The Arcantina
A mystical nexus created by Khadgar to offer games and respite, players will find it during the Arator questline, eventually unlocking a portal in Silvermoon to travel back at their leisure.
The plan is for it to be evergreen, which is why it's a mystical arcane construct instead of a physical location in the capital city. Players will be able to mingle, see famous NPCs, and start new questlines, so the developers feel like it's something they can use forever.
The original models were added all the way back in Patch 8.2.5 as the "Hearthstone Tavern," with the idea that there might be Hearthstone collaborations, but it didn't quite fit, so it just kind of gathered cobwebs over the years. During a meeting, Chris Metzen mentioned finding a spot for major lore characters to gather in a spot that wouldn't have to be changed every patch, which became the Arcantina.
Some of the stories are related to Midnight, since that's the big thing going on right now, but going forward there should be a mix of current and evergreen content.
New Survival Hunter Weapon
Survival Hunters will be able to dual-wield in Patch 12.0, though the intent is that they can still use 2h weapons, to give players a range of aesthetic options to choose from.
Additional Dracthyr Armor
It's not lost on the developers that Dracthyr are limited in what kind of transmog they can use, and they would like to compensate for that with more barbershop options, though with all resources currently going into the expansion launch, that would probably come as a patch feature.
Dracthyr Visage Forms in the Warband
Though not coming with the launch of Midnight, Visage forms on the Warbound screen is something that Blizzard is working on, alongside other warband login screen customization.
Void Elf Demon Hunter starting zone
Void Elf Demon Hunters weren't locked away on Mardum and aren't intended to have the same starting experience as Night and Blood Elves, but the developers wanted to get Void Elf Demon Hunter feedback right away, so it's just a temporary quirk of Alpha testing.
Simplifying Profession Qualities in Midnight
Consumables are being reduced from three to two quality levels in Midnight. Players were already only using two of the three quality levels anyway, so this just streamlines things a bit.
Overall, the developers are happy with the depth of the Dragonflight professions rework, making professions more engaging for consumers and allowing crafters to make tradeskills a part of their identity. However, that depth has lost some approachability, so the developers would like to turn towards three tiers of complexity - long-term items that are used for months, short-term potions and other consumables, and gather professions that should be universally accessible to everyone.
Things aren't quite there yet, but they'll keep nudging in that direction as future changes unfold.
Transmog Collection Updates in Legion Remix
Acquiring Mythic sets also unlock the appearances of lower difficulty versions may or may not also be present in Legion Remix. Ion will have to check with the team to see how things were setup.
Collecting Transmog Through Upgrades in Midnight
One problem with the upgrade system that the team has tried to solve is the feeling that Heroic items shouldn't be upgraded to max, since spending Gilded Crests on them would be inefficient for players with access to Mythic drops. This feels awkward and they want players to be able to spend their currency, enjoy the upgrade, and not worry about whether they're falling into a trap or making a mistake.
So now there's an idea that there should just be one currency per tier - a Heroic item is Heroic forever, and should therefore only need one type of Heroic-associated crest. That solves several problems from a power progression standpoint, but also hurts players who use the upgrade system to get access to higher tier appearances that they wouldn't normally be able to acquire.
There's no answer right now, but it is an issue that's being actively discussed.
Midnight Delving
The new Delve companion, Valeera Sanguinar, will have some quips coming soon!
The Midnight Delve system was being built alongside The War Within Season 3, so most of the changes they wanted to see are already there. If they start to see any issues as the season plays out, some changes might make it into Midnight, but the team is pretty happy right now.
More Mount Collection Achievements
Adding new mount collection achievement mounts is on the team's radar. Nothing to announce yet, but they want to ensure that whatever reward they offer feels worth of the effort, since they'd heard feedback that past rewards felt lackluster.
The game has a wider range of activities that also demand cool mounts, so they've just been going to Mythic+, Delves, Renown, and other systems, with none of the leftovers feeling worthy of a new achievement reward.
Midnight Pre-Patch Event
The Void is coming for us, and there will be a series of events and dark portents that players will bounce around the world to confront, building up to a big assault on the Sunwell.
Pre-patch event testing will come later in beta, but it should be a fun introduction to what's going on and a chance for players to catch up on gear and the like.
Testing Housing Exteriors
Should be coming in the very near future. Human and Night Elf structures on the Alliance side, Orc and Blood Elf on the Horde, each with a number of things you can modify, adjust, remove, recolor, etc.
Midnight Alpha Test phase release cadence
The goal is to push out a new build each week, plus or minus a little wiggle room because sometimes things break during Alpha. Barring that, each week players should expect new build updates, more dungeons or zone testing, and level caps going up over time, before focus testing on endgame content.
Once all that is all complete, they'll do a character wipe, switch over to Beta, and invite a bunch more people to do more holistic end-to-end testing.
Redesigning Quel'thalas
Updating an old area like Quel'thalas includes several factors, from the story intent for the area, to whether the way it was laid out some 18 years ago still fits what they want to happen today. The starting Blood Elf areas were meant for level 5 players on foot, generally more compact and not laid out in a way that's suitable for the modern end game, whereas Quel'Danas was already more spread out.
Narratively, the area directly around the Sunwell is one of the places they'd expect to change the least. It's a place of monumental importance to the civilization, while the rest of the woods are more of an evolving location. We expect to see the Dead Scar heal over time, hostile areas civilized, and it's exciting to marry nostalgia with new stories in familiar spaces.
More Troll Amani Trolls
Amani Trolls have had their appearances tweaked to look more traditionally Troll-like, based on feedback since Gamescom, so thanks for that!
Silence in the WoW Community Council
The Community Team administers the Community Council, so Ion doesn't have any new information at the moment.
