[00:03] release date has finally been revealed. It goes live on August 11th with season 2 starting up on August 18th. But with so much content coming in the new patch, it's important to know what becomes available right away and what we have to
[00:16] the patch and the season release schedule. There are also some last-minute class adjustments which include quite a few nerfs for the highest performing specs right now. And with patch 12.1 almost here, we have our
[00:30] first sighting of patch 12.1.5. And that should pop up on the PTR to start its testing cycle very soon. We also have some information about Classic Plus, otherwise known as Project Camelot. And we may see a beta test for
[00:44] that new classic experience sooner than we thought. Now, before we jump in, be subscribe so you never miss another video. Let's kick things off with this week's round of class buffs and nerfs. There
[00:57] are actually still some massive changes in here despite the patch going live in just about a week's time. With it being so close, these may also be the last updates that we see before the tuning adjustments in season 2. For the Death
[01:11] Knights, San'layn has quite a few nerfs. Blood is life now accumulates 15% of the damage dealt from Blood Beast down from 25%. Frenzied Bloodthirst's Death Strike and Death Coil damage bonus was reduced to 5% per stack down from 6% per stack.
[01:26] And then Visceral Strength grants 10% strength down from 12%. So, San'layn won't provide quite as much damage as it did previously. For Unholy Death Knights, they'll see a 100% buff to auto attack damage. So, you'll just get free
[01:40] extra damage as long as you're in melee range. But then Virulent Plague damage saw a 10% nerf. Their apex talent saw another 15% nerf to graveyard damage. And Epidemic damage is down 12%. The new set bonus will get some extra damage
[01:54] from Necrotic Bolt and Withering Grasp. though. So, a bit of give and take for Unholy Death Knights this week, which should lead to an overall nerf to their AoE and cleave potential. Demon Hunters are up next, and Devourer
[02:08] has some last-minute nerfs. Eradicate secondary damage was reduced by 15%, which will cut down their cleave and AoE potential. And the Annihilator final hour talent now causes Void Fall bonuses to persist for 6 seconds, down from 8,
[02:22] which just means less uptime on those effects. On the other side, Havoc will Death Sweep, Chaos Strike, and Annihilation will all see 6% buffs. The
[02:34] Hunt damage is up 12%, and Essence Break initial damage saw a 10% buff, with secondary damage being increased by 30%. So, you'll be dishing out quite a bit more damage with most of your important rotational abilities.
[02:49] Moving on to the Druids, I guess Balance was flying just a bit too close to the sun, as they have a decently-sized list of nerfs this week. Moonfire and Sunfire damage are down 5%, Shooting Stars damage is down 10%, Star Surge saw a 3%
[03:04] nerf, Starfall is also down 3%, and Meteor damage saw a 15% nerf. So, nerfs almost across the board for Balance's damage profile. It's not all bad news
[03:16] see an 8% buff across the board for all their damage done, which is always nice to see. Evokers are up next with quite a few changes for Devastation. Shattering stars that are released from Eternity
[03:30] Surge due to Scintillation are now subject to Scintillation's 40% effectiveness multiplier. And the new two-set bonus was nerfed into the ground, providing a 50% damage bonus to Shattering Star, down from 150%.
[03:45] To try and offset those nerfs, Deep Breath damage is increased by 30%, Pyre Breath damage is increased by 30%, Pyre damage is up 10%, Disintegrate so a huge 40% buff, and Living Flame damage is up 50%. So, you'll have a lot more damage
[03:59] coming from your base rotation, especially Disintegrate. And with the pyre buff falling a bit short, that will have a pretty large impact on your talent choices as we head into patch 12.1.
[04:11] Hunters made the list this week with yet another nerf to Cobra Shot for Beast Mastery. I guess nerfing all the various talents and bonuses still wasn't enough. So, Cobra Shot damage has been reduced by 20%. For Marksmanship, they'll catch
[04:24] a 5% nerf across the board for all damage and pet damage with Explosive Shot seeing a huge 33% nerf on top of that. Apparently, there are quite a few bug fixes for Marksmanship that should help offset these nerfs. So, hopefully,
[04:38] it's not quite as bad as it looks on paper. Moving on to the mages, they'll see a 20% buff to Arcane Blast damage to help shore up their single-target damage profile. Spell thing is, Splintering
[04:51] Orb's bonus to Arcane Orb was buffed back up quite significantly, up to 50% from 10%. So, that's a huge buff right there. And then, Sunfury has a quick bug fix. Fire mages will see a 6% buff across the board, so no actual changes
[05:06] to talents or rotation in this last week, but 6% damage is always nice. And two-set and four-set bonuses were both nerfed. The two-set now increases Glacial Spike damage by 20% down from 25%, and the chance to generate an
[05:22] icicle per freezing stack shattered was reduced to 4% from 5%. The four-set shatter bonus was reduced down to 5% from 10%. So, you'll just get less power overall from these new set bonuses in season 2. Splitting Ice saw a huge nerf
[05:37] as well. Flurry and Frostbolt damage to secondary targets was cut down to 50% from 80%, and then Fractured Frost was nerfed as well. So, Ice Lance secondary targets are hit at 50% effectiveness, down from 100%. So, those are some huge
[05:52] nerfs to Frost's two-target potential, which is a bit of a shame. That's where they usually excelled. They should still do better than most classes in two-target scenarios, but they won't dominate those fights quite as easily.
[06:05] They'll see a 3% damage boost across the board down at the bottom. So, it's not all bad news, I guess. Paladins have just one quick change this week. Holy is getting yet another buff. This time, they'll see a 5% healing
[06:19] boost across the board, and I think Holy Paladins may have seen the most buffs out of any spec over the entire course of this patch's PTR. healing boost for Holy, so that should help you keep up with the other healers
[06:34] a bit better. And then for Shadow, Void Volley damage will see a 10% nerf. The new four-set bonus lets you cast Void Volleys at 100% effectiveness, down from 125%, and Arcan's focus outburst now increases
[06:47] and Arcan's focus outburst now increases Void Volley damage by 5%, down from 15%. So, you'll see much less damage from each of those Void Volley bursts, and your four-set won't provide quite as much of a DPS boost.
[06:59] Rogues come in swinging this week with some huge buffs. Assassination will see a 10% damage boost across the board. Outlaw gets a 6% buff to all of their damage dealt, and Subtlety hasn't been left out. They're walking away with a
[07:13] 10% buff to all of their damage as well. So, happy days for the rogues, even if it did take until the very last minute to see any decent buffs. Now, it's not good news for the Shamans, I'm afraid. Elemental Farseer's
[07:27] ancestors are getting some nasty nerfs. Their Lava Burst damage and Chain Lightning damage will both see 20% nerfs, so that's definitely going to knock Farseer down a notch or two. Moving on to the Warlocks, Affliction's
[07:41] Haunt is getting buffed up to increase the damage bonus to 16% for 18 seconds up from 12%. Demonology is seeing some juicy buffs. Shadow Bolt damage is up 45%. Demon Bolt is up 55%. Summon Gloomhound
[07:54] will see a 35% increase and there's a tooltip change for the new set bonuses. And then Destruction has some adjustments, too. Havoc now duplicates 50% of damage to the marked target down from 60%, so they won't get quite as
[08:07] much free cleave damage there. But then Soulfire damage will see a huge 45% boost and Chaos Bolt damage is up 5%, so less cleave damage, but more single target damage for Destro this week. And then last but not least, we come to
[08:22] the Warriors. Arms will see a small nerf to Powerful Momentum that will only increase Sweeping Strikes chain damage by 20% down from 25%, so less cleave damage coming through there. Execute is being cut down by 15%, which definitely
[08:36] isn't ideal. Their Season 1 two-set bonus is being reduced and the new four-set bonus is getting buffed up to a 20% bonus for your next slam and it can stack two additional times. And then for Protection, they'll see a 6% damage
[08:49] done. That's all for this week's round of probably the last major updates we'll see for the patch. The dev team might the very last minute next week and they've actually even done it on the
[09:04] Monday just before the patch goes live, so there is still a little bit of time. But the next major round of balance tuning changes will probably happen just tuning changes will probably happen just before Season 2 starts for real.
[09:17] week. There's another very interesting update for 12.1. Up until now, we haven't had any updates or changes to the content that was added in patch 12.0.5 or 12.0.7. So things like Ritual Sites, Void Assaults, and the Val and
[09:32] Night Fael zones. Well, at the very end of this week and just over a week before the patch goes live, that's all changed. Void strikes, void incursions, and the weekly quests tied to them will now give season 2 adventurer crests. Ritual sites
[09:47] will basically match their rewards to season 2 delves on a tier-to-tier basis, which includes vault rewards from completing ritual sites and crest rewards from the end of your run. With them being capped at tier 6, this means
[10:00] you won't be able to get any champion gear or higher tiers of crests, but at least they're rewarding currencies now. And then even the field accolade gear boxes have also been updated, so you can now buy season 2
[10:12] adventurer war bound caches for 200 field accolades or season 2 veteran gear boxes for 500 field accolades. Those will contain a piece of random gear and be bound on pickup. If you want to target a specific slot with veteran
[10:26] gear, you can do, but that will set you back 750 field accolades per box you buy. So, field accolades will actually be useful in season 2, and I assume the same sources. So, I would hold on to field accolades if you have any left
[10:41] over. The season 2 veteran gear will be better than anything you can buy right now. So, all of this content will reward adventurer or veteran gear in season 2, which gives you more options towards the lower end of the gearing treadmill in
[10:54] the new season. But that also means if you ever go back to this content to farm achievements or cosmetic rewards, you'll also be gathering some somewhat useful also be gathering some somewhat useful currencies at the same time.
[11:07] Moving on, let's take a look at patch 12.1's release date and schedule. The release date was finally revealed to be August 11th, so pretty much what we expected for the last month or so, but it is nice to get that official
[11:19] announcement so we have a solid date to work with. Most end of season goals should be completed by then if you want to secure those goodies and rewards. But not everything in the patch or new season will be available for play right
[11:32] away, and the initial announcement actually had incorrect information. So, on August 11th, we'll have the new patch that includes the Coiled Owl zone. To the new chapters of the main story campaign, which will cut off at some
[11:45] point and continue in the following week. The new lab boss will be available right away. This is the new world boss for the patch, except it's actually just a one boss raid with a world difficulty, rather than being an open world boss
[11:57] like they have been in the past. The world difficulty for that raid is the only one available on launch day, and that drops veteran track gear. So, you will have to wait until the season releases to do normal, heroic, or
[12:09] The new dungeon, the Ultra Fangs, will be available to play right away as well, and the season 2 dungeon rotation will learning these new dungeons on the lower difficulties. Only heroic and mythic
[12:22] zero difficulties will be available in the first week of the patch. Heroic can drop adventurer gear, so they're probably not worth focusing on, while mythic zero will drop 292 champion track gear. The mythic zero dungeons will also
[12:35] have a weekly lockout for that initial preseason week, so you'll only be able to clear each dungeon once before the season starts up. But, these dungeons are one of the very few sources of champion gear in that first week of the
[12:48] patch, so they are definitely worth doing. The prey system will be available, but you'll only be able to complete normal and hard mode hunts, which offer adventurer gear and veteran gear respectively. Season 2 delves will
[13:01] be open as well with fewer restrictions than usual. The nemesis delve will be is a bit odd. That should give you some good practice for the season start if you're aiming for the Hall of Fame achievement. We won't have any bountiful
[13:15] delves will be limited in the first week, but we won't be limited to just the lower tiers of difficulty. That means you can work your way up to tier 8 yourself, so you're ready to jump straight into bountiful delves the
[13:30] following week to earn your easy champion gear. In this first week, we will only be able to get adventure gear and veteran crests maximum from delves, probably won't be worth farming the higher tiers until the season actually
[13:44] starts. The new arena training grounds will be available, so you can jump into arenas against bots, which may have some useful rewards on offer. And then a very important note is that credit towards
[13:57] the season 2 great vault will begin in the first week. The highest reward you can obtain from the first vault of the season will be champion gear, so the dev team are putting a hard restriction on it this time around. Now, one massive
[14:09] change for the vault in season 2 is that you can pick up a bonus roll as a consolation prize instead of the usual tokens of merit, but you can only choose the bonus roll if you have at least three rewards unlocked in the vault.
[14:22] That's led to a lot of folks suggesting you get three rewards and skipping over the piece of gear in favor of a bonus roll, which could be used in mythic plus 10 keys or above, or in heroic raids to get an easy piece of myth track gear.
[14:35] Unfortunately, the dev team clarified that the very first vault of the season available starting August 18th will not have the bonus roll as an option. So, I guess they actually aren't available right from the start of the season like
[14:49] able to pick up these bonus rolls until the second week of the season, which starts on August 25th. I would still get three rewards unlocked in the vault just in case something changes or something breaks, and you'll want to have options
[15:02] for that extra piece of champion gear anyway. I imagine most folks will be hoping for a piece of tier gear or a powerful trinket with the bonus roll no longer being available. So, that's everything that will be
[15:14] available in the first week, and then pretty much everything else opens a week later on August 18th. So, that includes the new raid, the venomous Abyss, on normal, heroic, and mythic difficulty all at once. So, we won't see a
[15:26] heroic-only week this season. The first wing of LFR opens up at the same time. This is also when mythic plus opens its doors, and with mythic raids opening right away, there shouldn't be any limitations on rewards or keystone
[15:39] levels that you can run. At this point, mythic zero dungeons drop back down to a daily lockout, so you can run each one every day if you really want to. PvP season 2 will start up at the same time, letting you take part in all kinds of
[15:52] rated content. The rest of the delve and prey systems will open up, including the higher difficulty for the Nemesis delve. This is also the week you'll need to difficulty all by yourself if you want to join the delve hall of fame. You'll
[16:05] be able to jump into bountiful delves to earn easy champion gear with restored nightmare prey hunts for even more champion gear. We'll also see the lab boss become available on normal, heroic, and flex mythic difficulties, which is
[16:20] quite exciting. I'm glad they're keeping the flex mythic difficulty around, even if it's just for the single boss raids. As the weeks go by, future LFR wings and story mode for the Venomous Abyss will be available with the final LFR wing
[16:33] opening up the week beginning September 8th. So, no matter what kind of content you like to take part in, that's when you can expect the various gameplay options to become available in patch 12.1 and season 2.
[16:47] Now, with patch 12.1 just over the horizon, it should come as no surprise that the dev team are already looking past that to patch 12.1.5. An encrypted build for that patch just popped up on the WoW vendor servers,
[16:59] internally and getting ready to push it to the PTR. Most patches first appear on the PTR a week or two after the launch of the previous patch. With 12.1 going live on August 11th, that means we could see the 12.1.5 PTR in the week beginning
[17:15] August 18th. So, this content train is not stopping anytime soon. And from recent interviews, the dev team seem quite happy with the 8-week patch the rough timeline for the next few content updates at the very least. If
[17:30] you're curious what kind of content we'll see in 12.1.5, the roadmap from earlier in the year has this patch introducing labyrinth, a new raid, and new content and systems. The labyrinths are basically mega delves, a huge
[17:44] instance that you can explore at your own pace, on your own terms, and all by yourself if that's how you prefer to play. Valira should still lend you a helping hand. So, imagine it as being just a huge big delve that you'll
[17:56] probably need to tackle over multiple play sessions. With them being so large, I imagine they may end up having a weekly lockout, and they will probably normal delves. We'll have to wait until the patch pops up on the PTR for more
[18:10] details. The new raid is going to be another one-boss raid from what I understand. So, that will follow in the footsteps of Sporefall, and with it probably offer higher item level rewards. And I imagine the dev team will
[18:23] likely continue the flexible mythic option for one-boss raids as well. It layer boss. That does seem to be the new way to include one-boss raids moving forward. And then the rest of the patch is a bit of a mystery, but as I said, we
[18:38] before it gets pushed to the PTR, so we can get some hands-on experience with this new content update. That's not the only new build that was pushed to internal dev servers, though. A new build for patch 1.6.0
[18:53] was pushed to the vendor 6 server. And if you haven't been following classic news recently, patch 1.6.0 is tied to something called Project Camelot, which many believe to be the next iteration of Wild Classic or Classic Plus. We still
[19:06] have very little information about Classic Plus, except for the the that the dev team are working on it. Last month data miners found heroic and epic licenses tied to something called World of Warcraft Camelot. So, whenever this
[19:19] game version releases, we can expect to have expansion packs with in-game goodies to unlock. And this also lends a lot of credibility to the Camelot name. So, this build being pushed could mean the dev team are getting ready for some
[19:32] kind of testing period, either a closed beta test with a limited invite, or it could get pushed to a PTR server to get tested like a regular patch or game mode. But, with BlizzCon right around the corner, I think it's pretty safe to
[19:45] say we will likely see a playable version of this game mode for the folks who attend in person. And with this being our very first BlizzCon that we'll actually be attending, that makes me very excited. I haven't been too
[19:57] interested in the various restarts of Classic. I had a lot of fun when Classic first released, and when Season of Discovery came around, but Classic Plus sounds like it could provide a good mix of that classic gameplay feel with
[20:09] actual new content to keep things interesting. Now, even if we don't get a playable demo or beta at the convention, we are about what changes the dev team are planning for Classic Plus, and how they
[20:24] see the game mode evolving over time. Now, curiously, that new build was actually reverted on the vendor 6 dev server a few hours after it appeared. And then a few hours after that, the internal 2 server was updated with that
[20:36] new 69014 build. I don't know enough about these internal servers to tell you the significance of that, but it seems like the push to the vendor 6 server may have happened a bit early if they pulled it
[20:48] back as quickly as they did. So, perhaps we were supposed to be kept in the dark about this build and project a bit longer. Either way, we should find out what Classic Plus entails at BlizzCon in September, and we could see a playable
[21:01] version at the convention with a closed beta or testing period shortly afterwards. So, if you've been waiting for a new and improved version of Classic, rather than just another rehash of the same old game, keep your eyes
[21:13] peeled. We should have some big updates very soon. But, that's how the release of patch 12.1 will unfold, all of the last-minute class buffs, and nerfs, and what we know so far about patch 12.1.5. So, that's it for this video. What are
[21:27] you most looking forward to in patch 12.1, and how do you feel about 12.1.5 starting its PTR cycle so soon? Leave all your thoughts in the comments section below. A big thank you to all of our supporters over on Patreon, and to
[21:39] all of our members here on YouTube. You can see their names on screen. If you're you can find links in the description, or click the join button just below the video. If you enjoyed the video, or found it useful in any way, make sure to
[21:51] bell so you're always kept up-to-date. Thanks for watching, folks. Good luck, and have fun, and as always, I'll see you next time.