WoW Forever Class Guide — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] Right, so World of Warcraft Forever is changing pretty much every class in the game. And if you're anything like me, one of the first questions you probably had when Forever was announced was

[00:13] what class am I going to actually play? Because this isn't quite as simple as just picking whatever was good in Classic WoW. Classes have new abilities, talent trees have been changed,

[00:26] specs that were previously a bit questionable are being given actual identities. We've got a completely new race and class combinations and generally speaking Blizzard seems to be trying

[00:41] to fix a lot of the problems classes had in vanilla without turning forever into retail wow. Now before I go any further I do need to make something very clear. The beta is currently

[00:54] limited. We do not have the entire level 60 game sitting in front of us with every raid tested, every item discovered and every single class perfectly theory crafted. So if somebody is

[01:08] already telling you that they definitely know what the number one DPS is going to be at level 60, what the absolute best tank is or exactly what the raid meta will look like, they don't. We

[01:21] simply do not know yet. What we can do however is look at what Blizzard has actually changed. Look at how these classes are currently playing in the beta and then figure out which class makes

[01:34] the most sense depending on what you actually want to do. So rather than doing some arbitrary S tier, S tier list, let's actually answer the useful question. Which class should you play in

[01:47] WoW Forever. And we'll start with Druid. Druid is probably the easiest class to recommend to somebody who generally has no idea what role they want to play, because you can basically do

[02:00] everything. You can tank, you can play melee DPS, you can play ranged DPS, and you can also heal. That's always been the appeal of Druid, but Forever is trying to make those different options feel

[02:13] like actual proper play styles instead of druids simply being the class that technically can do everything but is usually worse than the specialist classes. Bear has received more of an actual

[02:26] tanking rotation. Balance is getting more involved caster rotation. Restoration has more healing tools and even things like druids finally getting a normal resurrection make the class less awkward

[02:41] in group content. You can also play a Skyborn druid on either faction, complete with new druid forms, which is obviously going to make that incredibly popular as well. Now, from the early

[02:54] beta testing, not everything appears perfect yet. Balance in particular has had some fairly mixed feedback at low level, whereas Bear seems to be feeling considerably stronger. But again,

[03:06] We are judging an unfinished class at low level. The big reason to play Druid is still flexibility. If you're sitting there thinking, I might want to heal, but I might also want to tank,

[03:20] and then maybe I want to go out into the world and do damage, Druid gives you that freedom. So if you want one character that can potentially do basically anything, Druid is probably where I would start looking.

[03:35] Next up is Hunter, and Hunter is still probably one of the safest classes. I could recommend to somebody who is either new to WoW, plans to play mostly by themselves, or simply enjoys exploring the world.

[03:50] You still get a pet, you still get ranged weapons, you still get traps, you still get that very strong solo leveling toolkit. and your pet is still a massive power spike once you unlock it

[04:03] but forever is making some really interesting changes around the edges pets now scale better with the hunter traps can be used during combat and survival is being pushed much harder towards an actual melee hunter identity

[04:19] rather than just being this slightly strange talent tree sitting next to beast mastery and marksmanship Now interestingly the people actually testing Hunter at these low levels are saying that it feels very recognisably classic.

[04:35] So I don't go into this expecting level 10 Hunter to suddenly feel like a completely different game. A lot of the more interesting survival stuff is going to become more obvious as people actually get further down the talent tree.

[04:49] But if you want a class that is good ultimately in the world has a companion with you gives you plenty of tools to deal with difficult enemies and is generally forgiving to level Hunter remains a very easy recommendation and humans finally play hunters as well which still feels slightly strange to say after all these years Then we have mage Mage is one of

[05:17] those classes where blizzard doesn't appear to be trying to completely reinvent the wheel and I actually think that's probably a good thing. You're still a ranged caster, you still have polymorph, Trost Nova and you still have enormous amounts of control. You still make food and water, you still

[05:36] get portals and you still have some of the strongest tools in the game for dealing with multiple enemies. The main difference is that the actual specs are being given more to do. Arcane

[05:49] is becoming more of a legitimate play style. Fire has more interaction inside its rotation. Frost has more tools rather than everything eventually boiling down to the same couple of buttons.

[06:02] And, of course, Orcs can now be mages. So if what you want is the traditional fantasy of being an incredibly useful ranged caster who has control, mobility, utility, and very strong damage potential,

[06:17] mage is still mage, just with considerably more attention being paid to making its different specializations actually feel different. I would probably point somebody towards Mage if they specifically want

[06:31] to range spellcasting but aren't particularly interested in pets, healing or hybrid gameplay as it were. You turn up, you throw magic at things, freeze half the room and eventually

[06:44] asks you for a portal. And then we get to Paladin. This is probably the class I would be watching the closest right now because Blizzard has done a lot to Paladin and from the current beta feedback

[06:57] Paladin appears to be getting an enormous amount of attention from players as well. First of all you can now play as undead Paladin which alone is probably enough to create approximately 17

[07:10] million of retribution Paladins on launch day but the actual class changes are more important. Paladins now get Holy Strikes very early, judging something no longer removes your seal, so you don't need to keep constantly reapplying it.

[07:26] Consecration becomes a baseline ability, Protection has an actual taunt system through Seal of Fury. Holy is being given more reason to use different healing spells rather than repeating the same thing endlessly, and Retribution is getting much stronger melee identity.

[07:44] Blizzard has even built seal twisting into the talent design in a way that means you shouldn't need to stare at a swing timer add-on just to play around.

[07:57] What I really like here is that they haven't just decided to give Paladin every tool in the game. Paladin still has weaknesses. You still don't suddenly have every interrupt, slow and ranged tool that other classes get.

[08:13] They appear to be trying to make Paladin properly functional without removing what makes a Paladin a Paladin. And early beta feedback has been extremely positive. People are already talking about the class feeling strong at low levels,

[08:28] having considerably fewer mana problems and generally feeling better to play. Again, that does not mean Paladin is definitely going to be the best class at level 60.

[08:40] Tuning will change, but if you want one character that can tank, heal or play melee DPS and you want to play something that has received a very obvious forever redesign, Paladin is one of the most interesting choices in the game right now.

[08:57] Next is Priest, and Priest is an interesting one because at very low levels it still seems to feel very classic, which means, yes, you're probably still going to get yourself a wand, and you're probably still going to spend quite a lot of time using said wand.

[09:16] However, as you actually get into the talent trees, Priest has received a lot more attention. Discipline is becoming much more of an actual specialisation rather than just being this weird collection of useful talents you dip into.

[09:31] Holy is getting additional healing tools, Shadow is getting considerably better support for actually functioning as a Shadow caster, and some of the old racial Priest nonsense has been cleaned up as well.

[09:46] Things such as Fear Ward are no longer locked to one particular race, which means picking a Priest race shouldn't feel like you've accidentally handicapped yourself because you didn't choose the one race with the ridiculous Priest spell.

[10:02] Gnomes can also become Priests now which means Gnome Shadow Priest is apparently going to be a thing we have to accept So who should actually play priest If your main priority is healing I think Priest is still one of the easiest places to look You still have a massive healing toolkit

[10:21] you have strong group utility and if you want to step away from healing you've still got Shadow available as your damage option. Just be aware that the early leveling experience,

[10:34] at least at the moment, it still appears considerably more classic than revolutionary. Then we have Road. Road is obviously a little bit different for most of the classes we've talked

[10:47] about because all three of your specializations are still about dealing damage. You aren't suddenly going to tank, you aren't going to heal, you are there to sneak around and make somebody else's day considerably worse. The big change with Forever seems to be making those three

[11:04] rogue specialisations actually feel different. Energy now regenerates continuously rather than relying on the old tick system. Assassination is leaning much harder into poisons and burst

[11:17] windows. Combat retains more of that weapon-focused direct fighting style and subtlety leans harder into stealth control and abilities such as rupture. They've also relaxed some of the

[11:31] rigid weapon restrictions that historically push rogue builds into very specific setups. And Skyborn can play rogues as well. Now rogue is one of those classes where the community

[11:43] seems fairly divided right now. Some people look at the current trees and think it appears a little underwhelming. Other people are extremely excited about things like dagger subtlety,

[11:55] which to me means this is absolutely not a class I would make a hard power judgement on yet. Play Rogue if you like Rogue. If you like stealth, if you like PvP, controlling opponents,

[12:09] if you like choosing when a fight starts and ideally ending it before the other person gets much say in the matter, Forever seems to be giving you more ways to actually

[12:21] specialize in how you do that. Next we have Shaman. Shaman could be another really interesting one because alliance players can finally play Shaman through Dwarves and Horde Skyborn can also become Shaman. So the faction barrier is

[12:39] gone. That actual class itself is still built around elemental enhancement and and restorations but each one is receiving considerably more identity. Elemental gets things like lava burst, Enhancement is leaning much harder into the battle mage idea mixing

[12:56] melee combat with spell casting, Restoration gets riptide and more interaction around its healing toolkit and then there are the quality of life changes, Totems are being made easier

[13:09] to manage. Ghost Wolf can be improved considerably. Fire Nova no longer has to behave like the old Fire Nova Totem, things like that. Now, much like several of these classes, the current

[13:21] low level beta doesn't let us see the entire picture yet. A lot of what makes these specs interesting is further down the talent tree, but Shaman is probably the class I'd point

[13:33] towards if you want a hybrid class, if you really enjoy providing group utility but you don't particularly want to play a paladin or druid. You've got ranged damage, you've

[13:45] got melee damage, you've got healing and you've got totems and the class is getting fairly serious overhaul without losing the whole elemental shaman identity which is bringing

[13:58] up the question of a shaman tank. Then we have Warlock. Warlock is probably one of the most unique classes in World of Warcraft. You have demons, curses and damage over time

[14:10] effects. You can turn your own health into mana. You get health stones, soul stones, fear, loads of utility. I forever seem to be leaning harder into making affliction, demonology and destruction feel like genuinely different ways of playing that fantasy. Affliction

[14:28] is much more focused around damage over time effects and drains. Demonology is surprisingly about actually making your demons a much bigger part of your power,

[14:40] and destruction is much more focused on direct fire and shadow damage. There's also a nice change where effects such as agony are being separated from normal curses,

[14:52] so using your damage effects doesn't necessarily stop you from using an actual utility curse as well. Cholls can now be warlocks too. Now interestingly early beta feedback on warlocks hasn't been universally glowing at the moment.

[15:08] Some players have reported that those first few levels can actually feel slower than expected until you start getting proper caster weapons and more of your toolkits But the voidwalker also appears to be doing a better job of actually holding enemies which is obviously rather important if you relying on your demons

[15:28] to keep things away from your face. So if you like playing a caster but you want something darker, more methodical and much more pet focused than mage, warlock remains a strong choice. Just don't

[15:42] necessarily expect the first 10 levels to represent what the finished class is going to feel like. And finally we have Warrior. Warrior is probably the class Blizzard has to be most careful with

[15:55] because Warrior in original Vanilla WoW becomes absolutely ridiculous once you start putting the right gear onto it and yet Warrior is also one of the classes most people strongly associate with

[16:07] classic well so forever isn't throwing the whole thing away you still have rage stances weapons still matter arms fury and protection are all recognizably warrior but blizzard is trying to

[16:22] keep but blizzard is trying to give those specs more distinctive identities while cleaning up some of the awkwardness tactical mastery becomes baseline thunder clap can be used in defensive

[16:34] stance. Your major defensive and offensive cooldowns no longer share all the same ridiculous lockout. Protection is getting more interaction around blocking and shield. Fury is getting

[16:46] more emphasis around the offhand weapon and range. Arms is leaning further into things such as rend, overpower and heavy weapon attacks and Warrior remains the one class that literally

[17:00] every race can play. So if what you want is absolute traditional classic melee experience, if you want weapons and armor to really matter, if you want to tank, and if you enjoy that feeling of

[17:14] starting comparatively modestly and becoming increasingly terrifying as your character gets better equipment, Wario is still probably going to feel like home. We just don't yet know whether

[17:27] forever warrior will once again become the monster that vanilla warrior eventually became. So which class should you actually play? If you want maximum flexibility and you don't know which

[17:40] role you'll eventually settle on, I'd look at druid. If you're new to the game, playing mostly solo or just want a really comfortable class for exploring the world, hunter is an incredibly safe

[17:55] choice. If you want a traditional ranged caster with huge amounts of control and utility, mage. If you want one of the most heavily improved classes we've seen so far, with the ability to tank, heal or deal melee damage, paladin is looking extremely interesting.

[18:12] If your main goal is healing, priest is still probably the most straightforward recommendation. If you want stealth, control, pvp and pure melee damage, rogue. If you want a hybrid built around elemental magic, group utility and totems, shame them. If you want pets,

[18:29] damage over time effects and one of the strangest caster toolkits in WoW, warlock. And if you just want to pick up a massive weapon, put on some armour and hit things until they stop moving then the choice is clear. But genuinely I think the biggest thing to remember with

[18:46] Forever is that Blizzard is deliberately trying to move away from the idea that half of the specs in classic technically exist but nobody actually wants you to play them. The stated goal is to keep classes different, keep their weaknesses, keep that classic identity

[19:03] but actually give more specs a proper reason to exist. And because the beta is still so early I would not choose your forever main purely because somebody has told you that one particular class is currently doing 10% more damage at

[19:18] level 20. That could be completely different by launch. Pick the fantasy you actually like, role you actually want to play, and then pay attention to how Blizzard develops that class over the rest of the beta,

[19:32] because we are going to learn considerably more all about these classes between now and November. Personally, I'm very interested in where Paladin, Druid and Shaman end up, once we've actually got access to the full talent trees.

[19:47] But let me know down below what you're planning to play in WoW Forever because looking at the current community I suspect there are going to be an absolutely ridiculous number of undead paladins running around on launch day.

[19:59] As for me however I think my choice is clear, it's always been druid. Other than that have a lovely rest of your day and I shall see you in the next video which will be soon.

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