Two actives and two passives for every race

Every race in WoW: Forever gets two active abilities and two passives. Blizzard's 13 September deep dive says the kits are tuned so the offensive power lands close to even across races, while each race keeps the utility that makes it feel distinct.

Orc's Blood Fury now raises Attack Power and Spell Power together, 10 percent for 15 seconds, and Shatter Curse grants immunity to Curses and Banes plus 8 seconds of reduced Magical damage taken. Undead's Will of the Forsaken still clears Charm, Fear, and Sleep, but the deep dive confirms it no longer grants immunity afterward. Cannibalize now restores 35 percent of Health and Mana over time instead of Health alone.

Dwarf's Stoneform now reduces Physical damage taken instead of raising Armor, and Human's Sword Specialization adds 2 percent crit chance to spells and abilities, not only melee swings. Night elves keep Elune's Light and the faster Wisp Spirit run after death. Trolls keep Berserking and a passive regen that keeps working in combat.

Forever also opens six race and class combos that did not exist before: Gnome Priest, Human Hunter, Dwarf Shaman, Orc Mage, Troll Warlock, and Undead Paladin. The new Skyborne race follows the same two-and-two pattern, with Horde-aligned Windshapers becoming Shaman and Alliance-aligned High Order becoming Mages, each built around gliding and elemental power.

Dee looking at five racial charms on a table, the gnome one cracked and restrung while the others stay intact.
Most of the charms match the announcement. The gnome one was restrung.

What the 24 September beta notes changed

The racials above match what Blizzard announced on 13 and 22 September. The beta has already moved past three of them, and where the forum notes disagree with that announcement, the notes win.

The 24 September development notes rewrote Gnome's Eureka from a cheaper, stronger version of your next three spells or abilities into a flat 10 percent discount on Mana, Rage, or Energy abilities, on every class. The same notes gave Tauren's Cultivation a level requirement: a herb needs its required Herbalism skill divided by 5, and herbs that take more than 300 skill to pick can only be cultivated at level 60. Undead's Touch of the Grave stopped breaking crowd control and stopped triggering from spells that don't deal damage on the cast, so Shadow Word: Pain still sets it off on the cast but not on its periodic tick.

What changed in the 1 October beta notes?

The 1 October build narrowed Eureka again. It no longer benefits periodic effects at all, and the notes specify that channeled spells don't count as periodic, so those still get the discount.

The same build added a new rule to Undead's Cannibalize: you cannot use it while you are immune to Physical damage. Neither change appears in the original race reveal, so the beta notes stay the newer word on both racials.

What still might change before launch

Blizzard has named Eureka, Cultivation, Touch of the Grave, and Cannibalize since the original reveal. Every other racial above still matches the 22 September announcement and the 13 September deep dive. Blizzard's own posts still haven't given cooldowns for the active abilities, though a few numbers have turned up in data-mined spell listings.

Wowdee will show the racials for the race and class you are about to make, built from whichever beta notes are most recent at the time.

Still to come

Not yet settled by our sources or tested in game:

  • Official cooldowns for every active racial ability, since Blizzard's own posts haven't listed them yet.
  • Whether Blizzard touches Eureka, Cultivation, or Touch of the Grave again before launch.
  • Racial changes for races the 24 September and 1 October notes didn't name, if any arrive later.

Sources

Beta notes are dated because Forever is still changing.