WoW Forever Racials Tier List

Racial Abilities in WoW Forever have seen a significant overhaul, with Blizzard aiming to balance Races across the board, complety removing the 'Weapon Skill' racials and turning them into extra crit chance % instead. Many abilities are still more relevant in either PvE or PvP with some proving likely to be effective in all forms of content.

You can find a breakdown of all Racials for both factions in our Racials Guide Here.

WoW Forever is still in Beta, this is based on our experience so far from different playthroughs. This is by no means a final list and we'll continue to tweak as we play!

S TIER

Gnome's Eureka! is shaping up to be the strongest racial in the game so far, providing insane burst damage, especially for the Rogue. When combined with the Maximum Energy increase from Expansive Mind, Gnome is looking like the best race to play in the game so far in the WoW Forever beta, if Rogue PvP is at the top of your list. Rogues aside, this Racial is just proving to be one of the most powerful options for any race so far in the Beta.

Orc's Blood Fury granting both 10% Attack and Spell Power for 15 seconds is one of the most powerful racials in the game so far, and despite losing the boost to AP from it's vanilla version, still makes it a fantastic all rounded option especially in PvE. Thankfully it no longer reduces healing received either, so tanks can use it for threat too!

Troll's Berserking is another fantastic burst cooldown, as 10% Haste is super powerful, even though it's on a 3 minute cooldown compared to Orc's 2 minutes, and the duration is lower. The comparison between the two will depend on class, and the length of any boss encounter for the endgame, but as an all round steroid to press, they are both fantastic.

A TIER

Night Elf now have the new Elune's Light providing 10% extra crit with all spells and attacks makes it a very desirable active to have in any classes kit.

Human's Will to Survive is a 3 minute cooldown that instantly removes all stun effects. This is largely most effective in PvP, but will also have it's uses in open world & PvE scenarios too.

Tauren's War Stomp providing a quick AoE stun is still a solid Racial for all forms of content.

Dwarf's Stoneform now still removes and grants immunity to all Bleed, Poison and Disease effects, but now instead of granting some armour, it reduces all Physical damage taken by 10% for 8 sec. Fantastic for all forms of content, especially for PvP or Tanking as a Dwarf Warrior or Paladin. (Maybe even Shaman...)

Orc's new Shatter Curse instantly removes all Curses and Banes, along with reducing all magical damage taken by 15% for 8 seconds. Fantastic in PvP, especially against Warlocks, and solid in the open world and in certain PvE encounters too.

Gnome's Escape Artist is another amazing racial that adds to their desirability for PvP players. Its on a 2 minute cooldown, instantly escape movement impairing effects and gaining immunity for 3 seconds too.

Expansive Mind is another great addition for the Gnome, increasing maximum resource of all Gnome classes by 5%.

Undead's new Touch of the Grave racial is a very interesting one, but can definitely prove useful in all forms of content for it's extra damage and sustain.

They also have Will of the Forsaken, which although has been nerfed without the immunity granted afterwards, it remains a solid PvP focused racial, with it's uses in PvE too.

Finally in the A Tier, Hardiness now reduces the duration of stuns by 20% rather than having a 25% chance to resist them, making it a reliable and effective racial to play with.

B TIER

Human's Perception is still a fantastic racial for any players focused on PvP. Rogues will remain popular and this is a great button to have to expose them. It is incredibly situational, but too effective to ignore.

Sword Specialization is the best of the weapon spec racials as it grants 2% crit over the other weapons 1% crit racials. Although its only useful for those Races who can wield them, so Human Priest players will not be able to utilize it.

Tauren's Endurance is just a solid option for 5% extra health, and 1% extra hit. Nothing to complain about there.

With the slight rework to Spirit, The Human Spirit is also much more effective, noticable, and desirable now. Especially on mana users.

Alliance Skyborne players can use Read Ley Line which is very effectively whilst leveling out in the open world with its significant boost to health and mana regeneration. It's hard to tell how effective this will be later on into the game in instanced content.

Troll's Regeneration is another solid racial, especially for leveling, and one that Warrior players will definitely appreciate.

Then finally we have Axe Specialization and Mace Specialization, both providing crit whilst wielding these weapons for their respective races.

C TIER

Quickness's impact is fairly minimal. Still, it's nice to have the extra dodge & movement speed, however it's nothing to get too excited about. Survival Hunters & Feral Druids will likely find it the most valuable.

Cannibalize is a simple sustain racial so although it's very useful to minimize downtime whilst leveling or even in PvP, it's just not quite impactful enough to be placed higher. This Racial is simply for quality of life, especially with the Mana regen added in WoW Forever.

Troll's now have Rapid Regeneration which is a nice addition, effectively acting as a Bandage. Will definitely help with uptime whilst leveling inbetween mobs.

Finally there's Wind Blessed. A simple 1% boost to haste, which is a nice little bonus for Skyborne players.

D TIER

First up we have Elemental Insight. Whilst 5% increase in damage could be huge in some raid encounters against Elemental bosses, typically its a little too situational to have it any higher up for now. Let's see what Blizzard have in store for us with the raids.

Next we have Tauren's Plainsrunning. This is a fantastic quality of life addition in the right situations where you need to make a large trek across Azeroth, however it has it's limitations. The stacks take a long time to build and taking hits from mobs takes you back down to 0 very quickly. Additionally, if you need to regularly stop to cast, heal, drink, gather an ore or herb or anything else, it becomes redundant very quickly. It also doesn't stack with things like Aspect of the Cheetah, Ghost Wolf or Travel Form. That being said, it's pretty fun to play with.

Shadowmeld has been changed so now when you use it in combat, it discourages enemies from attacking you. This could actually be much more significant than first though in late game raids or dungeons where you pull threat, acting as a small threat reduction cooldown. For now we're keeping it in the D tier, but it's definitely one to reconsider later on.

Skysight is the Horde Skyborne Racial and its a simple boost to movement speed that you get from tapping into Elemental convergences. This also effects mounted movement speed so is a nice bonus, but for now we don't see it as valuable enough to be higher tier.

Underwater Breathing is a nice quality of life racial for Undead players, but far too situational to be really considered valuable.

Walk on Air is nice for navigating the map with it's slow fall, but we're all so used to playing without it, (aside from Mage players), so it's hard to really think of it as that much of a benefit.

Engineering Specialization could be very valuable in the late game for players with Engineering, but as we haven't been able to test late game gadgets and gizmos yet, we're keeping it here for now.

Cultivation could be fairly profitable at higher levels when coming across valuable herbs in the open world, however with it's 1 hour cooldown and relatively poor value outside of players with Herbalism, it's hard to really justify it's impact just yet.

Wisp Spirit rewards you with some extra movement speed when you die, and no-one really wants to die. Maybe it'll be useful in World PvP, but you'll still have a resurrection timer anyway.

Finally we have Find Treasure, which is just simply not that valuable as Chests are mostly visible anyway. Maybe Dwarf Rogue's will see it's benefit slightly more than others..