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WoW: Forever Just Changed The Math On What Race To Play In A Big Way
World of Warcraft: Forever's beta is set to end in just a few days on October 21, but that hasn't stopped Blizzard from making some major changes to the game's various racial abilities.
Unlike in the modern version of WoW, where racial abilities are so minor that they mostly feel cosmetic, racial abilities in WoW Classic (and now in Forever) are a big part of why players choose to play a particular race. Some races synergise better with certain classes or playstyles. Others even benefit more from using specific types of weapons.
Or at least they used to. In Forever's latest beta update, developer Blizzard has overhauled many of the MMO's racial abilities to remove weapon-specific buffs and improve some abilities that were seen as lackluster by the community.
The removal of weapon-based passives for humans, dwarves, and orcs is a significant change. Orcs used to favor axes, humans swords and maces, and dwarves guns. In WoW Classic, that meant an increased weapon skill when using those weapons, resulting in a better chance to hit and increased damage.
That changed for WoW: Forever's beta. Blizzard kept some of the weapon-specific flavor, but instead of weapon skill, pivoted to critical-strike chance. Now with this latest update, those bonuses no longer require players of a certain race to wield a specific weapon type to gain those passive benefits. Orcs simply gain a 1% increase to crit chance, humans gain a 2% increase to crit chance, and dwarves deal 2% increased critical damage and healing at all times.
It's a major departure, but feels like it will ultimately allow for more freedom when it comes to using a variety of weapons. Those weren't the only racial ability changes though. Blizzard also updated tauren's new Plainsrunning ability and dwarves' Find Treasure.
Both of these left something to be desired. Plainsrunning, which granted a stacking movement speed buff for tauren while on foot, was useful early on while leveling but felt like it would largely become irrelevant once players earned their first mount. For dwarves, being able to locate chests using their Find Treasure passive was nice, but hardly a reason to choose them over another race like humans, which generally have stronger racial abilities overall.
Blizzard has improved Plainsrunning to also grant a 3% mounted movement speed buff that can stack with other mount buffs, making the passive useful post-level 40. Tauren additionally received a decreased cooldown for their herb-gathering Cultivation skill and their area-of-effect stun, War Stomp. As for dwarves, Find Treasure now grants a chance to find additional items in chests, which is certainly appealing given how important gold is in this version of Blizzard's MMO.
Skyborne racial abilities, the newest playable race added in WoW: Forever, have also received some welcome improvements, with an increased Haste bonus (to 3% from 1%), and the ability to cast Skysight and Read Leyline while moving. More leylines, which Skyborne use for some of their racial abilities, have been added to Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, giving Skyborne more chances to renew their buffs.
Undead, gnomes, trolls, and night elves have seen changes, too. For undead, their Forever-exclusive Touch of the Grave passive has been adjusted to have a more consistent proc chance and cooldown. Gnomes' Eureka passive now is an eight-second buff with no charges. Changes to night elves and trolls are relatively minor. Trolls received an increase to health regeneration from their Regeneration passive. Meanwhile, the night elf movement speed passive Quickness now stacks with other movement speed buffs.
Not all the racial ability changes have been buffs. A few were nerfs, particularly for orcs. Their Blood Fury racial, which grants increased attack and spell power, has had its cooldown increased by an entire minute, and their Shatter Curse passive has made it so it now dispels Curses and Banes rather than granting full immunity. The amount of