[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":553},["ShallowReactive",2],{"site-settings":3,"article:\u002Fresources\u002Fbriefings\u002Fforever-hotfixes-november-5-plainsrunning-venomous-abyss":16,"article-surround:\u002Fresources\u002Fbriefings\u002Fforever-hotfixes-november-5-plainsrunning-venomous-abyss":542},{"id":4,"description":5,"email":6,"extension":7,"footerNote":8,"legalNotice":9,"locale":10,"meta":11,"name":12,"stem":13,"url":14,"__hash__":15},"settings\u002Fsettings.yml","Compare World of Warcraft realms by expansion, region, population and play style.","listings@realmlist.org","yml","An independent realm directory.","Not affiliated with Blizzard Entertainment.","en",{},"RealmList","settings","https:\u002F\u002Frealmlist.org","QXaYspLUSxnrVumL6oFir6PInhNsRw-yJchxEYSe1AU",{"id":17,"title":18,"author":19,"body":20,"category":496,"description":497,"draft":498,"extension":499,"featured":498,"meta":500,"navigation":501,"path":502,"publishedAt":503,"seo":504,"sitemap":505,"sources":511,"stem":533,"tags":534,"updatedAt":508,"__hash__":541},"articles\u002Fresources\u002Fbriefings\u002Fforever-hotfixes-november-5-plainsrunning-venomous-abyss.md","Plainsrunning Can No Longer Be Stacked in Battlegrounds: WoW Forever's First Post-Launch Hotfix Batch Is Live","RealmList Editorial",{"type":21,"value":22,"toc":486},"minimark",[23,32,42,48,53,60,63,81,84,88,91,189,192,196,203,207,214,217,292,299,302,306,313,331,344,348,355,469,477,480],[24,25,26,27,31],"p",{},"Two days after launch, WoW: Forever received its first full hotfix batch since going live. Kaivax posted it on the official forums at ",[28,29,30],"strong",{},"02:34 UTC on November 6"," (dated \"November 5\" in Blizzard's usual Pacific-time convention, and appearing on the EU forum at 02:35 UTC). On the retail side, the same day carried a separate hotfix post for Midnight — plus a raid tuning announcement for The Venomous Abyss that goes beyond what was live when we checked.",[24,33,34],{},[35,36],"img",{"alt":37,"height":38,"loading":39,"src":40,"width":41},"Editorial illustration: a tauren warrior with war-paint sprinting across a battlefield at dawn, leaving a glowing speed trail behind him, a torn banner on a palisade in the background",1024,"lazy","https:\u002F\u002Frealmlist.org\u002Fimages\u002Farticles\u002Fbriefings\u002Fforever-hotfixes-november-5-plainsrunning-venomous-abyss.webp",1536,[24,43,44],{},[45,46,47],"em",{},"Original editorial illustration by RealmList, generated for this article. This is artwork, not game footage or official promotional material.",[49,50,52],"h2",{"id":51},"the-headline-fix-plainsrunning-can-no-longer-be-stacked","The headline fix: Plainsrunning can no longer be stacked",[24,54,55,56,59],{},"The one PvP entry is the most consequential change in the batch. At launch, ",[28,57,58],{},"Plainsrunning — the Tauren racial that builds movement speed while running — could be stacked during a battleground's preparation phase",". Because preparation is a frozen countdown before the gates open, players could pre-build the racial's speed bonus repeatedly and then enter the match already moving far faster than anyone else could.",[24,61,62],{},"The fix has two parts, both now live:",[64,65,66,74],"ul",{},[67,68,69,70,73],"li",{},"Plainsrunning ",[28,71,72],{},"can no longer stack"," during the preparation phase.",[67,75,76,77,80],{},"Any existing stacks are ",[28,78,79],{},"cancelled the moment a player picks up a flag",", so a stacked Tauren cannot be used as a flag-carrying rocket in Warsong Gulch.",[24,82,83],{},"This is exactly the kind of launch-window exploit that classic-era servers have struggled with for years, and Blizzard patched it in under 48 hours. If you are levelling a Tauren for the speed bonus, the racial still works normally while running — only the pre-match stacking is gone.",[49,85,87],{"id":86},"the-rest-of-the-forever-list-broken-quest-npcs-on-the-1-60-route","The rest of the Forever list: broken quest NPCs on the 1-60 route",[24,89,90],{},"Everything else in the Forever post is about the levelling experience, and it reads like a to-do list of things that were blocking or degrading the 1-60 journey:",[92,93,94,107],"table",{},[95,96,97],"thead",{},[98,99,100,104],"tr",{},[101,102,103],"th",{},"Area",[101,105,106],{},"Fix",[108,109,110,119,131,139,147,158,169,177],"tbody",{},[98,111,112,116],{},[113,114,115],"td",{},"Durotar",[113,117,118],{},"Yarrog Baneshadow was respawning more slowly than intended — corrected",[98,120,121,124],{},[113,122,123],{},"Zephras",[113,125,126,127,130],{},"Lotheluum Starbreeze now offers ",[28,128,129],{},"Druid training"," as expected",[98,132,133,136],{},[113,134,135],{},"Dustwallow Marsh",[113,137,138],{},"Some murlocs were respawning too quickly — corrected",[98,140,141,144],{},[113,142,143],{},"Swamp of Sorrows",[113,145,146],{},"Pelluk would sometimes not spawn — fixed",[98,148,149,152],{},[113,150,151],{},"Zephras Isle",[113,153,154,155],{},"Trade supply vendors now sell ",[28,156,157],{},"apprentice tradeskill bags",[98,159,160,163],{},[113,161,162],{},"Vendor value",[113,164,165,166],{},"Mild Spices now sell for ",[28,167,168],{},"1 copper (was 2)",[98,170,171,174],{},[113,172,173],{},"Quest text",[113,175,176],{},"Incorrect text in \"The Sisterhood of Elune\" fixed",[98,178,179,182],{},[113,180,181],{},"Silverpine",[113,183,184,185,188],{},"Deathstalker Erland respawns ",[28,186,187],{},"much more quickly"," for the escort quest \"Escorting Erland\"",[24,190,191],{},"Two entries deserve a second look if you are playing a Druid or a crafting character. A class trainer that cannot train is a hard blocker on the class — Lotheluum Starbreeze offering Druid training \"as expected\" implies that Skyborne or Zephras-area Druids could previously be stuck without access. And the Mild Spices vendor-value cut from 2 copper to 1 is a small economy signal: it is the difference between a vendor-buyable cooking material being a zero-cost bulk commodity and a trivially farmable one.",[49,193,195],{"id":194},"what-these-notes-do-not-say","What these notes do not say",[24,197,198,199,202],{},"The list contains ",[28,200,201],{},"nothing about the two launch problems players were promised follow-ups on",": the layer-density tweak Aggrend said would ship \"tomorrow\" (November 5 Pacific) after the empty-capitals reports, and the proper boat and zeppelin fix that was supposed to replace the temporary dock portals \"in the morning\". Neither appears in the November 5 hotfix notes, and we found no official post confirming either had shipped by the time of writing. The faction lock also remains absent from the Known Issues thread. Absence here is not evidence nothing happened — hotfix lists are issue lists, not changelogs of intent — but as of this post, the launch's three biggest complaints still have no published resolution.",[49,204,206],{"id":205},"the-same-day-on-retail-a-sweeping-venomous-abyss-nerf-pass","The same day, on retail: a sweeping Venomous Abyss nerf pass",[24,208,209,210,213],{},"Blizzard's retail hotfixes for November 5 (published on the same rolling hotfixes page that carries the Forever notes) included a large tuning pass on Midnight's current raid, The Venomous Abyss. The most eye-catching number: ",[28,211,212],{},"Malevolent Resonance on The Coiled Altar now deals 60% less damage"," — the largest single reduction in the batch, on the boss that took Team Liquid 310 pulls to kill for the world-first Mythic during the Race to World First.",[24,215,216],{},"The full live list:",[92,218,219,229],{},[95,220,221],{},[98,222,223,226],{},[101,224,225],{},"Encounter",[101,227,228],{},"Change",[108,230,231,239,247,255,262,269,278,285],{},[98,232,233,236],{},[113,234,235],{},"Entombed Sentinels",[113,237,238],{},"Blood Venom pools: maximum scale reduced on Heroic and Mythic; pool duration 2 minutes on Mythic (was 5)",[98,240,241,244],{},[113,242,243],{},"Twin Fangs",[113,245,246],{},"Visceral Burst damage −40% on Mythic",[98,248,249,252],{},[113,250,251],{},"The Coiled Altar",[113,253,254],{},"Axegrinder movement speed −20% on all difficulties; Axegrinder damage −20% on Mythic",[98,256,257,259],{},[113,258,251],{},[113,260,261],{},"Gloombomb damage −20% on Mythic",[98,263,264,266],{},[113,265,251],{},[113,267,268],{},"Venom Rupture damage −15% on Mythic",[98,270,271,273],{},[113,272,251],{},[113,274,275],{},[28,276,277],{},"Malevolent Resonance damage −60%",[98,279,280,282],{},[113,281,251],{},[113,283,284],{},"Gravebound Soul Fragments last 2 additional seconds before fading on Mythic",[98,286,287,289],{},[113,288,251],{},[113,290,291],{},"Spiritcackle spawns 1 Spiteful Soulcoiler on Mythic (was 2), matching Heroic — per the developers' note",[24,293,294,295,298],{},"There was also a delves fix (Shadowguard Point: leaving a \"Basilisk Blitz\" variant mid-waygate could change your appearance and make friendly units hostile) and, the cosmetic oddity of the day: ",[28,296,297],{},"several Tortollan NPCs had their names updated",". Player threads immediately noticed that two of the three renamed Venomous Abyss bosses went from \"Iku\" and \"Nama\" to \"Epu\" and \"Nema\"; speculation about why is exactly that — speculation, unconfirmed by Blizzard.",[24,300,301],{},"For players still progressing on the Coiled Altar, the shape of the pass matters as much as the numbers: nothing mechanical is removed, but several simultaneous pressure sources shrink at once. Fewer Soulcoilers means less positioning load; longer Soul Fragment windows and a 60% damage cut to Malevolent Resonance both soften the phases where healers were most strained.",[49,303,305],{"id":304},"announced-but-not-yet-live-when-we-checked","Announced but not yet live when we checked",[24,307,308,309,312],{},"A separate blue post blue-tracked by MMO-Champion (\"The Venomous Abyss Raid Tuning Incoming\") announces further changes ",[28,310,311],{},"over the next few days",", beyond the hotfixes above:",[64,314,315,321],{},[67,316,317,320],{},[28,318,319],{},"Vashnik, the Malignant",": Malignance damage −37% on Mythic; Malignance damage-over-time duration reduced to 16 seconds on Mythic",[67,322,323,326,327,330],{},[28,324,325],{},"Ula'tek",": health reduced by 15% on Heroic; ",[28,328,329],{},"Unchecked Rage damage −61% on all difficulties","; health scaling on Blightsclae Rawling, Blightscale Viper, Blightscale Shrieker and Weakened Doomscale adjusted on Raid Finder, Normal and Heroic so smaller raid sizes are accounted for and larger raids no longer inflate health",[24,332,333,334,339,340,343],{},"That last item is a direct continuation of the raid-size-scaling problem we have been tracking since September — ",[335,336,338],"a",{"href":337},"\u002Fresources\u002Fbriefings\u002Fvenomous-abyss-ulatek-nerf-trajectory","our Ula'tek tuning trajectory article"," covers the four earlier passes on the same encounter. This would be the fifth. We could not pull the original tuning thread through the US forum search API, so the \"incoming\" items rest on the MMO-Champion blue tracker text; they were ",[28,341,342],{},"not yet present in the live hotfix notes"," at verification time, and the post itself says updates will follow when they go live.",[49,345,347],{"id":346},"update-november-7-a-second-longer-hotfix-batch-landed","Update — November 7: a second, longer hotfix batch landed",[24,349,350,351,354],{},"Blizzard appended a full second batch to the same official thread (2403040) — posted at ",[28,352,353],{},"01:07 UTC on November 7"," and dated \"November 6\" — and it is roughly three times the size of the first. The highlights:",[92,356,357,365],{},[95,358,359],{},[98,360,361,363],{},[101,362,103],{},[101,364,106],{},[108,366,367,378,385,393,401,409,417,425,433,445,453,461],{},[98,368,369,372],{},[113,370,371],{},"Warlock",[113,373,374,377],{},[28,375,376],{},"Voidwalker base health up ~40 at all levels"," — a stopgap ahead of the promised November 10 pet tuning",[98,379,380,382],{},[113,381,371],{},[113,383,384],{},"Soul Siphon no longer makes Wrack raise its own damage",[98,386,387,390],{},[113,388,389],{},"Druid",[113,391,392],{},"Bloom heals its target again; Bear Form \u002F Ravage \u002F Swiftmend tooltips corrected (text-only)",[98,394,395,398],{},[113,396,397],{},"Mage",[113,399,400],{},"The never-should-exist \"Research\" spell no longer re-learned then lost on relog; Arcane Blast lasts its full 18 seconds",[98,402,403,406],{},[113,404,405],{},"Rogue",[113,407,408],{},"Shank shows Rank 1\u002F2 and correct combo points with Boot Knife",[98,410,411,414],{},[113,412,413],{},"Warrior",[113,415,416],{},"Reckless Swings tooltip mentions Gore Drinker; The Quick and the Dead legacy talent fixed",[98,418,419,422],{},[113,420,421],{},"Cooldown Manager",[113,423,424],{},"Now shows correct crowd-control durations even with diminishing returns or orc stun reduction",[98,426,427,430],{},[113,428,429],{},"Dungeons",[113,431,432],{},"Zaetar's Spirit spawns after Princess Theradras (Maraudon); Blackmaw Hold \u002F The Drowned City disengage bug; Drowned City portal now teleports inside",[98,434,435,438],{},[113,436,437],{},"Professions",[113,439,440,441,444],{},"Leatherworking's Tanning Rack requirement 140 → ",[28,442,443],{},"125",", so it no longer blocks 125-skill patterns",[98,446,447,450],{},[113,448,449],{},"Races",[113,451,452],{},"Night Elf Shadowmeld druids lose Ravage\u002FPounce; some Warlock pet abilities no longer over-benefit from Orc Command",[98,454,455,458],{},[113,456,457],{},"Quests",[113,459,460],{},"Vorsha the Lasher, \"The Sleeper Has Awakened\" (Kerlonian now gets coffee and players start with the Horn of Awakening), Rough Wolf Pelts auto-cancel, Rediscovering the Light, Ammo for Rumbleshot, Riverglades party drops, \"Never Saddle on Quality\" spawns, Unending Torment at level 15 (was 16), Damp Note drop rate up",[98,462,463,466],{},[113,464,465],{},"World",[113,467,468],{},"Better visibility of other players and their targets at long range; Thunder Bluff barbershop relit",[24,470,471,472,476],{},"Two observations. First, the Voidwalker health bump is the only outright power change in the batch — everything else is repairs — and it prefigures the ",[335,473,475],{"href":474},"\u002Fresources\u002Fbriefings\u002Fforever-class-tuning-november-10-pets-affliction-enhancement","first class balance pass"," announced for November 10. Second, the world-wide visibility improvement (\"other players and their targets across relatively large distances\") directly addresses the empty-feeling-world complaints from launch day; it is the closest thing the notes offer to the layer-density tweak Aggrend promised, though it is not labeled as such.",[24,478,479],{},"The November 6 batch still contains no boat or zeppelin fix — the temporary dock portals remain the official answer to lost ships as of this update.",[481,482,483],"note",{},[24,484,485],{},"Verified on November 7, 2026 (Asia\u002FShanghai); the Update section was verified on November 8, 2026 against the official forum thread 2403040 post #4 via the forum JSON API (posted 2026-11-07 01:07 UTC). The full WoW: Forever hotfix text was read directly from Blizzard's official forum thread 2403040 via the forum JSON API (posted 2026-11-06 02:34 UTC); the retail Midnight hotfix contents and the Venomous Abyss tuning announcement were read from MMO-Champion's and Wowhead's blue-tracker reproductions of Blizzard's hotfixes page (news 24307310) and cross-checked against Duskforge, ForeverWisp and Master of Warcraft. The \"tuning incoming\" items for Vashnik and Ula'tek were announced but not listed as live at verification time, and we could not retrieve the original tuning thread via the US forum search API — treat their exact live status as unconfirmed. The Tauren preparation-phase stacking behaviour is described by Blizzard's own fix wording; we have not tested it in the client. Whether the promised layer-density tweak and transport fix shipped is unverified. All percentages are Blizzard's published values and apply at the time of posting.",{"title":487,"searchDepth":488,"depth":488,"links":489},"",2,[490,491,492,493,494,495],{"id":51,"depth":488,"text":52},{"id":86,"depth":488,"text":87},{"id":194,"depth":488,"text":195},{"id":205,"depth":488,"text":206},{"id":304,"depth":488,"text":305},{"id":346,"depth":488,"text":347},"briefings","Blizzard's November 5 hotfixes — posted November 6 UTC — kill the Tauren racial exploit that let players enter battlegrounds at exaggerated speed, fix a chain of broken quest NPCs on the 1-60 route, and quietly nerf two vendor values. The same day, the retail Midnight raid got one of its biggest nerf passes of the season. Here is everything confirmed, and what these notes do not say.",false,"md",{},true,"\u002Fresources\u002Fbriefings\u002Fforever-hotfixes-november-5-plainsrunning-venomous-abyss","2026-11-07",{"title":18,"description":497},{"loc":502,"images":506,"lastmod":508,"changefreq":509,"priority":510},[507],{"loc":40},"2026-11-08","daily",0.8,[512,515,518,521,524,527,530],{"label":513,"url":514},"Blizzard Entertainment (Kaivax) — WoW: Forever Hotfixes - November 5, 2026 (official forum thread 2403040, posted 2026-11-06 02:34 UTC, read directly via the forum JSON API)","https:\u002F\u002Fus.forums.blizzard.com\u002Fen\u002Fwow\u002Ft\u002Fwow-forever-hotfixes-november-5-2026\u002F2403040",{"label":516,"url":517},"Blizzard Entertainment — Hotfixes: November 5, 2026 (official hotfixes page, worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com news 24307310; retail Midnight section)","https:\u002F\u002Fworldofwarcraft.blizzard.com\u002Fen-us\u002Fnews\u002F24307310",{"label":519,"url":520},"MMO-Champion — WoW Hotfixes - November 5, 2026 and The Venomous Abyss Raid Tuning Incoming (blue tracker, published 2026-11-06; full quoted text of both posts)","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.mmo-champion.com\u002Fcontent\u002F",{"label":522,"url":523},"Wowhead — Hotfixes: November 5, 2026 — World of Warcraft — Blizzard News (blue tracker mirror of news 24307310)","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.wowhead.com\u002Fblue-tracker\u002Fnews\u002Feu\u002Fhotfixes-november-5-2026-world-of-warcraft-blizzard-news-24307310",{"label":525,"url":526},"Duskforge — WoW Forever fixes a Tauren racial exploit and a few launch issues (independent write-up, full hotfix list reproduced)","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.duskforge.gg\u002Fnews\u002Fwow-forever-hotfix-fixes-tauren-plainsrunning-in-pvp",{"label":528,"url":529},"ForeverWisp — WoW Forever November 5 hotfixes: quest spawns, Druid training and profession bags (notes the Forever hotfix post appeared on the EU forum on November 6 at 02:35 UTC)","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.foreverwisp.com\u002Fguides\u002Fwow-forever-november-5-hotfixes-leveling-quests",{"label":531,"url":532},"Master of Warcraft — WoW Coiled Altar Nerfs: Seven Changes in Midnight (independent analysis of the November 5 tuning, including the 310-pull Race to World First context)","http:\u002F\u002Fwww.masterofwarcraft.net\u002F2026\u002F11\u002Fwow-midnight-coiled-altar-seven-nerfs-november.html","resources\u002Fbriefings\u002Fforever-hotfixes-november-5-plainsrunning-venomous-abyss",[535,536,537,538,539,540],"WoW Forever","Hotfix","PvP","Vanilla","Midnight","Raids","OwBsyiUw2jSPvPmSrHPYme36p8PdmfpY5yRUIQVLZFg",[543,548],{"title":544,"path":545,"stem":546,"description":547,"children":-1},"Blizzard Says WoW: Forever Had the Biggest Launch in WoW History — by Peak Concurrent Players and Returning Players","\u002Fresources\u002Fbriefings\u002Fforever-launch-records-peak-ccu-returning-players","resources\u002Fbriefings\u002Fforever-launch-records-peak-ccu-returning-players","An official social post on November 7 declares two all-time WoW records for the November 4 launch, with no actual numbers attached. China's server went further, announcing one million concurrent players. What is confirmed, what is third-party context, and what the records cannot tell you.",{"title":549,"path":550,"stem":551,"description":552,"children":-1},"Whitemane's Road Ahead: Stormstout Opens December 12, Naxxramas Goes Flex, Ascended Dungeons Arrive — and a Warning About Stolen Passwords","\u002Fresources\u002Fbriefings\u002Fwhitemane-road-ahead-stormstout-naxx-flex-ascended","resources\u002Fbriefings\u002Fwhitemane-road-ahead-stormstout-naxx-flex-ascended","Whitemane's November 3 roadmap post packs a week of changes and a launch date into one announcement: a flexible 10-30 player Naxxramas Normal with no instance lockout, harder Ascended heroics from November 4, Personal Loot across every level-80 raid, a Stormstout launch on December 12 with realm closures to follow — and the disclosure that about 50 hijacked accounts trace back to a breached WotLK realm that stored passwords in plaintext.",1794069775353]