What is Prey in Midnight?
Prey is an open-world activity coming with Midnight where you can hunt special targets in each of the new zones.
All Prey hunts following a similar structure. Head to the Hunt Table, pick out a target in one of the zones, and complete certain objectives within that zone to draw out your target. Depending on the difficulty, certain affixes are present to make the hunt a little more challenging.
Once enough objectives are completed, the Prey's location will be marked on your map where you can then head there and complete your hunt (or in some cases, fail).
Rewards from Prey in Midnight
When Prey was first announced, we saw a glance at the rewards available with activity with most rewards being entirely cosmetic. Besides cosmetic rewards, there are also some gear and currency rewards from doing Prey hunts including:
Remnant of Anguish - which is used to purchase Vendor rewards.
Voidlight Marl Currency
Adventurer Dawncrest, Veteran Dawncrest, and Champion Dawncrest
Gear Drops as part of the Preyseeker's Transmog Sets (Adventurer, Veteran, and Champion-track)
As you complete more hunts, you also rank up the Prey Journey Track which follows a similar format to the Delve's Journey Track. This reward track contains certain transmog, pets, and even two new flying mounts: Preyseeker's Hubris and Preyseeker's Wrath.
While not available during testing, Blizzard has also stated that Prey will be added to the outdoor activity Great Vault slot, where players can earn powerful gear rewards up to the Hero-track!
How Does Prey Compare to Heroic World Tier from Legion Remix?
Legion Remix introduced a new way to make your everyday open-world exploring and combat more challenging in the form of Heroic World Tier. With Prey also looking to achieve a similar goal, you might be wondering how does this activity compare to something like Heroic World Tier?
The Good: Theming, Affixes, and Fun Fights
Prey brings out a unique way to simply enjoy the combat gameplay in World of Warcraft. Completing objectives and keeping tabs on when it's time to complete your hunt is good fun. The occasional ambush brings an element of surprise as well, making you stay on your toes.
The affixes present with each difficulty give this system fun challenge available to all different types of players. These affixes also do an excellent job of catering to the theme of Prey hunts. On top of all of that, each boss has unique abilities. With bosses rotating in difficulty each week, it'll be fun to see how certain bosses feel on Normal difficulty versus Hard or Nightmare difficulty.
The Bad: Nightmare Tuning Issues
No system is without its quirks, and this was especially true regarding the tuning with Nightmare difficulty. Nightmare difficulty introduces 5 total affixes, and sometimes certain affixes happen all at the same time. Trying to kill any target, while avoiding fixating adds, on top of the occasional ambush from your target, and it feels like death is your ONLY option. Not to mention deaths feel extremely punishing with Hunter's Momentum resetting your hunt progress.
The affixes stay present throughout the entire zone as well, making it feel (no pun intended) like a literal nightmare getting into any sort of combat throughout the zone.
Conclusion
Overall, Prey felt comparable to the difficulty that Heroic World Tier introduced with Legion Remix. So if you enjoyed the challenge that Heroic World Tier brought, you will likely find yourself enjoying Prey. Bosses felt unique, the rewards were a nice bonus, and Alastor Bloodsworn helps you feel immersed in the hunt.
If you have experienced Great Hunts from Dragonflight, Prey follows a similar format with completing objectives and traversing throughout the zone, but with much more exciting combat scenarios mixed in between.
With some slight tuning adjustments to iron out, Prey is looking to be another great activity to enjoy with the Midnight expansion.
