[00:09] >> And today we are talking World of Warcraft Midnight, [music] Warcraft Midnight, [music] which is here. And when I say Midnight, I of course mean the Midnight pre-patch, which may not be the actual start of the
[00:23] new expansion, but is definitely the real start. And it's chock-full of major changes for World of Warcraft. The addition of Devourer and Void Elf Demon Hunters, a much-needed stat squish, massive UI updates, the inevitable
[00:37] add-on apocalypse, a revamped transmog system, housing updates, a pre-patch event of course, catch-up mechanics, oh and a complete rework of every single class [music] and spec in full. Almost forgot about that one. It is a
[00:50] veritable smorgasbord of new stuff, all hitting the game at once on January the 20th US and the 21st in the EU. And with Midnight releasing on March the 2nd, that gives us just 6
[01:05] weeks to get virtually ripped enough to take on the Void. And you know, maybe take on the Void. And you know, maybe relearn your class. So, join us for everything that's coming in the Midnight pre-patch. Everything you need to know
[01:17] and everything you should be aware of to make the most and prepare [music] for make the most and prepare [music] for Midnight. Okay? Go go go go go go go go. Housing. Player housing is here. Okay, I know many of us have been playing in
[01:30] early access for a while now, but with the pre-patch [music] it is a bonafide everyone, >> [music] >> so long as they own Midnight of course. For literally millions of players,
[01:43] pre-patch marks the very start of their housing journey. And some of them might build masterpieces like this, and that can only be a good thing. But there's plenty to look forward to even if you are a WoW Sims veteran by now. Endeavors
[01:57] will finally be hitting player neighborhoods. These are fun themed neighborhood-wide activities that reward similarly fun and themed decor items for participation and meeting goals. This functions similarly to the trading post
[02:11] in that you'll have a monthly progress bar, which can be filled by completing various tasks. The progress bar for neighborhood favor is shared between everyone, but the tasks also give personal rewards including XP, house XP,
[02:24] gold, and community coupons, which are for spending on all your cute little themed decor items. So yes, for those of you who have already been playing in early access, this means your house XP
[02:39] will finally be able to go past five. More housing upgrade glory awaits. Endeavors run for about a month. For private and guild neighborhoods, the neighborhood manager gets to pick which one is active from month to month, while
[02:54] the server chooses for you on public neighborhoods. There can also be game-wide endeavors that align with a holiday or expansion storytelling that endeavor is happening, you'll have themed vendors appear. And as your
[03:08] neighborhood favor progresses, you'll unlock items that can be bought for community coupons. And if a friend of yours is in a different neighborhood with a different themed endeavor up, you're free to visit them and use your
[03:20] coupons to buy from their vendors. The pre-patch also sees the addition of charter neighborhoods, which is a private neighborhood created by a group of players. These are much like guild neighborhoods, but obviously don't rely
[03:33] on everyone being in the same guild to create one. Charter neighborhoods require 10 signatures to create, and much like public neighborhoods, they're limited to 55 [music] plots only. If you need more than that, you're better off
[03:46] creating a dedicated guild with multiple neighborhood shards to accommodate everyone. More last-minute changes to housing you may not have even heard about. There's now a catalog tab to the house chest, which lets you place and
[04:00] preview decor that you don't own yet inside your house to see if it really is worth getting that old meta achievement or run that out of the way dungeon for the housing rewards after all. Also, the new Founders' Point and Razorwind Shores
[04:15] warband camp character select screens are going live with pre-patch. And also, decor vendors now appear clearly marked on the mini-map. >> If you know, you know. Devourer Demon Hunters. Demon Hunters will finally get
[04:30] access to their much-coveted new spec, the Devourer. All the edgy, swoopy, tattooy, blindfoldy fun of a regular Demon Hunter, but now in purple. This is
[04:42] an all-new ranged DPS spec that harnesses cosmic and void powers to do a harnesses cosmic and void powers to do a range of showy, flashy, cosmic voidy damage through mostly mid-range attacks like Evoker, with the occasional jump in
[04:55] to do some melee, jump out again bits thrown in. The rotation is based around collecting soul fragments in order to burst into Metamorphosis form whilst keeping up fury to maximize your time in said big blasty form, because the longer
[05:08] you stay big purple, the more chances you get to drop a collapsing star on your enemies' heads. And that's good. You definitely want to be dropping those on people's heads. With the new Devourer spec, there is also a new hero talent
[05:21] tree to accommodate them. The Annihilator tree will serve both Devourers and Vengeance Demon Hunters, who are losing the Fel Scythe tree to make room for it, Devourer taking that as their second hero talent option. All
[05:34] Demon Hunters will have access to the new spec immediately with launch of the pre-patch. The first time there's been a brand new spec to get stuck into in pre-patch since Legion. So, prepare to jump in and enjoy our new big veiny
[05:46] purple boys as you progress through the pre-patch content. And then jump out drop a collapsing star on someone's head. >> Hey, good news for um yeah, Demon Hunters again, as our favorite colorway
[05:59] of the sassy elf archetype Void Elves will finally be able to become Demon Hunters. And if that doesn't excite you, well, may I gently point out that it means your Demon Hunter can now have this fruity little beard. Yeah, [music]
[06:15] available to you to unlock upon the patch going live, so you will need to complete a few short quests before you can race change to this absolutely fruity bastard. First, make sure that you're up to date with your 11.2 quests
[06:30] and have completed the In Search of Darkness questline in K'aresh. This is the one that starts with Adara's Dustblade and Leona Darkstrider's I'll show you yours if you show me mine Demon Hunter Void Elf pact and ends with you
[06:43] >> into a void portal. Once the pre-patch launches, you'll be able to pick up the Pursuit Continues in either Darnassus or Silvermoon, in which Alari the Soul Eater agrees to continue Leona's and therefore your training and officially
[06:58] bestowing Void Elves with Demon Hunter skills. Class updates. Good news everyone, all 13 classes and 39 specializations are seeing new
[07:10] talents and major changes across the board. Bad news everyone, what I just said before. In short, Midnight is bringing a revamped approach to class design with a focus on pairing down spells and abilities and simplifying
[07:23] rotations. A new philosophy that may just have a tiny little something to do with the cutback in combat add-on functionality that comes with this patch too. More on that later. We've got our specific Midnight class
[07:35] guide videos about to go live any minute now, where we'll be getting into all the specific details, but generally it's fair to say that most classes have seen a consolidation of abilities and a streamlining of their core rotation to
[07:47] zippy. So, enhancement goes from being a overlapping abilities and priorities, and extremely fun because of that needless complexity in my opinion, to much more straightforward type of
[08:00] builder-spender. Outlaw goes from being a buff-tracking anxiety simulator to basically just being a cool-down class now. I'm doing it a little disservice there, but you know what, Outlaw does me a disservice every single day. Outlaw,
[08:13] all my homies say Outlaw. Fire Mage went from a zippy, streamlined, modern-feeling spec with four buttons to a zippy, streamlined, modern-feeling spec with like three buttons. Obviously, opinions are going to vary greatly on
[08:25] these changes depending on what it was that you valued about a certain class in the first place. You may be distraught that Feral no longer needs to master the archaic art of snapshotting, or you might be absolutely thrilled. At the
[08:38] moment, I'm probably more of the former, but if you're like me, don't panic because it's probably fair to say that this is the simplest that the classes will ever be as Blizz play it safe and overcompensate for those add-on changes
[08:52] that we'll talk about in a minute. And it's fair to assume that more depth will creep back in as people get used to the new UI limitations. Stat Squish. Listen, we're all WoW players. We all love a big number, [music] but it is
[09:06] time for yet another stat squish. The Midnight pre-patch brings WoW's fourth algorithmic scaling down of numbers across the board, including item and [music] Why do you need to know or care about
[09:20] this? While scaling should be a mostly invisible it should be consistent and should have no bearing on your gameplay in theory, in practice, there are often some hiccups during its implementation,
[09:32] particularly in legacy content seeing random difficulty spikes and old-school get them [music] back in line. Add-on and UI overhaul. We've all been talking about it for a while, but the add-on apocalypse officially commences with the
[09:47] Midnight pre-patch. If you haven't been following this whole saga avidly, then you could be forgiven for thinking that WoW doesn't have add-ons now. Add-ons WoW doesn't have add-ons now. Add-ons are gone. Rip add-ons. That's not even
[10:02] slightly true, but there are big changes afoot. And the overall aims of these changes are something I think 99% of us can absolutely get behind. To get rid of all those add-ons that trivialize or functionally automate game mechanics
[10:17] trivialized or functionally automated. So, official second best add-on in entire world dialogue UI? No problem. Official best add-on in the entire world achievement back button? No problem. Weakauras? Um you don't have to do any
[10:33] going to survive the move into midnight or not because with pre-patch Blizz is disabling the load out of date add-ons library hasn't been updated to work with the new API, it simply will not load
[10:48] when you log in. So, you're not going to have to sift through a bunch of obsolete add-ons on day one. More good news, in order to support this brave new add-on world, the native UI is seeing a huge overhaul. Your cooldown manager has been
[11:02] expanded. Raid frames have added customization. Default nameplates are feeling a lot more usable, kind of a bit at this stage with a decent amount of customization to suit your play style. The new in-house damage meters are also
[11:14] here and also offer some visual customization along with some of the expected breakdowns. And if I may just come out of reporter mode for a second and give a personal opinion here, yeah, obviously this is going to be a big
[11:28] change and a lot of these UI updates and new add-ons simply will not have the kind of depth of functionality that many players, especially on the higher end, years. So, as someone who played the whole of season one of The War Within
[11:43] without add-ons as a special masochistic challenge just to see if I could, and spoiler, I could. Please allow me to give you some advice here, okay? Try not to go into pre-patch with preconceived ideas
[11:58] about what you're going to need. YouTube and social media is jammed at the moment with well-meaning videos telling you all the essential add-ons that you're going to need to make the game work after the changes. I am begging you, on day one,
[12:12] ignore them. Switch off all of your add-ons. Spend a day playing with the UI because I've got a feeling you'll probably be surprised by how much is possible and then identify any functionality that you want that you
[12:26] can't make in game and go looking for add-ons that fill those needs. Because if you go in pre-armed with a bunch of new add-ons that you've never used needed, it's just going to make everything more confusing and more
[12:39] aren't going to take my advice here and fair enough, but I promise it's good advice. I'm secretly quietly optimistic that a lot of people are going to end up really liking these changes despite themselves, but there is no doubt that
[12:53] it's going to be a major point of discourse out the whole of Midnight. So, yeah, I'm sure we'll visit this again. Transmog system changes. I didn't lead with this, but as you know, transmog is what this game is truly all about. And
[13:07] the Midnight pre-patch sees a complete overhaul of this frankly ancient, I mean like 15 years old ancient, and cumbersome system. Hey everyone, happy New Year, happy 2026, and happy me because we are back for another year,
[13:23] our 10th here on YouTube, and one of many that we've gotten to share with Squarespace. Thank you guys for sponsoring today's video, too. Going into the new year, I want to make sure that our website is discoverable and on
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[13:51] we're off to a great start. A new feature here is the AI visibility tool, which gauges how well you appear in LLM responses because apparently this is our world now. I liked that I was given some prompts here along with the option to
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[14:44] So, there you go. Those are a few neat features on Squarespace that show how wildly relevant or irrelevant you may be while still giving you control of those little details that make your website feel [music] yours. Meanwhile, I am all
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[15:16] I'll go with extra bold or even just bold at a pinch. The headline here is the addition of outfits. Players will start with two free outfits and will be able to unlock up to 50 total outfits. Now, outfits are effectively [music]
[15:31] just that, a set appearance for each of your gear slots that stays the same regardless of what you equip. It costs a bit of gold to change each gear slot within an outfit, up to around 3,000 gold to change all of them in one go,
[15:45] but once that outfit is unlocked and set, it's free to swap between outfits. Outfits can even be placed on your action bars, meaning you can swap to them or even macro them in without having to visit a transmogrifier. So,
[15:58] you can swap between your town or country looks at the click of a button, or think smaller. Have the same transmog in two slots, one with helm, one without, and take your hat on or off at the touch of a button. Or,
[16:13] [clears throat] and this is the really fun bit, have your transmog change automatically. Because all of this only really begins to make sense when you factor in situational transmog. Situations are part of a new system that
[16:28] allows players to automatically swap their outfits depending on the situation they're in. These conditions include location, movement, specializations, equipment sets, racial forms, [music] and professions. So, your transmog can
[16:43] change as you mount up, swim, enter a dungeon, enter your neighborhood, enter form, pick a flower, punch a guy in the face, or RP walk over the corpse of your rival. The first two slots are free. [music] However, if you would like to
[16:58] set more than two outfits, these need to be unlocked and paid for. [music] Just once, but still. The good news is that the number of slots you unlock is wide. The bad news is that you have to pay for them. Now, the [clears throat]
[17:12] costs of these slots have been adjusted repeatedly since this feature was announced, but as it stands currently, they look like this. Slot three is 100 gold, slot four is 200, then we hit 1,000 at seven, 10,000 [music] gold at
[17:27] 1,000 at seven, 10,000 [music] gold at slot 11, all the way up to 100,000 gold for each slot from 41 to [music] 50. For anyone who would like to unlock all 50 slots, that is a cool 2,012,650
[17:44] will still be there, and you can plonk them on whenever you like when you chat with the transmogrifier. There's been a lot of split opinions about this new transmog system, but honestly, it's one of those classic wow things where when
[17:57] you hear about it or even have it explained to you, then it's actually quite hard to understand, but when you see it in game in front of you, it makes a lot more sense and you realize it's a huge improvement, actually. That's
[18:09] definitely the case here, in my opinion. Pre-patch event, Twilight Ascension. Oh, yeah, there's also the pre-patch event. Almost forgot about that. The pre-patch brings Twilight Ascension. Not right away, though. This comes a week after
[18:25] the pre-patch on January the 27th, and our old friends, the Twilight's Hammer, rebrand and are now the Twilight's Blade. A very, very subtle nod to their support for everyone's favorite Dommy Mommy, and it's our job to stamp them
[18:40] out. Like, just really step on them. Where was I again? Right, yes, so the big question is, is this a pre-patch to rival the undisputed best ever pre-patch for BFA with the War of Thorns three-week progressing questline
[18:53] charting the battles across the Darkshore and the burning and the attack on Lordaeron? Does it come close to Legion's effort with the absolutely wild Legion invasion events and Broken Shore scenario?
[19:05] No. No, it definitely doesn't. This is a pre-patch event that I would describe as, you know, like a wow pre-patch event. Like The War Within or Dragonflight or Shadowlands or WoD. Actually, if I had to compare it to
[19:18] it to WoD. Do you remember the WoD pre-patch? Exactly. Complete questline beginning with the Cult Within, and you'll receive the Twilight Blade's tabard along with the title Definitely Not a Cultist,
[19:32] This will also unlock the Twilight Ascension weekly quests and world quests and rares in the Twilight Highlands. There is, of course, a currency in the form of the Twilight's Blade Insignia, which you can get 40 of for doing the
[19:46] weekly quest once per week per war-bound, 10 of them per world quest, and one piddly shitty little insignia per rare. There are 18 rares cycling through a 10-minute timer, each of them requiring you to ambush camps, dispel a
[19:59] shield by killing ritualists, and take down the rare. And you're probably going And of course, you're doing all this for a fun video game experience and a sense Only joking, you're doing it for rewards. Killing all 18 of those rares
[20:13] plus a voice of the eclipse, which spawns from ethereal voids every hour, gives you the two minutes to midnight achievement and the light forged mech suit mount, which is pretty cool. There are vendors that sell the nasty nerubian
[20:26] re-trained sky razer mount along with a handful of cute little pets including a spore bit. Oh, I love a little spore bit. You can buy the well-worn twilight's cultist attire and weapon arsenal and three blood elf themed decor
[20:42] items, a chair, a candelabra, and a fancy elven chaise. I say three, five of each, probably 10. Make it 20 just to be safe cuz you don't want to be and have to go back, you know. And as
[20:55] event to get yourself some catch up gear for 40 insignia a pop. The gear is level 121. Don't panic, there was a stat squish, remember? Which is one out of eight champion upgradeable to 144, which is the equivalent of mana forged omega
[21:09] normal gear. And yes, you can catalyze them to pick up any transmogs that you're still missing from last season. And that's pretty cool, actually. Okay, world pre-patch because of that and the candelabra and the fact I can't remember
[21:23] the word pre-patch. Winds of mysterious fortune. Speaking of catch up, the winds of mysterious fortune event returns from January 27th as well, bringing plus 20% January 27th as well, bringing plus 20% XP to all leveling sources from level 10
[21:38] to 80, awarding satchels with buffs and potions and gear, and giving significant reputation buffs. Dragonflight factions will get a 200% reputation increase and war within factions will get a 100% increase. [music] There are a handful of
[21:54] goofy toys and cosmetics that drop too, along with a recolor of the 20th anniversary timely tourist [music] set, which is fine. So, there you have it. That is everything that is coming in the midnight pre-patch this month.
[22:08] Probably. Let us know what we missed in the comments below, comment fans. There are of course plenty of things you'll still have to wait for at midnight [music] proper. Apex talents, level 90 as the max, updated professions, and
[22:23] regular feature content like the new zones, leveling, the prey system, dungeons, [music] and raids. If you enjoyed today's video, don't thank us, thank our patrons who give their actual real life money to make all of our work
[22:37] happen. Without them, there would be a whole lot less Taliesin and Evitel, so thank you guys as ever for making today's video possible. If you didn't like it, downvote the [ __ ] out of it and remember my name is Kraken Latte. No, my
[22:52] name is Evitel. From me and from Taliesin, until next [music] time, Taliesin, until next [music] time, cheerio.