Gamescom has ended, but the hype for World of Warcraft‘s eleventh expansion, Midnight, is still going full steam ahead. Originally announced at BlizzCon 2023, we got our first look from Gamescom 2025 Opening Night Live and throughout Gamescom weekend at the updated Quel’thalas and what our champions of Azeroth will be up to.
While the news about Midnight was awfully disjointed, that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything to be excited about after some digging and waiting. Beyond the normal additions that one could expect with a new World of Warcraft expansion, like four new zones, some new content to complete, etc, 5 MAJOR updates are coming that will revolutionize Blizzard’s long-running MMO.
Get BWT in your inbox!
Get BWT in your inbox!
Major Leveling Updates in Midnight for New/Returning Players
Blizzard is completely revamping the leveling experience to improve onboarding for new and returning players. Just starting World of Warcraft is a daunting task that requires some research to understand the story and what you need to do. The in-game new player experience is subpar in both regards. What’s worse, playing through an expansion for leveling, currently set to Dragonflight, you only get half the story. You’re quickly moved on to the current expansion once you hit level 70 to get right into the action, regardless of whether you play the patch content or not. And that’s not to mention the key story elements from the raids, either.
That all is changing in Midnight. The leveling experience will now encompass ALL of Dragonflight and will give a condensed “Story so far” of the Worldsoul Saga as players try to hit 80 to join the fight for the Sunwell. New story mode versions of Dragonflight‘s three raids are to be added on top of the patch content in the leveling experience.
The new player starting zone, Exile’s Reach, will also be more story-inclusive to flow nicely into the Worldsoul Saga. It will finally move on from the original Battle for Azeroth focus. This will create a much more cohesive path to get players into the action, not only with a character that can complete the current content, but also with an understanding of the story.
In other words, this change is addressing a key weakness that World of Warcraft has had when compared to its competitors, especially when there’s an even more disjointed storytelling going on through books, ten expansions, audio novellas, and so much more that isn’t all that necessary to feel like you have a basic understanding as to what’s going on.
Updated UI, now with more Baked-in Add-ons
In The War Within, Blizzard has introduced a new focus for its UI elements, incorporating baked-in add-ons. Add-ons are essentially necessary to play end-game content, especially when considering the sheer amount of information you’re taking in, or when trying to find new ways to improve. In patch 11.1.5, a new Cooldown Manager feature was added to give new ways to track your big abilities. This was pretty similar to the highly popular add-on WeakAura, even though the Cooldown Manager was quite lacking in its launch. Soon, it will be massively updated to fit the needs of most players.
In Midnight, however, Blizzard’s ideology of adding add-ons to the base game is growing exponentially with two major updates: a damage meter and nameplate update. Damage meters, like Skada and Details, are excellent ways to track your own improvement over time by giving you valuable raw data on your output. A Blizzard version will be different in one key aspect: it’ll be server-side data. In other words, it’ll be more accurate than current add-ons as it will report the true data being reported from the server instead of from the user side.
Similarly, for unit frames, the nameplates you see over every enemy are very basic in their current form. It will tell you health, casts, and buffs/debuffs, but that’s about it. Many higher-end content enemies have a cast that must be interrupted, or else it could mean a wipe is imminent if it goes off. However, the issue is that it’s hard at first glance to identify these casts amid the noise of normal attacks. Similarly, planning for big tankbusters, or massive AOE damage, is challenging without add-on support or excellent memory. This, too, is changing with the nameplate update.
Nameplates and unit frames will now be highly customizable in Midnight. You’ll be able to choose exact data (raw health numbers vs health percentage), highlight buffs and debuffs on enemies, and create noises to play for specific attacks that require immediate attention. This won’t be as complete as a Deadly Boss Mods or Big Wigs, but it’s still a great start to let newer players catch on more quickly as to how to play more optimally.
While these additions are fantastic for the average player, what is concerning is what does this mean for the add-on makers who’ve spent years working on these much-loved tools? Will they be compensated in any way for giving Blizzard a reference guide for what was needed to make these additions succeed? Will they be credited, or did they help contribute to these tools while Blizzard works on ways to make more add-ons unusable as they add their own? The dev team should answer these questions as we get closer to Midnight‘s launch.
Transmogrification Mostly Revamped
Transmogrification, or transmog, has been an incredible feature that originally appeared during the Cataclysm expansion. This allows you to customize the appearance of your gear to your liking by assigning a new look to a specific piece of equipped gear. It wasn’t without its flaws, which have been addressed throughout the years. However, the biggest flaws may soon be addressed, except for one.
In Midnight, transmogrification will now be slot-based instead of gear-based. I.E., you can assign your helm slot to always display your favorite helm instead of having to change it every time you get a new piece of gear. Additionally, scenario-specific transmogs will also be available. You’ll be able to create numerous transmog sets that will change on the fly based on how you set them. From being in a dungeon, to being indoors and outdoors, to even specializations, the settings seem plentiful to cover most bases.
The issue is the cost. Transmog costs have gotten pretty out of control, with a full set of gear costing at least a thousand gold to change its appearance. With this new version, you’ll not only need to buy a new transmog slot for when you want to make a different build, but also pay for the transmog cost as well. This could become costly quickly for the average player, but at the very least, not having to change your gear’s appearance regularly for a good look while leveling and gearing up will be pretty nice.
Housing Loadouts
Housing is already a massive new addition to the game. Its implementation seems to be about precisely what was needed to add it to a 2025 version of WoW. Housing decorations are highly customizable, allowing you to create exactly what you want. Except, it’s still a shame that to place any item, you’ll need multiples of it instead of unlocking it once. Furniture and objects for decorating SHOULD be like transmog appearance collections.
Regardless, housing will be better than we even expected, thanks to importable housing loadouts. Decoration placements and settings will be shareable, which will be amazing for those who find a great interior they like but don’t want to go through the hassle of recreating it. Or, just starting from a baseline to create what works for you will also be a great addition.
PvP FINALLY Getting Some Much-needed Love
PvP content has, as Blizzard admitted in the past, been sorely ignored in recent expansions. They received the occasional new battleground to play and a new game mode, Comp Stomp, but the overall PvP experience hasn’t evolved. Even worse, this core pillar of WoW has a horribly high barrier to entry just from a skill and understanding level. That all is changing in Midnight.
Besides a new 40v40 battleground and Comp Stomp being here to stay as a core new PvP mode, a new PvP entry experience is being added. Think of it similarly to Follower Dungeons. Not a feature for experienced players, except as a carefree playground to refine add-ons and UI. This is mainly for new players or those who’ve been fearful about diving headfirst into the mode.
It’s pitched as a way for players to get an understanding of how exactly PvP works. How vastly different it is from world and instance content. And especially, how to react to different general situations as a player. This will be a fantastic way to lower the initial hurdle and hopefully revitalize PvP for the better, marking the first step by Blizzard to help onboard players to this key game mode, which offers fantastic cosmetic unlocks and experiences.
Regardless of how the news was delivered to us, the overall amount of NEW stuff coming in Midnight is quite exciting. Especially from a new/returning player point of view. Lowering every barrier of entry to our favorite MMO is always a win. We need more new players to enjoy Azeroth’s splendors as much as we do to keep this game going. And the big changes coming will do just that.
World of Warcraft Midnight is coming to PC in 2026.
