WoW: Forever Gives Tauren a 60% Speed Boost Days Before Launch

With World of Warcraft: Forever less than a week from launch, Blizzard has dropped a sweeping patch that overhauls racial abilities across the board, and the most dramatic change belongs to the Tauren, whose Plainsrunning passive now grants a 60% movement speed bonus when they stay in motion long enough, making them competitive with mounts that cost hundreds of in-game gold.

From Slow-Motion Joggers to Speed Demons

Tauren have carried a long-standing reputation among WoW players for looking sluggish. Their large frames make their run animations appear slow compared to smaller races, even when the actual speed numbers are identical. Blizzard appears to be flipping that joke entirely. As PC Gamer reports, the updated Plainsrunning ability is a passive that builds movement speed the longer a Tauren stays in motion. The previous version already offered a 30% speed advantage over other players, which was considered strong. The new patch doubles that ceiling to 60%, a number that puts the bovine race firmly in mount territory for open-world travel. The tradeoff is that Tauren lose some minor damage buffs in exchange for this mobility, but the net result is a racial identity that is now unmistakably built around speed.

A Broader Shakeup Across All Races

The Tauren change is the most eye-catching piece of a larger racial ability overhaul. GameSpot notes this is not the first time Blizzard has adjusted racials in the lead-up to launch, calling it another major shakeup before the game goes live. According to PC Gamer, Orc players will no longer benefit from an increased critical strike chance. Instead, their racial now boosts pet damage, a change that targets Warlocks and Hunters specifically. The Skyborne, a new race of blue elves introduced in WoW: Forever, had their Read Leyline ability significantly pulled back. That ability accelerates both health and mana regeneration, and Blizzard has cut its effectiveness in half after it was flagged as too strong. The overall direction of the patch leans into racials that complement specific classes rather than offering universal benefits, which is in keeping with WoW: Forever’s throwback design philosophy.

The Risk of Touching Foundations This Late

Making changes this fundamental one week before launch is a calculated risk. WoW: Forever is positioned as a version of the game where racial abilities carry real weight in class and build decisions, and players have already spent months debating optimal race and class combinations. A 60% speed passive on a race not historically associated with mobility will reshape some of those calculations immediately. Blizzard has stated it plans to balance WoW: Forever on an ongoing basis, but as PC Gamer points out, core racial abilities are the kind of foundational systems that become much harder to adjust once players have committed hundreds of hours to a character built around them.

Sources: PC Gamer, GameSpot