These notes are from the Public Test Realm. They are not live yet and may change before release.
Patch 12.1 PTR Development Notes — Week of July 14, 2026
52 changes · 10 classes · 18 sections
1 of 10 class sections open
Devourer (Hero Talent)
- Fix:
Hungering Slash — Hungering Slash now properly gives a temporary charge of Vengeful Retreat rather than giving a free cast and also resetting its cooldown.
Havoc
- Buff:
Inertia — Inertia effect now increases damage by 12% for 6 seconds (was 18% for 5 seconds).
Restoration
- Redesign:
Nature's Swiftness — The Venomous Abyss 4-set bonus has been redesigned — Nature's Swiftness, Tranquility, and Incarnation: Tree of Life or Convoke the Spirits have a 100% chance to grant Genesis, and its duration is increased by 4 seconds.
Guardian
- Fix:
Mangle — Fixed an issue where Mangle was consuming Ravage procs.
- Fix:
Dream Guide — Fixed an issue where Dream Guide was incorrectly being consumed by Regrowths cast via Reinvigoration.
Preservation
- Fix:
Time Dilation — Fixed an issue that could cause Time Dilation to not clear its stored damage on death.
Beast Mastery
- Nerf:
Beast Cleave — Beast Cleave can no longer be cancelled.
Marksmanship
- Redesign:
Explosive Shot — Explosive Shot damage increased by 100%, but now only explodes for 50% of the damage done to other nearby enemies.
SurvivalHero Talents — Pack Leader
We're removing Flamefang Pitch in this week's PTR as it has not been a popular choice and doesn't interact with several of the mechanics of the Survival Hunter spec. We had to adjust a few talents with the removal of Flamefang Pitch, but kept them focused on Wildfire Bombs and fiery themes. There has been some feedback about usability problems with the Pack Leader Hero Talents, specifically Hogstrider, with the timing of Boomstick so we're making the Hogstrider Buff last significantly longer. We're also adjusting your tier set bonus to introduce more gameplay with Boomstick and Mongoose Fury.
- New:
Bombardier — New Talent: Bombardier — Wildfire Bomb damage, critical strike chance, and critical damage dealt increased by 15%.
- Redesign:
Wildfire Imbuement — Wildfire Imbuement has been redesigned — Throwing a Wildfire Bomb has a chance to imbue your weapon with flames, causing you and your pet's auto-attacks to deal additional Fire damage for 10 seconds.
- Redesign:
Grenade Juggler — Grenade Juggler has been redesigned — Throwing a Wildfire Bomb has a chance to increase the recharge rate of Wildfire Bomb by 75% for 8 seconds.
- Buff:
Grenade Juggler — Grenade Juggler is now tracked in the Cooldown Manager.
- Buff:
Lunge — Lunge now increases your Agility by 3% (was 2%), plus an additional 1% (was 2%) while dual-wielding.
- Buff:
Wildfire Shells — Wildfire Shells now grants 5 seconds of cooldown reduction to Wildfire Bombs (was 2 seconds).
- Redesign:
Mongoose Fury — The Venomous Abyss 2-set bonus has been updated — Mongoose Fury increases the damage of Wildfire Bomb by 10%.
- Redesign:
Boomstick — The Venomous Abyss 4-set bonus has been updated — Each blast of Boomstick increases the duration of Mongoose Fury by 1 second. Mongoose Fury effects are increased by 10%.
- Removed:
Flamefang Pitch — Flamefang Pitch has been removed.
- Fix:
References to Flamefang Pitch have been removed from several talents.
- Buff:
Hogstrider — Hogstrider now lasts for 1 minute (was 20 seconds).
- Buff:
Hogstrider — Hogstrider is now cancelled when starting a Raid encounter or Mythic+ dungeon.
- Buff:
Moon's Blessing — Moon's Blessing now grants 6 seconds of Wildfire Bomb cooldown reduction when applying Sentinel's Mark (was 4 seconds).
- Buff:
Sentinel's Mark — Sentinel's Mark duration increased to 16 seconds (was 12 seconds).
Arcane
- Fix:
Refractive Images — Fixed an issue that could cause Refractive Images to not clear its stored damage on death.
- Fix:
Clearcasting — Fixed an issue with how the tooltip calculated Clearcasting's chance to occur with different talent selections. Clearcasting's functionality is unchanged.
Fire
- Fix:
Pyroblast — The Venomous Abyss 2-set bonus — Fixed an issue that caused a Pyroblast affected by Hot Streak! to gain a bonus to their critical strike chance while Pyroclasm was active.
Protection
- Nerf:
Hammer and Anvil — Hammer and Anvil damage reduced by 20%.
- Redesign:
Instrument of the Divine — Instrument of the Divine now shares a choice node with Solace (was Sanctuary).
- Nerf:
Bulwark of Righteous Fury — Bulwark of Righteous Fury increases the damage of your next Shield of the Righteous by 10% per stack (was 20%).
- Nerf:
The Venomous Abyss 4-set bonus — Now deals 100% additional damage on a critical strike (was 200%).
Holy
We want to address Benediction's performance by spreading its availability beyond Apotheosis and Prayer of Mending. Additionally, we are increasing the throughput of Benediction, so its impact is felt and contributes more to Holy's overall throughput. Lastly, we want to further lessen how expensive the rotation of Holy is by specifically targeting Flash Heal and Prayer of Healing.
- Buff:
Flash Heal — Flash Heal mana cost reduced by 10%.
- Buff:
Prayer of Healing — Prayer of Healing mana cost reduced by 10%.
- Buff:
Benediction — Apex Talent: Benediction healing increased by 15%.
- Redesign:
Benediction — Apex Talent: Benediction (Rank 3) has been updated — Apotheosis no longer upgrades Flash Heal to Benediction. Holy Word: Serenity now has a 100% chance to upgrade your next Flash Heal to Benediction.
ShadowHero Talents — Archon
Insanity generation from this talent has been high relative to other passive sources, and we've been feeling there's too much Insanity being generated overall to where it can become difficult to spend Insanity and keep up with rotational procs. We're bringing the Insanity generation of this talent down to help balance the Insanity economy.
- Nerf:
Idol of N'Zoth — Idol of N'Zoth now generates 2 Insanity (was 4) at 50 stacks and 6 Insanity (was 12) at 100 stacks.
- Fix:
Tentacle Slam — Fixed an issue causing Tentacle Slam to apply extra stacks of Horrific Visions when talented for Maddening Tentacles and Idol of N'Zoth.
- Fix:
Improved Voidform — Fixed an issue causing Improved Voidform to generate Insanity when casting Voidform.
- Redesign:
Tentacle Slam — The Venomous Abyss 4-set bonus has been redesigned — Tentacle Slam has a 100% chance to grant a free use of Void Volley at 125% effectiveness.
- Nerf:
Focused Outburst — Focused Outburst now causes Shadow Word: Madness casts during Voidform to unleash a Void Volley at your target at 25% effectiveness (was 100%).
Outlaw
Much of Killing Spree's value is the combo points it generates, so when players can spend more combo points on Killing Spree than their maximum, such as through Supercharger, the value of those extra points is diminished. Killing Spree's duration now maxes out at the time required to generate maximum combo points, and any extra combo points spent increase the damage of the ability by a proportional amount.
- Redesign:
Killing Spree — Killing Spree has been updated — Duration no longer increases from spending combo points beyond your maximum. Each combo point spent beyond your maximum increases damage by 15%.
- Buff:
Adrenaline Rush — Adrenaline Rush now speeds up the execution of Killing Spree by 20%, the same rate it increases the speed of your other attacks.
- Buff:
Killing Spree — Killing Spree prefers targets that are not immune to damage or taking less than 5% physical damage.
RestorationHero Talents — Totemic
We're lowering some of the larger bonuses that Healing Rain receives from the Totemic Hero Talents and increasing Healing Rain's baseline healing amount.
- Buff:
Healing Rain — Healing Rain healing increased by 20%.
- Buff:
Healing Wave — Healing Wave healing increased by 10%.
- Nerf:
Pulse Capacitor — Pulse Capacitor now increases the healing done by Surging Totem by 10% (was 25%).
- Nerf:
Surging Totem — Surging Totem now increases the effectiveness of Healing Rain by 10% (was 20%).
Class-Wide
- Fix:
Soul Leech — Fixed an issue where several abilities would not grant Soul Leech: Wither, Blackened Soul, Infernal Bolt, Soul Anathema, Wicked Reaping, Avatar of Destruction's Chaos Bolt, Unstable Affliction, Malefic Grasp, Vilefiend's Headbutt and Bile Spit, Gloomhound's Gloom Slash, Wild Imp and Imp Gang Boss's Fel Firebolt, Imp Lord's Greater Felbolt, Demonic Tyrant's Demonfire.
- Fix:
Soul Leech — Fixed an issue where several abilities erroneously granted Soul Leech: Legion Strike, Cunning Cruelty, Channel Demonfire.
Affliction
Patient Zero warps the damage profile of Seed of Corruption heavily. The specific use-case for Seed of Corruption as a tool is to supply damage in multi-target situations and having the ability to increase priority damage dilutes its identity. Hedonic Gorging is a new talent that hooks into the common throughline of health leech between Drain Life, Siphon Life, and Dark Harvest. The intention for this talent is for most of the throughput to reside in Siphon Life and Dark Harvest while the increase to Drain Life is meant to be smaller and a bit of flavor.
- New:
Hedonic Gorging — 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.
- Removed:
Patient Zero — Patient Zero has been removed.
Destruction
Our intention is to allow players to track the lingering effect of Shadowburn if desired while freeing up the ability to track the availability of Shadowburn itself. Prior to this, tracking Shadowburn also tracked its debuff which made it confusing when trying to discern if Shadowburn was available or not to cast.
- Nerf:
All damage reduced by 5%.
- Buff:
Shadowburn — Shadowburn added as a tracked buff in the Cooldown Manager.
- Redesign:
Echo of Sargeras — The Venomous Abyss 4-set bonus has been updated — Targets damaged by Echo of Sargeras now take 6% increased damage from your spells and abilities for 6 seconds.