World of Warcraft is gearing up for its next in-game event, Midnight, with a pre-expansion update adding new UI, class specializations, and a pre-update event.
Xal’atath’s campaign for power across the lands of Azeroth has left the champions of the land reeling, but the fight isn’t over yet. Coming on January 27th, Twilight Ascension is a new world event that foreshadows the Midnight expansion, where players will have to contend with random void encounters across the map. WoW players will also be happy to know that this also marks the return of the Winds of Mysterious Fortune buff, with experience boosts from levels 10-79.
Aside from the newest world event, the pre-update has also made sweeping changes to the user interface and accessibility of the game. Starting with the addition of combat audio alerts, which allow text-to-speech software to read out in-game events such as player and target health and whether combat has started. Interested players can find these settings under Options > Accessibility > Audio Assist, and slash commands are also available.
Adventurers will also be able to access the recent player housing feature, released in December 2025. Historically, the most requested feature in World of Warcraft, players will be glad to know that Midnight brings even more depth to their fantasy home. Endeavours are the newest way to unlock special vendors, decorations, and community coupons, which can be used as currency in order to beautify your shared space. Along with a meaty list of housing patch notes, Horde and Alliance players can also decorate their homes with unique themes and can now level their houses to 9.
The class specialization, Devourer Demon Hunter, is the newest of the two other specializations of the Demon Hunter class. Featured as a mid-range glaive-wielding, soul-harvesting, and planet-crushing spellcaster who uses the void instead of the usual fel magic, it promises to be an exciting new addition. Along with the new specialization, demon hunters now have access to two new talent trees, annihilator and Scarred Hero. Players will be able to obtain the Void Elf Demon Hunter combination through a short quest line included in the pre-expansion update.
Possibly one of the most controversial or accepted changes in this update, depending on who you ask, is stat and item squish. What that means is that instead of having the classic MMO numbers, like from damage taken or experience gained, it will instead be simplified. Blizzard has said this is to improve clarity and readability in-game while keeping your power level relative to your enemies’ the same.
Along with this overview of the pre-expansion, there is also a very long list of patch notes waiting to be explored, including new PvP training grounds, interrupt duration changes, and cooldown manager updates. The World of Warcraft Midnight expansion looks to be one that will be talked about for a long time. World of Warcraft: Midnight is launching worldwide on March 2, 2026, at 6 PM EST
