WoW Forever’s First Week: Hotfixes, a Faire, and Tuning on Tuesday

A record launch, by Blizzard’s telling

Two days after launch, Blizzard said Forever had set two records: the biggest launch in WoW history by peak concurrent players, and the highest number of returning players in WoW history. The announcement came from the official World of Warcraft account on November 6 (the Bluesky post itself was timestamped 6:34 p.m. PT, per one blog quoting it) — and executive producer Holly Longdale added a third milestone on November 7, saying Forever had drawn the most new players for a WoW launch in 15 years.

What Blizzard did not share is any number at all. There is no published peak concurrent figure, no returning-player total, and no statement of what the previous record was. The only hard launch figures Blizzard has given are infrastructure: 3,924 virtual machines, 251,136 GB of memory and 70,480 CPU cores running the launch, and 8,862,354 characters created in the beta. NetEase reported separately that Forever passed 1 million concurrent players in China — a regional figure, not a global total. Treat the record as a ranking Blizzard claims, not a count anyone can check.

The third-party numbers tell the same story from the outside, and they are third-party numbers, not Blizzard’s. Streams Charts put the launch-day Twitch peak at 1,119,734 viewers. NetEase’s 1 million-plus concurrent players in China is a regional record, not a global total. None of it is a Blizzard player count — and Blizzard has still given no player number anywhere, so do not quote one as if it had.

Three hotfixes in three days — then a fourth with no notes

The launch week was patched fast. Hotfix 1.60.7a (Build 71248) landed November 5, 1.60.7b (Build 71255) on November 6, and 1.60.7c (Build 71262) on November 7 — three hotfixes in three days, all logged by community manager Kaivax on the official forums. The November 7 patch fixed Druid Bloom healing the wrong target, Mage Research and Study spell progression, Rogue Shank labels and Boot Knife combo points, gave Warlock Voidwalkers about 40 more base health at all levels, stopped Soul Siphon from making Wrack scale itself, and fixed Cooldown Manager tracking, a Maraudon spawn, Drowned City and Blackmaw Hold pathing, and respawn and loot issues in Dun Morogh and Durotar.

Then came a fourth update with no Blizzard notes at all. A November 8 server hotfix added 172 new items to the client files — dungeon epics and rares including the Robes of Insight, Scarlet Forgemaster’s Bindings, Cape of the Black Baron and Ritssyn’s Wand of Bad Mojo, part of client build 1.60.1.70862. Those contents come from datamined files, not an official list, so treat them as found, not announced. Wowhead also reported broken layering in the Thousand Needles harpy cave causing quest competition — a bug report, not a patch.

Darkmoon Faire opens Monday

The Darkmoon Faire opens Monday, November 9, with its first stop in Elwynn Forest, and runs for one week. It is the first faire of the new version — the traveling carnival’s usual tickets, games and prizes, in the starting zone where most players are leveling. If you are planning a session around it, Monday is the day: the faire packs up after the week is out.

Class tuning lands Tuesday — and the numbers are in

The first class tuning landed Tuesday, November 10, per Kaivax’s November 6 forum post, and the numbers are now published (Kaivax, “WoW: Forever Hotfixes – November 10, 2026,” posted 03:27 UTC November 11). The biggest hit is Enhancement Shaman: Stormstrike cut from 150% to 100% weapon damage, its cooldown raised from 6 to 8 seconds, and Mental Dexterity cut from 50/100/150% to 33/66/100% of Intellect to Attack Power. Maelstrom Weapon now grants 20% per stack at every rank, proccing 6/7/8/9/10 times per minute by rank, and weapon imbues and weapon totems now stack — Windfury Weapon and Windfury Totem each roll separately.

Affliction Warlock gets a rework rather than a straight nerf: Wrack deals 30% less damage and no longer raises damage-over-time damage, but while it is channelled, Corruption, Siphon Life and Bane of Agony tick 100% faster. Soul Siphon now counts only those three damage-over-time spells, at 4/8/12% each, up to 36%. Pets were retuned too: Warlock demons (Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Incubus) gain about 15% base health, and Hunter pets were corrected from 150% to 115% of normal health — a bug fix, not a balance call. Summon Hawk now costs 11% of base Mana at all ranks, and Hawk melee damage is up about 80%.

The economy changed in the same hotfix. Most quests of level 48+ now pay extra gold, and the Auction House minimum deposit drops from 1 silver to 1 copper. The quest-gold change is now confirmed as applied: it appears in Blizzard’s published November 10 hotfix list, mirrored by MMO-Champion, and the WoW Forever tracker lists it among the applied November 10 hotfixes. Also in the same window: a faction-balance change makes it harder to create a character on the bigger faction of a PvP ruleset, and a November 11 fix restored Shaman totem items lost in the November 9 server crash.

First raids open December 9

The first raids open December 9: Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit and Onyxia’s Lair.

What it means for buyers

Nothing in the first week changes what you can buy: the hotfixes are fixes, the faire is an in-game event, and the tuning changes how classes play rather than what they cost. The tuning may shift which classes players level first, but there is no reason to pay for leveling help before the numbers land and the new balance is known. If you do buy, check that any listing names the live version — Forever is a separate version from Retail and Classic, and a listing for the wrong one is the wrong purchase. See the WoW Forever page for the verified sellers listed there.

Games in this story

WoW Forever