Silvermoon is back. Arator is caught between Light and Void. And the Voidstorm? It wants to eat the world. Blizzard just dropped major lore and gameplay bombs in today’s Midnight dev panel: here’s everything that matters.
Highlights
- Game Director Ion Hazzikostas and Lead Game Designer Maria Hamilton talked in the panel about the upcoming Midnight features.
- Ion has recapped the story so far, starting with the War Within, where we’ve heard mysterious whispers that lead us to Khaz Algar up to the point where Xal’atath turned against us after we defeated Dimensius only to become one of the most powerful beings the cosmos has ever known.
- In Midnight, Xal’atath wants to launch an assault that will plunge our world into eternal darkness, unless we do something about it.
- Our allies in Midnight include Turalyon and Alleria with Arator caught in the middle.
- Liadrin has summoned the Army of Light in the cinematic trailer. She will be very important to our efforts to push back the void.
- Orweyna will teach us about her people, their interests, and their culture.
- Magister Umbric is trying to pull his people together to contribute to our efforts.
- We will also meet Zul’jarra and Zul’jan, the grandchildren of Zul’jin. They will give us the opportunity to experience the Amani culture not as enemies this time.
- Then, we’ve got the two main forces: Light vs Void, extremes on both ends are problematic.
- Blizzard shared some concept art of Blood Elves in Midnight. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get our hands on those armor pieces.
- Eversong and Ghostlands have been combined into a single zone called Quel’Thalas.
- The Dead Scar has totally healed and is no longer there.
- There’s an area within Silvermoon that acts as a sanctuary, but the majority of the city still belongs to the Horde and Alliance is killed on sight as you would expect.
- Everything has been remade and is high fidelity now in Silvermoon.
- We’re also going to encounter the Amani. They’ve created an entire zone for them now.
- The Amani are very proud people. They work very hard to protect their land.
- They have fallen into a lesser status now. They lost their touch with the loa. Living right on the border and clashing often with the Blood Elves has made things difficult for them. On top of that, they’re also having some void problems.
- They’ve rebuilt Zul’Aman. The raid structures still exist, so you will recognize the houses.
- We met the Haranir early in The War Within, but we were not really sure what they were about.
- They are the ancient guardians of the root ways and they’re led by a Council of Elders.
- They have a very direct connection to their goddess and Orweyna has a very strong direct connection with her which led her to guide her people and go out to the outside world, something they don’t tend to do and don’t look kindly upon.
- They are unlocked as an Allied Race in Midnight with many customization options.
- Maria said the Druid forms look awesome, they will take a bat form when they fly.
- Their zone is called Harandar. It’s a fungal jungle. All roots of the World Trees converge here.
- The zone has an interesting place called the Rift of Alm and from there will issue forth creatures that their goddess dreams. Sometimes they are horrific and horrible things. Some members of the Haranir take an oath, give up their connection to the goddess, and serve as wardens of that place, preventing those horrors from attacking.
- Harandar features an area called Den of Echoes where the Haranir remember their past through paintings.
- Finally, let’s talk about the void!
- Void creatures in general are extremely predatory. Their goal is to eat anything smaller and weaker than themselves, absorbing that power.
- The Dominaar are the strongest. They are very intelligent and different from the remaining void forces. They have a hierarchy they developed through conquest, and you will deal with them as one of the stronger representatives of the void. Xal’atath is part of this group, of course.
- The Voidstorm is a mysterious zone formed by the void and everything in it is hungry.
- The zone is about becoming powerful and eating the next thing.
- Delves are here to stay in Midnight with all the layers of variety and replayability that you knew in the War Within. We’re getting 10 new delves in the new expansion.
- A couple of delves will be outdoor places where you can use your ground mounts, and they’re integrating them into the zones.
- There’s an eleventh nemesis delve.
- Our new delve companion in Midnight will be Valeera Sanguinar.
- We have 8 new dungeons coming in Midnight: 4 level-up and 4 max-level.
- Magister’s Terrace has been reimagined. We’ll visit some locations that were inaccessible before along with a balcony overlooking the Sunwell itself.
- Voidscar Arena is a dungeon where you’re thrown into the pit and fight bosses.
- Murder Row is going to have the Court of Stars undercover vibe.
- All 8 of these dungeons will be available on Mythic 0 during the pre-season period.
- We will learn more about the tragic background of the Windrunner family in Windrunner Spire.
- 3 raids will be available at Midnight launch.
VoD
You can watch the full VoD on YouTube here: