What changes for everyone
A talent milestone at 16 points
Blizzard described a new milestone in every tree at 16 points. Together with the 60 cap that stays, it means the mid-levels get something vanilla's trees never gave them.
Baseline buffs
Divine Spirit, Blessing of Kings and Improved Mark of the Wild are baseline abilities now rather than talent purchases.
One hit, one crit
Hit and critical strike are unified across spells, melee and ranged. Bonus healing also grants a third of its value as spell damage, so healers can level.
Faster trash
Blizzard's stated target is 10 to 15 seconds for a regular enemy solo. Read that as the intended pace of the whole levelling game.
Two and two racials
Every race gets two active and two passive racial abilities; the full lists are further down this page.
Talents from 10, dual spec at 40
Talents open at level 10 and are changed at a class trainer in a major city. Dual Specialization unlocks at 40. Each tree keeps its one-point talents at 11, 21 and 31 points, with the new one at 16.
The Paladin, as shown
Holy Strike at level 6
An instant Holy damage attack built on your weapon's damage, which is a button vanilla paladins spent fifty-nine levels wishing for.
Seals survive Judgement
Judging no longer consumes the seal, and seal-twisting is gone from the baseline kit. It comes back only through Twist of Light, the Retribution 31-point talent; Holy Shock, now the 21-point Holy talent, is the way round it.
Consecration baseline at 20
No longer a talent. With Holy Strike, it makes a levelling paladin an active class rather than an auto-attack with buffs.
Seal of Fury and the one-point talents
Seal of Fury, a tanking seal whose Judgement taunts, is learned at 10. One-point talents: Voice of Truth (11), Divine Favor (16), Holy Shock (21) and Light's Vigil (31) in Holy; Improved Seal of Fury (11), Swift Judgement (16) and Templar's Bulwark (21) in Protection; Sacred Arbiter (16), Repentance (21) and Twist of Light (31) in Retribution.
The other eight classes
Hunter
Aimed Shot for every Hunter at 20; traps work in combat on a 30-second cooldown, Frost and Fire on separate ones. Pets take stats from your gear, and the Fox is a new family. One-point talents: Summon Hawk (Beast Mastery, 16); Lone Wolf, Trueshot Aura and Sniper Shot (Marksmanship, 11, 21 and 31); Counterattack, Strider Kick and Lacerating Strikes (Survival, 16, 21 and 31).
Druid
Nature's Grasp at 10, a Revive out of combat at 12, Omen of Clarity at 20 and Lacerate at 42. Shapeshifted druids can drink potions and open most doors, and Tiger's Fury gives way to Shifting Power. One-point talents: Feral Charge, Primal Bite, Leader of the Pack and Berserk (Feral); Nature's Splendor and Insect Swarm (Balance); Gift of the Earthmother, Swiftmend and Wild Growth (Restoration).
Priest
Fear Ward and Devouring Plague for every race at 20, Divine Spirit at 30 and Shadow Word: Death at 32; several races get new racial spells. Renew stacks from different priests on one target. One-point talents: Soul Warding (16) and Penance (21) in Discipline; Binding Heal (16) and Prayer of Mending (31) in Holy; Vampiric Embrace (16) in Shadow.
Warrior
Tactical Mastery at 14, keeping 10 Rage through a stance change, and Victory Rush at 20. Critical hits give extra Rage, and Rage from hits taken ignores armour and damage absorbs. The four weapon specialisations become Weaponmaster. Sixteen-point talents: Spearing Strike (Arms), Raging Blows (Fury) and Vanguard (Protection), which allows Charge in Defensive Stance.
Mage
Frostfire Bolt at 40, counted as Fire and Frost at once, and Comprehension, a minor tradeskill for reading scrolls. Cone of Cold lasts less, against kiting big packs. One-point talents: Arcane Blast (11) and Arcane Wrath (16), which took Missile Barrage's place in the 15 October build; Ice Lance (11), Ice Block (16) and Cold Snap (21). Ignite is now per mage.
Shaman
Totems on a one-second global cooldown, buff totems lasting five minutes and weapon imbues sixty. Totemic Recall and Call of the Elements at 20, Totemic Projection at 22, further totem sets at 30 and 40. Windfury and Flametongue Totem become buffs for the whole raid. One-point talents: Earthbound (16), Lava Burst (21) and Elemental Mastery (31), back since the 15 October build (Elemental); Shamanistic Focus, Stormstrike (now 16) and Rage of the Farseer (Enhancement); Water Shield, Mana Tide Totem and Riptide (Restoration).
Rogue
Poisons stack with sharpening stones and carry more charges; Sap no longer breaks Stealth; Rogues can use one-handed axes. One-point talents: Cold Blood (16), Mutilate (21) and Venom (31) in Assassination; Flawless Execution (16) in Combat; Premeditation (16) and Thousand Cuts (31) in Subtlety.
Warlock
Curse of Agony and Curse of Doom become Banes, one per Warlock on each target; Curse of Shadows is gone. Firestone and Spellstone are weapon imbues, and pets scale with your stats. One-point talents: Curse of Exhaustion (16) and Wrack (31) in Affliction; Demonic Sacrifice (11), Fel Domination (16), Soul Link (21) and Demonic Pact (31) in Demonology; Conflagrate (16), Bane of Havoc (21) and Incinerate (31) in Destruction. games.gg, writing from the BlizzCon demo, named Drain Hope as the Affliction capstone; Blizzard's deep dive has Wrack.
The racials, two active and two passive
- Human: Will to Survive and Perception; Ruthless and The Human Spirit.
- Dwarf: Stoneform and Find Treasure; Earth Fury and Big Game Hunter.
- Night Elf: Elune's Light and Shadowmeld; Quickness and Wisp Spirit.
- Gnome: Escape Artist and Eureka!; Expansive Mind and Engineering Specialization.
- High Order Skyborne: Walk on Air and Read Ley Line; Wind Blessed and Elemental Insight.
- Orc: Blood Fury and Shatter Curse; Savage and Hardiness.
- Undead: Will of the Forsaken and Cannibalize; Underwater Breathing and Touch of the Grave.
- Tauren: War Stomp and Cultivation; Plainsrunning and Endurance.
- Troll: Berserking and Rapid Regeneration; Beast Slaying and Regeneration.
- Windshaper Skyborne: Walk on Air and Skysight; Wind Blessed and Elemental Insight.
The six new pairs
- Alliance: Dwarf Shaman, Gnome Priest, Human Hunter.
- Horde: Orc Mage, Troll Warlock, Undead Paladin.
- The Skyborne choose their faction at character creation, and the faction decides the classes. Blizzard's Meet the New Skyborne post of 22 September 2026: as Windshaper Skyborne (Horde) they can be Druid, Hunter, Rogue, Shaman or Warrior; as High Order Skyborne (Alliance), Druid, Hunter, Mage, Rogue or Warrior — so not every class, as the Warcraft Wiki had it. Both get druid forms made for the race.
Cross-checked
The shared changes and the Paladin cross-checked on 15 September 2026 against the Guided.news deep-dive summary and Inven Global's report on the class and gear changes. The other eight classes and the racials checked on 8 October 2026 against Blizzard's four Class Deep Dives (Hunter and Druid, Priest and Warrior, Mage and Shaman, Rogue and Warlock) and its Create the Hero You Want to Be post, and against games.gg's every-class overview. Re-checked on 22 October 2026 against Blizzard's Paladin deep dive of 15 October and its beta development notes of 8 and 15 October, Hotspawn's report on the 15 October build, and Icy Veins' race guide and Paladin overview; the weapon racials became Ruthless, Earth Fury and Savage in that build. Fewer than three give some of it: the 15 October talent moves (Arcane Wrath, the Elemental tree) and the raid-wide totems come from Blizzard and Hotspawn; the Paladin's talent placings from Blizzard, with Icy Veins naming the same talents; Twist of Light from Blizzard and Icy Veins. These are beta notes: Blizzard says abilities and talents may still change before launch. Still to confirm in-game.