WoW Forever: best Shaman race after the October racial changes

Quick answer

On Horde, pick Orc for Elemental and Enhancement and Windshaper Skyborne for Restoration. On Alliance, Dwarf is the only Shaman race.

Why Skyborne for healing: Wind Blessed is now a permanent 3% casting haste, while Troll’s Berserking only lasts 10 s every 3 min.

What the October 15 racial changes mean for Shaman

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.

Dwarf — Earth Fury

+2% critical strike bonus to damage and healing. Replaces Mace Specialization. It raises the size of crits, not their chance.

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.

Tauren — Endurance, War Stomp

Endurance: +5% total health and +2% critical strike bonus to damage and healing; the 1% hit chance is gone. War Stomp: 90 s cooldown (was 2 min).

Alliance races for Shaman

Horde races for Shaman

By specialization, and what we cannot measure

Elemental and Enhancement: Orc combines a permanent crit with Blood Fury. Windshaper Skyborne is a fair alternative; nobody has published measured logs separating them yet.

Restoration: Tauren’s new crit bonus also applies to heals, but only when they crit. None of the Shaman racials restores mana.