WoW Forever beta, 15 October notes: racials reworked, new tutorial, Mage and Shaman talents redesigned

On 15 October 2026 (in Europe it was already the night of the 16th) Kaivax, Community Manager at Blizzard, updated the official WoW Forever beta development notes for the fourth Thursday in a row. It is the longest update so far, with less than a week to go before the beta ends on 21 October. Here is what changes for players. Spell, talent and quest names stay in English, as in the notes; the previous update is in our article on the 8 October notes.

Racials: all nine races change

The biggest news is a rework of the racial abilities. Human, Orc and Dwarf lose their weapon specializations, replaced by critical strike bonuses that work with any weapon.

• Human: Sword Specialization is replaced by Ruthless, 2% critical strike chance.
• Orc: Axe Specialization is replaced by Savage, 1% critical strike chance. Blood Fury now has a 3-minute cooldown (was 2). Shatter Curse now dispels Curses and Banes (it used to grant immunity) and reduces magic damage taken by 5% (was 15%).
• Dwarf: Mace Specialization is replaced by Earth Fury, 2% increased critical damage and healing. Find Treasure also gives a chance to find extra items in most chests.
• Tauren: Endurance now gives 2% increased critical damage and healing (was 1% hit chance). Plainsrunning also gives 3% mounted speed, but you have to keep moving a minimum distance per second (stutter-stepping no longer keeps it active). Cultivation has a 15-minute cooldown (was 60), War Stomp 90 seconds (was 2 minutes).
• Skyborne: Wind Blessed gives 3% haste (was 1%); Skysight and Read Leyline can be cast while moving, and Read Leyline lasts at least 30 seconds (was 20); Walk on Air has a 90-second cooldown (was 2 minutes). Elemental Convergences and Leylines appear in more places in most zones of the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor.
• Undead: Touch of the Dead activates 30% of the time for casters and 20% for Paladins, Rogues and Warriors, with a 25-second internal cooldown, and no longer scales with Shadow damage bonuses. Will of the Forsaken is no longer available under Scatter Shot.
• Gnome: Eureka! becomes an 8-second buff with no charges, with the same effect, and now also works with Power Word: Shield. The notes add, without further detail, that Eureka “cannot correctly be used” while stealthed or invisible.
• Night Elf: the speed of Quickness now stacks with other movement speed increases.
• Troll: Regeneration bonuses go up to 20% (was 10%).

The races and their classes are in our guide to races and classes.

For everyone

• A new tutorial for players who are new to the game.
• A new Auto Attack/Auto Shot setting: Hunters switch automatically between melee and ranged attacks, gamepad included.
• Wands and Auto Shot now require you to stand still for 0.5 seconds before shooting, as in early versions of World of Warcraft.
• Several buffs and auras now affect the whole raid: Moonkin Aura, Leader of the Pack, Trueshot Aura, Battle Shout and the Shaman totems Grace of Air, Strength of Earth, Windfury and Flametongue.
• Creatures regenerate health again out of combat, and the Bloom intensity is now a slider in the advanced graphics options.

Mage

• Frost Blast, a new spell learned at level 24: damage and a 40% slow, 1.5-second cast, affected by every talent that affects Frostbolt. It replaces the old trick of casting Rank 1 Frostbolt just for the slow, which is now penalized; it costs more Mana and deals a little more damage.
• Arcane Blast is redesigned: 1.5-second cast, each cast gives 15% of your Intellect as extra Spell Damage for 15 seconds, stacking up to 4 times (the cost still goes up with each stack); damage and coefficients are 40% lower.
• Arcane Wrath, a new 16-point gold medal talent: base damage similar to Fireball, 3.5-second cast, plus damage as if you had extra Spell Power equal to 5% of your maximum Mana; 6-second cooldown. Missile Barrage moves to the first row.
• Fire: Fire Power is redesigned (up to 12% more Fire damage depending on your Fire effects on the target), Critical Mass goes up to 5 points, Wake of Fire goes back to Improved Fire Blast.
• Frost: Ice Lance against frozen targets deals 200% more damage (was 300%); Cone of Cold slows the first four targets hit more and for longer. Winter's Chill is redesigned around Cone of Cold, but the notes give two different descriptions of it.

Shaman

• The Elemental tree is reshaped: Elemental Mastery returns as the 31-point gold medal talent (Lightning Bolt and Lava Burst 0.5 seconds faster, no cooldown on Chain Lightning for 15 seconds, 3-minute cooldown); Lava Burst moves to the fifth row as the 21-point gold medal talent, with a new rank; Earthbound becomes the 16-point talent; Call of Thunder is removed.
• Chain Lightning costs about 35% less Mana at every rank. Fire Nova has much lower base damage and Mana cost, and a 0.143 spell power coefficient (was 0.214).
• Grace of Air Totem no longer excludes Windfury and Flametongue Totem; Stormstrike costs 8% of base Mana (it was a flat 125); Mana Tide Totem gets a new rank at level 38; Water Shield triggers from any critical spell, not just heals.

The other classes

• Priest: Devouring Plague cooldown 24 seconds (was 1 minute), Shadow Word: Death 18 seconds (was 12). Shadow: Vampiric Embrace has a 30-second cooldown (was 1 minute) and can no longer be resisted, Improved Fade and Shadow Infinity are removed, new talent Dark Inspiration (party Spirit), Devouring Contagion spreads to 2 targets. Discipline: Mental Strength increases Intellect and moves to the second row.
• Paladin: Blessing of Salvation and Greater Blessing of Salvation become Salvation and Mass Salvation, which can be active together with the other blessings, with the new Revoke to remove them. Consecration coefficient 0.042 per tick (was 0.095), Righteous Fury threat from Holy damage 90% (was 60%), Seal of Righteousness fixed (it got almost twice the intended benefit from Spell Damage). Reckoning stores up to 4 charges again, as in Classic Era.
• Hunter: one Fire Trap and one Ice Trap can be active at the same time; Fire Traps scale with Attack Power; pet abilities Dismember, Sonic Blast and Mine! have smaller effects or shorter durations and longer cooldowns; Strider Kick works while disarmed.
• Druid: Moonkin Aura and Leader of the Pack are raid-wide; Faerie Fire generates threat in bear forms; Shred is learned at level 20 (was 22); with Furor you keep your Energy when you shift to bear and back.
• Warlock: Malediction is replaced by Grim Reach (Affliction spell range +10/20%); Shadow Mastery gives 2–10% Shadow damage (was 1–5%).
• Warrior: Battle Shout is raid-wide and Slam is no longer pushed back; fixes to Overpower, Lingering Rage and Improved Berserker Rage.
• Rogue: poisons no longer trigger against targets that are attacking you, Sap no longer triggers weapon effects, and a bug that kept Energy full by swapping specializations is fixed.

Every change, line by line, is on our beta changes page.

Dalaran, Legacy and the rest

• Dalaran: the Horde is now attacked on sight in the open-world city of Dalaran. Access to the City of Dalaran dungeon does not change, but the Horde quest for the Dalaran Sewer Key no longer opens up the city.
• Legacy System: the Bartering perk no longer discounts training and repairs; The Quick and the Dead affects more Priest spells. More in our Legacy System guide.
• PvP: Battleground Marks of Honor stack up to 30 (was 20).
• Items: scrolls trigger the global cooldown; Draught of Predatory Senses becomes a potion on the combat potion cooldown; many crafted items sell for less to vendors.
• Interface and gamepad: an equippable level column in the Auction House, level-up messages with stats and talent points are back, /who also searches subzones, a swing timer on the gamepad reticle, and Trade, Guild and Transmog windows usable with a gamepad. Plus many quest fixes, from Ashenvale to Zephras Isle.

What we don't know yet

• The notes do not give the build number.
• Winter's Chill has two different descriptions in the notes (one with 40% more Cone of Cold damage per stack, one with 5% per stack up to 5 times): we will check which one is in the game.
• Whether another update will come before the beta closes on 21 October.