BlizzCon > WoWMar 15, 2024 5:00 pm CT

Every Hero Specialization coming to WoW in The War Within — including a dozen new previews added today!

World of Warcraft‘s next expansion The War Within will introduce the Hero Talents system, which permits players to specialize further within their chosen role by picking a Hero Specialization. We now have detailed previews of most — but not all — specs to give us a clear look at the design of these specializations. Remember that these Hero Talents are still in development, so they can change before release — these designs aren’t set in stone, and Blizzard is likely to iterate on them.

Here’s what we know about Hero Specializations so far, including the latest previews for Death Knight, Druid, Evoker, Hunter, Mage, Monk, Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior.

How do Hero Talents work?

Instead of gaining ordinary talents from level 71-80, you’ll gain one Hero Talent per level. These will provide additional specialization options within your role, and each spec will have access to two possible specializations. For example, if you play a Havoc Demon Hunter, you’ll be able to choose between the Aldrachi Reaver or Fel-Scarred specializations. If you play an Arms Warrior, you can choose between the Colossus and Slayer specializations.

The Hero Talent system will immediately provide classes with a Keystone ability which may be an active ability or a passive that modifies existing spells. After that, players will advance through the tree collecting passives that provide buffs to their Keystone ability or other class skills. The last Hero Talent is a Capstone talent, providing a new active ability or a significant buff.

You can think of these talents as an extension of the existing talent trees, allowing you to lean into one type of gameplay or another, building on your strengths or shoring up weaknesses. For example, if you play a Guardian Druid, you already have the option of going down the left side of your spec tree for more physical damage and shielding, the right side for more arcane damage and self-healing, or a hybrid build. With Hero Talents, an arcane-oriented bear can strengthen their already-formidable arcane damage with Elune’s Chosen, whereas a more physically-oriented bear will want Druid of the Claw. As always, the kind of content you’re doing will be its own variable, and you can swap Hero Talents around for questing, raids, and Mythic+ the same way you swap regular talents.

The preview of the Mountain Thane Warrior suggests that some Hero Talents will grant different cosmetic effects to your spells and abilities too. There’s a lot of opportunity for Blizzard to do some cool things here, and you can guess at the direction they’re going from the specialization names (see below). For example, a Stormbringer Elemental Shaman’s spells are probably going to be visually distinct from a Farseer’s.

Will Hero Talents provide new abilities?

In the previews we’ve seen so far, some classes are getting new active abilities, but most Hero Talents appear to be passive. Ion Hazzikostas said that Blizzard is concerned about button bloat on a lot of specs, and they don’t want Hero Talents to make that worse.

Will Hero Talents change my rotation?

We expect new active abilities Hero Talents introduce will be rotational, and you’ll want to play around them for best effect — but not all specializations have new active abilities. But for example, Lightsmith Paladins have one of the most active kits we’ve seen, with a new skill that lets them place Holy Armaments on the ground for allies to use, boosting their defense or damage. You’ll want to coordinate with your group on where and when you’ll place these, and aim to put them down when and where they’re needed. Making smart choices on who gets these buffs will likely be a big boost to your group.

However, you probably won’t completely upend your rotation to make use of these skills, and some specs will primarily have passives that improve different aspects of the class. Some specs will be weaving in new abilities, others will mostly have passive buffs that will cause some skills to gain or lose priority.

Which Hero Talents will be available to my spec?

Blizzard provided a general list of specializations and given us previews of some specializations, but we’re still guessing on a few. Some are pretty obvious, but others are more of a gamble. I’ve done the best I can after looking at a bunch of feedback in fandom spaces and taking other players’ guesses into account.

Hazzikostas said that the names aren’t set in stone, and Blizzard is open to suggestions. But for now, here are the are all of the Hero Talent specializations, the specs they’re available to, and their talent preview (if they have one).

Death Knight (confirmed)

Rider of the Apocalypse: Unholy, Frost — see Rider of the Apocalypse preview
San’layn: Blood, Unholy — see San’layn preview

Deathbringer: Blood, Frost — see Deathbringer preview

Demon Hunter (confirmed)

As there are only two Demon Hunter specs to begin with, this one isn’t tough.

Aldrachi Reaver: Havoc, Vengeance — see Aldrachi Reaver preview

Fel-Scarred: Havoc, Vengeance

Druid (confirmed)

Some fans have complained that the names seem a little too Night Elf-centric.

Keeper of the Grove: Balance, Restoration — see Keeper of the Grove preview

Elune’s Chosen: Balance, Guardian — see Elune’s Chosen preview
Wildstalker: Feral, Restoration — see Wildstalker preview
Druid of the Claw: Feral, Guardian — see Druid of the Claw preview

Evoker (confirmed)

Chronowarden: Augmentation, Preservation — see Chronowarden preview
Flameshaper: Devastation, Preservation — see Flameshaper preview
Scalecommander: Augmentation, Devastation — see Scalecommander preview

Hunter (confirmed)

Sentinel: Survival, Marksmanship
Pack Leader: Beast Mastery, Survival — see Pack Leader preview
Dark Ranger: Beast Mastery, Marksmanship — see Dark Ranger preview

Mage (confirmed)

Players have wondered if “Frostfire” means that Blizzard is going to resurrect some old, but beloved, spell graphics.

Sunfury: Arcane, Fire
Frostfire: Fire, Frost — see Frostfire preview

Spellslinger: Arcane, Frost — see Spellsinger preview

Monk

As with Druids, players are disappointed that these seem a little too racially centric to Pandaren. I’m curious to see whether Blizzard uses Hero Talents to distinguish between a ranged and melee Mistweaver.

Master of Harmony: Brewmaster, Mistweaver

Shado-Pan: Brewmaster, Windwalker — see Shadow-Pan preview
Conduit of the Celestials: Mistweaver, Windwalker — see Conduit of the Celestials preview

Paladin (confirmed)

Lightsmith: Holy, Protection — see Lightsmith preview

Herald of the Sun: Holy, Retribution — see Herald of the Sun preview
Templar: Retribution, Protection — see Templar preview

Priest

Players are hoping that Voidweaver will allow for a fully dark-themed healer.

Voidweaver: Discipline, Shadow
Oracle: Discipline, Holy — see Oracle preview
Archon: Holy, Shadow

Rogue

Rogues seem to have drawn the short straw in terms of descriptive titles. Blizzard has confirmed Trickster is the Subtlety and Outlaw spec, which means we know Deathstalker and Fatebound are both for Assassin — but which one is Subtlety and which one is Outlaw remains up in the air.

Deathstalker: Assassination, Subtlety
Trickster: Subtlety, Outlaw — see Trickster preview

Fatebound: Assassination, Outlaw

Shaman

A lot of players were hoping that Witch Doctor or Shadow Hunter would be options here. (Admittedly, Shadow Hunter could conceivably have been one of several different classes.)