World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Hunter and Druid

Taking Aim at the Hunter Class

Hunters can focus their talents through Beast Mastery, Marksmanship, and Survival. In World of Warcraft: Forever, these specializations build around pet-focused play, ranged attacks, and trap and melee options while keeping the class's familiar foundation intact. Here's the current lineup of class abilities and changes.

These updates center on giving the class more flexibility while strengthening its identity as a ranged combatant with a trusted companion at its side. Aimed Shot is now baseline at level 20, traps can be used in combat, and pets gain more definition through Hunter gear scaling, broader ability access, and unique family abilities-including the addition of Foxes as a new pet family. Across Beast Mastery, Marksmanship, and Survival, talent updates support pet-focused play, ranged precision, and trap or melee-oriented build options.

Baseline Abilities

• Aimed Shot is now granted as a baseline ability to all Hunters at level 20.
• Arcane Shot no longer shares a cooldown with Aimed Shot.
• Disengage: Threat reduction effect doubled.
• Multi-Shot now shares a cooldown with Aimed Shot.
• Aspect of the Beast now also grants melee Attack Power.
• Traps are now useable in combat, but their cooldown has increased to 30 seconds.
• Frost-based and Fire-based traps now have separate cooldowns.
• Scorpid Sting now reduces the target's chance to hit by 2% instead of reducing the target's Strength and Agility.

Pets

• Pets now get increased stats based on their Hunter's gear.
• Pets can no longer receive player buffs that increase their stats.
• Foxes added as new pet family with a new ability.
  • Trickster's Dance: Increases a pet's dodge chance and attack speed for 12 seconds.
• Every pet family can now learn either Bite or Claw, sometimes both.
• Every pet family can now learn either Dive or Dash.Each pet family now has one ability completely unique to that family:
  • Bat Sonic Blast: Damage and spellcasting slow on target.
  • Bear Swipe: Damaging attack that hits 3 targets.
  • Bird of Prey (formerly Owl) Mine!: Damage and disarm target.
  • Boar Charge: Charge to and immobilize target and gain Attack Power on next pet attack.
  • Carrion Bird Demoralizing Screech: Damage nearby enemies and reduce their melee Attack Power.
  • Cat Prowl: Stealth and increase damage of next attack from Stealth.
  • Crab Pinch: Damage and slows the target's movement.
  • Crocolisk Dismember: Damage and reduces the target's healing received by 50%.
  • Gorilla Thunderstomp: Damages enemies in an area.
  • Hyena Tendon Rip: Movement slow and Bleed over time on target.
  • Raptor Savage Rend: Bleed over time on target.
  • Scorpid Poison: Stacking damage over time on target.
  • Spider Web: Immobilize target and damage over time.
  • Tallstrider Dust Cloud: Reduces target's armor.
  • Turtle Shell Shield: Reduces damage taken and attack speed for 12 sec.
  • Windserpent Lightning Breath: 20-yard range damaging attack.
  • Wolf Furious Howl: Increase party members' melee Attack Power.

Talents

Beast Mastery

• Deadly Aspects: (Formerly Improved Aspect of the Hawk.) This talent now also has a chance for melee attacks to grant increased attack speed while Aspect of the Beast is active. This supports more melee-oriented builds we will see in Survival.
• Endurance Training: The old talent Thick Hide was merged with this one, so the talent now grants your pet Health and Armor.
• Focused Fire: This new talent increases all damage you and your pet deal while your pet is active.
• Aspect of the Monkey: Now grants twice as much Dodge, and your pet gains half the benefit of your Aspect of the Monkey.
• Pathfinding: moved from row 3 to row 2 in the Talent Tree.
• Unleashed Fury: Benefit to pet damage decreased slightly, but now also benefits new Hawk summons.
• Improved Mend Pet: Now also decreases the Mana cost of Mend Pet.
• Ferocity: Critical strike bonuses to pets decreased, but now also benefits Hawk summons.
• Summon Hawk: (New 16-point gold medal talent.) Deals instant damage and summons a Hawk to attack the Hunter's current target for 18 sec. Hunter's can have up to 2 Hawks active at one time. Cooldown shared with Arcane Shot.
• Intimidation: Now requires Bestial Swiftness as a pre-requisite. Now also grants your pet 100% increased critical strike chance on its next attack.
• Bestial Discipline: Now also grants the Hunter Mana regeneration from Spirit while casting spells (or spending Mana).

Removed talents: Improved Eyes of the Beast is now a baseline ability and Thick Hide has been combined with Endurance Training.

Marksmanship

• Hawk Eye: Moved from row 3 up to row 1.
• Lethal Attacks: Formerly Lethal Shots. Moved from row 2 up to row 1. Now grants increased critical strike chance to all attacks.
• Improved Stings: Formerly Improved Serpent Sting. Moved from row 4 up to row 2. Larger increase to Serpent Sting damage, and now also shortens the cooldown of Viper Sting and increases the duration of Scorpid Sting.
• Efficiency: Moved to row 2 down from row 1. Grants a larger Mana discount that now applies to Stings and melee abilities, as well as Shots.
• Careful Aim: (New talent.) Increases melee and ranged Attack power by 20/40/60/80/100% of the Hunter's Intellect.
• Rapid Killing: (New talent.) Reduces cooldown on Rapid Fire and grants Rapid Killing when you kill an enemy or it dies while afflicted by your Serpent Sting. Rapid Killing increases the damage of your next Shot.
• Improved Arcane Shot: now reduces the cooldown of Arcane Shot by up to an extra 0.5 seconds.
• Lone Wolf: (New 11-point gold medal talent.) Grants the Hunter 20% increased damage with all attacks while the Hunter has no active pet.
• Trueshot Aura: Moved from row 7 up to row 4. Now the 21-point gold medal talent. New lower-level ranks added, but otherwise unchanged.
• Mortal Shots: Now has pre-requisite of Careful Aim.
• Rapid Recuperation: (New talent.) Prerequisite of Rapid Killing. Now grants Mana regeneration from Spirit while casting after hitting a target with Serpent Sting, and even more during Rapid Killing.
• Barrage: Damage bonus reduced, but now also applies to Aimed Shot, as well as Multi-Shot and Volley.
• Sniper Shot: New talent in 31-point gold medal slot. Pre-requisite of Trueshot Aura. Grants a new Shot with a 4 second cast time and 15 second cooldown that deals even more damage than Sniper Shot. Sniper Shot has a base range of 45 yards and increases the range of your next 3 Shots by 10 yards.

Removed talents: Improved Hunter's Mark and Aim Shot are now baseline abilities.

Survival

• Improved Tracking: This new talent combines the Monster Slaying and Humanoid Slaying talents into a new improved talent that causes the Hunter to deal increased damage to any creature type the Hunter is currently tracking.
• Entrapment: (Slight redesign.) Now always triggers when the Hunter's trap triggers, but the duration is increased by more talent points instead of the chance.
• Savage Strikes: (Redesigned.) Now increases all melee damage by 2/4% instead of Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite by 10/20%.
• Survivalist: Moved from row 3 up to row 2.
• Improved Wing Clip: Now only takes 3 talent points to reach maximum 20% chance.
• Surefooted: Moved from row 4 up to row 3. Hit chance now applies to all attacks, and reduces the duration of movement impairing effects, instead of increasing their chance to miss the Hunter.
• Survival Tactics: (Formerly Trap Mastery.) Now also increases the chance for Feign Death to hit, in addition to Traps.
• Predator's Edge: (New talent.) Increases melee critical strike damage bonus, and increases damage done by off-hand while dual-wielding.
• Counterattack: Moved from row 5 up to row 4. Now the 16-point gold medal talent.
• Resourcefulness: (New talent.) Reduces the mana cost of all Traps and melee abilities and grants your critical strikes a chance to allow Mana regeneration from Spirit while casting spells.
• Expose Prey: (New talent.) Melee and ranged attacks on the target of your Hunter's Mark have a chance to activate Mongoose Bite as if you had Dodged an attack.
• Survivalist's Discipline: (New talent.) Reduces the cooldown of Traps and Deterrence.
• Strider Kick: New 21-point gold medal talent. An instant weapon damage attack that also increases your movement speed by 30% for 3 sec.
• Lightning Reflexes: Agility bonus decreased to make room for new talent powers.
• Lacerating Strikes: New 31-point gold medal talent. Mongoose Bite now also causes the target to Bleed over 21 seconds for damage based on the strength of the Mongoose Bite hit.

Removed talents: Wyvern Sting, Killer Instinct, Improved Feign Death have now been combined into a new Resourcefulness talent, Monster Slaying and Humanoid Slaying have been combined into a new Improved Tracking talent.

Despite these changes, Hunters continue to feature unique strengths and weaknesses. Hunters only have one combat role, damage, but can utilize their pet as a tank in solo and small group play. Hunters have strong ranged abilities and the longest range of any class. But Hunters' ranged abilities become unavailable in the "dead zone" within 8 yards of their enemy.

Hunters have increased utility with traps now usable in combat but still can only place traps at their own location. Hunters have an amazing toolkit of problem-solving Aspects and attacks but cannot Stun or Interrupt. And now their talent trees let them double down on aspects of their class like ranged combat and their pets, choose not to have a pet at all, or to add new skills to their arsenal that allow them to dance back and forth between ranged and melee combat.

Shifting Forms with the Druid Class

Druids can shape their path through Balance, Feral Combat, and Restoration, adapting between spellcasting, shapeshifting, and healing as the moment calls for it. In World of Warcraft: Forever, the Druid remains rooted in versatility, with updates that support its many forms while keeping the class's familiar connection to nature intact.

Their updates focus on making shapeshifting feel more fluid and useful across more of the game while strengthening each path through Balance, Feral Combat, and Restoration. Shapeshifted Druids can use more consumables, benefit from weapon effects, interact with more objects, and use racial abilities without leaving form, while key updates such as Nature's Grasp and Omen of Clarity becoming baseline, Lacerate joining the Feral toolkit, and Revive giving Druids an out-of-combat resurrection spell add more flexibility across the class.

Base Class Abilities

• Shapeshifting:
  • All potions and almost all similar consumables are now useable while shapeshifted and do not cancel the Druid's shapeshift. Rage potions and Thistletea are also now usable by Druids.
    • One notable exception is Engineering bombs. Most cannot be used still, but some specific new recipes can be used while shapeshifted. See the SAF-T and EZ-Thro recipes.
  • Weapon enchantments and procs now all work while shapeshifted, including effects like weightstones, Crusader enchant, and Windfury Totem.
  • While Shapeshifted, the Druid's melee auto attack DPS (Damage Per Second) while in Bear Form, Cat Form, or Dire Bear Form is now the same as the DPS of the Druid's equipped weapon. But the speed of attack is changed to 1.0 or 2.5 seconds, depending on the form. Abilities that deal weapon damage likewise use these damage values.
  • Most doors and objects can be opened and interacted with while shapeshifted without cancelling the Druid's shapeshift.
  • Racial abilities: Now usable while shapeshifted. This includes Shadowmeld, War Stomp, and Walk on Air.

Talents

Feral

• Claw: Damage increased significantly to avoid the need for a new talented Combo builder to replace it.
• Cower: Threat reduction effect doubled.
• Demoralizing Roar: Now tuned to be approximately as effective as Demoralizing Shout, and identical to Demoralizing Shout at level 60.
• Enrage: Now generates 10 initial Rage.
• Frenzied Regeneration: Now heals the Druid for 100% of max health over the duration (given sufficient Rage).
• Growl: Cooldown decreased to match Warrior Taunt cooldown.
• Lacerate: This new baseline ability is now added at level 42. It applies a Bleed on the target dealing damage over 15 seconds and stacks up to 5 times. In addition, if the target is already afflicted by Lacerate, this ability deals 10% weapon damage per existing stack. Generates high Threat.
• Rake: Now gains increased damage from Attack Power.
• Shred: Damage increased significantly to need less talent support to be effective.
• Swipe: Now gains increased damage from Attack Power. Still only usable in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form and strikes 3 targets.
• Tiger's Fury: (Removed.) This has been replaced with a new Feral-specific talent called Shifting Power.

Restoration

• Revive: This new out of combat resurrection spell has been added at level 12.
• Regrowth: Ability cost reduced significantly, basing Mana cost more on the upfront heal, and less on the later ticks of periodic healing.

Balance

• Barkskin: Now usable while shapeshifted.
• Entangling Roots: Now castable indoors.
• Hurricane: Cooldown removed.
• Faerie Fire: Now castable while shapeshifted into Bear Form, Cat Form, or Dire Bear Form, costing no resources, but gains a 6 second cooldown.
• Nature's Grasp: Now baseline to the entire class, learned at level 10. Also, now castable while shapeshifted and while indoors.
• Thorns: Now gains increased damage from the caster's spell power, while they are present.
• Wrath: Significantly redesigned to be a much cheaper Mana cost, but damage also lower significantly to match.
• Omen of Clarity: Now baseline to the entire class, learned at level 20. Additionally, the Clearcasting effect is never consumed by Wrath (because Wrath's Mana cost is so low).

Talent Changes

Balance

• Improved Wrath: This talent now also reduces the Mana cost of Wrath.
• Genesis: (New talent in row 1.) Increases all periodic damage and healing done by the Druid's spells and abilities.
• Moonglow: Moved from row 5 up to row 2. Now reduces the Mana cost of all damaging spells but no longer modifies healing spells.
• Improved Moonfire: Now costs only 2 talent points instead of 5 for the same effect.
• Nature's Majesty: (New talent in row 2.) Increases critical strike chance with all spells and melee attacks.
• Nature's Reach: Moved from row 3 up to row 2. And now also grants increased hit chance and applies to all your damaging spells.
• Improved Entangling Roots: Moved from row 2 down to row 3 and redesigned. Instead of preventing interruption, this talent now increases the damage done significantly and reduces the chance for other damage done to break the effect early.
• Nature's Splendor: New 11-point gold medal talent. Requires Nature's Majesty. Increases the duration of Moonfire, Rejuvenation, Regrowth, and Insect Swarm.
• Insect Swarm: New 16-point gold medal talent. Grants a new spell that deals Nature damage over 12 seconds and reduces the target's chance to hit.
• Vengeance: Now applies to all damaging spells.
• Overgrowth: (New talent in row 5.) Allows the Druid to have up to 3 targets affected by Entangling Roots at once.
• Nature's Grace: Slightly redesigned. The effect now lasts 3 seconds and grants spellcasting haste and reduces your global cooldown.
• Eclipse: (New talent in row 5.) Casting Wrath reduces the cast time of your next 2 Starfire casts, stacking up to 4 charges.
• Moonfury: Now applies to all your damaging spells.
• Moonkin Form: The increased party-wide critical strike chance from this talent now applies to all spells and attacks, not just spells. It is also now exclusive with the same effect from Leader of the Pack. Additionally, all non-healing spells can now be cast, instead of just Balance spells. Finally, while Moonkin Form is active, Omen of Clarity has double the chance to be triggered.

Removed talents: Nature's Grasp is now a baseline ability, Natural Weapons has been incorporated into the Naturalist talent in Restoration, Natural Shapeshifter was moved to Restoration, Improved Thorns and Omen of Clarity are now baseline abilities.

Feral

• Ferocity: Now also applies to the new Primal Bite talented ability.

• Heart of the Wild: Moved from row 6 up to row 1. Stat increase to Intellect and Strength reduced, but stat increase to Stamina in Bear Form unchanged.
• Feral Swiftness: Moved from row 3 up to row 2. Movement speed bonus to Cat Form now works indoors and Dodge bonus applies all the time, not just in Cat Form.
• Feral Instinct: No longer increases threat in Bear Form. Instead, increases damage done by Swipe. Stealth bonuses unchanged.
• Brutal Impact: Now also reduces the cooldown on Bash.
• Thick Hide: Redesigned. Now grants increased Armor while in Bear, Cat, Dire Bear, or Moonkin Form, and that increased Armor is based on Defense skill bonuses from buffs and equipped items. That increased Armor can be further multiplied by shapeshift-specific Armor multipliers. This causes Druid tanks to now gain benefit from Defense skill items similar to other tank classes.
• Savage Fury: Moved from row 5 up to row 3. Now also applies to Shred, but the damage increase is lower.
• Feral Charge: This 11-point gold medal talent now also grants a version of this ability usable in Cat Form. In Cat Form the cooldown is 30 seconds and does not interrupt or immobilize the target.
• Sharpened Claws: Now costs 2 talent points instead of 3 for the same effect.
• Shredding Attacks: Formerly Improved Shred. Moved to row 3 up from row 4. Now decreases Shred Energy cost by more and also decreases Rage cost of Lacerate. This move in rows is not yet in beta and is new to next week's build.
• Shifting Power: New 16-point gold medal talent. Prerequisite Shredding Attacks. We are doing something a little different here, where there are two gold medal talents on this row, this one that is Cat-oriented, and Primal Bite that is Bear-oriented. Shifting Power instantly grants the Druid 40 Energy, but at a significant Mana cost. It starts with a 16 second cooldown, that can be further reduced by other talents. This talent is new to next week's build and is not in the beta yet.
• Primal Bite: The other 16-point gold medal talent, but for Bears. Melee attack for 20 Rage in Bear Form or Dire Bear Form that deals 100% weapon damage plus a bonus and generates very high threat. We have opted to go with this ability instead of Mangle. Requires Savage Fury as a prerequisite.
• Blood Frenzy: The effects of the old Primal Fury and Blood Frenzy talent have been combined into this single 2-point talent.
• Improved Shifting Power: This new talent in row 5 requires Shifting Power and reduces the cooldown on Shifting Power down to 8 seconds. New talent not yet in beta.
• Leader of the Pack: This 21-point gold medal talent was changed similarly to Moonkin Form. The critical strike chance bonus from this talent now applies to all spells and attacks and is exclusive with Moonkin Form.
• Predatory Strikes: New talent in the row 5 that increases your critical strike damage bonus by up to 20%.
• Natural Reaction: New Bear-oriented talent in row 6 that increases Dodge chance and grants a chance to gain 5 Rage every time you Dodge.
• Rend and Tear: New talent in the row 6 that increases damage your melee abilities deal to Bleeding targets.
• Berserk: New talent 31-point gold medal talent inspired by its iteration in the original Wrath of the Lich King. This 15 second duration 3-minute cooldown ability is usable in Bear Form, Cat Form, or Dire Bear Form. It clears and grants immunity to Fear, removes the cooldown on Primal Bite and makes it strike up to 3 nearby targets, and increases the critical strike chance of all Cat Form Combo abilities by 100%.

Removed talents: Feral Aggression (Demoralizing Roar improvement now baseline), Primal Fury has been combined with Blood Frenzy, and Feral Faerie Fire is now a baseline ability.

Restoration

• Nature's Focus: Moved from row 2 up to row 1. Now applies to interruption while casting all Arcane and Nature spells.
• Furor: Cat Form portion of this redesigned. Conceptually, at 5 talent points it allows the Druid to regenerate Energy while not in Cat Form as if they were in Cat Form. But if they go to Bear Form, all that Energy is lost, to prevent "bear-weaving" gameplay we have seen in versions of Classic World of Warcraft. We realize this removed the "power shifting" gameplay some players prize, so we have re-added that gameplay in a much more approachable way with the Shifting Power talent in the Feral talent tree.
• Naturalist: Formerly Improved Healing Touch. Now also increases all damage done by a percentage.
• Subtlety: Moved from row 3 up to row 2. Now also reduces all threat from Arcane and Nature spells, not just healing spells. Talent point cost reduced from 5 points to 3 points and for a maximum of 30% threat reduction.
• Natural Shapeshifter: Moved from Balance tree to the row 2 of the Restoration tree.
• Reflection: Mana regeneration while casting increased substantially.
• Gift of Nature: Moved from row 5 up to row 3.
• Gift of the Earthmother: (New 11-point gold medal talent.) Reduces the global cooldown on Rejuvenation, Swiftmend, and Wild Growth by 0.5 sec.
• Swiftmend: Moved from row 7 up to row 4 as the 16-point gold medal talent. Redesigned to not consume the Rejuvenation or Regrowth effect on the target.
• Living Spirit: (New row 5 talent.) Increases Spirit by a percentage.
• Improved Tranquility: Now also reduces the cooldown on Tranquility by up to 60%.
• Improved Regrowth: Now requires Improved Rejuvenation as a pre-requisite.
• Wild Growth: New 31-point gold medal talent. Inspired by this ability from the original Wrath of the Lich King, it works slightly differently. It targets any party or raid member and then places a heal-over-time (HoT) effect on all members of that player's party, including pets. The heal-over-time effect starts strong, and heals every 1 second for 7 seconds, decreasing the healing amount every second. It has a 6 second cooldown and a high Mana cost.

Removed talents: Improved Mark of the Wild and Improved Enrage are now a baseline abilities and Insect Swarm has been moved to the Balance tree.

Druid continues to be an extremely versatile class, with the ability to serve any combat role, given the right equipment and talents. But that versatility comes at the cost of non-damage utility. Druids cannot snare targets, cannot Silence or Interrupt, and have weaker and less reliable crowd control abilities. While they can be powerful healers, their toolkit is more limited than Priests and relies on healing-over-time (HoT) spells that require more planning. They are fully capable tanks and damage dealers, but lack the extended utility toolkits found on Rogues, Warriors, or Mages. Druids can perform any role but will need to rely on others to provide the complete toolkit needed for raids and dungeons.