WoW Forever class changes: 'revamps to all classes and specializations' — what is published for each of the nine classes, and why there is no tier list yet

Three published rules cover all nine classes. Talents: 'familiar structure, the same number of rows, and one-point milestone talents at 11, 21, and 31 points, now joined by a new 16-point milestone. Some talents remain exactly as they were in patch 1.12, some have been adjusted or improved'. Baseline buffs: 'talents that granted key class buffs — such as Divine Spirit, Blessing of Kings, and Improved Mark of the Wild — are now baseline for their classes'. Stats: hit chance and critical chance are each merged across spell, melee and ranged, which 'helps hybrid specializations such as Retribution Paladins and Enhancement Shaman, while also letting Warriors, Hunters, and Rogues benefit'.

The philosophy is stated twice, in nearly the same words. What's Next: 'Our goal is to cover gaps where they exist without erasing what makes each class unique, so the updates focus on talents and abilities you notice, meaningful trade-offs, and reasons to value what each class brings to the adventure.' Deep Dive, on the Paladin: 'give each specialization new tools while preserving meaningful gaps in the class toolkit'. Both sentences say the same thing about balance — gaps are kept on purpose — which is the first reason a tier list is the wrong instrument for Forever (see below).

The Paladin is the class Blizzard chose to show the philosophy. Across the class: Holy Strike 'at level 6, an instant weapon strike that deals Holy damage on a 12-second cooldown'; 'Seals are no longer consumed by casting Judgment'; Consecration 'baseline at level 20, serving as both a tanking and damage tool with high damage and threat on the first four targets it hits and lower damage and threat beyond that'. Protection: Seal of Fury, 'a tank-focused Seal that favors fast weapons, grants small absorb shields, and causes Judgment to taunt while the Seal is active', plus Improved Seal of Fury, Shield Specialization and Swift Judgment. Holy: Improved Holy Strike, Voice of Truth, Reverence, Infusion of Light. Retribution: the stat merge and the class-wide changes, with the goal that Paladins are 'effective as tanks, healers, or Retribution melee damage dealers without smoothing away the edges that make the class feel distinct'.

The Paladin changes page quotes every named talent and ability with its published effect and lists what is still missing (numbers, ranks, the full Retribution tree). What the example establishes for the other eight classes is the shape of a Forever rework: a low-level baseline ability, a specialisation-defining tool for the weakest role, and a handful of named talents that remove busy-work — not a redesign.

Shaman gain a race on the Alliance — 'Dwarf Shaman' — and Mage gain one on the Horde — 'Orc Mage' — and both classes are the Skyborne's faction-specific options ('Horde-aligned Skyborne … gain access to the Shaman class, while Alliance-aligned Skyborne … gain access to the Mage class'). That is the whole of the published Shaman and Mage news in Blizzard's own articles. 'Wow forever shaman changes' is a real search; the answer is that Blizzard has published no Shaman ability, talent or totem change, only the stat merge that 'helps hybrid specializations such as … Enhancement Shaman'. One press-reported boundary exists: Kotaku's BlizzCon interview with the lead designers (14 September) reports that Forever 'won't have any wacky class/role combos (such as Shaman Tanks) like in Season of Discovery at launch' — Kotaku's paraphrase of Tim Jones and Mike Nuthals, not a Blizzard sentence, and 'at launch' is the operative qualifier.

Priest gains Gnomes; Hunter gains Humans; Warlock gains Trolls. Divine Spirit baseline is a Priest change by implication (it was a Discipline talent), and Improved Mark of the Wild baseline is a Druid one. Warrior and Rogue are named only as beneficiaries of the hit/crit merge 'when improving the reliability of tools such as Taunts, Poisons, and Traps' — Taunts for Warriors, Poisons for Rogues, Traps for Hunters.

For six of the nine classes, the published change is a race or a one-word mention. That is not this site's omission; it is where Blizzard's material stands on 17 September 2026, four days after the Deep Dive panel. The recap closes the class section with the commitment — 'More class and race details are planned through future videos and articles' — and the What's Next roadmap's 'major updates' line leaves room for them. The beta opens on 17 September; the beta client will show every class's talent trees, and datamining sites will publish them within hours. This site will quote Blizzard's articles, not datamined tables, because a beta tree is a draft and an article is a statement.

What a reader can take from the general rules today: every class keeps its 1.12 tree shape with one new milestone at 16 points; every class that had a 'buff tax' talent (a talent you took only to give the raid a buff) should expect it baseline, since the three named examples span three classes; and every class with a mixed damage type benefits from the stat merge.

A tier list ranks classes or specs by measured output in a defined context. Forever has, today, no measured output (no beta logs, no launch), no defined context (dungeon and raid tuning is unpublished; the two raids unlock 9 December), and a stated design that keeps 'meaningful gaps in the class toolkit'. Any 'WoW Forever tier list' published before the game exists is a prediction of how nine unpublished reworks will interact with unpublished encounters — it is opinion, and should be labelled as such wherever it appears.

Three things would have to exist before a ranking meant anything: the full class articles Blizzard has promised; a beta long enough for parses at 60 (the beta runs 17 September – 21 October); and the launch raids. This site will not publish a tier list before those exist, and will publish one afterwards only if it can cite its data. The nearest honest substitute now is the table above: which classes have changes, and which are unknown.

Classic's trees put one-point milestone talents — the ability-granting ones — at 11, 21 and 31 points. Forever adds one at 16: 'now joined by a new 16-point milestone'. Blizzard does not describe any 16-point talent by name for any class, including the Paladin, whose example talents are given without tier positions. The likeliest reading — a new ability between the tier-3 and tier-5 milestones, so that each spec gains 'new tools' as the Deep Dive puts it — is a reading, and the talents page says so.

Two consequences are certain from the arithmetic alone. A 31-point milestone still needs 31 points in one tree, so a level-60 character's 51 points (one per level from 10, per the Classic trees) still splits 31/20/0, 31/16/4 or similar; and a build that reaches 16 in a second tree now gets a milestone for it, which changes what 'off-spec points' buy — 31/16 becomes a natural shape. Whether a spec's 16-point talent is offensive, defensive or utility is per-class detail Blizzard has not published.

Use the Paladin as the template and the other eight classes become easier to anticipate — as shape, not content. The rework touched: a baseline ability early (Holy Strike at 6); a busy-work removal (Seals not consumed by Judgment); a role-defining tool for the spec that lacked one (Seal of Fury for tanks); a baseline core ability at a mid level (Consecration at 20); and three or four named talents per spec that add sustain or utility (Reverence, Voice of Truth, Shield Specialization). The stated constraint is that gaps stay: the Paladin remains 'having fewer ranged options against other enemies' than against Undead and Demons.

If the same template applies elsewhere — and 'one example of the wider class update philosophy' says it does — then a Warrior rework would add tank sustain without a self-heal that rivals a Paladin's, and a Druid rework would fill a role gap without erasing the class's shape-shifting cost. That is inference from a published pattern; it is not a prediction of specific abilities, and none appear here until Blizzard names them.

The classes hub links the Paladin page today and will add a page per class as Blizzard publishes each rework — with the same rule: quoted abilities, quoted numbers, 'not published' for the rest. Race-side changes are on the races and race-class-combinations pages; the talent rules on the talents page; the stat changes on the itemization page. The forum watch flags Blizzard staff posts in the official Forever category, which is where class questions get answered between articles.

Blizzard's live Q&A runs 'Thursday, September 17 at 10:00 a.m. PDT for modern WoW, and 10:30 am PDT for WoW Forever' on the official Warcraft Twitch and YouTube channels, with the beta opening the same day. Class questions are the most-asked category in the official forum's Forever section; if the Q&A answers any, Blizzard's recap will carry it and this page will quote it with the date. The roadmap hub's changelog records the edit.