Priest in World of Warcraft: Forever

• Alliance

  • Human
  • Dwarf
  • Night Elf
  • Gnome new one of the six new combinations in Blizzard’s Deep Dive recap. Blizzard — Deep Dive panel recap · Blizzard — race and class chart

• Horde

  • Undead
  • Troll

Every pairing per Blizzard — race and class chart, checked 2026-10-15. Pairings marked new are the ones Forever adds to Classic's. See every race and class combination, or filter all nine classes in the class picker.

• Gnome Priests are one of the six new race and class combinations. Divine Spirit becomes baseline for the class rather than a talent, and bonus healing on gear now also grants a third as much bonus damage.

  Confirmed Blizzard — Deep Dive panel recap

• Every Priest, whatever the race, can learn Fear Ward and Devouring Plague at level 20, Divine Spirit comes baseline at 30, and Shadow Word: Death arrives at 32 as a new baseline ability. Each race’s two Priest racial spells were “fully re-evaluated,” and Gnome Priests get two new ones, Confounding Flash and Contingency Plan.

  Confirmed Blizzard — Class Deep Dives: Priest and Warrior

• Since the October 1 beta build, Devouring Plague can crit, Inner Focus no longer raises crit on periodic effects, and Shadow Weaving always applies.

  Confirmed Blizzard — WoW Forever Beta Development Notes, October 1

• Since the October 8 beta build, the low ranks of Smite (1 to 4), Lesser Heal (1 to 3) and Heal (1 and 2) grow more evenly, so each new rank is an upgrade. Discipline’s Penance does less damage and healing, fixing a bug that treated it as a 3-second channel, has its mana costs adjusted (rank 1 costs 50% more) so that it stays more efficient than the Heal and Greater Heal family, and heals more at ranks 2 and 4.

  Confirmed Blizzard — WoW Forever Beta Development Notes, October 8

• Since the October 15 beta build, Devouring Plague’s cooldown is 24 seconds and Shadow Word: Death’s 18. Shadow loses Improved Fade and Shadow Infinity and gains Dark Inspiration, which raises the party’s Spirit after Mind Blast or a full Mind Flay, and Vampiric Embrace’s cooldown is 30 seconds.

  Confirmed Blizzard — WoW Forever Beta Development Notes, October 15

• Blizzard’s Deep Dive recap names six new race and class combinations: Gnome Priest, Human Hunter, Dwarf Shaman, Orc Mage, Troll Warlock and Undead Paladin, “with more planned for future updates.”

  Confirmed Blizzard — Deep Dive panel recap

• Blizzard’s race and class chart (22 September) lists every pairing Forever offers, one chart per faction: Classic’s pairings, the six new ones, and the Skyborne on both sides, as Windshaper Shaman for the Horde or High Order Mages for the Alliance.

  Confirmed Blizzard — race and class chart

• Talent trees keep Classic’s structure: the same number of rows, milestone talents at 11, 21 and 31 points, and a new 16-point milestone. Some talents are unchanged from patch 1.12, some adjusted, and key class buffs (Divine Spirit, Blessing of Kings, Improved Mark of the Wild) are now baseline. Each race gets two active and two passive racial abilities, reworked to be stronger and more distinct.

  Confirmed Blizzard — Deep Dive panel recap

• Combat keeps Classic’s pace: an ordinary creature takes a solo player “roughly 10–15 seconds to defeat,” crowd control still matters in dungeons, and damage dealers still respect threat. Spell, melee and ranged hit chance are combined into one stat, as are the three crit chances. Paladins are the first class detailed; “more class and race details are planned through future videos and articles.”

  Confirmed Blizzard — Deep Dive panel recap

• Blizzard: class identity “remains central,” with “new abilities, new race and class combinations, and updates designed to preserve the feel of the original game.” The updates “focus on talents and abilities you notice, meaningful trade-offs, and reasons to value what each class brings.”

  Confirmed Blizzard — What’s Next panel recap

• The Battle.net Shop describes “updated class design” and “an expanded list of race and class options, including Dwarf Shaman and Forsaken Paladin.”

  Confirmed Battle.net Shop — product page

• Every class is being revisited from the original game, Blizzard says: the foundation players remember stays, and the updates aim to give more choice, a stronger identity and room to experiment.

  Confirmed Blizzard — Class Deep Dives: Hunter and Druid

• Changing talents, Legacy talents included, takes a visit to a class trainer in a major city, and Dual Specialization opens at level 40.

  Confirmed Blizzard — Class Deep Dives: Hunter and Druid Blizzard — Class Deep Dives: Priest and Warrior Blizzard — Class Deep Dives: Mage and Shaman Blizzard — Class Deep Dives: Rogue and Warlock

• Blizzard intends to review whether party buffs, Shaman totems among them, should remain party-wide, Wowhead reported on 5 October from Blizzard’s latest podcast.

  Confirmed Wowhead — What’s best for WoW: Forever, party buffs or raid buffs?

• Blizzard says it isn’t modernizing Forever’s classes. It errs toward simpler classes with engaging depth: some Classic classes that were too simple have gained a few mechanics, and it wants to keep the original’s pacing and combat speed, Blizzard told TechRadar.

  Confirmed TechRadar — interview with Blizzard: classes, respecs and encounters

• Keeping each class feeling distinct, rather than letting them blur together, matters most, Blizzard’s Clay Stone told Inven Global: every spec should have a reason to exist, even if it is not the best pick for every fight.

  Confirmed Inven Global — interview with Holly Longdale and Clay Stone