New World of Warcraft Midnight patch notes are here with a fresh round of class tuning updates to tackle some of the classes on the fringes of the meta. If you’ve managed to tear your eyes away from the arrival of WoW Forever, you might want to think about dipping back into Retail in the coming days. There’s only a little over a week until the next major update arrives, bringing with it some more story, a new single-boss raid, and the first outings for both Labyrinths and Aqir Invasions. If you’re taking the chance to do so, you’ll want to catch up on Blizzard’s latest round of balance changes.
We’re almost on the cusp of the World of Warcraft 12.1.5 update now, which will be arriving on October 13/14 depending on your region. That means there’s less class tuning than normal, although Blizzard still has a few notable outliers that it’s looking to put in their place. It starts out with Unholy Death Knights, who have been getting “significantly more damage than expected” from Blightfall. It’ll now deal just 100% of the remaining plague damage, down from 200%.
Devourer Demon Hunters gain quite a few single-target damage buffs to ensure their output matches “more closely with expectations.” There’s an 8% boost to Consume/Devour, Reap/Cull, and the primary target damage of Eradicate and Collapsing Star. Meanwhile, the initial damage on The Hunt goes up by 10%, as does the output of Voidblade. Note that none of these changes apply in PvP combat.
Blizzard says Brewmaster Monks are dying too often in dungeons, so they’re getting additional baseline durability. Quick Sip now purifies 8% of the current stagger amount instead of 5% each time you gain three seconds of stagger duration, while Pretense of Instability’s 10% dodge bonus after drinking a Brew now lasts eight seconds instead of five. Mistweaver Monks gain 15% additional healing from Invigorating Mists and Enveloping Mist (the latter in PvE only) to increase their overall performance in raids.
Trickster is getting a buff for Subtletly Rogues, because it’s fallen too far behind Deathstalker and Blizzard wants it “to be a more viable alternative for players who prefer its gameplay and thematic identity.” If that’s you, you’ll note that the Fazed damage boost has gone up from 5% to 7%, while Unseen Blade hits 15% harder, and Coupe de Grace 10% harder. These changes won’t apply during PvP combat, however.
Finally for today, Enhancement Shamans are still “underperforming this season,” so they’re getting a class-wide boost of 4% to all ability and auto-attack damage in PvE. Additionally, Lava Lash specifically gets a beefier 35% damage increase (again, just in PvE). For PvP players, Blizzard has a longer list of adjustments that include buffs to “underperforming PvP talents” and in particular an increase to “tank-spec PvP talents that apply Focused Assault.”
While that’s all for now, it’s worth keeping an eye on what’s to come, as Blizzard has already listed quite a few class changes that will be rolling out in WoW Midnight patch 12.1.5. Among them are a swath of notable adjustments to Devourer DH, a redesign for Restoration Druids’ Nature’s Bounty to avoid “rotational friction,” and further tweaks for Evokers, Hunters, Mages, Monks, Priests, Rogues, Shamans, and Warriors. Additionally, starting with the October 6 update, Orin Straylight will start offering an extra weekly Nebulous Voidcore for bonus rolls.
Following Ula’tek’s defeat, the new update will continue our path down into the “deepest depths of the Coiled Isle,” where we’ll be forced to contend with the now-unleashed C’Thraxxi general Kith’ix in “a focused single-boss raid.” The patch will also introduce Labyrinths, which are essentially Delves at a much grander scale, and the zone-wide Aqir Invasions, where you’ll need to chain multiple public events leading to an “intense boss fight.”
The next World of Warcraft Midnight class tuning patch goes live with weekly maintenance on Tuesday October 6. WoW patch 12.1.5 will be released on Tuesday October 13 for players in NA and Wednesday October 14 for players in EU. WoW Forever’s impressive beta launch might have stolen the limelight of late, but if Retail is still your jam then we’ll have a good amount to keep us busy in the run-up to patch 12.2, Eclipse, where Xal’atath will be stepping definitively back to the forefront of the action.