WoW Forever Skyborne Race Guide: Classes by Faction, Zephras Isle and the Heroic Pack

The Skyborne are high elves who call themselves the shen’dorei, the hidden people. Their story starts in Eldre’Thalas right after the War of the Ancients, when a group of rebels rose against Prince Tortheldrin and lost. They fled west across the sea, struck a bargain with a group of wind spirits, and had an entire island lifted into Skywall, the elemental realm of air. They lived there in hiding for thousands of years.

They are 1 race for both factions. At character creation you choose whether your Skyborne joins the Horde or the Alliance, and the choice is final for that character. Horde Skyborne keep the ties to the elements and work with the Earthen Ring. Alliance Skyborne pursue the arcane legacy of their ancestors and work with the Kirin Tor.

Blizzard says the Skyborne are the kind of story Forever exists to tell: something new that still belongs in Azeroth. They arrive with new racials, customizations, voices and dances.

Zephras Isle is the Skyborne starting experience, levels 1 to 12. It mixes classic Warcraft shapes with elemental architecture inspired by Skywall. Every Skyborne starts there, and it comes with the race in the Heroic Pack.

The island is in crisis. The wind spirits that protected it for thousands of years have vanished, and the pylons that anchor Zephras in Skywall are failing, so parts of the island fall into ruin. 3 factions compete for control. The Windshapers are the shamanistic spiritual leaders, and they side with the Horde. The High Order are the pragmatic descendants of the highborne magisters, and they side with the Alliance. The Al’Aketh are a cult of Al’Akir, the wind lord, and the threat you fight.

Blizzard designed Zephras as a self-contained start. You will not go back there every week to raid or to farm materials. At level 12 you leave for the mainland and join the shared world, and from there a Skyborne levels like any other character.

Class	Windshaper (Horde)	High Order (Alliance)
Warrior	Yes	Yes
Hunter	Yes	Yes
Rogue	Yes	Yes
Druid	Yes, new Skyborne forms	Yes, new Skyborne forms
Shaman	Yes, Windshapers only	No
Mage	No	Yes, High Order only

The split follows the lore. Only Windshaper Skyborne may be Shaman, which Blizzard ties to their bond with the elements and the departed wind spirits. Only High Order Skyborne may be Mage, because they descend from the highborne magisters who joined the rebellion. Warrior, Hunter, Rogue and Druid are open to both.

Skyborne Druids get new forms created for the race. Blizzard has confirmed them and has not published the form list yet. Paladin, Priest and Warlock are not Skyborne classes.

The class kits themselves are not Skyborne-specific. Every class in Forever is reworked, and the Paladin is the 1 kit Blizzard has published in detail. Our class tier list ranks the 9 classes for launch.

Forever itself comes with a normal World of Warcraft subscription or game time. The Skyborne race and the Zephras Isle questline are the paid part, and the Heroic Pack is the cheapest way to unlock them. The pack applies to the 1 WoW account you buy it for.

The Cerulean Prideclaw is a ground mount, and the riding skill is still bought in-game. Forever moves the mount cost into riding training, and Blizzard has not published the gold cost or the level yet. There is no flying in Forever.

Early Name Reservation runs from 27 October to 3 November on any pack: create and customize up to 3 characters, 1st come 1st served. Every Skyborne name has 2 parts, and the full name must be unique in your region. Every pack also includes Invite-A-Friend launch codes that let a friend play from 4 to 11 November without a subscription. The Skyborne housing decor in the packs is for modern WoW. We do not sell the packs.

Every Skyborne gets 2 active and 2 passive racials.

Windshaper (Horde): Walk on Air lets you glide downward for 10 seconds. Skysight grants an Elemental Blessing that raises run speed by 10%. Wind Blessed (passive) adds 1% melee, ranged and spell haste. Elemental Insight (passive) adds 5% damage to Elementals.

High Order (Alliance): Walk on Air is the same glide. Read Ley Line activates a ley line for 100% increased Health and Mana regeneration. Wind Blessed and Elemental Insight match the Horde passives.

Customizations, voices and dances are confirmed for the race. The Skyborne have their own look after 10,000 years in Skywall. Blizzard describes them as lighter and more agile than their ancestors, with hair, eye and skin colors shaped by the elemental plane.

The racials of every other race are in the racials guide.

Zephras covers 12 levels. The other 48 happen in the shared world, on the same route as every other character. That route has 1,000 new quests across the 1 to 60 journey and 9 new dungeons from level 13 to 60. 1 to 60 is about 150 hours of play, and the raids open on 9 December 2026, 5 weeks after launch.

Getting around at 12 is easier than it was in Classic. Forever adds 3 ship routes: Stormwind Harbor to Auberdine, Menethil to Southshore and Auberdine, and Tanaris to Powderfuse Port in the Riverglades. Dungeon spam does not pay: dungeon mob XP is reduced and 1st-run dungeon quest XP is raised, so the route is 1 clear of each dungeon and back to the quests.

A Skyborne Shaman levels like a Shaman and a Skyborne Mage like a Mage, and the leveling speed guide has the route bracket by bracket. On a LFCarry order the Skyborne start is booked only for an account that already owns the Heroic Pack or higher.

A Skyborne leaves Zephras at 12 with about 140 of those 150 hours still to play.

If you want to play the Zephras story yourself, a booster can take the character over at level 12.

If what you want is a new identity on a clean 1 to 60, the subscription already has 6 race and class combos that Classic never had. They are Gnome Priest, Human Hunter and Dwarf Shaman for the Alliance, and Orc Mage, Troll Warlock and Undead Paladin for the Horde. Blizzard plans more. The Dwarf Shaman and Undead Paladin were the 1st combos whose racial kits Blizzard detailed.

If what you want is Zephras, the Skyborne Druid forms, a Shaman or Mage on this race, or a shen’dorei name reserved on 27 October, the free combos are not a substitute. The pack buys those 4 things and nothing that changes your power at 60.

Either way, the leveling after character creation is the same job. The class leveling presets cover a Dwarf Shaman or an Undead Paladin from 1 to 60, and a coaching hour settles the faction and class question before you roll.