5 Specs to Play First in the WoW Forever Beta (Video)

The World of Warcraft: Forever beta opens Thursday, September 17 with a level cap of 30, and Classic+ launches November 4 (how to get into the beta). This video picks the five specs worth rolling first and explains why each looks stronger than its vanilla self. The talent detail comes from the Forever talent trees as they exist right now. Blizzard has published named talent detail for exactly one class so far, Paladin, from the September 13 design panel. Everything else here can move before November 4, and when it does I will correct it here rather than re-cut the video.

1. Protection Paladin

The headline, and the one pick with a Blizzard panel behind it. In vanilla, Protection could hold a pack with Consecration, but it had no taunt and no wall, and Consecration took ten points in Holy. Forever fixes both gaps. Consecration is in the spellbook. And there is a new seal, Seal of Fury, where Judging the seal taunts the target. Blizzard confirmed Seal of Fury by name on the panel.

On top of that sits Templar's Bulwark, a personal cooldown that Blizzard confirmed exists and confirmed triggers Forbearance. In the video I read the tooltip as a shield equal to 100% of maximum health for eight seconds. Those two numbers are off a talent tree, not off a Blizzard post, so hold them loosely. The shape of the spec is not in doubt. A taunt and a wall, on a class that had neither.

This is also the one pick you can fully test at level 30 on day one of the beta.

2. Restoration Shaman

Riptide, modified: a heal plus a heal over 15 seconds that also buffs your next Chain Heal cast directly on that target by 25%. Put it on the tank, Chain Heal off the tank, and you are tank healing and raid healing in one cast. Healing Way, Nature's Swiftness, Mana Tide and Ancestral Healing are all still there, and a Guardian Totems talent strengthens Stoneskin and Windwall. In the video I call Riptide a hero talent. Forever has no hero talents. That is retail vocabulary and it reads as a capstone.

3. Discipline Priest

A Power Word: Shield loop built on Weakened Soul. Soul Warding cuts the cooldown of Power Word: Shield by four seconds. Renewed Hope gives Flash Heal, Binding Heal, Lesser Heal, Heal, Greater Heal and Penance more critical strike chance on targets with Weakened Soul, and each of those heals shortens Weakened Soul, up to 5 seconds at max rank. So you shield the tank and pump direct heals into a target that is almost always shielded. Penance looked very strong in what we saw of the demo build. All of this is tree-read, none of it is Blizzard-confirmed.

4. Survival Hunter

The sleeper. The tree turns Survival into a dual-wield melee spec: Clever Traps for AoE traps dropped in melee range, more trap damage, Predator's Edge for crit damage and 50% off-hand damage, Resourcefulness for cheaper traps and melee abilities, and Lone Wolf from the Marksmanship tree at level 60. It looks like a sword hunter that does real damage. Tree-read.

5. Affliction Warlock

Two systemic changes stack here. Damage-over-time effects can crit in Forever, which they could not in Classic. And Curse of Agony becomes a Bane, Bane of Agony, so it no longer fights Curse of Elements for the single curse slot on a target. Both changes push Affliction up on their own; together they make it a solid pick.

A note on the first change. The video states it as fact. It has no Blizzard post behind it, but the beta files now flag most Warlock damage over time spells to crit.

Corrections

The video said vanilla Protection Paladins could not generate AoE threat and did not have access to Consecration. Both were wrong: AoE threat on packs was a Paladin strength, and Consecration was a Holy talent ten points in. Forever changes Consecration to hit the first four enemies hard and the rest lightly.

The video said Renewed Hope shortens Weakened Soul when you crit. The talent text shortens it on every listed heal cast on that target, no crit needed.

The video said Predator's Edge gives crit. It gives crit damage.

Chapters

0:00 Intro. 0:15 Protection Paladin. 1:48 Restoration Shaman. 2:47 Discipline Priest. 4:20 Survival Hunter. 5:11 Affliction Warlock. 7:16 Wrap.

What is Blizzard-confirmed and what is not

Confirmed by Blizzard: Seal of Fury exists and taunts on Judgement. Templar's Bulwark exists and applies Forbearance. Paladin got the first published talent pass. The beta dates and level cap.

Read off talent trees, not yet Blizzard's word: the Templar's Bulwark numbers, everything about Restoration Shaman, Discipline Priest and Survival Hunter, Bane of Agony, and DoTs critting.

Four of these five will not have their capstone talents live at the beta's level cap of 30. Prot Paladin is the one you can judge on Thursday. Rank the rest yourself on the spec tier list.