[00:06] welcome to another episode of the weekly reset Taliesin and Evitel's wondrous wisdom show. But not just any old episode. Oh no, this is our special Winter Veil holiday episode. You can
[00:21] Veil sweater. And what makes it so special? Well, it's our usual type of episode, but that's okay because you're busy too, right? As the year comes to an end and we look forward to 2026 and the new year trading
[00:36] forward to 2026 and the new year trading post chainmail bikini and wall-to-wall midnight goodness from the get-go. Be it the release of the pre-patch in January or the expansion itself in February.
[00:49] itself in February. Um March? Is that No, that's March. It's March, fam. And all the talk from then on in is going to be about class changes and chainmail bikinis and add-on grief. And well, that's probably about it,
[01:01] actually. So today gives us a good opportunity to just take it easy and get one last WoW news hit before we like disappear into the parallel holiday know what day it is and normal dietary rules don't apply. And when I say WoW
[01:16] news, obviously I mean Midnight beta news because there's nothing in War Within right now, is there? That [ __ ] is completely over. Honestly, if it wasn't have logged in in the last 2 weeks. But as it happens, player housing does
[01:31] exist. So actually, all I've done is log in in the last 2 weeks to put degenerate amounts of time into recreating this exact office in one of our patron community neighborhood houses. So now I come upstairs to this exact office so
[01:46] that I can log in to this exact office and that definitely makes me feel a certain type of way. That definitely makes me feel something. But whatever, I'm very proud of how I use the ethereal mana pipe thing for this neon sign. That
[01:59] definitely makes it feel like time well spent. Let's all settle in for a special spent. Let's all settle in for a special extended beta news rundown. Welcome to extended beta news rundown. Welcome to the beta news rundown. Let's run down.
[02:26] probably not the Midnight login screen main theme music. Does that make sense? No? Okay, fine. Listen to this. [Music]
[02:56] over the Demensius gaping taint login screen, but I don't think it's the music that will first greet you when the login screen appears. Not the main WoW theme. screen appears. Not the main WoW theme. You know, the WoW theme.
[03:42] the Xal'atath theme from War Within, so it's probably part of the suite of expansion music that kicks in after. So not as exciting as the headline suggests, although it still represents our first glimpse of Midnight
[03:56] soundtrack. We are now able to test the entire pre-patch event on the Midnight PTR, not to be confused with the Midnight beta. Previously, we could only do the establishing quests that saw players join Romath and Umbrick in
[04:10] rooting out a sect of the new Twilight's Blade cult. No, definitely not the know what that is. Why would you even mention that? You're weird. But now we have access to what looks to be the rest of the event. And I know what you're
[04:24] thinking. You're thinking, "Oh, Taliesin, let me guess. Is it repeatable for catch-up gear and the currency to buy collectibles from a vendor just like last five or six expansions which translates into like 12 years of the
[04:39] translates into like 12 years of the same formula." And I would say, um sort of. But guys, no. You'll never guess what weeklies in the zone for catch-up gear and currencies to buy collectibles from
[04:51] a vendor, but this time some of the collectibles are housing decor. Quite good decor, honestly. So yeah, it's actually very different this time. I think you'll agree. Very different. Legion did this formula the absolute
[05:05] best with its fell invasions and that launched over 9 years ago now and we're clearly never getting anything like the narrative thrust and questing of the BFA pre-patch ever again. A pre-patch that even had two full novellas dedicated to
[05:20] had housing decor on a vendor before either, so swings and roundabouts. Like with all these big zone events on the PTR, it'll probably be way more fun when and lagging the [ __ ] out of it. So I'll save my half-hearted complaints about
[05:34] because maybe I'll be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time. And anyway, did I mention chainmail bikinis are coming to the trading post in the new year? the trading post in the new year? Housing news. The beta now has night elf
[05:48] and blood elf exteriors now available to test. And yeah, I know this isn't quite housing first launched seeing as the community has discovered a million your look like whatever ridiculous and fairly legal thing you could ever
[06:04] possibly desire. But those blood elf pavilions are expensive and use up a ton of exterior decor limit, okay? So yes, actually this is an awesome addition. Especially if you live in the Horde neighborhood and don't love the whole
[06:19] mud hut {slash} scary fortress aesthetic of the orc buildings. Although actually, the blood elf exteriors do continue the Horde building tradition of being Horde building tradition of being absolutely massive. Tally's conspiracy
[06:32] theory that the Horde plots are smaller than the Alliance ones not being disproven in his mind anytime soon. Seriously, the amount of towers you can put on this blood elf [ __ ] is insane. Xal'atath may have destroyed Dalaran,
[06:45] but don't worry, kids, because we have Dalaran at home. And like, no, seriously, we do. Is this gentrification of Razorwind Shores? It certainly gives the place a more elegant vibe, which is a welcome variant. The night elf options
[07:00] are also very welcome. Especially the cute little round doors that will be very handy for anyone wanting to create their little Hobbiton house in the Shire. An option that hasn't been enabled on beta yet is the different
[07:12] sizes of home. All four of the available styles are currently locked into small styles are currently locked into small size. This is small. We do now at least know that the medium homes are coming with housing renown eight, which will
[07:25] unlock at launch. The renown levels have been filled out all the way to nine on beta with presumably at least a few more to come so that large houses can be rewarded at some point, too. Thank goodness. Man, it'll be such a relief to
[07:39] upgrade this fiddly small house to large. I feel so trapped in this tiny, tiny house. But by the time you hit level nine, you will have the Hearthlight's armillary, which allows you to alter ambient lighting vibes, and
[07:54] you to alter ambient lighting vibes, and I quote, "within and around the owner's house," which makes it seem like this will affect exterior of your homes, too. You'll have an interior decor placement limit of 4,340
[08:07] and a room placement limit of holy [ __ ] 95? Or actually, maybe you'll have a decor limit of 5,340 and a room limit of 115. It's not very clear if the extra decor and room limit rewards at level seven
[08:21] and nine are part of or in addition to that right now. Either way, it's a lot of rooms. There's a new endeavor in the beta neighborhoods to try. Gone are the blood elves and their beautiful paintings and elegant wine collection.
[08:35] Instead, the Niffen have taken over asking you to speed around the neighborhood on a snail delivering the mail or leading bees to pollen or gathering materials for incense to place and help confused sniffers or if you
[08:48] really want to, head through the portal to Loam and help out there. All for house XP and neighborhood tokens. The reward on offer this time are obviously all earthy Niffen style doohickeys, which is all great. But is it wrong that
[09:02] my favorite is the mound of dirt? I can just see loads of uses for this mound of dirt is all. If the dirt doesn't do it for you, then how about some cool should have mentioned this, but we can test the mechanome endeavor now, too.
[09:17] There's an extremely handy Mechagon visa control gnome outside the neighborhood portal to the Mechagon endeavor quests that allows you to skip all the intro quests to that zone and unlock the zone activities if you never did it back in
[09:30] BFA. And he doesn't even confiscate your phone to check your social media for mean posts about gnomes. What a dude. And the rewards here are predictably more steampunk with some awesome animations. Like the gauge dial or the
[09:43] two gauge dials, the drive belt, the very awesome cable with a blue pulse traveling along it, and the big erect pulsing, throbbing Get your mind out of the gutter, okay? It's the perfectly innocent, uh
[09:57] sticky lever. Moving on. And you know what? There's been a load of new decor added to the standard neighborhood vendors, too. Do you like cobblestone paths? Well, then, as a special Winterveil treat, how about a curved
[10:10] cobblestone path? And how about the new garden cluster foliage type? Ready-made clumps of outdoor flora themed around each biome from the two neighborhoods. I know, if you don't care about housing or haven't touched it yet, it might seem
[10:23] strange that I'm so excited about garden clusters, but that's a skilly issue because if you have been engaging in housing, then you know exactly why I'm so excited about garden clusters because you are, too. Other cool new additions
[10:37] on the beta. Mailboxes are now functional. Check your character's mail from your own property like a total letter-reading Chad. And plot borders are now visible. Or, rather, I should say, are visible again, since this was
[10:51] removed for some reason. If you ask Taliesen, it was to hide the fact that ones, but that's just his conspiracy theory. Like, we try not to talk about Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner when there's family about, you know? This is
[11:06] obviously wonderful and makes me think about the other housing feature we used to have before the evil devs stole it from us. Gimbals with different colors representing the different axes. They got it right the first time and then
[11:20] went, "Lol, no. Screw you, you're never going to be completely sure if you're you want or to send it spinning some complete other way instead. Never forget what they took from us, internet. It was the colored gimbal. Lastly, for housing,
[11:34] there are now lumber achievements on beta for getting lots of wood. Get enough wood and you'll be able to get wood while mounted, so you'll be able to get wood even faster. Sorry if your kids were listening to that bit, but it's
[11:47] true. And lastly today, add-on changes news. And after the latest round of white-listing abilities so that they can be tracked properly by add-ons after all, Blizzard have said that bar a couple of quote very high priority
[12:01] not actually sure what they are, these add-on changes on beta are pretty much add-on changes on beta are pretty much locked in for 12.0. As in, this is what the new add-on landscape will look like when pre-patch goes live. These latest
[12:17] changes include the unsecreting of dynamic flying abilities, the absolutely essential de-secreting of battle res cooldowns, and the much requested unsecreting of Maelstrom weapon information for enhancement shaman, and
[12:31] collapsing star and void metamorphosis information for devourer demon hunters. to cobble together a stack count for Maelstrom weapon as part of my cooldown shouldn't have to be an absolute genius like me to make that work. That's not
[12:46] really fair. And I think it's really good, well done, that the new spec being introduced to the game in pre-patch, and which heralds the new era of new add-on reach, is actually able to track its new abilities properly. I think that's a
[13:02] Blizzard's going to continue to iterate on this stuff right up to the launch of on this stuff right up to the launch of midnight proper and beyond. But if you're wondering why we've never really, truly got stuck into the add-on
[13:15] apocalypse on this channel, despite, frankly, how great it is for clicks, you It's because, honestly, and don't hate me for this, I'm quietly optimistic about it. And the reason for that is probably due to the no add-on challenge
[13:30] that I set myself in season 1 of War Within, and which we documented in this video, whereby I pugged a healer, the least popular tank, and the least popular DPS two classes, and indeed roles that I'd never played in Mythic
[13:45] Plus before, to Keystone Hero, the highest title available at the time, highest title available at the time, without using any add-ons at all. And actually found that not only was it very possible indeed, but actually extremely
[13:59] enjoyable. And I'm an add-on stan. I'm like the world's biggest add-on fan. loves cocaine? That's how much I love add-ons. But if I can enjoy and cope
[14:11] that well with no add-ons at all and the base UI as it was at the beginning of War Within, then I'm sure many players will have an unexpectedly even better
[14:23] time in 12.0 with lots of add-ons, albeit with some working a bit improvements that have been introduced absolutely [ __ ] blood about it, obviously. That's a given. The game is
[14:35] even more doomed than what people predicted. I hope this just kills the years, but thinking they could replace add-ons out of the blue is hilarious, especially with how bug-riddled the game already is. And yes, I'm very aware that
[14:49] my quiet optimism could turn out to be very naive, nay, idiotic even. That wouldn't be the first time. But honestly, if I have a real concern, it's not add-ons or the lack of them, it's the way classes and encounters appear to
[15:04] be being simplified in midnight to accommodate this new paradigm. We'll talk more about this in our class guides in the new year, but of course, not being able to track certain things on your UI is only actually an issue if
[15:17] there is actually anything that you need to track. So, straight out of the gate, Blizz are understandably playing it pretty safe with dungeon and raid mechanics in midnight, but most noticeably also with class design.
[15:31] Outlaw is basically a cooldown class now. Enhancement is a very straightforward builder-spender. And in my experience, most classes have had their abilities consolidated and their main rotation streamlined in a way that,
[15:45] main rotation streamlined in a way that, on a case-by-case basis, generally makes sense and feels very modern in the way that like fury warrior and havoc demon hunter feel modern as spec rotations, you know? And if you play like one spec
[15:59] or class, then that's probably going to be fine or even good. The problem is in the context of all the classes overall generally less unique from each other. I'm not saying this is a problem yet. I haven't quite decided. Just that this is
[16:15] my main concern around all the add-on changes. Join us for the class guides. even have some jokes. You know how it goes. Happy New Year. And thanks for joining us today. I mean, I say happy New Year. We still have two more videos
[16:28] to come on this channel before 2026. Thanks, Squarespace. But they're good though, I promise. If you enjoyed this last news roundup of the year though, don't thank us, thank our patrons who give us their actual real life money to
[16:40] make all of our work happen. And seriously, patrons, thank you. Because without you, there would be a whole lot less Taliesen and Evitel. If you didn't like it, downvote to the [ __ ] out of it. Remember, my name is Cottage Wizard.
[16:55] Now, my name is Taliesen. From me and Evitel, until next time, much love, much peace to you all. Cheerio.