Gnome in WoW Forever: racials, classes and what's new

What are the Gnome racials in WoW Forever?

Gnomes have four racial traits in WoW Forever, two active and two passive: Escape Artist and Eureka!, which you activate, and Expansive Mind and Engineering Specialization, always on. Compared with Classic Era: 1 new and 3 changed. The texts and numbers below come from the game files of the Forever beta (build 1.60.1.70532), the old ones from Classic Era 1.15.9.70003.

• Escape Artist

  Changed

  Active, instant, 2 min cooldown

  Instantly escape the effects of any movement impairing effect and gain immunity to those effects for 3 sec.

  New values. New cooldown (Classic Era: 1 min). New cast time

  In Classic Era: Escape the effects of any immobilization or movement speed reduction effect.

  In practice: Frees you from roots and slows and keeps them off briefly: a PvP and kiting tool.

• Eureka!

  New

  Active, instant, 2 min cooldown

  Rogue: Your non-periodic damaging abilities have their Energy cost reduced by 10% and deal 10% more damage.

  Warlock: Your non-periodic damaging abilities have their Mana cost reduced by 10% and deal 10% more damage.

  Priest: Your non-periodic damaging or healing abilities have their Mana cost reduced by 10% and deal 10% more damage or healing.

  Mage: Your damaging abilities have their Mana cost reduced by 10% and deal 10% more damage.

  Warrior: Your non-periodic damaging abilities have their Rage cost reduced by 10% and deal 10% more damage.

  In practice: An active trait for every gnome class: once used, damaging spells or abilities, healing ones too for priests, cost less and hit harder.

• Expansive Mind

  Changed

  Passive

  Priest, mage and warlock: Maximum Mana increased by 5%.

  Rogue: Maximum Energy increased by 5%.

  Warrior: Maximum Rage increased by 5%.

  New effect

  In Classic Era: Intelligence increased by 5%.

  In practice: A bigger resource pool, always on: more maximum mana, energy or rage depending on your class.

• Engineering Specialization

  Changed

  Passive

  Your gnomish ingenuity reduces the rate of engineering devices failing or backfiring when you use them by 20%.

  New values

  In Classic Era: Engineering skill increased by 15.

  In practice: Only for engineers: their gadgets fail and backfire less often.

What changed for gnomes since Classic?

Gnomes lose Arcane Resistance and gain Eureka!, an active trait on a 2-minute cooldown: damaging spells or abilities cost 10% less and deal 10% more, healing included for priests. Expansive Mind now raises maximum mana, energy or rage by 5% instead of Intellect, Escape Artist became instant with 3 seconds of immunity, and Engineering Specialization makes gadgets fail less often instead of adding skill.

Which classes can gnomes play in WoW Forever?

Gnomes can play five of the nine classes in WoW Forever: warrior, rogue, priest, mage and warlock. Priest is new for the race: Classic Era did not allow it. Each class links to its page and to its talent calculator, with the talent trees of the Forever beta.

• Warrior

  Class pageWarrior talents

• Rogue

  Class pageRogue talents

• PriestNew on Forever

  Class pagePriest talents

• Mage

  Class pageMage talents

• Warlock

  Class pageWarlock talents

Where do gnomes start in WoW Forever?

Gnomes start in Dun Morogh, as in Classic: Blizzard keeps the original starting zones and adds new characters, quests, profession hooks and recipes to them. The Group Finder of the beta lists it for levels 1 to 14. They share it with dwarves. Our leveling tool then shows which zones and dungeons fit each level.

Which priest racial spells do gnomes get?

Gnome priests are new in WoW Forever, and Blizzard gave them two racial spells of their own. Confounding Flash, from level 10, confuses up to 5 nearby enemies for 3 seconds, broken by damage, on a 2-minute cooldown. Contingency Plan, from level 20, wards an ally for 30 seconds: if their health drops below 35%, they get an absorb shield and a heal over time.

• Confounding Flash

  New

  Level 10, 1 ranks, active, 0.5 sec cast, 2 min cooldown

  Confuses up to 5 enemies within 8 yds for 3 sec. Any damage taken will break the effect.

• Contingency Plan

  New

  Level 20, 5 ranks, active, instant, 10 min cooldown

  Place a Holy ward on an ally for 30 sec. The next time this ally takes damage dropping their Health below 35%, they will gain a shield absorbing 155 damage and begin healing for 125 Health over 15 sec. A target may be affected by only one Contingency Plan.

  Blizzard's priest deep dive (September 30) gives it a 5-minute cooldown; the game files of build 70532 give 10 minutes.