Yes, I know you’re all excited for World of Warcraft Midnight. The launch of a new expansion is hard to top for WoW fans, and it’s just a matter of weeks away now. However, you’re probably right up to date with what’s coming when it drops – it’s been pretty well-documented by Blizzard at this point. What comes after Midnight’s release, however, has been considerably more shrouded. Until today. A new livestream outlining WoW’s future has just aired, and PixelArena.io got the chance to see it ahead of time and learn about planned new features for housing, surprise raids, and a new spin on Delves. Oh, there’s even WoW’s own spin on Prop Hunt. Yeah, Prop Hunt.
The first big revelation of the stream for World of Warcraft players looking forward to Midnight is that several pre-launch events are getting underway to help you earn new rewards and benefit from increased experience points and reputation to catch up on progression. An incentive called the Welcome Back Weekend has also just gone live and runs until Sunday, February 1 – this lets any previous WoW subscribers access the base game for free, up to level 80, as a way to lure you back into one of the best MMOs around and get you up to speed ahead of Midnight’s launch.
However, it’s the stuff coming after Midnight’s debut that I’m interested in the most. After recapping what’s coming in the expansion, Ion Hazzikostas, WoW’s senior game director, talks about some enhancements and new features Blizzard plans to bring to the long-awaited housing system.
One such feature is the ability to select multiple assets and move them in one go – this is particularly handy for creative players who are sculpting items that aren’t technically in the game out of several other decorative pieces. Instead of disassembling and reassembling such an item every time you want to move it, you can now select all of its components and drag the entire thing around. You’ll soon also be able to copy and paste these builds to easily replicate your creations.
Sharing your WoW homes, or yoinking someone else’s design as the basis for your own new pad, is about to become easier too, with import and export codes being developed.
Hazzikostas also says that Blizzard is looking at ways for companions to roam around your homes, for mounts to be displayed, and many other features that will let you showcase cosmetic aspects of your character within your dwelling. Decor limits will also gradually increase throughout the year.
This isn’t the full extent of the ideas Blizzard has to broaden housing, and Hazzikostas describes this as merely the “foundation” and “ground floor” of the system. “We’re serious about expanding it and improving it alongside you,” he says.
However, there’s more on the horizon than just more housing features. A lot more.
In update 12.0.5, which will arrive “shortly after Midnight’s launch” on the Public Test Realm, a new activity called Void Assault will debut. These occur in the “immediate aftermath” of the new raids added in Midnight, and will “pop up across the outdoor world.” Void Assaults bring new enemy types to battle, as well as plenty of fresh rewards. Also coming in 12.0.5 is something that made me briefly choke on my tea, such was my surprise – a “Prop Hunt-inspired” event. This will see two teams face each other in small arenas, with one team able to transform into various assets around the map, and the other team looking to identify which objects are real and which are disguised players. It’s not quite what I expected to see so soon after the intense, high-stakes events that new expansions tend to deliver, but I’m digging it – Prop Hunt in Garry’s Mod and Call of Duty have produced some hilarious moments for me over the years.
Yet another surprise awaits in the following update, 12.0.7, which will not only bring a “further escalation” of Void Assaults, but add a brand new, one-boss raid called Sporefall. “We’re excited to get away from the idea of raids being consigned to just these massive, twice-a-year updates,” Hazzikostas says, “and we want to lean more into the flexibility of matching the content that we offer to the narrative and just fun opportunities that we see to tell stories of different shapes and sizes.”
Following that, we’ll get update 12.1, and even though specific details are light right now, it’s guaranteed to be a chunky one. Not only does it kick off Season 2 of the Midnight era, but it also brings a new raid, a dungeon, multiple Delves, and a fresh zone “full of max level content.” A massive overhaul to WoW’s friends system is also teased.
Despite being a smaller update, 12.1.5 will also add another new one-boss raid, as well as an “all new content type,” currently being labeled “Labyrinths” by the devs. These are, essentially, larger and more complex versions of Delves that are “inspired by mega dungeons.” While these are more “sprawling” and bigger than Delves, you’ll be able to tackle either the whole thing or specific sections if you’re a bit strapped for time.
Whew, that’s a lot. Those bonus raids sprinkled throughout the year are going to really make a difference. Plus, the new Labyrinth activity seems to show Blizzard pouncing on the popularity of Delves in a really flexible and interesting way. However, there is one more teaser, and that’s for what’ll be revealed at BlizzCon in September.
“While I can’t say too much today, what I can say is that this is going to be one for the ages,” Hazzikostas states. “We really hope to see you there, and to show you some of how we’re thinking about the next 20 years of everything Warcraft. You’re not going to want to miss this one.”
To me, it sounds like we’re going to get some kind of grand vision for the future, and “everything Warcraft” perhaps suggests experiences outside of WoW itself? That’s speculation on my part, but come September, we’ll see if Hazzikostas’ hype-building was really worth it.