Blizzard has released the third and final Class Highlights video for WoW: Forever, covering Druids, Warlocks and Priests. Posted on the official World of Warcraft YouTube channel on October 6, it goes spec by spec through how the three classes will play differently from Classic.

Part 2 of the series covered Hunters, Mages and Paladins.

Key takeaways

• Druids get the full benefit of gear and potions in form. Weapon enchants, on-hit effects and potions now work in Bear and Cat Form. In Bear Form, your weapon now adds to your melee damage too.
• Affliction gets Wrack, and Destruction gets Incinerate. Wrack is a channeled spell that damages the target and makes it take more damage from your other Shadow spells. Incinerate is a Fire spell that deals extra damage to targets burning from Immolate.
• Demonology no longer trades its pet for a buff. Demonic Pact lets you sacrifice one demon for the Demonic Sacrifice bonus, then summon a different demon right away.
• Every Priest gets Devouring Plague. This damage-over-time spell, which also heals the Priest, was Undead-only in Classic.
• Discipline and Holy get signature spells. Penance heals an ally or damages an enemy. Prayer of Mending heals its target the next time they take damage, then jumps to another party member.

Class Highlights - Part 3: Druid, Warlock, Priest

Druid
Bear Form
Like Warriors and Paladins, Bear Druids are getting more tools for holding aggro, which means building enough threat that enemies keep attacking the tank.

• Your weapon now counts in Bear Form. In Classic, a Bear's weapon, enchants and other combat effects didn't always carry fully into the form. In Forever, your equipped weapon directly adds to your melee damage in Bear Form.
• Enchants and procs work while shapeshifted. Weapon enchants and combat procs (effects with a chance to trigger in combat) now work in form. Blizzard's examples are the Crusader enchant and a Shaman's Windfury Totem.
• Lacerate helps Bears hold aggro. Bears get more ways to build threat over a long fight. One is Lacerate, which stacks a bleed on the target. As the stacks build, your attacks deal more damage, and more damage means more threat.
• Potions work in form. Druids can now use consumables while shapeshifted. A Bear can drink a Rage potion or a Free Action potion mid-fight without leaving Bear Form.

Cat Form

• Shred, Rake and Claw hit harder. Cat Form's core attacks all deal more damage.
• Berserk adds 100% critical strike chance. Berserk, Feral's burst talent, now raises the critical strike chance of attacks that build combo points by 100% in Cat Form.
• Feral Charge works in Cat Form. Feral Charge, which rushes you to an enemy, can now be used in Cat Form. That gives Cats more mobility in fights where they have to move.
• Feral Swiftness works indoors. Feral Swiftness, the talent that raises your movement speed in Cat Form, now works indoors too.
• Cats get the gear and potion changes too. Like Bears, Cats can now use enchants, weightstones and potions without leaving form.

Balance
Balance gets cheaper damage and more ways to hold enemies in place, so it has room to cast.

• Wrath costs far less mana. Wrath is the Druid's basic Nature damage spell. Blizzard says its mana cost is being "massively reduced", which leaves more mana for other spells and longer fights.
• Eclipse is simpler. Balance gets a simplified version of Eclipse. Each Wrath cast builds Eclipse stacks, and the stacks shorten the cast time of your next 2 Starfires. Starfire is Balance's big Arcane spell.
• New talent: Nature's Splendor. Balance Druids can learn it from level 20. It makes Rejuvenation and Regrowth, two heals, last longer. It does the same for Insect Swarm, a damage-over-time spell that also lowers the target's chance to hit.
• Roots work indoors. Entangling Roots and Nature's Grasp, the Druid's spells for rooting enemies in place, can now be used indoors.
• Overgrowth holds up to 3 enemies. With the Overgrowth talent, a Balance Druid can keep up to 3 enemies held in Entangling Roots at once.

Restoration

• Restoration can afford to cast Wrath. The cheaper Wrath helps healers too. Restoration Druids can cast it to add damage without burning the mana they need for healing.
• Wild Growth heals a whole party. Wild Growth is a strong heal over time that covers the target's whole party, meant for emergencies. You can cast it on players in other parties too, as long as they're the same faction as you.

Plan a build in the Druid talent calculator.

Warlock
Blizzard calls the Warlock changes "huge", and they reach all three specs.

Affliction

• Affliction finishes enemies with Drains. The spec loads an enemy with damage-over-time spells, then finishes it with a big Drain. Drains are channeled spells, like Drain Life and Drain Soul, that deal damage while you stand still. Improved Drains replace the Shadow Bolts Affliction used to cast between its other spells. In a fight, you stay mobile while building pressure, then commit to a big channel once you have room.
• Wrack is the new 31-point talent. It sits at the very bottom of the Affliction tree. It's a channeled Drain that deals damage and makes the target take more damage from your other Shadow spells.

Destruction

• Fire and Shadow are meant to work together. Destruction could already cast both Fire and Shadow spells. Forever rebuilds its talent tree so the two work hand in hand.
• Incinerate arrives at the bottom of the tree. Incinerate is a Fire spell that deals extra damage if the target already has Immolate, your Fire damage-over-time spell, on it. Blizzard's pitch: set the target on fire, keep the right damage-over-time spells up, and Incinerate becomes the centerpiece of a new Fire and Shadow rotation.

Demonology

• Demonic Sacrifice no longer forces a pet-or-buff choice. In Classic, Demonic Sacrifice killed your demon and gave you a bonus based on which demon it was. Summoning another demon cancelled that bonus, so you had to pick between a pet and a buff. Forever reworks Demonic Sacrifice and the summoning talent Master Summoner to remove that choice.
• Demonic Pact lets you keep both. Demonic Pact, the talent at the bottom of the Demonology tree, lets you sacrifice one demon and immediately summon another. You keep the Demonic Sacrifice bonus and also get a demon that fights beside you and works with Soul Link. Soul Link is a talent that moves part of the damage you take onto your demon.
• Your demon pairing shapes the build. Different sacrifice-and-companion pairs can strengthen your Fire damage, Shadow damage, mana regeneration or survivability. Blizzard says picking the right pair becomes a major part of building a Demonology Warlock.
• Decimation gives Demonology an execute. An execute is an ability for finishing off low-health enemies. Decimation activates when one of two basic damage spells, Shadow Bolt or Searing Pain, hits an enemy below a certain health threshold. Decimation then removes the Soul Shard cost of Soul Fire, a big Fire spell, and sharply cuts its cast time.

Plan a build in the Warlock talent calculator.

Priest
Discipline

• Discipline becomes a shield healer. Blizzard is building Discipline into a fully viable healer that relies on shields. Its talents focus on preventing damage before it lands.
• Penance heals or hurts. Penance sits halfway down the Discipline tree. It fires a volley of holy light that heals an ally over time. When the group is stable, you can cast it on an enemy instead to deal damage.

Holy

• Prayer of Mending is Holy's signature spell. It heals an ally the next time they take damage, then jumps to another party member. It now favors players in the target's own party. That means you can cast it on someone in another group, and it keeps jumping within that group.

Shadow
Shadow gets a big rework aimed at making it a fully competitive damage spec, with more damage, more pressure on groups of enemies and more mana for long fights.

• Every Priest gets Devouring Plague. Devouring Plague is a damage-over-time spell that also heals the Priest. In Classic, only Undead Priests had it. In Forever, every Priest gets it, whatever their race or faction.
• Vampiric Embrace can trigger Spirit Tap. Vampiric Embrace heals your party for part of the Shadow damage you deal. It now has a chance to trigger Spirit Tap, a talent that boosts mana regeneration, so Shadow Priests get more mana back during fights.
• Devouring Contagion lets Devouring Plague spread. This talent cuts Devouring Plague's mana cost in half and lets it spread to nearby enemies.
• Hybrid builds can reach Meditation. Shadow Priests who put points into Discipline can reach Meditation, a talent that lets part of your mana regeneration continue while casting.

Plan a build in the Priest talent calculator.

Sources

• YouTube: Class Highlights - Part 3: Druid, Warlock, Priest, World of Warcraft channel, October 6, 2026
• YouTube: Class Highlights Part 2 (Hunter, Mage, Paladin), World of Warcraft channel

Source: World of Warcraft YouTube — Class Highlights Part 3.