Forever Beta update: racial abilities, core fixes and client 70425

Which update this covers

Blizzard labels this package October 15, but posted its new beta notes on October 16 at 00:15 UTC, or 03:15 in Kyiv. This first part covers core systems and racial abilities. These are official WoW Forever Beta notes; the date of this report does not turn them into a new retail patch.

The general fixes remove excessive fog at low shadow settings, stop Horde characters earning Kirin Tor reputation, restore creature health regeneration out of combat, correct Horde characters holding the Night Watchman's Torch, and repair drink tooltips that misstated total Mana restoration. New players also receive a revised tutorial. Bloom Intensity becomes a slider in Advanced graphics, and an optional Auto Attack/Auto Shot switch now works for Hunters, including gamepad users.

Tauren and Dwarf

Tauren Endurance trades 1% hit chance for 2% increased critical damage and healing. Plainsrunning adds 3% mounted movement speed, stacking with other mounted bonuses. Maintaining it now requires enough distance travelled each second; tiny stop-start steps are insufficient, although movement penalties receive some allowance. Cultivation falls from a 60-minute cooldown to 15 minutes, and War Stomp from 2 minutes to 90 seconds.

Dwarf Mace Specialization becomes Earth Fury, granting 2% increased critical damage and healing. Find Treasure gains a chance to produce extra items from most chests. Weapon choice therefore no longer explains that racial's bonus in these notes.

Skyborne movement and world spawns

Wind Blessed haste rises from 1% to 3%. Skysight and Read Leyline can be cast while moving, and Read Leyline's minimum duration grows from 20 to 30 seconds. Walk on Air falls from a 2-minute cooldown to 90 seconds. Elemental Convergences and Leylines gain more spawn locations across most Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor zones.

Human, Orc and Undead

Human Sword Specialization is replaced by Ruthless, giving 2% critical strike chance. Orc Axe Specialization becomes Savage for 1% critical strike chance. Blood Fury's cooldown grows from 2 to 3 minutes. Shatter Curse changes from immunity to dispelling Curses and Banes; its magic damage reduction drops from 15% to 5%.

The Undead section names Touch of the Grave when describing steadier proc timing and improved visuals, then uses Touch of the Dead for the numerical changes. We retain that distinction rather than silently treating the names as interchangeable. Touch of the Dead has a 30% proc chance for casters and 20% for Paladins, Rogues and Warriors, with a 25-second internal cooldown. It stops scaling with Shadow bonuses on either side and loses the penalty for lower-rank spells; Blizzard explains that this is a racial, not a class spell. Will of the Forsaken is no longer available during Scatter Shot.

Gnome, Night Elf and Troll

Eureka! becomes an 8-second buff without charges, retaining its effects on damage and ability costs and adding Power Word: Shield support. The same source warns that Eureka cannot be used correctly during stealth or invisibility; that is a limitation to watch, not a confirmed fix.

Night Elf Quickness now stacks with other movement speed increases, and shields no longer appear in Wisp Form. Troll Regeneration's health regeneration bonus increases from 10% to 20%.

Maintenance and the later Druid fix

At 01:06 UTC on October 16, Blizzard reported the beta realms back up and told players on older builds to update to 70425 through Battle.net. That is a completion report, not an exact server restart timestamp. At 17:56 UTC, Kaivax separately confirmed a beta hotfix for Druids unable to loot the relics needed for Cat Form.

A useful practice check on TWOW.PARTY

Our free TWOW.PARTY / Forever realm gives you a place to practise movement, cooldown timing and reading racial tooltips. Start with https://twow.party/?lang=en#play and check which version and abilities are actually available. This article does not verify that the listed Blizzard racial changes or hotfixes are installed on our independent realm.