WoW Midnight: Ula'tek's Stone Venom now deals 40% less damage

In its hotfix list dated 21 September, Blizzard cut the damage of Stone Venom by 40% on all difficulties. Stone Venom is an ability of Ula'tek, the last of the 8 bosses in The Venomous Abyss, the raid added in Midnight's patch 12.1, Curse of Ula'tek. Blizzard marked the change to take effect with the weekly restarts; on EU realms that was the maintenance on Wednesday 23 September. The same list fixes a bug that could let Stone Venom miss players standing far from Ula'tek, and, also with the weekly restarts, makes Boiling Venom, another effect in the fight, an Important Aura on Mythic difficulty. The note does not explain the term; in other notes Blizzard uses it for effects that the game's own interface shows as important, for example on raid frames, the health bars of the group.

It is not the first time the raid has been made easier. Blizzard's hotfix lists have changed its fights every week since it opened in the week of 19 August, and in a post dated 15 September Blizzard announced a round of changes, made with that week's maintenance, to reduce the difficulty of several encounters. They cut Tempest damage at Sszorak by 20% on Heroic and Mythic, and cut the number of Broodlings of Ithraz that the Twin Fangs summon with Rouse the Brood to 10. At the Coiled Altar, Wail of Terror now takes longer to cast, 12 seconds on Heroic and 10 seconds on Mythic, and on Mythic 25% fewer Fragments of Malacrass appear in the intermission.

Ula'tek was part of that round too. Stone Venom damage was reduced on all difficulties, by an amount Blizzard did not give, and on Mythic, Serpent's Call now brings 8 Blightscale Spawn per wave in Stage 1 instead of 13 and drops 8 eggs in the intermission instead of 14. On 23 September Blizzard corrected the wording of one of the 15 September changes at the Coiled Altar. The note had said a Spiteful Soulcoiler would always appear near Malacrass on Mythic difficulty; the corrected note says only that this is now more likely. According to one press report, raiders noticed after the change went live that the Soulcoiler did not always appear near Malacrass, and it still did not a week later; the report says the new wording matches what guilds see in the fight.

The same lists include changes outside the raid. The list dated 21 September also fixes Lindormi's Guidance in the Den of Nalorakk and Altar of Fangs dungeons: a group that followed it could reach the end without defeating as many enemies as the run requires. On the Coiled Isle, the island where the raid is, Curse Surges bring out rare elite enemies at rotating spots; the list dated 15 September makes them rotate every 30 minutes instead of 45. The same list says players owed Spark of Tides would get the missing ones in their bags on login; in Blizzard's thread on the problem, players describe spending sparks on crafted gear. In an update dated 15 September, Blizzard community manager Kaivax wrote that in rare cases Blizzard gave out too many, and that a background process will find and remove the extra ones.