THE WOW FOREVER COLLECTION · DISPATCH · RESEARCH CHECKED NOVEMBER 14, 2026
Short answer: the November 13 hotfixes are the biggest batch since launch, and one line matters more than the rest. A kill inside a dungeon now gives zero experience to every party member if the enemy is trivial (grey) to even one of them. Blizzard gave no explanation, and players read it as an anti-boosting rule that also catches friends a few levels apart. The same notes double Wild Growth's healing coefficient, put Judgement of Command back on melee rules, fix the bug that wiped action bars after buying Dual Spec, and raise the number of Fishing Extravaganza winners. Separately, Blizzard has mailed gold to players who lost purchased training during the November 9 server trouble.
Kaivax posted the list on the US forums at 01:54 UTC on November 14 (the evening of November 13 Pacific). The refund notice went up 18 minutes earlier.
The dungeon XP rule
The full text of the change:
Killing enemies in dungeons now awards zero experience to all party members if the level of the enemy is trivial to the level of one or more of the party members.
"Trivial" is the game's own word for a grey mob, the kind that gives you no XP when you kill it solo. Under this rule, one person in the party seeing a grey nameplate is enough to zero that kill for all five.
Three things about how it works:
- It is checked per enemy. Dungeons span several levels. If the early trash is grey to your highest member and the later trash is green, you lose XP on the early pulls and get it on the later ones. A player in one of the reaction threads made the same point: "if lvl 18 mobs are grey to someone but level 23 mobs are green, then the level 23 will still give exp to the group."
- The note only mentions kill experience. It says nothing about quest turn-ins, and first-time dungeon quests have been the best XP in a run since beta. Nothing in the notes suggests they changed.
- It applies inside dungeons. The wording does not cover the open world.
We wrote before launch, going on player accounts, that a party member far above the mobs already cost the group its XP. Whatever was in place before, this is the first time Blizzard has put a rule like it in writing, and players who ran dungeons this week with an overleveled friend say it is new to them.
When does a mob turn grey?
Blizzard has not published Forever's grey thresholds. In Classic Era the cutoff is your level minus 5, minus one more for every 10 levels you have, up to level 39. From 40 it is your level minus 1, minus one for every 5 levels. If Forever uses the same table (we have not seen Blizzard say it changed), it looks like this:
| Your level | Enemies this level or lower are grey |
|---|---|
| 15 | 9 |
| 20 | 13 |
| 25 | 18 |
| 30 | 22 |
| 35 | 27 |
| 40 | 31 |
| 45 | 35 |
| 50 | 39 |
So the gap is about six or seven levels at 20 and grows to eleven by 50. A level 25 joining a dungeon whose trash starts at level 17 or 18 will zero those pulls for everyone. A level 22 in the same run will not.
Before you invite, check the highest level in the group against the lowest-level trash in the dungeon. If that player only needs the quests or a drop, the rest of the party is giving up kill XP on some pulls to bring them. That may still be worth it for a tank or healer, since most of a run's XP comes from the quests. Our dungeon quest hub lists which quests each dungeon has, so you can see what a run is worth before you form the group.
What players are saying
Blizzard did not attach a developers' note to the line, so the reasoning below is the community's.
The most common reading is that it targets boosting, where a high-level character clears a dungeon for paying or friendly passengers. Several players welcomed it on those terms. "They put a stop to level boosting again," one wrote, and another called it "the best compromise" if kill XP were also put back to Classic values.
The objection is about the cutoff, not the idea. The busiest thread on it reached 101 posts in about two and a half hours and opens with a player whose friends have outleveled them: "If you wanted to limit paid runs, it should be something reasonable like >15 or 20 levels." The same poster points out that nobody boosts at a seven-level gap. A calmer suggestion in another thread asks Blizzard to remove group XP only when a mob is trivial to someone "by at least 5 levels", so that groups don't start turning away slightly overleveled players who still need the quests. That poster says a similar cutoff caused problems in pre-Outland dungeons on the TBC Anniversary realms, which we haven't verified.
There is also a practical complaint about quest chains that send you back to a dungeon you have outgrown. One player wondered how they would ever get a group for an older dungeon once its trash is grey to them.
All of this lands on top of the argument that has run since beta. Kill XP in dungeons sits at 60% of Classic Era values after the November 8 increase, and Kaivax said on November 10 that Blizzard feels that number "is working well". A thread titled "Forcing questing in the open world causes loss of interest" drew 149 posts overnight. On the other side, players keep pointing out that the nerf was always about dungeon spam beating questing as well as about boosting. If you are leveling a tank or healer, our guide to leveling through the dungeon XP rules still applies, with this one extra check on party levels.
Class changes
Druid. Wild Growth's spell healing coefficient goes from 3.3% to 6.6%. In the same note Blizzard fixed a bug that let it be cast while moving. On November 10 it became instant under Nature's Swiftness, so that is the way to use it on the move now.
Paladin. Two days after turning Judgement into a ranged attack, Blizzard carved out one exception: "Judgement of Command now activates on-hit effects and counts as a melee attack." The developers' note says every other Judgement stays ranged, and that this matches the original game, where Command was the only one treated as melee. Retribution players who complained on November 11 about losing procs get them back if they are judging Command.
Shaman. "Windfury Totem is now correctly activated by all melee abilities even if it doesn't involve your main hand weapon." The limit is that off-hand strikes from abilities like Whirlwind or Mutilate still cannot trigger it. The main-hand hit from those abilities can. This is a buff for the melee in a Shaman's group more than for the Shaman.
Everyone. Stuns between players and creatures had no diminishing returns in either direction. Both are fixed, which means chain-stunning a mob gets weaker and so does a mob chain-stunning you.
The rest are bug fixes: Frost Nova now breaks on proc damage and on Blizzard, Berserker Rage removes Sap again, Siphon Life Rank 1 can't be cast while silenced, and the Priest perk The Quick and the Dead reduces Divine Spirit's cost as intended. The talent calculator has the current trees if any of this changes your build.
Dungeons, spawns and the fishing tournament
- The Drowned City: non-boss enemies respawn after 2 hours, up from 1.
- The Deadmines: Sneed ejects properly if his Shredder is stunned as it dies.
- Stratholme: Balnazzar counts toward the Master Spelunker Legacy Challenge.
- More spawns: Lesser Rock Elementals in Badlands, and tigers, panthers and raptors in Stranglethorn Vale.
- Fewer spawns: Quillboar and Venture Co. in the Mulgore starting area, which should also be "less aggressive".
- Nethergarde Keep guards no longer drop loot.
For the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza, Blizzard says it has "greatly" increased the number of players per ruleset who can win. It did not give a number. After the first tournament on November 8, players reported the event ending within about half an hour once the winner slots filled. Blizzard adds that it is still working on the tournament's performance problems.
Items: a free ring swap
Most of the item section is stat corrections, but one needs a decision from you. Blessed Band of Light has lost its Hit, and Channeler's Ring now has Spell Power where it had Spirit. Because that changes which ring a caster wants, Blizzard is letting you trade: if you own a Blessed Band of Light, the exchange for a Channeler's Ring is the first item on Pix Xizzix's vendor list until raids open. Blizzard is clear that it "cannot be reversed". Wowhead's database still showed the old stats on both rings when we checked on November 14, so read the in-game tooltips before you swap.
Other fixes:
- Taran Icebreaker now behaves as a two-handed mace. It had been acting as a one-hander.
- Gloves of Holy Might only trigger from harmful spells and abilities that deal damage.
- Glimmering Mithril Insignia no longer requires you to be able to wear Mail.
- Darkspear signet rings now match the Mp5 on their Alliance equivalents.
Quests
The party-loot fixes are the useful ones. Deadwood Key, Drop of Stolen Life, Ring of the Fallen Soldier, Venom-dripping heart and Blackthorne Intelligence now drop for everyone in the party who has the quest, and Sootfur's pelt is shared during "Coyote Huntin'".
Blizzard also fixed a bug where one player picking up "Return to the Port" deleted nearby players' quest items for "The Cook in the Cage". Rogues on "The Talisman of Kazdor" enter the right version of Zul'Farrak, Pix Xizzix's weekly dungeon quests clear from your log at reset, and the book collectors in Undercity and Stormwind accept books again. Blizzard's note on that one: "Our outstanding library fees have been paid and we're all back in good standing!"
The Dual Spec action bar bug is fixed
The notes close with: "Fixed a bug that caused Action Bar settings to reset every time players who acquired Secondary Talents logged out of the game." That is the bug we flagged in the November 11 hotfix article, where bars wiped on relog after buying Dual Spec. A Blizzard support agent on the EU forums had said earlier on November 13 that a hotfix was being worked on. If you held off buying the second spec at 40 because of it, you can go ahead. If you installed a bar-saving addon as a workaround, keep your saved profile for a few days until you are sure.
Refunds for training lost on November 9
In a separate post, Kaivax said Blizzard has refunded skill purchases made on Monday, November 9 between 1:17 p.m. and 2:17 p.m. PST (8:17 to 9:17 a.m. AEDT on November 10), when server problems "caused some players to lose training they purchased". The refund is gold by in-game mail, equal to what you paid. You still have to visit the trainer and buy the ranks again. If you trained in that hour and found spells missing afterward, check your mailbox.
Still waiting
- Auction House deposit: the 1 copper minimum is still scheduled for weekly maintenance on November 17 (November 18 in Europe).
- Item Restoration: the November 11 notes disabled it, and nothing in this batch says it is back.
- PvP rank points: players have reported since the November 10 reset that they stop earning rank points at Rank 3. Threads on it were still getting replies on November 14. Blizzard has not responded in them, so treat this as player-reported.
Raids open December 9. With Tuesday's maintenance carrying the Auction House change and Blizzard's standing promise of more class tuning, the next thing to watch is whether the grey-mob rule gets a developers' note or a wider margin before then.
Sources: Kaivax, Blizzard forums, WoW: Forever Hotfixes - November 13, 2026 (November 14, 2026, 01:54 UTC) and Lost Training Purchase Refunds - November 13 (November 14, 2026, 01:36 UTC); Blizzard, WoW: Forever Hotfixes (checked November 14, 2026); Kaivax, Blizzard forums, dungeon kill XP at 60% of Classic Era (November 10, 2026); Aggrend, Blizzard forums, dungeon XP fix and reasoning (October 8, 2026); Starym, Icy Veins, Class Changes, Enemy Spawn Adjustments, Item Tweaks: WoW Forever Hotfixes, November 13th (November 14, 2026); Sam Okonkwo, Timesaver, WoW Forever Patch Notes (Nov 13) (updated November 14, 2026); WoW Forever NOW on X, post on the grey-mob rule (November 14, 2026, 01:57 UTC); Blizzard forums player threads The Grey Mob no XP dungeon change, "trivial" is too harsh a cutoff for dungeon group XP, Another lazy, hamfisted, and not thought out change to the game, Dungeon XP hotfix when mobs are gray is bad, Forcing questing in the open world causes loss of interest, Fishing Competition Bugged and Hotfix PvP Rank points for Rank 3 (November 8 to 14, 2026; read November 14, 2026, 07:30 UTC); Blizzard EU forums, Action Bars Not Saving After Purchasing Dual Specialisation (support reply, November 13, 2026); Wowhead Forever database, Channeler's Ring and Blessed Band of Light (checked November 14, 2026).