World of Warcraft is still in the middle of its Legion Remix loop while also featuring new tansmogs in the Hallow's End event, but there are a lot of changes happening in midnight alpha testing. For example, World of Warcraft's Housing isn't for all characters, as fans found out in the Midnight expansion alpha. Now that Phase 4 is live, players can get a better and deeper look at all the intended changes and additions for class balance purposes in WoWincluding Apex Talents and even the new Midnight Tier Set bonuses. As the patch does right, it also further removes abilities from some classes, reducing their usefulness.
Midnight will be a massive shift for the game, with many classes losing several active skills to make the game smoother and more accessible. In addition World of Warcraft fans will have to say goodbye to most of their favorite addons as Blizzard makes changes to the internal user interface and prevents addons from reading information from the game. The biggest changes in the midnight alpha include:
- World of Warcraft classes lose abilities at the push of a button to make the game easily accessible for new and returning players while reducing cognitive load at all levels.
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Plugins like WeakAuras and ElvUI lose most of their functionality, making them unusable.
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Addition of customizable game plates to show players relevant combat information.
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Roles like Healer and Tank will be more meaningful and rewarding, as well as easier to grasp.
While these changes can be polarizing for the community, World of WarcraftMidnight Alpha also gets rid of “kicks” on healers. These are an integral part of the game loop, and removing them can make healing more efficient, but also incredibly frustrating.
Kick in World of Warcraft is a term for abilities that interrupt enemies' spells and prevent them from completing their casts.
Midnight officially marks the end of an era for World of Warcraft healers
The reason why interrupts are so crucial to the game is because World of WarcraftAll Mythic+ Dungeons and Raids feature enemies that cast powerful spells. These can sometimes destroy a party or throw a massive monkey wrench in any run, so all classes and specs have kicks. However, Midnight's Phase 4 patch notes make it clear that this will no longer be the case for healers.
World of Warcraft healers will never be the same at midnight
The role of a healer is often different and has a high skill ceiling, with some specs requiring a lot of button presses to perform well. This has led to healing becoming a difficult loop for many players to maintain or get into, which is why Blizzard wants to change this. There are pros and cons to removing kicks/breaks:
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Benefits of removing interruptions for healers v World of Warcraft:
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Fewer buttons to press and actively monitoring cooldowns mid-fight.
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Healing becomes the focus, which is more intuitive and straightforward.
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Less worry when healing in group content.
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Disadvantages of removing kicks on healer v WoW:
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Lower skill cap for veteran and competitive players.
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Potentially horrible experience in World of Warcraft's Delves and other solo player activities.
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More reliance on party members, especially DPS players, to engage the mechanics of a given Dungeon or Raid, and less representation for healers.
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Less useful in parties for healers.
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This can be especially bad in Delves and solo content, as Brann doesn't reliably use his interrupt ability, meaning players will have to endure more deaths than they would with access to kicks.
Not all World of Warcraft healers have to say goodbye to midnight interruptions
It's hard to say if this will be a good or bad change in the grand scheme of things, but in a group setting it might not be too much of a problem if Blizzard also balances the new Raids and Dungeons around this logic. But it also reignites the age-old debate about class balance World of Warcraftbecause Blizzard could have given Discipline and Holy Priest a break instead of removing them from every other class.
Additionally, the logic is already flawed as one of the most lamented changes in the midnight alpha cycle is how much ability pruning affected Restoration Shaman versus other healers, but coincidentally this spec retains the Wind Shear break on the 30 second cooldown. In addition, not all specifications of Healer v World of Warcraft have access to combat resurrection, which makes no sense.
Should you reroll the main role in the World of Warcraft midnight expansion? It's worth noting that another week of alpha testing will follow, with Phase 5 launching on October 30 and likely including more class balance changes.
Interestingly, the reception to these changes so far has been mixed, with some players excited to start healing or returning to the role and others upset at the loss of control and utility. It's hard to argue for or against either side, as each healing spec may have better tools for some specific tasks but not others. Considering how they dethroned Mythic+ Dungeons World of Warcraft's Raids as the “face” of the game, each class will need more time in different environments to test their usefulness and understand where they shine, but some may not be as viable in solo content.
Still some of the best World of Warcraft addons like WeakAuras and Cell currently make healing very easy, even with a lot of buttons, so losing them and other UI additions will inevitably change the feel of the game and all the healing specs. At the same time, without addons, losing kicks can make tracking cooldowns easier. Healers will retain their utility for the most part, but those who like a more action-oriented approach may not like the focus on healing itself and the loss of interrupt, as well as the reduced damage output that would make the DPS role fit better.
- Released
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2026
- Multiplayer
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Online multiplayer, online co-op
