---
title: 'Big Class Buffs & Nerfs, M+ Cheaters Banned, and More Content Removed in 12.1'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=x-P4556Gslg'
video_id: 'x-P4556Gslg'
date: 2026-08-18
duration_sec: 1448
channel: 'SignsOfKelani'
---

# Big Class Buffs & Nerfs, M+ Cheaters Banned, and More Content Removed in 12.1

> Source: [Big Class Buffs & Nerfs, M+ Cheaters Banned, and More Content Removed in 12.1](https://youtube.com/watch?v=x-P4556Gslg)

## Summary

This video covers the latest World of Warcraft news, including significant class balance changes for patch 12.1, the consequences for players involved in a Mythic+ cheating scandal, the reveal of BlizzCon 2026 virtual rewards, and the removal of the Decour Duels mini-game.

### Key Points

- **Class Balance Updates** [00:02] — A new round of class buffs and nerfs for Death Knights, Demon Hunters, Druids, Evokers, Hunters, Mages, Paladins, Rogues, Shamans, Warlocks, and Warriors, with the PTR marked as a release candidate.
- **PTR Build Additions** [10:17] — Coordinates added to the world map as a baseline feature, and PvP changes including 20% less healing in battlegrounds and a 1-minute queue penalty for missed queues in solo shuffle and battleground blitz.
- **Season 2 Bonus Rolls** [12:03] — Bonus rolls will be available from the start of Season 2 but only as a Great Vault reward option, requiring at least three vault options unlocked to choose a void core.
- **Mythic+ Cheating Scandal** [14:06] — A WoW GM helped players cheat in a +23 keystone run, resulting in the GM's termination and a one-month ban for at least one player involved.
- **BlizzCon 2026 Virtual Rewards** [16:29] — BlizzCon bundles revealed, including the WoW bundle with the Rabbitath mount, Dawnfire Phoenix decor, and transmog ensemble, with the Ultimate Collection offering a Murk-A-Tath pet.
- **Decour Duels Removal** [19:37] — The Decour Duels mini-game will be removed in patch 12.1, making its rewards potentially unobtainable, with changes to the game mode announced before its removal.
- **Patch 12.1 Release Date** [22:03] — August 11th is the expected release date for patch 12.1, with the Tidebound Grotto raid scheduled to open on August 18th.

### Conclusion

Patch 12.1 brings significant class changes, new systems, and content removals, with a likely release date of August 11th. Players should prepare by earning time-limited rewards and adjusting to the upcoming balance shifts.

## Transcript

busy week in World of Warcraft. We have another round of big class buffs and nerfs to go over, and these might be some of the last adjustments that we see with the PTR now being marked as a release candidate build. The BlizzCon
virtual reward packs have finally been revealed, and they include some very unique cosmetic items for you to collect. And then the dev team announced this week that even more content would become unavailable to play when patch
12.1 goes live. So, if you want any rewards from the Decour Duels mini-game, you now have a time limit to pick those up. There's a lot to talk about, so let's break it all down in this week's WoW news video. Now, before we jump in,
be sure to hit up that like button and subscribe so you never miss another Let's start by checking out this week's round of class buffs and nerfs, starting with the death knights. For blood, that apex talent rank two has been updated,
so you now take 6% reduced damage per dancing rune weapon active up from 4%. Their melee damage is increased by 20%. Heart strike damage is up 25%, and marrow rend saw a 50% buff. Dancing rune weapon now increases parry by 30% up
from 25%. Perseverance of the Ebon Blades duration was increased to 10 seconds up from six, and blood shot now also reduces damage taken by 4% while blood shield is active. For the death bringer hero talent tree, reapers mark
and exterminate damage to primary targets was increased by 20%. For San'layn, blood soaked ground now reduces damage taken by 8% up from five. Blood beast auto attack damage was increased by 1,400%,
even did any damage whatsoever before these changes. Pact of the San'layn now stores 15% of all shadow damage dealt, and vampiric strike saw a 25% damage buff. For unholy, that apex talent graveyard damage is increased by 15%.
Epidemic damage saw a big 75% buff. Virulent Plague damage is up 50% and Virulent Plague damage is up 50% and Putrify AoE damage is increased by 35%. So, lots of AoE buffs for Unholy this week. They'll also see the same Sandline
buffs for Build-A-Soak Ground and that huge 1,400% damage boost for Blood Beasts, which is still pretty hilarious to see in any kind of patch notes. Moving on to the Demon Hunters, Devourer
is going to see a 12% buff for Collapsing Star, but a 6% nerf to Eradicate's damage. The Annihilator Otherworldly Focus talent was reduced to a 30% bonus down from 35%. For Havoc, they'll get a 5% buff to all
damage across the board, which offsets some nerfs from previous weeks. Immolation Aura will see an 8% nerf though, with Essence Break initial damage getting a 35% buff, which should work alongside the new set bonus quite
nicely, which also saw a buff. The four-set now increases Essence Break four-set now increases Essence Break initial damage by 35% up from 25%. Burning Hatred now causes Immolation Aura to generate an additional 30 Fury
down from 40, and Demon Blades now generates 10 to 16 Fury per attack up from 8 to 15. So, your Fury generation might look a bit different in Season 2. And then for Vengeance, they're going to see a 5.5%
boost for all damage done. Druids are up next with a few buffs for Balance and Feral. For Balance, their rank four Apex talent damage is increased by 15%. Stellar Amplification is now only applied to one target and
there are a handful of bug fixes. For the hero talent trees, Elune's Chosen Starfall Cascade was reduced to a 30% chance to launch a Star Surge at 50% effectiveness. And then for Keeper of the Grove, Dream Burst damage is
increased by 30% and Power of Nature increases your Treant melee damage by increases your Treant melee damage by 300% up from 200%. And then for Feral, Rampant Ferocity's damage will see a quick 25% buff.
For the Evoker's, Augmentation will see a 3% buff to all ability and pet damage and their season one set bonus no longer increases the duration that eruption extends Evan Might. So, the dev team really don't want you holding onto that
set bonus for very long in season two. The Scale Commander hero talent tree saw a buff to Wing Leader for both specs. For Augmentation, it now reduces the cooldown of Breath by 1.5 seconds per target struck up from 1 second and then
for Devastation, you'll get 1 second off Deep Breath instead of 0.5 seconds. So, some minor buffs for both Evoker DPS specs. Hunters are up next with quite a few changes. To start with, Hunter's Mark
can only be applied to one target again. This was an experiment that didn't pan out all too well, mostly because it encouraged you to apply Hunter's Mark to as many targets as possible, which meant you spent the start of most pulls just
spamming Hunter's Mark, which isn't the most interesting thing in the world. So, the idea of applying Hunter's Mark to multiple targets is being shelved for now and they may revisit it at a later date. For Beast Mastery specifically,
Beast Cleave now causes your pets to cleave for 55% of damage done up from cleave for 55% of damage done up from 40%. Now, for Marksmanship, Wind Runner Quiver has been redesigned to increase Rapid Fire damage and Rapid Fire has a
30% chance to grant Lock and Load. Incendiary Ammunition has been redesigned to give Explosive Shot a 100% chance to grant Lock and Load. They'll see a 5% buff to all ability damage and auto shot damage. Multi-Shot damage did
get a 20% nerf and then there were a few bug fixes thrown in for good measure. Boomstick to increase the cooldown recovery rate of Wildfire Bomb by 60%
for 8 seconds. Wildfire Shells now causes Boomstick to reduce the cooldown of Wildfire Bomb by 3 seconds, down from 5. There are a couple of bug fixes, and Sentinel's Open Fire now increases fire damage dealt by 5%.
For the Mages, the new Apex talent for Arcane is seeing a pretty large nerf. Its damage to primary targets was reduced by 20%, and then for Sunfury, Glorious Incandescence now summons a meteorite for every five stacks of
meteorite for every five stacks of Arcane Salvo, down from six. That's all for the Mages this week. Paladins have some very quick updates this week. Protection has a bunch of bug fixes, and Reflection of Radiance chance
to activate has been significantly reduced. And then for Retribution, Divine Storm, so they'll be dishing out some more AoE damage. Surprisingly, the Rogues haven't been forgotten this week. Assassination will
see a 6% damage boost for all abilities. Their Apex talent rank three damage was increased by 15%, and their new four-set bonus now causes Amplifying Poison to increase melee damage by 3% per stack, up from 2% per stack. For Outlaw,
they'll see a 3% damage buff across the board. Audacity was buffed up to an 80% damage boost for Ambush, and Subtlety Dispatch increases dispatch damage by 15 Dispatch increases dispatch damage by 15 and 30% up from 10 and 20%. And then for
the Sub Rogues, Goremaw's Bite initial damage was increased by 125%. The bleed damage was increased by 125%, and the mirror damage from finishing and the mirror damage from finishing moves was increased to 20% from 10%.
quite a lot of updates this week. There's a new talent, Swelling Tides, that causes Healing Stream Totem and Storm Stream Totem to extend the duration of your active Riptides by 3 seconds when cast, so that's kind of
cool. Unleash Life's healing was increased by 100%, but the season one two-set bonus only increases Unleash Life's direct healing by 50%, down from 100%. Riptide's direct healing was increased by 25% and its periodic
healing saw a 100% buff. Healing Rain now heals up to six targets in its area up from five. Uh then the chord now grants an additive 20% to the healing buff from Unleash Life rather than a multiplicative increase, which is
usually a downgrade with these kinds of bonuses. Current control now also reduces the mana cost of Chain Heal by 15%. The new two-set bonus was reduced to an 8-second duration increase for bonus healing rains and then the
four-set bonus absorb amount was reduced by 30%. For the Farseer hero talent tree, Farseer Ancestors' Chain Heal now bounces up to five targets, loses 10% healing per target down from 30%. Its jump distance was increased to 20 yd and
its healing was increased by 50%. So, those ancestors should be pumping out quite a bit more healing from their chain heals. Warlocks have a few more changes this week. Affliction has yet another new
talent. This one increases the damage of Shadow Bolt, Drain Soul, Malefic Grasp, and Dark Harvest by 10% or 20% if the target is affected by Haunt. Shadow of Instability has been redesigned to give damage from Shadow Bolt or Drain Soul a
20% chance to cause your next Unstable Affliction or Seed of Corruption to be free and Nocturnal Yield has been removed. And then for Demonology, they're going to see a lot of nerfs to the Diabolist hero talent tree. Chaos
Salvo, Fel Seeker, Wicked Cleave, and Eye Explosion will all see 20% damage fire damage and damage dealt by your demons by 3% down from 4%.
And then last but not least, we come to the warriors. For Arms, Dreadnought no longer damages your Overpower target, but Dreadnought's damage is increased by 100%. Cleave damage is reduced by 10%. There's a bug fix for the new two-set
bonus and Slayer's Opportunist bonuses were doubled up to 20% damage and crit damage on your next overpower. For Fury, rampaging ruin damage is getting a 50% buff. Mountain Thane's thunderblast damage saw a 10% increase, and ground
current is getting a 150% buff. And then for protection, they'll see a 5% damage boost across the board for all abilities. Revenge damage is up 20% on top of that, and Mountain Thane's thunderblast damage saw the same 10%
buff as Fury. That's all for this week's round of class buffs and nerfs, and with the patch releasing sometime around August 11th, we only have a few more weeks to wait. There are a handful of other interesting
updates in this week's PTR build, though, including the addition of coordinates on the world map as a baseline feature. You'll be able to see coordinates at the bottom left of your map, which means you won't need to
functionality anymore. You can turn either of these coordinates on or off in the interface menu, so you can customize things a little bit, or just turn them off if you prefer how an add-on presents that information.
We also have some changes coming for PvP. In battlegrounds, all players will receive 20% less healing, which should make it much easier to actually take down your opponents, even if they do seem to have five pocket healers hiding
somewhere nearby. There's also a change coming to solo shuffle and battleground blitz. If you miss a queue pop, or you decide not to accept the prompt, you'll now get a 1-minute debuff that prevents further queuing. This debuff stacks for
consecutive mismatches within a time window, and it is account-wide. So, if you keep missing queues or just refusing to enter, you could end up with significant time penalties, which will prevent any of your characters from
queuing for those activities. This is apparently an attempt to reduce win trading and queue manipulation, which makes sense. If you can't re-queue as many times as you want, as often as you want, it will be harder to line up your
random queues with your partners in crime. This also shouldn't really have any knock-on effects for regular players unless you have a habit of ignoring queue pops for whatever reason. These updates are all listed under the 12.1
PTR updates, so I assume we'll have to wait for August 11th for these changes to go live, just like the class balance tuning adjustments we covered earlier. It is worth noting that the PTR is now as a release candidate, so I wouldn't
expect to see many more significant changes before the patch does go live. This week also gave us our first look at how the season 2 bonus rolls are going to work. In season 1, we had to wait quite a while before bonus rolls became
available, but once the void forge was complete, bonus rolls opened the loot floodgates. Well, things will work a bit differently in season 2. Bonus rolls will be available from the very start of the season, but only as a great vault
reward option. So, when you go to open your vaults in season 2, you'll have a choice between one of the pieces of gear that you earned from completing content in each vault row, the tokens of merit currency, or a nebulous void core. There
is a catch here that you can only pick a void core bonus roll if you have at least three options unlocked in your vault. So, you want to make sure you get three rewards unlocked in your vault every single week if you want an extra
chance at a shiny piece of loot. This is going to be even more important for your alts, even if you don't plan on actually playing them right away in season 2. If you can get three quick vault options unlocked, the actual gear
rewards you may have don't matter that much. You can stock up on bonus rolls as around to playing that character, you bonus rolls, which will let you get that many pieces of mythic track gear when
you get up to higher Mythic Plus keystones or just by clearing heroic raids and using those bonus rolls. With there being no catch-up mechanic for these early bonus rolls, if you don't earn the vault rewards, you won't have
any way to obtain these rolls. This only really matters for the players who like gearing up multiple characters throughout a season, though. We'll be weeks into the season, but instead of the two per week we saw in season 1,
we'll only get one per week. So, we'll still make gearing up faster in general, still make gearing up faster in general, just not quite as fast as season 1. Moving on, you may have heard the crazy news this week that a WoW GM was helping
players cheat in high-end Mythic Plus keystone runs. If you're out of the loop, the general gist of the story is that some players were about to fail a plus 23 keystone when one of them asked their GM friend to do them a solid and
finish off the boss and kill a trash mob so they would time the key with just a few seconds left. I believe that GM was in voice chat with them and potentially in the dungeon hiding with their GM account. The GM decided, "Sure, why
not?" Insta-killed enough mobs to finish the key, and they went on their merry way until the log for that run got uploaded and some log divers brought it to the wider community's attention. Well, the dev team took this case of
cheating quite seriously indeed and we're starting to see the ramifications for the GM and the players involved. A blue post confirms that the GM in question is no longer with the company effective immediately, which has got to
be one of the worst ways to lose your job in the current climate. Using dev tools on the live servers just to time a plus 23 key for your friends is absolutely wild. So, that's what happened to the offending GM. But, what
about the players? This doesn't seem to be quite as clear. The blue post does mention that we are also taking action against the player accounts that were complicit in this violation. And a recent tweet from J. Allen Brack
suggests at least one of the players involved has received a one-month ban. times to receive a one-month ban. Not only will these players not be able to achieve any end-of-season goals they hadn't already completed for season 1,
but they're also going to miss the start of 12.1 and the first week of season 2, which is some of the most fun weeks of any season. So, the offending players do seem to have been punished as well. Curiously, a lot of the comments are
angry that the players might only get a one-month ban, some calling for a 12-month ban or even a permanent ban, which does seem a bit steep if this was an isolated one-off incident and their first offense. Obviously, if it wasn't
just a one-off case, that would be very bad and would bring a lot of scrutiny to any unlogged high mythic plus keystone runs. But, what do you think? Should longer or is a one-month ban appropriate? Let me know what you think
in the comments section below. Moving on, the virtual goodies for BlizzCon 2026 were revealed this week. There's a pack for each Blizzard game, so you can buy the ones you want the most or you can buy the BlizzCon bundle to get
everything for significantly cheaper overall. This year's BlizzCon doesn't have a virtual ticket. The opening ceremony and the major panels will all be free to view. So, instead of paying to watch BlizzCon online and getting a
few goodies tied to your ticket, the actual stream is going to be free and the goodies themselves are packed away in these BlizzCon bundles, which is a better way of doing it in my opinion. The World of Warcraft bundle will set
you back around $30 and that includes the Rabbitath mount, a void-themed effects. You'll get the perch of the Dawnfire Phoenix decor item, which is one of my favorite decor items I've seen in the game so far, and it's totally
inspired by Fawkes from Harry Potter. It's a phoenix on a shiny perch that burns up into ash with a golden feather dropping into the basin only to be revived as a baby phoenix chick. That chick then goes on to become a fully
grown phoenix, and the process repeats. This is the kind of special decor I'd love to see more of in game. And then the last item is the garb of the Dawnfire Phoenix on ensemble, which includes a helm and shoulders. These
definitely be trying to work these pieces into a transmog set for my paladin. It looks like having permanent Avenging Wrath wings, so these will be great for anyone who loves a holy or wings vibe for their transmogs.
The phoenix theme does make me wonder what we'll see at BlizzCon, though. Is this related to the last titan and how that expansion unfolds? Could we see a stronger presence of the light as we fight to retake the world soul in patch
12.2? Or could it be pointing towards the rumors that are swirling around about World of Warcraft potentially seeing a rebirth or a reset after the last titan comes to a close? There's a lot of potential here, but either way,
awesome. Now, there is one more World of Warcraft reward you can pick up, but it's only available in the BlizzCon Ultimate Collection, which includes the goodies for every of the game and some special
items that are just in the ultimate bundle. That will only set you back $50, to get the other stuff for the other games, but not so great if you just want the extra WoW pet. That pet is Murk-A-Tath, a Zalathras themed murloc,
which looks just as ridiculous as you might imagine. It does have some cool visual effects, though, and I'll be honest, I'm not sure I'm comfortable with a murloc having that kind of power. You can check out the goodies from the
other game bundles or the Ultimate Collection on the Battle.net store. Now, for anyone actually going to the event, you can link your BlizzCon pass with your Battle.net account to get the BlizzCon ultimate collection as part of
your pass. So, you don't have to pay anything extra. The notes on the page do say you have to link your pass before September 14th, so don't dally if you are going to BlizzCon in person. Now, in other news, the dev team just
announced that even more content will be going away as we head into patch 12.1. When the Curse of Ulta'tek content update goes live, the De Coeur Duels mini-game will no longer be available to play. That means you won't be able to
earn any more illusionary coins to purchase the various cosmetics and De Coeur items from the event vendors. The announcement does note that players will still be able to purchase De Coeur items from the silverman vendors after De
Coeur Duels is no longer available, and I'm pretty sure that might be changing to the void light mall currency, but there's no mention of the cosmetic items, which includes a lot of weapon transmogs, a handful of toys, and a
purple blue bee mount with some unique effects. So, when the game mode becomes available in 12.1, all of these rewards may become unobtainable as well. I would out all of the cosmetics, and see if there's anything that you might want to
pick up before they're removed. Now, if you weren't a big fan of De Coeur Duels when it first popped up, the dev team has made a few changes with this announcement. Finders are no longer automatically revealed towards the end
of the match. The fly's visual has been removed, so you can camp a good location without being totally given away by those pesky flies. The energy increase can't spam quite as much. And then everyone will earn double coins for the
will become active within the next weekly reset. So, it should be much rewards that you're interested in now when compared to the start of patch 12.0.5 when the mini game was first introduced. It should also be at least a
bit more interesting or fun to play, though I will say it has taken quite a while for these updates to come through. If the dev team wanted to keep eyes on the core duels and keep players engaging with the game mode, these changes really
should have made their way into the game much, much earlier. It also seems like a shame for the game mode to get some updates only to be removed a few weeks later. I'm honestly not sure why it's being removed. It's not like
plunderstorm or remix, which were much larger time-limited events or game modes, and it doesn't offer any kind of player power or player progression. It's just a fun little side game, but I guess now that this is time-limited content,
we may see a spike of folks rushing in to get their rewards before they become unobtainable. So, that's one more thing to add to your end-of-season goals list if you're still looking for more things to do before patch 12.1 goes live in
August. Now, we still don't have an official release date just yet, but August 11th is still looking like the most likely patch day. And if you needed an extra tidbit of proof, the Tidebound Grotto
raid popped up on the 12.1 PTR calendar this week. It's scheduled to open its doors on August 18th. The Tidebound Grotto is the new lair boss coming in Grotto is the new lair boss coming in 12.1, which is basically replacing world
bosses. So, we won't have actual world bosses out in the world anymore. We'll have single raid instance bosses instead. With this new lair boss having all four difficulties that you'd expect from a season raid boss, it's safe to
assume this raid opens up at the same time as season 2 goes live. The season always starts at least a week after the patch goes live, so 12.1 itself would have to launch on August 11th or earlier. I doubt it's going to be any
earlier at this point, so August 11th is still our expected release date. The most recent PTR build was also marked as a release candidate as we already pretty much done with its testing period. But, that's all of the updates
we have so far, so that's it for this week's WoW news video. How do you feel about even more content being removed as we head into patch 12.1? And are there any time-limited events or game modes you hope make a comeback sometime soon?
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