On Tuesday, November 10, 2026, an Enhancement Shaman (the shaman’s melee specialization) who chased Intellect and spell power gear had good reasons to: Blizzard admits as much in its November 6 announcement. The hotfix that landed overnight pulls the specialization back toward Strength and attack power, and so toward 
Windfury Weapon, before the first raid opens.
Kaivax, from the Blizzard team, posted the hotfix list at 4:27 a.m. Paris time on Wednesday, November 11. According to players in the thread, the shaman changes arrived in stages after Tuesday’s maintenance; the official list is the only dated record. Our article on the balance announcement pointed out that no numbers had been published. Here they are.
Four changes that undo part of the beta
For the Enhancement Shaman, the November 10 list touches three talents and a quest weapon. Before and after values, as Blizzard gives them:
| Item | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
 Stormstrike, damage | 150% of weapon damage | 100% |
| Stormstrike, cooldown | 6 seconds | 8 seconds |
 Mental Dexterity, share of Intellect converted into attack power | 50 / 100 / 150% | 33 / 66 / 100% |
 Maelstrom Weapon, cast time and mana cost reduction per application | 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20% depending on rank | 20% at every rank |
| Maelstrom Weapon, activations per minute | 20, regardless of rank | 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 depending on rank |
 Rage of the Storm, the shaman quest weapon, stat | 16 Intellect | 16 Strength |
| Rage of the Storm, speed (delay between two swings) | 3.2 seconds | 3.6 seconds |
Two additions come with these values. Maelstrom Weapon can now be tracked in the Cooldown Manager (the interface display for cooldowns). And weapon imbues like Windfury Weapon stack with weapon totems like 
Windfury Totem: the team writes that the shaman “can benefit from Windfury Weapon and Windfury Totem at the same time, granting their attacks a chance to activate both.”
Why Blizzard is stepping in before the raid opens
On November 6, Blizzard warned in its balance announcement: “Enhancement Shamans are finding that Intellect and Spellpower are superior stats compared to Strength and Attack Power.” The team wants Strength to stay their best stat, and these shamans to stop preferring the items meant for mages and warlocks.
The developer note in the November 10 list tells what happened next: the beta changes to Enhancement, along with those to Shocks and Lightning Bolt on the Elemental side, pushed the specialization too far toward Intellect and spell power. That direction is not a problem in itself, the note says, but it moved Enhancement away from Windfury, which Blizzard wants to keep “at the heart of the specialization’s fantasy and gameplay.”
The timing matters as much as the substance. Still according to the note: “Addressing it before the raid opens will help prevent players from pursuing and winning highly contested items that could become much less valuable after a later change.” Blizzard has not given a date for the raid opening. Shamans had already received a first response from Blizzard after the lockdown of their community Discord.
What an Enhancement Shaman should equip: Strength first, a slow weapon next
For Enhancement Shaman gear, Blizzard’s guidance comes down to the November 6 announcement: Enhancement Shamans who are leveling “will want to collect Strength and Attack Power gear from now on.” The specialization’s best items should carry Strength or attack power, with a little Intellect or spell power.
That leaves the weapon. The Maelstrom Weapon tooltip now shows the activation chance based on main-hand weapon speed. Blizzard gives the example with 5 points in the talent:
| Main-hand weapon speed | Activation chance per hit |
|---|---|
| 3.6 | 60% |
| 2.0 | 33% |
With a fixed number of activations per minute, a slow weapon lands fewer swings and so gives each one a better chance: that is the reading that follows from Blizzard’s two figures, not a test. It points the same way as Rage of the Storm, whose speed goes from 3.2 to 3.6 at the same time as its stat switches to Strength. Our Enhancement Shaman build and the BiS List predate this hotfix.
What the list does not say, and what players say
For the Enhancement Shaman, Blizzard publishes no DPS results, and the site has not measured any. Stormstrike deals less damage with a longer cooldown; Maelstrom Weapon and the Strength items may or may not make up for it: only in-game measurements will tell. A rough order of magnitude can still be worked out for Stormstrike alone: two thirds of the damage per hit (100% against 150%) and three uses instead of four every 24 seconds (8-second cooldown against 6). Over time, the ability therefore deals about half as much, before any gain from elsewhere.
Reactions in the thread, on November 11 between 5:00 and 6:40 a.m. Paris time, are split. Some players complain about a lack of leather or mail items with Strength, others find the changes excellent, and one advises aiming for Strength and Intellect almost equally. These are testimonies, not facts. An error also circulated: one player had written that Stormstrike was going up to 195%. The official list says 100%.
1 Commentaire
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