Nine days before World of Warcraft: Forever launches, Blizzard has gone back over every race. The October 26 update to the beta development notes, posted by Blizzard’s Kaivax, restores a few racials the beta had replaced with generic bonuses, removes some of those generic bonuses, and in one case turns a race into the fastest thing on two legs in Azeroth. Blizzard’s framing is that racials were “reviewed for identity,” so some races are now slightly stronger in certain combat roles, while weapon specialisations such as Human Sword Specialization and Orc Axe Specialization are untouched.
Tauren run at mount speed on foot, but Plainsrunning no longer helps mounts
The change that took over the Classic WoW subreddit is Plainsrunning. It now grants 2 percent movement speed per stack instead of 1, and the cap doubles from 30 percent to 60 percent, which is the speed of a level-40 ground mount. The trade is that Plainsrunning no longer increases mounted movement speed at all, and Endurance now gives only its 5 percent health bonus, losing the hit chance and critical damage modifiers it had picked up in the beta. The thread’s reaction ran from “Holy shit those are gonna be some fast cows” to Tauren Druids asking why they would ever use Travel Form again.
Orcs get Command back, Dwarves get hit, Humans get Spirit
The other three original races are tuned toward their old jobs. Orcs lose Savage, the generic 1 percent critical strike chance, and get Command back, raising Warlock and Hunter pet damage by 5 percent. Dwarves lose Earth Fury, which gave 2 percent critical strike damage and healing, and gain Artisan’s Precision, a flat 1 percent hit chance with spells and attacks, which one Dwarf Shaman in the thread greeted with “thank you devs.” Humans have Ruthless cut from 2 percent to 1 percent critical strike chance and Human Spirit doubled from 5 to 10 percent Spirit.
The Skyborne’s Read Leyline is halved unless you attune
The new Skyborne race, the beta’s most debated addition, takes the biggest nerf. Wind-Blessed Haste drops from 3 to 2 percent. Read Leyline now restores 50 percent mana and health regeneration for 15 seconds instead of 100 percent, cannot be used while Innervate is active, and only returns to its full 100 percent while “Attuned,” a one-hour buff you earn by using it at an actual Ley Line. Skysight goes the other way, from 10 to 15 percent movement speed for 15 seconds, and becomes 30 percent while “Charged,” another one-hour buff from using it at an elemental convergence. Both buffs persist through death. Players who had spent the week calling the old Read Leyline overtuned got their fix, and the thread duly thanked the one person who said so before it was fashionable.
The notes land as Blizzard works through the layering fixes it promised on Friday. Name reservation opens October 27, and World of Warcraft: Forever launches on November 4, with its first raids unlocking December 9.
New Racial tweaks – Taurens can now run at the speed of a mount
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