WoW Forever Racials Guide: 2 Active and 2 Passive per Race, Dwarf and Undead Kits

World of Warcraft: Forever launches on 4 November 2026 at 3:00 PM PST, and every race arrives with a rebuilt racial kit. Blizzard’s rule is simple: 2 active abilities and 2 passive abilities per race. The kits are tuned so each race brings a similar amount of offensive power, plus its own utility and survivability. Blizzard says the goal is to give you a reason to make a new character and see the game through new eyes.

The racials are stronger and more different from each other than they were in Classic. Every other Classic race has its own page with the full kit: Human racials, Night Elf racials, Orc racials, Tauren racials, Troll racials and Gnome racials. If you are choosing a Priest, the Priest racials by race page compares all 6 Priest races.

This page covers the Dwarf and Undead kits in detail, because the Dwarf Shaman and the Undead Paladin are 2 of the 6 new combos.

Stoneform keeps its old job and loses its old weakness. It still grants immunity to Bleeds, Poisons and Diseases for 8 seconds. The armor bonus is gone, and in its place Stoneform reduces the physical damage you take. Blizzard’s example was the Dwarf Priest of Classic: extra armor did nothing for a cloth wearer, and the new version works the same for every class.

Find Treasure no longer fights your other tracking. You can look for treasure and ore nodes at the same time, or treasure and herbs, or treasure and beasts. Blizzard says the conflict with other tracking was the only thing wrong with it.

Mace Specialization shows how weapon skill changed across the game. In Classic it added weapon skill and only mattered for melee. Now, while a Dwarf has any mace equipped, every spell, melee and ranged ability gets 1% more critical strike chance. A Dwarf Shaman or Dwarf Priest with a mace cares about this line for the 1st time.

Big Game Hunter is a new passive that adds 5% damage against Beasts. Blizzard built it so Dwarves get fights where they shine, and a Beast boss is 1 of them.

Will of the Forsaken still frees you from Charm, Fear and Sleep. The immunity that used to follow it is gone, because Blizzard found it a little too strong. The Undead got new tools in return.

Cannibalize now regenerates 35% of both Health and Mana over time from a corpse. Blizzard called that particularly fantastic for Paladins, and the Undead Paladin is 1 of the 6 new combos. Underwater Breathing is unchanged, and with the short Classic breath bar the extra time still counts.

Touch of the Grave is the biggest addition. Every attack and spell has a chance to drain health from the target: extra damage and a heal on you at the same time. Blizzard calls it the damage and survival the Undead never had before, and showed the proc chance as 5% on stage.

Forever adds 6 race and class combos that Classic never had. The Alliance gets Gnome Priest, Human Hunter and Dwarf Shaman. The Horde gets Orc Mage, Troll Warlock and Undead Paladin. Blizzard plans more in later updates. None of the 6 needs a purchase beyond the subscription.

The kit does not change the class. An Undead Paladin plays like a Paladin with a Fear break and mana from Cannibalize. A Dwarf Shaman plays like a Shaman that wants a mace. The Human, Gnome, Orc and Troll kits are reworked to the same 2 and 2 rule.

The Skyborne are the 7th change: a new race for both factions with its own racials, customizations, voices and dances. Both Skyborne kits share the glide Walk on Air and 2 passives. The 2nd active differs: Skysight for the Horde and Read Ley Line for the Alliance. Skyborne start on Zephras Isle and need the Skyborne Heroic Pack. The Skyborne guide has the pack prices and the Zephras Isle start.

Racials matter most at 60, and the calendar is short. The raids open on 9 December 2026, 5 weeks after launch. The 9 new dungeons run from level 13 to 60 with no level scaling, and Blizzard says threat and crowd control matter inside them. A racial that breaks a Fear, clears a Poison or heals you mid-pull is a group tool.

Every raid boss drops a chase item, and a Beast boss is where a Dwarf’s Big Game Hunter pays. Blizzard built the bonuses so different characters get their moment on different encounters. Touch of the Grave works on every encounter, which is why the Undead line reads as the strongest of the 2 published kits.

In PvP the biggest published change is Will of the Forsaken. In Classic, the immunity after the break was what players planned around. In Forever the break is all you get, so an Undead Paladin plans a Fear break without a follow-up immune window. Stoneform’s physical damage reduction is the other PvP-shaped line, and it now works for cloth wearers too.

The realm choice matters as much as the race. On the PvP ruleset, contested territory is dangerous everywhere; on the Normal ruleset, PvP is by mutual consent. Alliance and Horde stay separate on every ruleset, and the Skyborne pick a faction at character creation and live inside that wall.

Whichever race and realm you choose, the racials pay off at 60. 1 to 60 is about 150 hours of play on the quest route.

These 3 calendars hold for every race on both factions, because the race adds no hours to the climb.

Pick the class 1st. A racial is 1 of 4 small edges, and none of them turns a slow class into a fast class. Then pick the faction, because it decides who you can group with. Only then does the race matter.

If you want a racial Blizzard has written down, you have 2 kits. Dwarf for physical damage reduction, mace crit and Beast damage. Undead for the Fear break, mana from Cannibalize and the life drain. Those are also the 2 kits behind the Dwarf Shaman and Undead Paladin combos. The other races get their kits as Blizzard publishes them.

On LFCarry, the Undead Paladin and Dwarf Shaman leveling presets take a character from 1 to 60 on the standard route, with 1 clear of every dungeon on the way. A race or class question before you commit is a coaching hour. The leveling order and the coaching hour cover both.