The Skyborne are the new race in World of Warcraft: Forever, and the only one without a fixed faction. You pick Horde or Alliance at character creation, start on the floating Zephras Isle, and get a racial kit that works very differently from every other race’s. This WoW Forever Skyborne guide covers what Blizzard has confirmed, what the beta (September 17 to October 23) showed, what Blizzard’s October 26 racial changes set for launch, and which faction and class combos are worth rolling for launch on November 4.
The short version: Skyborne are a leveling and open-world race first, and the only race in Forever whose active racials aren’t combat tools. Their passive got much better before launch, though: Wind Blessed now gives 2% haste, on paper the strongest always-on throughput bonus of any race. The combos that make the most sense are caster Druids on either faction and Warriors you plan to level. Mage and Rogue are the weakest fits for the race as a whole.
One practical point before you plan a main: Skyborne aren’t included with the subscription, and the race plus Zephras Isle need the Skyborne Heroic Pack ($30) or a higher edition. Every pack also includes Early Name Reservation from October 27 to November 3, covered in our WoW Forever name reservation guide. Updated November 2: racial values now follow Blizzard’s October 15 build and October 26 changes: Wind Blessed 2% haste, Read Ley Line 50% regeneration (100% while Attuned), Skysight 15% speed (30% while Charged), Walk on Air on a 90-second cooldown.
Skyborne at a Glance
| Topic | Details |
|---|---|
| Starting zone | Zephras Isle, levels 1 to 12 |
| Faction | Chosen at character creation: High Order (Alliance) or Windshaper (Horde) |
| Alliance classes | Druid, Hunter, Mage, Rogue, Warrior |
| Horde classes | Druid, Hunter, Rogue, Shaman, Warrior |
| Not available | Paladin, Priest, Warlock |
| Shared racials | Walk on Air, Wind Blessed, Elemental Insight |
| Faction racial | Read Ley Line (Alliance), Skysight (Horde) |
| Extras | Own druid forms, dance, voices and customization |
Who the Skyborne Are
The Skyborne call themselves the shen’dorei. Thousands of years ago, a group of Highborne exiles from Eldre’Thalas (the city that later became Dire Maul) made a pact with the wind spirits and built a home inside Skywall, the elemental plane of air that Cataclysm players know from Vortex Pinnacle and Throne of the Four Winds. BlizzardWatch describes them as a splinter group of the Shen’dralar, the Highborne who stayed behind in Dire Maul.
When your story starts, that home is in trouble. The air spirits that protected Zephras Isle have vanished, old structures are failing, and the Skyborne are split over what to do. That split is the faction choice. The Windshapers (Horde) descend from the first shen’dorei to receive the wind spirits’ gift of skysight, and they want their missing elemental mentors back. The High Order (Alliance) are descendants of the Highborne scholars of Eldre’Thalas. They concluded that relying on the elementals left the race vulnerable, and they want to reclaim the arcane knowledge their ancestors lost.
Visually they’re Night Elf cousins with a lighter, windswept style. Skin ranges from sky blue to peach and darker tones, feathers can go into the hair, and Blizzard lists ten faces and 21 to 25 hairstyles per body type. Icy Veins reports Classic-style models as well, similar to how TBC blood elves were handled.
Zephras Isle: The Skyborne Starting Zone
Zephras Isle covers levels 1 to 12 and is self-contained. The route runs in a U-shape: you start at Thendal Village in the northwest, head south and downhill through farmland and ruins, cross from the Shrine of Alar into the much darker Shadowgate Forest, and finish at the Ruins of Ban’aethal on the northeastern edge. The ruins recall Dire Maul, the floating towers Throne of the Four Winds. That tour comes from BlizzardWatch, who spent a full 30-minute BlizzCon demo just exploring.
The zone was playable for the whole beta, from September 17 until it closed on October 23. A few things are still open:
- Where you go after level 12. BlizzardWatch found a sleeping Altarius, the elemental dragon from Vortex Pinnacle, at Ban’aethal, which hints at the way out. No official source has said which Horde or Alliance zone Skyborne are sent to next. Our WoW Forever leveling guide shows where Zephras Isle joins the leveling route, going by Warcraft Wiki.
- The racial mount. BlizzardWatch bet on the crane-like galestrider after the demo, and Wowhead now reportedly lists Galestriders as the racial mounts. Blizzard’s own Skyborne preview doesn’t mention one. Our WoW Forever mount guide has the beta data on the Galestriders’ level 40 and 60 requirements.
- Where the ley lines are. Using Read Ley Line at a ley line, or Skysight at an elemental convergence, doubles that racial’s effect for an hour (Blizzard, October 26), and the October 15 build added more of both in most Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor zones. We haven’t found a reliable map of them yet.
WoW Forever Skyborne Classes by Faction
Your faction decides your class list. Both sides get Druid, Hunter, Rogue and Warrior. Alliance Skyborne also get Mage, which follows the High Order’s arcane path, and Horde Skyborne get Shaman, which fits the Windshapers’ elemental traditions. Paladin, Priest and Warlock aren’t available on either side.
| Class | High Order (Alliance) | Windshaper (Horde) |
|---|---|---|
| Druid | Yes | Yes |
| Hunter | Yes | Yes |
| Rogue | Yes | Yes |
| Warrior | Yes | Yes |
| Mage | Yes | No |
| Shaman | No | Yes |
| Paladin, Priest, Warlock | No | No |
Skyborne Racials
| Racial | Faction | Type | Effect at launch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walk on Air | Both | Active | Glide downward for 10 seconds with directional control, no fall damage. 90-second cooldown since October 15 (was 2 minutes). |
| Wind Blessed | Both | Passive | 2% melee, ranged and spell haste (1% in the early beta, 3% from October 15, 2% since October 26). |
| Elemental Insight | Both | Passive | 5% more damage to elementals. |
| Read Ley Line | Alliance | Active | 50% more health and mana regeneration for 15 seconds. Used at a ley line, it also grants Attuned for 1 hour, which raises the bonus to 100%. Can’t be used while Innervate is active. 2-second cast and 2-minute cooldown in the beta data; castable while moving since October 15. |
| Skysight | Horde | Active | 15% more movement speed for 15 seconds. Used at an elemental convergence, it also grants Charged for 1 hour, which raises the bonus to 30%. 2-minute cooldown in the beta data; castable while moving since October 15. |
Sources disagreed on one point early on. Icy Veins’ general race overview listed Read Ley Line for all Skyborne, while Method and Icy Veins’ own Skyborne page split it by faction. Blizzard’s official preview settles it: Read Ley Line is High Order only, Windshapers get Skysight. The effect sizes and durations above come from Blizzard’s October 15 and October 26 development notes; cast times and cooldowns come from the beta client as listed by Icy Veins. Attuned and Charged persist through death and drop when you enter a raid. Beta tooltips also said neither faction racial works in combat, and Blizzard’s notes don’t say whether that changed. The October 26 values were announced after the beta closed on October 23, so nobody has tested them in game yet.
What the Skyborne Racials Are Actually Worth
Icy Veins called Skyborne one of the weaker races during the beta, and for max-level PvP and melee that still holds. The reason is structural. Every other race gets at least one active racial that matters in a fight: a damage cooldown (Blood Fury, Berserking, Elune’s Light), a defensive (Stoneform) or a crowd control break (Will to Survive, Will of the Forsaken). Skyborne get a glide and two travel and regeneration buffs. What changed before launch is the passive: at 2% haste, Wind Blessed now outweighs every other race’s always-on passive on raw throughput. Our best race for every class guide compares all of those kits class by class.
Wind Blessed: 2% haste, always on
2% haste means roughly 2% more swings, shots or casts, and you never have to press it. Blizzard raised it from 1% to 3% in the October 15 build and settled on 2% in its October 26 pass. For comparison, Troll Berserking gives 10% haste for 15 seconds at launch (Blizzard’s October 26 notes) on a 3-minute cooldown (beta data), which averages out to about 0.8% over a long fight. On paper Wind Blessed wins clearly. Berserking still has its moments, because you line it up with trinkets and burst windows, but for steady damage or healing 2% haste is the stronger racial (our comparison).
Elemental Insight: depends on the content
5% more damage against elementals does nothing against most of what you fight. It pays off in elemental-heavy zones like Searing Gorge, Burning Steppes, Silithus and Un’Goro’s Fire Plume Ridge, and would matter in an elemental-heavy raid. How many elementals Forever’s new raids contain isn’t known yet.
Walk on Air, Read Ley Line and Skysight: a leveling kit
All three actives are about the open world. Walk on Air turns any cliff into a shortcut every 90 seconds. Read Ley Line adds 50% regeneration between pulls, and Skysight’s 15% speed matters most before your first mount; both double for an hour once you use them at a ley line or elemental convergence. Together that’s the most leveling-focused racial kit of any race in Forever.
One caveat on Read Ley Line: 15 seconds barely covers a single drink, and Blizzard’s October 26 notes no longer mention the 15-minute version near a ley line that the beta tooltips showed. The hour of Attuned (100% regeneration) is the real racial now, so its value depends on how many ley lines sit along your route; the October 15 build added more of them. It’s also unclear whether it speeds up food and drink or only natural regeneration.
Best Skyborne Faction and Class Combos
Rule of thumb: the more downtime and walking a class has, and the less it relies on a combat racial, the better Skyborne fits it. Here is how the combos rank, best first.
| Rank | Combo | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Druid, either faction (Balance, Restoration) | Only one other druid race per faction, 2% haste suits casters, exclusive forms |
| 2 | Warrior, either faction (leveling) | Most downtime, no speed tools, both faction racials help |
| 3 | Hunter, either faction | 2% haste speeds up Auto Shot, close to Night Elf, Orc and Troll |
| 4 | Shaman, Horde | Best lore fit and strong caster haste, but Skysight overlaps with Ghost Wolf |
| 5 | Mage, Alliance | Strong haste, but conjured water makes Read Ley Line redundant |
| 6 | Rogue, either faction | Relies most on combat racials, Sprint covers movement |
1. Druid (both factions): the best Skyborne pick
Druid is where Skyborne make the strongest case. Each faction has only one other druid race (Night Elf or Tauren), and neither brings a caster racial that beats permanent haste for Balance and Restoration. Then there are the Skyborne druid forms, which Blizzard designed specifically for the race and which you can’t get on anything else.
On faction, Alliance is slightly ahead: Read Ley Line cuts a mana-hungry leveler’s drinking time, while Skysight overlaps with Travel Form once you have it. Feral players should stay with Night Elf (Elune’s Light, 10% crit) or Tauren (5% more health for bears). And no, the bird form doesn’t fly. Forever has no flying at all.
2. Warrior (both factions): the leveling pick
Warriors have the most downtime in a Classic-style game (no self-heals, a meal after almost every pull) and no speed tools. Skyborne address both, and 2% haste means a few more swings and a bit more rage. Horde Skysight is the better warrior racial because it saves time on every run between quests until your mount. Alliance Read Ley Line speeds up health between pulls, twice as much while Attuned.
The catch is endgame. Orc and Night Elf bring combat cooldowns, Dwarf adds 1% hit, and Dwarf and Tauren are better tanks. The 2% haste keeps Skyborne closer than they were in the beta, but pick a Skyborne Warrior if the leveling experience matters more to you than your parse.
3. Hunter (both factions)
2% ranged haste speeds up Auto Shot, a big share of a Classic hunter’s damage. Read Ley Line helps with mana between pulls on the Alliance side, while Skysight overlaps with Aspect of the Cheetah. Night Elf, Orc and Troll bring burst cooldowns or pet damage, but the gap is small enough to play whichever race you like.
4. Shaman (Horde only)
Skyborne Shaman has the best lore fit in the game: the Windshapers are the people who lost their elemental mentors. Mechanically it got better before launch. For Elemental and Restoration, 2% permanent haste beats Troll Berserking’s average (see above), while Orc’s Blood Fury still suits Enhancement better. Skysight loses most of its value once you have Ghost Wolf. For a caster shaman, it’s now one of the strongest Horde picks.
5. Mage (Alliance only)
Mage is the combo people are most curious about. Mages conjure their own water, which takes away most of Read Ley Line’s value, so the faction racial is mostly wasted. The 2% haste isn’t: for raw PvE damage it now edges out Gnome, whose Eureka! became an 8-second burst on October 15. Gnome keeps the bigger mana pool and Escape Artist, which still matter in PvP. Play it for the High Order story and the haste.
6. Rogue (both factions)
Rogues get the least out of Skyborne. Energy doesn’t care about mana regeneration, Sprint already covers movement, and rogues lean on combat racials more than any other class, especially in PvP, where Human’s stun break and Undead’s fear break decide fights. Walk on Air’s ledge drops are the one real perk.
FAQ
Is Skyborne a good race in WoW Forever?
For leveling and open-world play, yes. At max level, Wind Blessed’s 2% haste makes Skyborne a strong pick for casters (Druid, Shaman, Mage), but for melee and PvP most other races offer more, because Skyborne have no combat cooldown.
Can Skyborne fly with Walk on Air?
No. It’s a 10-second downward glide that prevents fall damage. You can’t gain height with it, and WoW Forever has no flying mounts.
Sources: Blizzard’s Skyborne preview, Blizzard’s upgrade pack announcement, BlizzardWatch’s Zephras Isle hands-on, Blizzard’s development notes (October 15 and October 26), and beta racial values from Icy Veins’ Skyborne guide and race overview and Method’s racial list. Screenshots and art: Blizzard Entertainment.