Orcs get Command back, Dwarves get 1% hit

Blizzard changes the racials of World of Warcraft: Forever once more before launch. Dwarves trade Earth Fury for 1% hit, and Orcs lose Savage but get Command back. Humans, Tauren and the Skyborne get new values too.

The changes are in the development notes of the beta of 26 October. Blizzard heard two kinds of feedback: some new racials felt too generic, others were clearly stronger than the rest. In this final pass Blizzard puts racial identity first, and accepts that some races are slightly better at certain roles.

Where generic racials had replaced racials for a role or class, Blizzard rolls them back. The weapon specializations are the exception and stay gone:

One exception to this is the weapon specialization racials, like humans’ Sword Specialization or orcs’ Axe Specialization. While those have a strong fantasy component to them, it is not healthy in the long run for future raid and dungeon loot tables to be evaluated through the lens of “required” weapon types.

Changes per race

Race	Change
Human	Ruthless gives 1% critical strike chance (was 2%). The Human Spirit gives 10% Spirit (was 5%).
Dwarf	Earth Fury (2% critical damage and healing) is removed. New: Artisan’s Precision, 1% hit with spells and attacks.
Orc	Savage (1% critical strike chance) is removed. Command returns: Warlock and Hunter pets deal 5% more damage.
Tauren	Endurance only gives 5% Health, without hit or critical damage.

Plainsrunning for Tauren now gives 2% movement speed per stack (was 1%), up to 60% (was 30%). It no longer raises mounted speed.

Skyborne

Wind Blessed gives 2% haste (was 3%). Read Leyline raises Health and Mana regeneration by 50% (was 100%) for 15 seconds. It cannot be used while Innervate is active; Innervate replaces it as the stronger effect. Used at a ley line, Read Leyline also gives Attuned for 1 hour, and then the bonus is 100%.

Skysight gives 15% movement speed (was 10%) for 15 seconds. At an Elemental Convergence it also gives Charged for 1 hour, which raises the bonus to 30%. Attuned and Charged both last through death.

Blizzard also does a tuning pass on the remaining passive bonuses, so they do not push players towards one choice. The table with every racial per race on Classes has been updated. Whether these values are final for the launch on 4 November, Blizzard does not say.