Patch Notes
WoW Hotfixes September 2: Evoker Rewind and Ula'tek Nerfs
Blizzard's September 2 hotfixes fix three PvP bugs, including a Preservation Evoker Rewind failure under Cyclone, cut two of Ula'tek's Mythic abilities, and repair Catalyst conversions for Great Vault items. No PvP tuning changed.
What changed
The September 2 hotfixes carry no combat tuning for any specialisation in rated play. The Player versus Player entries are three corrections: a Balance Druid debuff that was rendering at the wrong size on raid frames, a vendor that was hiding staves from Evokers, and a Preservation cooldown that could fail while its caster was under Cyclone. The tuning that did land is in Mythic The Venomous Abyss, where two of Ula'tek's abilities were cut back, and at the Catalyst, which had been refusing conversions it should have accepted.
Class changes
Druid
Feral
- Apex Talent: Unseen Predator (Rank 1) now prefers targets that are not immune to damage or taking less than 5% physical damage.
Warlock
Destruction
- Fixed an issue where the Font of Venomous Rage trinket channel could be immediately canceled if spell-queued after Cataclysm.
Warrior
- Bladestorm now displays as an important aura on nameplates.
Dungeons and raids
The Venomous Abyss
Ula'tek
- Soul Constrictor duration reduced to 5 seconds on Mythic difficulty.
- Blight Vein damage reduced by 25% on Mythic difficulty.
- Corrected an issue where a Doomscale Egg could still be picked up after the Ravenous Doomscale spawns while the Doomscale Warden is alive.
- Added additional protections against triggering an egg pickup multiple times from one egg.
Items
- Any remaining items sourced from the Great Vault that could not be converted with the Catalyst have been fixed.
- Fixed an issue where certain non-armor items could appear to be convertible at the Catalyst. Affected characters may need to relog.
Player versus Player
Druid in PvP
Balance
- Fixed an issue where Faerie Swarm was not a large debuff on raid frames.
Evoker in PvP
- Fixed an issue where staves were not being shown for Evokers on the PvP gear vendor.
Preservation
- Fixed an issue where Rewind could fail to reverse damage taken on allies if the Evoker was affected by Cyclone.
What this means in rated play
One of the three PvP entries changes results rather than presentation. Rewind does not add healing, it reverses damage already taken on allies, so a failure is not a smaller heal, it is a spent cooldown that returns nothing. Cyclone disorients its target and makes them invulnerable for up to five seconds, which is exactly the window a team buys before a kill attempt, and it is a staple of every bracket a Druid is in. A Preservation Evoker caught in that window could lose the button their partner was waiting on, with no combat log evidence that anything had gone wrong.
The Balance Druid entry is a user interface bug with tactical weight. Faerie Swarm now renders as a large debuff on raid frames, at the size Blizzard intended. Healers triage from those frames in arena and Solo Shuffle, and a debuff drawn at the wrong size is one a healer scans past.
The Evoker vendor fix is a gearing blocker rather than a combat one. Staves were absent from the PvP gear vendor's Evoker listing, so anyone who went to buy a weapon and found nothing should return and check again.
Two changes outside Blizzard's PvP section still reach rated play, because neither carries a PvP exclusion. Unseen Predator now steers away from targets that are immune or heavily resistant to physical damage, and immunities are far denser in arena than in any raid encounter, so Feral gets more out of that targeting rule in rated play than in the content it was written for. Bladestorm appearing as an important aura on nameplates is legibility for both sides of the fight.
What moved the meta was the September 1 pass, and nothing here walks any of it back. Where it left Solo Shuffle is visible on the live ladder.
PvP tier list
based on the top segment, rating 1825+ · 6,685 playersMeta
Healer representation is the line to watch. The September 1 pass cut the Gladiator's Distinction primary stat bonus for every healing specialisation from 10% to 5% to shorten matches, and Preservation Evoker took a mana regeneration reduction in the same batch. Those are the changes deciding which healers hold up right now; nothing on September 2 alters them.
What did not change
No rating, reward or seasonal system was touched, and no Omnium Folio rune was adjusted. The September 1 tuning stands in full, including the healer trinket set bonus, the Mage barrier and Ice Block changes, the Restoration Druid Swiftmend reduction and the Warrior Safeguard cooldown increase. The Mythic nerfs to Soul Constrictor and Blight Vein apply to the raid encounter only and have no effect in instanced PvP.
Next steps
- The September 1 hotfixes carry the tuning that actually changed how this season plays.
- Current Solo Shuffle standings by specialisation: EU and US.
- Spec pages for the two specialisations affected today: Preservation Evoker and Balance Druid.
- Every roundup as it lands: Patch Notes.
FAQ
Do the September 2 hotfixes change any PvP damage or healing numbers?
No. Every entry in Blizzard's Player versus Player section for September 2 is a bug fix. No specialisation had its damage, healing or cooldowns tuned in rated play, and the September 1 tuning pass is unchanged.
What was wrong with Preservation Evoker's Rewind?
Rewind could fail to reverse damage taken on allies if the Evoker was affected by Cyclone. Because Rewind undoes damage rather than adding healing, a failure spent the cooldown and returned nothing. Cyclone appears in most rated compositions with a Druid, so the failure case was common rather than exotic.
Was the September 1 healer nerf reversed?
No. Gladiator's Distinction still grants 5% primary stat to healing specialisations, down from 10%, and the rest of the September 1 pass stands. Blizzard described that change as a deliberate correction to the pace of combat.
Why could Evokers not buy a staff from the PvP gear vendor?
Staves were not being shown for Evokers on the PvP vendor. The listing has been fixed, so an Evoker who went to buy a weapon and found none available should return to the vendor and check again.
Does the Feral Druid Unseen Predator change apply in PvP?
Yes. It appears in the Classes section without a PvP exclusion, so it applies everywhere. The Apex Talent now prefers targets that are not immune to damage or taking less than 5% physical damage, which matters more in arena, where immunities are common, than in the raid content it was designed around.
Do the Ula'tek changes apply on every raid difficulty?
Not all of them. The two tuning changes, the Soul Constrictor duration cut and the 25% Blight Vein damage reduction, are both marked Mythic difficulty. The two egg handling corrections carry no difficulty qualifier, so they are not restricted the way the tuning is.
