New World of Warcraft Midnight class tuning update reduces the dramatic gap between healers

The next World of Warcraft Midnight update is bringing big balance changes to healers, as Blizzard attempts to cut down some of the disparity between supports in the current iteration of the MMORPG. The gap is currently proving too significant, meaning that some classes are being left in the dust, particularly in high-end dungeon and Mythic raid content. To help correct this, big winners like Discipline Priest, Preservation Evoker, and Mistweaver Monk face nerfs, while Holy Paladin, Restoration Druid, and Resto Shaman get some pretty potent buffs to help bring them more in line.

Ahead of World of Warcraft update 12.0.5, community manager Bethany 'Linxy' Hudson shares a look at the class tuning changes we can expect in the new Midnight patch notes. Discipline Priest, which in some raid content is almost completely clearing most of the pack, gets the most dramatic adjustments. Blizzard has dropped the effectiveness of Atonement healing from 35% of your spell damage done down to 28%, which should notably lower the class's overall healing output.

To compensate for this somewhat, Disc Priest gets 25% buffs to several of its more targeted shield and heal options: Power Word Shield, Void Shield, Flash Heal, Shadow Mend, Power Word Radiance, and Plea. "These adjustments are intended to keep Discipline's strengths intact while improving their ability to respond to dangerous health swings in dungeon content," Blizzard explains.

Also hit with the nerf hammer is Preservation Evoker, which faces a 5% reduction to all healing. As a slight make-good, the mana cost of Verdant Embrace lowered. Mistweaver Monk is less fortunate, as it loses 5% of all healing along with a less effective Sheilun's Gift (down to 5% healing increase per cloud consumed, down from the current 10%).

While most of the changes here are PvE only, Mistweaver Monk's actually do go across PvP as well, and that's just the start. In player-on-player fights specifically, the class also gets 50% less mana back from Mana Tea, 25% less absorption on Life Cocoon, and only a 30-second cooldown reduction on that skill from Chrysalis (down from 45 seconds). Blizzard says it wants to "maintain their identity of pushing the pace of games," but that its "ability to trade cooldowns and mana efficiency is more effective than we would like."

Enough bad news; onto the buffs. Restoration Shaman's struggles should be mitigated somewhat by an 8% increase to all healing and a 30% boost to all damage dealt (that latter part also carries across to PvP). Holy Paladin, another consistent underperformer, gets increases designed to work regardless of your build: Holy Shock's healing is up 10%, and the healing of Word of Glory, Eternal Flame, and Light of Dawn increases by 20%. The absorption of Greater Judgment, meanwhile, has been raised by a whopping 250%.

Holy Priest gets a simple but strong 8% healing increase across the board. Restoration Druid doesn't get any extra healing boosts, but its damage buffs are nothing to sniff at. Wrath, Starfire, and Starsurge all go up by 40%, while Sunfire and Moonfire are increased by 25%. "These changes are intended to increase the viability of a caster-oriented playstyle that involves applying damage-over-time effects and using Starfire, Wrath, and Starsurge," Blizzard explains.

Rounding out the patch notes are a couple of other small changes: Devourer Demon Hunter's Sweet Suffering has been nerfed, and now increases the duration of Feast of Souls by one or two seconds (down from two or four). Windwalker's Tigereye Brew faces a similar halving of its effectiveness, and now raises your critical strike chance by just 1% per stack instead of 2%. There are also more numbers nerfs for the Mythic L'ura encounter, presumably to compensate slightly for the tuning down of the current meta healer picks.

World of Warcraft patch 12.0.5, 'Lingering Shadows,' launches on Tuesday April 21. Expect all these changes to be included along with its new content, such as Void Assaults, Ritual Sites, and the Prop Hunt styled Decor Duels.