Enhancement Shamans in WoW: Forever just took a round of nerfs, and they got Windfury in return. The November 10 hotfixes cut Stormstrike’s damage and slow its cooldown, but also let weapon imbues and weapon totems work at the same time. That means Windfury Weapon and Windfury Totem now stack, and each can activate on your attacks.
Watch the short YouTubeBlizzard warned on November 6 that this was coming. Enhancement had drifted onto Intellect and Spell Power gear meant for Mages and Warlocks, and the fix had to land before the first raid opens.
Stormstrike drops to 100% weapon damage on an 8 second cooldown
Here is what changed for Enhancement:
- Stormstrike: 100% weapon damage (was 150%), with an 8 second cooldown (was 6 seconds).
- Mental Dexterity: Intellect converts to Attack Power at 33/66/100% (was 50/100/150%).
- Maelstrom Weapon: every rank now gives 20% reduced cast time and Mana cost per application (was 4/8/12/16/20%). It activates 6/7/8/9/10 times per minute by rank (was 20 times per minute at any rank).
Maelstrom Weapon’s tooltip now shows your chance to activate it based on your main hand weapon’s speed. With all 5 points, a 3.6 speed weapon shows a 60% chance per swing and a 2.0 speed weapon shows 33%, so slow two-handers are the clear pick.
Windfury Weapon and Windfury Totem now stack
The trade-off is a change for every Shaman: weapon imbues and weapon totems can now be active together. “For example, this means the Shaman can benefit from Windfury Weapon and Windfury Totem at the same time, granting their attacks a chance to activate both,” the developer notes say.
On r/classicwow, many Shaman players see that as worth every nerf. “I’ll easily trade those nerfs for double WF stacks now,” one wrote, and another called the totem change “crazy.” Others say the Stormstrike nerf mostly hurts low-level PvP, where players had complained about Enhancement bursting them down, while raid damage will lean more on white hits.
Blizzard wants Windfury back at the heart of Enhancement before the raid
According to Blizzard, the beta changes to Enhancement, together with Shock and Lightning Bolt changes aimed at Elemental, “caused Enhancement to favor Spell Power and Intellect gear too heavily.” That pushed the spec away from Windfury, which Blizzard says “should remain at the heart of the specialization’s fantasy and gameplay.”
The timing is about loot. Blizzard says fixing it now, before the raid opens, keeps Shamans from “pursuing and winning highly contested items that could become much less valuable after a later change.” Many of the changes reverse beta adjustments made specifically for Enhancement. If you are leveling one, Blizzard’s advice since November 6 has been to collect Strength and Attack Power gear.
It is the latest twist for Shaman players, who locked an 80,000-member Discord in protest the day before launch.
Hunter pets lose their extra health, and Wild Growth goes instant
The same hotfixes fix a bug that gave Hunter pets 150% of their normal health. They now have 115%, as intended. Arcane Shot and Summon Hawk now cost 11% of base Mana at every rank, and the Beast Mastery Hawk deals about 80% more melee damage.
Restoration Druids get a buff: Nature’s Swiftness now also makes Wild Growth instant. On the auction house, mail from sales now arrives after the intended 60 minutes instead of about 2, and the minimum deposit drops to 1 copper.
