World of Warcraft: Midnight is on the horizon and set to streamline the game for players of all skill levels, giving WoW a more approachable combat system for all. Class specializations are being revamped to make it easier to track key buffs and debuffs, reduce pressure to rely on addons, and make the path to mastering every specialization clearer. Midnight keeps the excitement of combat alive while opening the door to WoW wider for everyone.
Our plan for the first wave of Public Alpha is to rebuild all 40 specializations according to the the philosophies in our Developer Insight: Combat for Everyone in Midnight article. As always, Alpha will be level-locked over its duration, so you will not have access to most of the new Hero Talents and Apex Talents gained over the course of leveling until later in the testing phase. Specs are designed with the assumption that you have obtained all those talents, so please take that into consideration during your playtesting and feedback.
Your feedback on these changes is crucial to us, and we are looking forward to reading it. Hereâs what we are hoping to learn from players from the alpha test:
How well do the changes meet the goals described? Each spec changelist in the patch notes contains an overview of the changes and goals for the new version.
Gameplay clarity pain points youâre still experiencing, such as information thatâs important to playing the spec well, but is difficult to track.
Building characters for different types of contentâdo you feel you can get the tools you need for dungeons, delves, raids, and PvP?
We hope youâre excited for the new class changes in Midnight, and weâll see you in Azeroth!
DoT tracking: DoTs like Rend arenât being tracked on their source spell. We should be able to track it from the spell when we use them, if our current target has the DoT/debuff.
Anchor Points/Positioning: Their positioning anchor is sorely needed, we should be able to set anchor points because CDM moves every time we add a new spell or buff track. or change spec or change to a new class and when we use the same UI profile, it gets ruined.
Energy/Resource Tracking: Pretty self explanatory, I shouldnât have to look at my character portrait on the left side to track my rage level/holy power/arcane power etc. when Iâm playing.
Give âgrow upwards/downwardsâ option to âTracked Barsâ, also give the option to be able to position them as vertical bars.
The relevant spell icon on the âTracked Barsâ should be able to fit in that bar and could be embedded in it. Same hight or width depending on if itâs vertical or horizontal so I can design it as tight as I want it to be.
Give us the option to pad the icons and bars tighter than you allow atm. Iâd like to be able to put my icons right next to the other and save space and see them less spreaded. Come to think of it, donât put extra âframe spacesâ to screen UI elements that take extra on my screen. Iâd like to be able to set my UI as tight as I want to. That is a horrible design.
Buffs like âimproved whirlwindâ should be able to be tracked by their relevant spells. Like I should just see it on Whirlwind or Thunder Clap as stack info. Not as a seperate buff that takes space in my screen. Since Thunder Blast has its own stacks, you can put IW stack info to center or bottom left side of the icon.
If I donât know a spell, donât make its âghostâ take space on the âTracked Buffsâ Bar. Let them appear in the priority I set from the start of that bar. Donât let it start from second or third spot at where it is when youâre configuring them.
I should be able to see the icons as actual squares, maybe I donât like the chamfered versions of the icons, I think most people hate that.
all frames in the game should have at least 3 options: width, height, scale.
displaying a debuff or a spell cast at us instead of a portrait.
add an option to display the portrait in a square frame + e.g., to the left or right of the health bar.
In the Cooldown Settings, Iâd like to add the following options:
Setting the priority for displayed buffs and debuffs, and displaying them from left to right
The ability to change the icon size or replace it with a different one after clicking it in the editor
The ability to display, for example:
CD, debuff, debuff, CD
CD, skill, skill, skill, CD
CD, debuff, debuff, buff, buff, CD
in a single bar. Currently, everything is separated and displayed in a separate bar.
Iâd like to create a single bar that displays everything Iâm interested in.
There are several adjustments that I would like to see to the cooldown manager in terms of customizability (it is really barebones right now and addons canât bridge the gap):
Individually movable icons and bars (separating them into just three groups really does not cut it)
The ability to adjust how each state (not available, 1+ charge available, not on cooldown, active) is displayed in the cooldown manager. Like when an ability is on cooldown, the icon desaturates, or when it is active there is a yellow swipe across the icon, I would like to be able to change the desaturate to 10% alpha instead or the swipe to another color. Or atleast a way for addons to hook into the cooldown manager and provide these options. I would also like to see this for the ActionBars.
The ability to change bar colors individually on a per-aura basis, or a way for addons to do this.
The ability to hide out of combat for each icon/bar individually, but only if the spell is not on cooldown/aura is not present. (In my current UI I have everything but active cooldowns/auras fade out as I leave combat, as there is no need for the class-hud while you are not fighting anything.) I would also like to see this for the ActionBars.
Additionally, there are a few features I would like that I could see clashing with your philosophy:
The ability to only show an icon, when it is on cooldown/not on cooldown (Previously I had my utility cooldowns show only when on cooldown, so no icon essentially means available)
Dynamic groups (Have the group grow as more icons appear instead of having a static position for each icon in advance, this goes hand in hand with only conditionally showing icons)
(Also you should really allow people to add images or links to theses posts, I canât underline my suggestions with examples.)
Combat âaddonâ feedback from someone with some visual impairments who mostly uses WeakAuras to be able to play on AotC/KSM level.
The beta CD Manager is a good start, albeit Iâm unable to replicate there most of my accessibility setup.
TL/DR
Take what WeakAuras can do to display icons, all the effects, customizations, conditionals and implement it for personal only CD/Buff tracking.
Absolute minimum
Changes I would need to be able replicate basics of my accessibility setup via default UI
making tracked items to be separated into smaller groups which I can customize separately from eachother.
ability to place separators within a group, currently the items can just be in line one after another, I would need to place like one icon space inbetween them (could also be solved by the groups)
sound alerts / glow with very basic conditionals - like buff reaching X amount of stacks, or X seconds left on the CD timer.
ability to decide if a tracked thing should be icon with cd on it, or a bar, no matter if itâs a spell or buff.
ability to add non-cd based skills to cd manager - like for example Death Strike icon would show up if you have enough runic power to do it.
I just want to quote your own philosophy for Midnight:
Gameplay with High-Action per Minute - this can be physically demanding and unconfortable
AND!
Situation where lots of ability-modifing can be active at once causing an array of buttons on your actionbars to be highlighted , giving a sense that all of them are urgent
MEANWHILE!
Enhancement:
Stormsurge: Stormstrike has a X% chance to reset the cooldown of Stromstrike
Storm Unleashed: Each MW spent has a x% chance to cause your next crash lightning to ignor its cooldown.
Stormblast: Stormstrike has an addition charge. Stormsurge now also causes your next Stormstrike to deal x% additional damage as Nature damage, stacking up to 2 times.
Elemental Tempo: Each Stack of MW consumed reduces the cooldown of Stormstrike by 0.3 sec. and Laval lash by 0.3 sec.
Fury:
Improved Raging Blow: Raging Blow has 2 charges and has 25% chance to isntantly reset its own cooldown
Burst Power: Lightning Strikes have a x% chance to make your next 2 Bloodthirsts have no cooldown, deal 35% increased damage, and generate 2 addition Rage.
The Damage Meter is missing a lot of options, but Iâll list the basics:
No way to click and check a single skill. For example, I donât know how much my Scourge Strike hit at maximum and minimum. I also donât know what its critical strike chance was.
No way to know how many times I hit with a skill.
No information about the damage school.
No calculation of the percentage for total damage or individual numbers for a given skill.
No grouping of damage from minions.
Of course, thereâs no information about buffs and debuffs and their duration during combat.
No option to switch the class icon to the specialization icon.
No information about the combat (against whom it was fought).
Im fine with the addon changes, overall i think its a good and necessary step that people rely less on weakauras and other addons to clear raids or play their class optimally. HOWEVER. I believe the general âpruningâ of specs goes WAY WAAAY too damn far for almost every spec i have tried so far in the beta. Most specs lose their core gameplay loops and mechanics and replace them with random passives or weird 2 in 1 buttons. Why do specs like BM hunter lose BOTH of their cooldown options, leaving them with nothing but bestial wrath which is a 30 second CD.. Why does fire mage literally only have 4 buttons for their dmg, same with the annihilator variant of the new DH spec. For that minority of players who actually benefit from changes like these there were already things in the game like the 1 button rotation assist or the highlighting feature. 99% of players DONT need to play their class optimally for the content that they are doing. And the âexcuseâ for the pruning to be necessary that people now cant rely on weakauras to play their spec just isnt true either because the cooldown manager thats in the game by default now works great and replaces class weakauras very well. I dont know a single player that used addons like Hekili or similar stuff to play complex specs like arcane mage or outlaw rogue. This game is 20 years old. MOST people know their class. Atleast let complexity be an option for more experienced players that allows for better performance in raid or m+.. please.. most of the specs i used to enjoy just arent fun to me anymore in the beta because it feels like everything was broken down to their core concept. So many things that were only added recently like for example the 2 minute BM hunter cooldown have just been straight up removed from the game entirely, surely there was a lot of work put into all those removed things so why does it all have to be removed ?? I just dont understand who is supposed to benefit from this.
Iâm really struggling as an older player with some visual disabilities. Iâve been playing my Demo Lock this morning. I have no idea how many minions are out unless I try to count them all running around. Itâs currently âlooks like a lotâ or âdoesnât look like manyâ.
Having to use the target frame to see things needing kicking/debuffs is a real problem - Iâm having to put the whole target frame where I only want bits of it, and the cast bar sits so low that it takes up a ton of room. Itâs already as small as it will go. On the 5 classes Iâve tested, this is an issue. Iâm getting a headache straining my bad eye to see info OR the UI is just so cluttered on the âgood visionâ side that I donât have good awareness whatâs going on over there. Iâm trying to hang on in here but as things stand this will be my 20th and last year in WoW as âaccessibilityâ is making it inaccessible to me. I get what youâre trying to do and why but the base/inbuilt UI and functionality should be good enough with addons allowing QoL upgrades or accessibility for those of us that need it. The clue is in the name.
Other than the UI being horrible, Demo lock feels lots of fun. BM hunter is basically 4 buttons. Resto shammy has lost so much functionality itâs rough but other than that it feels OK so far (not done bigger groups yet).
I donât get the flight logic. Why give fast flight first? Everybody will just fly above the zones/mobs to the next quest, so nobody will even look at the zones you built and they just feel dead. If you kept people on the ground til Pathfinder itâd make more sense. Once Iâd done the quests in the area, thereâs no point to being able to switch flight style to slow flight so Pathfinder becomes a âmehâ thing for the acheiv only. Weird to me.
Housing is great. You really nailed that from what I can see.
Overall 5/10 - let down by the UI/functionality/accessibility issues and the bare bones feel of many classes making them feel like they are no challenge whatsoever to play. Remains to be seen whether Iâll be staying tbh but I hope feedback gets listened to (traditionally not) and things improve between now and launch.
Tanking with the default UI is difficult to read in its current state. Beyond the ânameplate soupâ already raised in other threads and communities, tanking-specific plates lack clear and strong color cues to properly indicate enemy targeting behavior.
It is also important to highlight that when an enemy enters combat with an ally but not with the tank player, the tank does not see the usual glow above the health bar. This creates visibility issues during accidental body pulls initiated by DPS players.
Additionally, the glow indicator itself appears extremely faint or even absent depending on the chosen settings. An optional sound cueâsimilar to what is available on live serversâwould significantly improve accessibility by alerting players when threat is beginning to slip.