WoW 12.1.5 Content Update Notes: One PvP Change, Kith'ix Raid

What patch 12.1.5 adds

Blizzard has published the full content update notes for Midnight patch 12.1.5. The update brings a single-boss raid, The Unbinding of Kith'ix; a new mega-dungeon-like format called the Labyrinth of Kindo'jan; zone-wide Aqir Invasions in Eversong and Zul'Aman; a mid-season power unlock built around Nebulous Voidcores and Ascendant Venomstones; and a long class change list covering ten classes. Blizzard has dated the update to October 13.

For rated players the headline is short and specific. The notes carry exactly one entry under their own Player versus Player heading, and it is a school-lockout change for Preservation Evoker. Everything else that reaches arena, Solo Shuffle and rated battlegrounds arrives through the Classes section, which is where Blizzard files changes that apply everywhere.

Player versus Player

Blizzard keeps PvP-only tuning in its own section, and in this update that section holds a single entry.

Evoker in PvP

Preservation

• Merithra's Blessing is now considered an Arcane spell, and can be cast when locked out of Nature.

The Evoker change is a school-lockout answer

Preservation Evoker casts almost everything in the Nature school. A single successful counterspell-class interrupt locks that school for several seconds, and in a 3v3 or Solo Shuffle go the healer loses the whole kit at once rather than one button. Moving Merithra's Blessing into the Arcane school means the upgraded Reversion still goes out while Nature is locked, so a Preservation Evoker who has banked the proc keeps one real throughput cast through a lockout window.

Read it alongside the nerf in the Classes section below: the same buff's duration drops to 30 seconds from 1 minute. The spell gets harder to hold and more reliable to use, which pushes Preservation toward spending the proc on the pressure that is in front of it instead of saving it for a planned cooldown trade.

Nothing in the notes touches rating, Conquest, Honor, PvP gear or the Season 2 cutoffs, so the specs that are ahead today are the specs to measure the update against. The current 3v3 ranking is the baseline:

Preservation is played far more heavily in Solo Shuffle than in 3v3, which is where a lockout-proof heal matters most, because the healer has no second healer and no coordinated peel. Check where the spec sits before and after the update:

The spec pages carry the same question one level down, with representation and rating spread for the spec itself: Preservation Evoker on the EU ladder and on the US ladder. Take the reading now and again a week after October 13, because a lockout-proof heal is the kind of change that shows up in healer representation before it shows up in a tier list.

Two class changes outside the PvP section are worth a rated player's attention. Marksmanship Hunter loses Unload and gains a new talent, Blood Fletching, that turns an Aimed Shot critical strike into a four-second window of extra bleed damage, which rewards the setup burst arena is built around. And Subtlety Rogue has every Shadow damage modifier rebuilt, with Blizzard stating in the same bullet that the effect on total output remains under review. A spec whose damage profile is explicitly unsettled is one to re-check once the update is live rather than to plan a season around.

Class changes

Ten classes are touched. These entries apply everywhere unless Blizzard filed them under the PvP heading above, so they reach rated play as well as raids and Mythic+.

Demon Hunter

Devourer

Developers' notes: "Cancelled casts of Collapsing Star have been a noted pain point since Devourer's introduction, and the changes in this update are aimed at alleviating some of that frustration. Until now there has been a cooldown enforced on Collapsing Star after it was interrupted or cancelled; this was in place to discourage gameplay that would capitalize on the slowed Fury drain during its cast to extend Void Metamorphosis and land a Collapsing Star at the 'right' time. While it was effective at that primary goal, the cooldown was also jarring for players when a cast was interrupted or manually cancelled for very normal gameplay reasons. We hope the changes to Collapsing Star in this update will be able to find a middle ground where normal gameplay will not be punished and rarely notice the new underlying restriction, while still minimizing the opportunity and incentive to manipulate its slowed Fury drain mechanic."

• Collapsing Star now has increased range after it starts casting, reducing the circumstances where it will fail from the target moving out of range.
• Collapsing Star no longer goes on cooldown for 5 seconds when its cast is cancelled.
• Collapsing Star will now only slow Fury drain during its cast for a limited time.
  • If Collapsing Star's cast is cancelled then cast again, it will only be able to slow Fury drain for a total time of approximately 1.5 full casts.
  • After that time limit has been reached, Fury drain will resume in full regardless of whether or not a cast is interrupted or starts again.
• Soulforged Blades now increases the critical strike chance of Hungering Slash and Voidblade by 18% (was 15%).
• Voidpurge now reduces the cooldown of Void Ray during Void Metamorphosis by 2.5 seconds (was 2 seconds).
• Many talents have changed positions. Developers' notes: "We are shuffling some talents around to make it a little easier for builds to access core functional effects. The final gate was very dense and two of its talents are moving to the middle gate. The final gate's capstone talents also notably included effects that are core building blocks: The Hunt is featured for Void-Scarred builds, and Eradicate is a key component of any build's AoE damage. Those two talents are moving to more accessible locations in the middle gate of the tree, with other talents moving into their capstone positions."

Void-Scarred

Developers' notes: "The Void-Scarred talent tree had multiple powerful bonuses that all centered around entering Void Metamorphosis, which was discouraging players from casting Collapsing Star because doing so would delay how long it would be until entering Void Metamorphosis and benefiting from those bonuses again. Collapsing Star is intended to be a feature ability of Devourer's rotation regardless of which Hero Talents are selected, so some of Void-Scarred's bonuses will now be granted by casting Collapsing Star instead of only being granted by entering Void Metamorphosis."

• Demonic Intensity now causes Collapsing Star to reset the cooldown of The Hunt.
• Demonic Intensity's empower effect for The Hunt now increases its damage by 30%.
• Violent Transformation now resets the cooldown of Soul Immolation.
• Violent Transformation no longer resets the cooldown of The Hunt.
• Violent Transformation no longer increases the damage of The Hunt (was 25%) or causes it to reset the cooldown of Soul Immolation.
• Monster Rising now increases Intellect by 10% while not in demon form (was 15%).
• Monster Rising now increases Collapsing Star damage by 20% (was 15%).

Druid

Restoration

Developers' notes: "The current design of Nature's Bounty causes some rotational friction. We're redesigning it to work more synergistically with the rest of the healing kit."

• Nature's Bounty has been redesigned - Regrowth heals up to 3 allies with Rejuvenation active for 15% of its healing, prioritizing allies with the lowest health.

Evoker

Augmentation

Chronowarden

• Temporality duration is now increased by Mastery: Timewalker.
• Temporal Burst duration is now increased by Mastery: Timewalker.

Scalecommander

• Melt Armor damage increased by 100%.

Preservation

• Merithra's Blessing duration reduced to 30 seconds (was 1 minute).
• Consume Flame no longer double dips from healing increases on the target.

Chronowarden

• Fixed an issue where extending Fire Breath with Double-time could cause Life-Giver's Flame to stop healing.
• Fixed an issue where Afterimage was causing Deep Breath to sometimes cast Living Flame on the Evoker.

Hunter

Marksmanship

Developers' notes: "We're replacing Unload with a talent focused more around Aimed Shot, giving a window of opportunity when you get an Aimed Shot critical strike."

• New Talent: Blood Fletching - Aimed Shot critical strikes now cause the Master Marksman bleed effect at 20% of the damage dealt. For 4 seconds after a critical Aimed Shot, the target will take additional bleed damage any time your abilities damage that target.
• Fixed an issue where Explosive Shot would automatically select and fire at a nearby target if pressed without a target currently selected.
• Unload has been removed.

Dark Ranger

• Fixed an issue where Umbral Reach was not generating Trick Shots when Bleak Powder hit exactly 2 targets.

Survival

• Fixed an issue where Strike as One bonus damage from Raptor Swipe (Rank 3) did not properly work while Aspect of the Eagle was active.
• Fixed an issue where Raptor Swipe had a longer range than intended while Aspect of the Eagle was active.

Mage

Arcane

• Several Arcane spells have been added to the Spell Density system for additional visibility options for non-Mage players.

Frost

• Fixed an issue where Splitting Ice's damage modifier would not apply to Frostbolt, causing both Frostbolts to hit for full damage.
• Fixed an issue where casting a Frostfire Bolt and then switching to Spellslinger Hero Specialization would cause Frostbolt to have the Splitting Ice damage multiplier apply to the main target in addition to the secondary target.
• Fixed an issue where a Splitting Ice Frostbolt had a smaller search radius for its second target than other spells.
• Fixed an issue with Shatter where if two Ice Lances were in the air at the same time, with the first benefitting from Fingers of Frost and the second not, neither would benefit from Fingers of Frost. This could also occur with Thermal Void, which is also fixed.
• Fixed an issue with Crystalline Refraction where interrupting Ray of Frost by casting Ray of Frost could cause it to not generate Fingers of Frost.

Frostfire

• Fixed an issue preventing Frostfire Empowerment's effects from applying to the second target when Frostfire Bolt hit a second target due to Splitting Ice.
• Frostfire Infusion's tooltip has been updated, functionality unchanged.

Spellslinger

• Splinterstorm is now trackable in the Cooldown Manager as a Buff.
• Splinterstorm is no longer removed on start of a raid encounter or Mythic+.

Monk

• Fixed an issue where Transcendence: Transfer could be used while silenced if talented into Transcendence: Linked Spirits.

Priest

Discipline

• Master the Darkness duration reduced to 30 seconds (was 1 minute).

Holy

Developers' notes: "Ultimate Serenity is a powerful tool for Holy priests, specifically in M+. We are moving it up in the talent tree to reduce the amount of investment required for Holy priests to take it so that it enables more choice amongst talents beyond the second gate."

• Holy Celerity and Ultimate Serenity have swapped positions on the specialization tree.

Rogue

• Shiv no longer incorrectly plays an impact visual on the Rogue.

Assassination

• Mutilate has an updated weapon trail.
• Crimson Tempest animation has been updated and now has a weapon trail.

Outlaw

Developers' notes: "This change is intended to make it a little less expensive to maintain Blade Flurry when fighting small numbers of additional targets."

• Deft Maneuvers has been updated - No longer increases Blade Flurry's Energy cost by 30. Instead, it increases Blade Flurry's Energy cost by 5 per target hit, up to 30.

Subtlety

Developers' notes: "Shadow damage bonuses should now consistently apply to any individual Shadow damage abilities (e.g. Secret Technique's secondary hits, Shadowed Finishers attacks, and Shadow Cloned attacks). Effects that deal Shadow damage based on how much damage attacks dealt (e.g. Shadow Blades' effect, Goremaw's Bite mirror damage effect, and Lingering Shadow) should now benefit correctly when the input attacks are physical and no longer double dip when the input attacks are Shadow. The impact these changes will have on overall damage output remains under review."

• All modifiers to Shadow damage and many Shadow damage abilities have been updated to resolve circumstances where damage bonuses could be applied incorrectly.
• Shadow Blades has an updated cast visual and weapon visual.

Shaman

Enhancement

• Fixed an issue where Static Accumulation could cause Maelstrom Weapon stacks to stop automatically generating if activated during certain points of Ascendance or Doom Winds being active.

Restoration

• Extending Riptide through Swelling Tides now causes Riptide's timer to extend rather than reset.
• Fixed an issue where Nature's Swiftness and Ancestral Swiftness did not properly make Healing Rain instant cast.

Warrior

Protection

• Execute damage increased by 30%.

Colossus

Developers' notes: "Colossus is intended to reflect a Warrior's innate prowess and skill, and this represents itself for Protection by being more efficient with Rage. We feel that Colossus will benefit from having more efficient access to Revenge and Execute for a more unique rotation and better threat management tools."

• Practiced Strikes now has an additional effect - Execute and Revenge Rage cost reduced by 10.

Story campaign: The Promise of Tomorrow

Blizzard's description of the campaign: "Ula'tek's defeat has awoken a long-slumbering terror. Temper an uneasy peace between Quel'Thalas and Zul'Aman, descend to the deepest depths of the Coiled Isle, and make a final stand against the Amani's ancient foe - the C'Thraxxi general, Kith'ix."

New single-boss raid: The Unbinding of Kith'ix

Kith'ix was bound beneath the Venomous Abyss, and Ula'tek's defeat weakened the restraints holding him. The encounter is a focused single-boss raid fought with Lady Liadrin at the player's side, and it runs on Story Mode, Raid Finder, Normal, Heroic and Mythic difficulties. Mythic takes a flexible group of 15 to 25 players, which is the same flexible-size rule the expansion's other Mythic raid content uses rather than a fixed 20.

Labyrinth of Kindo'jan

The Labyrinth is a new format rather than a new dungeon. Blizzard describes an ancient Amani funeral complex, sealed for centuries and now reopened, with looters and Vilebranch combing it for relics while the interred spirits defend it.

• It is built as "a sprawling, mega-dungeon-like experience designed to be conquered on your terms, with dedicated progression systems, powerful unlocks, and rewards that match the scale of the challenge, including Mythic gear."
• Like Delves, it sends the player in with a companion. Valeera Sanguinar is the guide.
• It can be run in a single session or one wing at a time. A single wing still pays out, and each additional room completed "brings more opportunities to claim treasure - and more risks to overcome."

Mythic-track gear from a solo-or-small-group format is the part that matters for a PvP player who gears outside rated play, because it changes which non-rated activity is worth the time. The notes do not state a Labyrinth item level, so treat "Mythic gear" as the only published claim until the update is live.

Aqir Invasions

Aqir Invasions are zone-wide public events in Eversong or Zul'Aman. They run for ten minutes each hour: a series of public events across the zone, one after another, ending in a boss fight. Each invasion features six scenario types, three combat-focused and three non-combat-focused, and a combat scenario can carry one of eight affixes.

The eight affixes are Void Protection, Aqir Burrower, Void Sphere, Astalor's Anguish, Swarms!, Aqir Elites, Void Infestation and Web Weavers. Blizzard states that players who band together are rewarded for completing as many objectives as possible before the ten-minute window closes.

Mid-season refresh: the quest chain to start before October 6

This is the one part of the update with a clock on it, and the first step lands before the update itself. Blizzard's instruction is to complete two quests before weekly maintenance in the week of October 6, so the chain is already running when the rest of 12.1.5 arrives.

• Accept "In the Catalyst's Shadow" from Decimus in Voidstorm, then travel to Silvermoon City and pick up "Prismatic Potential" from Orin Straylight.
• During realm maintenance the week of October 6, Orin Straylight begins offering one additional Nebulous Voidcore a week to bonus roll for additional loot.
• Once "Prismatic Potential" is turned in, Orin begins his research and a progress timer appears above his head. After that research completes during the week of October 6 he offers "Umbral Blessings of the Catalyst", which unlocks trading gold, Voidlight Marl or Veteran Mistcrests to Orin for one additional Nebulous Voidcore a week.
• During realm maintenance the week of October 13, Orin offers "Ancient Depths, Ancient Venom". Completing it starts his next research, into Ascendant Venomstones.
• Orin completes that research during realm maintenance the week of October 20 and offers "Ascending with Venomstones". Ascendant Venomstones then drop from every Heroic or Mythic raid boss, Mythic+ Keystone dungeons at +10 and above, Tier 11 Bountiful Delves, and Nightmare Prey Hunt Champion gear chests.
• Ten Ascendant Venomstones used near the Catalyst in Silvermoon City raise the item level of a fully upgraded Season 2 Hero, Myth, or maximum-quality Tidal Crafted weapon, trinket or necklace.
• The crest cap is lifted in the week of October 20.

The item-level step is restricted to a weapon, trinket or necklace, which is a short list for a rated player: the trinket slot is where PvP sets and dungeon drops already compete, so this is the decision to make deliberately rather than on the first ten stones. The Catalyst side of it works the way it does today - see how Catalyst charges work - and gearing outside rated play is covered in the PvP gearing guide.

Achievements

• New Mythic+ dungeon achievement, Midnight Keystone Myth: Season 2 - attain a Mythic+ rating of at least 3600 during Midnight Season 2. It rewards the "the Venomous Contender" title and the Timelost Saddle.
• The achievements Snake Eyes, Snake Eater and Good Night, Sweet Prince are no longer required to complete Glory of the Wartorn Hero.

Dungeons

Murder Row

• Fixed an issue where Zaen Bladesorrow's Murder in a Row could incorrectly assign a player's safe spot to a barrel they were not hiding behind.

Housing

UI updates

• There are now keybinds for going up and down floors in floorplan edit mode (default page up/page down).
• There's now a shortcut to get to your blueprint collection from the Housing Controls blueprint button.

Endeavors

• It was previously possible for Public Neighborhoods to receive the same Endeavor as the one they had previously been given. We've since fixed this so that Public Neighborhoods won't get repeat Endeavors back-to-back.

Blueprints

• Stairwells will now export all stairwell rooms that are vertically connected to it. If you have a stairwell that is four units tall they will all be included. Importing this blueprint will connect it to an existing room from your choice of the bottom or top floor of the blueprint, if it does not collide with other rooms in your house.
• The Blueprint Contents List UI will no longer include dyes that will come from decor that already has the matching dyes, and instead only lists dyes that will be applied via consuming dye items.
• Dye tooltips in Customization Mode now clarify which Dye Item is used to apply that dye.
• You can now get to your Blueprints Collection directly from the Blueprint control button at the top of the screen in your house or plot.
• More clarifying text and tooltips have been added to the Blueprints collection UIs.

Prey

Developers' notes: "We want to make it easier with the 12.1.5 update for new players, returning players, or those who simply didn't invest heavily into running Prey so far during Season 2 to engage with the content without feeling like they wouldn't be able to catch up. These changes make it substantially easier for a player to complete their Prey Journey and receive the associated rewards, including decor and Hero track equipment in conjunction with Delves."

• Added catch-up mechanics to increase renown gains. Players below rank 4 will receive 4000 Journey progress (a full rank) per hunt which takes precedence over and does not trigger the Journey progress earned from your first four hunts a week. Players between ranks 4 and 9 will receive 2000 Journey progress from each of their first four hunts a week.
• Afflicted and Tormented Souls can no longer be used while a hunt is active and must be used between hunts.

Hero track equipment from Prey is a second non-rated gearing route, which is the reason a rated player should care about a renown catch-up: it shortens the climb to a usable weapon or trinket on an alt before the Season 2 run-in.

User interface and accessibility

• Added player coordinates below the minimap, an option to disable it, and an option for displaying map coordinates as integers or decimals.
• Adding an option to display "ants" (an animated dash border) around raid frames when there's something the player can dispel on the unit.
• Added an option to make the raid frame dispel overlay animate with a pulsing alpha effect.
• Pinging a macro now shows information from #showtooltip in the ping alert.
• Added a new setting called "Pulse Your Health" under the Combat Audio Alerts section of the Audio Assist settings. This setting allows the player to specify a health percentage below which a looping sound will be played. The sound gets progressively more aggressive as their health gets lower.
• Preview settings on the Trading Post UI, such as "Combat Animation", will now remember the player's choice when swapping between items.

The two dispel options are the ones a rated player will actually turn on. A dispel highlight on the default raid frames is the kind of cue arena healers normally buy from an addon, and the "Pulse Your Health" alert is a defensive-cooldown prompt that works without watching a bar.

Warband reputation

• Legion and Battle for Azeroth reputations are now shared across the warband.

What to do before the update lands

• Pick up "In the Catalyst's Shadow" and "Prismatic Potential" and finish both before weekly maintenance in the week of October 6. Everything else in the mid-season chain is gated behind them.
• Decide now which weapon, trinket or necklace the first ten Ascendant Venomstones go into.
• If you play Preservation Evoker, re-learn when the upgraded Reversion goes out: it survives a Nature lockout from the update onward, and it expires in half the time.
• Check the rest of what is already known about the patch in the 12.1.5 overview and the release date breakdown, and the most recent live changes in the September 29 hotfixes.

Full notes are published by Blizzard at 12.1.5 Content Update Notes.