Every race in World of Warcraft Forever now has two active and two passive abilities, principal game designer Kris Zierhut said at the World of Warcraft: Forever Deep Dive panel at BlizzCon 2026. He said the team made racials “stronger and more different than they ever were before” to give players a reason to roll a new character.
The “Race Abilities: Revamped” slide describes each kit as an equal mix of unique utility, throughput, and survivability. Zierhut also said six new race and class combinations are coming: gnome priests, human hunters, dwarf shamans, orc mages, troll warlocks, and undead paladins, “with more planned to come in future content”. That list was spoken, not shown on a slide. He then walked through Dwarves and Undead, picked “because of our new options with shamans and paladins”.
Dwarf
Stoneform (instant, 3 minute cooldown) instantly removes and grants immunity to all Bleed, Poison, and Disease effects, and reduces all Physical damage taken by 10 percent for 8 seconds. The old armor bonus did nothing for the many Dwarf priests, Zierhut said: “It increased your armor and who cares.”
Find Treasure (instant) makes nearby treasure appear on the minimap until canceled. It no longer conflicts with herb, mineral, or beast tracking and now runs alongside any other tracking ability, so a Dwarf can look for iron nodes and treasure at the same time.
Big Game Hunter is a new passive that increases damage dealt versus Beasts by 5 percent. Zierhut said abilities like this give each character in a party or raid an encounter to shine on, “so there’s a reason to bring everybody”. Mace Specialization increases critical strike chance with all spells and attacks by 1 percent while a mace or two-handed mace is equipped, so Dwarf shamans and priests will now care about having one.
Undead
Will of the Forsaken (instant, 2 minute cooldown) now instantly removes all Charm, Fear, and Sleep effects. It no longer grants immunity to them, which Zierhut called “a little bit too strong”.
Cannibalize (5 yard range, instant, 2 minute cooldown) regenerates 7 percent of total Health and 7 percent of total Mana every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. It only works on Humanoid or Undead corpses within 5 yards, and any movement, action, or damage taken while Cannibalizing cancels it. Zierhut called the new mana return “particularly fantastic for those paladins”.
Underwater Breathing is unchanged: underwater breath lasts 300 percent longer than normal. Touch of the Grave is the new passive, “the big one”: spells and attacks have a 5 percent chance to drain Health from the target, up to 5 percent of your maximum Health. He said it gives the Undead “the increased damage and survival that they never had before”.
Zierhut called this “just a taste” and told players to “go play the demo to see them all”. No other race’s kit was shown, so the remaining races’ abilities, including the new Skyborne, are still unknown.
