WoW Forever gives every playable race a four-ability racial package built around two active abilities and two passive traits. The system keeps recognizable Classic abilities such as Stoneform, Shadowmeld and Will of the Forsaken, but many old racials have been redesigned or removed entirely.
The final pre-launch racial pass made several major changes: Human Sword Specialization became Ruthless, Dwarf Mace Specialization became Earth Fury, Orc Axe Specialization became Savage, Tauren Endurance gained critical damage and healing, and Skyborne's Wind Blessed increased to 3% permanent Haste.
Quick answer: the final pre-launch racial packages contain nine playable races. Skyborne appears as High Order on Alliance and Windshaper on Horde, but both are variants of the same race. Priest-specific racial spells are separate from the standard four-racial package.
All WoW Forever Racial Abilities
| Race | Active Racials | Passive Racials |
|---|---|---|
| Human | Perception Will to Survive | Ruthless The Human Spirit |
| Dwarf | Find Treasure Stoneform | Big Game Hunter Earth Fury |
| Night Elf | Elune's Light Shadowmeld | Quickness Wisp Spirit |
| Gnome | Escape Artist Eureka! | Engineering Specialization Expansive Mind |
| High Order Skyborne | Read Leyline Walk on Air | Elemental Insight Wind Blessed |
| Orc | Blood Fury Shatter Curse | Hardiness Savage |
| Undead | Cannibalize Will of the Forsaken | Touch of the Grave Underwater Breathing |
| Tauren | Cultivation War Stomp | Endurance Plainsrunning |
| Troll | Berserking Rapid Regeneration | Beast Slaying Regeneration |
| Windshaper Skyborne | Skysight Walk on Air | Elemental Insight Wind Blessed |
Human Racials
Ruthless
Passive: increases Critical Strike chance with all spells and attacks by 2%. Ruthless replaces Sword Specialization and no longer requires a specific weapon.
Will to Survive
3-minute cooldown. Instantly removes all Stun effects.
Perception
3-minute cooldown. Dramatically increases Stealth detection for 20 seconds.
The Human Spirit
Passive: Spirit increased by 5%.
Main Forever change: Human is no longer built around Sword weapon skill. Diplomacy is also absent from the Forever racial package.
Dwarf Racials
Earth Fury
Passive: increases the bonus of your critical damage and critical healing by 2%. It replaces Mace Specialization.
Stoneform
3-minute cooldown. Removes Bleed, Poison and Disease effects, grants immunity to them and reduces Physical damage taken by 10% for 8 seconds.
Big Game Hunter
Passive: increases damage against Beasts by 5%.
Find Treasure
Tracks nearby treasure chests on the minimap and can provide additional items from many chests.
Main Forever change: the old Mace and Gun weapon-skill racials are gone. Dwarf now has a general critical-damage/healing passive instead.
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Night Elf Racials
Elune's Light
3-minute cooldown. Increases Critical Strike chance with all spells and attacks by 10% for 15 seconds.
Shadowmeld
Places the character into Stealth while stationary. Moving cancels the effect. Using Shadowmeld during combat discourages enemies from attacking you but increases its cooldown to 2 minutes.
Quickness
Passive: +1% Dodge and +2% movement speed. The movement increase now stacks with other movement-speed bonuses.
Wisp Spirit
Passive: movement speed while dead is increased by 75%.
Gnome Racials
Eureka!
2-minute cooldown. Eureka! is now an 8-second buff with no charges. Depending on the class/resource version, qualifying abilities cost 10% less Mana, Rage or Energy and deal 10% more damage. Healing-capable versions also increase qualifying non-periodic healing by 10%.
Periodic effects are not the main beneficiary of Eureka!, making its value different for direct-damage and DoT-heavy builds.
Escape Artist
2-minute cooldown. Removes movement-impairing effects and grants immunity to them for 3 seconds.
Expansive Mind
Passive: increases the class's maximum Mana, Rage or Energy by 5%.
Engineering Specialization
Passive: reduces the chance for Engineering devices to fail or backfire by 20%.
High Order Skyborne Racials
Wind Blessed
Passive: increases spellcasting, melee and ranged Haste by 3%.
Elemental Insight
Passive: increases damage against Elementals by 5%.
Walk on Air
90-second cooldown. Allows the Skyborne to glide downward for 10 seconds while controlling direction.
Read Leyline
2-minute cooldown. Increases Health and Mana regeneration by 100%. It lasts 30 seconds without a nearby leyline and up to 15 minutes when a leyline is successfully found.
Read Leyline can now be cast while moving.
Orc Racials
Blood Fury
3-minute cooldown. Increases Attack Power and Spell Power by 10% for 15 seconds.
Shatter Curse
3-minute cooldown. Removes Curses and Banes and reduces Magical damage taken by 5% for 8 seconds.
The final beta version dispels Curses and Banes rather than providing full immunity to them.
Savage
Passive: increases Critical Strike chance with all spells and abilities by 1%. It replaces Axe Specialization and has no axe requirement.
Hardiness
Passive: reduces the duration of Stun effects by 20%.
Removed Classic racial: Command is not part of the Forever Orc package.
Undead Racials
Will of the Forsaken
2-minute cooldown. Removes Charm, Fear and Sleep effects. Unlike the original Classic version, it does not provide a continuing immunity window.
Cannibalize
2-minute cooldown. Restores 7% of total Health and 7% of total Mana every 2 seconds for up to 10 seconds while using a nearby Humanoid or Undead corpse. Movement, actions or incoming damage cancel the effect.
Touch of the Grave
Passive: damaging spells and attacks can drain Health from the target for up to 5% of the Undead character's maximum Health.
The final tuning uses separate proc versions and a 25-second internal cooldown. Blizzard also removed interactions where non-damaging abilities or periodic ticks could incorrectly trigger the racial.
Underwater Breathing
Passive: underwater breath lasts 300% longer than normal.
Tauren Racials
Endurance
Passive: increases total Health by 5% and increases the bonus of critical damage and healing by 2%.
The old Forever beta version included 1% Hit. That effect was removed in the final racial pass.
War Stomp
90-second cooldown. Stuns up to five enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds.
Plainsrunning
Passive: gains 1% movement speed every 5 seconds spent moving, up to 30%. Taking damage or stopping reduces the effect. It also provides 3% increased mounted movement speed.
Cultivation
Creates a duplicate of a nearby herb that can be harvested without Herbalism. Each herb can only be cultivated once. The final beta cooldown was reduced to 15 minutes, with character-level requirements based on the herb.
Troll Racials
Berserking
3-minute cooldown. Increases casting and attack speed by 10–30% for 10 seconds. The bonus begins at 10% at full Health and increases when activated at lower Health.
Rapid Regeneration
3-minute cooldown. Restores 50% of maximum Health over 6 seconds. Movement, another action or incoming damage cancels it.
Beast Slaying
Passive: increases damage against Beasts by 5%.
Regeneration
Passive: Health regeneration is increased by 20%, and 20% of normal Health regeneration continues during combat.
Forever no longer uses the old Troll Bow and Throwing weapon-skill racials.
Windshaper Skyborne Racials
Wind Blessed
Passive: increases spellcasting, melee and ranged Haste by 3%.
Elemental Insight
Passive: increases damage against Elementals by 5%.
Walk on Air
90-second cooldown. Glide downward through the air for 10 seconds.
Skysight
2-minute cooldown. Increases movement and mounted movement speed by 10%. It lasts 30 seconds normally or up to 15 minutes when an Elemental Convergence is found.
Skysight can now be cast while moving.
WoW Forever Racials vs Classic
| Classic System | Forever Change |
|---|---|
| Human Sword Specialization | Removed → Ruthless: +2% Crit |
| Dwarf Mace Specialization | Removed → Earth Fury: +2% critical damage/healing |
| Orc Axe Specialization | Removed → Savage: +1% Crit |
| Human Diplomacy | Not part of the Forever racial package |
| Orc Command | Not part of the Forever racial package |
| Racial resistance passives | Removed from the published Forever racial packages |
| Gnome +Intellect | Replaced by +5% maximum Mana/Rage/Energy |
| Tauren +Health only | +5% Health plus +2% critical damage/healing |
| Classic profession skill bonuses | Reworked into effects such as Cultivation and Engineering reliability |
Final Pre-Launch Racial Changes
The final major public beta update changed almost every race:
- Human: Sword Specialization → Ruthless, +2% Crit.
- Dwarf: Mace Specialization → Earth Fury; Find Treasure improved.
- Skyborne: Wind Blessed increased from 1% to 3% Haste; Walk on Air cooldown reduced to 90 seconds.
- Orc: Axe Specialization → Savage; Blood Fury cooldown increased to 3 minutes; Shatter Curse weakened from immunity to dispel + 5% Magic reduction.
- Tauren: Endurance changed from 1% Hit to 2% critical damage/healing; War Stomp and Cultivation cooldowns reduced; Plainsrunning gained mounted speed.
- Gnome: Eureka! became an 8-second buff with no charges.
- Troll: Regeneration increased from 10% to 20%.
- Night Elf: Quickness movement speed now stacks with other movement-speed increases.
- Undead: Touch of the Grave proc behavior was normalized and its trigger rules tightened.
What About Priest Racial Spells?
Priest-specific racial spells are not part of the standard four racial abilities listed above.
Forever also changes the old Priest racial system: important abilities such as Fear Ward and Devouring Plague are now available to every Priest rather than being locked to a specific race. Individual Priest races still retain additional race-specific Priest spells.
See our WoW Forever Priest Guide for Priest-specific spell choices.
How Should You Use Racials When Choosing a Race?
This page is a factual racial reference rather than a race ranking.
For actual recommendations by class, faction, PvE and PvP, use our Best Race for Every WoW Forever Class guide.
For the complete list of which races can play each class, use WoW Forever Race-Class Combinations.
Situational racials matter. Beast Slaying only works against Beasts, Elemental Insight only works against Elementals, and defensive or crowd-control racials can be worth more than a small throughput bonus in PvP or specific raid encounters.
Sources and Data Status
The racial structure and final tuning come from Blizzard's WoW Forever race information and Beta Development Notes. Exact current tooltips were cross-checked against the pre-launch client dataset for build 1.60.1.70532.
- Blizzard — WoW Forever Deep Dive
- Blizzard — Final Beta Development Notes
- Client Data — Build 1.60.1.70532 Racials
The public beta has ended. These are the final publicly available pre-launch racial values, not a guarantee that Blizzard cannot apply additional launch-day tuning.
