Forsaken, Darkspear Troll, and Night Elf Paladins are coming in WoW Midnight patch 12.2

It was easy to miss among the other cool announcements at the Midnight What’s Next panel at BlizzCon 2026, but as patch 12.2 Eclipse sends us hurtling towards a final confrontation with Xal’atath, we’re going to be bringing more Light-wielders with us — a lot more. The Paladin class hall has opened their doors to three new races, all of whom will be able to become Paladins in patch 12.2: Forsaken, Night Elves, and Darkspear Trolls.

The Forsaken may have been less of a surprise than the others, since we saw them during the trailer for Warcraft 3 Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom. We’ve seen Paladin-like Undead figures through WoW‘s history, like Sir Zeliek, Light-aligned Undead warriors like Leonid Barthalomew, and of course the curious case of Light-reanimated Forsaken leader Calia Menethil. Now it appears they’ll be able to become honest-to-goodness Paladins, and according to Paul Kubit will have a special questline to explain how they came to be.

I’m hoping they’ll also have a questline for the Darkspear Trolls. While Trolls have been able to be Priests since the days of Vanilla, they’ve never shown any inclination towards the martial side of wielding the Light. The Zandalari have, of course, but the Zandalari also have a number of loa in their pantheon whose powers manifest as Light, most notably Rezan, the former Loa of Kings. Perhaps the Darkspear suddenly becoming Paladins indicates a rumored return of Vol’jin as the new Loa of Kings? Only time will tell.

One that requires no real explanation, of course, is Night Elf Paladins. In fact, the only thing that requires an explanation is why it took this long in the first place. We’ve had several Night Elf Paladins in the game, starting in Legion! Not even a “oh, they’re kind of like a Paladin” Paladin, an actual Paladin follower in the Paladin Class Hall, Delas Moonfang, not to mention her uncle Nerus and the ghostly Alynblaze in Azsuna. It’s good to see them finally join the ranks of playable Paladin races; as Tychus from StarCraft might say… well, you know what he’d say. It’s the only thing he ever says.

Do any of these new options tickle your fancy? I’ll admit I might end up rolling a Darkspear Paladin solely for the novelty of the combination, and cross my fingers to see my man Vol’jin make a return to power my smites.