Prey GuideMidnight Season 1 Overview
Prey in Review
It's not often that brand new PvE content comes along that fits so seamlessly into the current pillars of Raids, Mythic+, and Delves. Considered a replacement for Worldsoul Memories in the War Within, Prey offers some major improvements over the previous activity from relatively straightforward objective gameplay to a complete journey and reward track that feels both organized and achievable.
But despite it's many victories, there's still some major points of frustration and friction with Prey that should be examined, especically if the system is to continue through multiple seasons or even expansions.
Astalor Bloodsworn
Perhaps the greatest victory of all for Prey is the return of Astalor Bloodsworn. The Magister has been a pioneer of magical research for generations and a noble servant of Silvermoon despite his sometimes questionably ethical methodology. Recruiting us in his current pursuit, Astalor looks to bolster the city's defense against the void through the use of Anguish extracted from powerful enemies of the Blood Elves.
Where Astalor looks to be such a major win is the sheer charisma this NPC oozes. When he tells me to kill for him, I find the nearest thing to murder in-game; deadly enemy or adorable critter, it doesn't matter something must die. Part of that may be due to the affixes (which we'll get to later), but the other part is the voice acting here is stupendous.
Voiced by the incredibly talented Jason Marnocha (previously voicing Prince Renethal in Shadowlands), Astalor comes to life with some deliciously sinister lines. We truly understand Astalor's calculated ambitions as he treads the moral ambiguity of his experiments all with a commanding presence that's indulgently toxic.
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The character has quickly become a fan favorite of Midnight with some truly epic voice lines found throughout Prey. If it means we get more Astalor, then we need Prey to continue...at least till Astalor and Sire Denathrius have an epic confrontation in-game fully voice acted of course.
Rewards
While it works alongside Delves, Prey has it's own reward structure that makes the two activities feel symbiotic but still uniquely rewarding for players.
Weekly Rewards
Each hunt offers Crests, Key Shards, and gear up to Champion at Nightmare difficulty providing a fairly easy solo gearing option and providing more opportunities to cap lower value crests. Despite the crests now counting towards the weekly cap, the weekly quest A Nightmarish Task further incentivizes players to continue engaging with Prey.
Working in tandem, Prey also fuels Delves via key shards and a warbound Beacon of Hope as a way to get a guaranteed Hero-track gear piece.
Journey & Cosmetics
With a fully fleshed out Seasonal Journey, Prey offers unique collectibles, cosmetics, and decor providing long term goals for collectors beyond weekly pursuits. Even the cosmetics feel leveled up with rare crimson effects a major design step up for more casual content.
Stalking Prey & Targets
It's the actual gameplay of Prey where things start to fall apart for me. The 'kill as much as you can in the time limit' gamplay of Worldsoul Memories had its own issues, but Prey gameplay just isn't that compelling either.
To start, luring your Prey feels tedious and often frustrating. For those that need a refresher, there are numerous ways to draw out the location of your target:
Completing World Quests
Looting Treasures
Defeating Rares + Remnants of Anguish
Disabling Traps
Defending Against an Ambush and Riposting
Despite all the options, World Quests are limited especially if completing Prey on multiple difficulties in the same Zone and Rares and Treasures are a rarity. Often players stare at their minimaps competing over Trap spawns causing friction in busy areas or defend against Ambushes in a more passive approach. Neither prospect feels like I'm stalking my Prey to find their lair.
Why am I not following my Prey's tracks or dispatching their lackeys in an attempt to gather clues to their whereabouts? Ripostes sorta fill the tracking aspect, but not as a part of Ambushes. I know Prey is supposed to be done alongside your normal adventures in the open world, but I feel like I'm the one being tracked and lured instead of the other way around.
As for the Bosses themselves, they're just not making a lasting impression on me. Outside of some quest text, I'm not sure why these targets are major threats to Silvermoon. Either there's no distinguishing mechanics between the various targets or I can just sit and burn the target down before I'm troubled by them even on Nightmare difficulty.
Dungeon encounters and even some Delve encounters have some unique mechanics making the fights memorable and feel well-earned when defeated. That just feels absent from Prey. I don't need every encounter to feel like the Mage Tower, but give me something that challenges me. Force me to break a shield, interrupt, kite, kill adds, crowd control, anything. Right now the difficulty feels concentrated on Affixes.
Affixes
The main crux of my gripes with Prey tend to land on Affixes as the only major difficulty for the system. While none of them are particularly difficult on their own, the combination of a few can be a frustrating experience. For a refresher, here's all 6 affixes:
AffixDifficultyDescription
AmbushNormal
TormentHard
Hunter's MomentumHard
Seeping GoreHard
Echo of PredationNightmare
Bloody CommandNightmare
I've already covered Ambush and I don't mind it generally speaking. But as the primary method for locating your target, it's counter to the hunting aspect of Prey. Similarly, Torment and Seeping Gore both fill fair and offer a step up in difficulty. Seeping Gore in particular tests your positioning and how you want to handle targets that root.
It's the Nightmare specific affixes, Echo of Predation and Bloody Command, that are the most frustrating. Since either can activate outside of combat, they basically turn the open world into an always active environment that punishes you for AFK'ing in a zone with Prey. Need to take a call or take out a pet? Let me quickly exit the zone so I don't also immediately lose all my Prey progress thanks to Hunter's Momentum, the final affix in the frustrating trio. Any quick progress I made from limited world quests, rares, or treasures gets immediately flushed down the drain and instead I have to battle for more traps against other players.
That's not to say that the Nightmare affixes aren't dangerous on their own. I think they can each ramp up the difficulty in combat fairly, but each comes with their own frustrating issues, especially for the sheer amount of damage they do that only the strongest defensives can handle. For Echo of Predation, kiting the echo or crowd controlling it is completely adequate difficulty; however, when terrain causes it to spawn on top of you, there doesn't feel like a lot of counter play available.
Similarly Bloody Command having a relatively short timer with no regard to there even being enemies to kill around you feels unfair at best. Rest in peace to the sheer number of critters I've had to kill in a desperate panic. Players have resorted to spawning their own critters just to have a fighting chance and even then it's not full proof.
Overall, I think it's a solid first showing for Prey. The system feels well supported with its own rewards and an interesting story and incredible narrator. What's lacking is compelling cooperative gameplay with memorable bosses offering a fair challenge outside of frustrating affixes that require constant vigilance.
