New World of Warcraft Midnight update throws Hunters an essential lifeline, with Warriors and Shamans also on the rise

Blizzard has detailed its next World of Warcraft Midnight class tuning update, and it’s throwing a bone to Marksmanship Hunters, who have been feeling rather sad following its patch 12.0.5 rework. The new WoW patch notes also bring good news for the likes of Shaman, Warrior, Warlock, and Paladin, but Augmentation Evoker, Guardian Druid, and Unholy Death Knight are all facing nerfs. There’s also a pretty significant difficulty drop in store for the Alleria fight in the Mythic Voidspire raid, so I’ve picked out the most significant adjustments to watch out for in the MMORPG this week.

The new World of Warcraft Midnight update will land with regular weekly maintenance, so you’ll want to start preparing for the changes now. Marksmanship Hunter players have been feeling pretty sorry for themselves since WoW patch 12.0.5 landed, with a dramatic overhaul forcing people to consider switching classes due to its significant drop in effectiveness. In an attempt to course correct, Blizzard has doubled the damage of Explosive Shot and Steady Shot, with Rapid Fire rising 20%, and both Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot going up 30%. I can’t promise it’ll fix all your gripes, but it might be enough to see you through for now.

Also feeling a bit happier are Warriors, who get changes to improve performance and compensate for damage lost due to the recent Deep Wounds bug fix. All three specs get damage boosts, notably including a 20% rise for Execute, 30% for Reap the Storm, 40% for Slayer’s Strike, and 50% for Ground Current. Fury Warrior also benefits from a 5% damage increase across its entire build, on top of all the other advancements.

Going through the rest of the list in alphabetical order for simplicity, Unholy Death Knight faces several damage nerfs after “performing better than intended” in the wake of 12.0.5 changes. Graveyard, Whiteane’s Epidemic, Trollbane’s Icy Fury, Thrill of Blood, and the Shadow Bolts cast by Magus of the Dead are all hurt here. Frost DK, on the other hand, gets a little bit stronger thanks to a class-wide 5% damage increase.

Devourer Demon Hunter sees a small 3% damage reduction across the class, with additional nerfs to Voidfall Meteor and Meteoric Rise if you’re using the Annihilator talent tree. Vengeance DH gains a little more survivability with extra armor gain from Thick Skin.

Guardian Druids “have continued to overperform in single-target contexts, while experiencing difficulties with threat and sustained damage outside of cooldowns.” That means a reduction in burst potential across nerfs to Red Moon, Maul, Raze, Ravage, and the Wild Guardian echo, while Thrash gets its direct damage tripled and the bleed effect doubled. Restoration Druids face a 3% nerf to all healing, and slight extra reduction on Everbloom.

Augmentation Evoker is hit with a 5% reduction to all ability and pet damage. Issues with Inferno’s Blessing and Scalecommander have been fixed, but adjustments have been made so that this doesn’t further affect their effective damage. Beast Master Hunters join their Marksmanship brethren in getting a buff, though it’s a simpler 4% cross-class upgrade.

Frost Mages lose 6% Shatter damage against its primary target after bug fixes last week gave it a “meaningful” advantage. Brewmaster Monk’s High Tolerance now refunds less cooldown than before, and the Zen State increases your stagger effectiveness by slightly less. Blizzard keeps things simple for Paladins: Holy gets 15% healing increases on Eternal Flame, Word of Glory, and Light of Dawn, while Prot Pally gains 10% more base armor.

Discipline Priest has been overperforming in raid environments thanks to Atonement, so it’s been slightly tweaked. The base damage transfer is increased from 28% to 30%, but it’ll decay more rapidly when healing more than five targets, meaning it should retain a similar effectiveness in small-group activities. Holy Priest gets lifted up with a 6% raise to all healing.

Outlaw and Subtlety Rogues both get damage increases across their entire spec, of 5% and 7% respectively. Both face a nerf to Trickster talent Cloud Cover, however, which will now last for six seconds (down from ten) on both parts of the effect, and will only stack the Fazed debuff one additional time rather than two. These additional stacks also “no longer increase the magnitude of secondary effects, such as the damage reduction from the Smoke talent.”

Enhancement Shaman “has been underperforming in both raid and Mythic+ content,” and Blizzard wants to help Stormbringer catch up to Totemic. It’s boosted all ability damage for the spec by 5%, and auto attacks by 10%, while the effects of Stormbringer’s Natural Gift and Voltaic Surge have been tripled and doubled, respectively. There’s also a bug fix for Thorim’s Invocation, which will function as a minor nerf; Blizzard says it’s “watching the results carefully.”

Last but not least is Affliction Warlock, which receives a 20% damage buff on Unstable Affliction and Corruption, and 10% for Seed of Corruption and Agony. Blizzard is also making plenty of PvP-specific adjustments across the remainder of its patch notes, the most notable of which is an increase to player health for PvP combat. This is intended to slow down its overall pace and limit the potential for quick burst-damage kills, giving you more time to react and respond.

As mentioned up top, there are some pretty significant nerfs to the Crown of the Cosmos fight in the Mythic difficulty version of the Voidspire raid. These include a 5% health reduction for Alleria and a 15-second increase on her berserk timer. Blizzard has also lowered the health of the three mini-bosses, along with energy generation on the trio and Alleria herself. There’s also a smaller nerf for Belo’ren in Mythic March on Quel’Danas; Rebirth has been moved from a 30-second to 40-second cast, and knockback from Light and Void Edict is lessened.

These World of Warcraft balance changes will launch with the WoW Midnight weekly maintenance update on Tuesday May 5. That gives you a couple of days to consider if you want to change course. Be sure to check our updated list of the best WoW addons as well, because Blizzard’s ever-shifting regulations mean you might find yourself caught off guard by what you can and can’t use.