Blizzard is surveying players on eleven new WoW Forever classes, from Bard to Witch to Tinker

The Skyborne may not be the only new thing in WoW Forever. A survey on the Battle.net launcher has been asking players how they feel about eleven possible new classes, and the list leaked almost immediately.

A survey is market research, not a roadmap. Blizzard has announced none of this, and participants were asked not to share it.

The eleven classes

Monk, Demon Hunter, Tinker, Illusionist, San’layn, Necromancer, Rune Knight, Bard, Warden, Witch and Death Knight.

Each one comes with a short description, its role in a group, the armour it would wear and a few example abilities. That level of detail is what makes this interesting: it is more work than a one-line interest poll.

Examples from the survey:

• Witch: ranged damage and support in cloth, with a cauldron ability that buffs anyone who drinks from it, and Voidbolt, a ranged attack that drains the caster’s own life.
• Tinker: climbs into a personal mech to fight.
• Bard: performs songs that heal and buff allies.
• Demon Hunter and Monk stay close to their modern versions, with the survey naming abilities they would not have in Forever, and noting that Demon Hunters would start at level 1 rather than level 8.

Why this is more than idle curiosity

Forever is built to run for years on a level cap that never rises. Horizontal progression needs new reasons to roll a character, and the Legacy system already exists to reward exactly that. A new class is the strongest version of that reason.

The game has also already shown it will add things Classic never had: a new playable race, new race and class combinations, a Jewelcrafting prototype in the files, and nine new dungeons.

The two worries players raised

1. Price. The Skyborne arrived attached to a $29.99 purchase, and the obvious fear is that classes go the same way. Nothing in the survey says they would be sold.
2. Power creep. Several players pointed out that a modern class dropped into a 2004 power curve could be stronger than everything around it, which is exactly the throwback feel Forever sells.

Both are reasonable, and neither is answered by a survey.

What would actually tell us something

• A class appearing in the client files. Nothing in the current datamine points at any of these eleven.
• The PAX Aus keynote on October 9 to 11, where Blizzard is showing a new dungeon.
• Post-launch patch notes, since launch on November 4 is clearly locked to the nine classes we know.

Until then, this is Blizzard asking a question rather than making a promise. Our class list covers the nine that are actually coming.