WoW Forever Launch Tuning: Every Class Hits Harder, Creatures Get More Health

Blizzard's November 2 development notes collect everything that changed in the two and a half weeks since the last beta build. The biggest change is one of approach. During the beta, the developers held each class to roughly its Classic power budget, so every new ability had to be paid for by weakening something else, and some iconic abilities ended up feeling flat. They have now raised damage for classes across the game and given higher-level creatures more health to compensate.

Blizzard says the goal isn't perfect numerical equality, but for every class to feel valuable to the groups it joins, by leaning into what makes each class different. Some changes also walk back solutions borrowed from The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King in favour of designs that suit Forever's own combat.

Apart from bug fixes and serious outliers, Blizzard doesn't plan big tuning changes before the raids open on December 9. A larger pass will follow once enough players have leveled past 30.

With Salvation gone, Paladins can no longer lower the threat of a group's damage dealers, so Blizzard raised the threat of every tank instead:

• Bear Form and Dire Bear Form: 115% more threat (was 50%).
• Defensive Stance: 80% more threat (was 30%), and Defiance adds up to 20% (was 15%).
• Righteous Fury: trained at level 10 (was 16), it adds 33% to all threat you generate and a further 90% to threat from Holy damage.

Damage dealers lose their main threat safety net, so in dungeons and raids it pays to let the tank build threat first. Retribution Paladins can lower their own threat by 7/14/20% with Two-Handed Weapon Specialization while they wield a two-handed weapon.

• Low ranks trigger talents again. Many talents no longer have a lower chance to trigger from low ranks of a spell. Blizzard is the exception: a rank learned more than 12 levels below your level still has a reduced chance to trigger Arcane Concentration, Frostbite and Fingers of Frost.
• Training costs are evened out. Most abilities learned at the same level cost the same, and training every class ability from 1 to 60 now costs between 206 and 207 gold for every class. Warlocks pay less to make up for the Grimoires their demons need, and Priest race abilities keep their own prices.
• New spells no longer jump onto your action bars when you learn them, and new bags no longer equip themselves in empty bag slots.
• Every race now has the right base stats. A Tauren Warrior, for example, starts with 5 more Strength than a Human Warrior instead of 2. Skyborne base stats are corrected too.
• Roots from talents now have diminishing returns, including Frostbite, Entrapment, Improved Wing Clip, Counterattack and Improved Hamstring.

Respawn rates were adjusted across the world to cope with launch crowds. They are fastest in the starting zones and slow down gradually in higher-level zones, where players naturally spread out. Some competition for spawns is intended, and once the launch rush of low-level characters settles, Blizzard will bring the low-level zones back to normal rates.

Quests got another round of fixes: experience rewards, prerequisites and level requirements were adjusted, many objectives gained tooltips and map markers, and every Ruins of Lordaeron dungeon quest now starts at level 15. Gamepad support is complete as well: movement, combat, bags, menus and the rest of the interface can all be played with a controller, with its settings in Edit Mode and the Options menu.

• Re-plan Mage, Paladin, Druid and Priest builds in the talent calculator, which already uses their new trees.
• Rogues, Hunters, Shamans, Warriors and Warlocks: read your class's changes above before you spend your first talent points. Rogues should start with the Rogue article.
• Tanks can hold threat far more easily, but damage dealers should still give them a moment at the start of each pull.
• Set aside about 206 gold for class training from level 1 to 60.
• Compare races for your class with the final racial changes, which the same notes repeat.