World of Warcraft Class Tuning Update Includes More Big Buffs and Nerfs

World of Warcraft announced that some class balance adjustments are on schedule to arrive in the first week of May, including buffs to classes like the Warlock and the Warrior alongside nerfs to Druid and Evoker. The upcoming World of Warcraft balance changes will go into effect following a weekly server reset.

The tuning pass coming to World of Warcraft will arrive amid a rough patch for the long-running MMORPG. Following the launch of World of Warcraft‘s 12.0.5 content update, several bugs and issues were uncovered by players, ranging from minor inconveniences to game-breaking problems. Blizzard has since issued an apology over Patch 12.0.5’s issues, stating that the launch was not up to its standards. Fans quickly blamed Blizzard for releasing patches too quickly without proper testing, though it remains to be seen if the development team will make any changes to its patch release cadence in response to the Patch 12.0.5 debacle.

World of Warcraft Reveals Class Tuning Pass Following Patch 12.0.5’s Launch

Though World of Warcraft players made their displeasure over Patch 12.0.5 known on social media, a new class tuning pass will give some adjustments to several classes in need of a tune-up. World of Warcraft‘s next class tuning update will go live on Tuesday, May 5, following server restarts. To begin, both Holy Paladin and Protection Paladin will receive some minor buffs, with 15% increases to Holy Paladin’s Word of Glory, Eternal Flame, and Light of Dawn, alongside a 10% base armor boost for Protection Paladin. The Affliction Warlock, known for its damage-over-time spells, will see some more damage added to its core rotation. Unstable Affliction and Corruption will be bumped up by 20%, alongside a 10% buff to Agony and Seed of Corruption.

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Warrior players are also in luck with the upcoming tuning pass. Arms Warriors will receive additional damage to Execute and Overpower, with the Slayer hero talents Reap the Storm and Slayer’s Strike getting 30% and 40% damage increases, respectively. Fury Warriors will deal 5% extra damage across the board, including a buff to the Mountain Thane’s Ground Current hero talent. Protection Warriors will benefit by proxy from the Mountain Thane buffs. Both Outlaw Rogue and Subtlety Rogue will receive 5% and 7% buffs, respectively, to their overall damage, along with buffs to the Trickster hero talents Cloud Cover and No Scruples. Other big winners of the next World of Warcraft tuning pass include Enhancement Shaman, Beast Mastery Hunter, and Marksmanship Hunter.

Some World of Warcraft Classes Are Due for Nerfs

Despite the buffs for most of World of Warcraft‘s classes, some notable nerfs are also on the way for some of the game’s more popular specializations. Following up with the nerfs it got during Patch 12.0.5’s launch, the Unholy Death Knight will be nerfed once again. Graveyard damage will be reduced by 15%, along with targeted nerfs to Whitemane’s Epidemic, Trollbane’s Icy Fury, and Thrill of Blood. The Guardian Druid will see its single-target damage tuned down to bring it in line with other tanks. However, Guardian Druids will get a small boost to Thrash’s direct damage and bleed damage to compensate for the nerfs to Maul, Red Moon, Ravage, and Raze. Devourer Demon Hunter damage will be decreased by 3%, along with targeted nerfs to the Annihilator hero talents Voidfall Meteor and Meteoric Rise. The Augmentation Evoker will get a 5% blanket nerf to its abilities. Discipline Priest and Brewmaster Monks will also receive slight nerfs with the May 5 class update.

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Between the imminent class tuning pass and the arrival of World of Warcraft‘s Patch 12.0.7 on the public test realm (PTR), Blizzard is doubling down on its efforts to resolve as many issues as it can. Time will tell how the upcoming class changes will shake up the metagame and how smoothly the changes will be implemented.

World of Warcraft: Midnight Class Tuning (May 5, 2026)

CLASSES

• Death Knight
  • Frost
    • All damage increased by 5%. Does not affect PvP combat.
  • Unholy
    • Developers’ notes: Unholy Death Knight is performing better than intended after recent bugfixes and the 12.0.5 changes.
    • Magus of the Dead Shadow Bolt damage reduced by 15%. Does not affect PvP combat.
    • Graveyard damage reduced by 15%. Does not affect PvP combat.
    • Rider of the Apocalypse: Whitemane’s Epidemic damage reduced by 25%. This does not affect PvP combat.
    • Rider of the Apocalypse: Trolbane’s Icy Fury damage reduced by 25%. Ddoes not affect PvP combat.
    • San’layn: Thrill of Blood now increases the damage of Dread Plague and Virulent Plague by 10% (was 5%).

• Demon Hunter
  • Devourer
    • All damage reduced by 3%.
    • Annihilator: Voidfall Meteor damage reduced by 12%.
    • Annihilator: Meteoric Rise damage bonus for Void Ray reduced to 10% (was 15%).
  • Vengeance
    • Thick Skin now increases Armor by 185% (was 150%).

• Druid
  • Guardian
    • Developers’ notes: Guardian Druids have continued to overperform in single target contexts, while experiencing difficulties with threat and sustained damage outside of cooldowns. With these changes, we’re aiming to reduce burst potential and transfer some of that power into more reliable and consistent abilities to aid in generating and maintaining threat.
    • Wild Guardian echo effectiveness reduced to 200% (was 300%).
    • Red Moon damage reduced by 20%.
    • Maul damage reduced by 15%.
    • Raze damage reduced by 15%.
    • Ravage damage reduced by 15%.
    • Thrash direct damage increased by 200%.
    • Thrash bleed damage increased by 100%.
  • Restoration
    • All healing reduced by 3%. Does not apply to PvP combat.
    • Everbloom heals for 20/40% of Lifebloom’s final heal (was 25/50%). Does not apply to PvP combat.
• Evoker
  • Augmentation
    • All ability damage and pet damage reduced by 5%.
    • Fixed an issue where Inferno’s Blessing damage was not properly modified by the specialization baseline passive. Inferno’s Blessing’s spell damage coefficient has been adjusted to compensate, so its effective damage will only be changed per the above adjustment.
    • Scalecommander: Fixed an issue where Bombardment damage was not properly modified by the specialization’s baseline passives. Bombardment’s damage calculations have been adjusted to compensate.
      • Developers’ notes: Effective damage will be unchanged for Devastation and only reduced by 5% for Augmentation with the above adjustment.
• Hunter
  • Beast Mastery
    • All damage dealt by you and your pets increased by 4%. Does not apply to PvP combat.
  • Marksmanship
    • Rapid Fire damage increased by 20%. Does not affect PvP combat.
    • Explosive Shot damage increased by 100%.
    • Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot damage increased by 30%.
    • Steady Shot damage increased by 100%.
• Mage
  • Frost
    • Shatter damage to the primary target reduced by 6%.
      • Developers’ notes: Bug fixes last week to Hand of Frost and Flurry provided a meaningful damage increase to Frost. This change is primarily intended to offset the boost from those fixes.
• Monk
  • Brewmaster
    • High Tolerance refunds 2/4 seconds of Purifying Brew’s cooldown when cast at Elevated Stagger (was 3/6 seconds).
    • Zen State increases stagger effectiveness by 15%, based on missing health (was 20%).
• Paladin
  • Holy
    • Eternal Flame healing increased by 15%.
    • Word of Glory healing increased by 15%.
    • Light of Dawn healing increased by 15%.
  • Protection
    • Base armor increased by 10%.
• Priest
  • Discipline
    • Developers’ notes: Our goal here is to slightly rein in Atonement’s healing contribution in raid environments while keeping its effectiveness in smaller group content.
    • Atonement damage transfer has been increased to 30% (was 28%). Not applied to PvP combat.
    • Atonement healing now decays more rapidly beyond 5 targets.
      • Developers’ notes: For example, when healing 20 injured allies with Atonement, it would previously be reduced by 50%. With the new scaling, it will be reduced by 60%.
  • Holy
    • All healing increased by 6%. Not applied to PvP combat.
• Rogue
  • Outlaw
    • All damage increased by 5%. Does not affect PvP combat.
    • Trickster: Cloud Cover primary and secondary duration reduced to 6 seconds (was 10 seconds).
    • Trickster: Cloud Cover now causes Fazed to stack 1 additional time (was 2).
    • Trickster: No Scruples crit chance bonus increased to 12% (was 10%).
    • Trickster: Additional stacks of Fazed granted by Cloud Cover no longer increase the magnitude of secondary effects, such as the damage reduction from the Smoke talent.
  • Subtlety
    • All damage increased by 7%. Does not affect PvP combat.
    • Trickster: Cloud Cover primary and secondary duration reduced to 6 seconds (was 10 seconds).
    • Trickster: No Scruples crit chance bonus increased to 12% (was 10%).
    • Trickster: Additional stacks of Fazed granted by Cloud Cover no longer increase the magnitude of secondary effects, such as the damage reduction from the Smoke talent.
• Shaman
  • Enhancement
    • Developers’ notes: Enhancement Shaman has been underperforming in both Raid and M+ content. With these changes, we’re aiming to increase throughput and help Stormbringer catch up to Totemic. We’re also resolving a bug, which would have a negative impact on performance, so we’re watching the results carefully.
    • All ability damage increased by 5%.
    • Auto attack damage increased by 10%.
    • Resolved an issue causing Thorim’s Invocation to cast Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning and Tempest at with more effectiveness than intended when cast below 10 Maelstrom Weapon.
    • Stormbringer: Natural Gift now increases Nature damage of abilities by 6% (was 2%).
    • Stormbringer: Voltaic Surge now increases the damage of Crash Lightning and Chain Lightning by 20% (was 10%).
• Warlock
  • Affliction
    • Unstable Affliction damage increased by 20%.
    • Seed of Corruption damage increased by 10%.
    • Corruption damage increased by 20%.
      • Developers’ notes: This change does not affect Wither.
    • Agony damage increased by 10%.
• Warrior
  • Developers’ notes: These tuning changes are aimed at improving Warrior performance overall as well as compensating for damage lost due to the Deep Wounds bug fix last week. We will continue to monitor Warrior performance and make further adjustments as needed.
  • Arms
    • Execute damage increased by 20%.
    • Overpower damage increased by 20%.
    • Slayer: Slayer’s Strike damage increased by 40%.
    • Slayer: Reap the Storm damage increased by 30%.
  • Fury
    • All damage increased by 5%.
    • Execute damage increased by 20%.
    • Raging Blow damage increased by 20%.
    • Slayer: Slayer’s Strike damage increased by 40%.
    • Slayer: Reap the Storm damage increased by 30%.
    • Mountain Thane: Ground Current damage increased by 50%.
  • Protection
    • Execute damage increased by 20%.
    • Mountain Thane: Thunder Blast damage increased by 30%.
    • Mountain Thane: Ground Current damage increased by 50%.

Player vs Player

• Developers’ notes: The pace of PvP combat is a little too fast right now, resulting in quick kills from burst damage. We’re increasing player health in PvP combat to slow this down slightly and give players more time to react.
• Gladiator’s Distinction (PvP trinket set bonus) now increases player Stamina by an additional 5%.
• Voidstone Shielding Array absorption is reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
• Demon Hunter
  • Devourer
    • Developers’ notes: Devourer’s ability to burst enemies down is a little too high.
    • Void-Scarred: Voidsurge damage reduced by 20% in PvP combat.
• Druid
  • Balance
    • Developers’ notes: Balance Druid is overall performing reasonably well, with the notable exception of Starsurge feeling underwhelming. We’re increasing Starsurge damage to give Balance more opportunities to contribute single-target burst.
    • Starsurge damage increased by 18% in PvP combat.
• Hunter
  • Beast Mastery
    • All damage dealt by you and your pets reduced by 3% in PvP combat.
  • Marksmanship
    • Developers’ notes: We reduced Marksmanship damage in a recent hotfix, but those changes were too aggressive. We’re pulling back on some of the reductions to Black Arrow and overall damage to bring Marksmanship back up to a reasonable spot.
    • Black Arrow damage increased by 11% in PvP combat.
    • All damage increased by 5% in PvP combat.
• Mage
  • Arcane
    • Developers’ notes: Arcane is behind the other Mage specializations, so we’re increasing the damage of some of their core spells. These are the more difficult spells to fully channel, so we’d like them to feel more rewarding when you do cast them.
    • Arcane Blast damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
    • Arcane Missile damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
  • Fire
    • Developers’ notes: Fire, particularly Sunfury, is able to deal significant burst during their Combustion windows. We’d like to reduce that with that caveat that casting Fireball should still feel rewarding.
    • Pyroblast damage reduced by 6% in PvP combat.
    • Fireball damage increased by 80% in PvP combat.
    • Sunfury: Codex of the Sunstriders now increases spell damage during Combustion by 1% for each Spellfire Sphere consumed in PvP combat (was 2%).
  • Frost
    • Ray of Frost damage reduced by 10% in PvP combat.
• Monk
  • Brewmaster
    • All damage reduced by 15% in PvP combat.
• Paladin
  • Holy
    • Mana regeneration is now reduced by 35% in PvP combat (was 45%).
  • Protection
    • Templar: Divine Exaction now causes Divine Toll to cast 2 additional times at 75% effectiveness in PvP combat (was 150%).
• Priest
  • Shadow
    • Developers’ notes: Shadow’s consistent damage over time is quite effective, but their single target spells are lower than intended. We’re increasing Shadow Word: Madness and Mind Blast damage to help them contribute single target burst a bit more effectively.
    • Shadow Word: Madness damage increased by 25% in PvP combat.
    • Mind Blast and Void Blast damage increased by 20% in PvP combat.
• Rogue
  • Outlaw
    • Developers’ notes: Outlaw’s damage ended up being quite high after recent adjustments, particularly Between the Eyes with patch 12.0.5. We’re reducing that along with some reductions to Cloud Cover for both PvE and PvP.
    • Between the Eyes damage reduced by 15% in PvP combat.
    • All ability damage reduced by 5%.
• Shaman
  • Restoration
    • Healing Wave healing increased by 10% in PvP combat.
    • Riptide healing increased by 15% in PvP combat.
• Warlock
  • Destruction
    • All damage increased by 5% in PvP combat.

Systems

Released

March 2, 2026

ESRB

Teen / Blood and Gore, Crude Humor, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence, Users Interact, In-Game Purchases

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