Radiation of Nd-YAG laser changes and refines the surface microstructure of steels, which gives rise to enhancement of hardness and resulting wear resistance. In the present work, the effect of processing parameters during the surface modification with laser on the wear behavior of the SM45C steel was studied by means of wear testing. The counter material was alumina ceramics. The microstructure observation revealed the dependence of molten depth and width on the defocusing distance. The laser modification of steel surface give rise to improved wear resistance in the testing speed range of either <0.2 m/s or >0.9 m/s Material transfer from steel was wear observated the surface of counter material when testing speed was lower than 0.7 m/s.