---
title: 'The Best Specs to Main and Losers to Avoid in Midnight | DPS, Healer & Tank'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=aNGQKDfvVHQ'
video_id: 'aNGQKDfvVHQ'
date: 2026-08-09
duration_sec: 1166
---

# The Best Specs to Main and Losers to Avoid in Midnight | DPS, Healer & Tank

> Source: [The Best Specs to Main and Losers to Avoid in Midnight | DPS, Healer & Tank](https://youtube.com/watch?v=aNGQKDfvVHQ)

## Summary

This video by Sky from Comeback Kids analyzes the best and worst World of Warcraft specs to main heading into the Midnight expansion. It covers DPS, healer, and tank specs, highlighting major reworks, pruning, and overall gameplay feel.

### Key Points

- **Frost Mage Rework** [00:25] — Frost Mage received a major rework, introducing a debuff system with Ice Lance and other abilities to shatter. Ray of Frost replaces Icy Veins as the offensive cooldown. The rotation is simple yet refreshing, and both hero talent trees feel great.
- **Unholy Death Knight Overhaul** [01:45] — Unholy Death Knight became a pet-based class focusing on shadow and plague spreading. It now summons skeletal mages, sacrifices ghouls, and uses Army of the Dead as a cooldown. The festering wound system was removed, making it feel like a mix of Demonology Warlock and old Unholy.
- **Affliction Warlock Returns to DoT Focus** [03:04] — Affliction Warlock shifted from Malefic Rapture to classic damage-over-time effects, using Unstable Affliction and Seed of Corruption. It embodies a slow ramp-up style, with the apex talent Shadow of the Nathraim summoning a demonic soul and potentially a meteor.
- **Devastation Evoker Tweaks** [04:55] — Devastation Evoker received minor tweaks rather than a full overhaul. Key changes include passive Consume Flame, two charges of Fire Breath, and the new capstone talent Strafing Run, which allows back-to-back Deep Breath. Azure Sweep replaces Azure Strike and synergizes with Dragonrage.
- **Elemental Shaman Pruning Done Right** [06:39] — Elemental Shaman's talent tree was reworked to clearly differentiate fire and lightning builds. Fire is viable in Mythic+ with Purging Flames, and both hero talent trees are strong. The spec retains its iconic visuals and sound effects.
- **Holy Paladin Revamp** [07:58] — Holy Paladin's talent tree was drastically changed, with Light of Dawn now healing a 40-yard radius. Judgment and Holy Shock feel impactful, and the apex talent grants a third beacon. The spec feels responsive and streamlined.
- **Restoration Druid Strong Numbers** [09:06] — Restoration Druid received minimal changes but has some of the best healing numbers. Lifebloom is buffed by the apex talent and drops Efflorescence. The spec requires less ramp-up, making it strong for AoE healing.
- **Protection Paladin Comeback** [10:11] — Protection Paladin was initially weak in beta but received significant buffs to natural damage mitigation. The rotation remains similar, and the spec offers immense utility like Blessing of Sacrifice and Lay on Hands, allowing solo carrying.
- **Vengeance Demon Hunter Dominance** [11:28] — Vengeance Demon Hunter remains a top tank with the best DPS and the apex talent Untethered Rage, providing free Metamorphosis procs. The spec is fluid and durable, with strong mobility and self-healing.
- **Subtlety Rogue Pruned Too Much** [12:37] — Subtlety Rogue was simplified excessively, losing its identity. Key abilities like Flagellation, Rupture procs, and Dance Macabre were removed, leaving a bland two-to-three button rotation with no setup.
- **Fire Mage Pruning Issues** [13:55] — Fire Mage suffered from heavy pruning, losing Phoenix Flames, Hypothermia, Unleashed Inferno, and Sun King's Blessing without replacements. Combustion feels good, but outside of it, the spec is boring and needs more abilities.
- **Augmentation Evoker Support Spec Struggles** [15:28] — Augmentation Evoker remains unbalanced as the only support spec, lacking interactivity and comparison points from other MMOs. It should be reverted to DPS or made a tank spec, as it has the lowest participation.
- **Holy Priest Stripped Down** [16:35] — Holy Priest lost many core abilities like Divine Star, Lightwell, and Premonition. Renew is now passive. New talent Ultimate Serenity makes Holy Word: Serenity a massive single-target heal with splash, but the spec feels stripped of its identity.
- **Blood Death Knight Boring Changes** [17:55] — Dancing Rune Weapon became a flat cooldown, making the rotation boring. Rune Tap was removed, and the HP yo-yo problem persists. The spec needs more passive damage mitigation and less reliance on Death Strike.

### Conclusion

The video provides a comprehensive tier list of specs for Midnight, highlighting reworks that enhance gameplay and pruning that diminishes identity. Players should consider specs like Frost Mage, Unholy DK, and Holy Paladin, while avoiding Subtlety Rogue, Fire Mage, and Augmentation Evoker.

## Transcript

always be nerve-wracking trying to decide and figure out what spec or class you're going to main. There's a ton that goes into this, including performance, the major design changes, did they get overhauled, and if everything feels
gentlemen, to the channel. My name is Sky, and today's video, we're going to be breaking down the biggest winners you could main and losers you should probably avoid heading into Midnight. Starting off with one of the best specs
you can main hands down, we got to talk about the frost mage. Without a doubt, this spec has received one of the big reworks heading into the new expansion, black sheep amongst mage specs and pushed them to the front of the line, as
this rework has done wonders for the spec. With frost mage, you got a brand like a debuff where you use ice lance and other abilities to shatter to deal completely overhauled, and your offensive cooldown is no longer icy
veins. It's now ray of frost. Not only that, you have a bunch of talent interactions to shatter more procs of that debuff. The rotation is simple and straightforward yet very refreshing and fun with a gameplay style that feels
generally very unique compared to every other spec right now. I got to say, I've time. And I could not be happier that they got rid of the non-stop proc RNG machine that was this spec and really honed it and tightened things up, man.
Because I think it's honestly truly now a oneofone. Both of their hero talent trees feel great and have good build variety. Their apex talent flows with their rotation passively and has a really cool visual of shooting out from
frost from the ground. And I got to say, anyone would be happy to pick up frost mage heading into midnight. Wow. Moving on to our next DPS, without a doubt, it's going to be the unholy death knight. This spec has had the biggest
game, turning it into a complete petbased class with a major focus on shadow and plague disease spreading. You now summon skeletal mages, sacrifice and explode your own ghouls. They buffed the army of the dead to make it an actual
cooldown again. They got rid of the festering wound system top to bottom. They flipped this class on its head into something truly special. And the design feels like a mix between demonology warlock and the best part of old unholy
players couldn't be happier. When it comes to gameplay, you're no longer this slow ramping melee class that relies on spreading all your festering wounds. You out. you use your damage overtime effects and then you deal all of your
damage. It's not like that anymore. Now it's about summoning as many minions as possible, sacrificing them to amplify each other and turn them into skeletal mages while you rot everything down over time. I think this class is going to
As a death knight, you still have your credible survivability. You're very, very durable. You still bring your AMZ for a raid. And whether this class gets nerfed or buffed, I think gameplay-wise, it's one of the most fun classes you can
none. I think this class, without a doubt, is one of the best specs you can main heading into Midnight. Topto bottom overhaul. Very fun, very thematic, very unique, and spicy. And I can't wait to get my hands on this bad boy. Speaking
of changes, next up we got the Affliction Warlock. Yes, Affliction has about setting up for big malefic rapture windows. Now it's all about honing in on your classic damage overtime effects, amplifying them, and then changing your
soul shard spenders, not from malefific rapture anymore, but now into unstable affliction and seed of corruption. This spec is now a full-fledged damage overtime spec yet again. And I couldn't be happier. I feel like I can
comfortably say most players did not love the way Affliction was designed over the last few years. It was clunky. Overall, pretty boring when it comes to rotation that I did not think it was fun to execute. With gameplay now, you're
You're using seed of corruption to instantly afflict them with your wither haunt on your priority target. And then you just watch everything melt as you ability. And then you just deal face melting damage over time. And this spec
once again truly embodies the feeling of slow ramp to the point where things get so out of control. Everybody just melts while the world burns. I think that's what affliction is all about. That's
what it should be about. And I think for PvP and mythic plus in particular, this is going to be such a super fun spec to pick up and try to micromanage. Keep all rot them over time. Now, their hero talent trees didn't change much, but
hero talent trees were great. But their apex talent, Shadow of the Nathraim, summons a demonic soul from the twisting nether on your enemy who you cast haunt on while also increasing haunt damage drastically. And it also gives you a
chance to summon a meteor to rain down on them as well, which is just so epic. with some new exciting flare, Affliction Warlock could be the one for you. I'm gameplay, and I'm definitely considering this one as one of my main characters.
Devastation. Now, there wasn't any drastic overhauls or reworks for Devastation Evoker going into Midnight. They just tweaked up a few things as this is exactly what the spec needed really. It didn't need some giant
overhaul because the core foundation of what Devastation was has always been good. For example though, when it comes to changes, flame shaper, consume flame is gone as an activatable and it's now built passively into py. Now you get
also two charges of fire breath as well as some other things. So flame shaper is scale commander which I think is the star of the show. You still get your AOE disintegrates. You summon your squadron of evokers whenever you deep breath. But
one of the biggest improvements is them adding strafing run as a capstone talent, which gives you the ability to deep breath back to back. And it allows you to amplify your damage substantially way more often, which is amazing. If
you've ever played Devastation Invoker, you know how deep breath is one of the game, especially since you can aim it. So having the ability to use this every 15 or 25 seconds or so, feels really good through the rotation. And not only
that, your new talent, Azure Sweep, replaces Azure Strike to deal a good amount of AoE damage after you eternity surge. With your tier set bonus, you deals pretty good damage. The interesting part is also is that during
your dragon rage, if you use Azure sweep, it will give you a charge of essence burst. So, that feels good remotely. Listen, Apex talents are and talent tree design is great. Rotation is fun. Animations and sound
really good. devastation right now. I think anyone will be happy to pick up really well. And next up for our last DPS, we got to talk about the master of the elements. We have the elemental shaman. I got to put Elemental up there
as one of the best specs. This is a perfect example of how you prune a spec properly without making them lose their entire identity. Their talent tree got reworked drastically, so now it's easier to dive into and, you know,
differentiate the proper paths between fire damage and lightning damage. Fire really viable in a mythic plus environment due to purging flames which makes your voltaic blaze ability give you an AoE lava burst that you can shoot
out like a machine gun which feels amazing. Both hero talent trees are incredibly viable at the moment and this spec right now of course we all know has some of the best visual and sound effects in the entire game. You shoot
abilities that could proc elemental mastery. They could double up on their maelstrom. You spam the earthquake and AoE situations and it's something only elemental shamans can do and it just it looks so ridiculous. All the animations
coming out from you. It's awesome. For me, I think this spec is absolutely main worthy. It checks a lot of boxes. Incredible utility, short cooldown kick, good crowd control with capac and thunderstorm knockup. You bring a raid
has it right now. Really, really excited for this spec. Things are looking good healer. A massive surprise here, I got to be honest, ladies and gentlemen, is the Holy Paladin. Now, all through war within Holy Paladin, let's be honest, it
struggled and it needed some help and Blizzard took that to heart because they did drastically change their talent tree almost top to bottom. Light of Dawn also got reworked and now heals everyone in a 40 radius around you. Judgment and Holy
Shock got buffed and have some real weight to them when you press them. And healing onto your targets, which then splashes then onto your beacons, which now you get a third beacon due to your apex talent, which is crazy. So, so with
that, you heal all of them with massive spells like eternal flame with your big procs with holy prism. Listen, I love whenever I'm playing holy paladin, the core kit for them feels very responsive instead of delayed. The second you start
casting heals on a target, you immediately see their health bar jump up for this spec right now for me feels very streamlined, very fluid and fun. in the game with holy light. And for me, holy paladin is a banger right now.
Absolutely main worthy. Very excited to play this class come midnight. And about the restoration druid. Now, this spec didn't get a ton of changes. changes out of all the healers. They just got a couple spells removed just
like Senorian ward, spring blossoms. Now, listen. Right off the bat, you got healing perspective, Restoration Druid has some of the highest, if not the best numbers in the entire game, the spec doesn't require as much ramp as it did
in previous expansions with how strong their hots are right now. Your Life Bloom spell is amazing to throw on your tank because it's buffed drastically by your apex talent now. Not only that, it also drops e fllororesence on the floor
for you now to add some cleave healing. So, feels really good when you're AoE like you can handle with restoration druid. Any damage check with ease because if you know when they're coming, you apply rejuvenation to everyone, put
the damage is about to happen, you pop your wild growth and everything will be control. It's probably going to get nerfed if you want me to be honest with mainorthy. The spec feels really good. The rotation's fun. Buttons feel
impactful. Restore absolute W. Moving on now to our first tank making a huge comeback since the start of the alpha and beta. We're talking about the looking good the first few weeks of beta and I'm going to be honest, this spec
was dead in the water. When it comes to changes heading into midnight, they lost expansion. Eye of tier, moment of glory for the non-stop divine shield spam. Uh but all in all, the protection paladin when it comes to a core rotation, they
largely stayed the same. Blizzard buff though just recently their natural damage mitigation drastically threw a bunch of talents and it's made this spec take off into something no one saw coming. Your rotation is relatively the
power. You use your powerful con. You use your control abilities like hammer blinding light, all that stuff. And then whenever you need to offheal for your teammates or self-heal yourself, you use war to glory. And that's about it. And
things are feeling great. I also love from a protection paladin and tank standpoint, the amount of extra utility you have for your team. I'm talking blessing of sacrifice, lay on hands, incredible offhealing, a word of glory,
blessing of protection. You name it, this class has it. And I think that's what my favorite part about this spec is. You have the ability to completely solo carry a group if you know what you're doing. And I'm a huge sucker for
the protection paladin. Have been for a long time. Right now, this spec is in a perfect spot. Lastly, for tanks, we're talking about vengeance demon hunter. World of Warcraft. Another season where vengeance looks to dominate. I don't
really need to stay on this topic for too long, but this is the best DPS tank in the entire game. They probably have the best Apex talent in the game with Untethered Rage, which gives you free metamorphosis procs constantly. And
moment to moment, Vengeance Demon Hunter just feels really strong and fluid to what it was before with some slight changes to things like Spirit Bomb and Fiery Brand. So, all in all, things are feeling similar. I love that you can
mobility on vengeance. And even when you need to face tank, you could just stand through soul cleave and spirit bomb as well as fell devastation and nothing's going to kill you. Man, I think the spec is absolutely main worthy. Everyone
amazing right now across all three specs, including devour. So, Vengeance heading into the new expansion. Okay, now moving on to some of the quote the specs are just unplayable. We're just simply saying that the changes made
to them don't reflect what we would have liked personally to see out of the spec and we're not really excited about playing them in terms of design or even gentlemen, this one is going to hurt to talk about the subtlety rogue. Now, the
into midnight is that it just got simplified way, way, way too much, man. Blizzard trimmed it down drastically heading into Midnight to make it more streamlined, easier to pick up, but it feels like they shaved off a lot of what
made Subtlety Rogue special in the first place. And I think this class really lost its identity. You still have some setup windows with your shadow blades and shadow dance, but outside of that, there is literally no setup anymore. You
just hit shadow strike or shuriken storm and then dump into a finisher. That's it. Before subtlety rogue had insane moments where you felt like a god if you executed everything possible in your talent tree. But you got to look at it
Flagagillation for the mastery buff gone. Rupture for the passive procs on your talent tree gone. Dance macar for the unique little percentage bonus increase when you do a different spell in shadow dance gone. All of it is gone.
For me I think this is sadly a skip. They pruned it too much. There's no real thinking anymore. [music] It's bland. It's boring. Two, three button rotation. It's in my opinion, it's almost borderline unplayable. But it's just
out compared to some of the other melee DPS specs. Some of them getting pruned, but not feeling like they lost their identity. Man, that is the main topic my opinion. Moving on next to our last DPS. Additionally, this one hurts
season 3 in the war within. We have the fire mage. The problems with this spec is almost an exact copype problem that subtlety rogue has heading into midnight as well. The biggest issue with fire mage is that it got pruned substantially
have imagined. And they didn't do anything to fill those voids. Phoenix flames gone. Hypothermia, unleashed inferno, sun king's blessing gone, gone, gone. It sucks. And it really hurts because those are key abilities and
cooldowns that made fire mage what it was previously and they didn't replace it with anything. Recently with fire mage, just the other day, they gave them once in a while, which is kind of cool. But overall, fire mage just feel like a
washed up version of what it once was. I will admit, I'd be lying to you if I said combustion does not feel good to use right now. But outside of combustion windows, you're easily the most boring spec in the game. It's not even close. I
think this spec needs more work in the gameplay department. I think it can use honestly a couple more abilities. For example, maybe bring back living bomb into a 10, 15 second cool down and then maybe actually, you know, have it hit
hard. bring back blast wave to a fire mage specific ability. Make it an AoE damager that maybe pops your ignite damage overtime effect. I don't know. I think we need something exciting, fresh, and new instead of just pruning. And
messed up. It's not cool to do to the spec, and it's way too boring for me up, ladies and gentlemen, we have augmentation. This is going to be a pretty short section. Uh, I think augmentation is in the loser department
because this spec will never ever ever be balanced properly in World of Warcraft. It's very hard to pitch to a player to be a full-on support spec when the game play, first of all, doesn't feel interactive. It's the only support
spec of its kind and there's nothing to base it off of. In older MMO RPGs, support classes worked because there were multiple support specs in the game that you can go off of. For example, Star Wars Galaxies, you had the
Heroes, you had controllers, defenders, EverQuest, you had bards, uh Lord of the Rings online, captains. In World of Warcraft, there's just one spec and it's keep it short and sweet, they didn't change anything gameplay-wise about
mistake heading into Midnight. They didn't do anything. I think this class, in my personal opinion, should have got reverted to either a full-on DPS or even potentially make it a tank spec as the last tank we got in World of Warcraft
was 10 years ago back in World of Warcraft Legion. No one is going to be continue to be the lowest participated spec in the game. And uh that's about it gentlemen. Next up for healers, lastly, we do have to talk about the holy
priest. Now, out of every single healer in the game, Holy Priest got stripped the most in terms of a raw ability pruning and passives. Divine Star gone. Light well gone. Renew not an activatable ability anymore. It's now a
passive tied to other abilities. Premonition gone. So, a lot of core things that I think made Holy Priest, you know, whole and just really tight is good example of class pruning. Now, even
straightforward to play previously, easiest healer than ever. There's this brand new talent called Ultimate Serenity, what it does is it changed your holy ward serenity to become the
centerpiece of your entire kit and turn into a massive single target heal that also splashes onto other members of your party. So now flash of light and prayer and you're able to spam it very consistently which it feels kind of good
but I I I think visually and thematically I just think personally for me I I think they stripped it a little bit too much. I love visually and thematically how this spec plays. I think it's so cool. But if you're a holy
you feel about this in comment section below. I'm honestly dying to hear and thoughts. So please if you play holy priest let me know your thoughts. And gentlemen, sadly we got to talk about the blood death knight. Now the biggest
change for this spec overall is that dancing rune weapon got changed into a flat cooldown which in my opinion has made the rotation pretty boring. Now as someone who prefers playing sand lane and you know spamming vampiric strike to
get all my buffs up, I attack faster. I get my haste everything going and then I can death strike. I don't get that anymore and it feels kind of crap. Not only that, Rune Tap is gone as an activatable little, you know, cool down
that I can use whenever I want to gather mobs. That hurts. And Blizzard stated that they were going to try their best to fix the whole blood DK HP yo-yo problem as you can see on screen here, but but it nothing has changed. It's
doesn't feel good. I think the spec could definitely use some more natural damage mitigation similar to how they just did with protection paladin because I love the class theme. I love the fantasy. And hell, I don't even mind the
gameplay design that much. Just give me some more, you know, passive damage mitigation and take some power out of Death Strike. I think it's too much. seconds as a tank and being anxietyfilled doesn't really feel great.
yes, ladies and gentlemen, World of Warcraft midnight is just a few weeks away. So, the question is to you, what are you planning to main? Let us know in everybody, thanks for watching. If you enjoyed the content, consider
subscribing or check out one of the videos you see on screen here to stay up to date on all things Warcraft. My name is Sky for the Comeback Kids. It's an you all. I'll see you in the next one. Peace.