On September 24, Blizzard released the first major open beta build for Forever — changes across all nine classes, racial abilities, and the interface. Druid and Paladin leveling got noticeably easier, while Retribution Paladin and Fire Mage saw their damage cut.

On September 24, Blizzard released the first major open beta build for World of Warcraft: Forever. The changes touched all nine classes, racial abilities, shaman totems, items, and starting-zone quests; the interface gained a Cooldown Manager and gamepad-friendly tweaks. With less than a month to release (November 4, 2026, 23:00 UTC — that is, November 5 at 02:00 Moscow time), this build is the first real attempt to find balance before launch.

The short version

• Fog of War can no longer be turned off. The console command players used to clear the fog of war against the designers' intent no longer works: the game removes it for a moment, then puts it right back.
• Talent resets on beta cost 1 silver if you haven't reset in a while. After a reset, the next one costs more; an hour later the price drops back to 1 silver. This rule won't carry over to live.
• Thorns (Druid) and Retribution Aura (Paladin) now scale from current spell power. The old trick — "equip a spell power set, activate the aura, swap gear, walk away" — no longer works.
• The Cooldown Manager puts important buffs and cooldowns in their own panel. Off by default, toggle it in Settings. So far only available for Druid, Mage, Priest, Warrior, and Warlock.

Classes: who got easier, who got nerfed

Druid. Wrath deals roughly 50% more base damage — getting to Bear Form at level 10 feels noticeably faster. Lacerate was renamed to Primal Bite: the visual effect on the target was removed, so the old name no longer fit. The Primal Fury talent is back to its old name, Blood Frenzy. Wild Charge in Cat Form can no longer be used on an ally.

Paladin. Holy Strike now scales smoothly between ranks — a new rank used to barely feel like an upgrade. The Improved Holy Strike talent was removed: its effect is now baseline for every Paladin. Tanking got harder — Righteous Fury now grants 60% threat instead of 90%. Retribution got hit across the board: Vengeance procs only on critical strikes and stacks up to 3 times instead of 5, and Two-Handed Weapon Specialization gives 2/4/6% damage instead of 3/6/9%.

Mage. Ignite no longer double-counts percentage damage bonuses — a noticeable nerf for Fire Mages stacking many such bonuses. Flame Trail lasts 30 seconds (up from 20); Lucky Streak lasts 20 seconds (up from 15).

Hunter. The attack power bonus from pet Furious Howl is reduced by 40%. Bats have Screech back. The 4% damage penalty for having an active pet without Lone Wolf has been removed.

Shaman. Lightning Bolt ranks 3 and 4 are buffed; Lava Burst ranks 1 and 2 deal roughly 10% more damage than Lightning Bolt of the same level. Flame Tongue Totem no longer has a duration and no longer stacks with itself or with the Flame Tongue weapon enchant. Elemental Fury and Elemental Mastery have swapped positions — the key talent is now reachable earlier.

Warrior. Bloodthirst proc chance doubled (4/8/12/16/20%), but it now triggers only from main-hand attacks. Bastion and Focused Rage have swapped positions — the latter is reachable earlier, making it easier to level toward Shield Slam.

Priest, Rogue, Warlock. Minor fixes: Renew can now crit, Power Word: Shield can be re-applied on a target without the Weakened Soul debuff, Rogue's Sap now respects the target's PvP flag, and Life Tap's tooltip was corrected for Warlocks.

Races

Gnome's Eureka! is now identical across classes: a flat 10% discount on mana, rage, or energy (it used to scale by class and could hit 50% on Mages and Warlocks). Tauren Cultivation is now tied to character level — herbalism skill divided by 5. Forsaken can no longer break crowd control with Will of the Forsaken.

Interface and items

The Cooldown Manager has shipped for five classes (Druid, Mage, Priest, Warrior, Warlock); the rest will follow later. For gamepad, dropdown panels for forms, pets, auras, and stances have been added, along with a compact action bar and the ability to pin D-pad buttons to party members. A bug with bows and guns not consuming ammo was fixed. Monster and quest-object spawns were sped up in starting zones — Elwynn Forest, Dun Morogh, Durotar, Mulgore, Serebryany Bor, Westfall, and Zefris Isle.

Practical takeaway

• Want to level fast — try Druid and Paladin: their early-level damage was buffed.
• If you've been playing Fire Mage — brace for smaller numbers; Ignite damage was trimmed.
• Retribution Paladin is worth re-speccing after the patch: every tree was hit.
• The Cooldown Manager only works for five classes so far — flip it on in Settings if you play one of them.