World of Warcraft Reveals Alpha Patch Notes for Midnight Expansion

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World of Warcraft is preparing for the Midnight alpha test, and has released detailed patch notes. These notes cover everything that will be available, including content updates, changes to character classes, and the new player housing feature. The first closed public alpha for World of Warcraft: Midnight begins on October 2nd, and new versions with added features will be released weekly after that.

Recently, World of Warcraft announced that the alpha test for Midnight will start shortly. Beginning October 2nd, World of Warcraft will test various zones, dungeons, and features of the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion each week for five weeks, before moving on to the beta phase.

As the initial alpha build of Midnight nears release, Blizzard has published the first set of patch notes. This extensive forum post details everything that will be available during the first week of testing. Players will be able to explore the Eversong Woods zone and begin its campaign, as well as the Arator campaign from WoW: Midnight, and start the first Arcantina quest. The alpha build will also include a first look at player housing. During the first week, players can also test the Windrunner Spire and Murer Row dungeons, Collegiate Calamity, Parhelion Plaza, and The Darkway Delves, plus the opening boss of the March on Quel’Danas raid.

Most of these patch notes detail adjustments to every class. Each specialization is being updated, and many are getting substantial changes – including additions and removals of abilities. Plus, every Hero Talent now has three additional options, and new Apex talents at the end of each talent tree offer even more power for each class – though a few are still being finalized. You can now test the Devourer Demon Hunter specialization, along with the Annihilator Hero Talent, in World of Warcraft. You’ll find the full list of class changes in Blizzard’s forum post.

I’m so excited about the upcoming changes to the game’s interface! They’re adding a new Journey’s tab to the Adventure Guide, which will make it way easier to keep track of my Renown and Great Vault rewards. Plus, they’re improving things like nameplates, boss warnings, and the Cooldown Manager, so encounters will be much clearer, even if I don’t use addons. And get this – World of Warcraft: Midnight is getting a stat squish and a new level cap of 90! We’ll only be able to reach level 83 in the first week, but still, that’s awesome!

This is just a glimpse of the many features coming to the World of Warcraft: Midnight alpha, and we’ll be adding even more content in the weeks ahead. Although we can’t promise everyone will get in, fans eager to try the expansion early can sign up for the beta or guarantee access by pre-ordering the Epic Edition of World of Warcraft: Midnight.

World of Warcraft: Midnight Alpha Test Development Notes

CHARACTER LEVEL

Here’s a note for players: We recommend creating a fresh template character at the start of each phase. Using older characters might cause issues, as they could be unbalanced. Once you’ve made a new character, be sure to speak with Questzertauren; he’ll get you ready for all the current content.

  • Level 80 Character Template
  • Maximum Level: 83

ZONE

  • Eversong Woods

STORY AND QUESTS

  • Level-up Campaign
  • Local Stories
  • Arator Campaign
  • Arcantina: Visitor Quest 1
    • Developers’ notes: Accessible after the completion of the Arator Campaign.

WELCOME HOME

After you log in, you’ll receive a quest called “A House for You”. This quest will guide you to your faction’s Neighborhood, where you’ll meet the Steward. The Steward will then give you a tour of the Neighborhood, eventually leading you to purchase your house.

Just so you know, the price of the house isn’t set in stone yet. And if you happened to pick one of the pre-made characters, I’m pretty sure you’ll have more than enough gold to buy it! It seems like you’ll be able to afford it easily. I’m really excited about the housing system!

Now that you have a house, it’s time to start decorating! You can find lots of different items from vendors, by using professions, and while exploring the world – use them to personalize your space. Arrange your rooms however you like, and even add extra areas like a creepy basement or a spacious attic. Don’t forget to check out the Neighborhood to see what secrets are hidden nearby, and say hello to the people who live around you!

Please leave any feedback on the feature in the Housing feedback thread.

What to Expect Going Forward

During Alpha and Beta, we’ll be adding a ton more content and functionality to Housing, including:

  • Moving your house will become possible. Please be especially careful of your choice since it is not possible to change right now.
  • Exterior decoration (being able to place decor outside) AND exterior customization (being able to change the outside appearance of your house) will both be enabled.
  • House exteriors will also be able to upgrade their visual size
  • Charter Neighborhoods will be enabled allowing arbitrary groups of players to have a private neighborhood. In the meantime, Guilds can create their own neighborhoods to test.
  • Endeavors will be turned on, allowing your Neighborhood to work together to achieve rewards and welcome new NPCs to town.
  • Social visiting will be enabled, allowing friends, neighbors, party members, and guild mates to easily visit each other.
  • Lumber is very much a work in progress and will be getting a lot of updates, polish, and balancing.
  • We’ll be adding tons of new decorations, profession recipes, neighborhood activities, and more content.

Known Issues

We’re already aware of and actively developing several things, and we want to give you a heads-up about them in advance.

  • Walking towards another player’s doorstep can sometimes cause a crash. Focus on decorating your own home for now.
  • Entering other players’ houses will sometimes take a VERY long time.
  • When visiting other players, refreshing the UI list of all their visitable houses can sometimes take a very long time to load.
  • As a quick headsup, Dyes are only available via Inscription and Alchemy (and can be placed on the Auction House) so if you’re looking to pretty things up, start there.
  • For Alpha, all room placement costs are intentionally set low to enable better testing. Costs will increase to their intended amount during beta and release.
  • Private Neighborhoods with names longer than 50+ characters will cause disconnects and crashes. Be brief!
  • If you drag decor across room boundaries, a crash can sometimes occur. Put the decor away in your chest and take it out in the target room to avoid this.
  • If you have a LOT of decor in a single room and add more, a crash may take place.
  • Customizing rooms will always have the “Vaulted” ceiling type option available, though it only works on some room types.
  • Houses that are owned by other players will occasionally display the For Sale sign asset even though they’re not for sale.
  • You’ll likely encounter a variety of LUA errors. It’s fine to ignore these, but occasionally you may have to relog or reload your UI.
  • There are some visual issues with various pieces of decor, rooms, and customizations.

DUNGEONS AND RAID

  • Windrunner Spire
  • Murder Row
  • March on Quel’Danas
    • Belo’ren, Child of Al’ar
    • Developers’ notes: Speak to Nexus-Lord Donjon Rade IX in Silvermoon City, Orgrimmar, or Stormwind to be summoned to this raid encounter to test Boss Timelines, class updates, items, Boss Alerts when it becomes available, and other updates. This encounter will be removed in a future Alpha build.

DELVES

  • Collegiate Calamity
  • Parhelion Plaza
  • The Darkway
  • New delve companion: Valeera Sanguinar

STAT SQUISH

  • Starting in Public Alpha 1, we’ve squished numbers across the board. Like previous squishes, we are reducing values across the board, including player and creature health, damage, healing, item level, and stats on items. This squish will not affect player character levels.
    • For players logging into Public Alpha, the new character templates will reflect the expected player power from levels 80-90.
    • Known issues: Item previews in the Quest Rewards pane can show pre-squished item levels. This is just a display issue, the item will be set to the correct squished item level when it is created.

COMBAT APPROACHABILITY IN MIDNIGHT

With Midnight, our goal is to simplify gameplay and make it more intuitive, helping players of all levels see how they can improve. We want to do this without sacrificing the complex and rewarding mastery that WoW is known for.

We’re making updates to every class specialization to make them easier to learn and play. We’re starting by really focusing on what makes each specialization special and building gameplay around that core idea, so the way you play feels true to your character’s personality and style. We want the most interesting and noticeable parts of your specialization to be the most important things during gameplay. This generally means carefully managing your resources, keeping track of a few important buffs and debuffs, using your abilities at the right time, and reacting to key events (often called “procs”).

As a player, I really appreciate the team focusing on making sure we have all the info we need to play our chosen spec well. It’s awesome that they’re looking at things like making prompts and indicators in the UI super clear. I think simplifying complex abilities or even trimming down the number of active buffs and debuffs would be a huge help. It would make it so much easier to quickly see the most important stuff – like what’s happening with enemy nameplates or in the Cooldown Manager. Basically, they’re aiming for a cleaner, more readable experience, and that’s something I’m definitely excited about.

We’re also evaluating how much mental effort, or “cognitive load,” is needed to play each class specialization (spec). Cognitive load includes things like monitoring active buffs, deciding which ability to use based on the situation, and remembering ability combinations. Some specs are intentionally designed to be more demanding in this way. Tracking damage-over-time effects requires focus, but it’s a key part of what makes specs like Affliction, Feral, and Assassination fun! However, we’re looking at all specs to identify areas where the mental demands are too high, confusing, or don’t contribute to enjoyable gameplay.

Our main aim is to ensure that when each specialization has all of its new class talent points, Hero Talents, and Apex Talents, it offers a level of complexity that we believe is enjoyable, fair, and not overly difficult.

For a detailed explanation of these updates, read the Developer Insight: Combat for Everyone in Midnight article. You can also find more information about how we’ve improved healing and PvP in Midnight on our forums: Healing Changes in Midnight and PvP Changes in Midnight.

DIMINISHING RETURNS

  • Developers’ notes: We are making some adjustments to how diminishing returns work in World of Warcraft. “Diminishing returns” refers to the system that reduces the duration of crowd control effects if they are used repeatedly against the same target. In order to make crowd control less frustrating in PvP, players will now become immune after 2 applications of crowd control from the same category (ex. after being stunned twice, you are now immune). We felt that very low duration crowd controls were making it hard to cast spells and generally felt excessive. For PvE, we are removing the immunity after 3 stuns. Our primary goal here is to remove the need to track diminishing returns state on enemies. Instead of enforcing a hidden and complex system to reduce effectiveness of stuns, we are doing a pass on classes and making sure the amount of stuns and their durations are appropriate for combat.
  • Diminishing return categories will reset after 16 seconds (was 18 seconds).
  • Creatures will no longer be immune to stun effects after 3 applications of the effect. The duration of the stun effect will continue to diminish in half upon each application, until they reach 1/16th duration, where it will remain until 16 seconds have passed.
  • In PvP combat, players will be fully immune to a crowd control category after 2 casts (was 3).

CLASSES

Please see the full patch notes for class change information.

ITEMS

  • Fully collecting a class set’s appearances now unlocks all lower difficulty variants. For example, collecting all Mythic appearances will automatically unlock the Heroic, Normal, and Raid Finder variants while unlocking Heroic would only unlock Normal and Raid Finder, etc. Eligible sets will be marked as such in the set collection UI. This change is retroactive to all legacy content. Items will no longer change their appearance when upgraded.
    • Developers’ notes: While we feel the Catalyst has been largely successful in expanding access to powerful seasonal set bonuses, it has also generated friction in its dual use as the primary source of class set appearances for many players. This friction has been further exacerbated by loot roll restrictions in situations such as participating in LFR raiding. In conjunction with this change, we want to better preserve the value and identity of item art from difficult content.
  • Acquiring a class set 4-piece bonus now unlocks a character-specific Feat of Strength that will enable Catalyst charges to drop from raid bosses, Mythic+, Bountiful Delves, and Rated PvP on that character for the remainder of the season.
    • Developers’ notes: The decision to spend Catalyst charges can be difficult early in a season as players anticipate looting more powerful armor in the same slot in the near future. For example, catalyzing a Veteran or Champion helm may feel like a mistake knowing that a Hero helm could be around the corner in your next Mythic+ dungeon. If a player decides to spend that charge and then receives that Hero helm, it may have to sit in their bags for up to two weeks before it can effectively be equipped. This change should empower players to chase their seasonal class set bonuses early on without reservation with the knowledge that additional Catalyst charges will likely be farmable for them just several weeks into the season. In addition, armor pieces with desirable secondary stats in non-set slots such as belts and boots should feel like more viable options earlier in the season.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

  • Elite Rank is now attained at 2300 personal rating (was 2400). Additionally, this also means that correlated ranks and titles such as Legend, Strategist, and Gladiator will have their game win requirements to be at or above 2300.
    • Developers’ notes: We’ve seen feedback around the top end PvP rewards being extremely difficult to achieve in the more recent seasons. Our goal with this adjustment is to slightly ease the requirement while still maintaining the prestige that comes with attaining these rewards and titles.
  • BATTLEGROUND BLITZ
    • Eye of the Storm
      • Developers’ notes: We’ve reverted the Eye of the Storm map mechanic changes and made some adjustments to Swift Pursuit on the map for better traversing. Our initial goal with these map changes was to have a better gameplay experience with smaller team sizes on our larger maps. We saw that the changes on the map led to stalemate gameplay which we want to avoid.
      • The map mechanics in Eye of the Storm for Battleground Blitz have been reverted to align with how the map typically functions. This means that all four bases will be active at all times, rather than its prior functionality in Battleground Blitz where only two bases alternated based on flag captures.
      • The following adjustments have been made to Swift Pursuit for better map traversal:
        • Swift Pursuit now grants 100% mount speed (aligned with other large maps, Arathi Basin and Deepwind Gorge)
        • 30 seconds after the match starts, Swift Pursuit is increased by an additional 50% while on the map’s bridges (150% mount speed total).
  • DEATH KNIGHT
    • Unholy
      • Doomburst has been updated – Sudden Doom also causes your next Death Coil to deal damage of your plagues an additional time at 25% effectiveness and reduce the target’s movement speed by 45% for 3 seconds.
      • Life and Death has been updated – When the target afflicted with your Dread Plague is healed, you are also healed for 10% of the amount. Additionally, Dread Plague deals 200% of its remaining damage to the target when dispelled.
      • Necromancer’s Bargain has been updated – Festering Strike no longer causes Scourge Strike to summon a Lesser Ghoul but instead causes it to deal Shadow damage and heal you for 100% of that amount.
      • Necrotic Wounds has been updated – Putrefy has 1 additional charge and applies a Necrotic Wound to the enemy when it deals damage, absorbing 8% of all healing received for 15 seconds. Max 3 stacks. Adding a stack does not refresh the duration.
      • Reanimation renamed to Zombify.
  • MAGE
    • Master of Escape moved to the Class talent tree.
  • MONK
    • Windwalker
      • Tigereye Brew has been removed.
  • PALADIN
    • Holy
      • New PvP Talent: Barrier of Faith – Imbue a friendly target with a Barrier of Faith, absorbing damage for 12 seconds. For the next 24 seconds, Barrier of Faith accumulates 20% of effective healing from your Flash of Light, Holy Light, or Holy Shock spells. Every 6 seconds, the accumulated healing becomes an absorb shield. Replaces Holy Prism.
      • Searing Glare now overrides Blinding Light.
  • PRIEST
    • New PvP Talent: Psychic Shroud – When your Psychic Scream affects 1 or more players, the next crowd control effect against you is prevented. Lasts 15 seconds.
    • The following PvP talents have been removed:
      • Catharsis
      • Mindgames
      • Thoughtsteal
    • Discipline
      • Trinity now increases cast speed by 15% (was 30%) and Atonement duration by 15 seconds (was 10 seconds).
      • Inner Light and Shadow moved to Discipline talent tree.
    • Holy
      • The following PvP talents have been removed:
      • Divine Ascension
      • Holy Ward
      • Ray of Hope
  • SHAMAN
    • New PvP Talent: Lightning Lasso – Grips the target in lightning, stunning and dealing Nature damage over 5 seconds while the target is lassoed. Can move while channeling.
    • Enhancement
      • Stormweaver has been removed and its effect is now combined with Raging Maelstrom.
    • Restoration
      • New PvP Talent: Master of the Elements – Casting Lava Burst increases the healing of your next Healing Wave by 30%, stacking up to 2 times. Healing Wave applies Flame Shock to a nearby enemy when empowered by Master of the Elements.

PROFESSIONS

  • All profession recipes and gathering nodes are available.
  • Lowered the number of qualities for stackable reagents and consumables to 2 (was 3).
    • Developers’ notes: One goal of having qualities is so that players who invest time and effort into their professions can produce more valuable goods. We believe that, as far as reagents and consumables are concerned, this goal is better accomplished by having 2 qualities, normal quality and high quality, with the added benefit of simplifying the system a little.
  • Fractured Sparks no longer need to be combined into whole Sparks before they can be used in crafting. Whole Sparks drop instead of Fractured Sparks and Spark costs have doubled.

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

  • NEW INTERFACE: JOURNEYS
    • A new tab called Journeys has been added to the Adventure Guide. This tab will help players track their Renown, Delves, Prey, and Great Vault reward progress.
      • Developers’ notes: Only previous expansion Renown and Midnight Delves will be available in Public Alpha 1. Artwork is still work in progress.
    • Delves tab has been removed from the Group Finder panel. Players can now configure the Delve companion through the Delves section of Journeys.
  • NEW INTERFACE: BOSS WARNINGS
    • A timeline of spell casts will now appear when engaging bosses in dungeons and raids.
      • Developers’ notes: Artwork on the timeline is still a work in progress.
    • This timeline can be moved and adjusted through HUD Edit Mode.
    • Alerts are categorized into Critical, Medium, and Minor which can also be customized through Edit Mode for additional settings.
      • Developers’ notes: This feature is not completely implemented nor functional for bosses for Public Alpha 1.
  • UPDATED NAMEPLATES
    • Nameplates now have a new visual style.
    • Nameplates has its own Options Menu section under Gameplay.
    • Added options:
      • Preview of the Nameplate as options are being changed
      • Nameplate style
      • Display certain Nameplate Information like rarity icon, health %, health values.
      • Highlight important casts
      • Cast bar information
      • Types of buffs and debuffs to display
      • Size of the buff/debuff icons
      • Debuff padding
      • Aggro display
      • Nameplate sizing
      • Show offscreen Nameplates
      • Simplify Nameplates
    • Developers’ notes: Behavior of stacking nameplates is still a work in progress.
  • COOLDOWN MANAGER
    • Added support to save multiple layouts.
    • Right-clicking a cooldown in the Cooldown Settings window will now give players the option to assign a sound and event type. Up to 3 alerts can be assigned to a cooldown.
  • Personal Resource Display has been added to HUD Edit Mode with the following options:
    • Show Friendly Buffs
    • Show Special Resources on Targets
    • Hide Health and Power Bars
    • Only Show While in Combat
    • On login, existing players may be prompted with a choice to adjust movement keys to use strafe or keep them to turn the character camera.
  • Catch Up Experience
    • If a player hasn’t logged in for a long period of time, in character select, returning characters may be given the option to go straight to the Catch Up Experience.
    • New Tutorials tab has been added to the Adventure Guide for players to teleport to a Catch Up Experience.

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2025-10-01 23:48