WoW Forever: best Mage race after the October racial changes

Quick answer

Pick Gnome on Alliance and Orc on Horde. Human and Troll are the close alternatives.

Why Orc now: the old axe bonus did nothing for a mage, so Troll’s Berserking had no rival. Savage adds a permanent 1% spell crit, and Blood Fury and Berserking now share a 3 min cooldown.

What the October 15 racial changes mean for Mage

Values from Blizzard’s October 15 beta notes, checked against the Forever tooltips on Wowhead. Blizzard may still tune the game before launch on November 4.

Gnome — Eureka!

Now an 8 s buff with no charges, 2 min cooldown: non-periodic damaging or healing abilities cost 10% less and deal 10% more. Periodic effects have been excluded since October 1.

Human — Ruthless

+2% critical strike chance with all spells and attacks. Replaces Sword Specialization: no sword required.

Orc — Savage, Blood Fury

Savage: +1% critical strike chance with all spells and abilities, replacing Axe Specialization. Blood Fury: +10% attack and spell power for 15 s, cooldown raised to 3 min (was 2).

Skyborne — Wind Blessed

Permanent melee, ranged and spellcasting haste raised to 3% (was 1%).

Troll — Regeneration, Berserking

Regeneration: health regeneration +20%, and 20% keeps running in combat (was 10%). Berserking is unchanged: +10% casting and attack speed for 10 s, 3 min cooldown.

Alliance races for Mage

Horde races for Mage

By specialization, and what we cannot measure

Fire: Human becomes a real contender, because Fire talents such as Critical Mass and Ignite reward crits. We keep Gnome first for its mana and burst, without a measured DPS lead.

The Forever mage tooltip for Eureka! does not repeat the “non-periodic” wording, but Blizzard’s October 1 note excludes periodic effects for every class.