WRITTEN ARTICLE · CLASS FIXES WHILE LEVELING
WoW Forever class fixes: Clearcasting, Hunter aggro and Shadowform
The November 9 class fixes explained: Mage Clearcasting, distant Hunter pulls, Priest buffs, Feral abilities and changes to the built-in Cooldown Manager.
Small fixes you may notice on your next pull
If your Mage’s free cast seemed to disappear, or your Hunter pulled something simply by selecting it, the November 9 WoW Forever hotfixes are worth reading. The class section addresses both problems, alongside several buffs and tracking errors.
The useful distinction is between an ability behaving differently and an indicator finally showing the right thing. A corrected icon can make an unchanged ability easier to understand. A proc correction can change how often you have a free cast. Neither gives us a measured damage ranking for the class.
In this article
Image © Blizzard Entertainment.
Mage: two different Clearcasting problems
Flamestrike’s lingering ground damage should no longer consume Clearcasting. Arcane Concentration also has a separate correction: its activation chance is distributed across the cast and bolts, rather than incorrectly granting 10% on each.
Those fixes work in different directions. One stops a free-cast opportunity being consumed incorrectly. The other removes excess chances to gain it. Calling the whole change a straight buff or nerf hides that distinction.
If you want to compare how your Mana lasts, keep the comparison simple. Use the same spells against similar enemies and note your starting Mana, whether Clearcasting appeared and what consumed it. One lucky pull is a poor reason to change your entire build.
Hunter: selecting a distant enemy should not pull it
Blizzard fixed Hunters sometimes drawing aggro from far away by targeting enemies. It also corrected the pet families for Vulgara the Insatiable and the Shrieklings of Zephras.
This gives you a specific symptom to look for if a strange pull happens again. Note whether you only selected the target or also sent your pet, used a macro or started an attack. That makes a report much more useful than simply saying that aggro feels wrong.
The targeting fix is not a promise that enemies ignore your normal attacks or proximity. Keep checking where your pet is and which targets your party wants left alone.
Priest and Feral Druid fixes
Priests can cast Fear Ward without leaving Shadowform, and Power Infusion should persist on allies. For Feral Druids, Cat Feral Charge enters combat promptly, Natural Instinct applies to Lacerate and Pounce, and Pounce’s stun appears among enemy debuffs.
If you had stopped using a spell because of one of these problems, try it again during an ordinary outing before deciding whether to change talents. For a party buff, ask the recipient whether they can see the effect. For a stun, compare the target’s behaviour with the displayed debuff.
The built-in Cooldown Manager has corrections too
Druids now see learned Lacerate instead of Berserk. Paladin Seals display correctly, while Warrior Thunderclap tracks its cooldown without an additional target-duration display.
These are changes to Blizzard’s built-in display. If you use a separate tracking addon, check which interface you are looking at before assuming it has the same correction. A missing icon and an ability failing to work are different problems to report.
Check the date before paying for a new build
These notes are dated November 9. Blizzard’s earlier announcement about planned November 10 tuning is a separate source. Do not treat the bug fixes above as confirmation that every planned balance change has arrived.
Our advice is to revisit the affected ability first, then decide whether you actually want a different build. Save your current talent choices and test one change at a time. It is easier to understand what helped when you have not changed gear, talents and your entire spell sequence at once.
Related reading and guides
Sources and review notes
Checked against the November 9 section of Blizzard’s hotfix thread on November 10. These are documented fixes, not our own combat tests or a new ranking of class strength.
