00:00:01
it's time to talk about World of
00:00:02
Warcraft in 2025 and it's going to be
00:00:04
quite a year player housing is going to
00:00:05
be in the game sooner than you think 25
00:00:07
is going to be pretty damn stacked this
00:00:09
time last year we were already done with
00:00:12
the dragonflight expansion War within
00:00:14
was of course barely on the horizon what
00:00:16
blizzard tried to do was save the first
00:00:18
half of the year they kind of did that
00:00:20
right they had plunder storm there was
00:00:21
mop remix they pulled those out of the
00:00:23
back pocket and uh dragonflight season 4
00:00:26
happened and I think we all just kind of
00:00:27
forgot that existed this year though it
00:00:30
is radically different they've planned
00:00:31
better we know almost everything that
00:00:34
we're going to be getting we know the
00:00:35
release Cadence of 8we patches of the
00:00:37
team is announced and if they can keep
00:00:39
up that pace well we pretty much know
00:00:41
when everything is going to happen from
00:00:44
right now until the release of the
00:00:46
midnight expansion but let's not get
00:00:48
ahead of ourselves let's kick it off
00:00:50
with January 14th it all kicks off in
00:00:52
the 14th of January with plunder storm
00:00:54
which is Wow's Battle Royale mode that
00:00:55
honestly got me completely addicted last
00:00:58
time I know was a little bit
00:01:00
controversial but seriously if you give
00:01:01
it a chance I think you'll find it
00:01:03
really does have quite a lot to it
00:01:05
what's great is that this time round the
00:01:06
Renown track is going to be gone the
00:01:08
reward system that people hate it won't
00:01:10
be a thing there are more rewards you
00:01:12
can get them more granularly and they're
00:01:14
adding a practice mode to ease people in
00:01:16
instead of you know throwing the World
00:01:18
of Warcraft audience who generally are
00:01:20
not all pvpers into a PVP Battle Royale
00:01:22
with zero preparation which second
00:01:25
thoughts maybe wasn't the best idea this
00:01:26
incarnation of plunder storm is going to
00:01:28
last till February 18th then after that
00:01:30
we're going to have patch 11.1 but not
00:01:33
necessarily after because if blizzard
00:01:35
are following their 8we Cadence which
00:01:37
they rather shockingly have followed
00:01:39
patch 11.1 will launch February the 11th
00:01:42
which I suppose is cute in terms of
00:01:43
dates in terms of how that patch is
00:01:45
shaping up there's quite a lot number
00:01:47
one there's drive drive is basically
00:01:49
Dragon riding but for the ground it's
00:01:51
even faster yes even faster than Max
00:01:53
Speed Dragon riding it's complete with
00:01:55
insane drifting potential and even car
00:01:58
customization not just just the
00:02:00
appearance but also the actual handling
00:02:02
and performance then we've got the long
00:02:04
waited Marksman ship Hunter rework it
00:02:05
looks incredibly promising so far and
00:02:08
there are a ton of huge class changes as
00:02:10
well enhancement shamans you guys seem
00:02:12
to be getting a lot of love most of the
00:02:15
stuff that we've seen does actually look
00:02:16
quite great then there's a feature we've
00:02:18
all been expecting which is the warbound
00:02:19
camp screen customizations you'll be
00:02:21
able to unlock different ones in game
00:02:22
you can assign ones to your different
00:02:24
sets of characters seems pretty cool and
00:02:26
it does come along with blizzard making
00:02:27
other changes to warbands as well of
00:02:29
course Al at season 2 and season 2 also
00:02:31
gets a new dungeon for the first time in
00:02:33
quite a while and the raid looks
00:02:35
incredible yes as a raid but also how
00:02:38
they've changed things we've got some
00:02:39
deterministic rewards if you remember
00:02:41
Dinars from the shadowlands we're
00:02:43
actually getting that back there's a
00:02:44
raid wide Renown track loads of quality
00:02:46
of life changes there spat up crash
00:02:48
drops blizzard have made a lot of
00:02:50
changes to progression and overall I
00:02:52
think it's drive that especially is
00:02:54
interesting to me it's one of those
00:02:56
updates that doesn't just make a patch
00:02:58
better what it is is potential for
00:03:01
something else to make Drive happen
00:03:04
blizzard had to make new tech new
00:03:06
systems a little bit like with dragon
00:03:08
riding right so for now it's going to be
00:03:10
confined to undermine and Goblin cars
00:03:13
and I really don't think we'll be able
00:03:14
to put different Hooves on our horses
00:03:17
that will make them drift better but I
00:03:19
have a feeling this technology will be
00:03:21
used again in the future so the likes of
00:03:24
that and the war brand screens do
00:03:25
actually feel like wow is building up to
00:03:27
the Future speaking of the future we've
00:03:29
got a move on in the year our next date
00:03:32
is April 8th and that seems to be when
00:03:34
we'll get the Nightfall patch that's the
00:03:37
name of WoW patch 11.1.1 and its new
00:03:39
content it sounds spooky it's called
00:03:42
Nightfall and the next expansion is
00:03:43
called midnight I have a feeling they'll
00:03:45
be connected but we're not totally in
00:03:47
the dark in its content because blizzard
00:03:48
left us with one huge clue and that is
00:03:51
horrific Visions Revisited the big
00:03:54
question is how will this game feature
00:03:56
return could it just be some sort of
00:03:58
straight hey we fix the numbers it's
00:04:00
back or will it be connected to the
00:04:02
story I have to imagine it will be will
00:04:04
zotth Usher in a Revival of nzo try to
00:04:08
repeat what he did will it be something
00:04:10
worse I mean world content with an
00:04:12
invading void would be a perfect way to
00:04:14
spice up the Cazal gar zones which do
00:04:17
feel well rather empty or perhaps even
00:04:19
the old world and that's not even to
00:04:21
mention say amping up zotth as a villain
00:04:24
with another major win under her belt
00:04:26
which they will absolutely want to do
00:04:28
for the midnight expansion as for
00:04:30
horrific Visions themselves as a piece
00:04:32
of content it's obviously hard to know
00:04:34
if blizzard means new horrific Visions
00:04:36
based on the design of the two we got
00:04:37
during BFA or if it's the exact same
00:04:39
content but Revisited with changes but
00:04:42
even if they did do that the original
00:04:44
horrific Visions involved characters
00:04:46
like ayria terellian and thr who are all
00:04:48
going to be relevant in the world Soul
00:04:50
Saga ultimately I think it is good news
00:04:53
though horrific Visions with some smart
00:04:55
fixes could be and I seriously mean this
00:04:57
some of the best current content in
00:05:00
World of Warcraft I believe the horrific
00:05:02
Visions when they came out had
00:05:03
everything there was awesome story
00:05:06
context there was customizable levels of
00:05:08
Challenge almost like I was selecting
00:05:10
skulls for my halo legendary campaign
00:05:12
run back in the day great mob design a
00:05:15
currency grind to of course get in good
00:05:18
group scaling it was a seriously fun
00:05:20
thing be it with friends or solo and I
00:05:22
think with distance from Battle for
00:05:24
azeroth's annoying well I
00:05:26
actually think people are going to love
00:05:28
them but of course even if people don't
00:05:29
well it's Blizzard's patch Cadence patch
00:05:32
11.1.0 doeses appear to be scheduled for
00:05:34
the 3rd of June 2025 So based on the
00:05:38
road map 1117 doesn't seem to have some
00:05:40
sort of new Zone like the siren Isle but
00:05:42
to be honest I actually think that's
00:05:44
kind of good news and I know it seems
00:05:47
strange I'm saying there's not a massive
00:05:49
amount of announced stuff that's
00:05:50
actually good for this patch because we
00:05:52
all see what's going on the increased
00:05:54
Pace as much as it means that I can do
00:05:56
this video and it's full of content well
00:05:58
blizzard have made a lot of unforced
00:06:00
errors the Black Rock depth raid was far
00:06:02
too hard it was busted difficulty when
00:06:04
it came out currency balancing has been
00:06:06
way off there was the whole Cersei ciret
00:06:08
drama and content like the siren Isle
00:06:10
not necessarily resonating with people
00:06:12
let's not have any of that again please
00:06:15
so maybe blizzard will announce more
00:06:17
features as we get closer but frankly
00:06:19
that they haven't committed to a whole
00:06:21
bunch of stuff I think is actually good
00:06:24
maybe they can slow down and be able to
00:06:25
focus on the quality of their releases
00:06:28
that's not to say that the Mill doesn't
00:06:30
exist though a number of in-game hints
00:06:32
and even a little bit of data mining
00:06:33
does have many people thinking there
00:06:35
will be a surprise Shaman tank spec
00:06:37
added to the game much in the same way
00:06:39
that we got the augmentation of voker
00:06:40
during the dragonflight expansion that's
00:06:43
obviously not confirmed what is
00:06:44
confirmed is new story and quests along
00:06:46
with content and system updates that's
00:06:48
what they've committed to and obviously
00:06:50
that's pretty vague now after this patch
00:06:53
again after 8 weeks there will be a
00:06:55
major patch and a new season that
00:06:57
because it's so far out we really don't
00:06:59
know anything about now assuming that
00:07:01
they do keep their schedule patch 11.2
00:07:03
will be July 29th some people think
00:07:06
we'll be going to the etherial homew
00:07:08
world of Kesh and what has definitely
00:07:10
added Credence to that theory is these
00:07:12
ethereals that have been datam mined in
00:07:14
11.1 because they don't just look like
00:07:16
random mobs some of them are but they
00:07:19
actually look like proper customizable
00:07:21
character models it's quite something
00:07:23
the other thing of course is the root
00:07:25
lands and everything going on with Ora
00:07:26
and the harer to me either sounds good
00:07:29
there could even be a way blizzard could
00:07:31
hit on both of those beats feature-wise
00:07:33
I would not expect anything as
00:07:34
gamechanging as drive to come here but
00:07:37
blizzard knows that they need to have
00:07:38
something to keep the world content
00:07:40
fresh siren is released to crickets I
00:07:43
think they know that by this stage doing
00:07:45
another slice of the same old world
00:07:47
content is just putting the pulp back in
00:07:49
the juicer and expecting to get
00:07:50
something tasty and that being said
00:07:53
there are class changes to talk about so
00:07:55
far we've had an absolutely humongous
00:07:57
amount of them but there are two notable
00:07:58
emissions which are the demon hunters
00:08:00
and the Rogues if you guys don't get
00:08:02
anything in upcoming minor patches I
00:08:04
would expect patch 11.2 to be where you
00:08:07
will get some love but it's really here
00:08:09
that our journey gets interesting if
00:08:10
you're expecting me to skip ahead
00:08:12
another eight weeks well tough luck
00:08:13
that's not going to happen that's
00:08:15
because August 19th is Gamescom Opening
00:08:18
Night Live and that event is actually
00:08:21
the most likely candidate that we have
00:08:23
for the midnight expansion reveal
00:08:25
obviously we know the expansion exists
00:08:27
but we have not got a proper reveal and
00:08:29
I 100% believe that is where we will
00:08:31
learn of say any of those leaked classes
00:08:34
from the surveys like the Tinker or The
00:08:35
Bard if they will appear what the qu
00:08:38
theas revamp will look like how blizzard
00:08:40
will follow up hero talents and maybe if
00:08:42
Drive will make it out of undermine but
00:08:44
perhaps more importantly far more
00:08:46
information about player housing and for
00:08:48
blizzard The Impressions that are formed
00:08:50
during the first 15 to 30 seconds of
00:08:52
that reveal will be some of world of
00:08:54
warcraft's most important in years
00:08:57
because the war within was always in
00:09:00
production regardless of the world Soul
00:09:02
Saga the whole world Soul Saga plan only
00:09:05
existed after Chris Metson came back to
00:09:07
the company and they revamp some of
00:09:08
their planning and their creative
00:09:09
direction that does mean that the war
00:09:11
within fundamentally is something that
00:09:14
was birthed out of the old process it
00:09:16
was changed a hell of a lot but it's
00:09:18
midnight and last Titan that basically
00:09:20
are where blizzard have had more
00:09:22
Evergreen planning given all that they
00:09:24
have learned right now but of course
00:09:25
hearing this you might think well
00:09:26
Michael what about BlizzCon why would
00:09:28
they not talk about mid night during
00:09:29
BlizzCon well here's the thing right
00:09:32
first we actually don't know if there
00:09:34
will be a BlizzCon we didn't have one
00:09:36
last year that kind of sucked second
00:09:38
world of warcraft's expansions are
00:09:40
actually not coming out at the same Pace
00:09:42
blizzard announced this they said that
00:09:44
the whole world Soul Saga will be done
00:09:46
before 2030 and what it basically maths
00:09:49
out to given all of the dates is
00:09:52
18-month expansions wizzard actually has
00:09:55
got to hit that to keep up pace now the
00:09:57
thing is if expansions are coming out
00:09:59
every 18 months but BlizzCon happens
00:10:01
yearly well that essentially guarantees
00:10:03
that World of Warcraft expansions will
00:10:05
be out of sync with the usual BlizzCon
00:10:07
cycle and that does mean that if
00:10:09
blizzard are looking for a really really
00:10:11
big date to announce something well it's
00:10:13
either going to be Gamescom Opening
00:10:14
Night Live or perhaps the game awards in
00:10:17
this case opening Night Live given when
00:10:19
midnight is almost certainly going to
00:10:20
come out and as for a release date for
00:10:23
midnight if blizzard continues as is
00:10:26
their new normal midnight will come out
00:10:28
February 10th 2026 with an early access
00:10:31
period starting on February 7th that is
00:10:34
based on the dates that we have seen
00:10:36
them ship but of course I've talked
00:10:38
about 2026 that is not to say that 2025
00:10:41
is finished because there will be more
00:10:43
content and what's interesting is the
00:10:44
pacing of some of that content even
00:10:46
lines up with that February date so up
00:10:49
next is patch 11.2.5 that'll likely come
00:10:51
out September 23rd and we know almost
00:10:54
nothing about it short of there being
00:10:56
new content and of course the 21st
00:10:57
anniversary event for world Warcraft if
00:11:00
BlizzCon is to return it'll be shortly
00:11:01
after this patch but taking a look at
00:11:02
the road map it really does not seem
00:11:04
like they planned World of Warcraft
00:11:06
around having a BlizzCon which if you
00:11:08
think about it does make a lot of sense
00:11:10
the World of Warcraft development team
00:11:12
while they are pretty damn important do
00:11:14
not get to call the shots on whether
00:11:15
BlizzCon exists or not they cannot tie
00:11:18
their plans to an event like that
00:11:20
hopefully of course it's the blizzard of
00:11:21
just not decided on doing a BlizzCon yet
00:11:23
and not because they're going to skip
00:11:25
one if they do a BlizzCon what I would
00:11:27
expect though is a proper Deep dive into
00:11:29
expansion features that being said I
00:11:32
actually believe we would be either in
00:11:34
alpha or in the cusp of alpha by that
00:11:37
stage but that's when you'll get your
00:11:38
proper Deep dive and a lot more about
00:11:40
housing of course then there will be the
00:11:43
War within's final patch and that's
00:11:45
where things do get rather odd take a
00:11:47
look at this the Banner turns green
00:11:49
which we all thought obviously meant
00:11:51
Legion remix Legion was of course the
00:11:53
green expansion and to add fuel to all
00:11:56
of that game directory and he a coost
00:11:57
has even dropped a ton of hints about
00:12:00
Legion remix and interviews it does seem
00:12:03
to be a foregone conclusion and the time
00:12:05
also lines up because if you take a look
00:12:08
at all of this in the banner launching
00:12:09
in November which is around where the
00:12:11
banner starts to change into Green Well
00:12:13
it kind of tells us everything mop remix
00:12:16
lasted 3 months and mop remix ended just
00:12:19
before the war within expansion launched
00:12:21
so if you take 3 months from November
00:12:24
you end up in February which is exactly
00:12:26
when we expect the midnight expansion to
00:12:29
release meaning that it all does line up
00:12:31
as for Legion remix well I think that's
00:12:33
going to be one of the most exciting
00:12:34
things in quite some time legion was one
00:12:36
of the peaks of World of Warcraft for a
00:12:38
very good reason and I think with modern
00:12:40
fixes to the artifact power grind and
00:12:42
legendary acquisition it could actually
00:12:44
turn out to be a proper revisit I mean
00:12:47
mop remix was great but I would love to
00:12:49
Blizzard just take a second step at that
00:12:51
idea and instead of just recycling the
00:12:53
same gems and power scaling using the
00:12:56
fact that Legion was inherently well
00:12:58
designed a way that fits the remix
00:13:00
format there's a lot they could do there
00:13:02
but of course there is the final patch
00:13:05
11.2.6 based on all of our dates that
00:13:08
should be coming out November the 18th
00:13:10
and taking a look at the road map you
00:13:11
can see that no new content listing is
00:13:14
there it's just the usual story quests
00:13:17
and updates now obviously that doesn't
00:13:19
mean that they're not working on
00:13:21
something more right that's not that
00:13:22
confirmed it's probably them just
00:13:25
keeping their hand hidden for as long as
00:13:26
they need to but of course when all of
00:13:28
that going on we'll be farming up
00:13:30
artifact power and our legendary so
00:13:33
we'll probably get by now taking a look
00:13:35
at the road map that leaves us with two
00:13:37
things one on the road map and one that
00:13:39
is completely missing so the first thing
00:13:42
is what's missing and that is season 4
00:13:44
and I think that's something we can
00:13:45
actually Rejoice for season 4 is gone if
00:13:48
blizzard deserves any praise it's for
00:13:50
learning when an experiment failed
00:13:52
season 4 of shadowlands was blizzard
00:13:53
having a quick answer to frankly just
00:13:56
not having enough content and being
00:13:58
upshit Creek with out a paddle and for
00:14:00
that expansion it worked they tried to
00:14:02
do a repeat of it in dragonflight but
00:14:04
the community was extremely vocal about
00:14:06
not wanting more people almost said we
00:14:09
would rather just have a season off
00:14:11
instead of a halfway house can we just
00:14:13
go play plunder storm and mop remix
00:14:15
please that actually seems to have
00:14:17
worked and yeah the two of those were
00:14:19
way better ways to spend our time than
00:14:21
just doing the same raids again and
00:14:23
getting bored and burnt out that's why
00:14:25
when we look at this road map it's
00:14:27
interesting that there is no season 4
00:14:28
it's seems the blizzard have learned and
00:14:30
that means they can focus their
00:14:31
resources more on what actually matters
00:14:34
that's what's not in the road map then
00:14:35
there's what's on the road map which uh
00:14:38
well is this this icon raised a lot of
00:14:40
eyebrows when it showed up but then
00:14:42
blizzard changed it to this new icon
00:14:44
which is a hell of a lot more obvious
00:14:45
it's player housing it's there on the
00:14:47
road map and uh well it's before
00:14:49
midnight actually comes out so there's a
00:14:52
few theories one is just it'll be there
00:14:54
a bit earlier maybe yes in 2025 I do
00:14:57
have another theory that that part of
00:14:59
the road map is actually January 2026
00:15:01
that would be basically the pre patch
00:15:04
for the midnight expansion and I think
00:15:06
that that pre- patch would bring in
00:15:07
player housing trusting the Blizzard's
00:15:09
8-week schedule holds and it has held
00:15:12
for a few patches now even when it
00:15:14
arguably shouldn't have blizzard will be
00:15:16
releasing something on January 13th that
00:15:19
is how the dates line up with patch
00:15:21
11.2.6 as our final war within patch it
00:15:24
must be 12.0 remember 12.0 is not the
00:15:28
launch of midnight proper it is the pre
00:15:30
patch it is game version 12.0 that pre
00:15:32
patch is just about always 1 month
00:15:34
before the expansion comes out blizzard
00:15:36
said that player housing is a midnight
00:15:38
feature that's coming in midnight but
00:15:39
blizzard are of course not dumb enough
00:15:41
to make it a midnight only thing the
00:15:43
blizzard the made Warlords of dror or
00:15:45
Legion probably would have made it a
00:15:46
midnight only feature that somehow we
00:15:48
all just get a ranch and qu foress but
00:15:50
modern blizzard knows that its game
00:15:52
features have to be Evergreen this will
00:15:54
be an Azeroth thing not a midnight thing
00:15:57
that means that it could open up on the
00:15:59
pre patch and actually solve the problem
00:16:01
of the pre patch being boring because
00:16:03
we'd all just be able to grind up cool
00:16:05
new things for our houses and for
00:16:07
blizzard let's be real they would
00:16:09
probably still lock it behind access to
00:16:10
the midnight expansion and in doing this
00:16:13
would get a massive stack of pre-order
00:16:16
money so what this actually means for
00:16:18
World of Warcraft is honestly huge it
00:16:20
means no content drought in the way that
00:16:22
we used to have them that season 4
00:16:25
buffer time has pretty much just been
00:16:27
deleted and installed instead it's
00:16:29
faster expansions now in a way that does
00:16:32
mean that we will be ponying up more
00:16:35
cash over time but the thing is I'm
00:16:37
broadly happy to pay a bit more money if
00:16:38
I'm getting a bit more content I'm not
00:16:40
having routine massive content droughts
00:16:43
so even though it's not an expansion
00:16:45
launch year 2025 actually looks big we
00:16:47
got the return of plunder storm six
00:16:48
patches of content we have a whole ton
00:16:51
of new game features a bunch of which
00:16:52
appear to be Evergreen and Legion remix
00:16:55
with all of that culminating pretty much
00:16:57
in player housing which could be one of
00:16:59
world of warcraft's truly massive
00:17:01
game-changing features that could solve
00:17:03
some of its motivational problems for a
00:17:05
long time I don't know about you but I'm
00:17:08
not really that excited about a new
00:17:10
transmog or a new Mount because I have
00:17:12
been there and I have done that for a
00:17:14
very long time indeed now if you're
00:17:16
interested in Midnight well check out
00:17:19
this video next you'll get all the lore
00:17:21
all the reasons all the new stuff that
00:17:23
we have learned since it was announced I
00:17:25
think you'll enjoy it a lot
00:17:28
[Music]
00:17:38
[Music]
