WoW: Forever Survey Reportedly Explores Tinker, Bard, Witch and More Class Ideas

World of Warcraft: Forever may be considering one of the biggest possible departures from its familiar class roster, at least if recent player reports prove accurate. Several players have said they received a questionnaire through the Battle.net launcher that asked for feedback on a selection of potential classes. The reported options span established World of Warcraft archetypes, concepts drawn from Warcraft lore, and some notably experimental roles that could substantially change how groups are built.

There is an important caveat: the questionnaire has not been publicly verified. Players who reportedly received it were told not to share screenshots, leaving no confirmed visual record of the survey. Accounts from multiple players have described a broadly similar list, however, and purported text descriptions for the class concepts have circulated as well. Blizzard has not announced that any of these classes are in development, and a survey is not a commitment to implement its ideas.

Still, the reported list is fascinating because it suggests that WoW: Forever feedback may be probing much more than a single new addition. It includes Demon Hunter, Death Knight and Monk, all of which already exist in modern World of Warcraft, alongside Warden, Necromancer, Witch, Tinker, Bard, Illusionist, San'layn, and a metal-themed class identified by different players as either Metalborn or Runesmith.

A mix of established classes and Warcraft-inspired possibilities

The presence of Demon Hunter, Death Knight, and Monk does not necessarily mean WoW: Forever would simply import their current versions. Each class joined the main game in a different expansion and was designed around systems, encounters, and player expectations from its respective era. A Forever interpretation could potentially rework their resources, armor access, talent choices, or party jobs. At this stage, though, there is no information establishing how close any proposed versions would be to their existing retail counterparts.

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The more surprising names are the concepts that have never been playable as full World of Warcraft classes. Wardens, for example, have a long connection to Warcraft's night elf lore and are often associated with agility, stealth, pursuit, and punishing melee combat. The reported survey description identifies Warden as a plate-wearing tank and melee damage dealer, though the available account is unclear about its actual abilities. That ambiguity matters, particularly because some details may have been mixed up with another entry in the reported material.

San'layn is another striking option. These vampiric undead elves could reportedly wear plate armor, placing them in a very different combat space from the cloth-wearing casters often associated with darker magical themes. The concept immediately raises questions about possible health-draining mechanics, blood magic, melee attacks, and visual identity, but none of that has been confirmed. For now, "vampire-like" is the clearest broad description suggested by the reports.

Necromancer, meanwhile, is said to be a cloth-wearing spellcaster built around shadow and death magic. That would make it an obvious comparison point for Warlocks, who already command demons and destructive shadow spells, as well as Death Knights, whose identity is deeply tied to undeath. A Necromancer could still have a distinct niche if it emphasizes raising servants, manipulating corpses, or supporting allies through death-themed magic. But that overlap illustrates a core challenge behind any new-class effort: every addition needs a fantasy that feels fresh without making an existing class feel redundant.

Witch and Tinker could introduce new mechanical directions

The reported Witch is described as a cloth-wearing ranged damage and support class. Among its mentioned abilities are a cauldron that can enhance allies and a blood golem summoned at the cost of the caster's own health. Those details point toward a risk-and-reward playstyle built around rituals, brews, curses, and sacrificial magic rather than a straightforward elemental or arcane caster model.

That self-damage component, if it ever became real, could be especially interesting in a game where healers and damage dealers already manage tightly defined resources. A Witch that trades health for a powerful summon would need tools to avoid creating a frustrating burden for healers, while still making the sacrifice meaningful. The concept is also one of several on the list said to include a support function, a detail with potentially much broader implications than any individual spell.

Tinker is reportedly envisioned as a mail-wearing class capable of tanking, ranged damage, and support. Players describe a design involving a constructed mech, rockets, and deployed supplies that can heal allies. Tinker has been requested by World of Warcraft players for years, largely because Warcraft's goblin and gnome technology offers an immediately recognizable thematic foundation. Mechs, bombs, turrets, gadgets, and battlefield engineering could give it a silhouette unlike the game's current playable classes.

It would also pose practical design questions. A tank inside a mech could be visually distinctive and mechanically flexible, but it would need to read clearly amid crowded raids and player-versus-player battles. Rocket-based ranged attacks and supply drops sound appealing in isolation, yet their effectiveness would depend on whether they are aimed, placed, persistent, or tied to cooldown windows. Those are all unanswered questions, but the reported role spread makes Tinker one of the most ambitious concepts on the list.

Support roles may be the survey's most significant theme

Several of the reported classes appear to offer support capabilities, including Witch, Tinker, and Bard. In the traditional World of Warcraft framework, parties and raids are primarily organized around tanks, healers, and damage dealers. Buffs, crowd control, utility, and off-healing exist across many classes, but a dedicated support role is not a standard group slot in WoW Classic-style play.

Retail World of Warcraft has previously experimented with a more explicit support identity through one Evoker specialization. That experience has demonstrated both the appeal and complications of the idea. A support character can offer powerful damage amplification, positioning tools, defensive aid, and other effects that reshape a group's performance. Yet balancing such a role becomes difficult when the wider game is not consistently structured around bringing one.

WoW: Forever could, in theory, be a place to test that model from a different starting point. If group content, encounters, and class kits were designed with support characters in mind, the role could become a meaningful part of composition rather than an awkward exception. On the other hand, multiple support options could make balancing substantially more complicated, especially if their buffs stack or if a specific support becomes effectively mandatory for high-level content.

Bard is perhaps the clearest expression of that possibility. The reported version wears leather armor and focuses on support and healing through songs that bolster party members and weaken enemies. Bard has long been a popular fantasy-RPG request because it can contribute without fitting neatly into a conventional damage or healing template. The class could bring musical buffs, reactive healing, enemy debuffs, and positional gameplay to World of Warcraft's group encounters. It would need a strong mechanical hook beyond simply maintaining a series of buffs, but its theme is instantly understandable.

Illusion, metal, and the question of class identity

Illusionist is said to be a leather-wearing ranged damage class with spells that create illusory murlocs or other monsters to fight on its behalf, along with mirror-image style magic. The idea sits close to Mage illusions but could possibly distinguish itself through temporary fake creatures, misdirection, visual trickery, and deceptive battlefield control. It is a playful premise, though it also highlights how much care would be needed to make silhouettes, summons, and effects readable during large encounters.

The Metalborn or Runesmith entry is less consistently named in player accounts, but the shared description centers on mail armor, runic power, and transforming the user's body into metal for attacks. That could provide a physical, rune-driven counterpart to more traditional spellcasting classes. The differing names may indicate a changing internal concept, a survey variation, or simply imperfect recollection. Without an official questionnaire to inspect, it is not possible to know which explanation is correct.

What can be said is that the alleged survey list reaches far beyond safe variations on existing designs. It includes technological combat, musical support, vampiric themes, deceptive magic, body transformation, cauldrons, mechs, and undead spellcraft. Adding all of those ideas at once would be an enormous undertaking, likely disrupting balance across leveling, dungeons, raids, professions, and player-versus-player combat. The survey may therefore be measuring which fantasies players most want to see rather than presenting a literal roadmap.

Interest does not equal an announcement

Players should treat every listed class as speculative until Blizzard comments publicly. Surveys frequently test ideas that do not advance beyond the feedback stage, and even popular concepts can be rejected if they create technical, balance, or design problems. Conversely, an omitted detail in a reported survey description does not mean a concept lacks depth; it may simply mean the questionnaire only offered a short pitch.

For now, the reports offer an intriguing glimpse at what players may be asked to consider for WoW: Forever. Tinker, Bard, Witch, Warden, San'layn, Necromancer, Illusionist, and Metalborn or Runesmith would each bring markedly different fantasies to Azeroth. Whether any of them move from a launcher prompt to a playable class remains unknown, but the apparent willingness to ask about such a broad set of possibilities is sure to fuel discussion among World of Warcraft players.