Horde race
Orc
Orcs are the strongest all-round Horde fighters, with a damage cooldown that helps casters as well as melee, a curse cleanse and stun resistance.
Overview
Orc is the damage race. Blood Fury raises Attack Power and Spell Power together, so it works for melee, hunters and casters alike. Savage adds 1% critical strike chance to every spell and attack, with no weapon needed.
Shatter Curse removes every curse and bane and trims magic damage for a few seconds. Hardiness shortens stuns on you. Together they make the Orc a safe pick for dungeons with curses and stun effects.
Orc is available to Warrior, Hunter, Mage, Rogue, Warlock and Shaman. Mage is new for Orcs in Forever.
At a glance
- Faction
- Horde
- Homeland
- Durotar
- Capital
- Orgrimmar
- Starting zone
- Valley of Trials, Durotar
Classes
Racial abilities
| Racial | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
 Savage | passive | Increases your critical strike chance with all spells and abilities by 1%. What to know: A small, constant gain for every Orc class, casters included. |
 Blood Fury | active | Increases Attack Power and Spell Power by 10% for 15 sec. What to know: A burst window for every class. Use it on boss fights, hard pulls and elite packs. Casters and healers benefit as well as melee. |
 Shatter Curse | active | Instantly removes all Curses and Banes, and reduces all Magical damage taken by 5% for 8 sec. What to know: Use it when a curse or bane lands on you. It also gives a short, mild defensive buff against magic damage. |
 Hardiness | passive | Duration of Stun effects on you reduced by 20%. What to know: Always on. It helps most against stunning dungeon mobs, and in group content with stun-heavy pulls. |
Best classes for Orc
- Warrior: Blood Fury and Savage's crit make it a leading Horde Warrior damage race.
- Rogue: Blood Fury and Savage make Orc one of the strongest Horde Rogue races for damage.
- Warlock: Blood Fury adds Spell Power, and Shatter Curse helps against curses.
- Shaman: Orc is the usual Horde pick for Enhancement, using Blood Fury and Savage.
Lore
The orcs come from the world of Draenor. They lived as clans of shamanistic hunters and herders, honouring the elements and their ancestors. Their culture valued strength, honour and kinship, and a warrior earned respect through deeds.
The demon lord Kil'jaeden, working through the warlock Gul'dan, corrupted the orcs. They drank demon blood, became a savage Horde and marched through the Dark Portal to conquer Azeroth. They fought the human kingdoms in the First and Second Wars, and the humans eventually broke them and held the survivors in internment camps.
Thrall, an orc raised as a slave by humans, escaped, learned his people's old shamanic ways and united the clans. He freed the camps and led the orcs west across the sea to a new land. There they founded Durotar, where their capital Orgrimmar stands, and cut themselves free of the demonic curse for good.
Today the orcs lead the Horde. They share an uneasy alliance with the Tauren, who helped them survive in Kalimdor, and with the Darkspear trolls, whom Thrall's people saved from the murlocs and the Burning Blade. They look at the Forsaken with some suspicion. Their old enmity with the Alliance and its humans persists, and they also clash with the centaur and with the humans of Theramore.
Good to know
- Orc Mage is a new combination in Forever.
- Druids can use racial abilities in shapeshift forms, but Orcs cannot be Druids.
- The orc tongue is Orcish.
Updated . Forever is in beta: racials can change with any patch. All races