Blizzard reworks WoW Forever classes before launch: changes and plans for the future

Why this update is so large

The notes are dated November 2 and collect two and a half weeks of changes since the October 15 beta update. Some entries will sound familiar from datamining and our November 1 digest. We now have Blizzard's official list, though that doesn't mean every change arrived in the client overnight.

The developers have reconsidered their approach to class power. Staying close to Classic's numbers meant nerfing old abilities whenever a new one came along. Damage has now gone up across the game, and higher-level mobs have more health. A list of buff percentages won't tell us how much faster leveling will be. The fights themselves will.

Blizzard also acknowledges that it borrowed some ready-made answers from TBC and Wrath too quickly. Several of those choices have been replaced here. The aim is to keep classes distinct and useful in a group, rather than chase identical numbers at any cost.

• The next major balance pass is expected after raids open in December, once there's enough data from play above level 30. Bugs and serious outliers can still be fixed before then. This isn't a permanent balance freeze.
• Training all class abilities from levels 1-60 costs 206-207 gold in total. That's the full set of purchases across leveling, not an entry fee. Warlock pet grimoires are included.
• Newly learned abilities won't be added to the action bar automatically. Check the spellbook after visiting a trainer.
• Several talents have lost their proc penalty when using low spell ranks. Blizzard is the exception. If its rank was learned more than 12 levels below the caster's current level, the chance to trigger its associated procs is still reduced.
• Roots from random procs now have proper diminishing returns. Affected effects include Frostbite, Entrapment, Improved Wing Clip, Counterattack, and Improved Hamstring.

Our take. Level 30 duel results are an even shakier basis for picking the best class at 60 now. Abilities have appeared or disappeared, and some key talents come later. I'd choose the gameplay I enjoy before trusting an old tier list.

Druid: harder hits and a cast-time heal

• Bear. The threat bonus on Bear Form and Dire Bear Form has risen from 50% to 115%. Blizzard explicitly connects this to the removal of the Paladin's Salvation.
• Cat. Shred now deals 200% weapon damage, up from 155%. Claw rises from 110% to 140%, and Ravage from 350% to 435%. Rip, Rake, Ferocious Bite, and Pounce gain roughly 25% more base damage and attack power scaling.
• Ferocious Bite has a new first rank at level 24. Existing ranks move up one number. Poised arrives at level 32. At full energy out of combat, the next energy ability costs 10 less.
• Balance. Starfire gains roughly 40% more base damage. Genesis increases periodic damage and healing by 2/4/6/8/10%, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.
• Moonkin Form once again increases all types of crit. Leader of the Pack follows the same approach, but the two auras don't stack.
• Feral. Lacerate is now a one-point talent in row four instead of a baseline ability. It has two additional ability ranks to support earlier access. Heart of the Wild moves to Restoration, while Furor moves to Feral Combat.
• The new Predatory Discipline in row four lets Ferocious Bite benefit from excess energy without consuming it. Rend and Tear increases damage by 3/6/9/12/15%, up from 2/4/6/8/10%.
• Berserk has been removed. Row seven now has separate capstones for Bears and Cats. Primal Bite requires Leader of the Pack, while Shifting Power requires Predatory Discipline. Primal Bite has three ability ranks remaining.
• Restoration. Naturalist increases all damage by 2/4/6/8/10% and reduces the cast time of Wild Growth by 0.1 seconds a point, up to half a second. That spell now has a base cast time of 3 seconds.
• Bloom replaces Gift of the Earthmother. When your Rejuvenation or Regrowth expires, it heals the target for 100% of your Spirit. If dispelled, it heals for 50% of Spirit.
• Swiftmend requires your own Rejuvenation or Regrowth on the target. Another Druid's HoT won't work. Reflection and Subtlety swap places in rows two and three.

Our take. Several core Cat attacks hit harder, but an old build with Berserk needs rebuilding. Resto has a different concern. Wild Growth now has to be cast, giving opponents a chance to interrupt it under pressure. Bloom softens the loss of a dispelled HoT. It doesn't protect the HoT itself.

Hunter: stronger shots, shared trap cooldowns

• All traps now share a 30-second cooldown. Fire and frost traps don't have separate cooldowns anymore.
• The bonus damage on Aimed Shot is up by roughly 110% across all ranks, and the bonus on Sniper Shot is up by 100%. Those increases apply to the bonus portion of the attack, not the entire hit.
• Arcane Shot gains roughly 30% base damage, with its attack power coefficient rising from 0.1 to 0.15. Serpent Sting gains roughly 20% base damage, and its attack power contribution rises from 3% to 5% a tick.
• Aspect of the Hawk gives 20/35/50/70/90/110 ranged attack power across its ranks. Trueshot Aura now gives 20/35/50/75/100.
• Beast Mastery. Pathfinding moves from row two to row three, delaying access to its movement speed bonus.
• Marksmanship. Barrage increases the affected damage by 5/10/15%, up from 3/7/10%.
• Survival. Lightning Reflexes gives 3/6/9/12/15% Agility, up from 2/4/6/8/10%. A new Lacerating Strikes effect from the same Hunter now replaces the previous one even if its damage per second is lower.
• Different ranks of Hunter's Mark can't stack on one target. Rank four's attack power bonus has been corrected. Retraining a pet should also preserve its innate attack speed passive.

Our take. The shot buffs are welcome, but the shared trap cooldown is the first change I'd remember for PvP. Drop a fire trap for damage and the frost trap won't be ready straight afterward. Some familiar trap combinations need a rethink.

Mage: Ice Lance gets a cooldown

• Frost. Ice Lance regains its 300% bonus against frozen targets, but now has an 8-second cooldown shared with Fire Blast. Using either locks out the other.
• Casting Ice Barrier increases Frost damage by 15% for a minute, with another 5% while the barrier holds. Piercing Ice has been removed. Blizzard wants PvE Mages to have a reason to invest deeper in Frost.
• Frost Warding improves Ice Barrier and Frost Ward. Its spell reflection has been replaced by a chance to negate the incoming spell's damage without using up Frost Ward's absorb amount.
• Elemental Precision has been renamed Precision. Three points give 2/4/6% hit for all spells. Arcane Focus is gone, with its job folded into this talent.
• Winter's Chill increases Cone of Cold damage by 20% a stack. Frost Blast has been removed. Imbue Iceknife's visual has been changed to look like a root rather than a stun.
• Arcane. Arcane Blast increases mana cost by 100% a stack instead of 175%. Its spell damage bonus falls from 15% to 12% of Intellect a stack, and its duration rises to 18 seconds.
• Missile Barrage moves to row two and is consumed at the start of the Arcane Missiles channel. If Clearcasting is also active, it isn't spent on that cast. Clearcasting procs from the spell have also been fixed.
• Arcane Resilience moves to row one. Three points provide armor equal to up to 75% of Intellect.
• Fire. Improved Fireball becomes Accelerant and now also reduces the cast time of Arcane Wrath by up to 0.5 seconds. Incineration grows from three points and 6% crit for the affected spells to five points and 10%.
• Critical Mass goes the other way, shrinking from five points and 10% crit to three points and 6%. Improved Fire Blast moves from row one to row three. Ignite has been fixed so that Flamestrike can trigger it with damage after the initial hit.

Our take. Frost's finishing rhythm changes. Ice Lance hits frozen targets harder, but it can't be spammed, and Fire Blast won't be an instant follow-up. For PvE, the barrier is probably the more interesting change. It now contributes to damage even when the tank has the boss and the Mage isn't being hit.

Paladin: new rules for all three trees

There's a lot here. We've kept Holy, Protection, and Retribution together in their own groups so healers don't have to hunt for their changes among the tank talents.

• General. Righteous Fury is learned at level 10 instead of 16. It adds 33% to all threat, with an additional 90% bonus to threat from Holy damage. Salvation, Mass Salvation, Revoke, and Blessing of Light have been removed. Judgement of Fury lasts three seconds instead of four.
• Holy. Spiritual Focus moves to row one and costs five points instead of two. Improved Seals also becomes a five-point talent, up from three. Reverence shrinks to two points. All three keep their previous maximum effects.
• Divine Precision moves to row four. Two points give 4/8% Holy spell hit and reduce silence duration by 10/20%. It previously cost three points for 6/12/18% hit.
• The new Oath of Light marks one ally for five minutes, improving Holy Light, Flash of Light, and Holy Shock on that target. The bonus scales with the Paladin's level. It has a 40-yard range, costs 8% of base mana, and has no cooldown. Only one oath can be active at a time.
• Boundless Light gives Holy Shock an extra 15/30% crit chance when healing an ally who doesn't have your Oath of Light.
• Holy Power now increases the critical healing bonus of Holy spells by 10/20/30/40/50%. It used to provide crit chance. Light's Vigil now works on friendly targets only, with its offensive effect removed.
• Purifying Power moves to row two, with Divine Favor and Illumination in row three. Holy Conduit moves from Retribution to Holy's third row. Voice of Truth has been removed, and Unyielding Faith moves to Retribution.
• Protection. Divine Intellect moves to row one. Sacred Duty moves to row two and loses its percentage Stamina bonus. Alongside its defensive cooldown reductions, it shortens Forbearance by 5/10 seconds.
• Templar's Bulwark moves to row three and becomes a dispellable Magic effect. Improved Righteous Fury reduces incoming damage by 3/6/9%, up from 2/4/6%.
• Shield Specialization costs two points, providing 15/30% block value and a 50/100% chance for its trigger to restore 4% of maximum mana. Its maximum effect hasn't changed.
• Swift Judgement immediately unleashes the active seal and doesn't share a cooldown with Judgement. It previously reset that ability's cooldown.
• Stoicism in row five reduces stun and charm duration by 10/20%. Holy Shield also moves to row five. Toughness is now in row three, and Anticipation in row four. Improved Seal of Fury and One-Handed Weapon Specialization have been removed.
• Iron Creed becomes a three-point talent. Holy Strike generates 10/20/30% more threat and grants 2/4/6% damage reduction for six seconds. The old maximum was 10% damage reduction for five points.
• The new Shieldsworn capstone reduces the cooldown of Holy Strike by four seconds. The attack uses the shield and triggers block-related talents without consuming their charges or starting their cooldowns. It also lets the Paladin block spells for six seconds.
• Reckoning now accounts for its stacks correctly. Deliberately sitting down to take a hit won't generate them.
• Retribution. Conviction in row two grants 2/4/6% crit to all attacks and spells, expanding its old melee-only bonus. Sanctified Judgement also moves to row two. Vindication loses its attack power bonus.
• Two-Handed Weapon Specialization in row four increases Physical and Holy damage by 2/4/6%. With a two-handed weapon, it also reduces threat generated by 7/14/20%.
• Champion of the Light grants spell damage equal to 12/24/36/48/60% of Intellect and reduces the cast time of Hammer of Wrath by 0.2/0.4/0.6/0.8/1 seconds. Vengeance stacks up to five times instead of three and requires Seal of Command.
• The new Turn Evil in row five reduces the cast time of Turn Undead by 0.5/1 seconds, cuts its cooldown by 5/10 seconds, and allows it to fear demons. Unyielding Faith is in row three.
• Unsealed Wrath becomes the capstone and requires Repentance. Melee attacks store a copy of the active seal for 15 seconds, up to three stacks. Landing a hit with a different seal consumes those stacks, giving the stored seal its normal proc chance for each one. Instrument of Law and Twist of Light have been removed.

Our take. Holy gets a priority target for stronger healing, but also a reason to use Holy Shock on the rest of the group. Choosing who keeps the oath actually matters. It isn't another buff to put on everyone.

Prot needs another look at its defensives. Sacred Duty has lost its Stamina bonus, Iron Creed has a different damage reduction cap, and Templar's Bulwark can be dispelled. Shieldsworn joins the toolkit in return. Ret gets a clear incentive to swap seals. I wouldn't copy an old talent allocation blindly.

Priest: a riskier execute and a new way to heal yourself

• Power Word: Shield can now be correctly replaced by a shield of the same or a higher rank.
• Shadow Word: Death costs the Priest 30% of maximum health if the target survives, up from 10%. A missed spell no longer causes backlash damage.
• Binding Heal has been removed and replaced by Holy Binding. When Flash Heal heals another character, the Priest receives healing equal to 50% of that heal. This extra healing generates no threat.
• Healing from Vampiric Embrace can't crit anymore. Devouring Contagion won't spread Devouring Plague from harmless critters.
• Cure Disease and Abolish Disease won't cancel Shadowform. The Undead Priest's Dark Sacrifice has been fixed so it shouldn't break CC.

Our take. Pressing Shadow Word: Death on cooldown is a much riskier habit now. Losing a third of your maximum health on a failed execute could end the fight sooner than you'd like. Holy Binding offers something useful in the other direction. Heal an ally and recover some health yourself, without spending a separate cast on your own frame.

Rogue: Shank, energy, and a rebuilt Subtlety tree

• New baseline abilities. Poised is learned at level 18. At full energy out of combat, the next energy ability costs 10 less.
• Shank arrives at level 24. It costs 5 energy, deals 50% off-hand weapon damage, and generates 15 energy on a 10-second cooldown. Rank two at level 44 generates 25 energy. Its description specifically says Shank can't miss.
• Deadly Poison has an attack power coefficient of 0.009, up from 0.0045. Instant Poison rises from 0.005 to 0.01. That's double the attack power contribution, not double the total poison damage.
• Assassination. Lethality costs two points and grants 10/20% additional critical damage to the abilities listed in the talent. Improved Expose Armor moves to row two, and Vigor to row three. Murder has been removed.
• The new one-point Blood Splatter talent in row three extends two bleeds. Rupture lasts six seconds longer, and Garrote lasts nine seconds longer.
• Relentless Strikes moves to row five. Five points provide a 4/8/12/16/20% chance per combo point to refund 25 energy. The old maximum cost just one point.
• Venom becomes a passive in row five. After Shank, poison damage increases by 30% and application chance by 20% for six seconds. Seal Fate costs three points, with a 33/66/100% chance to add a combo point after an eligible crit.
• Mutilate is in row seven. Its weapon damage portion rises from 75% to 90%, and its flat damage bonus has also increased.
• Combat. Improved Eviscerate is replaced by Coup de Grace, increasing Eviscerate damage as well as Death Mark's damage and accumulation rate by 7/13/20%. Efficient Strikes replaces Improved Sinister Strike, reducing the energy cost of Sinister Strike and Hemorrhage by 3/5.
• Composure in row three improves Poised's discount by another 5/10 energy. Improved Sprint moves to row two. Flawless Execution reduces energy costs by 15 instead of 10.
• Weapon Expertise and Aggression move to row four. Aggression increases Sinister Strike and Eviscerate damage by 5/10/15%, but loses its bonus to Backstab.
• Dual Wield Specialization in row five costs two points and increases off-hand damage by 25/50%. It previously topped out at 25% for five points.
• Flash of Steel in row six adds 3/6/9/12/15 energy to Shank's generation and reduces its cooldown by 0.4/0.8/1.2/1.6/2 seconds.
• Subtlety. Hemorrhage and Ghostly Strike have been fixed so daggers don't deal incorrectly inflated damage. Ghostly Strike now allows Ambush or Garrote to be used outside stealth for seven seconds.
• Setup moves to row one. Its chance to grant a combo point after a dodge or a full spell resist falls to 15/30/45%. Opportunity costs five points and improves its listed attacks by 4/8/12/16/20%, replacing two points for 5/10%.
• Dirty Deeds and Camouflage move to row two. Camouflage has three ranks, keeping its maximum 15% stealth speed bonus and six-second reduction to the stealth cooldown. Premeditation and Serrated Blades move to row three, Elusiveness and Ghostly Strike to row four, and Heightened Senses to row five.
• Quick Getaway replaces Improved Distract. Sap can control an additional target, and using Sap grants 15/30% movement speed for three seconds. The official entry lists the extra target count as 1/1, so we wouldn't promise two extra targets at rank two.
• Hemorrhage increases damage from the Rogue's own Rupture and Garrote by 15%. Boot Knife in row six gives Shank a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to add two combo points. Quietus, Cutthroat, and Thousand Cuts have been removed.
• Death Mark is the new capstone finisher. It costs 25 energy, has a 20-yard range, and a 10-second cooldown. The target is cursed for six seconds, storing a portion of attack damage based on the combo points spent. Garrote and Rupture fill that pool twice as fast. The stored damage then goes off, with a cap that scales with attack power and crit chance.

Our take. Shank does more than deliver an off-hand hit. It returns energy, and each tree adds something different to it, whether that's stronger poisons, more energy, or combo points. Off-hand damage and speed now need to be considered alongside the ability and the talents supporting it.

For Subtlety, the interesting part is pairing Ghostly Strike with an attack that used to require stealth, then adding Death Mark's delayed damage. Does that make a guaranteed winning combo? Too early to say. We need to see the actual damage and how enemy defensives interact with it.

Shaman: stronger lightning and melee, no more Lava Burst

• Totemic Projection has been renamed Totemic Call. Totems now move to the Shaman's own position, and the cooldown falls to 30 seconds.
• Lightning Bolt gains base damage at all ranks. At max rank, it's 80% higher than the previous Forever beta version. That isn't an 80% increase over Classic. The new base damage is roughly 78% of the equivalent Classic Era rank, with a shorter cast time.
• Chain Lightning has a 2.5-second cast. Its base damage to the first target is roughly 145% of a comparable Lightning Bolt rank, with roughly 225% of the mana cost. Shock base damage has returned to Classic Era values, up from the previous beta values.
• Elemental. Lightning Overload has a 10/20/30% chance to repeat the spell, up from 3/7/10%. Lava Burst has been removed. Call of Thunder replaces it, giving Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning 5% crit.
• Elemental Mastery has been renamed Lightning Mastery. Elemental Reach loses its cooldown reduction for totem relocation.
• Enhancement. The proc chance of Maelstrom Weapon has doubled. Stormstrike deals 150% normalized weapon damage, up from 100%, with its cooldown reduced from eight to six seconds.
• Mental Dexterity grants attack power equal to 50/100/150% of Intellect, up from 33/67/100%. Flurry grants 6/12/18/24/30% attack speed, up from 5/10/15/20/25%.
• Improved Ghost Wolf moves from row two to row four. The extra swing animations for Windfury Weapon and Windfury Totem have been fixed.
• Restoration. Riptide costs roughly 40% less mana, but its cooldown rises from six to 12 seconds. The instant heal has been removed, leaving the HoT.

Our take. Enhancement gets some solid buffs, while Elemental is steered back toward lightning. Lava Burst is gone. Resto players need to rethink how they use Riptide, because it can't immediately lift someone out of low health anymore. Leveling advice about getting a fast Ghost Wolf early also needs another look. The required talent is deeper in the tree.

Warlock: stronger spells, less health scaling for demons

• Spellstone now correctly increases Shadow damage only. Its unintended Fire damage bonus has been removed.
• Pets gain 2 health per point of their owner's Stamina instead of 7.5. This changes the contribution from the Warlock's stats. It doesn't cut the demon's entire health pool by that ratio.
• Bane of Agony now correctly updates its damage when stats change. The chance to gain a Soul Shard from Drain Soul ticks has been greatly reduced. This concerns ticks, rather than the shard awarded for a kill.
• Affliction. Amplify Curse now correctly improves Curse of Exhaustion and Bane of Agony. Improved Drains improves the resource drained by Drain Mana, but no longer buffs Wrack.
• The spell damage coefficient of Wrack has doubled to 0.286 per second of cast time. Its base damage per second increases by 2.5 per level. At level 60, the base has effectively risen from 36 to 86.
• Destruction. Shadow and Flame grants 4/8/12/16/20% of the appropriate Fire or Shadow damage, up from 2/4/6/8/10%.

Our take. The Warlock's own damage improves, but the demon gets less health from its owner's Stamina. While leveling solo, it's worth watching how quickly the tanking pet loses health as well as your own damage numbers. Don't count on the old stream of shards from spell ticks, either.

Warrior: more tank threat and health traded for rage

• Defensive Stance increases threat by 80%, up from 30%. The cooldown of Slam falls from 18 to 15 seconds. The tooltip for Victory Rush now shows the correct damage.
• Arms. Improved Tactical Mastery costs three points and retains 5/10/15 additional rage when changing stance. Reaching the same maximum previously cost five points.
• Two-Handed Weapon Specialization grants 2/4/6% damage with two-handed melee weapons, up from 1/2/3%. Bloodthrill costs two points, giving main-hand attacks against a target affected by Rend a 10/20% chance to enable Overpower. The old maximum cost five points.
• Improved Slam reduces the cooldown by 2.5/5 seconds. Combined with the baseline change, two points bring it down to 10 seconds.
• Fury. Reckless Swings in row four costs 25% of base health and has a 15-second cooldown. The next four melee attacks within eight seconds generate five additional rage each.
• Flurry costs three points and grants 10/20/30% attack speed for three swings after a crit. It previously capped at 25% for five points. Flurry no longer requires Death Wish. That prerequisite now applies to Bloodthirst.
• Improved Whirlwind in row six reduces the cooldown by 1/2 seconds and increases damage to the closest target by 15/30%. Booming Voice also reduces the rage cost of Piercing Howl by 5/10/15/20/25%.
• Enrage moves to row three. Gore Drinker moves to row five and requires Blood Craze. Healing from these last two talents generates no threat. Sitting down can't trigger Blood Craze.
• Protection. Defiance increases threat by 7/13/20%, up from 5/10/15%.

Our take. Tanks get more threat of their own, which matters with the Paladin's threat-reduction blessing gone. Fury gets a way to buy rage with health, but pressing Reckless Swings while being focused could hurt. Its cost uses base health. The Priest's Shadow Word: Death, by comparison, takes a percentage of maximum health.

Racials, quests, and other changes that affect launch

Blizzard has included the racial changes in this roundup again. Some have already been discussed, but they're easy to miss when choosing a character.

• Dwarf. Earth Fury has been removed and replaced by Artisan's Precision, granting 1% attack and spell hit.
• Human. Ruthless grants 1% crit instead of 2%. Human Spirit increases Spirit by 10%, up from 5%.
• Orc. Savage and its 1% crit have been removed. Command returns, granting 5% pet damage to Hunters and Warlocks. The cooldown of Blood Fury falls from three to two minutes.
• Skyborne. Wind-Blessed grants 2% haste instead of 3%. Read Leyline increases health and mana regeneration by 50% for 15 seconds. Using it near a ley line grants an hour-long attunement that increases the bonus to 100%. This effect doesn't stack with Innervate.
• Skysight grants 15% movement speed for 15 seconds. Using it at an elemental convergence grants an hour-long attunement that increases the ability's speed bonus to 30%. Both Skyborne attunements persist through death but are removed on entering a raid. The speed bonus itself doesn't last the whole hour.
• Tauren. Plainsrunning grants 2% movement speed per stack, up to 60%, but doesn't increase mount speed anymore. Endurance keeps its 5% health bonus and loses the additional hit and critical damage modifiers.
• Troll. Berserking lasts 15 seconds instead of 10. Undead. The proc rate of Touch of the Grave has been fixed, and its internal cooldown falls from 25 to 15 seconds. Cannibalize works during Physical damage immunity again.
• Racial starting stats have been corrected. A Tauren Warrior, for example, gets the intended five extra Strength over a Human Warrior instead of two.
• Some quests have updated requirements, chains, and XP. Ruins of Lordaeron quests are now available at level 15. Leveling routes need their quest order checked alongside their talents.
• Bags aren't equipped automatically anymore. Faster respawns in starting zones are temporary for launch. On the Darkspear Islands, voluntarily dropping the flag no longer applies the old debuff to the player who dropped it.

Our take. With this many changes, claiming every old route is fully current would be a stretch. The trip between towns usually stays the same, but ability training levels, prerequisites, and early talents may have changed. We'll check guides individually.

How Blizzard plans to develop Forever after launch

Class balance is only part of the conversation. Recent interviews explain where Blizzard wants Forever to go over the next few updates. Speaking to GamesRadar, Clay Stone described it as a separate pillar alongside modern WoW and Classic. The team wants to keep adding to this Azeroth as long as players want to stay.

The beta's success surprised the developers. That doesn't amount to a guaranteed calendar for years of updates or endless expansions. What interests me is the commitment to keep this world going, without an announced handoff to the next expansion.

• Major updates roughly every four months. That's the target discussed in the IGN interview, with smaller updates around the two-month mark between them. It's a desired pace, not a set of confirmed release dates. Content within an update may unlock gradually.
• A level 60 cap and a broader world. In the GamesRadar interview, the developers discuss horizontal progression and new places within Azeroth. The aim is to expand what players can do without making another level-cap race mandatory.
• Old raids aren't being retired. The IGN interview recap describes a slower rollout of Classic content, interspersed with new raids, dungeons, and zones. It doesn't give a release date for each old raid.
• Plenty of places the team would like to explore. Grim Batol, the Emerald Dream, and Gilneas have been mentioned. Those are areas of interest, not the announced contents of the next patch. Journeys farther afield aren't ruled out, though Classic Azeroth remains the foundation for now.
• No current plans for flying or PvP arenas. In the Polygon interview, the team ties that decision to preserving the Classic world. There's still room to develop outdoor play and battlegrounds.
• No promise of a complete graphics replacement. The developers are keeping the old model and texture style while improving lighting, weather, and other environmental details. The same interview puts the team at roughly 50-60% larger than the Season of Discovery team, though it's still relatively small.

Our take. I like the idea of a patch giving us a reason to revisit the old world without making everything we've already done irrelevant. That gets harder with each raid. How do you keep old loot valuable while giving a new place rewards worth chasing? Blizzard hasn't shown a detailed answer for years ahead. I'd watch what it does after the first raid season.

One more distinction matters. Plans for major updates don't mean each one will require a separate purchase. Rumored prices don't belong on a confirmed roadmap.

What we should keep separate from official announcements

Discussion has turned to a supposed paid Shadows of Lordaeron bundle with new races and raids. Blizzard hasn't backed it up. We aren't listing its alleged price or contents as part of the game's development plans.

Enchanting vellums need the same care. The video discusses entries found in the game data. They're a reason to check the system at launch, rather than proof that any finished enchant can already be bought on the auction house.

Gamepad support does appear in the official notes. It doesn't, by itself, announce an Xbox version or a console release date. Speculation about future platforms is still speculation.

What this means for builds and guides

Old builds haven't been checked against these changes yet. Paladin, Druid, and Rogue trees have changed structurally. Shamans have lost a core attack from older builds, while two Mage instants now share a cooldown. Updating a few percentages won't fix advice built around the previous mechanics.

I'd start with talent allocations and ability sequences, then check training levels and early leveling advice. Racials and quest requirements need their own pass. That doesn't mean every route needs a full rewrite just because some numbers changed.

This article records the official changes and our first reactions. Updating the guides is the next step. Until we've checked them, we won't pretend the old PvP combos and talent builds already fit the launch client.