THE WOW FOREVER COLLECTION · DISPATCH · RESEARCH CHECKED NOVEMBER 11, 2026
Short answer: the class tuning Blizzard promised for Tuesday is live, and it is bigger than the three items it announced. Enhancement Shaman loses every buff it got on November 2 (Stormstrike is back to 100% weapon damage on an 8 second cooldown, Maelstrom Weapon procs half as often, Mental Dexterity converts 100% of Intellect instead of 150%) and in return can run a weapon imbue and a weapon totem together. Affliction's Wrack does 30% less damage itself and now makes your DoTs tick twice as fast while you channel. Warlock pets get about 15% more base health. The Auction House minimum deposit falls from 1 silver to 1 copper, racial mounts become Bind-on-Pickup, and most quests at level 48 and up now pay gold.
Kaivax posted the November 10 list on the US forums at 03:27 UTC on November 11. Some of it went in with the Tuesday realm restarts and the rest as live hotfixes. Here is what changed and what to do about it.
Enhancement Shaman: the November 2 buffs are gone
Last Friday Blizzard said it would make Strength "always their strongest stat" for Enhancement, and we wrote in our preview that a lower Mental Dexterity ratio was the likely route. That happened, and so did a lot more.
| Before | Now | |
|---|---|---|
| Stormstrike | 150% weapon damage, 6 second cooldown | 100% weapon damage, 8 second cooldown |
| Mental Dexterity (Intellect to Attack Power) | 50/100/150% | 33/66/100% |
| Maelstrom Weapon proc rate | 20 per minute at any rank | 6/7/8/9/10 per minute by rank |
| Maelstrom Weapon cast time and mana reduction per stack | 4/8/12/16/20% by rank | 20% at every rank |
| Weapon imbue plus weapon totem | One or the other | Both at once |
The Stormstrike and Maelstrom numbers are a straight revert. The November 2 notes, two days before launch, were what raised Stormstrike from 100% on 8 seconds to 150% on 6 and doubled Maelstrom Weapon's proc rate. Blizzard says so in the developers' notes: "many of these changes reverse the Beta adjustments aimed specifically at Enhancement."
The reason given is gear. Those late buffs, together with the Shock and Lightning Bolt changes meant for Elemental, "caused Enhancement to favor Spell Power and Intellect gear too heavily" and pushed the spec away from Windfury, "which we believe should remain at the heart of the specialization's fantasy and gameplay." Blizzard wanted it done before the first raid opens so nobody wins a contested caster item that turns out to be worth much less a month later.
The new part is the stacking rule. Windfury Weapon and Windfury Totem can now both be active, "granting their attacks a chance to activate both." The Maelstrom Weapon tooltip also shows your real proc chance now. Blizzard's example is a five-point Shaman with a 3.6 speed weapon at 60% per swing, against 33% with a 2.0 speed weapon. Slow two-handers are the intended weapon, and the Shaman quest reward Rage of the Storm was changed to match: it now has 16 Strength where it had 16 Intellect, and its speed went from 3.2 to 3.6.
What to do if you are leveling Enhancement:
- Use the slowest two-hander you can find, and equip Strength and Attack Power pieces over pure Intellect ones.
- Drop Windfury Totem even when you solo. It stacks with your imbue now, so it is damage you didn't have on Monday.
- One point in Maelstrom Weapon now gives the full 20% per stack. Extra points only buy proc rate, so builds that skipped the deep points lose less than builds that maxed it.
- Check your build in the talent calculator before you pay for a respec.
Affliction: Wrack speeds up your DoTs
Wrack used to raise the damage of your other DoTs on the target and hit hard on its own, so the best rotation was to channel it forever. The redesign:
- Wrack's own damage is down 30%, and it no longer increases periodic damage.
- While you channel it, Siphon Life, Corruption and Bane of Agony on that target "deal their periodic damage 100% faster."
- Soul Siphon now counts only Corruption, Siphon Life and Bane of Agony: 4/8/12% per effect, up to 36%. Before, any Affliction spell counted.
The DoTs keep their full duration and tick twice as often during the channel, so each cast does more total damage if you Wrack through it. Blizzard also fixed the old cut-off problem. Time skipped by Wrack is kept when the channel ends, so a one second channel during a three second Corruption tick still moves that tick a second closer.
In practice you put all three DoTs up first, then channel. Wrack with nothing on the target is now a weak button.
Pets: 15% for Warlocks, a confusing line for Hunters
Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus and Incubus all get about 15% more base health, and the first four ranks of the Imp's Firebolt do more damage. The Felhunter isn't listed.
The Hunter note reads: "Fixed a bug where Pets erroneously had 150% of their normal health. This is now corrected to 115% of their normal health." Blizzard doesn't say when pets had the 150% figure, so it's hard to tell from the note alone whether Hunter pets ended the day tougher or weaker than they were on Monday. One Hunter who compared pet stats before and after the restart posted that survivability came out about 3% lower, in a thread titled "Hunter Pets got 3% nerf not a buff like was stated". That is one player's test and Blizzard hasn't replied to it.
Hunters also get a flat Arcane Shot cost of 11% of base mana at every rank, which Blizzard says is nearly the same at levels 6 and 60 and a little cheaper in between. Beast Mastery's Hawk pet does about 80% more melee damage.
Friday's announcement set the bar at pets being about as durable as in Classic Era. Warlocks don't think 15% base health gets there. More on that below.
Other class changes
- Druid: Nature's Swiftness now makes Wild Growth instant. Omen of Clarity works again after a spec swap.
- Warrior: Sweeping Strikes no longer loses charges when there is no second target to hit.
- Priest: Vampiric Embrace healing no longer triggers the Revelation enchant. Holy Nova is properly unlearned when you untalent it.
- Paladin and Shaman: Redoubt and Maelstrom Weapon can be tracked in the Cooldown Manager.
- Warlock: Bane of Havoc now triggers the global cooldown, and the Succubus whip sound plays less often.
Auction House, items and professions
The Auction House minimum deposit is now 1 copper, down from 1 silver. Deposit costs were one of the complaints players kept raising in the class tuning thread, and at level 15 a silver per listing was a real cost on cheap cloth and ore. Mail that was arriving in about 2 minutes now takes the intended 60, so the quick-mail trick is over.
All racial vendor mounts are now Bind-on-Pickup. Vendors pay less for some Bind-on-Pickup crafted armor from Leatherworking, Tailoring and Blacksmithing, because those were "intended to craft only once" and were being made to sell to vendors. Minor Arcane Elixir drops from 25 copper to 5 for the same reason.
Profession fixes worth knowing if you're following our profession leveling routes:
| Profession | Change |
|---|---|
| Blacksmithing | Coarse Grinding Stone gives skill-ups to 90 (was 75) |
| Cooking | Journeyman Campfire Kit needs Cooking 90 to place (was 140) |
| Enchanting | Arcane Salvager needs a Runed Golden Rod (was Truesilver) and its disenchant bonus now works for low-level enchanters |
| Enchanting | Lesser Spirit on boots and bracers now gives Spirit (it was giving Resist All) |
| Engineering | Iron Grenades vendor for 1 silver 25 copper (was 5 silver) |
| Engineering | Swiftstrike Shot and Swiftfeather Arrow are no longer Bind-on-Pickup |
| Alchemy | "Recipe: Elixir of Greater Firepower" is renamed "Recipe: Elixir of Holy Power" |
The ammo change matters for anyone still choosing a profession. Blizzard flagged it early because those items "are not available until raids unlock" and being tradeable makes Engineering a seller's profession for Hunters' ammo. The professions page has the passive bonuses if you're still deciding.
Quests and world
Most quests at level 48 and above now pay gold on top of their other rewards. That is Blizzard's answer to the missing level 60 quest gold, and we cover it in a separate piece.
Shatterspear Trolls no longer give XP ("They're dancers, not fighters!"). Glade Vipers in Riverglades and the Nightbane worgen in Duskwood have more spawns, "Rescue OOX-22/FE!" can be started again in Feralas, and the bug that sent dead players to the wrong graveyard is fixed.
Monday's crash and the missing totems
On Monday, November 9, Forever realms went down for unplanned maintenance. Players who logged back in reported rollbacks. The oddest loss was Shaman totems. A thread opened on November 10 described Fire, Earth and Water totems vanishing from bags after an "Internal bag error" message, with no way to get them back from a trainer or by repeating the quest.
Kaivax replied at 01:10 UTC on November 11: "We have just deployed a fix for this to all regions. Shamans who lost a totem due to the crash should find it restored to their bag." If you were online when the fix went out, make sure you have a free bag slot, then log out and back in.
Other players say they lost spell ranks they had just trained and the gold they paid for them. Those are player reports in the support forums. I couldn't find a Blizzard reply to them as of this morning.
The reaction
Enhancement players took it worst. "Nerf Shaman....for no actual reason" reached 192 posts in under four hours. The opening post says Blizzard "gutted the entire spec and gave us nothing to compensate". The second reply, with nearly as many likes, says: "I'm getting hit for 600+ storm strike at lvl 31 this is a warranted change". A calmer objection in another thread is about feel: one Shaman wrote that the damage wasn't the point, and that pressing Stormstrike every 6 seconds was the fun part. Others are annoyed about timing, since all three Shaman specs have now changed a week after launch.
There are Shamans who like it. One reply argues the patch puts Intellect and Strength "about even" and that double Windfury makes up for a weaker Stormstrike. Nobody has posted solid numbers yet.
Warlocks are split in a similar way. A thread called 'Warlock pet "buffs"' says 15% base health lets a Voidwalker take "3 to 4 more autos" and still doesn't let it hold threat. A reply in the same thread says pets are "MUCH better than it was a few days ago" and asks people to cool down. The Wrack redesign is getting a better reception from players who have read the developers' note than from those who only saw "damage reduced by 30%".
Blizzard said on Friday it would tune on Tuesdays "and then on future Tuesdays if necessary", so November 17 is the next date to watch. Our tier list will be updated once there is real data on post-patch Enhancement and Affliction.
Sources: Kaivax, Blizzard forums, WoW: Forever Hotfixes - November 10, 2026 (posted November 11, 2026, 03:27 UTC); Kaivax, Blizzard forums, Class Tuning Incoming - November 10 (November 6, 2026); Blizzard forums, Bugged/missing shaman totems since Monday's server chaos (November 10, 2026; Kaivax reply November 11, 2026, 01:10 UTC); Blizzard forums, Nerf Shaman....for no actual reason, Enhancement Shaman Changes Nov 10, Warlock pet "buffs" and Hunter Pets got 3% nerf not a buff like was stated (November 10 and 11, 2026; post counts checked November 11, 2026, 07:30 UTC); Starym, Icy Veins, Class Changes, Profession Improvements, AH Deposit, Gold Buffs: WoW Forever Hotfixes, November 10th (November 11, 2026) and Missing Shaman Totems After Server Issues Restored (November 11, 2026).