---
title: 'The BEST DPS Specs DOMINATING In 12.1 Testing RIGHT NOW! Midnight Season 2'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=gdnRyLb3nt4'
video_id: 'gdnRyLb3nt4'
date: 2026-08-09
duration_sec: 1276
---

# The BEST DPS Specs DOMINATING In 12.1 Testing RIGHT NOW! Midnight Season 2

> Source: [The BEST DPS Specs DOMINATING In 12.1 Testing RIGHT NOW! Midnight Season 2](https://youtube.com/watch?v=gdnRyLb3nt4)

## Summary

This video provides a first look at the DPS specializations expected to dominate Mythic+ in Season 2 of Midnight, based on PTR testing. The creator, Sky, analyzes class changes, tier sets, and overall performance, highlighting specs like Enhancement Shaman, Arcane Mage, and Balance Druid. The analysis aims to help players plan their class choices for the upcoming season.

### Key Points

- **Enhancement Shaman rework** [01:10] — Blizzard is reworking DPS specs to do more damage outside of major cooldown windows, reducing cooldown dependency while buffing rotational abilities.
- **Enhancement tier set bonus** [01:24] — The tier set turns Voltaic Blaze into a filler button that triggers repeated fire novas, feeding into stronger Crash Lightning casts.
- **Elemental's strong tier set** [05:10] — Elemental Shaman's tier set gives free casts of Maelstrom spenders, making it one of the best tier sets in the game.
- **Mage defensive buffs** [07:11] — Mages get stronger self-healing, extra AoE damage reduction, and a new defensive increase with Mirror Image updates.
- **Arcane's new Apex talent** [07:25] — Arcane's new Apex talent, Prismatic Bolt, deals massive AoE and single-target damage, working with the tier set for strong burst.
- **Shadow Priest Voidform improvements** [09:17] — Void Volley now has limited charges during Voidform, allowing better timing, and talents around Voidform got buffs.
- **Havoc's smoother damage profile** [11:15] — Devastation's damage is being redistributed to be less reliant on Void Metamorphosis, making the spec more consistent.
- **Augmentation's bombardment nerf** [13:10] — Mass Eruption now gives a much smaller cooldown reduction based on targets hit, reducing the frequency of Breath of Eons.
- **Retribution's QoL improvements** [14:55] — Retribution is no longer forced to press Blade of Justice immediately on proc, and gains stronger self-healing.
- **Balance's strong tier set** [17:37] — Balance Druid's two-piece tier set increases Star Surge damage and makes Starfall instantly deal damage.
- **Unholy's conditional power** [19:55] — Unholy's tier set gives a nice execute bonus, but surrounding nerfs may keep it from top tier.

## Transcript

changes that are definitely sure to shake up the meta. We got a new dungeon pool, new tier sets, and new classes we think are going to perform the best. gentlemen. My name is Sky. Today's video, we're going to be giving you a
first look at the metal looking DPS specs for season 2 of Midnight World of based off of Mythic Plus testing right now with real data and experiences over on the PTR considering all the class changes that are constantly happening as
well. This is all subject to change, but don't worry, we will keep you updated on all of this every single week. So, let's jump into the video. Now, believe it or not, first up, we got to bring up enhancement shaman. Firstly, with
very rough start in Midnight Season 1. It was undertuned compared to some other DPS specs in the game, but by the end of the season, enhancement was in a better place. Both hero talent trees ended up being viable. And I would say the
still yet again, it's extremely coold down dependent on things like ascendants, doom winds, and of course, surging totem. Outside of those windows, the spec put out considerably less damage compared to other specs. And
heading into season two, Blizzard is trying to rework DPS specs damage outside of their major cooldown windows, which in theory should work very well pretty much all the rotational abilities while reducing some power tied to their
cooldowns, and a result is still looking like an overall buff for enhancement. Their season 2 tier set turns Voltaic Blaze from a filler button into a much more important part of their rotation where now it triggers repeated, you
know, fire novas on your target. So that's kind of nice. The fire novas feed into more stronger infrequent crash lightning cast, which is decent. So overall enhancement is getting stronger baseline damage and a far more impactful
overall, the spec is looking noticeably stronger heading into the new season. this is a perfect spec cuz it does have its problems, but it's definitely a
safer option to play than when it was at the launch of Midnight. Don't forget as utility in the game which is critical for things like mythic plus. You have of melee cleave which is their windfury buff. You have blood lust. You have uh
crowd control capabilities. And because this season is so poison focused in mythic plus you also have your poison cleanse which is really really valuable. So right now I think enhancement looks quite promising. Mechanically, they're
spec is significantly better prepared for season 2 than it was for season 1. you're always going to want a shaman in your party for a melee cleave comp. And even some cases, shaman can be brought for just simply how much utility they
So, if enhancement shaman starts bringing some very high damage, this is definitely looking like a winner spec heading into the new season. If you guys for progression systems, gearing up, group synergy, and fantasy RPGs, which
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in Midnight Season 1, Elemental overall was in a pretty good spot, and I would say the premier DPS spec for DPS shaman in general in high-end Mythic Plus. They have incredible burst potential with
their cooldowns. Stormbringers rotationally was fun and the numbers utility. This was overall a good spec in season 1. With that being said, however, Elemental had similar problems that enhancement had where outside of their
just a tad low like we already discussed. I think the star of the show absolutely has to be for the elemental shaman is their tier set bonus. The free cast of the maelstrom spenders for season 2 feel really solid in their
one of the best tier sets in the entire game. Uh you look at something like this survival hunter. It's just not even close in gameplay design integration and just gameplay feel. The numbers gets improved with it. It's fun. It's
a tier set bonus. Not only that, a lot of elemental shamans are playing Farir interesting because you've been, you know, playing Stormbringer the last like mixup that is quite enjoyable. So, elemental shaman to sum it up, single
target solid, very good. AoE is looking much better than before. Their utility is off the charts just like enhancement. And I would say the only thing they're struggling on is that the priority damage is pretty much not really
existent for shamans if you're playing Farir at the moment. But if you bring a spec in your mythic plus group that can bring good prior damage, shaman is going to be excellent overall this season. And speaking of priority damage, next up we
got to be talking about the arcane mage. Um, I do want to make an important note. Mage in general is looking to be much better this next season with their defensive capabilities being increased. Mage rotationally and utility-wise as
the first season. Their biggest problem one-shotted constantly in high-end content. So, them improving these issues makes mage in general in a better spot, and it's most likely going to be a game
decision which spec is going to be meta. But for the sake of this video, at the current moment, Arcane looks really solid heading into the season. With loads of problems. You were forced to
personal opinion was just stale and not fun. It limited you greatly during Additionally, your apex talent was just poorly designed. And overall, arcane just fell flat in season 1 compared to frost mage, uh, which was their
alternative, which performed quite well. Heading into season two, mages are They're getting stronger self-healing, extra AoE damage reduction, and even a new defensive increase with the mirror image updates. Now, I don't think this
makes mages tanky by all means, but regardless, these are definitely improvements and they make mage as a whole much safer. For Arcane Apex talent called Prismatic Bolt, which is kind of like Arcane version of
Glacial Spike that just deals a crapload of AoE and single target damage. Not charges back instantly. So, it's a lot more impractical than what we had in season 1 for Arcane. The season 2 tier set works directly with this gameplay
loop where your arcane missiles will then have your next arcane blast or idea is your arcane missiles followed up with prismatic bolt and uh you pretty everything dies. So overall the damage of arcane got improved. The apex talent
Some of their talents got adjusted like arcane pulse their biggest weakness. So yeah, I mean this is a great patch to And we haven't even spoke about their utility potential. Everyone knows if
you're trying to have a mage in your group, you get the arcane intellect crowd control, spell steel, mobility, decurs. At the end of the day, I think decision whether which mage spec becomes meta. But my god, if I had to bet, I
Next up, we have another surprising one on this list, and it's the shadow This spec is either going to be a major hit or it's going to fall flat. But save. For the first time in years, I think Shadow Priest is going to be
season 1, Shadow Priest and its damage profile very, very awkward. Uh, like usual, it's very heavily reliant on spreading vampiric touch through psychic link and getting shadowy apparitions out. And the problem is that shadow is
terrible whenever enemies die quickly. So, trying to cheese and snapshot damage if you don't have enough time to ramp, you literally won't be able to do anything. Not only that, their single target and AoE builds were quite
sometimes sacrificing boss damage for some extra AoE damage profile that only really worked in specific situations. So, heading into season 2, Blizzard is while also making void form feel better to play. I'd say the biggest improvement
is that void volley no longer has to be pressed instantaneously every time when it comes off cooldown. Instead, you get a limited number of charges during void form, which means you can use them at better moments whenever you want, which
is nice. They also improve the talents surrounding void form, giving you uh more void volley cast, more haste, and even a longer duration void form, which is awesome as well. I'm really liking the archon healer talent tree in
particular because casting shadow ward madness during void form, you guessed void volley, which seems to be the big theme right now, making the cooldown of it feel a lot more impactful. and visually fresh as well. Shadow also gets
a new AoE talent that has your shadowy apparitions explode. And uh I would say overall I think the numbers on all of this are a little bit undertuned, but I do believe they need to just dial up the knob. The gameplay of it all is very
engaging, very fun, and a lot better than season 1. The biggest concern for Shadow, I would say, is their tier set bonus. It really just increases the And then the four set gives you an instant cast vampiric touch doesn't feel
too impactful or satisfying. So sadly I think this needs some updates. But I fact that their utility is quite good. They bring you know powerward fortitude mass dispel the juicy power infusion. They are looking pretty damn solid
utility. I think shadow priest is definitely moving in the right numbers a little bit, this spec can absolutely be meta and very very fun heading into season 2. Next up, this is an underhand pitch. Here we have the
the bat, this is one of the specs that benefited some of the most from the overall season heading into season 2 with all the design changes. In season 1, Devour dominated pretty much across the board. The only problem is was
obvious. 90% of their damage was tied to being in void meta. Now, don't get me wrong, when you enter void meta, the spec just explodes and the numbers are felt like you were just barely contributing to the damage overall for
just way too much pressure put on void metamorphosis. And heading into season 2, Blizzard is smoothening that out. They're reducing the ridiculous scaling compensate for that, they're giving the spec a massive damage increase to its
overall damaging ability. So, yes, your absolutely highest burst damage windows will be a little bit weaker, but the damage you deal outside of the cooldowns is going to be significantly better in my opinion. Very healthy trade-off. And
looks extremely strong. and more importantly very very very fun. The idea you have a chance to make your next consume instant cast and cause an AoE
four-piece takes it further by making that explosion generate a ton of soul fragments. So nice little gameplay loop here and it gives you know devour void meta. So heading into season 2 to sum it up, the damage outside of
is very good. the spec should be a lot more consistent. And don't forget, demon hunter also brings good utility and they also have a good survivability. So, I winners heading into season 2, surprisingly. Next up, we have
definitely an interesting spec heading into season 2 because augmentation was already absolutely meta in the right hands. This spec dominated across the board, whether it be for mythic plus or raid. And in season one, scale commander
was very, very strong, and you had a ton of uptime on your bombardments, as well as Eban might. At some of the highest gameplay levels, I've seen some really skilled augmentations. Get multiple breath of eons inside of a single first
if you know what you're doing on augmentation, this spec was crushing it. The problem is, this class is getting some changes because Blizzard clearly felt this whole interaction was getting out of control and was unintuitive for
the average player. Have you ever played with an average augmentation? Yes, I terrible. And you know immediately if the augmentation in your group sucks and Blizzard wanted to eliminate that problem and make it easier. So heading
redesigned. Instead of bombardments Breath of Eons, Mass Eruption now gives a much smaller amount of cooldown reduction based on how many targets it hits. So in simple terms, augmentation
considerably less. That means scale commander and chrono warden may start rotationally. And you do have to remember augmentation is still going to still have all your buffs. You got ebban might prev uh incredible offhealing,
solid crowd control, your disp spells, blood lust. I mean all of this is just incredibly value at this point in the game. That alone means augmentation is always going to be considered for coordinated groups if the damage and
buff value are even remotely competitive. But I don't think these changes make it better than season 1. Just understand that because it was so far ahead in season 1, don't think this is going to knock them out of meta
contention by all means. I just think the personal gameplay is going to look into the next season. Next up, you guys can disagree with me all you want in the absolutely adding Retribution Paladin to
that does not even need to be close to the number one damage dealer in their party to be incredibly valuable. In season one, Retribution was already in a great position overall. The spec was easy to pick up, had very strong burst,
incredible survivability, and some of the best utility of any DPS spec in the entire game, if not the best. The biggest problem was that you were in your group because Sky Fury could trigger those extra Art of War procs for
you and generate more holy power, which had a massive impact on your overall DPS. Heading into season 2, guess what? Blizzard is trying to make that go away. means you are no longer forced to immediately press Blade of Justice every
time it procs just to avoid wasting another one, as well as some other holy power cleaning up in normal rotational adjustments. So overall, Rhett should fight. They don't have to be rellyant on a shaman. And another great change is
self-healing, which is honestly a little crazy considering Paladin was already one of the more safer and durable classes you can play in the game. The tier set where things become a little bit controversial. The two set gives you
know more holy damage whenever you consume one which is nice. And the four piece however forces you to consume divine purpose with divine storm in order to empower your next final verdict cast with an additional AOE damage
heck weird juice put on the screen. Definitely it could set up some awkward going to make retribution weak by all means. It is very easy to mess things up punishing than a Rhett paladin tier set
should probably be considering retribution paladin players love things simple. I would say in general you got to remember though makes this list from utility. You have blessing of protection, freedom, sacrifice, lay on
hands, uh combat resurrection, cleanse, strong off healing, devotion aura, multiple stops. I mean, a good retribution paladin can legitimately save a mythic plus pole that should have been a, you know, pretty much just wipe
retribution paladin's perfect, but the rotation smoother, everything's better, improvement, and last season they dominated, so things are looking good. Next up, we have surprisingly the balance druid. And honestly, this is
another spec that I think has massively improved throughout PTR testing. Initially, balance looked a little questionable because Blizzard was reducing a lot of their astral power generation and free spender procs. But
the numbers on balance look really strong right now. And I think this could easily be one of the better range DPS specs heading into the new season. In season 1, balance definitely had some solid moments, but the spec suffered a
years. The rotation was extremely focused and you know planning around just so many complications to understand when certain abilities should be spent. much astral power and getting so many free spenders that sometimes you barely
even had enough globals to press everything at once. So heading into astral power generation, which means you're going to spend more time using sound like a negative, but Blizzard has buffed pretty much everything else
substantially surrounding that gameplay. So, Wrath, Starfire, Moonfire, Sunfire, Shooting Stars, all of this stuff, as well as hero talent abilities have all received damage increases. Their season 2 tier set is also quite strong. The
two-piece increases your star surge damage and causes starfall to instantly deal damage every time uh it is casted around you. Then, the four piece increases all of your damage while inside of Eclipse, which is nice. So
abilities and your star surge or starfall cast around the strongest parts of your Eclipse. So the actual performance of balance is looking pretty looks better, their AoE is improved, their spenders are hitting hard, and now
their dots and builders have been buffed as well. And obviously, balance druid of the wild, a combat res, decent offhealing if you need to heal yourself, with a proper group comp, great mobility, and honestly just an answer
Mythic Plus. If these numbers stay anywhere close to where they are right now, balance druid is absolutely looking like one of the stronger ranger DPS specs in uh season 2. For these last two specs, this is kind of a two for one
knight. Now, I want to make this very simple. Unholy and frost death on the everything so far. The problem is is they both just got some kind of heavy say the upside of this is that both of these specs rotationally gameplay
design-wise and even tier set design-wise are in very very strong places. Frost death knight has a really solid tier set bonus. Pretty much it and then remorseless winner will then
attack speed and increases the damage of icy death torrent. This was like crushing the damage meters and it was honestly just absolutely broken. So, the other components surrounding this thing by a drastic amount. The thing is
everybody else that I don't think it's enough to take Frost Death Knight out of the like meta contention or a tier by all means. I think rotationally frost death knight is very fun. It's a solid 45se second burst cooldown spec with
damage potential heading into the new they're still very reliant on their cooldowns and the goal of this whole patch and update was to sort of get rid of that and that just didn't happen with
Frost Death Knight, I guess. So yeah, I think of them as like the melee DPS fire a few changes heading to the new season. your summons and gives you a really nice execute bonus, which is disgusting for
things like mythic plus. Once again, the problem is that pretty much everything surrounding this tier set bonus just got nerfed and it should reduce their damage similar boat to Frost Death Knight. I think the gameplay design and variation
of Unholy is very solid heading into season 2. I just don't think this is going to knock them out of like top tier meta contention. I think they're going to be absolutely an above average spec. Solid, the incredible defensive
capabilities, good utility, you name it, the Death Knight has it at this point fine. But yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is going to wrap up today's video. Very interesting amount of class changes that should shake up the meta and has me
me know what you guys think about it in the comments section below. What class discuss it and let's see what you guys to the end of the video, like, subscribe, all that cringy YouTube
Kids. I'll see you in the next one. log into Watch Your Realms for the free hero Aurelius Gale. Use the code freeepic third for an extra epic hero and dive into the Watcher of Realms 3rd
anniversary. Link in the description down below. Hey everybody, thanks for 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.
content for you all. I'll see you in the next one. Peace.