Most of the November 13 hotfix list for World of Warcraft: Forever is routine work: quest items that didn't drop, stats on the wrong gear, a few spells that behaved oddly. The change that will matter most to how people level is in the dungeons section. Blizzard says that "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."
That's a blunt rule. If one person in the group is high enough level that the enemies count as trivial to them, nobody in the group gets experience. Blizzard's notes don't say why, but the obvious target is the high-level character dragging low-level friends or customers through a dungeon for fast XP. That's my reading, not Blizzard's stated reason. The timing makes sense, too. The November 9 hotfixes raised dungeon experience across the board: "Experience rewarded for all enemy kills in dungeons increased by 50%." Once Blizzard made dungeons a better way to level, carrying low-level players through them got more rewarding as well. This change appears to keep the bonus for groups of similar level and remove it for boosted groups.
A ring nerf with an exit
The other notable change is to gear. Blizzard writes: "Blessed Band of Light’s Hit stat has been removed. Channeler's Ring now has Spell Power (was Spirit)." The developer notes pair the nerf with a way out:
"Players may exchange their Blessed Band of Light for a Channeler's Ring if they wish to. Until raids open, this exchange will be the first item on Pix Xizzix's vendor list if you have a Blessed Band of Light. This exchange cannot be reversed."
Blizzard doesn't explain why it offers the swap. My guess is that it's meant for players who already own the ring and don't want to be stuck with a weaker version of it.
The phrase "until raids open" is worth noticing, because raid gearing came up earlier in the week too. The November 10 hotfixes included a large rework of Enhancement Shaman, cutting Stormstrike to "100% weapon damage (was 150%)" and raising its cooldown "to 8 seconds (was 6 seconds)." The developer notes gave the reason directly: "We want to make this adjustment now because it has significant implications for gearing in the upcoming raid." My read is that the ring swap fits the same pattern. It looks like Blizzard wants to settle what items and specs are worth before people start competing for raid loot.
Paladins get one melee Judgement back
The Paladin changes reverse part of an earlier hotfix. On November 11, Blizzard wrote that "Judgement changed to now be considered a Ranged Attack," which stopped it from counting as melee for item and effect procs. Two days later, one Judgement is an exception: "Judgement of Command now activates on-hit effects and counts as a melee attack." The developer notes add that "All other judgements will continue to be considered Ranged attacks." In the original game, Command was the only Judgement treated as a melee attack, so this change restores that.
Shamans got a behavior fix for Windfury Totem. According to Blizzard, "Windfury Totem is now correctly activated by all melee abilities even if it doesn't involve your main hand weapon." The developer notes add an exception for offhand hits: "Strikes from abilities that involve your offhand weapon like Whirlwind or Mutilate do not have a chance to activate Windfury. The main-hand strike from those abilities still does."
Restoration Druids got a fix and a buff together. Blizzard "Fixed a bug incorrectly allowing Wild Growth to be cast while moving," and the "Wild Growth spell healing coefficient increased to 6.6% (was 3.3%)." Wild Growth can no longer be cast on the move, and its healing coefficient has doubled.
Another fix affects every class. Blizzard "Fixed a bug causing players to have no diminishing returns against creature stuns" and fixed the same problem for players stunning creatures. In other words, diminishing returns now apply when players and monsters stun each other, in both directions.
The smaller stuff
- The Drowned City: "Non-boss enemies now respawn 2 hours after being killed (was 1 hour)."
- Mulgore: "Quillboar spawning rates have been reduced in the starting area and should now be less aggressive." Venture Co. spawns there were reduced too.
- Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza: Blizzard "Improved the weekly fishing tournament by greatly increasing the number of players per ruleset who can win," and says "We continue to work on performance issues with the tournament, and we will deploy additional fixes in the weeks to come."
- User interface: Blizzard "Fixed a bug that caused Action Bar settings to reset every time players who acquired Secondary Talents logged out of the game."
- Librarians: Blizzard "Fixed an issue where Owen Thadd and Garion Wendell would refuse to accept any books," and added: "Our outstanding library fees have been paid and we're all back in good standing!"
One item from earlier in the week is still worth checking. On November 11, Blizzard said "The Item Restoration service has been disabled while we investigate and address a critical bug." The November 13 list doesn't say it's back. Blizzard notes the page itself "will be updated as additional hotfixes are applied," so look there before opening a ticket about a deleted item.
Mason's take: The zero-XP rule is the right decision, even though it's heavy-handed. It will catch some innocent groups, like a level 40 player helping a guildmate through Deadmines, and they'll lose experience they'd never have thought of as a boost. But after a 50% XP increase, leaving carries alone would have made boosting the fastest way to level. A loose rule would just have been exploited. A strict one costs some honest groups a little, and the rest of the game is better off.
Reporting notes
