a nearby corpse to restore 35% health and mana over time
- Touch of the Grave (Passive): Spells and attacks have a 5% chance to drain health, worth up to 5% of your maximum health, with no internal cooldown
- Underwater Breathing (Passive): Underwater breathing increased by 300%
Tauren
- War Stomp (Active): Stuns all nearby targets for 2 seconds
- Cultivation (Active): Grows bonus herb nodes that anyone can gather without Herbalism
- Endurance (Passive): Total health increased by 5%, hit chance increased by 1%
- Plainsrunning (Passive): Movement speed builds the longer you run, stacking up to 30%
Troll
- Berserking (Active): Melee, ranged and spell haste increased by 10% for 10 seconds, no longer tied to missing health
- Rapid Regeneration (Active): Regenerates 50% of maximum health over time
- Beast Slaying (Passive): Damage to beasts increased by 5%
- Regeneration (Passive): 10% of your health regeneration continues during combat
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Which race wins at what
Tanking. Dwarf takes it. Stoneform’s physical damage reduction on an 8 second window is a real mitigation cooldown rather than a dispel, and the poison and bleed immunity covers a long list of Classic dungeon and raid damage. Tauren is the close second on the strength of Endurance, where 5% health and 1% hit solves the two problems every Classic tank has at once. Orc Hardiness matters more in Forever than it did in vanilla because tanks are built to hold three or four enemies rather than a full room.
Melee damage. Orc, and it is not close. Blood Fury at 10% attack power for 15 seconds is the strongest offensive racial in the game, and Axe Specialization adds crit on top. Troll Berserking is the alternative if you prefer haste to raw power. Human deserves a look purely because Sword Specialization at 2% is double what any other weapon specialisation gives.
Casters. This is the category that changed most. Orc Mage is a new combination and Blood Fury now scales spell power, so an Orc caster gets a 10% damage cooldown that vanilla never offered. Human casters holding a sword pick up 2% spell crit from Sword Specialization. Gnome Eureka! is the sleeper pick for burst windows, and Expansive Mind at 5% maximum mana still does honest work across a long fight.
Healing. Human for The Human Spirit at 5% Spirit, Gnome for the 5% mana pool, or Skyborne if you want Read Ley Line’s 100% regeneration burst between pulls. Dwarf Priest keeps its place because Stoneform covers a healer through the physical damage that kills healers.
PvP. Undead still has the best single button in Will of the Forsaken, but Orc closes the gap hard with Shatter Curse, which is brand new and grants curse and bane immunity plus magic damage reduction for 8 seconds. Human Will to Survive plus Perception is the anti-rogue package. Gnome Escape Artist with a 5 second immunity window is better than the Classic version.
Levelling and gold. Troll leads for solo play, with Regeneration ticking through combat and Rapid Regeneration returning half your health bar between pulls. Tauren Plainsrunning stacking to 30% movement speed is worth more than it sounds across 150 hours of travel with no flying mounts. Tauren Cultivation is the quiet gold racial because it grows herbs that gather without the Herbalism skill. Dwarf Find Treasure and Gnome Engineering Specialization both pay for themselves too.
Before you commit
Forever gives you no way to undo this with money. There is no boost, no token and no transfer in, and a second level 60 is a second full levelling run. Pick the race that fits the job you actually want to do at 60, not the one that parses best on a spreadsheet, because you will be living inside that choice for a long time.
If you would rather not spend seven weeks getting there, our WoW Forever levelling service starts on launch day and you keep the character you chose.
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FAQ
HOW MANY RACIALS DOES EACH RACE GET IN WOW FOREVER?
Four, and the structure is identical across all ten races. Two are active abilities, one of which is a combat cooldown and the other a utility or flavour button. The remaining two are passive effects. This is a change from Classic, where races carried uneven numbers of racials with wildly different value.
WHICH RACE AND CLASS COMBINATIONS ARE NEW?
Six: Human Hunter, Dwarf Shaman, Gnome Priest, Orc Mage, Troll Warlock and Undead Paladin. Several guides list only five because they leave Undead Paladin out, so double-check anything that gives you a shorter list. Blizzard has confirmed further combinations will arrive after launch.
DO I NEED TO BUY ANYTHING TO PLAY THE SKYBORNE?
Yes. The Skyborne race and the Zephras Isle starting questline require the Skyborne Heroic Pack or a higher edition. A standard subscription covers the rest of Forever but not this race. The Alliance version is High Order Skyborne and the Horde version is Windshaper Skyborne, and they have different class lists and different active racials.
CAN I CHANGE RACE LATER IF I PICK WRONG?
Blizzard has not announced paid race changes for Forever, and the design direction points away from them. There is no WoW Token and no character boost, and nothing transfers in from Classic Era. Treat your first character as a commitment and level a second one if you change your mind.
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