[0:00] Hey folks, this is Colani. We have some
[0:02] big buffs coming through with the next
[0:04] weekly reset for some of the most
[0:05] underperforming specs in the current
[0:07] patch. We also have some huge updates to
[0:09] go over from this week's PTR build,
[0:11] including a huge nerf to one of the
[0:13] fastest leveling methods available right
[0:15] now. There are even more big class
[0:18] changes to go over and a lot of very
[0:20] important updates about how crest
[0:22] upgrades are going to work, how dungeons
[0:24] will change in season 2, what new
[0:26] seasonal rewards we'll be able to pick
[0:28] up. We have our first real preview of
[0:30] some major new systems. And there are
[0:32] some fun updates like hunters finally
[0:34] being able to use enchant illusions on
[0:36] their ranged weapons. The Midsummer Fire
[0:38] Festival event mount will also be much
[0:40] easier to pick up thanks to some recent
[0:42] hot fixes. There's a lot to talk about,
[0:44] so let's break it all down in this
[0:46] week's WoW news video. Now, before we
[0:48] jump in, be sure to hit up that like
[0:49] button and subscribe so you never miss
[0:51] another video. Let's kick things off
[0:54] with this week's round of class changes,
[0:56] buffs, and nerfs. There are a lot of
[0:58] blanket buffs to help some of the
[0:59] underperforming specs catch up a bit as
[1:01] we round out season 1. Balance druids
[1:04] will see a 4% damage buff for all of
[1:06] their abilities, which is always nice.
[1:08] Feral druids have been doing well in
[1:09] mythic plus, but not so great in raid,
[1:12] so they'll get a 3% damage boost across
[1:14] the board. Melee auto attack damage is
[1:16] also up 15%, rip damage, saw a 5% buff,
[1:19] and then rampant ferocity damage was
[1:22] nerfed by 15%. So, a bit of give and
[1:24] take for the feral druids this week. And
[1:27] then restored will see a huge 15% buff
[1:29] to all of their damage done. But their
[1:31] bare form thrash damage was reduced by
[1:33] 25%. So you won't have to swap to bare
[1:36] form quite as often if you want to kick
[1:38] out some decent damage as a resto druid
[1:40] next week. Devastation evokers join the
[1:43] crew with a 3% damage boost across the
[1:45] board. Arcane mages also get a 3% buff
[1:48] to all of their damage done. Holy
[1:50] priests will see some nice buffs to
[1:52] their holy words. Both serenity and
[1:54] sanctify healing are being increased by
[1:56] 20%. And then rest shaman's ekin at the
[1:58] end with a 4% increase to all of their
[2:01] healing done. So not a crazy list of
[2:03] changes for the live service this week,
[2:05] but at least some buffs are coming
[2:07] through for the specs that are
[2:08] struggling a bit. That will hopefully
[2:10] help more people achieve their end of
[2:12] season goals. All of these changes will
[2:14] go live with the next weekly reset,
[2:16] which will be June 30th for NA Realms
[2:18] and July 1st for EU Realms. Let's move
[2:21] on to the class changes that were
[2:23] included in this week's 12.1 PTR build.
[2:26] For the death knights, frost is going to
[2:28] see a lot of updates this week. Pillar
[2:30] of frost strength buff was cut down to
[2:32] 20% from 30%. Howling blast damage was
[2:35] increased by 100%. Empower rune weapon
[2:38] and glacial advance damage both saw 30%
[2:40] buffs. Icy death torrent, frost fever,
[2:43] and remorseless winter all saw huge 100%
[2:46] buffs. Frost size damage is up 20% and
[2:49] frost strike damage is up 25%. But then
[2:52] obliterate damage saw a 25% nerf. Breath
[2:55] of Syndraosa is down 20%. Frost Bane
[2:58] damage was reduced by 30%. Frostworm's
[3:01] fury damage caught a 20% nerf. And then
[3:03] perafrost was buffed up by 5%. So just
[3:06] like most other classes, a lot of damage
[3:09] has been moved from cooldowns and into
[3:11] your standard rotational spells.
[3:14] For the deathbringer hero talent tree,
[3:16] wither away now causes frost fever to
[3:17] deal its damage 75% faster, down from
[3:20] 100%. Deathly blows now increases frost
[3:23] strike damage by 35%, up from 15%.
[3:26] Reaper's mark cast and explosion damage
[3:28] were reduced by 25% and exterminate
[3:30] damage was cut down by 17%. For Rider of
[3:33] the Apocalypse, White Mane's unleash
[3:35] damage was nerfed by 30%. So, a lot less
[3:38] damage coming out of your hero talent
[3:40] trees as well. And then unholy has even
[3:43] more changes this week. Blight burst now
[3:46] causes putrify to extend the duration of
[3:48] plagues by 3 seconds down from 4.5
[3:50] seconds. Runic power spenders now extend
[3:53] the duration of plagues by 1 second down
[3:55] from 1.5. And dread plague now retains
[3:58] its extended duration when applied to a
[4:00] new target while within 40 yards of the
[4:02] death knight. So you won't be able to
[4:03] extend your plagues quite as freely. But
[4:05] swapping targets with dread plague
[4:07] should be much easier with these changes
[4:09] in play.
[4:11] Demon hunters are up next, and Havoc has
[4:13] a few changes this time. Trail of Ruin
[4:15] has been updated to be instant damage
[4:17] rather than damage over time. Serrated
[4:19] Glaes is now a buff on the Demon Hunter
[4:21] for 12 seconds rather than a debuff on
[4:23] your target. Blind Fury's fury
[4:25] generation was cut down to 10 and 20
[4:27] fury per second. And inner demon is now
[4:29] a choice node with Chaos Theory instead
[4:31] of Chaotic Transformation. For
[4:34] Vengeance, Sigil of Chains is going to
[4:35] be baseline, so you won't have to spend
[4:37] a talent point to pick that up anymore.
[4:39] Roaring Fire has moved to where Sigil of
[4:41] Chains used to be instead of being a
[4:43] choice node with Sigil of Silence. And
[4:45] then Sigil of Silence and Feed the Demon
[4:47] have swapped positions as well. So
[4:49] hopefully you can pick up some key
[4:50] talents much easier in 12.1.
[4:54] Guardian Druids have some more
[4:55] adjustments to their apex talents. The
[4:57] bonus rage was moved from rank one to
[4:58] rank three. The base chance to proc was
[5:00] adjusted to 10%. Spirit rage generation
[5:03] was increased to eight. And rank three
[5:05] grants one guaranteed spirit and
[5:06] increases thrash and mangle damage while
[5:08] a spirit is active. Fingers crossed to
[5:10] these apex talents end up in a good
[5:12] place. So they're an interesting pickup
[5:14] for guardian druids moving forward.
[5:16] Evokers and monks both got the same kind
[5:18] of hybrid healing buffs that many other
[5:20] classes got when the PTR first went up.
[5:23] So panacea healing, defy fate, and
[5:25] molten blood healing all went up 25% for
[5:28] evoker. Then Silent Sanctuary and Wind
[5:30] Walkers Expel harms saw 25% buffs as
[5:33] well. Paladins have a couple of quick
[5:36] changes this week. Prod is going to see
[5:37] a lot more abilities added into the
[5:39] cooldown manager so you can track
[5:40] whatever you want much easier. And then
[5:42] the rat fourpiece was changed to no
[5:44] longer cost the empowered Templars's
[5:46] verdicts to be free, but it will empower
[5:48] your next two Templar verdicts instead.
[5:51] For the shaman's reactive warding
[5:53] healing was increased by 25% and
[5:55] elemental stormkeeper has changed for
[5:58] this patch, but the previous notes
[5:59] weren't really clear. Stormkeeper no
[6:02] longer causes lightning bolt to generate
[6:03] an additional elemental overload, and
[6:06] that's pretty much the only change
[6:07] there. Now for enhancement, lightning
[6:09] bolt and chain lightning damage are up
[6:11] 20%. Lava lash, storm strike, and melee
[6:14] damage all saw 15% buffs, but then doom
[6:17] winds only increases the chance for
[6:18] windfury weapon to activate by 50% down
[6:20] from 100%. For the hero talent trees,
[6:23] Stormbbringer's tempest main target
[6:25] damage saw a 10% nerf, and the secondary
[6:28] target damage saw a 30% nerf. For
[6:30] totemic, surging totem tremor damage
[6:32] caught a 15% damage nerf, and surging
[6:34] bolts damage was reduced by 10%. And
[6:37] then warlocks and warriors saw some
[6:39] healing boosts as well. For warlocks,
[6:41] drain life and zebra's resilience
[6:43] healing are up 25%. And for arms
[6:45] warriors, ignore pain absorb was
[6:47] increased by 25%. Now, all of these
[6:50] updates are for the 12.1 PTR. So, if you
[6:52] want to check out the changes and your
[6:54] new tier set bonuses, you'll need to hop
[6:56] onto the PTR to check them out.
[6:59] This PTR build has more than just class
[7:01] balance tuning, though. For example, the
[7:03] leveling trick that some players were
[7:05] using with the earn race has been nerfed
[7:07] quite considerably, but it actually
[7:09] affects everyone to a lesser degree. In
[7:11] 12.1, the baseline experience gained
[7:14] from exploring zones has been reduced by
[7:16] 60%. So, everyone will get less
[7:18] experience from exploring as they level
[7:20] up. This impacts the earn more due to
[7:23] their wideeyed wonder racial ability,
[7:25] which significantly increases experience
[7:27] earned from exploring zones. That ratio
[7:30] turned out to be quite potent indeed, as
[7:32] some players were leveling from 10 to 90
[7:35] in under 3 hours from just exploring
[7:38] zones on their earn characters. There's
[7:40] even an add-on to make the whole thing
[7:42] easier and faster. Some folks were even
[7:44] using this trick to level up their alt
[7:46] super fast and then just paying for a
[7:47] race change so they didn't actually have
[7:49] to play as an earn character. It's kind
[7:51] of like a cheaper character boost. I
[7:54] guess this is probably why they're
[7:55] changing exploration experience in the
[7:57] first place. So when 12.1 goes live,
[8:00] this probably won't be fast enough to be
[8:02] worth it anymore. Now, it's not all bad
[8:04] news for the earn, though, because this
[8:06] will impact one of their racials quite
[8:08] significantly. The dev team are
[8:09] increasing the effectiveness of the
[8:11] well-fed buff gain from ingest minerals
[8:13] by 30%. So, an actually useful earn
[8:16] ratio is seeing a decent buff. Something
[8:19] else to consider is that if you really
[8:21] wanted to level up a few alts using the
[8:23] earn exploration trick, you'll still be
[8:25] able to until this patch goes live.
[8:27] These are not hot fixes, which means the
[8:30] XP nerfs won't come in until the patch
[8:32] hits live servers, which gives you at
[8:34] least until August to take advantage of
[8:36] the leveling trick before it goes away.
[8:39] Personally, I would just wait for the
[8:40] turbulent timeways event, but you do
[8:42] you.
[8:44] Something else that was confirmed this
[8:46] week is that upgrading gear will not be
[8:48] significantly changing as we head into
[8:50] season 2. When the PTR first went up,
[8:53] all gear upgrades were using the
[8:54] original season 1 design where crest
[8:57] costs would increase with each upgrade
[8:59] for an item. So, you would spend 10
[9:01] crests on the first item and it would
[9:03] increase by 10 for each bump up in item
[9:06] level. So, you would actually end up
[9:08] spending 50 crests to get an item from
[9:10] five of six to six of six. Naturally,
[9:13] everyone hated the idea. So, it was
[9:15] quickly shot down before the Midnight
[9:17] expansion went live. I guess that's why
[9:19] it was so surprising to see it pop back
[9:21] up in the first week of the PTR for
[9:23] patch 12.1. But the dev team
[9:25] specifically noted in this week's PTR
[9:28] build that the scaling upgrade costs was
[9:30] a bug. Gear upgrades will be the exact
[9:32] same as they were in season 1 with a
[9:34] flat 20 crest cost for each upgrade. So,
[9:37] if you were worried about this change
[9:38] making its way back into the game, you
[9:40] can breathe a sigh of relief.
[9:43] Something that will be changing as we
[9:45] head into season 2 are dungeons,
[9:47] specifically the difficulty load and how
[9:50] it's split between the various roles. In
[9:52] season 1, tanks and healers bore most of
[9:54] the burden with healers arguably having
[9:56] the hardest time. For season 2, the dev
[9:59] team wants to shift some of that burden
[10:00] over to the DPS, who have historically
[10:03] had the easiest time in most content
[10:06] types. To achieve that, we'll see
[10:08] slightly higher creature health pools, a
[10:10] larger emphasis on skills like target
[10:11] prioritization and damage checks, and
[10:14] some abilities trading raw damage
[10:15] effects for penalties to damage output
[10:17] or mobility. So, if your DPS don't do
[10:20] their job and target the right stuff,
[10:22] fights will likely take much longer, and
[10:24] you'll be at risk of wiping due to a
[10:26] lack of damage throughput. That should
[10:28] also make the healer's job a bit easier
[10:29] if certain abilities aren't throwing out
[10:31] huge chunks of damage to your team and
[10:33] are instead just reducing damage when
[10:35] things go wrong. It's an interesting
[10:37] change, and dungeon success should feel
[10:39] more evenly shared across the group. But
[10:41] only time will tell if this will
[10:43] actually do what the dev team intends.
[10:46] I'm all for trying new approaches,
[10:47] though, and we should expect season 2
[10:49] dungeons to have the same overall
[10:50] difficulty as season 1. So, if you
[10:52] enjoyed the easy Mythic Plus experience
[10:54] at the start of Midnight, season 2
[10:56] should be more of the same. We'll also
[10:58] see a change to how cone and line
[11:00] attacks are displayed with distinct
[11:02] borders that should make it easier to
[11:03] tell where these attacks will actually
[11:05] hit. This follows the change to circles
[11:07] and swirls, which gave them solid
[11:09] borders for the exact same reason. And I
[11:11] am so happy the dev team are continuing
[11:13] to make these spells easy to read and
[11:15] judge. You shouldn't ever have to double
[11:18] guess whether or not you're going to be
[11:19] hit by an ability due to poor visuals.
[11:22] So, this looks like a great next step
[11:24] forward.
[11:26] A lot of the new season rewards were
[11:27] also included in this build, including
[11:29] the new mounts for season 2 mythic plus
[11:32] dungeon achievements. If you reach 2,000
[11:34] rating and get the keystone master
[11:35] achievement, you'll earn yourself the
[11:37] breath of blight mount, which is a toxic
[11:39] green skeletal wind serpent mount, which
[11:42] is both very cool and quite unique. I
[11:44] don't think we've really seen many
[11:46] mounts like this before, so unique mount
[11:48] rewards are always awesome. If you can
[11:50] get up to 3k rating and earn the
[11:52] keystone legend achievement, you'll get
[11:54] the same mount, but in a red and black
[11:56] color scheme, which looks pretty
[11:57] amazing. If season 1 is anything to go
[11:59] by, getting up to 3k shouldn't be too
[12:01] bad, but I guess we'll have to wait and
[12:03] see how the new dungeon pool and these
[12:04] dungeon changes play out. The new season
[12:07] 2 Nemesis delve solo achievement mount
[12:10] can also be previewed if you manage to
[12:12] take down the new Nemesis all by
[12:13] yourself on the higher difficulty. You
[12:15] can walk away with the apotheic
[12:17] soulcrusher mount which is another mech
[12:19] style mount in that you'll stand in the
[12:21] same kind of place and will most likely
[12:22] move in the same kind of ways, but it's
[12:24] got a fiery troll theme going on which
[12:27] definitely fits in with patch 12.1.
[12:30] And then for all the raiders out there,
[12:31] if you can conquer the venomous abyss
[12:33] and take down Oollettech on mythic
[12:35] difficulty, you'll get the primeval sky
[12:37] friend. It says sky friend, but surely
[12:39] that's supposed to be sky fiend, right?
[12:42] Unless we're all just making friends
[12:43] with the flying snakes now. Either way,
[12:45] it's a two-headed flying snake mount.
[12:47] That looks pretty cool.
[12:49] We also have our first look at the new
[12:51] alter of corrosion talent feature coming
[12:53] for the open world players in this
[12:55] patch. Most activities are going to
[12:57] reward you with a new currency called
[12:59] corrosive coins, which are used to buy
[13:00] up all manner of cosmetic goodies and
[13:02] rewards, but they are also used to
[13:04] unlock talents. In this new altar, you
[13:07] can gain new powers that increase your
[13:09] primary stats, give you a chance to
[13:11] poison enemies, reduce the damage you
[13:13] take from venom pools, reduce the damage
[13:15] you take from monsters. You can find
[13:17] extra keys or treasures, and a variety
[13:19] of other small bonuses that make playing
[13:21] in the zone, especially in the vaults
[13:23] area, a bit easier to deal with. and
[13:26] less frustrating. There are 18 talents
[13:28] total, and the cost does increase for
[13:30] every talent point you earn, so you'll
[13:32] have to spend a lot of corrosive coins
[13:34] if you want to unlock everything, which
[13:35] means a lot of farming in the new zone.
[13:38] Now, while I would assume many of these
[13:40] talents only work in the new zone, many
[13:42] of them aren't really explicit about it.
[13:44] Giving your abilities a chance to
[13:46] inflict poison on enemies may carry over
[13:48] into other activities, especially if
[13:50] they're more openworld oriented like
[13:52] delves. So, we'll have to wait and see
[13:54] what the scope of this system could be,
[13:56] but usually the dev team tries to avoid
[13:58] making these powers a requirement for
[14:00] dungeons or raid progress. As you unlock
[14:03] more talent points, you'll earn more and
[14:04] more corrosive coins. So, if you want to
[14:06] max out your corrosive coins to buy
[14:08] everything on offer, it might be a good
[14:10] idea to focus on these talents first so
[14:12] that you're earning more coins from
[14:14] every source.
[14:16] Another update I want to highlight in
[14:17] this week's PTR build gives hunters the
[14:19] ability to use enchant illusions on
[14:21] their ranged weapons. I'm honestly
[14:23] surprised it took this long, but hunters
[14:25] can finally make their bows and guns
[14:27] sparkle, drip poison, crackle with
[14:30] flames, or whatever your favorite
[14:31] illusion happens to do. And then there's
[14:33] a bunch of focus testing starting up
[14:35] this week. The new dungeon, Alter of
[14:37] Fangs, opened up on all difficulties.
[14:39] So, we got our first look at the new
[14:40] three boss dungeon. Raid testing for the
[14:43] Venomous Abyss, started this week as
[14:44] well, with most of the heroic bosses
[14:46] being covered already. and Prey season 2
[14:48] became available, which has some very
[14:51] interesting updates that we'll get to in
[14:52] another video. So, the 12.1 PTR is
[14:55] chugging along quite nicely and
[14:57] hopefully we'll end up with a well
[14:59] polished, bug-free experience when it
[15:01] goes live sometime in August.
[15:04] Now, in other news, if you've been
[15:05] trying to get your hands on the special
[15:07] mount from the Midsummer Fire Festival
[15:09] event, there is some good news this
[15:11] week. In a hot fix, the dev team
[15:13] introduced bad luck protection for the
[15:15] mount, which should lead to most players
[15:17] picking it up if you complete the mini
[15:19] dungeon at least once per day. The Sun
[15:21] Festival painted rocks chance to drop in
[15:23] the satchel of chilled goods has been
[15:25] doubled for the first drop of the day on
[15:26] your account, and the drop rate will
[15:28] continue to increase each day until you
[15:30] obtain the mount. So, if you keep
[15:32] running the Frost Lord Aoon dungeon, you
[15:34] will have a much better chance of
[15:36] grabbing the mount before the event
[15:37] ends. If you had no idea this event was
[15:40] running, you can quickly hop into the
[15:42] dungeon by queuing from the dungeon
[15:43] finder tool. Just open the dropdown,
[15:45] pick the frost lord of hoon, and keep
[15:47] your fingers crossed. As a side note,
[15:49] the bug that people were using to try
[15:51] and get the mount multiple times per day
[15:53] was fixed. So even if you leave your
[15:55] bags unopened, you won't be able to pick
[15:57] up another one. So you are strictly
[15:59] limited to one chance per day now. But
[16:02] that's all of the updates we have. So
[16:03] that's it for this week's WoW news
[16:05] video. What do you think of patch 12.1
[16:08] from what you've seen so far and when do
[16:10] you think the patch will go live? Leave
[16:12] all your thoughts in the comment section
[16:13] below. A big thank you to all of our
[16:15] supporters over on Patreon and all of
[16:16] our members here on YouTube. You can see
[16:18] their names on screen. If you're
[16:20] interested in supporting the channel,
[16:21] you can find links in the description or
[16:23] click the join button just below the
[16:24] video. If you enjoyed the video or found
[16:26] it useful in any way, make sure to
[16:28] subscribe and ring that notification
[16:29] bell so you're always kept up to date.
[16:31] Thanks for watching folks. Good luck and
[16:32] have fun. And as always, I will see you
[16:34] next time.