WoW Forever November 10 hotfixes: Stormstrike nerf, a new Wrack and quest gold

The class tuning Blizzard announced for November 10 is live. It arrived in the November 10 hotfix list, posted early on November 11 UTC, together with a gold change for high-level quests and a long list of profession and quest fixes. We covered the plan in Class tuning lands November 10; this is what actually shipped and what it means for your character.

Enhancement Shaman: Windfury first, Intellect second

Blizzard reversed most of the beta changes that pushed Enhancement towards caster gear:

• Stormstrike now hits for 100% weapon damage (was 150%) on an 8 sec cooldown (was 6 sec).
• Mental Dexterity turns 33/66/100% of your Intellect into attack power (was 50/100/150%).
• Maelstrom Weapon gives 20% less cast time and mana cost per stack at every rank. Ranks now decide how often it procs: 6 to 10 times a minute, scaled by your main-hand speed, instead of 20 times a minute at any rank. The tooltip shows your chance per swing, for example 60% with five points and a 3.6 speed weapon.
• Weapon imbues and weapon totems now stack. Your Windfury Weapon and a Windfury Totem can both proc on the same attacks.
• Rage of the Storm, the Shaman quest reward, now has 16 Strength instead of 16 Intellect and a 3.6 speed.

Blizzard says it wants Windfury at the heart of the spec and wanted this done before the first raid, so nobody wins contested caster items that lose their value later. For you that means slow two-handed weapons and Strength or attack power gear, with some Intellect or spell power as a bonus. Our Enhancement guides now use the new values. One catch: at the time of writing the in-game tooltips of Stormstrike and Mental Dexterity still show the old numbers, because the client data has not caught up with the server change.

Affliction Warlock: Wrack speeds up your DoTs

• Wrack no longer adds 10% to your periodic damage. While you channel it, your Corruption, Siphon Life and Bane of Agony on the target tick twice as fast. Their duration does not change, and the time Wrack skips is kept after the channel ends or is interrupted.
• Wrack’s own damage is down 30%.
• Soul Siphon now counts only Corruption, Siphon Life and Bane of Agony: Drain Life, Drain Soul and Wrack gain 4/8/12% per effect, up to 36%. Other Affliction effects no longer count.

The fix Blizzard promised is in: just channelling Wrack is no longer better than keeping your DoTs up. Put Corruption, Siphon Life and your Bane on the target first, then Wrack, then drain. Our Affliction guides and the Warlock talent page reflect the new Wrack.

Pets: tougher demons, Hunter pets corrected

• Warlock: the Voidwalker, Succubus and Incubus have about 15% more base health, and so does the Imp, whose Firebolt also hits harder at its first four ranks.
• Hunter: pets had 150% of their normal health because of a bug. Blizzard corrected that to 115%. That is still tougher than normal, but noticeably less than in the first week, so watch your pet’s health bar on big pulls.
• Summon Hawk hits about 80% harder in melee.
• Arcane Shot and Summon Hawk now cost 11% of base mana at every rank. Blizzard says the cost is nearly the same at levels 6 and 60 and slightly lower in between.

Other class changes

• Druid: Nature’s Swiftness now also makes Wild Growth instant, and Omen of Clarity works again after a spec swap.
• Warrior: Sweeping Strikes no longer loses charges when no second target is hit.
• Priest: Vampiric Embrace healing no longer triggers the Revelation enchant.
• Warlock: Bane of Havoc now triggers the global cooldown.
• Paladin and Shaman: Redoubt and Maelstrom Weapon can be tracked in the Cooldown Manager.

More gold from level 48 quests

WoW Forever does not turn quest experience into gold at level 60. Blizzard removed that on purpose, so nobody holds finished quests until 60, but it left too little gold in the late levels. From November 10, most quests of level 48 and higher pay extra gold, including many that paid nothing before. Repeatable quests, quests that already give a valuable item and quick, trivial quests are not included. Hand quests in as you finish them; our gold guide has the rest of the plan.

In a separate post Blizzard also put numbers on the November 8 dungeon change: dungeon kill experience went from 40% to 60% of the Classic Era values, and Blizzard says that pace fits the rest of the game. See dungeons or questing for what that means for your route.

Professions, items and quests

• Auction House: the minimum deposit is now 1 copper (was 1 silver), and mail from the Auction House arrives after the intended 60 minutes again.
• Engineering: Swiftstrike Shot and Swiftfeather Arrow are no longer Bind-on-Pickup. Blizzard flags this early because it may change your profession choice before raids open.
• Blacksmithing: Coarse Grinding Stone gives skill-ups up to 90. Cooking: the Journeyman Campfire Kit needs Cooking 90 to place. Enchanting: Arcane Salvager needs a Runed Golden Rod, and the Lesser Spirit enchants for boots and bracers now give Spirit.
• Items: racial vendor mounts are Bind-on-Pickup, and Sparklance Wand does Arcane damage.
• Quests: more Glade Vipers for “Poison Tips” in the Riverglades, more Nightbane worgen for “Worgen in the Woods”, and fixes for “Helping Hands”, “Rescue OOX-22/FE!” and the “Call of Water” chain.
• Shatterspear Trolls no longer give experience. Blizzard’s note: they are dancers, not fighters.

Current open issues are on our launch status page.