WoW Forever Beta Patch Notes: 15 October Build Summary
Blizzard took the WoW Forever beta down on 15 October for a new build with “quite a few changes and fixes”. This is a summary of the development notes. It covers the main items, not every line. All of it is beta and may change before launch on 4 November 2026.
Headline changes
- Re-specs cost 1 silver if you haven’t recently changed talents. This is beta only. After your first reset the next one costs much more, dropping back to 1 silver after an hour.
- Cooldown Manager can be tested on Druid, Mage, Priest, Warrior and Warlock. It is off by default: enable it under Gameplay Enhancement in Options. It doesn’t support spell ranks yet.
- Gamepad: class flyouts (Druid shapeshift, Hunter and Warlock pet, Paladin aura, Warrior stance) and new options such as a compact action bar and fixed party targeting.
- Campfire buff can now be gained while sitting, sleeping, lying down or kneeling, and you can buff, cast and craft while waiting for it.
Class changes
| Class | Change (per Blizzard’s notes) |
|---|---|
| Druid | Rejuvenation, Tranquility and Wild Growth can crit. Wrath base damage up about 50%. Thorns scales with spell power. Mangle is renamed Primal Bite (its debuff is removed). |
| Hunter | Furious Howl Attack Power bonus down 40%. Tame Beast no longer works on Beasts above your level. Strider Kick now gives 30% movement speed for 3 seconds. |
| Mage | Wake of Fire lasts 30 seconds (was 20). Hot Streak lasts 20 seconds (was 15). Ignite no longer double-dips on percentage damage modifiers. |
| Paladin | Holy Strike’s weapon damage per rank is now 25% to 50% (was 25% to 40%) and its cooldown is 10 seconds (was 12). Improved Holy Strike is removed from the tree and made baseline. Righteous Fury Holy threat is 60% (was 90%). Consecration bugs fixed. |
| Retribution Paladin | Vengeance now needs non-periodic crits and stacks to 3 (was 5). Two-Handed Weapon Specialization is 2/4/6% (was 3/6/9%). Sacred Arbiter boosts Holy Strike by 20% (was 10%). |
| Priest | Renew can crit. Power Word: Shield can always overwrite an existing shield on a target without Weakened Soul. |
| Rogue | Sap correctly flags the Rogue for PvP when used on a PvP-flagged target. |
| Shaman | Lightning Bolt ranks 3 and 4 buffed so they always beat earlier ranks. Flametongue Totem no longer stacks with Flametongue Weapon or Windfury Totem. Riptide can crit. Lava Burst ranks 1 and 2 deal about 10% more base damage than the matching Lightning Bolt. |
| Warrior | Sunder Armor threat corrected. Arms: Bloodthrill chance doubled to 4% to 20% and only procs from main-hand melee. Slam cooldown is 18 seconds (was 15). |
| Warlock | Life Tap tooltip fixed. Voidwalker Sacrifice scales with 10% of spell healing. |
Blizzard’s developer notes give reasons for several talent moves. Elemental’s Elemental Fury and Elemental Alacrity swapped places so the spec gets an important talent earlier while levelling. Protection Warrior’s Bastion and Focused Rage swapped so Focused Rage arrives sooner. See WoW Forever class changes for the running list.
Races
- Gnome: Eureka is now a 10% discount on Mana, Rage or Energy abilities for every class.
- Tauren: Cultivation now has a player-level requirement per herb (the herb’s required level divided by 5, up to level 60 for herbs above 300 skill).
- Undead: Touch of the Grave no longer breaks crowd control or fires from spells with no damage component. Blizzard’s example: Shadow Word: Pain triggers it on cast but not on periodic damage, and Polymorph no longer can.
Items and quests
- Wizard Oil values reverted to Classic Era: Minor 8, Lesser 16 and Wizard Oil 24 spell power. Brilliant Wizard Oil is unchanged.
- Wands no longer gain damage from the user’s spell damage.
- Several dungeon quests were shareable, which gave the receiver a quest item. That is fixed.
- Many respawn and quest fixes in Dun Morogh, Durotar, Elwynn Forest, Mulgore, Silverpine Forest, Teldrassil, Westfall, Undercity and Zephras Isle. Khonsu’s arrival in Silthus has been removed from the beta phase.
Known issues
Blizzard lists these as new for the build: some Cooldown Manager tracking gaps (curses and banes, Healthstone, Arcane Blast, pet cooldowns, weapon enhancements), a display problem with the Stormwind minimap, and combo points missing from the Personal Resource Display. Creating or changing a party may also move players to a different world instance.
For the previous build, see our 8 October patch notes summary. A public Stress Test follows on 19 October.
Sources: WoW Forever Beta Development Notes, updated October 15 and Beta Realm Maintenance, October 15 (Blizzard forums).
