On day 6 of WoW: Forever's launch, the hotfix pen flipped direction: Blizzard is lowering player density in zones with significant congestion, and the Developers' notes say the cut runs even bigger on the PvP ruleset, following feedback that players felt overcrowded in several places. The list is dated November 9, 2026 — server time, which is November 10, day 6 since launch, in Beijing time — and went out through Wowhead at 10:30 p.m. Central, with the full text on Blizzard's official site. The same list also pulls The Drowned City back to spec: its creatures had been dealing about 30% more damage than intended, so if the dungeon felt unusually punchy in the first days after launch, that was real, and it is fixed.

The reversal is worth a look back. On launch day, November 5, Blizzard's blue post answered the opposite complaint — some zones felt emptier than they should, and the official promise was to adjust some numbers the next day to make the world feel alive. On November 8, the plane half-merge at Roguefeather Den in Thousand Needles turned three quests into a mob-racing contest, with no official response at the time. Now the Developers' notes cite the other end: players feeling overcrowded in several places, with monitoring to continue and further adjustments promised as necessary.

From "too empty" to "too crowded" in six days

The official line: the population of players was lowered in various zones where there was significant congestion. Which zones, by how much, and when exactly it took effect are not announced — none of that is in the list. What is stated is the ruleset split: the change is bigger on PvP.

For you, the change is how many heads you see on screen. Mob-tagging races in leveling zones, crowds outside the main cities, the odds of bumping into the other faction outdoors — all of it drops with density, and on PvP it drops harder. How sparse any given map will actually feel is something only a ride through the zone can tell you; Blizzard gave no numbers.

Pushback was already up the same afternoon. Reducing the population with the latest hotfix appeared on the Forever General Discussion board at 13:10 Beijing time (05:10 UTC), where poster AngeloRoll argues the change empties a world whose crowds are the very essence of an MMORPG, and asks for an immediate revert — 5 posts from 5 participants at archive time. The notes leave the door open: monitoring continues, adjustments as necessary. If you want a say, the venue is right there.

The Drowned City: the 30% bill comes due

The most substantial dungeon cut is here. Blizzard confirmed creatures inside The Drowned City were dealing about 30% more damage than intended, and fixed it — official backing for everyone who found the dungeon spicier than the notes suggested since launch.

Deathless Marrow takes four cuts in one fight: creature health down 25%, the Deathless Sorcerer's Fireball down 25%, the Deathless Watcher's Charge down 50%, and the Deathless Guardian's Shield Slam cast frequency reduced by about half. Tank healing and ranged burst pressure both ease up; parties that bounced off the encounter this week can queue it again and verify.

The Shaper's Terrace gets a payout pass: Vitrix, Snowtalon and Cinder now correctly drop loot and higher-level skinning materials, and Cinder spawns properly once you use the Archival Panel — skinners can go audit their materials. Getting through the door at all was fixed in the November 6 batch; this one is numbers, from "can't get in" to "can actually fight it".

Class fixes: Felsteed riding is retroactive, Feral Charge pulls you into combat

The Warlock line comes with a catch-up clause: if you completed the Summon Felsteed quest before this hotfix, summoning the Felsteed once grants you apprentice riding — so you can ride other mounts too. Blizzard wrote that into the Developers' notes; it is compensation, not flavor.

Two Priest items: casting Fear Ward no longer breaks Shadowform, and Power Infusion now correctly persists when used on allies. Hunters lose an old quirk — targeting enemies from very far away no longer aggroes them — and Vulgara the Insatiable plus the Shrieklings of Zephras are moved into their correct pet families.

The Feral Charge (Cat) change has two readings. Officially it is a fix: the leap previously failed to put you in combat right away, and now it does. A thread posted at 13:29 Beijing time on the Bug Report board reads it as a stealth nerf — poster facecheckjgl says the server forces an auto-attack before you even land, breaking sheep, sap and blind openers, dragging you into fights with yellow mobs, with /stopattack useless against it. That reading is the poster's own; the official list says only that the issue is fixed. One leap in-game will tell you which side matches your hands.

Elsewhere on the class list: Mage Flamestrike ground ticks no longer burn Clearcasting procs, and Arcane Concentration's activation chance now splits properly between the cast and every bolt; Tauren Cultivation only goes on cooldown once the cast completes. The list runs long — the official page has the rest.

Dungeons and items: Heart of the Mountain is repeatable

Blackrock Depths gets two fixes: the throne room doors open again if your party wiped while fighting Emperor Thaurissan, and Heart of the Mountain can now be looted more than once — farmers, this is your line item. Stratholme returns to the classic rule: no mounting inside. Blackfathom Deeps no longer leaves you unable to release after dying, and Alcaz Prison's Zarla Ober finally drops loot.

The odds and ends: Waylaid Crates and Craftsman's Writs drop inside dungeons again; Nifty Stopwatch no longer shares a cooldown with Dash, Blink and Sprint; the Pouch of Violet Dust grants its extra hour of Camp Benefits as intended. In the world, Un'goro's Young Diemetradons are back to levels 51-52 (they were 58), Silverpine's Ivar the Foul respawns on schedule again, and Teldrassil's Ferocitas the Dream Eater shows up faster. In Warsong Gulch, the invisible wall on the Alliance base roof is gone — Blizzard asks you to be careful up there.

The 50% bump to dungeon kill XP also appears on this list; we covered it separately on November 9.

What's not announced — and what to do today

Blizzard has not said which zones are affected, how big the density cut is, or the exact minute the hotfix went out. What it has said: zone feel stays under watch.

Your move, in order. PvP levelers: ride your usual route and feel the density; feedback goes through the official forums. Parties that wiped on Marrow: requeue and judge the Watcher's Charge and Shield Slam rhythm. Warlocks who finished the Felsteed quest before today: summon it once and collect apprentice riding. Feral druids: treat the charge as combat-on-landing and rebuild your openers. And if you are waiting on the pet-durability, Affliction-rotation and Enhancement-stat tuning — it is not in this batch; per last weekend's blue post it targets the November 10 hotfixes (server time), so watch the next list.