Raid & dungeon planner
The group that gets the most out of an instance: simulated throughput, the buffs members bring each other, and answers to every boss's mechanics — plus where the group should change between bosses.
1 of 2 bosses have no ability data; they don't influence the composition.
Members are valued with the level-30 presets (nearest to the instance level 35); abilities are those learned by level 35.
Tank · 1
- Night Elf / TaurenAoE damageTauntInterrupt
Healer · 1
- Gnome / UndeadCure DiseaseDispel MagicPurge enemy buffsFear immunity / wardCrowd controlAoE damageShadow resistance
Damage · 3
- Night Elf / Windshaper SkyborneAoE damageCrowd control
- Human / TrollAoE damageCrowd control
- Night Elf / Windshaper SkyborneFire resistanceNature resistanceFrost resistanceShadow resistanceArcane resistanceTauntCure PoisonAoE damageCrowd controlBattle resurrectionRemove Curse
What the group brings each other
Battle Shout· Protection Warrior
Power Word: Fortitude· Discipline Priest
Mark of the Wild· Feral (Cat) Druid
Trueshot Aura· Marksmanship Hunter
Sunder Armor· Protection Warrior
Faerie Fire· Feral (Cat) Druid
Hunter's Mark· Beast Mastery Hunter, Marksmanship HunterEach effect is valued by simulating every member with and without it (magnitudes from Forever spell data or tooltips). Totems, auras and Battle Shout reach the provider's party; a paladin gives one blessing, a warlock keeps one curse and a shaman one air totem.
Boss by boss
How the planner decides
Group role split. The planner fills 5-player groups with 1 tank, 1 healer and 3 damage dealers; 10-player raids 2/3/5; 20-player raids 2/5/13; 40-player raids 3/10/27. Forever publishes no recommended raid make-up; these follow common practice and can be changed by locking members.
How the planner values a group. Each member counts as their simulated output relative to the best spec of the same role at the instance level (healers by HPS, tanks by the tier-list tank index), raised by the group buffs other members bring (each buff's gain is simulated per spec). Every boss mechanic the group can answer (dispel, interrupt, fear counter, resistance aura, crowd control…) adds a fixed bonus — 0.6 of a member for an important one and 0.15 for a useful one, scaled by raid size — so a missing answer outweighs a small throughput gap but not a large one. Mechanics come from Classic-era boss descriptions until Forever publishes encounter data.
Spec stacking limit. The planner takes at most one member of a spec per five players (one per spec in a dungeon, eight in a 40-player raid) and at most that many of a class (but always two in a dungeon). The simulator values every member against a single target in isolation, so without a limit it would stack the top spec; in game, duplicates compete for the same loot and share limited debuff and curse slots. Locked members are exempt.
Group buffs and boss debuffs. Magnitudes come from Forever spell data (auras, armor reductions, damage-taken) or, for totems and talent auras, the Forever tooltip. Rules the data doesn't state: Sunder Armor at 5 stacks and Expose Armor at 5 combo points (they don't stack with each other); Leader of the Pack and Moonkin Aura are exclusive (their tooltips say so); a party gets one air totem — Windfury for warriors, rogues and paladins, Grace of Air for hunters, shamans (own Windfury Weapon, per tooltip) and druids (forms don't use weapon imbues, 1.x rule); a raid has enough warlocks for both Curse of Recklessness and Curse of the Elements. Forever made Improved Scorch, Improved Shadow Bolt, Winter's Chill and Shadow Weaving personal, so they aren't group effects. No consumables or world buffs.
Boss ability lists are Classic-era (warcraft.wiki.gg boss pages); Forever has not published encounter journals. Where a boss spell exists in the Forever client, its school, dispel type and damage are read from it. New Forever bosses have no ability data yet, so only throughput and buffs decide those groups.