WoW Forever: the Skyborne race, its classes and racial abilities

On 22 September Blizzard published a detailed look at the Skyborne, also known as the shen'dorei, or hidden people: a new playable race in WoW Forever. In Blizzard's story, a group of Highborne exiles made a pact with elemental wind spirits thousands of years ago and built a civilisation in Skywall, one of the elemental planes. The race starts on Zephras Isle, a new starting zone for levels 1 to 12. When players arrive, that civilisation is in crisis: the air spirits that protected the island have vanished, old structures are starting to fail and the Skyborne are divided over what comes next.

The faction is chosen at character creation. Horde Skyborne are the Windshapers and can be druids, hunters, rogues, shamans or warriors. Alliance Skyborne are the High Order and can be druids, hunters, mages, rogues or warriors. That means a Skyborne shaman is possible only on the Horde side and a Skyborne mage only on the Alliance side. No Skyborne can be a paladin, priest or warlock: Blizzard's race and class tables for WoW Forever, published the same day, show the same 5 classes on each side. In the story, the Windshapers want to find out what became of their missing wind spirits and bring them back, while the High Order, descendants of the Highborne scholars of Eldre'Thalas, want to win back the arcane knowledge their people lost. Skyborne druids get druid forms made for the race, and the race has its own customisation options, voices and dance.

Blizzard lists 4 racial abilities for each side, and 3 of them are shared. Walk on Air lets a Skyborne glide downward through the air for 10 seconds. Wind Blessed passively gives 1% more haste for melee, ranged attacks and spellcasting, which makes attacks and casts slightly quicker. Elemental Insight passively adds 5% damage against elementals. The remaining ability depends on the faction: Horde Skyborne get Skysight, an elemental blessing that raises run speed by 10%, and Alliance Skyborne get Read Ley Line, which activates a ley line for 100% more health and mana regeneration. Blizzard does not say how long Skysight and Read Ley Line last or how often they can be used.

Access to WoW Forever itself is included with a World of Warcraft subscription or game time, Blizzard says. The race appears in the optional upgrade editions: in a post on 12 September, Blizzard lists access to the Skyborne and their Zephras Isle starting zone in the Skyborne Heroic Pack, and says the Skyborne Epic Pack includes everything in the Heroic Pack and the Warcraft Forever Collection everything in the Epic Pack. Neither that post nor the 22 September article describes another way to unlock the race. WoW Forever launches at 23:00 UK time on 4 November 2026, which is midnight on 5 November in Central Europe.

Early replies from players on Blizzard's European forums are critical. One player says they will not buy the race because Skyborne cannot be priests, and will play a night elf priest instead. Another, who says they have played a Horde mage since 2006, writes that they will not switch to the Alliance to play a Skyborne mage, and would like shamans and mages open to both factions. A third dislikes the look of the Skyborne bear form and says they glow so brightly they can be seen from far away. On the Spanish-language forum, one player says the race's new models, from its druid forms to its weapons, look out of place next to the older graphics around them. These are a handful of players' views, not Blizzard's.