Devourer Demon Hunters
Watching all of the discourse between naysayers and believers going back and forth was a lot of fun. The team likes to tease things and watch the speculation run wild.
Anytime they introduce something new, it's nice to be able to give players an idea of how it will work beforehand, which the Soul Hunters raid encounter set up perfectly.
The Devourer specialization will become available with the Midnight pre-patch, with no pre-requisites or unlock required.
Devourers will be intelligence based, with existing warglaives swapping between primary stats.
It sounds like 2h scythes will not be an equipment option, but are represented as visual flavor attached to certain abilities.
Collapsing Star is the key ability used during Void Metamorphosis, which is only available while transformed. Players collect void fragments in order to build up the star, which hurls a huge void bomb at their enemies.
Devourers will typically play from mid-range, considered a ranged character for purposes of most encounter mechanics. Certain talents will also enable more hybrid mobile combat, periodically moving in and out of melee range. They shouldn't be constantly dashing in and out every 4-5 seconds, but enough to acknowledge the melee and mobility theme of Demon Hunters.
Mobility is key to making a mid-ranged specialization work, being able to quickly move into melee or ranged clumps as needed. Obviously Demon Hunters traditionally have a lot of mobility, so the developers have leaned into that idea to ensure they get enough tools to play at that mid-ranged level.
Lead Combat Systems Designer Jade MartinYou kind of have two ways that you you can play the Devour. At a base level, you're you're basically playing mid-range and you'd just be considered a caster. That is how your rotation would work; you'd be casting your void ray. You'd be casting your Reap ability to collect the void fragments around you. But we also recognized that one of the key elements to what makes a demon hunter a demon hunter is their ability to move around and the mobility that they have. And so we wanted to play into that with some of their talents that enable a hybrid build of moving in and out of melee combat at a decent cadence.
This isn't something that you're going to be doing super frequently, you're not going to be doing it every four or five seconds. That would kind of be hard to get a bearing on your surroundings, but you will be hopping in and out to kind of play into that melee aspect and mobility of demon hunters.
Annihilator Hero Talents
Demon Hunters will be receiving a third hero specialization, under the working name of Annihilator, which builds Fury to hurl void comets from the sky.
Vengeance will no longer have access to Fel-Scarred and will instead have a choice between Aldrachi Reaver and Annihilator, while Havoc can choose have Aldrachi Reaver or Fel-Scarred, and Devourer will have access to Fel-Scarred and Annihilator.
For thematic purposes, they may change the name of Fel-Scarred to just Scarred or something similar, but that's TBD.
Multi-Rank Apex Spec Talents
Players will unlock 10 new talent points while leveling to 90 in Midnight, split up among each of the three talent trees.
Three points will go into the class tree, which aren't getting any new rows of talents, though some classes may receive talent changes or reworks as needed.
Three points will go into the existing hero talent trees, which will have an additional column with three new nodes.
Four specialization points will go into a new "Apex Talent" which is designed as a "natural conclusion to your spec tree." Its a multi-rank node with its own visual representation within the tree, that can take up to four points.
Each point put into the Apex talent should feel very significant, with the first and last points having the most weight (presumably to encourage putting all four points into the Apex, rather than allocated to other talents throughout the tree).
Class/Design Blog Coming Soon™
Can't talk about anything yet, but there are some planned changes and should be some class/design philosophy blog posts coming soon™.
Expansion boundaries are a better time to make bigger changes, like adjusting resources or particular class mechanics, that might be more disruptive to change during a patch.
Some classes are harder to play than others, and while some players really like that, they are getting to a tipping point and looking for ways to make them more approachable. The goal is still easy to learn, hard to master.
Haranir and Harandar
The Haranir have been intentionally mysterious; they're an insular and hermetic race that doesn't leave their home very often. Our experience with Orweyna, is a little bit different from the rest of her people.
In Midnight, we'll meet up with Orweyna again and have reason to follow her home to Harandar. The people there have a very tight bond with their goddess and the nature of Azeroth, living among the roots of the world trees, and they have a very different perspective on the world due to being on their own for so long.
Harendar is tightly tied to the world trees and their nature. It's within Azeroth, but not specifically in any one area or beneath a specific continent. It's a "fantasy zone with a fantasy location."
Our job is to convince them that Xal'atath is an existential threat worth fighting, to join us on surface, and become an allied race.
Though not directly stated, this sounds as though Haranir will not be immediately available as an allied race, and will instead be unlocked at some point during the Midnight expansion.
Allied race starting level is TBD, but will probably work similar to current allied races. Their starting experience will be flavored around learning who they are and what they're about - all very similar to the Earthen allied race experience.
Haranir Racials
A targeted active ability that summons a patch of (very smart) roots that will both heal allies and damage enemies within them.
They'll also have innate critical strike damage and healing bonuses.
A flavorful increase to damage dealt against Aberrations, and reduction in damage taken from them.
Haranir will be able to fast travel between World Tree roots similar to the Dark Iron Dwarf Mole Machine. You'll start with a handful of options already available and unlock more by finding them in the world.
Eversong Woods and the Ghostlands
Thanks to the magic of the bronze dragons, the old versions of the Ghostlands and Eversong Woods will still continue to be available, though the current timeline will combine them into an updated Eversong Woods.
It and the new Zul'Aman zone will be directly connected to the Eastern Kingdoms, so you can fly straight there from the Eastern Plaguelands without any loading screens.
New Race/Class Combos
Void Elf Demon Hunter has already been confirmed, serving as an interesting lore opportunity, since Void Elves play such a big role in this expansion and the new Devourer Demon Hunter specialization leans into the void as well.
They are aware that this creates an imbalance between Alliance and Horde demon hunters, but the World Soul Saga isn't over yet, and there will be other lore appropriate opportunities for more class/race combos in the future.
The Amani have some unique models, but the developers have no comment on whether they'll become a playable ace in the future.
The Amani do have some unique hairstyles though, which will be unlocked alongside other new cosmetic options for regular Troll players upon completion of the Zul'Aman questline.
Three Raid Release Schedule
The encounter design team has been looking for an opportunity to make smaller raid zones, as it gives them more variety in which to build bosses.
The Void Spire and March on Quel'Danas in particular are going to be very tightly ingrained into the endgame story of Midnight, with one leading directly into the other with a few quests in between.
The six-boss Voidspire and the single-boss Dreamrift will release at the beginning of the season, which leads into some story campaign quests, that will then lead into the March on Quel'Danas. Exact timeline is still TBD, but we can expect somewhere around 2-3 weeks in between, though they'll all be a part of the first season/tier of Midnight.
They don't want to separate players, so you won't need to actually complete each raid to progress to the next, despite the narrative/campaign order to them.
No word on whether Heroic Week will return.
Early Access Head Start in Midnight
Early access was setup to give players an opportunity to get into the game a little earlier, but also ensure there was no meaningful difference between those who did/not start early by the time the season started.
They're really cautious to ensure there will be no extra "once a week" opportunities for those who want to start early.
The team learned a few lessons, but generally consider The War Within early access as a good model for Midnight.
Exciting Features to Look Forward to
Devourer fighting against the tension of its resource draining over time, trying to stay in void metamorphosis as long as possible.
Housing of course will be really cool and may be the #1 feature of Midnight.
Three different raids is great for players with more limited time.
The shape of the campaign this time around - starting with the Eversong Woods, the story will lead players toward different paths, allowing them to choose whether to explore Zul'Aman, Harandar, or following Arator around legacy zones as he interrogates his relationship with the light. Regardless of the path, it all culminates in Voidstorm, but the team is doing more to fold dungeons and delves into the story along the way.
The very end of the leveling campaign ends with a big bang dungeon in Nexus Point Xenas.
The PvP Training Grounds are also interesting, because there are a lot of people who love PvP and spend a lot more time inside it, so this mode gives players an opportunity to team up against AI opponents to learn the ropes.
Slayer's Rise is an new epic 40 v 40 battleground for players who love slaughtering each other, marching their way toward the enemy dominar in a final big boss fight similar to Alterac Valley.
