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PassTheTorch

Classes overview

Forever keeps the nine vanilla classes and the three-tree talent layout, then rewrites enough of each tree that your 2005 instincts are half right. This page is the hub: one row per class, who fills which role, the rules every class shares, and links to the deep dives. Read it before you roll, then read your class page before you spend a talent point. Every level 60 claim on every class page is theorycraft; the beta caps at 20, rising to 30, and launch is 2026-11-04. See What is Forever and the launch timeline.

The nine classes

Section titled “The nine classes”

Roles per tree, the consensus leveling spec, faction availability and the one-line verdict from each class page. Skyborne (High Order on Alliance, Windshaper on Horde) is a paid unlock. Race availability is from Blizzard’s 2026-09-22 grid. verified

Class Trees (role) Leveling spec Alliance Horde Verdict Page
Warrior Arms (melee DPS, PvP) / Fury (melee DPS) / Protection (tank) Fury with a two-hander to 30, Arms from 30 Human, Dwarf, Night Elf, Gnome, High Order Skyborne Orc, Undead, Tauren, Troll, Windshaper Skyborne Weakest class in the level 20 beta (rage normalization, no blue post), projected top DPS at 60 on sims. The safe main tank Warrior
Paladin Holy (healer) / Protection (tank) / Retribution (melee DPS) Retribution Human, Dwarf Undead (new) Deepest rework of the melee classes. Ret is the beta’s strongest leveler, Prot is a real tank with a Judgement taunt, Holy finally has a group heal Paladin
Hunter Beast Mastery (ranged DPS, pet) / Marksmanship (ranged DPS, pet optional) / Survival (ranged DPS with traps, or experimental melee) Beast Mastery Human (new), Dwarf, Night Elf, High Order Skyborne Orc, Tauren, Troll, Windshaper Skyborne Easiest leveler in every ranking. Raid ranking undecided (sims favor MM). Lone Wolf and melee Survival are both untested guesses Hunter
Rogue Assassination (melee DPS) / Combat (melee DPS) / Subtlety (melee DPS, control) Combat Human, Dwarf, Night Elf, Gnome, High Order Skyborne Orc, Undead, Troll, Windshaper Skyborne All three trees are DPS. Combat levels, Assassination is the raid frontrunner on pre-beta sims, Subtlety is PvP. Restless Blades is gone; guides built on it are stale Rogue
Priest Discipline (healer) / Holy (healer) / Shadow (ranged DPS, disputed) Discipline wand-and-DoT to 30 Human, Dwarf, Night Elf, Gnome (new) Undead, Troll “S tier, #1 among healers” per expcarry with no Disc vs Holy winner. Shadow is fun in PvP and leveling after 42 and has “no real reason” in a raid per two forum threads. Fear Ward is baseline for everyone Priest
Shaman Elemental (ranged DPS) / Enhancement (melee DPS) / Restoration (healer) Enhancement Dwarf (new) Orc, Tauren, Troll, Windshaper Skyborne Enhancement is the unanimous leveler and top fan-tier melee spec; Resto is A-tier; Elemental is B. Dual Wield is not in the beta. Enhancement does not tank Shaman
Mage Arcane (ranged DPS) / Fire (ranged DPS) / Frost (ranged DPS, control) Frost Human, Gnome, High Order Skyborne Undead, Troll, Orc (new) Level Frost, raid Fire by the sims. Winter’s Chill and Improved Scorch are personal now, so stacking Mages for debuffs is over Mage
Warlock Affliction (ranged DPS) / Demonology (ranged DPS, pet) / Destruction (ranged DPS) Affliction, Voidwalker out Human, Gnome Orc, Undead, Troll (new) Drain-tank leveling with few complaints. Raid spec is a real dispute: guides say Affliction, MythicSim says Demonology. Banes do not use the Curse slot Warlock
Druid Balance (ranged DPS) / Feral (Bear tank, Cat melee DPS) / Restoration (healer) Feral: Bear 10 to 19, Cat from 20 Night Elf, High Order Skyborne Tauren, Windshaper Skyborne Level as Cat, raid as Bear or Resto. Bear at 60 is A-tier per guides and “underperforming vs Paladin” per a beta thread. Resto is the consensus A-tier healer with Wild Growth Druid

Every leveling spec above is a consensus of wowforeverbuilds.com, expcarry and the beta class report, and only levels 1 to 20 are beta-tested. verified

Pick by role

Section titled “Pick by role”

The guild needs every role filled before the raids open on 2026-12-09. Here is who can do what, with the Forever caveats that decide whether “can” means “should”.

Who tanks

Section titled “Who tanks”
Spec Status Caveat
Protection Warrior Main tank, every raid size Rage from blocks and avoidance once you have a shield. Sunder threat was bugged in beta and reported fixed. Vitality is gone; correct any build that still lists it
Protection Paladin Second tank; add and trash tank; boss tank once proven The taunt is real: Judgement with Seal of Fury active taunts for 4 sec, 10 sec cooldown, can miss, Swift Judgement is the retry. verified Whether that holds on boss swaps in a 40 is untested. No interrupt
Feral Druid (Bear) Disputed Three guide sites say A-tier “alongside Protection Paladin”. A beta forum thread says underperforming vs Paladin (Swipe hitting for about 16, rage down about 45%) with no blue reply. Beta bears are also tankier than launch bears because of a known armor bug. unverified Emergency third tank until someone tests 60
Enhancement Shaman No Blizzard: “not quite yet”, “never say never”. verified No taunt, no mitigation cooldowns, no mail tank gear. Off-tank low-level dungeon trash for fun; never roster one as a raid tank
Fury Warrior with a shield Emergency only Tactical Mastery is baseline so the stance swap is cheap, but Defiance, Shield Specialization and Bastion all need Protection talents

Who heals

Section titled “Who heals”
Spec Best at Caveat
Holy Paladin Tank healing Light’s Vigil is a real party heal now but covers one party; put the Paladin in the tank or melee group
Discipline Priest Tank healing and absorbs Thin raid-wide healing; Divine Aegis needs crit gear
Holy Priest Group and raid healing Prayer of Mending, Wild-Growth-style tools, Spirit scaling. No Disc vs Holy winner yet
Restoration Shaman Group healing Riptide into Chain Heal; whether Chain Heal consumes Riptide’s HoT is disputed
Restoration Druid Group HoTs Wild Growth is party-locked, so raid group assignment matters. No Tree of Life

Every healer’s raid frames are a problem: Grid2, VuhDo, Cell and Clique cannot show health under the Forever API. verified Plan on Blizzard’s frames plus mouseover macros. See Addons that work.

Melee DPS

Section titled “Melee DPS”

Fury or Arms Warrior, Retribution Paladin, Assassination or Combat Rogue, Enhancement Shaman, Feral Cat Druid, and experimentally melee Survival Hunter. Notes: Warrior projects highest at 60 and feels worst at 20. Ret’s current beta damage is inflated by a Vengeance bug that is being fixed. Cat is the lowest melee sim but the best leveler. Melee Survival has no parses at all.

Ranged DPS

Section titled “Ranged DPS”

Beast Mastery, Marksmanship or ranged Survival Hunter; Fire, Arcane or Frost Mage; Affliction, Demonology or Destruction Warlock; Elemental Shaman; Balance Druid; and Shadow Priest.

The Forever rules every class shares

Section titled “The Forever rules every class shares”

These come from Blizzard’s Deep Dive recap and the beta client export, and they change how every build on every class page is read. verified

  • Talent milestones at 11, 16, 21 and 31 points. Three trees, vanilla names, 51 points from level 10 to 60, rows unlock at 0/5/10/15/20/25/30 points in a tree. The 16-point talent is new and sits on row 4. Blizzard has not named the 16-point talents; every class page identifies them from row position in the datamined trees. changed in Forever
  • Hit and crit are unified. “Spell, melee, and ranged hit chance are combined, as are spell, melee, and ranged critical chance.” A Ret Paladin’s crit gear crits Judgements, a Hunter’s hit gear lands traps, a Tauren’s +1% hit helps every spec. The Forever hit cap is unpublished; vanilla’s 9% melee and 16% spell caps are vanilla baseline.
  • +healing gives one third as much bonus damage. Healers can quest in their healing gear. Holy Paladins, Restoration Druids and Priests all benefit.
  • Weapon skill still exists but items give less of it. The racial weapon specializations became crit: Human +2% with swords, Orc +1% with axes, Dwarf +1% with maces, and they apply to spells and abilities, not ranged. changed in Forever
  • Long buffs. Paladin Blessings last 1 hour, Priest Divine Spirit 1 hour, Shaman weapon imbues 60 minutes, Warlock Demonic Sacrifice 2 hours, campsite buffs 1 hour. Buff once per hour, not per fight, and stop hoarding reagents until each class page confirms which buffs still need them.
  • Racials: two actives and two passives per race, all +10 resistance passives gone. Blood Fury is a percentage with no healing penalty, Berserking has no health condition, Cannibalize restores mana, Stoneform is a real defensive cooldown. Full grid on Races and classes.
  • Legacy perk “Talented” starts talent points at level 5 on alts, still capped at 51. Respec was 1g then 5g at level 20 in beta; dual spec is not announced.
  • Consumables. Healing potions moved from Alchemy to First Aid: every class trains First Aid. Potions are 30-second effects on a shared 2-minute cooldown; elixirs are 30 minutes. Whether Forever limits you to one offensive and one defensive elixir is unannounced. Mining gives +5% total health, Skinning +5% damage to Beasts and Dragonkin, Herbalism magic resistances. See Consumables and Professions overview.
  • Addons use the retail (Midnight) API. Health, combo points and similar values are “secret”: threat meters, WeakAuras, Details! and health-based raid frames are dead or missing. Blizzard provides a built-in damage meter and cooldown manager. Macros use retail syntax. See Addons and Macros.

What the guild needs

Section titled “What the guild needs”

Raids at launch: Barrow Deeps (10), Hyjal Summit (20), Onyxia’s Lair (40), fixed sizes, no flex, one difficulty. The guild’s default composition targets are 2 tanks / 3 healers / 5 DPS for a 10, 3/5/12 for a 20, 4/10/26 for a 40. Those are our catalog defaults, not Blizzard numbers. The tank pool, healer pool and buff coverage plan live on Raid composition; the raid pages are Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit and Onyxia.

Practical guidance from the class research, as of 2026-09-24:

  • Tank pool for a 10 and a 20: Prot Warrior main tank, Prot Paladin second tank, a Fury Warrior or Feral as the emergency third. Test Paladin boss swaps in Barrow Deeps before assigning one to Onyxia.
  • Healer pool: Holy Paladin on tanks, Priest, Druid and Shaman on the raid. Light’s Vigil and Wild Growth are per-party, so group assignment is a real decision.
  • Hunters: one Marksmanship per ranged group for Trueshot Aura (Ranged AP only now), Beast Mastery for the rest.
  • Warriors: expect them to feel weak until about 40 if rage normalization stays. Do not let that empty the tank pool.
  • Buffs that no longer stack or share: Winter’s Chill and Improved Scorch are personal; Shadow Weaving is personal; Trueshot Aura is ranged only. Plan raid groups around what still shares: Blessings, Leader of the Pack, Windfury Totem, Furious Howl.

Post your main and off-spec in Discord with !roster so the officers can see the pool before the first raid night. Check !guide <class> in Discord for the quick version of any class page. Loot expectations are on Loot rules and Loot systems; the first two months are mapped on First eight weeks. New to the guild? Start at Join.

Unknown as of 2026-09-24

Section titled “Unknown as of 2026-09-24”
  1. Every level 60 build on every class page. The beta caps at 20 to 30 and nobody has raided.
  2. Warrior rage normalization: intended or bug.
  3. Feral Bear and Prot Paladin at raid scale: bear threat past 30, Paladin taunt on boss swaps.
  4. Shadow Priest and Balance Druid raid tuning before 12-09.
  5. Forever’s hit cap and Defense cap. Every guide recycles vanilla numbers with a disclaimer.
  6. Elixir stacking rules and whether world buffs work in raids.
  7. Which set bonuses survive to launch; all are datamined and “provisional”.
  8. Whether the “all 27 trees viable” quote is a balance target or a description.
  9. Beta level 21 to 30 data. The level 20 builds on every class page will be superseded within days.

Sources

Section titled “Sources”