Patch 12.1.5: The Promise of Tomorrow continues the Quel'thalas and Zul'Aman story after Ula'tek's death, with Quel'thalas and the Amani forming an uneasy alliance against something considerably older.
No release date announced yet — expect it this Fall.
Most of the patch is content you'll engage with when it lands. But four things are worth acting on right now, and one of them has a hard deadline attached to the entire expansion. Those come first.
What to Prepare Right Now
1. Start Saving Gold — 5 to 7 Million
The Sporebearer Fungal Strider is Patch 12.1.5's gold-sink mount, sold in Harandar.
5 million gold for the base mount, which includes a mailbox and a repair vendor. Additional utility NPCs — an auctioneer and a transmogrifier among them — are purchased separately, bringing the full package to roughly 7 million.
You swap between NPCs by speaking to a vendor in Harandar, so you're not locked to one configuration.
The part that matters: the mount is only purchasable for the duration of Midnight. Once the expansion ends, it's gone from the vendor permanently. Access to the interchangeable NPCs remains available afterwards, but that's no use if you never bought the mount.
If a mobile auction house and transmogrifier appeals to you, the saving starts now. Seven million gold is not a sum you assemble in a fortnight of world quests, and there's no second window.
2. Complete the Orin Straylight Questline
Ascendant Venomstones arrive in 12.1.5, and they're unlocked by continuing the Orin Straylight questline at the Catalyst in Silvermoon — the same chain that unlocks Nebulous Voidcores.
If you haven't done In the Catalyst's Shadow and Prismatic Potential yet, that questline is now gating two systems rather than one. It also starts an eight-week research timer for your weekly Voidcore income.
There is no reason to delay this. It costs a single LFR run's worth of effort and it's a prerequisite for the entire top end of Season 2 gearing.
3. Pause Legion and Battle for Azeroth Reputation Grinds
Legion and BfA reputations become Warband-wide in 12.1.5.
If you're currently grinding an old reputation on an alt — or considering starting one — waiting until the patch means that progress applies account-wide instead of to one character.
This is a genuine "stop and wait" recommendation. Work you do on an alt now may be redundant in a couple of months.
4. Don't Panic About Delver's Journey Progress
Catch-up mechanics are coming for Prey, and they're substantial:
Below Journey Rank 3 — 4,000 Journey progress per hunt
Between Ranks 3 and 8 — 2,000 Journey progress from each of your first four hunts per week
For context, a full Tier 11 Bountiful Delve run currently produces 675 points. A single hunt awarding 4,000 changes the maths for anyone starting late entirely.
If you're behind on the Delver's Journey, the catch-up is coming to you. Don't burn a weekend grinding to Rank 3 when the patch will hand you multiples of that per hunt.
New Raid — The Unbinding of Kith'ix
Beneath the Vaults of Ula'tek, the C'Thraxxi General Kith'ix lies bound. With its jailers now dead — that would be our doing — the bindings have weakened and it's waking up.
A single-boss raid, fought alongside Lady Liadrin.
Single-boss raids are a good format for guilds between progression pushes: one encounter to learn, no lockout management across a wing, and a clean weekly target that doesn't demand a full raid night.
Labyrinths — The New Delve Mode
Labyrinths are the mega-dungeons of Delves. Long-form content with its own dedicated progression system, unlocks and rewards scaling with the challenge level you take on, and progress that persists over time rather than resetting each run.
Valeera Sanguinar returns as your Labyrinth companion, which means the Curio and Poison loadout you've been building through Season 2 carries into this content directly.
The first Labyrinth is Kindo'jan — an ancient Amani funeral complex, sealed for centuries and recently opened. The dead aren't pleased about the disturbance, and you're competing with both looters and the Vilebranch for whatever's inside.
There's a Solo Labyrinth Hall of Fame achievement, which suggests these are designed to be genuinely completable alone at the highest difficulty — worth noting if you've been building a solo-capable setup.
What this means for Season 2 preparation: the Valeera investment you've already made pays forward. Curio ranks, Poison unlocks, and her level all carry into Labyrinths. If you've been treating her progression as optional, this is the reason to take it seriously.
Aqir Invasions — The New World Event
Alternating between Eversong Woods and Zul'Aman, following the same rotation pattern as Void Assaults.
How they work:
Occur every hour, lasting 10 minutes
A series of public events building to a boss fight
Six scenario types — three combat, three non-combat
Combat scenarios carry eight possible affixes
Rewards scale with how many objectives you complete in the window
The ten-minute limit is the design. You're not clearing everything — you're deciding what's worth your time in a short window, which is why grouping is encouraged. More players, more objectives cleared, more reward.
Three non-combat scenario types is unusual and worth flagging. World events that don't require killing anything tend to be friendly to gatherers, collectors, and anyone who'd rather not fight their way through a zone-wide event.
