WoW Forever Beta Development Notes – Updated October 26

Blizzard added a new post to the beta development notes thread on Oct 26 (Mon), 1:35 PM. It is a final pass on racial traits ahead of launch, changing Human, Dwarf, Tauren, Orc and Skyborne racials.

What changes for you

• Humans: Ruthless drops to 1% critical strike chance, and The Human Spirit now raises Spirit by 10%.
• Dwarves lose Earth Fury and get Artisan's Precision, which raises hit chance with spells and attacks by 1%.
• Tauren Plainsrunning now goes up to 60% but no longer speeds up mounts, and Endurance is down to just 5% more Health.
• Orcs lose Savage and get Command back, increasing Warlock and Hunter pet damage by 5%. The Human and Orc weapon specialization racials are not coming back.
• Skyborne: Wind Blessed drops to 2% Haste, and Read Leyline and Skysight become 15-second abilities. Using them at a Ley Line or elemental convergence grants Attuned or Charged for 1 hour, which persists through death and doubles the effect.

Races & Classes

Full development notes

Below are Blizzard's development notes in their original order and indentation. Each race's original lines follow its change summary.

Racial Abilities and Traits

Development notes

As we approach the launch of WoW Forever, we’ve been reflecting on feedback we’ve heard on racial abilities and passive traits: Some players have expressed that some of the new racial traits feel too generic, while others have expressed concerns that some are objectively stronger than others.

In taking a final pass on these, we’ve prioritized racial identity, which means that some races will naturally be slightly more effective than others at certain combat roles. In some places where we had replaced role- or class-focused racials with generic ones, we’re rolling those changes back. One exception to this is the weapon specialization racials, like humans’ Sword Specialization or orcs’ Axe Specialization. While those have a strong fantasy component to them, it is not healthy in the long run for future raid and dungeon loot tables to be evaluated through the lens of “required” weapon types.

At the same time, we’re doing a tuning pass on some of the remaining passive bonuses to help ensure that they aren’t skewing outcomes in a way that limits player preferences.

Human

Summary of changes

WhatBeforeAfter

RuthlessBefore: +2% critical strike chance with all spells and attacksAfter: +1% critical strike chance with all spells and attacks

The Human SpiritBefore: +5% SpiritAfter: +10% Spirit

Development notes

• Ruthless now increases critical chance by 1% (was 2%).
• Human Spirit now increases Spirit by 10% (was 5%).

Tauren

Summary of changes

WhatBeforeAfter

PlainsrunningBefore: +1% movement speed per stack while moving, up to 30%, +3% movement speed while mountedAfter: +2% movement speed per stack while moving, up to 60%, No longer increases mounted speed

EnduranceBefore: +5% Health, +2% critical damage and healingAfter: +5% Health only

Development notes

• Plainsrunning now grants 2% movement speed per stack (was 1%), for a total max increase of 60% (was 30%).
• Plainsrunning no longer increases mounted movement speed.
• Endurance no longer provides any modifiers beyond 5% increased Health (no hit chance or critical damage modifiers).

Skyborne

Summary of changes

WhatBeforeAfter

Wind BlessedBefore: +3% spell, melee and ranged HasteAfter: +2% spell, melee and ranged Haste

Read LeylineBefore: +100% Health and Mana regeneration, lasts 30 sec with no Ley Line nearby or 15 min with oneAfter: +50% Health and Mana regeneration, lasts 15 sec, Can't be used while Innervate is active, At a Ley Line, grants Attuned for 1 hour: regeneration increase becomes 100%, persists through death

SkysightBefore: +10% movement speed, lasts 30 sec with no elemental convergence nearby or 15 min with oneAfter: +15% movement speed, lasts 15 sec, At an elemental convergence, grants Charged for 1 hour: movement speed increase becomes 30%, persists through death

Development notes

• Wind-Blessed Haste bonus reduced to 2% (was 3%).
• Read Leyline now increases Mana and Health regeneration by 50% (was 100%), with a 15-second duration. This ability cannot be used while Innervate is active, and will be replaced by Innervate as a more powerful effect.
• Using Read Leyline at a Ley Line now also grants “Attuned” for 1 hour. While Attuned, the benefit of Read Leyline is increased to 100% regeneration increase. Attuned persists through death.
• Skysight is now a 15% increased movement speed (was 10%), with a 15-second duration.
• Using Skysight at an elemental convergence now also grants “Charged” for 1 hour. While Charged, the benefit of Skysight is a 30% movement speed increase. Charged persists through death.