Midnight Developer Q&A Liveblog - Valorstones Removed in Midnight

Posted 2025/10/01 at 11:34 AM by Archimtiros

Midnight Developer Q&A LiveblogHousing

Players can choose to live in the Alliance or Horde neighborhoods, but each is anchored in a specific area of the world - Alliance outside Elywnn, and Horde outside Orgrimmar. If you're in that neighborhood, your housing exterior will have to reflect that aesthetic (take it up with the Orgrimmar HoA!).

Pets are something that the team is working towards, trying to solve issues like pathing. On release, Battle Pets won't be placeable, but they are planning to deliver it (and mount placement!) in the future. Hunter pets are trickier, since they're character specific rather than a warbound/account-wide housing.

If the housing plot you want is taken or you just decide its time to move into another neighborhood, a mage will come along and put it all in a bubble for you, transporting it from one to another, with no mess or fuss!

There are a couple new cosmetic updates coming in Midnight, specifically Amani customizations for Darkspear Trolls - they like to add these things as its appropriate to the story, but rolling out more customizations is something they try to chip away at over time, so they won't always be able to release a whole bunch all at the same time.

Prey System

The Prey system will affect everything in the zone, so if you're chasing a Nightmare Prey, everything in that zone will become much more dangerous. In the normal mode, other players can help, but in harder modes, you'll be all alone for your final hunt.

Prey will contribute to the Great Vault rewards, but they don't have specific details to share right now.

Glyphs and Visual Customization

There's no glyph overhaul planned for Midnight, but the general idea of more visual/spell customization is something they want to offer where possible and the glyph system is a great vehicle for that.

PvP

Training Grounds is a new Battleground feature which puts matchmade groups of players against enemy bots, allowing PvP curious players to learn the ropes without getting curb stomped by more experienced players.

In the first season of Midnight, the top tier cutoff for PvP rewards will be reduced from 2400 to 2300, making it a little less exclusive. There's a lot more that they'd like to do with the system over time, similar to Mythic+ offering new titles, resilient system, etc. It's definitely an area they want to focus on.

There's a giant new free-for-all PvP area in Voidstorm, the Slayer's Rise, full of world quests, activities, and other reasons to kill each other. There are also a few non-war mode activities as well.

Warbound Reputations

Making old reputations Warbound-wide is something that was previously promised, but the team fell behind. They're going to get back on it again, starting with the most recent expansions.

Legendaries in Midnight

Legendaries should always remain special and have stories behind them, worthy of the color. Some became a little formulaic or too grindy to be competitive, so there's a fine line to navigate. Nothing planned for the start of Midnight, but maybe in the future.

Lore

We'll learn a lot more about what happened with the Windrunner family in the Windrunner Spire dungeon.

You may not see all Amani Trolls previously mentioned in the game at the start of Midnight, but there's a big story to be told between the relationship between the Amani and Blood Elves.

Dezco will be present in Arator's journey, and we will look more at how the Tauren Sunwalkers view the mythology of An'she later in The Last Titan.

Addon Changes Coming in Midnight

Blizzard is rolling out their proposed addon changes with the launch of Midnight, removing the ability for addons to read combat state and information in real time. They want to launch this with the new expansion so that they can build everything around it, creating a more level playing field without the requirement to use external tools to be competitive. It also allows them to shift to more collaborative efforts, instead of twitch reactive to a mechanic within a split second. Without addons to solve mechanics for you, they may just give you an extra few seconds to position or communication, but the intent is to keep pull counts and progression time relatively similar to live right now.

There will be a raid test period in the alpha to experience raid bosses designed without addons in mind. They want to make sure they have the entirety of the Midnight alpha and beta cycle to iterate on player feedback, so stay tuned!

Fine tuning your UI is something that Blizzard doesn't want to change or eliminate. The addon API changes are focused on real-time combat information, but aesthetic changes should still be possible, so you can still use addons to make things bigger or smaller or a different color, they just can't read what's happening in combat. More details will be coming soon from the UI/engineering team.

Addons like Deadly Boss Mods, etc will be affected. Blizzard has already invited big addon developers to the first wave of Alpha, so that they can see how their addons will be affected.

More improvements coming to raid frames, allowing Resto Druids to see all of their HoTs, or encounters to show major de/buffs. Addons will also still be able to customize the look/size/feel, they just can't use logic based on which player is affected by what effects.

Draenei and other Forces of Light in Midnight

Draenei will be joining in the fight against the Void, but this chapter is mainly focused on the Blood Elves.

There are a few changes to the Forsaken lands, like the new tunnel connecting Eversong to the Plaguelands, and we will see notable Forsaken characters like Alonsus Faol, but the first chapter is largely focused on Silvermoon and Eversong.

Updating more old locations is something they're excited to do in the future, and of course we already know that The Last Titan will revisit Northrend.

Class & Spec Updates

No new class capabilities coming other than the Devourer right now.

They're always excited to make visual updates, and there are several in Midnight, both in new and returning abilities.

Tentacle Slam replaces Shadow Crash for Shadow Priests, offering a similar AoE component, but with more of a voidy-theme. The Disc Priest Apex talent also replaces their bubble with a void-shield.

Blizzard isn't adding any new support classes yet, but Augmentation Evoker isn't being changed away from a support role either. They still like the fantasy, but there's a tricky balance to making them feel impactful and helpful without being overbearingly required.

Delves

As we move through the campaign, we'll be entering new Delves alongside Valeera Sanguinar instead of Brann this time. These new delves will continue to have storyboard variety, and there will even be outdoor delves that allow the use of ground mounts! Midnight won't have any Underwater delves or candle/totem carrying delves though, those mechanics are gone!

World Revamp

The idea of revamping everything at once is frankly terrifying, but they really want to tell new stories in old areas, bringing them into the present day similar to Eversong. The focus right now is on the rest of the World Soul Saga, but they're definitely open to revisiting more old locations down the line.

Class Aesthetic Customization

Devourer represents a Demon Hunter who channels the void instead of fel energy, which transforms a wide range of their abilities. Fire and Frost don't forsake the arcane though, they still have things like Blink and Counterspell, so just because you specialize in one thing doesn't necessarily mean you have to lose everything else. They do like the idea of customizing spells and abilities though, so maybe they'll find a way to do it in the future.

Warbound Followers

Replacing the NPCs in Follower Dungeons with characters from your Warband is something Blizzard would love to do, but there are multiple technical hurdles in the way. It will come at some point, but no ETA.

Haranir

The Haranir forms all have quills. Pangolin is the tank form, there's a Wolverine feral form, a quilled owlkin boomkin, and the swimming form is an axolotl with quills!

A lot of the decision behind which races become playable comes down to narrative. We met the Haranir, they're becoming part of the story, and it fits to bring them in now. It's not lost on the developers that there are a lot of requests to play a sethrak or ethereal, but there are story questions as to whether those races would really join. On a technical level, adding new races is also one of the most taxing things they can do, both in the short term of creating the rig, and in the long-term of supporting it with visuals, cosmetics, and the like, especially for races with more unique body styles.

Haranir will not be available during Early Access. The intent is not to give non-EA players any major advantages.

Toxicity in the Community

Toxicity is something the developers are always concerned with. Sometimes its actual bad actors, but other times it's an issue of mismatched expectations. It's not unreasonable for a raid leader who has invested a lot of time in not wanting less experienced players that still need to learn, even though it may be perceived as unfriendly when those two groups are mixed. A lot of what the developers are focused on right now is addressing that by helping players connect with other like-minded players.

More Housing

Customizing NPCs, like warbound characters or even NPC versions of friendly player characters is something that sounds fun, but there are still a lot of technical hurdles similar to pets/mounts.

Housing is such a big social feature that they're hesitant to take it too far until they can share it with the community and gauge player reaction. They want to ensure that the features they're investing time and effort into are the features players want to engage with.

Crafting housing items with existing professions will give skill ups and can help progress them, though they aren't explicitly setup to level a profession from level 1.

There will be bookshelves in housing, though they're not functional... yet. It's a fun idea that they'll take back to the team though.

Guild neighborhood player requirements are something that is still in flux, though it'll probably be similar to guild charters requiring at least 10 players. There is a technical aspect where they can't spin up a unique server for every single player's alt guild of one character, but they'll see what they can support as the tech side unfolds.

A lot of housing item/achievement prerequisites will be visible in the Alpha, but they'll also publish a blog at some point.

Closing Questions

Filo (spelling?) is the capybara loa of children.

Class questlines, like Green Fire Warlock, come up really often as something that players are really excited about. Lorewalking is kind of similar, in that non-Priests can experience Xal'atath's story from Legion, and they're hoping to create more opportunities like that.

Valorstones will no longer be a currency in Midnight, you'll just need crests. They're also looking to streamline crests a little bit so that it's more obvious what crests relate to which upgrades.

Midnight Reveal

Developer Insights & Classes

Systems & Content

Comment by TheWiseDwarfForest-troll Green skins for Trolls confirmed, big WComment by animalbradI'm wanting to know how things like warcraftlogs will be effected, which are extremely helpful for things like RTWF and progressing.Comment by eurekalolmake draenei demon hunters happen blizz plzComment by markdallBlizzard is rolling out their proposed addon changes with the launch of Midnight, removing the ability for addons to read combat state and information in real time. They want to launch this with the new expansion so that they can build everything around it, creating a more level playing field without the requirement to use external tools to be competitive.It also allows them to shift to more collaborative efforts, instead of twitch reactive to a mechanic within a split second. Without addons to solve mechanics for you, they may just give you an extra few seconds to position or communication, but the intent is to keep pull counts and progression time relatively similar to live right now.Comment by draconicmanI suspect that the changes to addons will necessitate raid bosses being MUCH simpler and likely easier than they are now.Comment by SharkTribeNot going to lie, the character customization answer was really disappointing. They really need to prioritize that higher, some new hairstyles is not the answer to the thousands of questions asking about this.
I love that he asked for Saberon as a playable race, though!Comment by potexet522NOOOO MY VALORSTONESComment by AstrandisNothing about nightborne demon hunters in the future?

... Just anything about nightborne in midnight? Hello?Comment by PrimalcruxForest-troll Green skins for Trolls confirmed, big WComment by lupiwowAh great new DH spec new ability/name steal!
Taking away demon form from warlocks was not enough so now they decided to take the name of one of priests signature spells.
Devouring plague is now named Shadow word: Madness
Clap clap

#MrDH dont steal my classComment by FlynReally love how much of that QA confirms how Mid the next expansion is gonna be.Comment by BravejohnI do not understand about addon changes much as I dont know anything about lua api, but does that mean that addons like Hekili or weak auras wont be available?Comment by Benajii want the ability to let all of my 1000 battle pets roam around the house.Comment by CrackerjackI'm wanting to know how things like warcraftlogs will be effected, which are extremely helpful for things like RTWF and progressing.https://www.wowhead.com/news/combat-addons-disabled-in-end-game-content-in-midnight-378679#warcraft-logs-is-fineIon Hazzikostas said:
I'm not totally sure I understand the question. If you're talking about the slash combat log functionality, advanced combat log, exporting for parsing by other tools, all of that is going to remain completely unchanged. The only changes are about the in-game add-on API and what is available to you via the WOW UI while you're playing. So I think, you know, the combat log system, the external exported one is very, very robust and has everything you would need to analyze your performance or others, and no plans on changing any of that.Comment by Kilgharrah96Currently we have Class specific Mounts and Titles in the game, be cool if we could have Hearthstones too. Maybe have Hero Specs do the exact same thing in the future, i need a Dark Ranger <character name> title :DComment by ShadowlootHousing really does nothing for me.
That looks like something to spend time on for the sake of spending time.
And then the options are just overwhelming.

Edit: oh yes, given Blizzards track-record with the UI, housing will have awfull bugs of which some never will be fixed.Comment by PriestessAurNothing about nightborne demon hunters in the future?

... Just anything about nightborne in midnight? Hello?Comment by Snowy6I hope the cap on crests is a bit more generous.Comment by Menedude"There are a couple new cosmetic updates coming in Midnight, specifically Amani customizations for Darkspear Trolls - they like to add these things as its appropriate to the story, but rolling out more customizations is something they try to chip away at over time, so they won't always be able to release a whole bunch all at the same time."

Chip away over time like... decades?

All we've gotten for years now is a few hair colors and skin colors and pointy ears for humans... where are the new hairstyles? new beards? new horns? new ANYHTING? Allied races still don't have "DK skins" after all this time.

I won't be surprised if "amani customizations" will just be one greener shade of skin and nothing else.

Just put like one are person on some of these while they make a new expansion. ONE PERSON!
And on Glyphs too, that system has seen no updates for multiple expansions... or things like the green fire questline. Where's that level of passion?Comment by OphionI feel like the 2.3k from a 2.4k cutoff is... Almost irrelevant? Wouldn't seasonal renown with neat rewards attract more players? Like in season 1 a Siesbarg with alliance/horde theme or so. In S2, a alliance/horde themed Gallywix head. Now in S3, one of the terrors with faction theming. Make them purchasable with a token gained for completing the renown, so people can still buy old ones too. IDK, just something to push people to keep playing. Honor levels ain't really it and gearing is a horrible incentive in PvP, as you're playing in order to not fall behind. I feel like PvP can be fun and is not that hard to make enticing add stuff that you get from playing and doesn't require Arena, PvP is more than that.