Who are the Skyborne? Which classes or faction can I choose if I want to play Skyborne in WoW: Forever?

With the release of World of Warcraft: Forever we will see a new race called the Skyborne, an elven race who were descended from Highborne elven exiles who made a pact with the Skywall wind elementals generations ago. Native to the Zephras Isle, in the alternative timeline that is Forever – they have recently rejoined the larger world of Azeroth and have chosen sides in the faction war between the Horde and the Alliance, but not as an entire race, as individuals.

We have trawled through all the BlizzCon panels and published blog posts, and this is what we know so far. More information will undoubtably come to light as we get to explore during the World of Warcraft: Forever beta starting on September 17.

The character options for Skyborne

When you create your character you will need to choose whether your Skyborne will be aligned with the Alliance or the Horde, and this will affect your game experience from the very start. Unlike Pandaren or Dracthyr, your character doesn’t start playing and is exposed to the two sides before you make your decision. There will be no neutral Skyborne.

Uniquely, while this race is available to both factions, choosing the faction will also limit the choice of classes available to you.

Both factions have the following classes available to them:

• Warrior
• Hunter
• Rogue
• Druid

However the following classes are faction restricted:

• Shaman — Horde only
• Mage — Alliance only

Druid players will have access to Skyborne unique shapeshift forms. Because World of Warcraft: Forever is a Classic line game, the myriad of Druid forms unlocked in other expansions are not accessible, and the few options which are available are race locked.

The Skyborne racial abilities are as following:

• Walk on Air — behaves similar to slowfall
• Wind Blessed (passive) — haste for melee, ranged and spell-casting abilities increased by 1%
• Elemental Insight (passive) — damage to elementals increased by 5%
  There is an additional faction specific racial ability
• Read Ley Line (Alliance) — activate a ley line to gain 100% health and mana regeneration
• Skysight (Horde) — increases run speed by 10%

Blizzard’s announcement blog notes that the Skyborne will have their own customizations, voices, dances, and visual options.

How do you unlock the Skyborne in WoW: Forever?

To create a Skyborne character you will need to purchase one of the paid license packs. There are three options available:

• Skyborne Heroic Pack
• Skyborne Epic Pack
• Warcraft Forever Collection

All three of these options will give you access to the Skyborne race and starting experience, and the Epic and Forever Collection will also give you guaranteed beta access when it launches on September 17.

While the beta will give you a chance to try out the new race and starting experience, historically progression on the beta servers is not transferred to live servers. We do not expect this will change with the release of World of Warcraft: Forever on November 4, 2026, so your beta experience will be limited to just being the first to try out these new elves.