Blizzard applied a round of Patch 12.1 hotfixes to World of Warcraft on October 6 that reduced the difficulty of the Ula'tek encounter in The Venomous Abyss on Heroic and Mythic and retuned six class specializations, according to hotfix notes reported by Wowhead. The raid changes had been announced in advance and were scheduled to arrive with weekly maintenance on October 6 in the Americas region, Wowhead reported in an earlier post.
Ula'tek raid tuning
The adjustments touch every stage of the fight. The boss's General Spectral Coils damage was reduced by 20% on Heroic and Mythic, and on Mythic alone Toxic Burn damage dropped by 30% while the number of waves each tail emits during Caustic Waves fell from seven to three, per the notes Wowhead published.
- Stage two: Warden's Protection damage reduced by 80%, fewer ground targets during Virulent Spit, Grasping Fangs periodic damage down 30% on Heroic and Mythic, and Blight Vein shortened from six seconds to four on those difficulties.
- Stage three: Blightscale Shrieker and Blightscale Clutch health reduced by 20% on Heroic and Mythic, Slithering Clutch health reduced by 20% on Mythic, and Circling Prey raid damage reduced by 30% on Heroic and Mythic.
- Serpent's Bite: the drain rate was adjusted so that no more than three players need to soak it regardless of raid size.
Class and PvP changes
Unholy Death Knights took the only nerf of the pass. Blightfall now deals 100% of the remaining plague damage rather than 200%, a change Blizzard's developer note attributed to a recent bug fix that had left the ability dealing significantly more damage than intended. The same hotfix corrected Augmentation Evoker Reattribution damage from plague erupt effects being credited to the Death Knight.
Five specializations were buffed in PvE. Devourer Demon Hunters gained 8% on Consume, Devour, Reap, Cull and the primary-target damage of Eradicate and Collapsing Star, plus 10% on The Hunt's initial hit and Voidblade. Brewmaster Monks now purify 8% of their Stagger with Quick Sip, up from 5%, and Pretense of Instability's dodge bonus lasts eight seconds instead of five, after Blizzard said Brewmaster death rates in dungeons were higher than it wanted. Mistweaver Monks received 15% more healing on Invigorating Mists and Enveloping Mist in what the notes called a raid-focused adjustment. Subtlety Rogues running Trickster saw Fazed's damage-taken increase rise to 7%, Unseen Blade damage up 15% and Coup de Grace up 10%, which Blizzard said was meant to narrow the gap with Deathstalker. Enhancement Shamans, described in the notes as underperforming this season, gained 4% to all ability and auto-attack damage and 35% on Lava Lash.
A separate PvP pass buffed what Blizzard called underperforming PvP talents. Focused Assault, applied by tank-specialization talents such as the Death Knight's Murderous Intent and the Warrior's Oppressor, now stacks six times instead of five, lasts 10 seconds instead of six, recharges in 15 seconds instead of 20 and reaches 15 yards. Other entries include a 150% increase to Frost Mage's Frost Bomb damage, a 300% increase to Warrior's Dragon Charge damage, and a set of Restoration Shaman Earth Shield changes that add 15% healing in PvP and raise Earthen Harmony's damage reduction to 8%.
Wowhead noted that the hotfix list covers World of Warcraft: Midnight alongside Mists of Pandaria Classic, Season of Discovery, Burning Crusade Classic, Classic Era and Hardcore, and that some fixes took effect immediately while others require scheduled realm restarts. Blizzard said the list would be updated as additional hotfixes are applied.
