World of Warcraft: Midnight is still a ways off from releasing in 2026, but players will get a chance to play the game early on October 2, 2025, through an exclusive Alpha Test.
To drive players' excitement even further before then, Blizzard Entertainment has just uploaded a new deep dive presentation video demonstrating the upcoming expansion's various gameplay features in action such as Player Housing, the Prey System, and much more.
It starts with a recap of the expansion's premise. Xal'atath has empowered the Dark Heart artifact after the events of World of Warcraft: The War Within and is now leading a Voidwalker army known as the Devouring Host.
Her goal is to invade Silvermoon City and corrupt its mystical Sunwell to engulf the world in never-ending, life-consuming night. In our hands-on session with the Alpha, Voidwalkers run amok in the city, slaughtering the defenders. Interestingly, these Voidwalkers don't wear shackles like the Burning Legion-controlled ones, nor do they vanish on death. These are unbound Voidwalkers exercising their free will. And their will is destruction.
Over the course of the player's adventures to stop Xal'atath, they will explore new regions and visit classic locales reimagined with a coat of graphical paint.
For example, Silvermoon City has been revamped from the ground-up with its architecture polished with modern graphical fidelity, and Eversong Forest's biomes have healed all the damage caused by previous, opening up new areas to uncover. However, we'll discover that too much Light can be a bad thing, too, with unchecked growth leading to biological mutations. In an interview with us, WoW Design Director Maria Hamilton remarked that in Midnight, we'll see that the Light can be just as dangerous as the Void, in the right circumstances.
As for original zones to explore, we have the Amani Troll homeland of Zul’Aman, the void-corrupted wasteland known as the Voidstorm, and Harandar, the fungal jungle home of World of Warcraft: Midnight's new Allied Race, the Haranir.
Every once in a while, you will need a break from adventuring and fighting back Xal'atath's army, so World of Warcraft: Midnight has prepared a new narrative hub for players to gather called the Arcantina.
The Arcantina is a tavern where Horde and Alliance players can take a break and converse with one another before going back outdoors to tackle quests. It's reminiscent of the gathering hub from Monster Hunter World to some degree, and seems partially inspired by the tavern from Warlords of Draenor's Garrison system. The Arcantina exists in a pocket dimension maintained by the Kirin Tor and sorcerers like Khadgar, full of magic and even mini-games.
Like the Garrison tavern, the Arcantina is regularly visited by NPCs (some of which veteran World of Warcraft players will recognize) who will tell tales of their adventures and offer side quests for players to take up if they want a change of pace from doing the main quest. It adds some dynamism to the world, and looks like it could become a staple feature of the game.
Best rest up well while you can, as World of Warcraft: Midnight will pit you against a deadly horde of monstrous beasts, Ethereal marauders, and Void-empowered bosses in this expansion's Raids, Dungeons, and Delves.
You will not be alone in your battles, though, as you will acquire a new Delves Compansion in Valeera Sanguinar. Valeera is a deadly Blood Elf Rogue whose abilities can be assigned to DPS, Tank, or Healer roles to assist players in clearing Delves. In the DPS role, Valeera dances around enemies using the Killing Spree ability before slicing them to bits.
As a Healer, Valeera can suck out the life force of enemies by using the Vampiric Reaping and dropping them on the ground as healing orbs for players to pick up and heal themselves with. As a Tank, Valeera taunts enemies and constantly dodges their attacks while applying damage-over-time effects to draw their ire away from the player. Valeera can also apply poisons that buff the player's abilities depending on the role she's assigned. If mobs step away from Valeera, she'll whip out a big backstab.
In addition to a Delves Companion, players will get a new class specialization to play with for the Demon Hunter class called Devourer. The Devourer is a mid-range DPS spec that uses the power of the Void to deal a flurry of melee and ranged magical attacks.
The Devourer can maintain its transformation Metamorphosis state beyond its regular duration by reaping the souls of their enemies mid-combat and unleashing a powerful super move called the Collapsing Star to finish foes in explosive fashion.
Finally, players receive further aid with the Haranir, a new playable Allied Race that made their debut during World of Warcraft: The War Within.
This tribal yet mystical race vows to help the Horde and Alliance stop Xal'atath's machinations with their nature-themed abilities and take up the following Classes: Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Priest, Shaman, Mage, Warlock, Monk, and Druid.
You're going to need to master the Haranir and Devourer Specs quickly in order to survive, as Raids, Dungeons, and Delves won't be the only PvE content to deal with, more on that shortly.
In the WoW Alpha, we were able to get a look at some of the game's new talents and features. Blizzard says they will publish deep dives into big class changes over time, but to give you a taste.
Demonology warlocks have received a significant revamp, with imps now spawning directly on the player rather than at the point of Hand of Guldan. The imp "economy" has been significantly reworked and streamlined, and culminates in turning Hand of Guldan into a fel laser beam when you have spawned enough of them. Oh, Demonic Tyrant can also tangle it up in melee now, too. Affliction warlocks will be happy to know Malefic Grasp has been removed from the rotation as well, with stackable Unstable Affliction returning.
Unholy Death Knights are also getting a revamp to some degree, making them closer to a true pet class. Scourge Strike will now spawn "lesser ghouls" with each attack, and a new ability called Putrify will let you target your lesser ghouls for an explosive AoE. Shadow Priests now get an AoE Vampiric Touch applicator called Tentacle Slam (and yes, it looks exactly how you're imagining). Frost Mages also get icy hands that spawn out of the ground and apply freezes to targets.
There are tons of other class changes, far too many to list here, so keep an eye on Blizzard's website for more details on that, but it really feels like Blizzard has gotten creative with classes that needed a bit of extra love.
You're going to need all of those abilities to explore World of Warcraft: Midnight's new outdoor activity called "Prey," where you are commissioned by Astalor Bloodsworn to hunt unique boss enemies to siphon a magical energy called Anguish for a secret project. In Prey, you pick a target and explore the world to hunt it down for exclusive rewards such as cosmetics, mounts, titles, Housing items, and more.
Each time you beat a Prey target, you will whittle its overall strength down until you corner it in its hideout, where it will have nowhere else to run.
Though you'd best be careful while exploring because your Prey target can ambush at any given moment, even while you're in the middle of other quests or minding your own business. Prey has three difficulty modes, each one harder than the last: Normal, Hard, and Nightmare.
Higher difficulties will have players endure Torment mechanics to make each Prey hunt harder, like randomly dropping AoE puddles on the ground, damage over time effects, or even time limits to complete a hunt.
In an interview, Game Director Ion Hazzikostas told us that Prey was about bringing more challenge to the game's open overworld area, to add some dynamism while questing. It should recreate that old school feeling of being stalked by a rogue on a PvP server, or even by The Butcher in Diablo IV. It looks fantastic, simply put.
Last but not least, the deep dive gives players an extended look at Player Housing, one of the most requested gameplay features in World of Warcraft history.
In this mode, players can buy a home and customize every facet of it from its exterior, interior, and decorations to their heart's content.
Players can acquire thousands of items to customize their homes by completing various achievements throughout their time playing World of Warcraft, visiting various vendors in their neighbourhoods, completing Endeavour activities where players participate in group mini-games, and much more.
Blizzard told us that they want Player Housing to be easily accessible and not too taxing to get into, but naturally, there will be exclusive furnishings for those who complete some of the game's biggest challenges, and legacy players can look forward to rewards for some of their own legacy achievements, too.
A Monster Hunter-style gathering hub and bounty hunting system? Sign me up!
Each day we get more info on World of Warcraft: Midnight, the more I can't wait for it to arrive on PC in 2026. Luckily, you don't need the best PC for World of Warcraft since it will run on practically anything, even the upcoming Xbox Ally if you connect up a mouse and keyboard. With the revamped new player experience, it could be easier to get into than ever, too.
I was already hooked with the addition of Devourer Demon Hunter and the Haranir race, but the new Arcantina narrative hub is something that has got me unexpectedly giddy, both as a World of Warcraft and Monster Hunter fan.
It's practically the multiplayer Gathering Hub from Capcom's Monster Hunter franchise, where players can chat and form parties before going on quests, but in World of Warcraft.
Combine this with the new Prey feature, where we get to hunt monsters and potentially get ambushed by them in the open world, and World of Warcraft: Midnight has suddenly turned into a Monster Hunter MMO, and I'm all for it.
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