---
title: 'Massive Class Nerfs This Week & Huge Gear Reset in Season 2'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=tPK2mVC6shU'
video_id: 'tPK2mVC6shU'
date: 2026-08-18
duration_sec: 1186
channel: 'SignsOfKelani'
---

# Massive Class Nerfs This Week & Huge Gear Reset in Season 2

> Source: [Massive Class Nerfs This Week & Huge Gear Reset in Season 2](https://youtube.com/watch?v=tPK2mVC6shU)

## Summary

This video covers the latest World of Warcraft patch 12.1 updates, including significant class buffs and nerfs, a major gear reset for Season 2, and new housing room options. The creator analyzes the reasoning behind the gear changes and previews the new artisanal interior rooms.

### Key Points

- **Class Balance Changes Overview** [00:02] — The video begins with a summary of extensive class buffs and nerfs for patch 12.1, highlighting that many classes are receiving substantial nerfs.
- **Death Knight Nerfs** [00:40] — Frost Death Knights receive a 10% damage nerf, 20% melee damage nerf, 35% nerf to IC Death Torrent, 30% nerf to Remorseless Winter, and 10% nerf to Obliterate. Unholy Death Knights receive an 8% damage nerf (later reduced to 3%), with multiple ability-specific nerfs.
- **Demon Hunter and Druid Adjustments** [02:08] — Demon Hunter Devourer spec gets a 10% damage buff, while Havoc gets a 5% nerf. Druids receive a 3.5% buff to all abilities, with specific buffs to Balance spells and Resto mastery.
- **Evoker Redesign and Changes** [03:17] — The Wingleader talent is redesigned, changing Deep Breath cooldown reduction from bombardments to Mass Disintegrate/Eruption. Squadron's Pyre and Maneuverability receive 40% buffs to compensate.
- **Hunter Changes** [04:51] — Beast Mastery sees Auto Shot and Cobra Shot buffs, but multiple Cobra Shot talents are nerfed. Marksmanship receives significant buffs across the board, including an 80% buff to Multi-shot.
- **Mage and Monk Updates** [06:05] — Mages receive various buffs and nerfs, including a 12% buff for Fire Mages. Monks see minor changes to Mist Weaver and Wind Walker abilities.
- **Paladin and Priest Changes** [07:13] — Holy Paladins receive numerous buffs, while Retribution gets a 6% damage nerf. Priests see changes to Void Shield, healing buffs, and a Shadow damage buff.
- **Rogue, Warlock, and Warrior Adjustments** [09:20] — Subtlety Rogues get an 8% nerf. Affliction Warlocks see a change to their two-set bonus, and Destruction gets a 10% damage buff. Warriors receive updates to their two-set and hero talents.
- **Season 2 Gear Reset** [10:57] — The dev team increased all Season 2 gear tracks by 7 item levels, creating a 46 item level gap between Season 1 and Season 2 gear, making most Season 1 gear obsolete.
- **Reasoning Behind Gear Reset** [12:36] — The creator explains that the gear reset is necessary to maintain engagement and ensure solo players have meaningful upgrades, despite high-end players' complaints about their gear being replaced.
- **New Housing Rooms** [15:13] — New artisanal interior rooms are coming, purchasable for 50 community coupons each. The video previews themed rooms for Belameth, Orgrimmar, Silvermoon, and Stormwind.

### Conclusion

The video concludes by inviting viewer feedback on the class changes and gear reset, while highlighting the new housing options as a way to enhance player creativity.

## Transcript

huge class buffs and nerfs to go over this week and a lot of classes are seeing some very large nerfs. The dev team also decided that season 2 gear awards weren't quite valuable enough, so they increased the item levels across
the board, which will make almost all season 1 gear completely obsolete when patch 12.1 goes live. And then we also have some interesting new housing room options that give you a more fleshed out baseline, which may help you create some
more unique and exciting housing plans. Now, before we jump in, be sure to hit that like button and subscribe so you never miss another video. Let's kick things off with this week's round of class buffs and nerfs, and we
do have quite a lot of nerfs coming our way. For Death Knights, Frost is going to see a 10% damage nerf across the board, which isn't too surprising. They have been quite powerful so far in patch 12.1. They'll also see a 20% nerf to
12.1. They'll also see a 20% nerf to their melee damage, a 35% nerf to IC Death Torrent, Remorseless Winter got a 30% nerf, and Obliterate damage is down 10%. So, nerfs all the way down for Frost Death Knights this week. For
Unholy, they'll see an 8% nerf for all damage done. Lord of the Dead will see a 25% damage reduction. Mages of the Dead damage is down 15%. All lesser ghoul damage is being nerfed by 15%. Putrify damage is down 15%. Necrotic Coil saw an
damage is down 15%. Necrotic Coil saw an 18% nerf. Pestilence damage is down 25%. Infected Claw was nerfed by 25% and Virulent Plague is down 25% as well. In addition to those nerfs, the Rider of the Apocalypse Whitemane Death Coil
damage and Un-death damage saw 25% nerfs too. Now, about a day after these notes were posted, there was an update that reduced the blanket damage nerf for Unholy down to 3%. So, it's only going to be a 3% damage nerf across the board
instead of 8%, but that is still a long list of nerfs. So, it's not looking great for the Death Knight DPS specs this week. Moving on to the Demon Hunters, both DPS specs have some very quick adjustments.
Devourer will see a 10% damage buff for all of their abilities while Havoc will see a 5% nerf across the board. So, depending on which DPS spec you prefer right now, you'll probably either be happy or sad as a Demon Hunter this
Now, Druids have a longer list of changes this week. For Balance, they'll get a 3.5% buff for all abilities which is quite a specific number and then 10% buffs for Moonfire, Sunfire, Shooting Stars, and Wrath damage. Starfire damage
is up 20%, Umbral Intensity was buffed by 12%, Meteorite's damage is up 15%, the Apex talents Solar Bolt and Lunar Bolt saw a 10% buff, and the instant
Starfall damage from the new two-set bonus was increased by 15%. The Keeper of the Grove hero talent tree also saw some buffs for the Sylvan Awakening Starfall damage and the Spirit of the Thicket Starfall damage boost.
And then for resto Druids, their mastery bonus was increased by 15%, their new two-set bonus was reduced down to a 15% bonus, and the four-set now causes Nature's Swiftness, Tranquility, and Ironbark to always grant Genesis.
For the Evokers, it's not just simple buffs or nerfs. The Wingleader talent in the Scale Commander tree has been redesigned. So, instead of your Deep Breath cooldown reduction coming from bombardments, it's now tied to Mass
Disintegrate or Mass Eruption. So, that should work out to significantly less cooldown reduction on your Deep Breath, which means fewer casts overall. To try and offset that damage dip, you'll see 40% buffs to your Squadron's Pyre damage
and Maneuverability's damage over time. This change is for both Devastation and Augmentation and it's a pretty big gameplay shift, so it's going to be to see how it all plays out. Now, the Chronowarden hero talent tree has a
quick change for double time. If Ebon Might applies double time while it's already active, its duration will be extended instead of just overwriting the previous double time effect. And then for preservation, Inner Flame periodic
healing bonus was reduced to 50% and spiritual clarity now reduces the cooldown of Dream Breath by 6 seconds down from 10. There are also a lot of changes for the Flame Shaper hero talent tree. Expanded lungs was reduced to a
20% bonus. Conduit of Flames crit bonus was cut down to 10%. Fulminous Roar now causes Fire Breath and Dream Breath to tick 15% more often instead of 20%. Consume Flame. Emerald Blossom and Fluttering Seedlings now prefer to heal
injured allies with Dream Breath active. And Consume Flame heals for 300% of the And Consume Flame heals for 300% of the amount consumed, up from 200%. Moving on to the hunters, Beast Mastery has a lot of changes. Auto Shot damage
is up 20% and Cobra Shot damage is up 30%. But then several Cobra Shot talents were nerfed, like Serpentine Strikes now increasing Cobra Shot crit damage by 20% down from 50%. Cobra Sense's damage boost was also cut down to 10% from 35%.
So, Cobra Shot should do more damage without any modifiers, but these modifiers won't be as impactful if you do decide to pick them up, which you probably will with the stat bonus still focusing on Cobra Shot. Barbed Shot saw
a 12% nerf, and then the four-set bonus now increases Cobra Shot damage against a single target by 15% per stack, down from 30%. Pack Leader's Hogstrider damage bonus for Cobra Shot was cut in half, down to 100%, and Hoof and Blade
half, down to 100%, and Hoof and Blade was cut down to 25% from 50%. That's a lot of nerfs to Cobra Shot bonuses. Now, Marksmanship is much easier to figure out. It's just buffs all the way down. Auto shot and rapid fire damage are up
20%. Steady shot saw a 50% buff. Volley damage is up 20%. Arcane shot damage saw a 15% buff. Multi-shot damage got an 80% buff. And then kill shot and black arrow damage were increased by 25%. I guess Marksmanship really wasn't doing
too hot so far in 12.1. The Mages are up next with quite a lot of buffs and a handful of nerfs. Improved Mass Invisibility reduces cooldown by 3 minutes down from 4. Ring of Fire duration was increased to 4
seconds up from 3. Arcane O Sphere damage was increased by 25% and Overpowered Barrier increases barrier absorption by 60% down from 100%. Fire Mages will see a 12% buff across the board and Pyroclasm's duration was
increased to 20 seconds giving you an extra 5 seconds to make use of those powerful procs. And then Frost Mage's new four-set bonus was updated to grant you five icicles over 1 second rather than immediately granting a Glacial
Spike. The proc rate was doubled and the shatter damage bonus was nerfed to 10% Then we come to the Monks with some quick changes. Mist Weaver's Spinning Crane Kick damage was increased by 10% and then Wind Walker's Combat Wisdom now
increases stamina by 5% and Calming Presence now reduces damage taken by 10% up from 6%. Paladins are up next and Holy has a lot of buffs to look forward to. Their new two-set bonus increases the
effectiveness of Infusion of Light by a 100% up from 75%. They got an 8% buff to all healing done. Word of Glory and Eternal Flame healing are up 5% Holy Shock healing saw a 10% buff and Ringing in the Heavens now casts Divine Toll at
200% effectiveness up from 100%. Truth Prevails healing was increased by 30%. Saved by the Light's absorb was increased by 50%. Tyrion's Devotion now reduces the cooldown of Lay on Hands by 40% up from 30%. Awakening now activates
on a 15% chance up from 10%. Glistening Radiance transfers 50% of Holy Shock's healing up from 30% and Call of the Righteous now decreases the duration of Avenging Wrath by 3 seconds and Avenging Crusader by 2 seconds per point. So, a
lot of buffs for Holy Paladins this week. For Retribution, their four-set has changed yet again. So, Divine Arbiter now empowers your other Holy Power spenders rather than just Templar's Verdict and Divine Arbiter
damage was increased by 35%. But, they will also see a 6% damage nerf But, they will also see a 6% damage nerf across the board, which is never ideal. will see some nerfs to Void Shield with buffs to other spells to better
distribute their healing powers. So, Void Shield got a 30% nerf, but then Ultimate Penitent's damage and healing were increased by 30%. Greatest Might duration was doubled to 4 seconds. So, you should be able to keep that rolling
much easier. They'll also see a 10% boost to all healing and absorption effects and atonement will heal for 32% of damage done up from 30%. Holy Priests will get a 10% buff for all of their healing done. Benediction's mana cost
was reduced by 30% and Apotheosis now reduces the mana cost of Holy Words by reduces the mana cost of Holy Words by 70% down from 50%. So, more healing and more mana. What's not to like? And then for Shadow, they're going to see an 8%
damage buff across the board and it's always nice to see your numbers go up. Now, Rogues don't have too much to write home about this week. Subtlety is just getting an 8% nerf to all of their damage done. I guess the recent changes
left them a bit too powerful. For the Warlocks, the Affliction two-set Corruption now applies Unstable Affliction at 20% effectiveness down from 50% and then Destruction will see a quick 10% damage boost for all of their
damage done. Nothing too exciting there, but it's better than a damaged nerve, that's for sure. And then last but not least, we come to the warriors. For arms, their two-set has been updated to also increase the
damage of execute and their melee auto attack damage to a whopping 100% buff. They'll also see some changes to their hero talent trees. For Colossus, No Stranger to Pain was increased to a 30% bonus and Dominance of the Colossus
damage reduction bonus was increased to 20% from 10%. For Slayer, Slayer's was updated so the chance to trigger Slayer's Strike was increased to 25% up from 15%. For Fury, Bloodbath initial damage was
reduced by 12% but the bleed damage is increased by 300% four-set bonus was updated so the Bloody Rebuke bleed deals 100% more damage and Unyielding increases the damage
reduction bonus of Defensive Stance by 6% up from 4%. changes as arms with Practice Strikes now generating four additional rage up from three. That's all for this week's round of class buffs and nerfs for patch
12.1 and with the patch quickly approaching, I imagine we'll see more numbers tuning from here on out rather than actual talent or rotational updates was based on the data from the heroic PTR testing of the new raid so
it'll be interesting to see how their balancing lands when this patch hits live servers in August. Now, in other news, the dev team decided this week that season two rewards weren't good enough when compared to
season one to ensure that everyone would want to chase some juicy gear upgrades at the start of the season. It probably didn't help that everyone and their cat is decked out in full hero gear as a bare minimum with myth track gear being
more readily available to solo content players. So the dev team bumped up all season two gear tracks by seven item levels creating a 46 item level gap between season one gear and season two gear instead of the initial 39 item
level gap. That bumps one of six veteran gear up to item level 279, which is already higher than fully upgraded hero gear from season one. Champion gear is going to start at item level 292 and can be upgraded up to item level 309, making
it better than even the very best season one gear from the mythic four full raid. So, with these item bumps, most players will find some big upgrades from veteran gear in the new season, and then every single player will be chasing after
champion gear, even if you are decked out in maxed out myth track gear. Now, this isn't too surprising to me. The only way to maintain the value of lower gear tracks in a new season is to increase their item levels, but you
can't do that without increasing literally everything else. With how easy it has been to gear up in season one, and with the dev team giving solo content players access to myth crests and myth track gear, they really only
had two options. The first would be to leave the item levels lower, which would mean that anyone going into season two with hero track or higher gear would skip over almost all of the initial gearing up options. The problem with
that is that solo content currently rewards hero and either myth track gear. It's slowly crept its way up with each patch in season one, but at the start of season two, solo player content will once again cap out at champion, and
those sources will be strictly limited. So, most of it is going to be veteran gear, some champion gear, and then one or two pieces of hero gear per week maximum. If they left the item levels lower, solo content players would almost
entirely ignore veteran gear, meaning they would had significantly less room for gear upgrades, and they probably wouldn't have taken part in most types of open world content. So, the second option is to just bump
everything up to make sure even veteran gear will be an upgrade, which is what the dev team decided to do. This does have a knock-on effect, though. It makes the gear reset more complete, which means even if you spent the entirety of
season 1 working on your super duper best in slot gear, it's going to be replaced immediately. I've seen a lot of high-end players complaining about that specifically, having their sporfall mythic gear replaced by a bountiful
delve drop isn't going to feel good. But, I think this kind of cycle is almost inevitable. The gear treadmill and seasonal reset is a key component of World of Warcraft's current design, whether you like it or not. And if you
make gear easier to obtain and more plentiful, like we have seen throughout season 1, something has to force that gear reset as we head into season 2. Imagine going into a new season, but half the gear rewards are totally
worthless, even for players who don't take part in group content. That's going to decimate engagement numbers, which the dev team probably doesn't want to do. So, the dev team decided to go with higher item levels this time, but I will
be curious if they attempt another approach in the future. Some games have even opted for a completely horizontal progression system instead of the vertical system that WoW has to avoid these kinds of problems. So, there are
options on the table, but if you remove gear progression as a main reward structure in WoW, I do wonder if that would just kind of break the whole But, what do you think of the higher
item levels in season 2 and basically all gear from season 1 being made know what you think in the comments And then to round out this video, we have some more interesting updates for
the housing feature this week. We have some new artisanal interior rooms coming, which can be purchased from new room planner vendors for 50 community coupons each. These rooms aren't available to actually test on the PTR,
but Wowhead has managed to data mine what these new rooms should look like and they are quite intricate. Full rooms with a specific theme. This first one is called the Belameth bedroom with a cool leaf-like pattern on the floor and an
interesting ceiling. You could definitely set this up with a central furniture you think goes in a bedroom and it could look really cool. This next one is the Belameth meeting room with an arched ceiling and a few different
separated sections of the floor. The next one is the Belameth temple room with multiple tiers, built-in stairs, cubbies or sections off to the side, and blue light pouring through the large bay-like windows. The last Belameth room
is the theater, which also has multiple tiers and built-in steps, which creates a stage-like section, so I guess that's where the name comes from. Up next we have the Orgrimmar council room, a large open space with several
pillars in the middle, which surround what looks like a sand pit. The ceiling is also super cool, like canvas over ropes with an openish circle in the middle. This one is the Orgrimmar display room, which looks like a smaller
nicely as a place to set up your trophies or other items to show off. We bit of an odd one. It's a smaller room once again with one section of the wall
and nearby floor made of stone instead of the usual wood and timber. There's a theater for the Orgrimmar theme as well, though this one looks far less refined when compared to the Belameth one and the stage isn't risen very high at all.
options, too. This is the Silvermoon Armory and I really like how this room perfect place to show off transmog on mannequins if they ever allowed us to do that. We have a Silvermoon display room with large pillars towards the edges and
what looks like windows with red light shining through. This next one is the Silvermoon Loft Study, which might be one of the coolest one so far. It's got multiple tiers, a spiral staircase, and a balcony that wraps around most of the
upstairs. You could do so much with this room, but I imagine most folks are going to turn it into a study or a library. If that room is too large for your tastes, there's also the Silvermoon Small Study. It's cool to have options, but this one
doesn't seem anywhere near as awesome as the Loft Study in my opinion. Moving on, we have the Stormwind Armory. This kind of looks more like a stable could do some very interesting things with it. The Stormwind Display Room has
a raised section like some other rooms. In fact, most of this room is raised, but it should make a good room to show off any collectibles that you have. The Stormwind Grand Hall has a raised wooden section to either side with a flagstone
center, which is quite striking. There's a raised platform to one end with a large vertical window, too. And then the last one is the Stormwind Kitchen. It's a wooden floor that drops down to a stone section, which is where I imagine
they expect you to place your food storage or something like that. These rooms provide you with a better baseline option. So, if you want to have a house come up with things yourself, these rooms can kind of bridge the gap between
a bare room with nothing going on and the grand creations that some folks are able to come up with. More options is always nice, and some of these rooms do look So, I'll be interested to see how players use them moving forward and what
future. But, that's all of the updates we have so far. So, that's it for this week's WoW news video. What do you think of the latest round of class buffs and nerfs, and how do you feel about season one
gear being replaced instantly in season two? Leave all your thoughts in the comment section below. A big thank you to all of our supporters over on Patreon and all of our members here on YouTube. You can see the names on screen. If
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Good luck and have fun and as always, I'll see you next time.