WoW Forever Races and Classes: Every Combo and Racial

Forever keeps the nine classic classes and the eight classic races, adds one new race in two versions and opens up six race/class combinations that never existed before. The table above is Blizzard's own, filterable; below it you'll find what each new combo really involves, every race's racials as they launched after the late beta changes, and a quick way to choose without overthinking 1% numbers.

Reading the table: who gets what

Count the columns and a few things jump out. Warrior is the only class every race can play. Rogue is open to all but the Tauren, and Hunter to eight of ten races now that Humans have it. The narrow classes are Paladin (Human, Dwarf and Undead), Druid (Night Elf, Tauren and both Skyborne) and Shaman (Dwarf on the Alliance; Orc, Tauren, Troll and Windshaper on the Horde). The most flexible races are Human and Troll with seven classes each; the Tauren have four.

The six new race/class combinations

Blizzard announced the six at BlizzCon and confirmed them in the 29 October launch post, adding that "more are planned" — none named yet. Each one fills a gap on its faction:

Two of these change faction identity more than the others. The Undead Paladin gives the Horde its first Paladin, with its own hub at Bandarion Keep — a Forever-only subzone in western Tirisfal Glades that Warcraft Wiki says was formerly Dawn's Watch, with trainer Hilda the Breaker and leader Danitha Morr. Warcraft Tavern adds that Horde Paladins get an Undead Warhorse at 40 and a Charger chain at 60; that's a single community source, so expect details to shift. The Dwarf Shaman gives the Alliance a Shaman with its own totem quests from Anvilmar, Loch Modan and the Arathi Highlands — again per Warcraft Tavern only.

Paladin and Shaman on both factions

In Classic, Paladins were Alliance-only and Shamans Horde-only. Forever ends that, and Blizzard adjusted around it: the Warrior Battle Shout's attack power was reduced "since both factions now have Shaman and Paladin buffs". In practice:

If you've wanted a Horde Paladin tank or an Alliance Shaman healer, this is the version that allows it. The class guides cover the specs: the Paladin guide and the Shaman guide.

Every race's racials at launch

Blizzard's deep dive says every race now has two active and two passive racials, "tuned for similar offensive power" while each keeps its signature utility. The names come from Warcraft Wiki and Wowhead; the effects below are the launch values from Blizzard's dev notes where one was published. Where a card says "not yet published", no source we trust gives a Forever value yet — don't trust a site that invents one.

Priests get one more race layer. Each race's Priest spells were re-evaluated and are learned through a race-specific quest — the new Gnome Priest gets Confounding Flash at 10 and Contingency Plan at 20, the Undead Touch of Weakness and the new Dark Sacrifice, Humans the new Divine Grace and Feedback. Fear Ward and Devouring Plague are now baseline for every Priest at 20, so they no longer decide your race.

How the racials changed before launch

If you read a racial list from September, it's out of date. The big changes, in order:

1. 12 Sep

   BlizzCon deep dive: Stoneform reduces Physical damage instead of adding Armor; Will of the Forsaken no longer grants immunity; Cannibalize restores Mana too.

2. 24 Sep – 16 Oct

   Eureka! becomes an 8-second, 10% cost discount that no longer affects periodics. Night Elf Quickness stacks with other speed. Sword Spec becomes Ruthless; Mace Spec becomes Earth Fury; Axe Spec becomes Savage.

3. 16 – 27 Oct

   Troll Berserking lasts 15 s and Regeneration is a 20% bonus. Tauren Endurance drops to 5% Health.

4. 3 Nov

   Launch notes: Human crit to 1%, The Human Spirit to 10%; Earth Fury removed for Artisan's Precision (+1% hit); Savage removed and Command back (+5% Hunter and Warlock pet damage); Blood Fury on a 2 min cooldown; Touch of the Grave on a 15 s internal cooldown; Plainsrunning no longer affects mounts.

5. 6 Nov

   Hotfix: some Warlock pet abilities stop benefiting too much from Command. More class tuning lands 10 Nov — check the current notes.

How to choose your race

Because Blizzard tuned racials for similar offensive power, the honest advice is: choose the class you want to play, then the faction your friends are on, then the race you like looking at for a few hundred hours. Racials break ties. A few ties worth knowing:

Faction first: the ruleset catch

Faction matters more than race because of one rule: on the PvP ruleset an account can only have characters of one faction. Normal, Roleplay and the later Hardcore ruleset allow both. Blizzard also warns it may temporarily limit character creation on one faction for balance, as it did in Season of Discovery. And Horde and Alliance can never group, on any ruleset. If you plan to play with friends, agree on the faction before anyone makes a character — the rulesets guide explains the rest.

Where the Skyborne fit

The Skyborne are the tenth and eleventh lines of the table — one race, two factions. Both can be Druid, Hunter, Rogue or Warrior; the Windshaper adds Shaman, the High Order adds Mage. They start on their own island at levels 1–12 and need the Skyborne Heroic Pack or a higher upgrade. Their shared racials are a short glide, 2% haste and 5% damage against Elementals. Everything about them — lore, unlock, starting zone and the racial changes — is in the Skyborne guide.

Class quests for the new combos

New combos come with new quest givers, and a couple of them are still thinly documented:

• Undead Paladin: "A Lesson in Divinity", a seven-part chain at level 12 from Danitha Morr at Bandarion Keep (Warcraft Wiki).
• Dwarf Shaman: Earth at 4 from Anvilmar, Fire at 10 in Dun Morogh and Loch Modan, Water at 20 with samples from the Wetlands, Redridge and Ashenvale (about two hours of travel), and a new Air totem quest at 30 in the Arathi Highlands (Warcraft Tavern only).
• Human Hunter: needs its own taming quest line at level 10 — no source describes it yet.
• Gnome Priest: the two racial spell quests at 10 and 20; Orc Mage and Troll Warlock use the normal class quests.