Blizzard plans class hotfixes (small fixes applied to the live game without taking it down) for World of Warcraft: Forever on Tuesday, 10 November, its community manager Kaivax posted on 6 November. The plan: Hunter pets and Warlock Voidwalkers get tougher, Affliction Warlocks get a reason to keep their other spells going, and Enhancement Shamans who are leveling should start collecting Strength and Attack Power gear now.

Forever is a new version of World of Warcraft. A class is the kind of character you play.

When do the changes land?

Blizzard says it's still looking into these problems and plans to release hotfixes on Tuesday, 10 November. It may find new issues over the weekend, and it says it will keep players updated. Its plan is to make class balance changes on Tuesday, and then on future Tuesdays if necessary.

What changes for Hunter pets and Voidwalkers?

A Hunter is a class that fights from range beside a pet. A Voidwalker is a demon a Warlock, a class of dark magic, can summon to fight beside it. Both can tank, which means taking the enemies' hits so you don't have to.

Blizzard says both aren't as durable as it wants when they tank. It wants them to be about as effective as in World of Warcraft Classic Era, another version of the game. It'll adjust their stats as necessary to get there.

What changes for Affliction Warlocks?

Affliction is the Warlock's talent tree built on damage over time, spells that keep hurting a target for a while after you cast them. Talents are upgrades you pick with points you earn as you level, to shape your character. Our talent calculator shows Wrack as a new Affliction talent in Forever. You channel it, which means holding the spell while it works.

Blizzard says reports show that always channeling Wrack beats also casting damage over time spells like Siphon Life, Corruption and Bane of Agony. It'll make changes so those are always worth casting alongside Wrack, and it says it'll do that without changing Affliction Warlocks' total damage.

What changes for Enhancement Shamans?

The Shaman is a class that mixes weapons and nature magic, and Enhancement is its talent tree for fighting up close. Intellect and Spell Power are stats that make spells stronger. Strength and Attack Power are stats that make weapon hits stronger.

Blizzard says Enhancement Shamans are finding Intellect and Spell Power better than Strength and Attack Power. It plans changes so Strength is always their strongest stat, and so they won't prefer gear meant for Mages and Warlocks, two spellcasting classes. Ideally, it says, an Enhancement Shaman's best items have Strength or Attack Power, with some Intellect or Spell Power, or both.

Blizzard's note for right now: Enhancement Shamans who are leveling up will want to collect Strength and Attack Power gear from now on. Leveling up is your character growing to higher levels.

Did any of it land early?

Maybe. Blizzard's hotfixes for 6 November, posted at 01:07 UTC on 7 November, carry two Warlock lines on the same subjects.

Voidwalker base health went up "by about 40 at all levels". And the line on Wrack reads: "The Soul Siphon talent no longer incorrectly causes Wrack to increase its own damage." Soul Siphon is another Affliction talent. Blizzard doesn't say whether either is part of Tuesday's plan, or whether Voidwalkers get more on Tuesday. Nothing in that list touches Hunter pets or Enhancement Shamans.

Compared: what the game files say before Tuesday

Our talent calculator and class abilities list read the game's own data tables, through the wago.tools mirror, a site that publishes them. Today they're on build 1.60.1.70840, the version of the game program wago.tools listed on 7 November (UTC). The four Warlock spells in Blizzard's post read the same in it as in the 4 November launch build.

Here's how they read, before Tuesday's changes. The numbers are each spell's highest rank, the strongest version a Warlock learns. Shadow is one of the game's types of magic damage.

Spell	What it is	What it does
Wrack	New in Forever. An Affliction talent that needs 30 points in the tree, and Siphon Life first	86 Shadow damage every 1 sec, and the target takes 10% more damage from your other Shadow damage over time effects, for 6 sec
Siphon Life	An Affliction talent	Moves 41 health from the target to you every 3 sec, for 30 sec
Corruption	A Warlock spell, not a talent	438 Shadow damage over 18 sec
Bane of Agony	A Warlock spell, not a talent, renamed from Curse of Agony for Forever	552 Shadow damage over 24 sec, slow at first and building up

We refresh both tools from the files, so they move when the files do. For the rest of the Warlock's spells and talents, see our Warlock page; for the Shaman, our Shaman page.

Our take

Blizzard's notes of 2 November said that, apart from bugs and serious outliers, it didn't plan big tuning changes before the raids open next month. Raids are fights built for a large group. Our reading is that these three are the outliers that couldn't wait.

If you play an Enhancement Shaman, the gear note is the one thing to act on today, before Tuesday. For Affliction Warlocks, our reading of the table is that Wrack was meant to sit on top of your other spells: it makes your other Shadow damage over time effects hurt more. Blizzard says players found it better to channel it nonstop instead, and it says the fix won't change your total damage. If that holds, our reading is that this is about which buttons you press, not how hard you hit. And Blizzard plans class changes on Tuesday, then on future Tuesdays if needed.