World of Warcraft: Forever is bringing big changes to the WoW Classic sandbox, but don’t expect to see Shamans or Warlocks tanking, at least at launch.
New roles for classes, like the above-mentioned tanks, as well as Rogue tank and Mage healer, were something Blizzard experimented with in WoW: Classic Season of Discovery. It certainly helped solve the game’s tank shortage problem, with more classes than ever before able to taunt enemies and effectively hold aggro.
In an interview with GameSpot, WoW: Forever senior game designer Josh Greenfield said that while the team learned many lessons with Season of Discovery and carried many of those forward into Forever, more “out there” changes like Warlock tank or Mage healer didn’t make the jump.
“I think in spirit, a lot of the lessons we learned are carried over, but some of the more out-there things that weren’t originally in original WoW, we tone them back a little bit,” Greenfield said. “Because it’s one of those things…It’s in the name: It’s Forever. We can do a lot of things over years, but we wanted to kind of start from a place where the soul of the class is very coded and original-WoW-centric. But there’s still meaningful changes and really exciting kinds of ways to play, the existing ways to play your class and new ways to play your class. But some of [those], like Warlock tank, Shaman tank, not quite yet, but never say never.”
Currently in the WoW: Forever beta, the idea of a tank Shaman is much as it was in original WoW: something that is on the cusp of being viable, but is still held back by things like the lack of a true taunt and better damage mitigation. It wouldn’t take too many changes for Shaman to become become a proper tank once again, though when or if that will actually happen is up in the air.
Some Season of Discovery content that has made its way into Forever. It’s been confirmed that certain pieces of the experimental season, like new class quests, the Undermine Reals endgame currency, and even the hidden cozy-sleeping bag quest chain, have made the jump. However, bigger pieces of Season of Discovery-exclusive content, like the Scarlet Enclave raid and the Kharazan Crypts dungeon, won’t be in Forever at launch.
WoW: Forever is a big swing for Blizzard. We went hands-on with the new version of WoW at BlizzCon 2026, and came away impressed at the exciting new changes coming to the classic vision of Azeroth. We even played WoW: Forever on controller, which could be a major game-changer for the MMORPG.
The WoW: Forever beta is currently ongoing for those who preorder the game’s new Skyborne elf race, with the game’s full release set for November 4.