WoW Forever: video details warrior, shaman and rogue changes

Blizzard published a video about class changes in WoW Forever on its official channel on 30 September. It is titled Class Highlights - Part 1: Warrior, Shaman, Rogue, and Blizzard calls it the first of a 3-part series on major updates to these classes and their specs. The chapters cover warriors, then shamans, then rogues, in that order. Blizzard has put out no written notes with the video, and it does not say which classes the other 2 parts will cover. We did not watch the video ourselves: the changes listed below come from one report that summarises it, so the wording is that report's and not Blizzard's.

For Protection warriors, rage from damage now depends on weapon speed, and it is worked out from the damage before armour and other reductions rather than after. Thunder Clap becomes usable in Defensive Stance, a talent called Vanguard allows a charge from Defensive Stance, and Shield Wall, Retaliation and Recklessness no longer share a cooldown. For Arms, a talent called Weaponmaster gathers the old weapon specialisation talents into one, and Spearing Strike is a new ability that dismounts players. For Fury, a new talent called Raging Blows makes Whirlwind strike with the off-hand as well and cuts the rage cost of Cleave. The video comes out while beta testers are still arguing over how warriors gain rage.

Restoration shamans get 3 new spells that each put down a set of totems chosen by the player with a single cast, plus a new totem bar for picking which totems go down with each cast. Totemic Projection lets a shaman move totems that are already out, and Riptide comes to Restoration, where it makes Chain Heal more effective. Elemental shamans get the totem bar and Totemic Projection as well, and their totems last 5 minutes. Fire Nova becomes a spell instead of a totem, Lava Burst arrives with extra damage against a target affected by Flame Shock, and Lightning Overload gives lightning spells a chance to cast a second time at no cost. Blizzard had already raised the damage of Lava Burst ranks 1 and 2 in the beta build of 24 September.

Subtlety rogues get energy that recovers continuously, and stealth and bleed effects are to play a larger part in their damage rotation, with a talent called Cutthroat allowing Ambush to be used outside stealth. For Assassination, Mutilate strikes with both weapons, which doubles the chance of a critical hit, and Venom is a new finishing move that raises poison damage. For Combat, a new talent called Hack and Slash covers several weapon types at once. Rogues are one of the 9 classes in Forever, and Blizzard has already published which races can play each of them.

It is not clear from the report whether all of these changes are already in the beta, which runs until 21 October, or whether more tuning is still to come. Warriors, shamans and rogues are 3 of the 9 classes in Forever, so 6 classes are left for the other 2 parts, and Blizzard has not said when they will arrive. WoW Forever launches at 23:00 UK time on 4 November, which is midnight on 5 November in Central Europe.