Second Midnight Pre-Expansion Update Notes

With the release of the second pre‑expansion update, we’re rolling out additional class updates and a host of quality‑of‑life improvements—including user interface (UI) enhancements to Damage Meters, Boss Alerts, and more—as we make our final preparations for the launch of Midnight.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CLASSES

DEATH KNIGHT Hero Talents Deathbringer Frost Exterminate first scythe damage increased by 30%. Reaper's Mark damage increased by 25%. Deathly Blows now increases the damage of Frost Strike and Frostbane by 15% (was 5%), and also has an additional effect – Reaper's Mark grants 3 stacks of Bonegrinder if it is known. Swift and Painful now makes Wave of Souls 100% more effective on the primary target, and now grants 8% increased Strength when no enemies are struck by Soul Rupture (was 5%). Rider of the Apocalypse Developers' notes: We're making an adjustment aimed at bringing Rider of the Apocalypse and Deathbringer closer in power. All Horsemen damage reduced by 65%. Hungering Thirst now increases the damage of diseases, Frost Strike, Frostbane, and Death Coil by 5%, and now also affects Necrotic Coil. Frost Trollbane's Obliterate now correctly becomes Frost when consuming a Killing Machine with One-Handed weapons. Feast of Souls now increases the damage of Runic Power abilities by 10% when you have 2 or more active Horsemen (was 20%). Unholy Undeath damage increased by 50%. Whitemane's Epidemic damage increased 150%. Trollbane's Icy Fury damage increased by 100%. San'layn Unholy Vampiric Strike damage reduced by 20%. Frenzied Bloodthirst now increases the damage of Death Coil and Epidemic by 3% per stack of Essence of the Blood Queen. Gift of the San'layn now increases the effectiveness of Essence of the Blood Queen by 80%. Transfusion now increases the damage of a summoned Lesser Ghoul by 10% (was 20%). Inevitable now increases the damage of diseases by up to 30% (was 20%). Infusion of Sorrow now causes Vampiric Strike to extend the duration of plagues by 3 seconds (was 2 seconds). Blood All damage increased by 15%. Death Strike damage increased by 20%. Blood Boil damage increased by 15%. Heart Strike damage increased by 20%. Death and Decay damage increased by 25%. Consumption damage increased by 30%. Bone Shield Armor increased by 20%. Blood Fortification Stamina increased to 35% (was 30%). Frost Obliterate damage increased by 15%. Frost Strike damage reduced by 10%. Frostbane damage reduced by 10%. Breath of Sindragosa and Frostwyrm's Fury cooldowns are no longer reset after an encounter. Unholy Developers' notes: With these changes, we're focusing on the power distribution between abilities and the talents that empower them. Some abilities such as Army of the Dead lacked baseline power and relied heavily on other talents to make them feel impactful. Another example is the Apex Talents. While the first node provided a good amount of power, the rest of the nodes did not add much. With this power redistribution in mind, we are also aiming to resolve some rotational quality of life issues such as the permanent Outbreak override, button bloat during cooldowns, and some talents that are feeling like they should be baseline such as Rapid Variant and Necromancer's Cunning. For Unholy Death Knight, especially San’layn, they have been overperforming in low-target scenarios. We’re reducing some throughput and easing the weight of its cooldown windows. We’re also taking this opportunity to address some imbalance between Raise Abomination and Gargoyle. New Talent: Scythe of Decay – Festering Scythe casts a Death and Decay at the target location. Can only occur every 30 seconds. Reduced to 15 seconds with Death's Echo. Replaces Death and Decay. Superstrain has been redesigned – Dread Plague deals damage to an additional nearby enemy at 75% effectiveness and has a chance to grant you 4 Runic Power. Reanimation has been updated – Putrefy now summons a Magus of the Dead for 15 seconds (was 8 seconds). Pestilence has been updated – Dark Transformation upgrades your next Outbreak to Pestilence. The rest of the effect remains the same. Pestilence now deals 150% of the remaining damage of Plagues instantly (was 100%). Magus of the Dead has been updated – Army of the Dead now again also summons a Magus of the Dead for 15 seconds. Army of the Dead has been updated – Summons a legion of 8 empowered Lesser Ghouls that last for 15 seconds that are now 75% more effective than normal Lesser Ghouls (was 100%). Generates 40 additional Runic Power. Reduced to 4 Lesser Ghouls in PvP combat. Raise Abomination and Gargoyle no longer putrefies 2 Lesser Ghouls. Raise Abomination's Disease Cloud now increases the damage targets take from your minions by 10% (was 20%). Raise Abomination's Disease Cloud now correctly increases the damage of Putrefy. Soul Reaper increases Putrefy damage. Soul Reaper debuff tooltip updated to show disease damage increase. Soul Reaper now consumes all available Putrefy charges to cast Putrefy at its target. Unholy Devotion now lasts for 12 seconds (was 5 seconds). All auto-attack and ability damage dealt reduced by 32%. Scourge Strike damage reduced by 28%. Virulent Plague damage increased by 13%. Epidemic damage increased by 15%. Dread Plague damage reduced by 15%. Rapid Variant is now an inherent effect for Dread Plague and now takes enemy bounding box into account for distance calculations. Putrefy now summons a Lesser Ghoul inherently. The rest of Necromancer's Cunning's effects remain the same. Putrefy damage reduced by 10%. Necromancer's Cunning explosion damage increased by 100%. Clawing Shadows now reduces the damage of each subsequent chain of Scourge Strike by 20% (was 25%). Dark Transformation now lasts 15 seconds (was 12 seconds) and is extended by Death Coil and Epidemic by 1 second (was 0.5 seconds). Blightfall now increases all disease damage by 5% (was 10%). Sudden Doom now reduces the cost of Death Coil and Epidemic by 15 Runic Power (was 10). Each Unholy specific summon attack and ability power reduced by 25% except for Gargoyle. All Lesser Ghouls damage reduced by 20%. Lesser Ghoul's Sweeping Claws main target damage reduced by 20%. Lesser Ghoul's Sweeping Claws secondary target damage reduced by 15%. Lesser Ghoul's Sweeping Claw now has a global cooldown of 1 second (was 0 seconds). Outnumber Lesser Ghoul Sweeping Claw damage reduced by 30%. Pet Ghoul Sweeping Claws damage reduced by 30%. Pet Ghoul's Sweeping Claws main target damage reduced by 20%. Pet Ghoul's Sweeping Claws secondary target damage reduced by 15%. Commander of the Dead now causes Dark Transformation to increase the damage of listed summons by 15%/30% (was 25%/50%). Infected Claws damage reduced by 40%. Morbidity now increases the damage the target takes per disease by 1% (was 2%). Fixed an issue that caused Festering Scythe's debuff effect to stop functioning when diseases get extended from any source.

Hero Talents Deathbringer Frost Exterminate first scythe damage increased by 30%. Reaper's Mark damage increased by 25%. Deathly Blows now increases the damage of Frost Strike and Frostbane by 15% (was 5%), and also has an additional effect – Reaper's Mark grants 3 stacks of Bonegrinder if it is known. Swift and Painful now makes Wave of Souls 100% more effective on the primary target, and now grants 8% increased Strength when no enemies are struck by Soul Rupture (was 5%). Rider of the Apocalypse Developers' notes: We're making an adjustment aimed at bringing Rider of the Apocalypse and Deathbringer closer in power. All Horsemen damage reduced by 65%. Hungering Thirst now increases the damage of diseases, Frost Strike, Frostbane, and Death Coil by 5%, and now also affects Necrotic Coil. Frost Trollbane's Obliterate now correctly becomes Frost when consuming a Killing Machine with One-Handed weapons. Feast of Souls now increases the damage of Runic Power abilities by 10% when you have 2 or more active Horsemen (was 20%). Unholy Undeath damage increased by 50%. Whitemane's Epidemic damage increased 150%. Trollbane's Icy Fury damage increased by 100%. San'layn Unholy Vampiric Strike damage reduced by 20%. Frenzied Bloodthirst now increases the damage of Death Coil and Epidemic by 3% per stack of Essence of the Blood Queen. Gift of the San'layn now increases the effectiveness of Essence of the Blood Queen by 80%. Transfusion now increases the damage of a summoned Lesser Ghoul by 10% (was 20%). Inevitable now increases the damage of diseases by up to 30% (was 20%). Infusion of Sorrow now causes Vampiric Strike to extend the duration of plagues by 3 seconds (was 2 seconds).

Deathbringer Frost Exterminate first scythe damage increased by 30%. Reaper's Mark damage increased by 25%. Deathly Blows now increases the damage of Frost Strike and Frostbane by 15% (was 5%), and also has an additional effect – Reaper's Mark grants 3 stacks of Bonegrinder if it is known. Swift and Painful now makes Wave of Souls 100% more effective on the primary target, and now grants 8% increased Strength when no enemies are struck by Soul Rupture (was 5%).

Frost Exterminate first scythe damage increased by 30%. Reaper's Mark damage increased by 25%. Deathly Blows now increases the damage of Frost Strike and Frostbane by 15% (was 5%), and also has an additional effect – Reaper's Mark grants 3 stacks of Bonegrinder if it is known. Swift and Painful now makes Wave of Souls 100% more effective on the primary target, and now grants 8% increased Strength when no enemies are struck by Soul Rupture (was 5%).

Exterminate first scythe damage increased by 30%.

Reaper's Mark damage increased by 25%.