World of Warcraft: Forever has received a wide round of live-server class tuning, and the biggest changes land on Druids and Paladins before the mode’s November 4 launch. Wowhead says the hotfixes are already active on Forever servers, but they have not been confirmed in development notes and could still change.
The update reaches well beyond those two classes. Hunters, Mages, Priests, Warlocks and Warriors also received tuning, but the most disruptive reshuffles are concentrated in the Druid and Paladin trees. Wowhead’s report includes before-and-after talent screenshots for the classes that changed most, plus links to the relevant talent calculators for players who want the full layouts.
Druid talents are being moved around across all three specs
For Druids, multiple talents have changed positions, and some specs are getting new talents, removed talents and revised effects. In Balance, Genesis now increases periodic damage and healing by 2/4/6/8/10%, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.
Feral is seeing one of the largest shakeups. Lacerate is a new talent, while Berserk has been removed. Leader of the Pack now increases all critical strike, not just melee and ranged. Primal Bite has had its damage increased to 42/62/77 from 26/38/59, and its talent position has changed. Shifting Power now has an 8-second cooldown instead of 16 seconds.
Restoration also gains a new talent in Bloom. Naturalist now reduces the cast of Wild Growth and increases all damage by 2/4/6/8/10%, up from 1/2/3/4/5%. Swiftmend now requires either Regrowth or Rejuvenation instead of any qualifying effect, and Wild Growth now has a 3-second cast time.
Paladins get a full tree pass in Holy, Protection and Retribution
Paladins are getting even broader changes, with Wowhead describing the tree as having seen “some massive changes.” In Holy, Boundless Light is new, while Oath of Light has also been added. Divine Precision now has two max ranks instead of three; its top rank increases hit chance of Holy spells by 8%, down from 18%, but it now also reduces Silence duration by 20%.
Holy Power now increases critical strike healing bonus by 10/20/30/40/50% instead of crit chance. Improved Seals now scales to rank 5 at 15%, up from rank 3 at 9%. Light’s Vigil no longer triggers on an enemy. Reverence now has two max ranks instead of three, though its max-rank mana regeneration remains at 30%. Spiritual Focus has been expanded to five max ranks from two, and now caps at 70% chance.
Protection has a long list of mechanical changes. Righteous Fury is now learned at level 10 instead of 16. Holy Shield has its damage reduced by 32%, its mana cost reduced to 100 from 150, and a new “Take Harmful Spell” flag. Improved Righteous Fury now reduces damage taken by 3/6/9%, up from 2/4/6%.
Iron Creed now has three max ranks instead of five; its top rank gives 30% threat increase instead of 15%, but damage taken reduction drops to 6% from 10%. Sacred Duty no longer increases stamina and instead reduces the duration of Forbearance by 10 seconds at max rank. Shield Specialization now has two max ranks instead of three for the same max-rank values. Shieldsworn and Stoicism are new talents, Swift Judgement has a new effect, and Templar’s Bulwark can now be magic dispelled.
Retribution also changes in several places. Champion of the Light now has five max ranks instead of three, and while spell damage remains the same at max rank, it now reduces the cast time of Hammer of Wrath by 1 second. Conviction now has three max ranks instead of five and affects all spells by 6% at max rank, up from 5%.
Turn Evil is now a new ability. Two-Handed Weapon Specialization now increases physical damage done rather than all damage, and it also reduces threat by 20% at max rank. Unsealed Wrath has a new effect, and Vindication no longer increases attack power.
Other classes get targeted tuning ahead of launch
Hunters also have talent tree changes in Beast Mastery, with Pathfinding moving to Row 3 from Row 2. Mages are seeing adjustments across Arcane, Fire and Frost.
In Arcane, Arcane Blast now stacks 12% Intellect instead of 15%, mana cost increases by 100% rather than 175%, and the buff duration rises to 18 seconds from 15. Arcane Resilience now has three ranks, with the third granting armor equal to 75% of Intellect, and it moves to Row 1. Missile Barrage moves to Row 2, while Arcane Focus is removed from the tree.
Fire gets a renamed Accelerant, formerly Improved Fireball, which now also reduces the cast time of Arcane Wrath. Critical Mass now caps at 6% crit chance at rank 3 instead of 10% at rank 5, Improved Fire Blast moves to Row 3, and Incineration now caps at 10% crit chance for Fire Blast, Ice Lance, Arcane Blast and Scorch at rank 5, up from 6% at rank 3.
Frost gets a larger batch of adjustments. Arctic Reach now also increases Ice Lance range. Ice Barrier now increases Frost damage done by 15%, up from 3%, while shielded damage increases by an additional 5%, up from 3%. Winter’s Chill now raises the damage of the next Cone of Cold by 20%, up from 5%.
Ice Lance now deals 300% bonus damage to frozen targets, up from 200%, but it has an 8-second cooldown. Precision, formerly Elemental Precision, now increases all hit chance instead of only select spells.
Priests, Warlocks and Warriors are also getting smaller but still important tuning. For Priests, Shadow Word: Death now deals 30% backlash damage instead of 10%, and Holy gains Holy Binding as a new talent. Warlocks see Improved Drains updated so it now increases mana drained by Drain Mana rather than affecting Wrack. Warriors get a change to Revenge, which now scales with 25% attack power at all ranks.
Wowhead’s report says these are live hotfixes already applied to Forever servers, so the class pass is still being adjusted close to launch. GAMER2GO previously reported Blizzard’s broader Forever rollout, including the November 4 launch date, in its earlier coverage.
Holy Shield getting 32% damage cut while mana cost drops is a pretty big trade. Feels like they want prot to be less of a sponge and more of a threat bot now.
yeah, and the Righteous Fury at level 10 change screams ‘pull earlier, suffer later’ to me. the threat numbers look way more important than the old stamina fluff.
still sounds busted
I took Feral on a test run in classic form and the tree already felt like it was held together with duct tape and hope, so losing Berserk and getting Lacerate in the same pass is very on brand. Primal Bite getting moved and buffed just means the spreadsheet crowd will have a field day. I also laughed at Shifting Power going from 16 to 8 seconds, because apparently the bear is on a caffeine drip now.
bear on caffeine drip lol
The Feral shuffle does look messy, but at least it is not just number tweaks. New talents and removed ones usually mean Blizzard actually wants a different play pattern, not a fake pass.
fair, but messy can still be rough if the new pattern feels clunky. i just hope it is different in a fun way, not different because they deleted half the kit.
is wild growth really 3 sec now?
yeah but the bigger question is who is actually hardcasting it in a fast run. feels like a panic button that now has a warning label.
that warning label matters in arena though. if it gets interrupted or juked, resto is going to feel it hard.
Paladins getting Turn Evil as a new ability is the funniest part to me. Nothing says class pass like a fresh button nobody asked for but everyone will macro anyway.
macro city
If Turn Evil lands in the right spot it won’t just be a macro toy though, it’ll change how you peel. New utility tends to matter more than people admit when the dust settles.
maybe, if it survives the tuning
which healer tree looks safer after this, resto or holy?
Holy looks better on paper if you want more direct support tools, but resto got the bigger mechanical shuffle. If you mean safer for actually learning the mode, I’d watch which one ends up less clunky after launch hotfixes, because both got touched hard and neither is locked in yet. The Wild Growth cast time alone could make resto feel very different in practice.
depends what you mean by safe – safe for healing or safe from getting nerfed?
Arcane Blast at 12% Intellect instead of 15% looks like a real knob turn, not just a tiny trim. The mana cost change and longer buff make it feel less punishing to press, which is probably the point.
not really, arcane still has to juggle mana like a gremlin.
or it just means they want arcane to sit in a weird middle ground again. longer buff sounds nice until the rotation turns into maintenance sim.
True, but the old version was basically self-sabotage if you missed a beat. This at least gives people a bit more room before the spec falls apart.
for the paladin changes, do you think the threat reduction stuff on Retribution is enough to make ret less sketchy in old content, or are people still going to rip aggro the second they pop wings? Champion of the Light going to five ranks and Conviction affecting all spells sounds neat, but I can’t tell if that actually fixes anything practical. Also, does Sacred Duty losing stamina matter more than it looks on paper? I am trying to figure out whether this is mostly a raid tuning pass or if it changes soloing too.
aggro roulette
for old content, probably not enough by itself. the bigger gain is the kit getting less awkward – Turn Evil, lower threat on the weapon talent, and better Hammer of Wrath cast time all make the spec feel cleaner, but burst is still burst. if you are trying to solo stuff, the stamina loss is more annoying than scary, since most of the real safety comes from healing and control anyway.
ret will still be sketchy if people overopen, but the 20% threat cut on Two-Handed Weapon Specialization helps a lot more than most of these tiny number bumps. Sacred Duty losing stamina matters less than the Forbearance cut for actual play.
Wild Growth with a cast time is giving me ‘please stand still and appreciate the weeds’ energy.
good or bad?
Holy Shield nerf is huge
wild. holy shield was one of those buttons i thought was just always safe. if they are shaving damage that hard, i wonder if the real goal is making the mana economy less brutal instead of making it hit less.
Yeah, but the mana cut plus the new spell flag makes it look like they are moving power around, not just gutting it. That usually means the final feel depends on how often it actually procs value in fights.
could be, but 32% off the damage part is still a chunky hit. if the threat tools do not keep up, prot is going to feel very different in dungeons.
big nerf