World of Warcraft: Forever - Choosing Your Class

Choosing your first class in World of Warcraft: WoW Forever is a much different decision than it was in original Classic WoW. All nine original classes return, but every talent tree has been reworked with new talents, abilities, and stronger spec identities. Blizzard's goal is to make all the specs in the game competitive, while still keeping the strengths, weaknesses and class identity that made Classic classes feel different so from each other.

Your first decision should not be which class is currently doing the most damage. Balance changes will happen constantly throughout Beta and after launch. Instead, think about what role you want to play. Do you want to Tank, Heal or DPS. Do you prefer melee or ranged combat, how much utility you want to bring to the group, and whether you want the option to change roles later.

Some classes, such as Druid and Paladin, can fill almost every role in the game. Others, such as Mage, Rogue, Hunter, and Warlock, focus entirely on dealing damage but offer several very different ways to do it.

Class	Available Roles	Best For
Druid	Tank, Healer, Melee DPS, Ranged DPS	Players who want variety in group roles, maximum flexibility, movement and shapeshifting
Hunter	Melee DPS, Ranged DPS	Solo players, pet users, ranged combat, and melee Survival
Mage	Ranged Magic DPS	Players who want a dedicated spellcaster with strong control, utility and big AoE.
Paladin	Tank, Healer, Melee DPS	Players who want durability, support, Holy magic, and several group roles
Priest	Healer and Ranged DPS	Players who enjoy healing, shields, support, or Shadow magic and damage over time effects.
Rogue	Melee DPS	Players who enjoy Stealth, PvP, control, poisons, and tactical melee combat
Shaman	Healer, Melee DPS, Ranged DPS	Players who enjoy mixing weapons, mixing spells with melee, Totems, and group utility
Warlock	Ranged DPS	Players who enjoy demons, Fire spells, damage over time effects, drains, and dark magic
Warrior	Tank, Melee DPS	Players who want weapon focused melee combat or traditional shield tanking.

Druid is the easiest class to recommend to somebody who has no idea which role they will eventually want to play. A single Druid can become a ranged caster through Balance, a melee damage dealer in Cat Form, a tank in Bear Form, or a healer through Restoration. No other class gives you quite that amount of freedom on one character.

WoW Forever also gives each of those playstyles much more depth. Balance has new interaction between Wrath and Starfire through talents such as Eclipse, giving the specialization an actual reason to move between its Nature and Arcane spells. Feral gains stronger abilities for both Cat and Bear, including Mangle for Bear, while Berserk gives the tree a powerful new capstone. Restoration Druids get Wild Growth and more support for healing multiple party members.

Druid still revolves heavily around shapeshifting. Different forms change your resources, abilities, and your goal in combat. This makes the class reward players who enjoy shifting and utiltizing their toolkit depending on the situation rather than playing the same way all the time.

Druids also retain some of the best utility for exploring Azeroth. Travel Form makes moving around the world much easier before mounts become available, while healing, crowd control, Rebirth, and Innervate give the class plenty to contribute outside of raw damage. Druid also finally gets an regular revive.

WoW Forever also expands Druid race options with the new race Skyborne, who can play Druid regardless of whether they join the Alliance or Horde.

Hunter is an amazing choice if you want a class that is comfortable exploring Azeroth alone or with a choice of wide array of Pet. Pets can keep enemies occupied while you attack from a distance, and the combination of traps, movement, tracking, and ranged attacks gives Hunters a huge amount of control while questing.

The biggest difference in WoW Forever is that the three Hunter trees now offer much more unique playstyles. Beast Mastery puts even more emphasis on fighting alongside your pet and gains additional tools such as Summon Hawk. Marksmanship focuses much more heavily on the Hunter's own ranged attacks and even offers a Lone Wolf path for players who would rather fight without a pet.

Survival is the biggest departure from traditional Classic Hunter. WoW Forever develops it into a much more legitimate melee playstyle with stronger melee attacks and trap support. That means choosing Hunter no longer necessarily means spending the entire game standing at range.

If you enjoy collecting pets, kiting enemies, exploring the world, and having a very strong solo toolkit, Hunter remains one of the easiest classes to recommend. It is also one of the most flexible pure damage classes because you can choose between pet focused ranged damage, weapon focused ranged damage, and melee combat.

Human Hunter is also available for the first time in WoW Forever, while Skyborne Hunters can join either faction.

Mage is the pure spellcaster of WoW Forever. All three specs deal ranged magical damage, so this is not the class to choose if you think you may eventually want to tank or heal. If you already know that you want to throw spells at everything you see, Mage offers three very different ways to do it.

Arcane has received one of the most important improvements. Instead of existing mostly as a collection of utility talents, WoW Forever gives Arcane a much clearer damage identity built around managing Mana and deciding when to build or spend its increasing spell bonuses.

Fire remains the specialization for players who enjoy critical strikes and large bursts of damage. New talent interactions allow critical strikes to speed up Pyroblast, giving Fire more moments where you react to what just happened instead of simply repeating the same cast. Extremely fun spec.

Frost keeps the control that has always made it such a strong leveling and PvP spec, but WoW Forever adds more interaction with Frozen targets and gives the tree better ways to benefit from those effects without every enemy literally needing to remain rooted.

Mages also retain some of the best quality of life utility in Classic style WoW. Conjured food and water save both time and money, while Teleports and Portals drastically reduce how much time you spend traveling across Azeroth.

Orcs can now become Mages in WoW Forever, while Alliance Skyborne also gain access to the class.

Paladin is one of the strongest choices for somebody who wants several roles available without giving up the identity of a heavily armored melee class. Holy can heal, Protection can tank, and Retribution can deal melee damage, and a ton of melee damage. While all three retain the defensive abilities and a lot of group support associated with Paladin.

WoW Forever makes Paladin considerably more active than its original Classic version. Holy Strike is available to the class early and gives Paladins another direct weapon attack. Seals also remain active after Judgement instead of needing to be constantly recast, removing some unnecessary maintenance from the original system.

Protection has been built into a much more complete tank. Consecration is baseline, while Seal of Fury provides tank focused effects and allows Judgement to taunt while the Seal is active. If you wanted to tank as a Paladin in original Classic but were frustrated by missing tools, WoW Forever is directly addressing many of those problems.

Retribution keeps Seals at the center of its gameplay but adds more interaction with Holy Strike and deliberate Seal switching. Twist of Light even gives players a supported way to build around Seal twisting without requiring the same amount of outside swing timing information traditionally associated with the playstyle.

Holy remains a dedicated healing specialization, but its new talents also give it more interaction with Holy Shock, Mana regeneration, and offensive Holy abilities.

The largest race change is that Paladin is no longer Alliance exclusive. Undead Paladins are playable in WoW Forever alongside Human and Dwarf Paladins.

Priest is the class to look at first if healing is what interests you most. Both Discipline and Holy are dedicated healing paths, while Shadow gives the class a full ranged damage option for players who want to step away from healing.

Discipline has become much more recognizable as its own healing style in WoW Forever. Penance gives it a flexible spell that can either damage an enemy or heal an ally, while its talents place more emphasis on Power Word: Shield, absorbs, and preventing damage before it becomes a problem, while also dealing significantly more damage than the other Healers.

Holy takes the more traditional healer approach with a large collection of direct and group healing tools. WoW Forever encourages Holy Priests to use a wider range of healing spells instead of simply finding one efficient heal and repeating it for an entire encounter.

Shadow remains the darker damage focused side of Priest. It specializes in powerful Shadow spells and periodic damage while giving up much of the healing flexibility available to the other two trees once fully committed to Shadowform.

Priest is particularly attractive if you enjoy having many answers to different situations. Between healing, shields, dispels, buffs, crowd control, and Shadow damage, there is almost always something useful for a Priest to be doing.

Gnomes can now become Priests in WoW Forever, giving Alliance players another completely new race and class combination.

Rogue is built for players who want melee combat with a more tactical feel. Energy, Combo Points, Stealth, poisons, crowd control, and powerful cooldowns give Rogue far more to think about than simply standing beside an enemy and attacking it.

Assassination is becoming a much stronger poison focused specialization. Mutilate gives it a powerful builder that attacks with both weapons and becomes stronger against poisoned enemies, while Venom gives the tree a new poison focused finishing option.

Combat remains the weapon specialist, but its new talents create more interaction between finishing moves and major cooldowns. Restless Blades allows finishers to shorten the cooldowns of abilities such as Adrenaline Rush, Blade Flurry, Sprint, Evasion, and Vanish, giving the specialization a much more active combat rhythm.

Subtlety remains the specialization most closely tied to Stealth and careful setup. WoW Forever expands its interaction between bleeds, Backstab, and other attacks while keeping the control and deceptive gameplay that makes Rogue especially dangerous in PvP.

Outside of combat, Rogues retain unique tools such as Pick Lock, Pick Pocket, Distract, Sap, and Stealth. If sneaking past enemies, controlling fights, and deciding exactly when to commit sounds appealing, Rogue is an excellent choice.

Skyborne Rogues are also available to both factions.

Shaman is one of the most versatile classes in WoW Forever, offering ranged damage through Elemental, melee damage through Enhancement, and healing through Restoration. All three paths use the Totems constantly, weapon enhancements, and elemental magic that define this very unique class.

Elemental has much stronger interaction with its spells. Lava Burst becomes a major part of the specialization and deals additional damage when Flame Shock is already active on the target. Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning remain core Nature spells, giving Elemental a mix of Fire and Lightning rather than relying on one repeated cast.

Enhancement is built around combining weapon attacks with spellcasting. The new tree provides stronger links between melee attacks and Lightning spells while retaining iconic effects such as Windfury Totem. There are also several defensive and threat related talents in the tree that may support unusual Shaman tanking builds, although WoW Forever does not currently have a dedicated Shaman tank specialization.

Restoration remains focused on healing groups through direct heals and Chain Heal, while Riptide adds another tool that interacts with the rest of its healing kit.

Shaman is an excellent choice if you like hybrid gameplay but do not want shapeshifting. You can move between spellcasting, melee combat, and healing while still bringing Totems and other group utility regardless of your specialization.

Shaman is also no longer restricted to the Horde. Dwarves can now become Shamans, while Horde Skyborne also gain access to the class.

Warlock is the darker and more durable alternative to Mage. All three specs are ranged damage dealers, but Warlocks fight through a mixture of Shadow magic, Fire spells, damage over time effects, Drain spells, curses, and powerful demons.

Affliction has received one of the largest upgrades in WoW Forever. DoTs can now critically strike, Bane of Agony no longer occupies the normal Curse slot, and talents such as Drain Hope, Improved Drains, Soul Siphon, and Pandemic give the specialization much more reason to maintain several effects before using its Drain spells. It finally feels like a specialization centered around its damage over time toolkit instead of applying debuffs and returning to Shadow Bolt.

Demonology places much more emphasis on actually fighting alongside your summoned demon. Pets scale with the Warlock's stats, while talents improve their survivability, Mana, damage, and threat. Demonic Pact also allows the Warlock to retain a Demonic Sacrifice benefit while summoning a different demon, creating much more interesting decisions around which demons you use together.

Destruction keeps the hard casting Fire and Shadow style but adds much stronger interaction between the two schools. Incinerate rewards keeping Immolate active, Bane of Havoc gives the specialization additional multi target potential, and Shadow and Flame creates reasons to use both Fire and Shadow spells instead of committing entirely to one school.

Warlocks remain excellent solo characters thanks to their demons, self healing, crowd control, and ability to convert Health into Mana. They also bring some of the most recognizable utility in the game through Curse of the Elements, Curse of Recklessness, Healthstones, Soulstone, and Ritual of Summoning.

Trolls can now become Warlocks in WoW Forever.

Warrior is the pure weapon master of WoW Forever. Arms and Fury provide two different melee damage styles, while Protection offers the traditional sword and shield tanking experience.

Arms is focused on hard hits with massive 2 handed weapson. Hitting with hard weapon strikes, bleeds, and powerful attacks. New talents create more interaction between Rend and Overpower, while Spearing Strike gives Arms another situational attack that becomes especially powerful against certain enemies and mounted players.

Fury is the much faster dual wielding option. WoW Forever gives off hand attacks stronger Rage generation and support, while talents such as Raging Blows allow abilities like Whirlwind to strike with the off hand weapon as well. If you want constant melee combat and enjoy turning Rage into a stream of attacks, Fury is the natural fit.

Protection keeps the shield focused identity that many players wanted to see preserved. Several defensive cooldowns are more accessible, Thunder Clap can be used more naturally while tanking, and talents allow Charge to be used in Defensive Stance. The result should require much less fighting against your own stance restrictions while still keeping stance management as part of Warrior.

Warrior still has very little natural healing compared to most other classes, so leveling alone can be less forgiving than playing something like Hunter or Warlock. In exchange, Warriors traditionally scale extremely well with weapon upgrades and feel noticeably stronger whenever you find a great new piece of gear.

Every original race can still become a Warrior, and Skyborne Warriors are available to both factions.

There is no single correct class to choose in WoW Forever. If you want access to every role on one character, Druid offers the most flexibility. Paladin gives you tanking, healing, and melee damage behind heavy armor, while Shaman offers a similar amount of variety through spells, melee combat, and healing.

If you know you only want to deal damage, your decision comes down much more to playstyle. Mage is the traditional pure spellcaster, Warlock mixes powerful and unique spells with demons and DoT's effects, Hunter offers pets alongside both ranged and melee options, Rogue focuses on Stealth and tactical melee combat, and Warrior provides more direct weapon focused combat.

Priest sits somewhere between those groups. It gives you two very different healing paths while still allowing you to commit completely to ranged Shadow damage when you want to DPS.

Most importantly, do not choose your first class based entirely on early damage numbers from the BlizzCon build or Beta. Blizzard is still tuning every class, and the entire purpose of the WoW Forever class overhaul is to give specs that struggled in original Classic a real place in the game. Pick the class whose toolkit and playstyle you can actually see yourself playing for hundreds of hours.

WoW Forever is still being actively balanced, so it is too early to recommend choosing a class purely because it currently deals the most damage, healing, or threat. Numbers from the BlizzCon demo were not final, and class tuning will continue throughout Beta and after launch.

As reliable level 60 raid, dungeon, and PvP data becomes available, this guide can be updated with links to our Tank, Healer, DPS, and PvP rankings. Until then, the most useful way to choose a class is by deciding which role and playstyle you actually enjoy.

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