Blizzard has applied a fresh round of hotfixes to WoW: Forever's live servers during the name-reservation window, and this one targets Hunters and one Alchemy potion. Wowhead reported the tuning on October 28 at 4:17 p.m. CT (5:17 a.m. October 29, Beijing time): Aspect of the Hawk loses 32–51% of its attack power bonus across five ranks, the raid-wide Trueshot Aura drops 40–50% across four, and Elixir of Wisdom now grants 3 Intellect for 30 minutes instead of 6 Intellect for 1 hour. Launch lands November 5, Beijing time, and the name-reservation window closes at 23:59 Beijing time on November 3.
One caveat frames everything else. Per Wowhead's More Information note, these are hotfixes "that have been applied to live Forever servers during the Name Reservations," and they "have not been confirmed in development notes and may be outdated data, or are subject to change going forward." Blizzard's development notes carry no matching entries yet; the numbers below come from the official change list as relayed by Wowhead.
The numbers, rank by rank
Aspect of the Hawk, the Hunter's standing ranged buff:
| Rank | Attack power before | After | Cut |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 | 15 | -32% |
| 2 | 35 | 22 | -37% |
| 3 | 50 | 30 | -40% |
| 4 | 78 | 38 | -51% |
| 5 | 90 | 47 | -48% |
Trueshot Aura — what Wowhead calls the Hunters' raid buff:
| Rank | Attack power before | After | Cut |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30 | 15 | -50% |
| 2 | 40 | 22 | -45% |
| 3 | 50 | 30 | -40% |
| 4 | 75 | 40 | -47% |
Elixir of Wisdom, in the official wording: "Elixir of Wisdom now increases Intellect by 3 (was 6) for 30 minutes (was 1 hour)." Both the potency and the duration are halved. The potion requires Alchemy 90 and its recipe is sold by a vendor; Wowhead categorizes it as a low-level Alchemy product, the kind of cheap consumable leveling characters churn through — rework your pre-launch potion budget around the new numbers.
Wowhead tagged the story with all three Hunter specs. Aspect of the Hawk serves every spec; Trueshot Aura speaks to a Hunter's raid invite. Our talent guide predates this batch and pitched the raid-wide attack power aura as Marksmanship's core selling point — that argument needs a fresh look at the new values.
Not the same event as the October 27 retail tuning
The class tuning that went live with the US retail weekly reset on October 27 — Subtlety rogues losing 8% ability damage, Feral druids and Fire mages gaining 5% (see our October 27 retail tuning report) — is a separate event aimed at retail WoW. This batch touches only WoW: Forever. The two landed days apart and share nothing; don't cross-read the numbers.
The forum's "nerfs keep coming" suspicion
On October 29 (UTC), a thread titled "Mage nerf? Why?" by Samehada appeared on Blizzard's official forums, arguing that data mining shows frost getting hit even harder: Ice Lance reading an 8-second cooldown, Frost Blast removed entirely, Frostbite sharing a diminishing-return group with itself. Keep two things apart. Those mage changes are data-mined findings — the poster's own caveat is "all subject to change" — and Blizzard's development notes contain no such entries. The only changes backed by a hotfix list so far are this Hunter and potion batch. The same thread notes that Trueshot Aura got nerfed too, which lines up with the hotfixes; the thread itself remains background, not official confirmation.
Known and unknown
Known, with sources:
- Every number above comes from the official change list relayed by Wowhead — so far the only public source, with no second outlet corroborating.
- The changes are applied to Forever's live servers during the reservation window, per Wowhead's wording.
- Wowhead tagged all three Hunter specs on the item.
Not announced:
- Blizzard's development notes and blue posts have no entries for this batch — Wowhead states the changes are "not confirmed in development notes."
- The exact time the hotfixes were applied is not announced.
- Wowhead lists Aspect of the Hawk ranks 1–5 and Trueshot Aura ranks 1–4 only; whether higher ranks exist or were adjusted is not announced.
- Whether the numbers change again is open — "subject to change going forward."
- Whether the data-mined frost mage changes will actually ship has no official answer.
What to do before November 5
- Hunters: re-plan against the new numbers. The aura is still a raid buff, but its value is nearly halved, so Marksmanship's raid-invite case has to lean on something else. Re-work your points in our Hunter talent guide and the Hunter build library. The site's talent tool is a planner, not a DPS simulator — verify in game.
- Alchemists: re-price Elixir of Wisdom at 3 Intellect per 30 minutes before stocking up.
- Watch official channels for development notes or a blue post covering this batch, and check the numbers against the original wording when it appears. The next hard dates: the reservation deadline at 23:59 Beijing time on November 3, launch on November 5 Beijing time, and the first three raids — Barrow Deeps (10-player), Hyjal Summit (20-player) and Onyxia (40-player) — opening December 9 Beijing time, where a raid-wide aura's real value will finally show.