WoW Forever: every class hits harder, mobs get more health

Blizzard has published its final WoW Forever development notes before launch, listing everything changed since the beta update of 15 October. The biggest shift is in raw power. Blizzard says that holding each class close to Classic power budgets meant every new feature had to be paid for by cutting something else, which left some iconic abilities feeling weak. Over the last 2 weeks it has raised damage for classes across the game and increased the health of higher-level creatures to compensate.

Blizzard also admits that some earlier changes leaned too quickly on Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King solutions instead of new ones that suit the Forever combat model. Its aim, it says, is not perfect numerical equality but for every class to feel valuable to its group, by leaning into what makes each class different rather than making them more alike.

Apart from bugs and serious outliers, Blizzard does not plan big tuning changes before the raids open next month. Once enough players are past level 30 and spread across a wide range of content, it expects a large tuning pass based on that data. The hunter buffs spotted on the live servers the night before are now part of the official notes, as covered in our report on the hunter buffs.

Training is now simpler too. Most abilities learned at the same level cost the same to train, and training every class ability from level 1 to 60 now costs between 206 and 207 gold for all classes, with Warlock costs lowered by the expected price of their pet Grimoires. That is a fixed bill to plan for when you work out what gold is needed for in WoW Forever. New spells are no longer added to your action bars automatically, and all races now have the correct base stats: a Tauren Warrior, for example, now starts with 5 more strength than a Human Warrior instead of 2.

The same notes rework several class talent trees and racial abilities and bring full controller support. For Europe, WoW Forever opens at midnight on 5 November in Central Europe, after a 5-hour maintenance on launch day.