Blizzard Details World of Warcraft Shadowlands Class Updates

World of Warcraft’s big Shadowlands expansion is due out some time in 2020, and with it will come some sweeping changes for each of the 12 playable classes. Like most of World of Warcraft’s most intensive updates, it can be a lot to keep up with if you haven’t been paying attention to Shadowlands news since the expansion was announced late last year. Blizzard has thankfully given players an easy overview of the most important ways each class will be affected to help players digest the changes so that they’ll know what to expect from the expansion as far as their favorite classes are concerned.

Blizzard said in a post offering insights into its philosophy for approaching Shadowlands classes that it’s heard feedback from players who’ve expressed concern that classes were moving too far away from the core elements that defined each one. The developer hopes to remedy that problem by focusing on class specializations and how they impact the game and players’ decisions.

“In Shadowlands, we want to return to the idea that a specialization is about powering up a specific part of a class’s kit, not narrowing down their toolset,” Blizzard said. “In an expansion that is all about choice, we also want to give players more opportunities to make impactful choices to customize their gameplay and express their own vision of how their characters engage in combat.”

Below you’ll find a breakdown of each of the 12 classes and how they’ll be affected by the Shadowlands update along with Blizzard’s thoughts on the classes and how they’ll play when the update releases.

Shadowlands currently does not have a release date, but it’s planned for a release some time in 2020.

Death Knights

General Changes

• Will be able to use Death and Decay to deal damage to surrounding enemies
• Can neutralize attacks with Anti-Magic Zone
• Can temporarily become undead with Lichborne
• Can use Raise Undead to summon a minion to fight with them
• Can use Sacrificial Pact to sacrifice a minion to gain health and damage enemies

Blood

• New abilities
  • Blood Tap: Consume essence from dead enemies to generate a rune
  • Rune Tap: Can be selected without needing it to be a Talent
  • Relish in Blood: Heals users for each active Bone Shield charge and grants additional effects based on other abilities

Frost

• Can choose between one-handed or two-handed weapons
• Frostwyrm’s Fury to be accessible to all Frost Death Knights without needing to be a Talent
• New Hypothermic Presence Talent temporarily halves Runic Power cost of abilities

Unholy

• Summon Gargoyle is no longer a Talent
• Army of the Damned Talent can summon a Magus of the Dead
  • Death Coil and Epidemic casts will reduce Army of the Dead’s cooldown
• Mastery: Dreadblade increases damage of users and minions

Demon Hunter

General Changes

• All Demon Hunters share Fury as a single resource
• Immolation Aura becomes available to both specializations

Havoc

• New passive, Unending Hatred, expands max Fury capacity
• Dark Slash Talent becomes Essence Break, deals Chaos damage and increases damage of Chaos Strike and Blade Dance

Vengeance

• Demonic becomes a Talent option
• Fel Devastation becomes baseline ability
• New Talent, Bulk Extraction, rips soul fragment from up to five enemies and consumes them
• Ruinous Bulwark talent increases healing of Fel Devastation and converts overheal to shield

Druid

General Changes

• Ferocious Bite, Barkskin, Cyclone, Stampeding Roar, and Ironfur will be usable by all specializations
• Heart of the Wild returns as Talent
• Affinity Talents gain new utilities:
  • Balance receives Typhoon
  • Feral gets Maim
  • Guardian gets Incapacitating Roar
  • Restoration can use Ursol’s Vortex

Balance

• Wrath and Starfire to grant alternating Lunar and Solar Eclipses for longer duration
• Starsurge extends Eclipse to focus power on either Wrath or Starfire
• Starfall extends current Moonfire and Sunfire effects
• Starfall return to previous design from Wrath of the Lich King

Feral

• Bloodtalons Talent reworked to deal more Rip damage after using Shred, Rake, and Ferocious Bite in quick succession

Guardian

• Berserk reduces costs of Mangle, Thrash, Growl, and Frenzied Regeneration and halves cost of Ironfur
• Renewal becomes Talent option to heal based on maximum health

Hunter

General Changes

• Arcane Shot, Eyes of the Beast, Hunter’s Mark, Kill Shot, Scare Beast, and Tranquilizing Shot available to all Hunters
• Stable size significantly increased

Beast Mastery

• New Bloodshed Talent can be taught to companions, damaging enemies and causing them to bleed and take more subsequent damage
• Scent of Blood Talent reworked to activate Bestial Wrath when used, granting two charges of Barbed Shot
• Venomous Bite replaces Spitting Cobra and summons a cobra when Bestial Wrath ends

Marksman

• New Dead Eye Talent stores two charges of Kill Shot and makes Aimed Shot recharge faster
• New Binding Shackles Talent reduces damage from enemies rooted by Binding Shot
• New Volley Talent shoots AOE arrows and grants Trick Shots buff to make Armed Shot and Rapid Fire abilities ricochet to hit more enemies

Survival

• Hydra’s Bite, Butchery, Steel Trap, Tip of the Spear, and Flanking Strike will do more damage
• Chakrams will cost less Focus

Mage

General Changes

• Arcane Explosion, Fireblast, Frostbolt, and Mirror Image become available to all Specializations
• Fire Ward, Frost Ward, and Alter Time return
• New Focus Magic Talent will grant an ally a boost in critical hit chance for spells and grants Arcane Mages the same buff if a spell crits

Arcane

• Clearcasting will gain additional stack
• Mastery: Savant will affect all spells
• New Enlightened Talent empowers abilities when above a mana threshold and increases mana regen when below a threshold

Fire

• Mastery: Ignite will be reworked to make Fireblast the catalyst, can be spread to up to eight enemies by hitting Ignited target
• Blast Wave will do more damage with increased slow duration
• Kindling will offer increased cooldown reduction
• Pyroclasm damage bonus will be increased
• Flurry’s Winter’s Chill debuff will become a much longer debuff that causes next to spells to treat target as frozen, thus increasing critical hit chance

Monk

General Changes

• Expel Harm, Fortifying Brew, Spinning Crane Kick, and Touch of Death will be available to all Monks
• Touch of Death reverted to original design
• Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger; Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox; and Invoke Yu’lon, the Jade Serpent will no longer be Talents, will let specializations summon their Celestials

Brewmaster

• Will be able to choose between one-handed or two-handed weapons
• Shuffle passive will return
• New Celestial Brew ability will absorb damage based on attack power
• Clash ability will return to challenge enemy and root them
• Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox, previously a Talent, will be usable to increase Stagger damage
• New Celestial Flames Talent will be able to increase Breath of Fire’s damage reduction
• Exploding Keg Talent will return to damage and blind enemies

Mistweaver

• Invoke Yu’lon, the Jade Serpent, will be usable to heal allies and kill creatures when combined with Touch of Death
• Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane Talent will be reworked to buff damage and healing effects while making Monks immune to movement-impairing abilities

Windwalker

• Will be able to choose between one-handed and two-handed weapons
• Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger will damage enemies with Tiger Lightening and kill enemies with less health than Monk when used with Touch of Death
• Dance of Chi-Ji passive will grant chance to make Spinning Crane Kick free and deal more damage

Paladin

General Changes

• Blessing of Sacrifice, Hammer of Wrath, Sense Undead, Shield of the Righteous, Turn Evil, and Word of Glory will be available to all Paladins
• Holy Power will return as a resource, is granted by Crusader Strike and Hammer of Wrath
• Will be able to use Concentration Aura and reworked Retribution Aura with Crusader and Devotion Auras available to all Paladins
• New Divine Purpose Talent will grant Paladins chance to make next Holy Power-spending ability free and have increased output
• New Holy Avenger Talent will grant ability to charge burst of Holy Power in short windows
• New Seraphim Talent will allow Paladins to spend Holy Power to buff secondary stats

Holy

• Glimmer of Light trait will move to space in Level 50 Talent row

Protection

• Shining Light passive will make next cast of Word of Glory free whenever Judgment critically strikes

Retribution

• Wake of Ashes will be available to all Retribution Paladins instead of being a Talent
• Empyrean Power will become a Talent instead of an Azerite Trait

Priest

General Changes

• Mind Blast, Mind Soothe, Power Infusion, Shadow Word: Death, and Shadow Word: Pain will be available to all Priests
• Power Infusion will be castable on allies

Discipline

• New Light’s Caress Talent will let Priests heal allies by blessing them with Power Word: Barrier
• Reworked Shadow Covenant Talent will heal chosen hero and four other allies while increasing Priest damage at the cost of temporarily restricting use of Holy spells
• New Mind Blast ability will create burst of damage, Atonement healing, and absorption shield

Holy

• Circle of Healing will become a baseline spell
• New Prayer Circle Talent will empower Circle of Healing by reducing cast time

Shadow

• New Death and Madness Talent will grant Insanity and reset Shadow Word: Death when the ability kills an enemy
• Surrender to Madness ability will return to grant burst of Insanity and cast Void Eruption on target while causing abilities that create Insanity to generate 100% more and allows Priests to cast spells while moving, but it kills the caster if the target isn’t killed during the buff’s effect

Rogue

General Changes

• Shiv ability will poison targets for short time
• Pick Pocket will uncover new ingredients to be used with the Crimson Vial

Assassination

• Shiv will create stronger poisons than other Rogues are capable of, will always affect targets attacked from Stealth
• Ambush will be an attack option from Stealth
• Blindside Talent reworked to give Assassins chance to Ambush when out of stealth
• Shiv will get a Toxic Blade upgrade to decrease cooldown

Outlaw

• Roll the Bones will trade in Combo Point requirement to grant modifiable cooldown
• Restless Blades will reduce cooldown of Roll the Bones through spent Combo points
• Kidney Shot will return
• Between the Eyes will make enemies more susceptible to critical strikes instead of stunning them
• Evasion will return
• Riposte will become an upgraded Talent
• Retractable Hook Talent will increase speed of Grappling Hook

Subtlety

• Find Weakness Talent will be usable by all Subtlety Rogues
• Eviscerate will cause additional Shadow damage when striking from stealth
• Find Weakness will be usable to mark foes to set up Shadow Vault which attacks targets for additional Shadow damage
• Dark Shadow, previously a Talent, will increase all active damage
• Rupture will become a damage-over-time bleed move

Shaman

General Changes

• Chain Heal, Chain Lightning, Healing Stream Totem, Flametongue Weapon, Flame Shock, Frost Shock, and Lightning Shield will be available for all Shaman
• Searing Totem ability returns to attack enemies with fireballs

Elemental

• Maelstrom resource will be removed
• New Echoing Shock Talent will damage enemies and doubles the cast of next spell for free

Enhancement

• Maelstrom resource will be removed
• Maelstrom Weapon will return
• Flametongue Weapon and Windfury Weapon will be able to be applied to weapons
• Hailstorm passive will be redesigned to reset Flame Shock and Frost Shock when a Shaman uses Stormstrike
• Searing Assault will cause significant fire damage and will cause Searing Totem to cast faster
• Overcharge will grant five stacks of Maelstrom Weapon instantly and another stack each second
• Stormkeeper will cause two Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning spells to instantly cast and deal bonus damage
• Elemental Blast will become a Talent option to damage foes from a distance

Restoration

• Earth Shield will be usable by all Restoration Shaman
• New Surge of the Earth Talent will use Earth Shield charges to heal target and nearby allies

Warlock

General Changes

• Curse of Tongues, Curse of Recklessness, Curse of Weakness, and Curse of Doom will be usable by all Warlocks
• New Tongue Tied will empower spells used against targets afflicted by Curse of Tongues to prevent them from gaining healing effects

Affliction

• Unstable Affliction will lose stacking effect for increased duration
• New Malefic Rapture ability will damage all enemies afflicted by periodic spells
• New Sow the Seeds Talent will grant two additional seeds into nearby enemies

Demonology

• Dark Pact will scale with Spell Power
• Dark Fury Talent will gain new effect by empowering Shadowfury

Destruction

• Fire and Brimstone will be upgraded to create two Soul Shard Fragments for each additional enemy struck hit by empowered Incinerate

Warrior

General Changes

• Execute, Hamstring, Ignore Pain, Shield Block, Shield Slam, Slam, Spell Reflection, and Whirlwind will be available to all Warriors
• Challenging Shout and Intervene will return
• Shattering Throw will return and grant bonus damage against foes using absorption shields
• Double Time and War Machine Talents will be usable by all

Arms

• Piercing Howl will be usable by Arms Warriors to daze and slow enemies
• Cleave Talent will be reworked to allow Warriors to use Cleave after hitting three targets with Whirlwind to hit enemies and inflict Mastery: Deep Wounds, a bleeding effect
• Deadly Calm Talent will be reworked to remove Rage cost of next four abilities and increases maximum Rage
• Dreadnaught will gain Seismic Wave Azerite Trait to empower Overpower to deal damage to enemies in a line

Fury

• New Fervor of Battle Talent will Slam enemies and grant additional Rage
• New Onslaught ability will allow Enraged Warriors to cause big damage and grant Rage
• Frothing Berserker will be redesigned to grant Warriors Haste and movement speed when reaching 100 Rage
• Wrecking Ball will return as a Talent to give Whirlwind a chance at dealing massive damage
• Fresh Meat will always grant Enrage when first striking a target with Bloodthirst

Protection

• Best Served Cold ability will increase damage of Revenge
• Menace will empower Intimidating Shout to fear all enemies
• Indomitable will passively increase max health for a time with spent Rage healing Warriors
• Never Surrender will increase Ignore Pain based on missing health