Blizzard published development notes for World of Warcraft: Midnight Patch 12.1.5 on the public test realm on September 3, 2026, setting out the update's campaign, two new content formats, an item level upgrade currency and a round of class changes. Wowhead reported the notes across three posts.
The patch's story campaign, "The Promise of Tomorrow," follows Ula'tek's defeat with the awakening of Kith'ix, a C'Thraxxi general the Amani had bound beneath the Vaults of Ula'tek. It takes players into the deepest parts of the Coiled Isle and, Blizzard said, asks them to hold an uneasy peace between Quel'thalas and Zul'aman. The campaign ends in a single-boss raid, The Unbinding of Kith'ix, fought alongside Lady Liadrin.
Two other formats arrive with the patch. Labyrinths are longer relatives of Delves with their own progression systems and unlocks, playable in one session or in pieces, with Valeera Sanguinar as the companion; the notes name the Labyrinth of Kindo'jan. Aqir Invasions are zone-wide public events that run for ten minutes every hour in Eversong or Zul'Aman, chaining a series of objectives into a boss fight. Blizzard listed six scenario types, three combat and three not, and eight affixes that can attach to the combat scenarios.
Gearing and reputation
Ascendant Voidcores return after the 12.1.5 launch as Ascendant Venomstones. Blizzard said players start a quest, "Ancient Depths, Ancient Venom," from Orin Straylight near the Catalyst in Silvermoon City, after which the stones drop from every Heroic and Mythic raid boss, Mythic+ Keystone dungeons of +10 and above, Tier 11 Bountiful Delves and Nightmare Prey Hunt Champion gear chests. Ten of them raise the item level of a fully upgraded Season 2 Hero, Mythic or highest-quality Tidal Crafted weapon, trinket or necklace. Wowhead noted that the necklace upgrades are new; the system is otherwise similar to Season 1's Ascendant Voidcore.
The notes also make Legion and Battle for Azeroth reputations shared across the warband, covering the nine main Legion factions plus its PvP and six fishing reputations, and Battle for Azeroth's neutral and faction-specific standings. Wowhead said the last such change came a full expansion cycle earlier, when Shadowlands reputations were made account-wide in Patch 11.1.5.
Class and system changes
The class changes center on Devourer Demon Hunter and Marksmanship Hunter. Collapsing Star gains range after its cast begins, no longer enters a five-second cooldown when cancelled, and only slows Fury drain for a limited time across repeated casts; on the Void-Scarred tree, Demonic Intensity now resets The Hunt through Collapsing Star and empowers it for 30% more damage, while Violent Transformation resets Soul Immolation instead. For Marksmanship, Blizzard removed Unload and replaced it with Blood Fletching, which applies the Master Marksman bleed on Aimed Shot critical strikes at 20% of the damage dealt and, for four seconds afterward, adds bleed damage whenever the hunter's abilities hit that target. Protection Warrior's Execute no longer consumes extra Rage and deals 100% more damage, and the Colossus talent Practiced Strikes cuts the Rage cost of Execute and Revenge by 10.
Prey gains catch-up rates, with players below rank 3 earning 4,000 Journey progress per hunt and those between ranks 3 and 8 earning 2,000 from each of their first four hunts in a week. Housing adds keybinds for moving between floors in floorplan edit mode and a shortcut to the blueprint collection, and public neighborhoods no longer draw the same Endeavor twice in a row. The interface options gained player coordinates under the minimap, an animated border and a pulsing overlay to mark dispellable effects on raid frames, and tooltip information in macro pings.