Blizzard is changing the racials, the bonuses a character gets from its race, for seven races in World of Warcraft: Forever, a new version of World of Warcraft. Its development notes of 26 October, updated on 27 October, trim some bonuses, raise others and swap two out. If you're picking a race, here is every change in one place.

Every racial change, race by race

The seven, as Blizzard's notes group them, are Humans, Dwarves, Tauren, Orcs, Trolls, the Undead and the Skyborne, each a race you can play. The Skyborne come in two sides, one for each of the game's two factions, the Alliance and the Horde, so the game files list them as two races. In those files, Read Leyline belongs to the Alliance side and Skysight to the Horde side.

A few plain words for that table. Critical strike chance is the chance a hit lands for extra damage. Hit chance is the chance an attack or spell lands at all. Spirit is a stat tied to how fast Health and Mana come back. Haste makes attacks and spells come faster. A cooldown is the wait before you can use an ability again, and a stack is one layer of a bonus that builds up. Health is how much damage a character can take, and Mana is what spells cost. Blood Fury, Berserking and Touch of the Grave are abilities that come with those races. Warlock and Hunter are two of the game's classes, the kind of character you play, and both fight beside a pet.

Read Leyline and Skysight also get a stronger version. Use Read Leyline at a Ley Line, a spot the notes name in the world, and you get "Attuned" for an hour, which takes it back to 100%. Use Skysight at an elemental convergence, another such spot, and you get "Charged" for an hour, which makes it 30%. Blizzard clarified on 27 October that both last through death and go away when you enter a raid, a dungeon (a group's private copy of a place to fight through) built for a large group. Read Leyline can't be used while Innervate, a Druid spell, is active, and Innervate replaces it as the stronger effect.

Why Blizzard says it made these changes

Blizzard's notes say the feedback went two ways. Some players felt some of the new racial traits were too generic. Others raised concerns that some are objectively stronger than others.

Its answer is to put racial identity first. Blizzard says that means some races will be slightly more effective than others at some combat roles. In some places where it had swapped role- or class-focused racials for generic ones, it is rolling those back. Our reading is that Orc Command, back for Warlock and Hunter pets, is one of those.

Blizzard names one exception to that rollback: the weapon specialization racials, like Human Sword Specialization or Orc Axe Specialization. It says it isn't healthy in the long run for loot, the gear that bosses drop, from future raids and dungeons to be judged by "required" weapon types. It's also tuning some of the passive bonuses that remain, the ones that are always on, so they don't steer players away from what they'd rather pick.

Compared: Blizzard's notes and the game's own files

We read racials straight from the game's own files. Build 1.60.1.70707, which we read on 30 October, doesn't carry the changes we can check yet. A build is one version of the game program.

Blood Fury's cooldown, Berserking's length and Touch of the Grave's internal cooldown don't show as numbers in the trait text we read, so we can't compare those three. Berserking's text points to a spell this build doesn't contain, so its length can't be read at all.

Our reading is that the files lag the notes, and a later build will catch up. We read each new build, and this table will change when the files do.

Our take: identity over spreadsheets

Our reading is that this is the right call for a game that's old school at heart. A Tauren who can build up to 60% more speed, and an Orc whose pets hit harder, say something about who those people are. A flat critical strike bonus, like the Orc's Savage that's going away, says much less.

Keeping weapon bonuses out is fair too, if it means nobody is told to make a character of one race just to use a sword. And Blizzard's own word for the gaps is "slightly". So if you're making a character now, pick the race you like the look of.

Our Skyborne guide has both Skyborne sides and every one of their racials. Our rulesets piece helps you pick the kind of world to play in, and the name reservation piece covers names. Blizzard's notes in full are on our patch notes page.