Blizzard's latest Patch 12.0.1 Midnight Beta development notes bring major changes to multiple healing specs. The January 28th update includes two full healer reworks for Holy Paladin and Restoration Shaman, plus tuning adjustments for Discipline Priest, Evoker, and several DPS specs. Datamined changes reveal even more tuning beyond the official notes.
Holy Paladin Gets Crusader Strike Back
Holy Paladin receives the biggest changes this patch. Blizzard is bringing back Crusader Strike as a baseline ability, stating they want to increase "moment-to-moment decision-making and adding more variety to their rotation." The spell now comes with two charges.
Core Rotation Overhaul
Crusader Strike:
- Returns as a baseline spell with two charges
- Damage up 20%
- Cooldown up 25%
- Holy Shock no longer overrides it
- Avenging Crusader no longer overrides itself with Crusader Strike
Holy Shock:
- Cooldown increased to 9.5 seconds (was 6 seconds)
Judgment:
- Cooldown increased by 83%
Crusader's Might:
- Now makes Crusader Strike reduce the cooldown of both Holy Shock and Judgment
Shield of the Righteous:
- Now reduces Crusader Strike cooldown by 1.5 seconds (previously reduced Holy Shock cooldown by 2 seconds)
Mixed Community Reception
The changes have split the community. Some players wanted Crusader Strike back, but the implementation has raised concerns.
High-end beta testers report the extended cooldowns on Holy Shock and Judgment (both major sources of splash healing) may push the rotation toward casting more Flash Heals. The problem: Crusader Strike deals modest damage and generates Holy Power, but provides zero healing outside of Avenging Crusader windows.
With healer damage being low overall, some testers argue Flash Heal during downtime beats using Crusader Strike since Flash Heal actually heals while still generating Holy Power.
Holy Shock itself has felt underwhelming in beta. Some raid testing logs show high-end players skipping it entirely in favor of Holy Light due to mana costs, essentially running a caster-focused setup.
Resto Shaman Overhaul
Resto Shaman gets a major overhaul targeting what Blizzard calls gameplay that felt "lacking in Midnight" with a "core talent issue pushing gameplay towards a repetitive playstyle."
The dev team states: "To accomplish this, we're returning Tidal Waves to the talent tree, updating Ascendance with a different set of mechanics, and removing Whispering Waves. We feel this will be more exciting to play with and prevent current and future issues with Whispering Waves pushing gameplay too far towards an unfun playstyle."
New Ascendance Design
Ascendance has been completely rebuilt:
- Immediately heals allies within 20 yards on activation
- Transforms the Shaman into a Water Ascendant for 15 seconds
- During Ascendance:
- Chain Heal jumps to 3 extra allies (10% reduced healing per jump)
- Healing Wave always crits and heals one additional ally at 50% effectiveness
- Chain Heal and Healing Wave cost 25% less mana
The old Ascendance let Healing Wave and Chain Heal apply Riptide after casting Riptide, which could proc Deeply Rooted Elements for more Ascendance uptime. This created what players called "slot machine gameplay" where good RNG meant staying in Ascendance almost permanently. That interaction is now gone.
Tidal Waves Is Back
Tidal Waves returns to the talent tree:
- Each Riptide cast grants 1 stack
- Each stack reduces Healing Wave or Chain Heal cast time by 20%
- Stacks up to 2 times
Talent Tree Shuffle
Several talents moved around:
- Tidal Waves takes Echo of the Elements' old spot
- Echo of the Elements shifts down
- Primal Tide Core moves to where Whispering Waves was (now a capstone position)
- Whispering Waves is removed
Other Resto Shaman Changes
- Lava Surge can't proc when Lava Burst isn't talented
- Primordial Capacity (Farseer) again increases max Tidal Waves stacks by 1, letting Farseer Shamans hit 3 stacks
Stormbringer Nerf
Surging Currents now boosts the next Healing Surge or Chain Heal by 16% per stack (down from 20%), capping at 80% (down from 100%).
Enhancement Shaman Healing
Enhancement sees targeted healing changes:
- Healing Surge healing down 20%
- Raging Maelstrom now gives Healing Surge and Chain Heal 50% of Maelstrom Weapon benefits (down from 100%)
- Chain Heal healing up 100%
- Bug fix: Maelstrom Weapon abilities no longer incorrectly deal damage as if consuming 10 stacks when using Raging Maelstrom without Overflowing Maelstrom
- Rolling Thunder now grants the Nature Feral Spirit when Doom Winds procs while Ascendance is talented
Devastation Evoker Changes
Scalecommander Devastation Evokers get changes aimed at reducing Deep Breath frequency.
Blizzard explains: "We're reducing the number of times Deep Breath is available through Wingleader for Scalecommander to lessen the amount of time spent airborne which can be difficult to play. We're offsetting the damage losses with buffs to other Scalecommander talents."
Wingleader:
- Bombardments now reduce Deep Breath cooldown by 0.5 seconds per target (down from 1 second)
- Max reduction capped at 1.5 seconds (down from 3 seconds)
Damage Compensation:
- Might of the Black Dragonflight increases Black spell damage by 30% (up from 20%)
- Refined Essence increases Essence ability damage by 25% (up from 15%)
Preservation Evoker:
- Temporal Anomaly no longer clutters raid frames
Discipline Priest Tuning
Disc Priest gets Oracle Hero Talent nerfs alongside some quality-of-life fixes.
Oracle Changes
- Piety: Redistributes 15% of overhealing (down from 20%)
- Preventive Measures: Increases Smite, Penance, and Holy Nova damage by 15% (down from 20%)
- Divine Aegis: No longer shows on raid frames
Balance Concerns
The Piety nerf has sparked debate about the talent's design. Some community members worry that while 15% might work for Season 1, the mechanic could spiral out of control in later seasons as gear scales up. Converting overhealing to effective healing is a powerful advantage no other healer has, and some players want the talent removed entirely rather than repeatedly tuned.
The Preventive Measures nerf also hits Smite indirectly. Beta testers already report Smite feels weak, even in 5-player content where Atonement healing should theoretically shine. While the nerf likely targets Penance damage, Smite catches collateral damage in the process.
Datamined Disc Changes
Datamining uncovered additional tuning:
- Atonement healing drops to 45% of damage done (from 50%)
- Borrowed Time now gives 5% Haste per rank (was 4%), with Rank 2 at 10% (was 8%)
- Searing Light's Penance DoT deals 20% of damage over 8 seconds (down from 30%)
- Shadow Mend healing jumps to 1600% of Spell Power (from 1100%)
- Shadowfiend now has 100% summon chance when Shadow Word: Death hits targets below 20% health (up from 40%)
- Harsh Discipline and Borrowed Time swapped talent positions
Holy Priest Bug Fix
Holy Priest gets a critical bug fix that plagued the entire beta.
The notes state: "Fixed an issue causing Benediction (Apex Talent) to heal for less than intended."
What This Means
Benediction is Holy Priest's apex talent that buffs Flash Heal. The bug made Flash Heal with Benediction actually heal for less than unbuffed Flash Heal. Yes, the talent was actively hurting throughput.
Since Benediction shares a node with an overall healing increase, skipping it meant losing even more output. Holy Priests were stuck in a lose-lose situation.
This bug dragged Holy Priest to the bottom of HPS charts during raid testing. With the fix live, the spec should move back toward mid-pack for raid healing.
Remaining Issues
Mana sustainability remains a concern for raid Holy Priests. The spec lacks efficient ways to pace mana while still healing. Options are limited to Holy Words, Prayer of Healing, and Flash Heal, all expensive.
The current beta meta favors Archon, which pushes Smite usage for Surge of Light procs. Many Holy Priest players dislike spending downtime dealing damage instead of healing, but that seems to be the direction for now.
Shadow Priest Bug Fixes
Shadow Priest receives two fixes:
- Shadow Word: Madness DoT now properly accounts for damage modifiers when reapplied while the debuff is active
- Tentacle Slam no longer engages enemies before dealing damage
Death Knight Updates
Unholy PvE Fixes
- Festering Scythe's debuff no longer breaks when diseases get extended
- Forbidden Knowledge rank 4 stops summoning a Lesser Ghoul to Putrefy when the pet is set to passive
- Midnight Season 1 Set Bonus: Scourge Strike now grants Runic Power when the 4-piece makes it free
Unholy PvP
- Stitchmaster heals for 2% of Lesser Ghoul's max health (down from 5%)
- Life and Death healing now actually works
Beast Mastery Hunter
- Dire Command and Pack Leader Bear now properly advance Huntmaster's Call
- Dire Command gets bad luck protection
- Huntmaster's Call summons Hati or Fenryr at 8 stacks (up from 6)
- Fortitude of the Bear's damage reduction no longer persists when switching pets or specializations
Arcane Mage Update
Expanded Mind now also makes Arcane Orb grant 2 stacks of Arcane Salvo.
Additional Datamined Changes
Beyond official notes, datamining revealed more class tuning:
Druid
- Balance: Eclipse cooldown up to 32 seconds (from 30)
- Keeper of the Grove: Durability of Nature now extends Grove Guardians duration by 20% for Resto, while Balance gets 100% increased treant health
Monk
- Brewmaster: Celestial Infusion absorb scaling doubled (AP modifier from 11.34 to 22.68)
- Mistweaver: Thunder Focus Tea cooldown drops to 30 seconds (from 45)
- Windwalker: Jadefire Stomp and Singularly Focused Jade get technical effect adjustments
- Shado-Pan: Pride of Pandaria now specifically gives Flurry Strikes 15% extra crit chance
Rogue
- Assassination: Deathmark restores 80 Energy over 16 seconds (reworked from 10 Energy per tick)
- Subtlety: Gloomblade tooltip clarified to show 1 combo point; Shadow Blades effect applications updated
- General: Gouge and Shiv tooltips updated to clarify combo point generation
Warlock
- Horrify effect changed from dummy aura to Overrides Actionbar Spell
Warrior
- Intimidating Shout tooltip now specifies the main target cowers in place while nearby enemies flee at 70% reduced movement speed for 8 seconds
UI and Accessibility
- Nameplate cast highlighting is now more visible
- "Shared CC" under Enemy NPC Buffs/Debuffs is enabled by default
- Housing Dashboard Endeavors progress bar shows percentage text
- Item Sets tab removed from Adventure Guide
What's Next
These changes continue Blizzard's iteration on Midnight's class design. Holy Paladin and Resto Shaman both get fundamental rotation changes, while Disc Priest and Evoker receive targeted number tuning.
The dev team is watching feedback closely. The Resto Shaman notes specifically thank players for "continued feedback," suggesting more adjustments may come.
Players can test these changes on Midnight Beta servers now. Blizzard notes these changes "will not be reflected on the live Pre-Patch servers until a later date."
