Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Ersula]

I think it's completely within reason to assume that S3 will be ending in February, and there's a high likelihood with at least 2 weeks to prepatch we'll see it come in late February/early March at the latest not earliest.

You realize the last season of an expansion extends into the pre-patch, yeah? Because neither raiders nor pvpers respond positively to off-season times, especially in the current game model.

Even if they announce the alpha immediately with the Midnight reveal cinematic, Blizzard will be testing the new expansion, a new game mode, remix and housing all at the same time (dumb) and even if Legion Remix is active at the same time as the pre-patch, if the expansion is supposed to come out in 1st quarter 2026, that means Legion Remix has to start before the anniversary. That's 4 special retail events happening at the same time.

You're all suggesting we have the shortest testing duration ever, the longest season ever & the shortest pre-patch ever. That just doesn't make sense from Blizzard's point of view.

Seasons since their new release schedule have been 5-6 months, why are you counting a fated season?

When did this "new release schedule" start? Seasons before Shadowlands, the 3rd season was considerably longer. Shadowlands & Dragonflight, each season was shorter than the one before, like I said.**

People suggesting no TWW season 4 just means we're going back to the Wod - BFA model where season 3's are just really long. Shadowlands s4 was 4 months long. Dragonflight s4 was 3 months long. Seems like an obvious decision to have a TWW s4 while Legion remix is happening considering at this point remixing the raids item levels is not hard. Just like we did with Dragonflight s4 and MoP Remix.

**Not including the last two weeks of december, as we all know, those don't count.

[Wangming]

Yeah, that's probably it.


I think they'll have to drop the alpha around September or October at the latest, surely?

Add about 5 months on top of that and we're in the Feb-March territory. I think that makes sense!

Is it that time again? Can I autism previous data?

Dragonflight and Wod are tied for the shortest lasting expansion so far with 21 months.
The longest was BfA with 27
The average is 23,6 months. Let's round that down to 23. Which is Legion

Late august this year will be TWW reaching the 12 month mark.

For a 21 month long expansion that would be 9 more months so May 2026
For 27 months that would be 15 more which would put it at November 2026. Absolute fucking impossible, as we are on the last major content patch.
For an average run of 23 months that would be 11 more July 2026.

What this really points to for me is that TWW will be the shortest expansion by a large margin. They did kinda say as much I suppose.

Now, time since announcement. Technically Midnight was revealed in 2023, but let's not skew the data. The reveal will be this month.
Now then:
Dragonflight was released 7 months after the reveal.
Cataclysm was released a mindblowing 16 months after the reveal
Average is 11,8 so 12 months. That corresponds to WoD, Legion and Shadowlands

Now with a reveal in August for Midnight
A 7 month wait would put it at March 2026. A reasonable wait.
A 16 month wait would December 2026.
And the average wait of 12 month wouldn't be hard to count. August 2026.

So, time between the last raid patch and release. (We know the last raid patch is 11.2, unless they have something more to reveal at Gamescom)
TBC had a comfortable wait of 7 months
Wod and Legion both came after 14 months of waiting after the last raid. Twice as long.
Average is: 10 months which is MoP and Shadowlands. Which means that Cataclysm and BfA provided the average lenght of final raid tier.

So from August 5 of Ghosts of Kh'aresh

7 month was already counted to be March 2026
14 months would be October 2026
10 months would be June 2026

These are what had precedent. Midnight is not beholden to any of this. But this is the whole spread from March to December 2026. Just going to causally mention that we never had a spring release and the two most popular months for expansion debut are August and November.

Now then, beta length. Not the thing you'd want to save on if you know what's good for you. Assuming Housing comes earlier at least that won't drag the beta longer.

TBC had an only 3 month long beta test
Legion was tested for 9. Altough with all the artifact weapons and everything, perhaps not surprising
Average is a 5 (and a half) month long beta, so Cataclysm. That had an entire old world revamp, old world flying, a new profession and two new races.

Now then a 3 month long beta would comfortably fit with any release schedule but it would also likely not happen as it never occured after TBC.
Legion's 9 month is reasonable for a meaty expansion, but even if the Beta were to start immediately 9 month would last it till May.
A five month beta test starting now would end in January so if they are targeting a March release they can have a 3 month long Alpha test.

As for release date reveal, there was never a more than 4 month wait from the reveal to the release. So we will very likely won't learn it now.

- - - Updated - - -

It would be interesting to see some distancing from this, actually (although I know it'll never happen given its popularity).

I think this is an opportunity to present the High/Blood/Void Elves as a people marching forward to a bright new future rather than dwelling in the past. Replacing sorrow, mourning, and all the doom and gloom with optimism, renewal, and joy. (See: phoenixes. We have risen from the ashes.)

Could be. But the whole point of the Blood Elves calling themselves Blood Elves is how much they have suffered and how much they love Hybrid Theory.
Not as much as Demon Hunters, for sure, but if they can't sing Crawling like every half an hour they produce pysical symptoms.

The Forsaken will sooner learn a new farewell that doesn't reference Sylvanas before the Belfs stop dwelling on past sorrows.
A non-emo Blood Elf is just a High Elf.

[-Midnight-]

the longest season ever & the shortest pre-patch ever.

Please check dates before posting nonsense.

[Marlamin]

I would not be surprised if they announce housing testing will start before Midnight Alpha/Beta does with it just being on 11.2.7 PTR or something. If the housing demo is running on the 11.2.5 or 11.2.7 client at Gamescom like we expect it to (there are public "show" realms visible on PTR for both with the 11.2.7 realm being available for anyone to connect to, leading me to believe the Gamescom demo is running on that and maybe eventually turning into a housing-specific PTR), there would be very little reason for them to 'delay' it to 12.0 if most of it was implemented into a 11.2.7 build already anyways.

That does leave some things unclear like how one would get the new materials if they would only be in e.g. Midnight zones (we don't know this), but I am pretty confident housing is launching before 12.0 pre-patch given how much of it has appeared in 11.x already.

I really think they want to get it out to as many people as possible which is why it is a base edition pre-order bonus and not a higher edition bonus like the 3 days early access & Midnight beta access in the epic edition.

[Dracullus]

Do we have any reason to believe "Winter" refers to the exact day Winter starts and not just December according to Blizzard? I can't see them announcing Housing as a 2025 feature only for them to delay it until after the new year.

You have no reason to believe in anything. Roadmap is their plan, not legal agreement.

And I say it everytime, but people constantly forget that last roadmaps extend both to 2024 in 2026 - that is more clear in classic roadmap, as it shows plans for TBC Classic for Winter/Spring. They never said housing is 2025 feature.

I really think they want to get it out to as many people as possible which is why it is a base edition pre-order bonus and not a higher edition bonus like the 3 days early access & Midnight beta access in the epic edition.

I know it's close to impossible, but I would be so happy if epic edition early access would be scrapped. Beta and housing stuff will give them mountain of gold anyway and TWW clearly show how dividing playerbase in half is simply harmful to launch hype.

[milkmustache]

You have no reason to believe in anything. Roadmap is their plan, not legal agreement.

And I say it everytime, but people constantly forget that last roadmaps extend both to 2024 in 2026 - that is more clear in classic roadmap, as it shows plans for TBC Classic for Winter/Spring. They never said housing is 2025 feature.

Just to nip that in the bud real quick, the 2025 Roadmap.



EDIT: 11.0.7 did release on December 7th 2024, so perhaps I spoke a little soon. I still expect housing and 11.2.7 to release in 2025. * weeks per patch would put it at Nov 25th, maybe it gets pushed a week for Thanksgiving so it's Dec 2nd.

[Lady Atia]

You realize the last season of an expansion extends into the pre-patch, yeah? Because neither raiders nor pvpers respond positively to off-season times, especially in the current game model.

Even if they announce the alpha immediately with the Midnight reveal cinematic, Blizzard will be testing the new expansion, a new game mode, remix and housing all at the same time (dumb) and even if Legion Remix is active at the same time as the pre-patch, if the expansion is supposed to come out in 1st quarter 2026, that means Legion Remix has to start before the anniversary. That's 4 special retail events happening at the same time.

You're all suggesting we have the shortest testing duration ever, the longest season ever & the shortest pre-patch ever. That just doesn't make sense from Blizzard's point of view.When did this "new release schedule" start? Seasons before Shadowlands, the 3rd season was considerably longer. Shadowlands & Dragonflight, each season was shorter than the one before, like I said.

People suggesting no TWW season 4 just means we're going back to the Wod - BFA model where season 3's are just really long. Shadowlands s4 was 4 months long. Dragonflight s4 was 3 months long. Seems like an obvious decision to have a TWW s4 while Legion remix is happening considering at this point remixing the raids item levels is not hard. Just like we did with Dragonflight s4 and MoP Remix.

Plunderstorm and (I think) Pandaria remix never hit the PTR, it's safe to asume same will be true for the other experimental stuff (since part of the fun is not knowing all the details till the day they drop).

[-Midnight-]

Again Blizzard hasn't missed a major release since they started doing roadmaps, it would be strange to have it on the 2025 roadmap and it comes out in February. It's intentionally unclear to give them wiggle room though.

[Dracullus]

Just to nip that in the bud real quick, the 2025 Roadmap.

And Siren Isle was 2025, right?

[milkmustache]

And Siren Isle was 2025, right?

When you're right, you're right. Edited to adjust. Still expecting 2025 for housing, but my sass had no ground beneath it.

[-Midnight-]

And Siren Isle was 2025, right?

Siren Isle came out less than a month after that roadmap released, they put it on there because it was upcoming content a few weeks before Christmas, it's obviously intended to showcase new stuff for the 2025 year.

[Darkarath]

Please let's not start with dates again.

I know that a certain someone is having a really bad time trying not to create a new account to post his list.

Think about the health of that certain someone.

Also we know that Housing comes in 2025 and Midnight in February - March 2026.

Is the exact date that important?

[Holdodlig]

Plunderstorm and (I think) Pandaria remix never hit the PTR, it's safe to asume same will be true for the other experimental stuff (since part of the fun is not knowing all the details till the day they drop).

Also it's worth mentioning that Longdale said they liked the fact you've got some stuff you don't know before it's going live when they revealed Plunderstorm so they'll keep the whole thing a mystery 'til the very last moment.

[Dracullus]

When you're right, you're right. Edited to adjust. Still expecting 2025 for housing, but my sass had no ground beneath it.

Well, I never say never either. But no one gave me good argument why housing same time as Remix or 4 days before Christmas are likely ideas.

Is the exact date that important?

Nope, were just bored.

Siren Isle came out less than a month after that roadmap released, they put it on there because it was upcoming content a few weeks before Christmas, it's obviously intended to showcase new stuff for the 2025 year.

As I said, check classic roadmap too. Some try to argue Winter 2025 is possible, but would be little harder to fit 2 Springs in same year. Maps clearly extend to 2026 plans.

[Khaza-R]

12th August - 10.2 (already wrong but got the season right)
7th October - 11.2.5 (anniversary, likely this teased "spooky game mode")
2nd December - 11.2.7 (Legion Remix)
27th January - 12.0 (housing, 3 weeks later pre-expansion event)
3rd March - MD launch (main date, not early access)

I have posted the list... and there's NO way Housing isn't a Christmas release. It makes way too much sense thematically and they showed it likely isn't tied to prepatch.

I still think Legion Remix is October. Hence the trader's post being fel themed (Fel Festivities) despite at least some of the rewards being HH stuff. I don't see why else that would of gone with this name

Not to mention the whole lime green highlight that's supposed to signify Legion Remix on the roadmap starts mid-Autumn. I am not sure we will see the new gamemode until next year.

[Wangming]

There is no season 4.

In Ba Sing Se

- - - Updated - - -

Please let's not start with dates again.

I wanna start with dates again. I haven't had a date since last october. And it shows.

[-Midnight-]

August 5th - 11.2
October 7th - 11.2.5 (Ethereal race, Legion remix)
December 2nd - 11.2.7 (Housing launch potentially)
January 27th - 12.0 Pre-Patch
February 24th - 12.0 Launch

[Cheezits]

I
I really think they want to get it out to as many people as possible which is why it is a base edition pre-order bonus and not a higher edition bonus like the 3 days early access & Midnight beta access in the epic edition.

Is beta access still happening? I didn't see it in the leak.

[Ersula]

Is it that time again? Can I autism previous data?

Dragonflight and Wod are tied for the shortest lasting expansion so far with 21 months.
The longest was BfA with 27
The average is 23,6 months. Let's round that down to 23. Which is Legion

If you add all expansions together its between 23 & 24 weeks... so 2 years. That's the same average expansion duration as its ever been.

I really think they want to get it out to as many people as possible which is why it is a base edition pre-order bonus and not a higher edition bonus like the 3 days early access & Midnight beta access in the epic edition.

No fear.

"Despite coming out before 12.0 Housing requires purchasing the Midnight Expansion"

One fear.

This would be a wild price-gouge for wow considering purchasing individual expansions isn't a thing anymore. But not unheard of considering that's how the BFA bonuses work. That's why I'm hoping Housing is free for everyone but playble Ethereals is the pre-order bonus.

[-Midnight-]

People thought you would get housing access without buying Midnight?