Midnight pre-patch and 12.0.1 beta deliver broad Demon Hunter, Warlock and Warrior tuning

Blizzard published development notes on December 16, 2025 showing class changes arriving in the Midnight 12.0.0 pre-patch and the 12.0.1 beta build. The pre-patch focuses heavy tuning on Demon Hunter, Warlock, and Warrior talent trees while adding accessibility and UI features, and the 12.0.1 notes include a smaller follow-up pass for Arcane and Paladin plus a minor Cooldown Manager tweak.

If you’re interested about Midnight, you should also learn how the expansion will simplify classes. As for the full developer threads, you can check Blizzard’s Midnight beta development thread and Blizzard’s 12.0.1 beta thread.

Patch Notes – 12.0.0 Pre-patch

• CLASSES
• DEMON HUNTER
  • Hero Talents
    • Annihilator
      • Vengeance
        • Voidfall Meteor damage increased by 20%.
        • Meteoric Rise now increases Fel Devastation damage by 25% (was 15%).
        • Celestial Echoes now increases Fracture damage by 30% (was 25%).
        • Dark Matter meteor shower damage increased by 20%.
    • Aldrachi Reaver
      • Vengeance
        • Reaver’s Glaive damage reduced by 26%.
        • Fury of the Aldrachi damage reduced by 13%.
        • Warblade’s Hunger damage reduced by 25%.
        • Wounded Quarry effect now 15% of Physical damage (was 20%).
    • Fel-Scarred
      • Havoc
        • Burning Blades effect increased to 35% of ability damage (was 30%).
  • Havoc
    • All damage increased by 10%.
    • Glaive Tempest now activates when Blade Dance strikes 3 or more enemies (was 4).
    • Glaive Tempest now consumes 25 Fury (was 35).
    • Glaive Tempest damage reduced by 25%.
  • Vengeance
    • Shattered Souls now causes Soul Fragments to heal for 6% of recent damage (was 7%).
    • Thick Skin now increases Armor by 150% (was 130%).
• EVOKER
  • Preservation
    • Healing of all spells and abilities reduced by 6%.
    • Emerald Blossom healing reduced by 15%.
    • Living Flame damage and healing increased by 25%.
    • Disintegrate damage increased by 25%.
    • Fire Breath damage increased by 25%.
    • Reverberations causes Verdant Embrace to heal for an additional 60% over 8 seconds (was 30%).
• PALADIN
  • Hero Talents
    • Herald of the Sun
      • Eternal Flame’s cast animation has been updated.
  • Protection
    • Guardian of Ancient Kings cooldown reduced to 180 seconds (was 300 seconds).
    • Ardent Defender cooldown reduced to 90 seconds (was 120 seconds).
    • Word of Glory healing increased by 100%.
    • Aegis of Light increases Armor by 55% (was 20%).
    • Armor granted by Shield of the Righteous increased by 30%.
    • Light of the Titans causes Word of Glory to heal for an additional 40% over time (was 20%).
    • Solace causes Consecration to heal for 300% of its damage done (was 100%).
• WARLOCK
  • Hero Talents
    • Hellcaller
      • Blackened Soul damage increased by 30%.
      • Affliction
        • Mark of Xavius now increases Agony damage by 30% (was 20%).
        • Through the Felvine now increases Unstable Affliction damage by 8% (was 4%).
      • Destruction
        • Through the Felvine now increases Chaos Bolt damage by 8% (was 4%).
        • Wither damage increased by 20%.
    • Soul Harvester
      • Demonic Soul damage increased by 100%.
      • Wicked Reaping damage increased by 150%.
      • Soul Anathema damage increased by 50%.
  • Affliction
    • Cull the Weak has been updated – Casting Unstable Affliction or Seed of Corruption reduces the cooldown of Dark Harvest by 1.5 seconds (was 3 seconds).
    • Dark Harvest damage increased by 300%.
    • Wrath of Nathreza’s Summon Desperate Soul damage increased by 100%.
    • Shadow Bolt and Drain Soul damage increased by 60%. This change does not affect PvP combat.
    • Unstable Affliction damage increased by 15%.
    • Agony damage increased by 30%. This change does not affect PvP combat.
    • Malefic Grasp damage increased by 150%.
    • Summon Darkglare damage increased by 100%. This change does not affect PvP combat.
    • Corruption damage increased by 50%.
  • Demonology
    • Hellbent Commander has been updated – Your demons deal 1% increased damage for each demon you control (was 2%).
    • Dominion of Argus Antoran Jailer damage reduced by 20%.
    • Dominion of Argus Antoran Inquisitor damage increased by 100%.
    • Summon Doomguard damage reduced by 25%.
    • Wild Imp damage reduced by 10%.
    • Hand of Gul’dan damage reduced by 25%.
  • Destruction
    • Chaos Bolt damage increased by 25%. This change does not affect PvP combat.
    • Echo of Sargeras damage increased by 150%.
    • Overfiend damage increased by 30%.
    • Incinerate damage increased by 20%.
    • Conflagrate damage increased by 20%. This change does not affect PvP combat.
    • Shadowburn damage increased by 100%.
• WARRIOR
  • Hero Talents
    • Slayer
      • Arms
        • Opportunist’s damage and critical strike damage of next Overpower reduced to 10% (was 25%).
      • Fury
        • Opportunist’s damage and critical strike damage of next Raging Blow reduced to 10% (was 25%).
  • Arms
    • Crushing Combo has been updated – Colossus Smash causes your next 3 Cleaves within 20 seconds to trigger no cooldown.
  • Fury
    • The Fury talent tree has been slightly re-arranged and some talents have changed positions.
      • Developers’ notes: We’re aiming to make pathing through the Fury tree easier and to open up more build options. We’ve streamlined the first gate to make pathing through the middle of the tree less onerous and redesigned a few talents to reduce the amount of pressure the tree put on players to specialize into Raging Blow or Bloodthirst at the exclusion of the other.
    • Cruelty has been updated – While Enraged, Bloodthirst and Raging Blow (was only Raging Blow), deal 5%/10% additional damage (was 10%/20%).
    • Improved Bloodthirst renamed to Spite and has been updated – Bloodthirst and Raging Blow (was only Bloodthirst) damage and critical strike damage increased by 2.5%/5% (was 5%/10%).
    • Bloodcraze has been updated – Raging Blow increases the damage of your next Bloodthirst by 5%, stacking up to 5 times.
• USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY
  • Larger house sizes are now available in the “Edit House Exterior” options.
  • Added the Midnight game credits.
  • NEW ACCESSIBILITY FEATURE: COMBAT AUDIO ALERTS
    • Added support for announcing that you are targeted by an enemy.
    • Added chat slash commands to enable/disable Combat Audio Alerts as well as access its options (/ttscombat).
  • NEW INTERFACE: DAMAGE METER
    • Each damage meter window can now be assigned a different segment, reverting a previous change.
    • The “Full Background” style has been removed and will instead be controlled by the Background opacity slider.
  • COOLDOWN MANAGER
    • Added support for visual alerts, including “marching ants” and “flash” in various colors.
    • Added border colors to indicate debuff type (magic, poison, etc.) for tracked items.
  • ADDON INTERFACE
    • Made improvements to allow Unit Frame addons to show heal prediction and absorbs on custom unit frames.
    • Made improvements to allow addons to more easily show channeled spells in custom cast bars.

Patch Notes – 12.0.1 Beta

• • CLASSES
  • MAGE
    • Arcane
      • Developers’ notes: Touch of the Archmage has not been hitting the notes we wanted it to, both in gameplay and tuning, so we’re buffing up the last node and redesigning the first node to no longer increase Touch of the Magi charges, and putting that budget into Touch of the Magi’s burst window instead.
      • Apex Talents updated:
        • 1st node: Touch of the Magi increases the damage your target receives from you by 20%.
        • 2nd node: Now additionally increases Arcane Missile damage by 10%/20%.
        • 3rd node: Now deals 50% of Touch of the Magi’s accumulated damage (was 25%).
  • PALADIN
    • Hero Talents
      • Herald of the Sun
        • Retribution
          • Walk Into Light no longer consumes a charge to cast Blade of Justice at 100% effectiveness.
    • Retribution
      • Crusading Strikes now decreases auto-attack speed by 35% (was 50%).

• USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY
  • In the Cooldown Manager, icon padding can now be set to zero.

Console PC Gaming will track notable tuning as Midnight approaches. X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram.