WoW Forever class changes in build 70009: Wrath +50%, Holy Strike reworked, shaman totems stop stacking

Build 70009 is the first WoW Forever build with a published change log, and the class section is long. Here is what changed, spec by spec, and what it means at the level 20 cap.

Our build summary covers the respec price, the wand nerf and the Cooldown Manager.

Heal-over-time spells can crit now

One fix runs through several classes: Rejuvenation, Tranquility, Wild Growth, Renew, Riptide, Lacerating Strikes and the Gnome racial Contingency Plan could not land critical hits. Now they can. That is a straight healing buff for every healer, and it matters most for Druids and Shamans, whose kits lean on periodic healing.

Druid

• Wrath base damage increased by about 50%. Balance was the weakest leveling spec in the beta, and this is a large correction.
• Mangle is renamed Primal Bite. Its signature debuff was removed, so the old name no longer fit. Every talent that referenced Mangle now references Primal Bite, and Primal Fury goes back to the original Blood Frenzy name and icon.
• Thorns now updates dynamically with the caster’s spell power, instead of being locked in when cast.
• Feral Charge (Cat) can no longer be cast on allies.

Paladin

The biggest rework of the build, and it started from a known issue that said plainly: ranking up Holy Strike doesn’t feel great per rank.

• Holy Strike now scales 25/29/32/36/39/43/46/50% of weapon damage, instead of pairs of identical ranks. Every new rank is an upgrade.
• Improved Holy Strike is removed from the tree and its cooldown reduction is baseline for Holy, which also drops Holy Strike’s cooldown to 10 seconds. Blizzard’s reason: a talent that cuts the cooldown of a core ability so early in a healing tree felt mandatory.
• Holy Power now adds 15% crit chance to Holy Strike on top of its old effects.
• Retribution: Vengeance only triggers on non-periodic crits and caps at 3 stacks instead of 5, Two-Handed Weapon Specialization drops to 2/4/6%, Sacred Arbiter doubles to 20% Holy Strike damage, and Twist of Light also cuts Seal mana costs by 20%.
• Righteous Fury: Holy threat increase lowered to 60%, down from 90%. Protection tanks lose some threat here.
• Consecration got four separate fixes, including targets being pulled vertically and the damage bonus not applying. That is the bug our community video story covered.

Shaman

The totem change is the one that affects raids:

• Flametongue Totem no longer has a duration, no longer stacks with itself, with Flametongue Weapon, or with Windfury Totem.
• Tranquil Air, Windfury and Grace of Air totems no longer stack together, even when different shamans in the same group drop them. Stacking air totems was a real Classic raid tactic, and it is gone.
• Lightning Bolt ranks 3 and 4 hit harder so they are always upgrades, and Lava Burst ranks 1 and 2 now deal about 10% more than the Lightning Bolt rank you learn around the same level.
• Elemental swaps Elemental Fury (row 3) and Elemental Alacrity (row 6). Blizzard says early crit damage is not exciting for a spec that has little crit chance while leveling, and admits this costs Enhancement some spell crit damage, with more for Enhancement promised later.
• Enhancement: Rage of the Far Seer no longer boosts spell casting speed.

Mage

• Arcane Missiles checks line of sight once at the start of the channel instead of per missile, so a target ducking behind a pillar no longer eats the rest of your channel.
• Wake of Fire lasts 30 seconds (was 20) and Hot Streak 20 seconds (was 15). The reason given is leveling: mages need to drink between fights, and the short buffs expired during the break.
• Ignite no longer double dips on percentage damage modifiers.

Warrior

• Sunder Armor threat values corrected on all ranks, with a small increase from attack power.
• Protection swaps Bastion (row 5) and Focused Rage (row 6), to smooth out leveling before Shield Slam.
• Arms: Bloodthrill’s proc chance doubles to 4/8/12/16/20%, but only from main-hand attacks including Cleave and Heroic Strike. Slam’s cooldown rises to 18 seconds, with Improved Slam cutting it by 1.5 or 3.

Hunter, Priest, Rogue, Warlock

• Hunter: pet Furious Howl attack power cut by 40%, Tame Beast no longer works on beasts above your level, Strider Kick gives 30% speed for 3 seconds, and talenting out of Lone Wolf no longer leaves you with a hidden 4% damage penalty while your pet is out.
• Priest: Power Word: Shield can always overwrite an existing shield if the target does not have Weakened Soul.
• Rogue: Sap now correctly flags you for PvP against a flagged target.
• Warlock: Voidwalker Sacrifice scales correctly with 10% of your spell healing, and Life Tap’s tooltip is honest about what it converts.

Racials

• Gnome: Eureka becomes a flat 10% discount on mana, rage or energy abilities for every class. The old version was stronger for some classes, and this is the nerf players noticed first.
• Tauren: Cultivation now has a player level requirement per herb, equal to the herb’s required skill divided by 5. Herbs above 300 skill can be cultivated at level 60.
• Undead: Touch of the Grave no longer breaks crowd control and only triggers from abilities that actually deal damage. Shadow Word: Pain triggers it on cast but not on its ticks, and Distract or Pickpocket no longer pull rogues and druids out of stealth through it.
• Night Elf: Starshards now benefits from Twilight Focus as intended.
• Human: Will to Survive uses a Dispel Magic visual instead of Will of the Forsaken’s.

What this means at level 20

Balance Druids, Elemental Shamans and Holy Paladins gain the most. Wand-heavy casters and Retribution Paladins lose ground, and Protection Paladins should watch their threat after the Righteous Fury cut. Our class tier list and the level 20 builds in the talent calculator are being checked against this build.