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The WoW Forever beta moved to build 1.60.1.70374 on October 13, and this one is a player-friendly patch. Dying costs half as much durability, three item sets finally get their bonuses, and a handful of talents are sharper and clearer. Every talent, spell, item and recipe on WoW Handbook now reads from this build.
Many of the class and item changes were announced in Blizzard’s October 8 development notes; this build is where they show up in the client data, next to a few changes the notes do not list. Below: the death penalty change, the class tweaks worth knowing, the new set bonuses, the quest rewards that changed rarity, and the new layer of protection around gold trades, which lands alongside Blizzard’s announcement of Temporary Economy Holds.
Spirit Healer Penalty: Half the Durability Loss
The spirit healer’s confirmation text now reads 25% durability damage to your equipped and inventory items, down from 50%. Resurrection Sickness still applies, and walking back to your corpse is still free.
In Classic, a spirit healer rez in a far-off zone meant a painful repair bill on top of the sickness timer. In Forever, it is now a real option when your corpse sits in a bad spot, such as the middle of an elite camp or a long swim away. Your move: stop gambling on risky corpse runs when the spirit healer is close; the repair cost is now far easier to swallow.
Class Tuning: Small Changes, Clear Wins
The talent tree layout did not change in this build. These are the talents and spells that did:
| Class | Change |
|---|---|
| Druid | Predatory Instincts is now Natural Instinct. It keeps the melee critical strike damage bonus (10% / 20%) and adds spell healing equal to 12% / 25% of your Intellect. |
| Paladin | Reckoning can now trigger at most once every 1.5 sec. |
| Priest | Penance was fixed to behave as a 2-second channel, so its rank 1 tooltip now reads 44 damage or 133 healing per pulse (was 81 and 184), while healing on ranks 2 and 4 went up. Mana costs rose: 150 at rank 1 (was 100), 220 at rank 2 (was 185), 385 at rank 4 (was 355), keeping it more mana-efficient than Heal and Greater Heal. |
| Shaman | Water Shield no longer claims a 15 sec cooldown it never had, and its buff now shows the mana it restores. |
| Hunter | Expose Prey now opens Mongoose Bite for 10 sec instead of 5. |
| Warlock | Demonic Brand: your pet’s branded attacks only generate high threat when they deal Shadow damage. |
| Warrior | Spearing Strike now knocks mounted targets off their mounts. |
One item belongs on this list too: Wolfshead Helm now grants 5 extra Energy from Shifting Power instead of 20, while its Rage bonus is unchanged. Feral players who planned around the helm should re-run the numbers.
Your move: open the talent calculator and check any saved build that leans on Penance, Reckoning or Natural Instinct. Our class builds already use the new talent name.
Three Item Sets Get Their Bonuses
Three sets that already existed in the client now carry full 2-to-5-piece bonuses. Each one rewards a specific place, a fresh idea for leveling sets.
| Set | 2 pieces | 3 pieces | 4 pieces | 5 pieces |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violet Sorcerer’s Vestments (cloth) | +5 Arcane Resistance | +10 Spirit | Damaging spells can let 15% of your mana regeneration continue while casting for 15 sec; doubled in Strongholds and Cities | Damaging spells can summon an Arcane elemental to fight for you |
| Krol’dok Battlegear (plate) | +100 Armor | +5 Defense | Blocking can heal you for 14; doubled in Strongholds and Cities | Taking damage often grants +1 Stamina for 30 sec, stacking up to 20 times |
| Defias Enforcer’s Garb (leather) | +10 Fire Resistance | +15 Stamina | +1 Swords skill | Melee attacks can grant +2% critical strike chance for 20 sec; doubled in swamps |
The Krol’dok set is a tank’s leveling kit that grows stronger the longer a fight lasts, while the Violet Sorcerer’s set turns long caster pulls into steady mana. Where each piece drops has not been confirmed yet; we will add them to the dungeon loot tables once that is verified.
Quest Rewards: A Rarity Reset
Blizzard’s October 8 development notes said various dungeon quest rewards would drop from rare to uncommon, and the latest beta data shows how far it goes. Across the dungeon quest rewards we track, 60 items dropped from rare (blue) to uncommon (green), with stats trimmed to match. Examples include Monstrous Cleaver, Plaguefang, The Stitcher, Ghastly Trousers and Edwards’ Knife. The new data also replaces the Classic stats we showed for rewards such as Ambassador’s Boots, Lucine Longsword and the Monkey Ring, Tiger Band and Snake Hoop trio, which stay uncommon in Forever, and three rewards that had no data at all now have full stats: Ursine Hammer, Town Clerk’s Mittens and Boar Signet.
Every dungeon page shows the current reward stats. Your move: if you picked a dungeon chain purely for a blue reward, check that it is still the upgrade you expect.
Professions moved too. Recipe: Raging Raptor Ribs now needs Cooking 180 instead of 275, and most Cooking recipes shifted their skill-up ranges, so some dishes stay orange longer. See the Cooking page for the new ranges.
Gold Trades: Warnings in the Client, Holds on the Server
Two new client messages put a speed bump in front of suspicious gold:
- Accepting gold from an unknown or suspicious source shows a warning that gold tied to Real Money Transactions can put your account at risk of closure, with a link to Blizzard’s support article.
- Taking money from a character you may not know asks you to confirm the amount first.
They arrive together with Blizzard’s October 13 announcement of Temporary Economy Holds. If your account is suspected of selling or receiving gold for real money, trade, mail, guild banks and the Auction House are restricted while Blizzard investigates. The hold lifts automatically if the suspicion proves false; if RMT is confirmed, account actions follow. Blizzard says normal players are unlikely ever to see it, that false positives are possible while the system is tuned, and that a hold alone leaves no permanent mark on your account.
Your move: do not accept gold you did not earn or expect, and read our breakdown of how Blizzard treats gold buyers.
Smaller Finds Worth Knowing
- A thank-you for testers. A new achievement, “Played in the WoW: Forever Beta”, is granted for playing in the beta.
- Darkspear Islands needs a crowd. The battleground’s minimum player count rises from 1 to 8, so matches need fuller teams to start. Rewards are on the PvP page.
- A Reagent Bag is on its way. The client adds a “Reagent Bag” label, and metal bars from Copper to Elementium are now flagged for a matching bag type. No such bag item has appeared yet.
What to Do Next
- Re-check your talents in the talent calculator, especially for Penance, Reckoning and Natural Instinct.
- Review your dungeon quest plan on the dungeon pages, since many blue rewards are now green.
- Plan your next set around the new bonuses: Krol’dok for tanks, Violet Sorcerer’s for casters, Defias Enforcer’s for sword users.
- Protect your account by refusing unexpected gold; a Temporary Economy Hold freezes trade, mail and the Auction House while it lasts.
Read the full announcement on Blizzard News