November 9 hotfixes: the Drowned City toned down, Druid fixes, and fewer players packed into zones

An orc hunter: a painting from the WoW Forever client's credits

2026-11-10 · ForeverDB

Blizzard's November 9 hotfixes nerf the Drowned City's Deathless Marrow fight, fix a run of Druid and other class bugs, give 50% more experience from dungeon kills, and lower the player population in congested zones, with a bigger cut on the PvP ruleset.

Kaivax posted a round of WoW: Forever hotfixes dated November 9. It covers a long list of class, dungeon, quest and world fixes. These go live on the servers, so you don't download anything, and Blizzard keeps hotfixes on one page it can add to through the day.

These are server-side hotfixes. The wording below is copied from Blizzard's post. Encounter health, damage and experience are set on Blizzard's servers, so the game files can't confirm those numbers either way.

The Drowned City turned down

The Drowned City is one of Forever's new dungeons, levels 35 to 40, off the coast of Stranglethorn Vale. Blizzard says its creatures were hitting too hard, and the Deathless Marrow encounter got several cuts:

Creatures inside the Drowned City were doing about 30% more damage than intended. That's fixed.
Deathless Marrow: the creatures have 25% less health.
The Deathless Sorcerer's Fireball does 25% less damage, and the Deathless Watcher's Charge does 50% less.
The Deathless Guardian casts Shield Slam about half as often.

The Shaper's Terrace also got a loot fix: Vitrix, Snowtalon and Cinder now drop loot and higher-level skinning materials, and Cinder should spawn properly after players use the Archival Panel.

More experience from dungeon kills

One line will matter to anyone grinding instances:

Experience rewarded for all enemy kills in dungeons is up by 50%. That's on every mob, not just bosses, so clearing trash in a dungeon now gives noticeably more than it did. Alongside it, a batch of specific dungeon bugs were fixed: Zarla Ober in Alcaz Prison now drops loot, you can release after dying in Blackfathom Deeps, the Blackrock Depths throne room doors open after a wipe on Emperor Thaurissan, Heart of the Mountain can be looted more than once, and you can no longer mount inside Stratholme.

Druid

The Druid fixes are mostly display and Feral behaviour:

The Cooldown Manager no longer shows Berserk, and now shows Lacerate once you've learned it.
Idol of Ferocity no longer lists Mangle as an ability it discounts.
Feral: Feral Charge (Cat) now puts you in combat straight away.
Feral: Natural Instinct now applies correctly to Lacerate and Pounce.
Feral: the Pounce Stun debuff now shows up in the enemy's debuffs while it's active.

The other classes

Hunter: Vulgara the Insatiable and the Shrieklings of Zephras belong to the correct pet families now, and Hunters no longer aggro enemies from very far away by targeting them.
Mage: Flamestrike's ground ticks no longer wrongly use up Clearcasting, and Arcane Concentration's proc chance now splits across the cast and each bolt (it was giving 10% on the cast and again per bolt).
Paladin: Consecration no longer stops dealing its increased damage when a target inside it despawns, and the Cooldown Manager shows Seals correctly.
Priest: Shadowform no longer breaks when you cast Fear Ward, and Power Infusion now stays on an ally you cast it on.
Shaman: Lightning Overload deals the right amount for Lightning Bolt, the Lightning Mastery visual is updated, and Improved Ghost Wolf holds the Night Watchman's Torch in its mouth again.
Warlock: completing “Summon Felsteed” now grants the right riding skill, and Incinerate can no longer be used by non-Destruction specs.
Warrior: Thunderclap no longer tracks a duration on the target in the Cooldown Manager and now only shows its cooldown.

If you summoned your Felsteed before this hotfix, Blizzard has a note on how it sorts itself out:

Developers’ notes: If a player completed the quest before this hotfix, summoning the Felsteed once will grant them the apprentice riding skill, allowing them to ride other mounts if desired. Kaivax, Community Manager

Fewer players in crowded zones

Blizzard has lowered the number of players in zones where there was significant congestion, and it's a bigger cut on the PvP ruleset:

Developers’ notes: We’ve made this an even bigger change on the PvP ruleset, following feedback from players that they felt overcrowded in several places. We will continue to monitor how zones feel and make further adjustments as necessary. Kaivax, Community Manager

A handful of named enemies also had their spawn timers tuned: Ivar the Foul in Silverpine Forest and Ferocitas the Dream Eater in Teldrassil respawn faster, Malduko Cloudcrush in Zephras a little slower, and Young Diemetradons in Un'Goro Crater spawn at level 51 to 52 again instead of 58.

Items, PvP and quests

Berdun's Trusty Rifle no longer has random stats and is no longer Bind-on-Equip.
The Nifty Stopwatch no longer shares a cooldown with Dash, Blink, Sprint and other movement abilities.
The Pouch of Violet Dust now gives the extra hour of Camp Benefits as intended, Gloves of Holy Might work as intended, and Waylaid Crates and Craftsman's Writs drop inside dungeons again.
Warsong Gulch: an invisible wall that was blocking the roof of the Alliance base is gone. Blizzard adds, “Please be careful up there.”
A string of quest fixes, including party-wide quest items for “The Monster Surfaces”, “Croaky's Head” and “Elmpaw's Head”, Astor Hadren fighting back during “The Deathstalkers”, and “Find Bingles” moving from Ironforge to Loch Modan where it belongs.

There's also a Tauren racial fix: Cultivation now only goes on cooldown after the cast finishes. The full list is in Blizzard's hotfix post, and it may grow as more fixes go live. Wowhead also wrote the hotfixes up.