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With World of Warcraft: Forever launching tomorrow, Blizzard Entertainment have published a final, very long set of patch notes covering everything changed since the last beta update on 15 October. Most of it is class changes, but there’s also full gamepad support, adjusted respawn rates and a fix for one of Azeroth’s oldest bugs.
Every class hits harder in WoW Forever
The biggest change is philosophical. In the developer notes, Blizzard explain that trying to stick roughly to Classic’s power budgets meant every new feature had to come at the expense of something else, which left some iconic abilities feeling underwhelming. To fix that, damage has been raised for classes across the game, with the health of higher-level creatures increased to compensate.
Blizzard also admitted they were “likely hasty” in falling back on Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King-era solutions, rather than creating new ones that suit Forever’s combat. Their stated goal isn’t perfect balance between classes:
“Our aim in class design is not perfect numerical equality, but rather for every class to feel valuable to the groups they join, with powerful, unforgettable moments brought on by mastering them.”
In other words, Blizzard want classes to feel different, not all the same with different hats on. That’s likely to go down well with Classic purists, and judging by the Reddit reaction, it already has.
Rogues get Shank and a new finisher
Rogues get some of the biggest changes. There’s a new ability called Shank, learned at level 24: a cheap, unmissable off-hand strike that deals damage and generates Energy. Several new talents are built around it, including Boot Knife, which can add two combo points, and Flash of Steel, which reduces Shank’s cooldown and increases its Energy generation.
Rogues also get Poised, a passive that reduces the cost of their first Energy ability when coming out of combat at full Energy. Subtlety’s capstone is now Death Mark, a finisher that stores part of your damage and releases it after six seconds. Poison damage has also been boosted, with the Attack Power scaling of Deadly and Instant Poison roughly doubled.
Shamans get a lightning overhaul
Shamans have been reworked heavily, especially Elemental. Lightning Bolt hits much harder, with its top rank up by 80%. Chain Lightning now takes longer to cast but deals more damage, and shocks have been returned to their Classic Era values. Lava Burst has been removed entirely and replaced by Call of Thunder, which increases the critical strike chance of Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning. Lightning Overload is also much more likely to trigger.
Enhancement isn’t left out: Stormstrike now deals 150% weapon damage on a shorter six-second cooldown, and Maelstrom Weapon procs twice as often. Restoration’s Riptide is now a cheaper, heal-over-time-only spell with a longer cooldown.
Other notable class changes
- Druid: Feral damage has gone up significantly. Shred now deals 200% weapon damage, and Rip, Rake, Ferocious Bite and Pounce are all up by about 25%. Bear Form threat is much higher to make up for Blessing of Salvation being removed.
- Paladin: Salvation and Blessing of Light are gone, and all three talent trees have been heavily reshuffled, with new talents such as Oath of Light and Shieldsworn.
- Hunter: Aimed Shot’s bonus damage has more than doubled, and all traps now share a single cooldown.
- Warrior and Warlock: Defensive Stance threat has been raised significantly, while Warlock’s Wrack has had its spell damage scaling doubled.
All classes now cost roughly the same to train from level 1 to 60, at around 206 to 207 gold. New spells also no longer appear on your action bars automatically.
No more big tuning changes before raids
Blizzard say they don’t plan any big tuning changes before raids open next month, apart from bug fixes and serious outliers. Once enough players are past level 30, they expect to do a large balance pass based on the data. Respawn rates have also been increased to cope with launch crowds, particularly in starting zones, and will be brought back to normal once things calm down.
A 20-year-old bug finally squashed
Hidden among the quest fixes is one that caught Reddit’s attention. During the Orgrimmar quest “Hidden Enemies”, the Lieutenant’s Insignia will no longer stay in your inventory after you finish the quest. As one player put it, “That bug has been there for 20 years.” Better late than never.
The notes also show a sense of humour. Some satyr were wrongly classified as humanoids instead of demons, and Blizzard say they’re now “100% more scared of Paladins”. Dalaran Summoners in Alterac Mountains have also been stopped from summoning endlessly.
Gamepad support is now fully functional, with movement, combat, targeting and the main UI all playable on a controller. Settings can be customised through Edit Mode and the Options menu.
World of Warcraft: Forever launches on 4 November.
