World of Warcraft Patch 12.1 Opens the Coiled Isle Ahead of Season 2
The Curse of Ula'tek update adds a new zone, Lairs, housing tools, class changes, and the Venomous Abyss raid on August 18.
World of Warcraft Patch 12.1, Curse of Ula’tek, is now live after maintenance on August 11. The update lifts the mist around The Coiled Isle, adds new activities and story content, expands player housing, and prepares the game for Midnight Season 2, which begins on August 18.
The patch is the live follow-up to the previously announced release plan for Patch 12.1’s schedule. There is plenty to do immediately, but the new raid, Mythic+ season, Bountiful Delves, and PvP season will arrive one week later.
The Coiled Isle is open for exploration
The new outdoor zone sits off the east coast of Zul’Aman. Its story follows Zul’jarra as she pursues her brother Zul’jan and searches the island’s buried history. Venomous enemies, cursed waters, and old secrets fill the area, with a custom talent tree offering both combat perks and quality-of-life bonuses. One of those effects is Venomwalking, which reduces venom damage taken while traveling through the zone.
Players can enter the Vaults of Atal’Utek for group activities and rotating public events that build toward a boss encounter. The island also introduces Curse Surges, which regularly bring rare elites to five rotating locations. Defeating one of those elites unlocks Venom Fishing in that location.
Captain Tokka and his crew add a local story centered on fishing in the island’s dangerous waters. The update also introduces new wild pets and additional reputation rewards connected to the tortollan crew.
Lairs bring instanced World Boss encounters
World Boss content now has a new home in Lairs, instanced encounters with scaling difficulty that can reach flexible Mythic difficulty for groups of 15 to 25 players. Each Lair has a summoning stone outside its entrance, giving organized groups a more controlled way to face the boss.
Patch 12.1’s first Lair is Tidebound Grotto, where players face Nymrissa Wavecaller. Blizzard provided more details about the system in its Lair update.
New dungeon and Delves arrive before Season 2
Altar of Fangs is available at launch through Mythic 0 difficulty. The three-boss dungeon will enter the Mythic+ rotation when Season 2 begins on August 18.
Heroic and Mythic 0 difficulties are available alongside the patch. Mythic 0 currently rewards item level 292 gear and uses a weekly reset. When Season 2 begins, that reset will become daily, while Mythic+, Great Vault rewards, higher Delve difficulties, and additional Lair difficulty scaling also arrive.
Three more Delves are also available: The Ring of Glory, Gnarldor Isle, and the Venomfall Deeps Nemesis Delve. Once Season 2 starts, Bountiful Delves will return, higher tiers will open beyond Tier 7, and players can face the new Nemesis boss. Existing Midnight Delves also receive new snake and venom variants.
Season 2 adds another Prey storyline through the A Slithering Threat questline. Nightmare Mode returns with four serpent-themed targets, including Ral’kala. On The Coiled Isle, players can collect Ossified Relics, activate Haunted Braziers, and work with others to summon the boss. The Season 2 Prey Journey includes new decor, cosmetics, mounts, and rewards tied to Afflicted and Tormented Souls.
Training Grounds now include Arenas as well, offering a lower-pressure way to practice PvP before entering competitive matches.
Midnight Season 2 begins on August 18
The second season will add the eight-boss Venomous Abyss raid, with Ula’tek waiting as the final encounter. The raid opens alongside the new Mythic+ rotation, PvP Season 2, Bountiful Delves, additional Prey content, and new keys. Blizzard’s overview of the season is available in its Season 2 update.
- New dungeon: Altar of Fangs
- Mythic+ dungeons: Murder Row, Den of Nalorakk, The Blinding Vale, and Voidscar Arena
- Returning dungeons: Kings’ Rest, Ruby Life Pools, and Temple of Sethraliss
- Raid: The Venomous Abyss, featuring eight bosses
- Delves: Bountiful Delves and higher tiers beyond Tier 7
- Prey: The A Slithering Threat questline and Ral’kala
Arator will also return after Season 2 begins to investigate the Twilight’s Blade and continue the search for Xal’atath following the events at the Voidspire.
Housing gets blueprints and roaming pets
Housing receives one of the patch’s most practical additions: Blueprints. Players can save and share an entire house, only the interior, only the exterior, or a single room. Blueprint codes work across regions except China, and importing one shows the rooms, decor, missing items, and budget requirements before the layout is applied.
There are 50 regular save slots and 10 auto-save slots. Importing a Blueprint creates an auto-save, while the new Export permission lets visitors copy a layout when the homeowner allows it. Players can also link Blueprint codes in chat, inspect them there, report them, and use a Reset button to clear a house, interior, exterior, or room.
Pet Beds let noncombat companion pets live inside or outside a house. Up to 100 beds can be placed indoors and 25 outdoors. Indoor pets can remain stationary or roam, while outdoor pets are stationary for now.
Houses can now reach level 12, new Artisanal Rooms are available, the entry room can move between floors, and new decor categories cover Vines and Hanging Plants and Pet Beds. The patch also adds four neighborhood Endeavors for Amani trolls, kobolds, Ohn’ahran centaurs, and tortollans.
Cooldown Manager and social tools receive broad updates
The Cooldown Manager now tracks trinkets, potions, and racial ability cooldowns and durations. Players can ping action-bar abilities, Cooldown Manager entries, certain items, and player resources. Healers can share health and mana information through pings, while raid-frame buffs can be configured with individual visual alerts.
Other interface changes include account-wide Auto Loot, persistent Auction House filters, map coordinates for the player and cursor, improved Friends List tools, movable raid warnings, and larger raid and party frames. Battle.net and Discord accounts can now be linked so guild members can exchange messages between the game and Discord. Blizzard outlined the connection feature in its social update.
Patch 12.1 class and system highlights
The update increases max-level player health and creature damage by 25%, changes crowd-control diminishing-return timing in PvP, and adjusts many specializations so more damage or healing sits outside major cooldown windows. The patch also includes a large number of talent, ability, and PvP tuning changes.
Important system changes
- Player health and creature damage has been increased by 25% at max level. Health consumable values have been adjusted to match new health values.
- All class interrupts (such as Kick, Pummel, Counterspell, etc) will now display a “missed” visual over the target’s head if used while the target was not casting a spell. It will also play a separate sound to represent a missed interrupt.
- Diminishing return categories will reset after 20 seconds (was 16 seconds).
- The Auto Loot setting is now account wide.
- Auction House filters now persist across sessions.
- The World Map can now show map coordinates of the player and the cursor.
- Trinkets, health potions, combat potions, and healthstones can now be pinged on the Cooldown Manager.
Selected class changes
The following official note items cover some of the larger changes arriving with the update.
Death Knight
- Blood Beast auto-attack damage increased by 1400%.
- Blood-Soaked Ground now reduces physical damage taken by 8% (was 5%).
- Frost: All ability damage reduced by 10%.
- Frost: Howling Blast damage increased by 100%.
- Unholy: Reanimation renamed to Lord of the Dead and its secondary effect has been redesigned – When you control 3 Magus of the Dead, sacrifice them to summon their Lord of the Dead for 15 seconds, casting Frostbolts that chain between 2 enemies. Magus with higher remaining duration grant increased power.
Demon Hunter
- Demon Hunters can now equip daggers.
- Devourer: Mastery: Monster Within has been updated – Bonus damage during Void Metamorphosis reduced by 66%.
- Devourer: All ability damage increased by 32%.
- Havoc: Blade Dance damage increased by 6%.
- Vengeance: Sigil of Chains cooldown reduced to 60 seconds (was 90 seconds).
Druid
- Matted Fur absorb increased by 25%.
- Balance: New passive ability learned at level 42: Stellar Protection – If Moonfire and Sunfire are dispelled, Stellar Flare is applied to the target. Generates 12 Astral Power.
- Balance: Starsurge damage increased by 71%.
- Guardian: Gory Fur has been redesigned – Ironfur has a chance to make your next Maul, Raze, or Ravage free. Maul, Raze, or Ravage have a chance to make your next Ironfur free.
- Restoration: Innervate has been redesigned – Now regenerates 25% of the target’s maximum mana over 8 seconds, rather than causing spells to be free for 8 seconds.
Evoker
- Panacea healing increased by 25%.
- Augmentation: All ability and pet damage increased by 3%.
- Devastation: Deep Breath damage increased by 30%.
- Preservation: Dream Breath instant healing reduced by 50%.
- Preservation: Dream Breath periodic healing increased by 118%.
Hunter
- Beast Mastery: Auto Shot damage increased by 720%.
- Beast Mastery: Beast Cleave duration increased to 10 seconds (was 8 seconds) and can no longer be cancelled.
- Marksmanship: Explosive Shot has been redesigned – Fire an explosive shot at your target. Every 1 second for 3 seconds, the target explodes, dealing Fire damage to all enemies within 8 yards. Damage reduced beyond 5 targets.
- Marksmanship: Auto Shot damage increased by 756%.
- Survival: New Talent: Razor Edge – Raptor Strike, Raptor Swipe, and Kill Command gain 10% increased critical strike chance and 10% increased critical damage dealt.
Mage
- New Talent: Improved Warding – Damage taken from area of effect attacks reduced by 4%.
- Improved Prismatic Barrier has been redesigned – Prismatic Barrier gains an additional charge and further reduces magic damage taken by 5%.
- Arcane: New Apex Talent: Prismatic Bolt
- Fire: All damage increased by 19%.
- Frost: All ability and pet damage increased by 7%.
Monk
- Chi Transfer now causes Touch of Death to heal you for 60% of damage it deals (was 50%).
- Brewmaster: Celestial Brew and Celestial Infusion absorb increased by 150% and cooldown increased by 100%.
- Mistweaver: All healing reduced by 3%.
- Windwalker: Tiger Palm damage increased by 200%.
Paladin
- Golden Path healing increased by 25%.
- Holy: All healing increased by 19%.
- Protection: New Talent: Blessed Word – Word of Glory can no longer critically strike, but its healing is increased by your critical strike chance and 80% of its overhealing shrouds its target in Light, granting an absorb shield.
- Retribution: All damage reduced by 6%.
Priest
- Discipline: New Talent: Grim Deliverance – Shadow Mend heals for 30% more and applies Atonement for an additional 4 seconds, but its cast time is increased by 0.5 seconds.
- Discipline: All healing and absorption increased by 10%.
- Holy: All healing increased by 16%.
- Shadow: New Talent: Shadeburst – Shadowy Apparitions that float towards your primary target explode, dealing Shadow damage to all enemies within 8 yards.
Rogue
- Thistle Tea is now a choice talent – Players may now choose between the existing version, which casts automatically at low Energy in addition to being usable actively, and a new version that must be cast actively.
- Atrophic Poison now reduces damage dealt by 4% (was 3%).
- Assassination: All damage dealt increased by 20%.
- Outlaw: Killing Spree damage increased by 60%. Does not affect PvP combat.
- Subtlety: Goremaw’s Bite has been redesigned – Lash out at your target and 2 additional nearby enemies, inflicting Shadow damage and causing them to Bleed over 14 seconds.
Shaman
- Reactive Warding healing increased by 25%.
- Elemental: Lava Burst damage increased by 30%. This does not apply to PvP combat.
- Elemental: Chain Lightning damage increased by 60%.
- Enhancement: Melee damage increased by 15%.
- Restoration: Healing Rain healing increased by 20% and now heals up to 6 targets in its area (was 5).
Warlock
- Drain Life health drain increased by 25%.
- Affliction: New Talent: Hedonic Gorging – Increases Drain Life damage by 10% and Siphon Life now increases the damage of Corruption by an additional 10%. Dark Harvest channels 10% faster and deals 15% increased damage.
- Demonology: Shadow Bolt damage increased by 45%.
- Destruction: All damage increased by 4.5%.
Warrior
- The Rend ability is now exclusive to Arms, has returned to being a single-target ability, and its Rage cost is reduced to 10.
- New Talent (Fury): Storm of Blood – Whirlwind applies Rend to all targets.
- Arms: Melee auto-attack damage increased by 100%.
- Fury: New Talent: Carving Blades – Whirlwind deals 50% additional damage when it strikes only a single target.
- Protection: All ability damage increased by 11%.
Events, items, and PvP
- Ritual Site tiers 1-6 vault rewards have been updated to match the Season 2 Delve tiers 1-6 vault rewards.
- Void Strikes, Void Incursions, and the Weekly Quest will now give Season 2 Adventurer crests.
- Class set vendor Kirana has relocated from near the March on Quel’danas raid entrance to near the Catalyst in Silvermoon and has expanded her stock to include Midnight Season 2 class set armor.
- Class set armor now inherits the secondary and tertiary stats as well as certain special cantrip effects of items when converted with the Catalyst.
- Players will no longer be affected by knockback effects while under the effects of Fear and Disorient crowd control.
- Players will now receive 20% less healing in Battlegrounds.
- To reduce win trading and queue manipulation, now when a player misses a Solo Shuffle or Battleground Blitz queue, a 1-minute debuff prevents further queueing.
- Spoils of War will grant 50% increased Conquest once Conquest has been uncapped for the season (was 30%).
The road to Ula’tek starts now
Patch 12.1 gives players a new outdoor zone, group encounters, Delves, housing systems, and a long list of class and interface changes to work through before the season’s competitive content begins. The Venomous Abyss, Mythic+ rotation, Prey targets, and PvP season will follow on August 18.
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World of Warcraft: Midnight
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