WoW Forever raid roster by class: what each class covers for your guild

Tier lists rank specs for one player choosing a class. A guild has the opposite problem. Your members have already picked their classes, and you need to turn those people into a 10-player Barrow Deeps group and a 20-player Hyjal Summit roster by December 9, when Blizzard's What's Next panel recap says the raids open.

This guide is the roster sheet for that job. For each class, it lists the roles it can fill, what it brings to a raid, what it cannot cover, and the question to ask at signup. The class facts come from Blizzard's class deep dives and beta notes, summarized in our class talent guides. They can still change in beta, so recheck them the week before the first raid.

Why class planning changed in Forever

In Classic Era, a lot of raid planning was about getting one of a specific talented class: the Paladin for Blessing of Kings, the Priest for Divine Spirit, the Shadow Priest and Fire Mage whose debuffs boosted everyone. Forever removes most of that.

Blessing of Kings, Divine Spirit and Improved Mark of the Wild are baseline. Shadow Weaving, Improved Scorch and Winter's Chill now help only the player who applies them. Our raid sizes and roster planning guide lists every buff and debuff change.

The result is that a Forever roster is less about collecting buff-bots and more about covering jobs: tanks and healers, armor reduction, curses, totems per group, interrupts and crowd control. That makes class planning a coverage question, which suits a guild roster.

Class by class

A blank cell means our class guide does not call out a gap for that class. It does not mean the class has none.

Four jobs to assign before the first pull

The table points at a handful of jobs that no single class owns anymore. Assign them by name.

Armor reduction. Expose Armor now reduces armor by about as much as five stacks of Sunder Armor and no longer blocks Sunder Armor. Decide whether your Rogues or your Warriors maintain it on each boss, so two people do not spend globals on the same job.

Curses and Banes. Each Warlock can keep only one Bane on a target, and Curse of the Elements now covers all magic damage. With two or three Warlocks in a 20, write down who casts which.

Totems by group. Windfury and Flametongue totems are party-wide, and Windfury cannot run with Grace of Air or Flametongue. Put each Shaman in the group that benefits from the totem they drop. That is a party-builder decision, not only a class count.

Interrupts and crowd control. Druids, Hunters and Paladins have no interrupt, and Druids cannot Silence. A roster heavy on those three needs its interrupts from somewhere else. Mages, Rogues and Hunters bring the crowd control the table lists.

Plan for second roles

Dual specialization unlocks at level 40, according to Blizzard's class deep dives, and talent changes happen at a class trainer in a major city. Druids, Paladins and Warriors can each tank, heal or deal damage in some combination, and Priests and Shamans can switch between healing and damage.

That changes how you count backups. A Protection Warrior's second spec might be your off-tank, and a Shadow Priest might be your fifth healer on a bad night. Collect a second role from every hybrid, and plan the 10-player Barrow Deeps around the two roles that stop a raid when one person is missing: tanks and healers.

Faction and the Skyborne

Faction choice now changes class options for the new Skyborne race. Horde Skyborne can be Shamans and Alliance Skyborne can be Mages, and both can be Warriors, Hunters, Rogues and Druids. Our launch-week checklist covers what else to settle before November 4.

Plan it by class in GuildManager

Members add their WoW Forever characters with race, class and talent trees. A talent tree knows its role, so a Holy Paladin counts as a healer and a Feral Druid can fill tank or damage slots without anyone setting it by hand. Raid signups show each player's spec.

Role-based party plans, part of Core, have a Classes tab next to Roles. Drag a class into a party and the slot takes that class's roles. Drop a talent tree under it, such as Protection under Warrior, and the slot asks for a Protection Warrior who tanks. When you use the plan on a raid, auto-fill puts the planned class first and the planned spec ahead of that, and anyone else who fits the slot's role can still take it. Placing the wrong class in a planned slot shows a Class Mismatch warning.

Save the 10-player and 20-player layouts once and attach them to each week's raid. See reusable party plans and the party builder. The free WoW Forever talent calculator lets members share the build behind their role.

Related guides

• WoW Forever raid sizes: planning 10 and 20-player rosters
• DKP vs soft reserve vs loot council in WoW Forever
• Set up your WoW Forever guild in 10 minutes
• WoW Forever guild tools

Sources

Checked October 26, 2026.

• World of Warcraft: Forever What's Next panel recap. Blizzard. December 9 raid unlock, Barrow Deeps (10) and Hyjal Summit (20), Skyborne class options.
• World of Warcraft: Forever Deep Dive panel recap. Blizzard. Baseline buffs, Paladin and Druid changes.
• Class Deep Dives: Hunter and Druid, Priest and Warrior, Mage and Shaman, and Rogue and Warlock. Blizzard. Buff, debuff, totem and curse changes, dual specialization at level 40.
• WoW: Forever Beta Development Notes. Blizzard forums. Beta tuning changes.