More damage, tougher creatures, removed talents: what Blizzard's launch-eve Forever notes actually change

Forever launches on 4 November, and at 03:20 UTC on 3 November Kaivax posted the development notes covering "the updates and changes that have been developed over those last 2.5 weeks", since the beta's last full update on 15 October. It is a long post that touches all nine classes. We read all of it. We haven't checked any of it in the game, and the notes don't say how the classes will rank against each other. The argument over the datamined list came before this; here we look at what Blizzard's own notes say.

Bigger hits, tougher creatures

The broadest change is the one Blizzard explains first. It wrote that holding each class roughly to "Classic power budgets" meant "every new element we added needed to come at the expense of something else". So it "raised damage on classes across the game" and increased the health of higher level creatures to compensate.

That means a bigger number on a tooltip isn't automatically a faster kill. The notes don't say how much creature health rose, or from which level.

Blizzard also says what to expect next: "With the exception of bugs and serious outliers, we don't plan on making big tuning changes between now and the opening of the raids next month." Once it has sufficient data from players levelling past 30 and engaging in a wide range of content, it expects "a large tuning pass". It calls all of this "merely a starting point", and says its aim is "not perfect numerical equality". So these numbers tell you how a class starts, not how it will end up.

Salvation goes, tank threat goes up

Paladins lose Salvation and Mass Salvation, along with Revoke and Blessing of Light. Threat bonuses went up sharply on the tanking stances: Bear Form and Dire Bear Form from 50% to 115%, Defensive Stance from 30% to 80%. Righteous Fury now gives 33% to all threat plus another 90% from Holy damage, and it trains at level 10 instead of 16. Blizzard ties the Bear increase directly to losing Blessing of Salvation, and says level 10 matches when other tanks get their stance. It gives no reason for the Defensive Stance or Righteous Fury threat figures, and no old value for Righteous Fury.

Class by class

This is a selection, not the full list. The Paladin and Rogue sections are the longest, and many talents across the classes changed rows, points or both, so any build you planned before 3 November needs checking against the new trees.

Druid. Shred goes from 155% to 200% weapon damage and Ravage from 350% to 435%, and Rip, Rake, Ferocious Bite and Pounce gain about 25%. Starfire's base damage rises by about 40%. Feral loses Berserk, and Lacerate becomes a Feral talent instead of something every Druid learns. Wild Growth "now has a base casting time of 3 seconds", which Naturalist can cut by up to 0.5 seconds, and Bloom replaces Gift of the Earthmother.

Hunter. Aimed Shot's bonus damage rises by about 110%, and Arcane Shot and Serpent Sting both hit harder and scale better with Attack Power. All traps now share one 30-second cooldown, where Fire and Frost traps used to have separate ones.

Mage. Frost Blast and Piercing Ice are removed. Ice Barrier now adds 15% Frost damage for a minute when activated, plus 5% while the barrier holds, which Blizzard says gives Mages "a reason to go all the way down the tree for PvE". Arcane Blast's mana cost increase per stack falls from 175% to 100%, but its Intellect as Spell Damage per stack also falls, from 15% to 12%. Critical Mass drops to 3 points and 6%, from 5 points and 10%.

Paladin. Beyond the threat changes, there are new talents in all three trees, including Oath of Light in Holy, Shieldsworn in Protection and Unsealed Wrath as Retribution's new 31st talent. Unsealed Wrath stores copies of your active Seal, which a different Seal then consumes for extra chances to activate.

Priest. Shadow Word: Death now costs the Priest 30% of maximum Health if it fails to kill, up from 10%, but no longer hurts when it misses. Holy Binding replaces Binding Heal: when Flash Heal lands on someone else, you also receive 50% of that healing, with no threat.

Rogue. Every Rogue learns Shank at level 24, a 5-Energy off-hand strike on a 10-second cooldown that can't miss and generates 15 Energy, or 25 at rank 2. Poised arrives at 18: when you're out of combat at full Energy, your next Energy ability costs 10 less. Murder, Quietus, Cutthroat and Thousand Cuts are out, and Death Mark is a new Subtlety talent on row 7. Deadly Poison and Instant Poison both have their Attack Power coefficients doubled.

Shaman. Lava Burst, which the 16 October notes had rebuilt Elemental around, is removed. Call of Thunder takes its place, adding 5% critical strike chance to Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning, and Elemental Mastery becomes Lightning Mastery. The top rank of Lightning Bolt gains 80% base damage. Lightning Overload rises to 10/20/30% from 3/7/10%. Stormstrike goes to 150% normalized weapon damage on a 6-second cooldown. Riptide loses its initial heal, with its cooldown doubled to 12 seconds and its mana cost down by about 40%.

Warlock. Pets now gain 2 Health per point of the master's Stamina instead of 7.5. Wrack's base damage per second at level 60 effectively goes from 36 to 86, with its spell coefficient doubled, though Improved Drains no longer increases Wrack damage. Drain Soul's chance to grant a Soul Shard when it deals damage without killing is "reduced significantly".

Warrior. Slam's cooldown drops to 15 seconds from 18. Flurry becomes a 3-point talent giving 10/20/30% attack speed for three swings after a critical strike. Fury gains Reckless Swings, which costs 25% of base Health and adds 5 Rage to your next four melee attacks, and Improved Whirlwind.

What you'll notice in the first hour

Two small changes affect everyone. Learning a new spell no longer adds it to your action bars automatically, so you will need to place each one yourself. And bags no longer equip themselves into empty slots.

Trainers now charge between 206 and 207 gold in total for class abilities from 1 to 60, on every class. Most abilities learned at the same level cost the same, with Priest race-specific abilities the exception. Warlock costs are lowered by the expected cost of buying Grimoires for their pets. The line covers class abilities only, so don't read it as a budget for your mount or professions.

Respawn rates changed too, and the fast ones won't last. Rates are generally faster in lower-level zones, fastest in starting zones, and slow down as you level. Blizzard says it will adjust the lower-level zones down to "more typical rates" once the launch surge settles, and that "some contention for spawns is expected and part of the experience". The notes give no actual respawn times.

Controller players

Blizzard now says gamepad support "has entered a complete functional state", with "all major gameplay and core user interface experiences" playable on a controller. That follows the work we tracked through the beta. New additions include placing AoE items bound to the gamepad action bar, selecting a Focus Target, the Pet Move command, skipping cinematics, ruleset selection screens and ending a flight path early, which drops you at the next available flight point.

What isn't new

The Races section is mostly a repeat. Kaivax says the "previously-posted updates" are included "for completeness", and nearly all of it matches what Blizzard posted on 26 and 27 October. Comparing the posts, three Undead lines weren't in those two: Cannibalize can once again be used while immune to Physical damage, and two Touch of the Grave fixes.

One race change filed under bug fixes is also new. All races now get their correct base stats, so Tauren Warriors start with +5 Strength relative to Human Warriors rather than the incorrect +2. The same fix covers High Order and Windshaper Skyborne.

And some satyrs were classified as humanoids instead of demons. "They are now 100% more scared of Paladins," the notes say.