35 WoW Forever talents that aren't what you remember

Open the talent window in the WoW Forever beta and it looks like home: three trees per class, seven rows and the same icons in the same places. That is true in a strict sense. The talent slots in the Forever client are identical to Classic Era, down to the internal IDs. What changed is the spell sitting in some of those slots.

We built our talent calculator straight from the beta client's own tables, then compared every one of the 432 talents with Classic Era. 35 of them now have a different name, and in almost every case a different effect too. Here is what we found, class by class. The numbers are from the beta and are for rank 1 unless stated otherwise. Blizzard is still tuning, and the beta only goes to level 30, so treat them as a snapshot.

Mage: Arcane gets a real toolkit

Mage has the most changes, six in total, and they all push in the same direction: Arcane as a damage tree, not a utility tree.

• Arcane Geometry replaces Magic Attunement. Instead of boosting Amplify and Dampen Magic, which few people took, it adds range to your Arcane spells.
• Arcane Impact replaces Improved Arcane Explosion. It adds crit chance to all Arcane spells, not just one.
• Improved Channeling replaces Improved Arcane Missiles. It still protects Missiles from pushback, and it now also covers Arcane Blast, a spell Classic Mages never had.
• Arcane Shielding makes Mana Shield more efficient and also strengthens Mage Armor's resistances.
• Wake of Fire keeps the shorter Fire Blast cooldown and adds a reward for kills: your next Fire Blast gets a large crit bonus.
• Incineration replaces Incinerate and now covers Fire Blast, Scorch, Arcane Blast and Ice Lance, another spell new to this era.

Warrior and Rogue: one talent for every weapon

The old weapon specializations are gone. Warriors get Weaponmaster and Rogues get Hack and Slash, and each takes the place of the separate sword, mace and dagger or axe talents. The Rogue version spells it out clearly: swords and axes get extra attacks, daggers and fist weapons get crit, and maces ignore part of the target's armor. So you no longer spend points on one weapon type and then loot a better weapon of another. One of the Warrior tooltips still shows a "0% chance" in the beta data, so expect numbers to move.

Protection Warriors lose One-Handed Weapon Specialization and get Bastion: more damage whenever a shield is equipped. Improved Tactical Mastery sits on top of the base Tactical Mastery and keeps extra rage when you switch stances.

Shaman: Lava Burst is on the way

• Elemental Alacrity replaces Lightning Mastery and speeds up Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning and Lava Burst.
• Elemental Reach adds range to those spells and Fire Nova, and a lot of range to Flame Shock.
• Improved Fire Nova now boosts Fire Nova's damage and cooldown. The tooltip calls it a spell, not a totem.
• Spirit Weapons replaces Parry for Enhancement. It keeps the parry and adds a threat switch: less threat normally, more threat while Rockbiter Weapon is on. That reads like tanking support for Enhancement.
• Natural Grace cuts the threat from all your spells, not just heals.

Warlock: curses become banes

Improved Bane of Agony replaces Improved Curse of Agony, so Curse of Agony appears to be a Bane now. Soul Siphon makes Drain Life, Drain Soul and a new spell called Wrack stronger for each of your other Affliction effects on the target. Apocalypse replaces Pyroclasm's stun: fire crits boost your shadow damage and shadow crits boost your fire damage, a clear hybrid-Warlock design. Agonizing Flames and Fel Vitality round out the list. Fel Vitality now helps your demon's health as well as mana, and your own mana too.

Hunter, Druid, Priest, Paladin

• Hunter: Deadly Aspects gives the Hawk speed boost to Aspect of the Beast too, for melee. Lethal Attacks now affects every attack. Improved Tracking replaces Monster Slaying: you deal more damage to whatever creature type you are tracking. Survival Tactics helps traps and Feign Death land.
• Druid: Shredding Attacks also cheapens Lacerate, a bear ability Classic didn't have. Overgrowth lets you keep more targets rooted, and Feral Swiftness no longer mentions needing to be outdoors. Naturalist is still unfinished in the beta data, with a placeholder value.
• Priest: Twilight Focus protects every spell from pushback, not just heals, which is good news for Shadow.
• Paladin: Improved Seals boosts every Seal and Judgement instead of only Righteousness.

What it means

Three patterns stand out. Talents that affected one spell now tend to affect a whole school or kit. Weapon choice matters less for your spec. And several tooltips name spells that aren't in Classic: Arcane Blast, Ice Lance, Lava Burst, Lacerate and Wrack. We wrote about those in a separate article.

Every one of these talents is marked with a gold corner in the talent calculator, and each class page lists its own. Hover a talent there for its full Forever tooltip.