THE LATEST World of Warcraft expansion, Midnight, launched in early access Thursday night for players with the Epic edition. I was in that group, and although I only play WoW casually these days, I always quest at the start of each new expansion to level my main and see the new zones, and thought I’d share my thoughts over the next week as I make the climb from level 80 to the new cap of 90.
Night 1: Thursday
Predictably, WoW crashed within minutes of the 6p EST launch. In recent years, some launches have gone more smoothly than others, and you’d think that staggering a release in stages via early access would help. But sure enough, WoW’s authentication servers bit it by 6:02pm and within minutes the WoW subreddit was filled with about 75 near-identical posts of “anyone else getting this?”
I didn’t mind. I’m not in a hurry, I don’t raid or run dungeons any more, there’s no race for me to get to the endgame. Sure enough, about an hour or so later, things mostly settled down, and that’s where my adventure began for real.
Level 80 -> 81: Upon zoning into Dornogal, there’s a breadcrumb quest that sends you to an NPC (Lady Liadrin) to start Midnight. You’re summoned to the Isle of Quel’Denas into the middle of an attack, and this introductory area lasts about 30-40 minutes, culminating in some fights in the Sunwell.
This intro area lays a lot of lore on you and not much XP and didn’t feel like the strongest start to an expansion. I felt like I was stuck in a long scenario that I couldn’t wait to finish (like a less interesting version of the Warlords of Draenor opening). It also seemed like it was taking a long time to kill mobs, weird considering this was on a somewhat overgeared main who won’t be getting upgrades for a few levels. For a starter sequence with returning players, mobs shouldn’t hit harder than the last patch.
Once finished with the intro area, you’re sent to what I’m guessing will be the star of the expansion: the revamped Silvermoon City. It’s GORGEOUS. It can be a little disorienting at first with what initially feels like a new city, but then realizing many landmarks are still in roughly the same place (the bank, the AH, etc). One weird quirk is that Alliance and Horde are now both allowed into Silvermoon City, although there’s a Horde-only area that’s pretty easy to slip into. but I imagine that won’t be as much of an issue as we get used to the new city over time.
The first quests you get in Silvermoon City are more of the “tour” variety — you’re meeting NPCs, learning where all the profession trademasters are, and lots more lore. I didn’t really dig in too deep this first night; I hit level 81 and saved the real start of the level churn for Friday.
Day 2: Friday
Level 81 -> 82: I’m now fully immersed in the new Silvermoon City. It’s up there with Suramar in terms of the prettiest cities in WoW. I was always more of an Alliance player than Horde, but I still remember some landmarks like Murder Row, and it’s a little weird being able to run around as Alliance without guards trying to attack me.
Eventually, I finish all the Silvermoon City stuff and questing begins to expand outside the city into Eversong Woods into hubs like Fairbreeze Village and Farstrider Hold. Again, it’s the same zone as before with roughly the same landmarks, so it’s still somewhat familiar, but it’s been redone for Midnight, so now it’s got all this new stuff to check out. I also notice that off to the east, the old Zul’Aman dungeon sits in its own new zone with new quest hubs as well. I suspect that’ll be next.
I got my first battle pet of the expansion, and I’ll be honest, it bummed me out a little. I have a huge WoW pet collection (1950 unique pets), but sadly, Blizzard decided to do away with wild pet battles in Midnight. Instead of having to engage in a 3v3 battle to capture a new pet, you just… right click it and it’s yours. That’s it. It’s pretty anticlimactic and made me a little sad to see this change after 14 years of “PokeWoW.”
As I quest, I’m finally starting to see some tiny gear upgrades. My main was ilevel 700 before the item squish, and then 140 after, so I’ve gotten a few 144 items that have replaced some 131s and such. It’s been this way for decades and remains the same: it’s always a little painful when you replace epic purples with better greens.
Level 82 -> 83: Questing is taking me further south to Tranquillen. There’s no shortage of questing to do so far, and I always do the side quests to get Loremaster every expansion anyway, so I usually hit the new level cap long before reaching the end of the campaign storyline.
The quests are nothing new for WoW. Kill X foozles, collect Y thingies, talk to so-and-so. That’s OK. I’m not looking for Blizzard to reinvent the wheel, and definitely not start coming up with new quest mechanics that inevitably don’t work correctly and throw the whole leveling process out of whack. (I’m looking at you, Shadowlands.)
I can feel I’m getting to the end of Eversong Woods. As I complete one quest hub after another, unlocking maybe the fifth or sixth lengthy cutscene, I realize … I have virtually no idea what the overarching story is, nor am I interested. I’ve always found WoW’s lore to be C-level at best, and each successive expansion keeps building on a shaky foundation like an unsteady Jenga tower. So I just don’t get invested. I level my main and eventually some alts, collect pets and mounts, and let other people worry about the story. 20 years of WoW tells me I haven’t missed much other than frustration.
So I hit level 83 and decided, that’s enough for now. My hope is to do another two levels each day this weekend, which would get me from 83 > 85 > 87, and then see how much further I can get Monday before the expansion fully launches for everyone. We’re off!
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Notable 2026 Game Releases Feb 27 - Pokémon FireRed/Leafgreen Feb 27 - Resident Evil: Requiem Mar 2 - World of Warcraft: Midnight Mar 5 - Marathon Mar 26 - Life is Strange: Reunion May 19 - Forza Horizon 6 May 27 - 007 First Light Sep 15 - Marvel's Wolverine TBD - Grand Theft Auto VI TBD - Control Resonant TBD - Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis TBD - Professor Layton/World of Steam
2026 Videogame Events
GDC Festival of Gaming Mar 9-13 / San Francisco, CA
PAX East 2026 Mar 26-29 / Boston, MA
Summer Game Fest 2026 June 5-8 / Los Angeles, CA
Summer Games Done Quick July 5-11 / Minneapolis, MN
World of Warcraft: Midnight – opening thoughts
THE LATEST World of Warcraft expansion, Midnight, launched in early access Thursday night for players with the Epic edition. I was in that group, and although I only play WoW casually these days, I always quest at the start of each new expansion to level my main and see the new zones, and thought I’d share my thoughts over the next week as I make the climb from level 80 to the new cap of 90.
Night 1: Thursday
Predictably, WoW crashed within minutes of the 6p EST launch. In recent years, some launches have gone more smoothly than others, and you’d think that staggering a release in stages via early access would help. But sure enough, WoW’s authentication servers bit it by 6:02pm and within minutes the WoW subreddit was filled with about 75 near-identical posts of “anyone else getting this?”
I didn’t mind. I’m not in a hurry, I don’t raid or run dungeons any more, there’s no race for me to get to the endgame. Sure enough, about an hour or so later, things mostly settled down, and that’s where my adventure began for real.
Level 80 -> 81: Upon zoning into Dornogal, there’s a breadcrumb quest that sends you to an NPC (Lady Liadrin) to start Midnight. You’re summoned to the Isle of Quel’Denas into the middle of an attack, and this introductory area lasts about 30-40 minutes, culminating in some fights in the Sunwell.
This intro area lays a lot of lore on you and not much XP and didn’t feel like the strongest start to an expansion. I felt like I was stuck in a long scenario that I couldn’t wait to finish (like a less interesting version of the Warlords of Draenor opening). It also seemed like it was taking a long time to kill mobs, weird considering this was on a somewhat overgeared main who won’t be getting upgrades for a few levels. For a starter sequence with returning players, mobs shouldn’t hit harder than the last patch.
Once finished with the intro area, you’re sent to what I’m guessing will be the star of the expansion: the revamped Silvermoon City. It’s GORGEOUS. It can be a little disorienting at first with what initially feels like a new city, but then realizing many landmarks are still in roughly the same place (the bank, the AH, etc). One weird quirk is that Alliance and Horde are now both allowed into Silvermoon City, although there’s a Horde-only area that’s pretty easy to slip into. but I imagine that won’t be as much of an issue as we get used to the new city over time.
The first quests you get in Silvermoon City are more of the “tour” variety — you’re meeting NPCs, learning where all the profession trademasters are, and lots more lore. I didn’t really dig in too deep this first night; I hit level 81 and saved the real start of the level churn for Friday.
Day 2: Friday
Level 81 -> 82: I’m now fully immersed in the new Silvermoon City. It’s up there with Suramar in terms of the prettiest cities in WoW. I was always more of an Alliance player than Horde, but I still remember some landmarks like Murder Row, and it’s a little weird being able to run around as Alliance without guards trying to attack me.
Eventually, I finish all the Silvermoon City stuff and questing begins to expand outside the city into Eversong Woods into hubs like Fairbreeze Village and Farstrider Hold. Again, it’s the same zone as before with roughly the same landmarks, so it’s still somewhat familiar, but it’s been redone for Midnight, so now it’s got all this new stuff to check out. I also notice that off to the east, the old Zul’Aman dungeon sits in its own new zone with new quest hubs as well. I suspect that’ll be next.
I got my first battle pet of the expansion, and I’ll be honest, it bummed me out a little. I have a huge WoW pet collection (1950 unique pets), but sadly, Blizzard decided to do away with wild pet battles in Midnight. Instead of having to engage in a 3v3 battle to capture a new pet, you just… right click it and it’s yours. That’s it. It’s pretty anticlimactic and made me a little sad to see this change after 14 years of “PokeWoW.”
As I quest, I’m finally starting to see some tiny gear upgrades. My main was ilevel 700 before the item squish, and then 140 after, so I’ve gotten a few 144 items that have replaced some 131s and such. It’s been this way for decades and remains the same: it’s always a little painful when you replace epic purples with better greens.
Level 82 -> 83: Questing is taking me further south to Tranquillen. There’s no shortage of questing to do so far, and I always do the side quests to get Loremaster every expansion anyway, so I usually hit the new level cap long before reaching the end of the campaign storyline.
The quests are nothing new for WoW. Kill X foozles, collect Y thingies, talk to so-and-so. That’s OK. I’m not looking for Blizzard to reinvent the wheel, and definitely not start coming up with new quest mechanics that inevitably don’t work correctly and throw the whole leveling process out of whack. (I’m looking at you, Shadowlands.)
I can feel I’m getting to the end of Eversong Woods. As I complete one quest hub after another, unlocking maybe the fifth or sixth lengthy cutscene, I realize … I have virtually no idea what the overarching story is, nor am I interested. I’ve always found WoW’s lore to be C-level at best, and each successive expansion keeps building on a shaky foundation like an unsteady Jenga tower. So I just don’t get invested. I level my main and eventually some alts, collect pets and mounts, and let other people worry about the story. 20 years of WoW tells me I haven’t missed much other than frustration.
So I hit level 83 and decided, that’s enough for now. My hope is to do another two levels each day this weekend, which would get me from 83 > 85 > 87, and then see how much further I can get Monday before the expansion fully launches for everyone. We’re off!