Blizzard Are FINALLY Fixing Midnight's Annoying Problems

[00:01] 12.1 isn't a very flashy patch. There's

[00:03] no new groundbreaking feature and

[00:05] story-wise in a way we're not even

[00:07] moving that far forward. But now that

[00:09] we've seen everything, it's actually

[00:12] huge looking and really quite unique.

[00:14] And what it ultimately means is that if

[00:16] what Midnight fundamentally does is no

[00:18] longer for you, I don't think this patch

[00:20] will completely change that. But

[00:22] instead, I see the curse of all that act

[00:24] to be a fixer patch. Basically one for

[00:27] people who broadly have enjoyed Midnight

[00:29] but want it a little bit more. The good

[00:31] news in that front is 12.1 is going to

[00:33] make our lives a hell of a lot better.

[00:35] So, we've seen the wild cast and the

[00:37] follow-up posts and ultimately it's

[00:39] clear that some teams at Blizzard locked

[00:42] in pretty hard over the last 6 months,

[00:44] especially the UI team. But also the

[00:47] world content team, the housing team,

[00:49] rewards team and even their social team.

[00:51] There's a lot going on, so here is

[00:53] everything that we know. First, I'm

[00:55] going to run through all the new big

[00:56] important features and after that we'll

[00:58] talk about the big changes to the game.

[01:02] For the first time in a long time, 12.1

[01:04] may be a patch that isn't cursed by

[01:06] world like. That may sound kind of

[01:08] insane if you've been playing wild over

[01:10] the last decade, but no, I think it's

[01:12] credible. And it's because world bosses

[01:13] are getting a total overhaul and the new

[01:16] flex mythic difficulty added in 12.07 is

[01:19] staying around. And believe it or not,

[01:21] these things are actually connected. So

[01:23] now world bosses are being moved into

[01:25] something called layers. You know, like

[01:29] an exit is layer. Now the wild cast

[01:31] episode was a little light in

[01:33] explanation here, but the screenshot

[01:35] tells us exactly what we need to know.

[01:37] Layers exist all over the world just

[01:39] like delves do, but inside the layer you

[01:41] will find a boss. A boss that has got

[01:44] world normal [music]

[01:45] heroic and mythic difficulty. And the

[01:47] mythic part is confirmed to be 15 to 25

[01:51] player flex. Now, of course, we're all

[01:53] kind of waiting with baited breath to

[01:54] hear what kind of gear these things are

[01:56] going to drop, but I think one thing is

[01:58] for sure already.

[02:00] This, at least in concept, is absolutely

[02:03] fantastic. You see, world bosses have

[02:04] almost always been the number one cause

[02:06] of world lag in WoW. So, keeping them in

[02:08] instances will fix that. And it fixes

[02:10] another problem. For a long time, world

[02:12] bosses haven't really been bosses,

[02:15] right? The sheer amount of chaos and

[02:17] sometimes lag means that they barely

[02:19] have gameplay that you end up paying

[02:21] attention to. So, hopefully here, with

[02:23] Blizzard adding difficulty and actually

[02:26] having an amount of players that they

[02:27] can design the boss for, well, hopefully

[02:29] that means that these will be real,

[02:32] actual bits of content. I mean, imagine

[02:34] instead of mindlessly zerging a world

[02:36] boss in reset, it's something your guild

[02:39] maybe knocks out as a warm-up in raid

[02:40] night. And for actual rewards as well,

[02:43] not gear that'll just be replaced near

[02:45] [music] instantly. And it's actually

[02:46] Final Fantasy XIV's trials that come to

[02:49] mind for this, or maybe field encounters

[02:51] from Bozja. And what it should

[02:52] ultimately mean, if it's successful, is

[02:54] that going forward in the future,

[02:56] whenever we hear that there's a new

[02:58] world boss, instead of not caring and

[03:00] turning our brains off, it'll actually

[03:02] [music] register as a real, meaningful

[03:04] bit of content. That's a huge change

[03:06] from how WoW's been run, and thankfully,

[03:08] it's not the only major change.

[03:12] Our new zone might be a patch island,

[03:13] but it actually looks, well, a little

[03:15] bit juiced. Looks pretty cool. So, it's

[03:17] called the Coil Isle, and it turns out

[03:19] it's much bigger and much deeper than it

[03:20] appears to be from the outside for

[03:22] pretty neat gameplay reasons, which I'll

[03:24] get to in a little. But, one of the

[03:25] biggest with the past is it's got its

[03:27] own progression system. Now, borrowed

[03:29] power is a dirty word as of late, but

[03:31] when it's used properly and in specific

[03:33] zones, it can give those zones

[03:34] longevity. And as much as there could be

[03:36] skepticism, I think it's a bit like

[03:37] gearing, where a bit of content may be

[03:39] impossible, but then you do some

[03:41] progress, and then the content becomes

[03:42] possible. That type of progression

[03:44] sparks the feeling that RPGs are pretty

[03:46] much famous for. Now, all Blizzard have

[03:48] shown us so far is a way to reduce the

[03:50] venom damage, but it seems there's a

[03:52] whole lot more to unlock. And if they

[03:54] can nail the joy of picking up quality

[03:56] of life upgrades over time and effort,

[03:58] importantly, then I think this could be

[04:00] one of the more fun patch zones we've

[04:02] had in a while. And that's especially if

[04:03] the zone is as dangerous as the

[04:05] venom-soaked island of cursed snakes

[04:08] sort of looks [music] to be in the lore.

[04:10] But where this one gets more interesting

[04:11] is the inside part. The inside is a

[04:13] giant cavern full of temples called the

[04:15] Vaults of Atal'tech, and there are a

[04:18] series of public events that lead up to

[04:20] a boss event in there. Based on the

[04:22] wildcasts, it seems that stuff can get a

[04:23] little bit more on the hard end. Turning

[04:25] to the outside of the island though,

[04:26] there's something pretty cool called

[04:28] curse surges. These spawn in rare elites

[04:30] to kill. Now, I normally roll my eyes

[04:31] and say there's nothing unusual to that,

[04:33] but what's neat is a new thing. Beating

[04:35] those elites will temporarily open up

[04:37] cursed fishing and envenomated

[04:39] gathering. So, I guess that's Blizzard

[04:41] trying to spice up gathering a bit for

[04:43] this patch. Definitely keen to see how

[04:45] that feels and if it's in secret a bit

[04:48] of a cool anti-botting measure. We'll

[04:50] have to see. Now, the good news is the

[04:52] public test realms are already up, so

[04:53] we'll soon see how the zone and the

[04:55] progression feel. And when we do, we'll

[04:57] report back. Certainly though, it

[04:59] doesn't look like a run-of-the-mill

[05:00] patch zone [music] from what we've seen

[05:02] so far. But of course, there's far more

[05:04] to get to in this video. So, next, let's

[05:06] knock out a big new feature that's

[05:08] genuinely great. [music]

[05:11] This may be one of the most important

[05:13] fixes in the history of World of

[05:15] Warcraft, and it is the Discord

[05:17] integration. It's here, and it looks

[05:19] perfect. Basically, you can link up a

[05:20] Discord channel to your guild chat,

[05:23] which basically means that you can talk

[05:25] with people who are outside of the game

[05:27] without having to alt-tab. Or of course,

[05:29] [music] vice versa. You're able to reach

[05:31] people who are in game even if you're

[05:32] out and about in your phone. And as you

[05:34] see here, you can have Discord messages

[05:36] appear as your actual guild chat, or if

[05:38] you want, you can separate it out into a

[05:40] guild Discord window. Honestly, this is

[05:43] kind of nuts to me. Blizzard correctly

[05:45] identified that guild chats have mostly

[05:47] been replaced, and instead of fighting

[05:49] it and trying to lock us into guilds

[05:50] further, they've accepted it and they've

[05:52] came up with a great idea. And they've

[05:53] also followed through with some niche

[05:54] concerns, too. It doesn't support

[05:57] Discord server profiles, but you can

[05:59] choose to have the wow side see your

[06:00] character name [music] instead of your

[06:02] Discord name, which of course offers

[06:04] identity control, which will be a super

[06:06] important thing for role-playing guilds,

[06:08] as well as guilds you're maybe um not

[06:10] super super close with. And then in

[06:12] terms of controlling config, settings

[06:13] for this are on the guild leader's side.

[06:15] Now, we're not sure if you can see

[06:17] Discord messages in regular guild chat

[06:19] even without connecting your Discord,

[06:22] sort of in the way the guild chat stores

[06:23] messages you are not online to see, but

[06:25] we'll at least test it once it's up and

[06:27] uh make sure. I know plenty of people

[06:29] don't want to be forced into Discord

[06:31] use, given say the age verification

[06:33] nightmare going on. That's why it would

[06:34] be good to test that. And finally for

[06:36] this feature, the config and admin

[06:38] stuff, of course, resides with your

[06:39] guild leader.

[06:42] Very much in keeping with the theme of

[06:44] venomous snakes and poisoned water,

[06:45] Blizzard have added in new tools to help

[06:47] you, the extremely toxic in game.

[06:51] I kind of joke, but it is actually quite

[06:53] cool. They're updating pings. So, now

[06:55] you can actually ping your abilities to

[06:57] communicate your cool downs to the

[06:58] group, but more importantly, you can

[07:00] ping your health bar, which basically is

[07:03] a yes, I need healing button, or if

[07:05] you're one of the elderly, maybe the

[07:06] medic call from TF2. Now, it definitely

[07:09] will be used for evil and for trolling,

[07:11] but all that said, I think pinging the

[07:13] defensives or big cool downs are ready

[07:15] will be genuinely useful for guilds.

[07:18] It's not as easy as having an add-on

[07:19] that tracks them and does all of that

[07:21] automatically, but it is a lot more fun

[07:23] and a lot more intentional. And that

[07:25] intentionality probably means that if

[07:27] someone is sharing something, it will

[07:28] actually matter. Now, speaking of cool

[07:30] downs, we've got huge news for the cool

[07:33] down manager. It now supports trinkets

[07:35] and consumables. Took a while, but

[07:37] thankfully that's finally in. And

[07:39] speaking of something finally being in,

[07:41] healers [music] can now customize the

[07:44] buffs that will show on their group

[07:46] frames, and they can even add in visual

[07:47] alerts like flashes. It's definitely

[07:49] taking longer than any of us would have

[07:51] liked, but you know what? Credit to the

[07:53] Blizzard UI team, they're certainly

[07:55] marching on.

[07:57] Time for another feature we would have

[07:58] liked earlier, housing exports, or as

[08:01] Blizzard have cleverly called them,

[08:03] blueprints. This is pretty much awesome.

[08:06] Basically, [music] you'll be able to

[08:07] import and export house codes. So, it's

[08:10] that feature that they promised, and

[08:11] when you do, the import and export will

[08:13] be complete with a fully descriptive

[08:15] list of what items are in the list, what

[08:17] you're missing, and support for

[08:19] different types of exports. Those

[08:21] exports being rooms, whole houses, and

[08:23] whole exteriors. And actually, you can

[08:25] also save these like you would talent

[08:27] layouts, so you can swap between them

[08:29] with ease. And on top of that, if you

[08:30] just want a clean slate, there is now a

[08:32] full reset button, so that's a hell of a

[08:34] lot less faff than having to delete

[08:36] everything manually. Another much

[08:37] requested feature they've added is pets.

[08:39] You can stick a pet bed down, you can

[08:42] choose which pet owns that bed, and then

[08:44] they'll just roam around your house. And

[08:46] it's not just one, it will support

[08:47] multiple pets. So, I'm sure someone out

[08:49] there will find how many it takes to

[08:51] break a housing instance. Lastly for

[08:53] housing then, at least from what's been

[08:54] announced, I am hoping there'll be more,

[08:56] but we do know there will be new

[08:58] endeavors. That was one of the major

[09:00] complaints, there just wasn't enough of

[09:01] them. So, this patch will be adding four

[09:03] more, the centaur, a manny, tortollans,

[09:05] and kobolds. Now, on top of that,

[09:06] there's a few other things. The housing

[09:08] level cap is raising up to 12. Blizzard

[09:09] are streamlining some of the dyes, but

[09:11] really, blueprints are the big ticket

[09:13] item here, and rightly so. I think

[09:16] saving your progress is the unlock that

[09:18] the wow housing system needs to be

[09:20] basically thousands of times more

[09:22] usable. Cuz if you go and put in the

[09:24] time into building something really

[09:26] cool, you don't want to then feel like

[09:28] you're locked into only using that thing

[09:30] because, well, poof, it's gone. That's

[09:32] what the old system mandated, and that's

[09:34] now fixed.

[09:37] Before I get to PvE content, there's

[09:39] something even more shocking, PvP but

[09:41] without one of the Ps. And I think that

[09:43] after the training grounds feature, this

[09:45] was kind of inevitable. There's going to

[09:47] be an arena version of the training

[09:48] grounds, which means that you can

[09:49] practice arena against bots. Now, given

[09:52] how PvP doomers seem to be right now,

[09:55] the doomy-est that I've ever really seen

[09:56] them, and for a whole lot of good

[09:58] reasons, I don't know if this will

[10:00] actually help the problems PvP people

[10:02] are facing. So, hopefully more love for

[10:04] them is on Blizzard's radar because it's

[10:06] almost the only group of players left

[10:08] feeling just not really served properly.

[10:12] But, speaking of being served, well,

[10:14] there is going to be a new season of

[10:15] WoW, and that actually means a larger

[10:18] serving of content than we've been used

[10:19] to.

[10:22] I hope you're sitting down for this one

[10:23] because in patch 12.1, something

[10:25] shocking is going to happen. There's

[10:26] going to be

[10:28] a new eight-boss raid, which is really

[10:29] not shocking at all. Uh the Venomous

[10:31] Abyss is the new raid, and it's Blizzard

[10:33] taking a bit of a break from Midnight's

[10:35] crazy three-raid experiment thing,

[10:37] though I don't think that's because it

[10:39] didn't work. I think that for this, they

[10:41] probably just want to keep it simple and

[10:43] focused on the actual patch island. All

[10:45] that we know right now is that Ula'tek

[10:47] is the last boss, and this footage shows

[10:49] a whole lot of snakes, lots of teeth,

[10:51] and green spell effects. Pretty nice.

[10:53] And it's also surprising just how much

[10:55] troll architecture feels right for this

[10:57] raid. Well, shouldn't be surprising. It

[11:00] is a troll raid. I more [music] mean,

[11:02] damn, they have executed it perfectly.

[11:04] So, that's all pretty good, but there's

[11:07] actually a lot more. First, we're

[11:09] getting a new dungeon as well, and

[11:10] that's not usually a guaranteed thing

[11:12] when it comes to getting a major patch.

[11:14] This one is called the Altar of Fangs.

[11:16] And while we're on the topic of

[11:17] dungeons, the M+ rotation has already

[11:19] driven some people little mad. I kind of

[11:21] understand why. It's mostly because of

[11:23] Temple of Sethraliss and King's Rest.

[11:26] BfA dungeons are not everyone's

[11:28] favorite. There's also Ruby Life Pools,

[11:29] and and the four Midnight dungeons that

[11:31] were not in season 1. And while lots of

[11:33] this skepticism is fair, usually when

[11:35] dungeons come back they do get changed

[11:37] quite a bit, so let's hope that's

[11:38] happening here. Moving on to delves

[11:39] though, we've got an impressive

[11:40] offering. There's three of them. Now,

[11:42] one is a season 2 nemesis who, believe

[11:44] it or not, is a snake man, though not a

[11:47] naga and not a sethrak. Appears to be a

[11:49] new kind of snake man entirely, which I

[11:52] imagine we'll be introduced to soon. The

[11:55] existing delves are also getting new

[11:56] variants as well, so more than we are

[11:58] used to for delves. Then, with the price

[12:00] system, there will be updates for season

[12:02] 2. That's going to mean some new hunt

[12:03] targets, new affixes, and most

[12:05] importantly of all, new astalor voice

[12:08] lines.

[12:10] Perhaps the largest feature many will

[12:12] feel is on gearing. Now, one of the

[12:14] biggest frustrations my guild has had

[12:16] for quite a while now is that raid gear

[12:18] kind of sucks. It's faster and easier to

[12:21] gear through mythic plus, so a lot of

[12:22] the time we end up out-gearing the raid.

[12:25] Not in 12.1 apparently, because they've

[12:27] buffed the hell out of gear. Where the

[12:29] drops themselves are the same, but the

[12:31] raid track in the vault is now a full

[12:33] tier higher.

[12:35] This is huge. It means that myth gear

[12:37] will be something you can earn from

[12:39] heroic [music] raid vault. Now, you

[12:40] might be wondering what that means for

[12:42] myth raid vault. Well, the good news is

[12:44] that it will just drop fully maxed out

[12:46] gear instead, so that'll actually save

[12:48] you myth crests. Now, rather shockingly

[12:50] to me, bonus rolls, which were of course

[12:52] added back into the game in patch

[12:54] 12.0.5, well, those are actually

[12:55] sticking around. You'll be able to pick

[12:57] up a void core as a vault reward right

[13:01] away. And then, on week eight of the

[13:03] patch, you'll start getting them

[13:04] directly as well. So, basically means

[13:06] Blizzard are locking in bonus rolls as a

[13:07] part of wow's gearing, and I think those

[13:09] bonus rolls, because they do guarantee a

[13:12] bit of loot, are actually a fantastic

[13:14] backup option from the great vault.

[13:16] Pretty neat. As is the change that on

[13:18] week eight, instead of having to do a

[13:20] quest for them, you'll actually just

[13:22] start getting them directly. So, there's

[13:23] no need to unlock, there's no quest to

[13:25] do or anything like that. Otherwise,

[13:27] they work the same as always, but with

[13:28] one key improvement though. Raid rolls

[13:31] don't cost two anymore. That was kind of

[13:33] weird, I guess. Then, there's the

[13:35] Ascendant upgrade items. Those are

[13:37] making a return as well. The new

[13:38] Ascendant Venom Cores will drop from a

[13:40] bunch of sources and upgrade your

[13:41] weapons, trinkets, and now necklaces at

[13:44] a rate of 10 Cores per upgrade. And then

[13:47] lastly, on the gearing front, the

[13:48] Catalyst will no longer change the

[13:50] secondary stats or remove special

[13:52] effects from the item that you catalyze.

[13:54] That means the gear you choose to

[13:55] catalyze is actually important now. I

[13:58] don't think it'll matter that much in

[13:59] the earlier weeks, but certainly as you

[14:01] go on, recatalyzing a bit of tier once

[14:03] you can maybe put in some sort of nice

[14:05] bonus effect, well, that could actually

[14:08] work. So, pretty neat.

[14:11] The last important thing, at least for

[14:13] now, is class changes. We'll dig into

[14:15] every class later as we always do, but

[14:16] for now, here are some of the huge

[14:18] sweeping ones, like the usual health and

[14:20] incoming damage buff that we get every

[14:22] season, which is essentially Blizzard's

[14:24] attempt to stop spike damage issues,

[14:26] which can be a real bastard for healers,

[14:28] and they can make the game design side

[14:30] of WoW not really work as well. But

[14:32] history certainly shows us that sort of

[14:33] thing helps, but is not a overall fix to

[14:36] the problem. Now, there are some unusual

[14:39] changes though, as well, like DPS

[14:41] cooldowns getting nerfed. Turns out

[14:43] Blizzard totally agrees that all of your

[14:45] damage being inside cooldown windows

[14:47] makes the damage you do outside of those

[14:48] windows feel massively frustrating. And

[14:51] of course, it does mean that if you do a

[14:52] little bit of a whoopsie in your damage

[14:54] window, well, um you should feel a

[14:56] little bit less punished. Now, this is

[14:59] being done on a spec-by-spec basis

[15:00] instead of being something sweeping,

[15:01] [music] so I don't have any big number

[15:03] for you, but I can at least tell you

[15:06] that it will impact Unholy, [music]

[15:08] Devourer Windwalker Elemental and

[15:10] Ret. For now, at least. Blizzard may add

[15:13] more to the list. One last thing before

[15:15] I go and dive into the PTR, and that is

[15:17] on the raid story. The raid story is

[15:19] definitely not directly related to the

[15:21] main thrust of our drama in the world

[15:23] soul saga, but it is kind of related and

[15:25] Blizzard's blog post did promise us more

[15:27] Alleria where specifically he'll be

[15:29] chasing down Xal'atath cuz yeah, I

[15:32] suppose it only took him a few months to

[15:33] remember that his parents were slurped

[15:36] into a big voidy leyline thing and and

[15:39] disappeared. But overall what we're

[15:40] looking at here is game system updates

[15:43] that seem very strong, plenty more

[15:45] content, more content than I would have

[15:46] expected and while we can't say that the

[15:48] world content is really that much better

[15:50] yet, I think moving world bosses into

[15:52] their own instance

[15:53] >> [music]

[15:53] >> is maybe the most exciting thing within

[15:56] this patch cuz for such a long time

[15:58] world bosses have absolutely blown and

[16:00] with a feature like this, I suppose we

[16:02] can have bosses like say Gruul or Onyxia

[16:06] as a normal thing in the game moving

[16:08] forward. That would be fantastic. And

[16:11] just think about how Blizzard puts

[16:12] effort into making world bosses for

[16:14] every major patch and most of the time

[16:16] players really don't give a about

[16:17] them. Here, they'll register as actual

[16:20] content cuz you can do them on

[16:21] difficulties that'll actually mean the

[16:23] mechanics matter. Seems pretty cool to

[16:25] me especially in how it's layered across

[16:27] all of the other world content

[16:29] improvements and just improvements we've

[16:30] got with Midnight. So while Midnight has

[16:32] been a bit of a bumpy weird expansion in

[16:35] some ways, I think the core of what

[16:37] they're doing here looks pretty great.

[16:38] I'd love to know what your favorite

[16:39] announced feature is. Mine is certainly

[16:41] layers and blueprints and if any of this

[16:42] has you excited to play again, check out

[16:44] this video next. It's about the leveling

[16:45] changes that literally just hit the game

[16:47] a few days ago. I got to say they're

[16:49] really awesome, they're really fun for

[16:51] your alts and you can find out about it

[16:53] with a video link that's about to

[16:54] appear.