World of Warcraft: Midnight
Why Did I Came Back? I haven’t seriously played World of Warcraft since BFA. I poked my head in for SL Season 1 and Season 4, did a tiny bit of DF Season 1, skipped TWW almost entirely, and caught the very tail end of Legion Remix just to level some characters, achievements and get ready for Midnight. So for all intents and purposes, I came into this expansion as a returning player.
What actually pulled me back wasn’t a trailer or a feature reveal. It was my friends. Not just the ones who play every expansion religiously, the actual casual friends who hadn’t touched WoW in years started messaging out of nowhere. Once that group chat lit up, it was over. Unfortunate as that sounds, we were all coming back.
Beyond that, the Xal’atath storyline genuinely interested me enough to want to actually play through it rather than watch a twenty-minute lore recap on YouTube like I did for Shadowlands, Dragonflight and TWW. That’s honestly a bar Blizzard cleared more than I expected.
The Class That Actually Stuck
Here’s where it gets embarrassing. Or relatable. Depends on how much MMORPGs you’ve played in your lifetime.
Excluding all the classes that didn’t make it to 80 or 90, like Priest, Envoker, Death Knight or Mage. When Midnight launched I started as Destruction Warlock. Rerolled. Went Sub Rogue. Loved it, but hated stealth breakers. Tried Fury Warrior. Felt good, wanted more. Switched to Havoc Demon Hunter, my dumb friends needed a healer. Then Restoration Druid, wanted more zurg zurg. So I went Mistweaver Monk. Last friend who was on the edge of deciding finally joined & mained Holy Pally. So I then went Beast Mastery Hunter, felt disgusted with myself, went back to Monk as a Windwalker. Then, three full weeks into the expansion, I finally settled on Fury Warrior and have not moved since.
If you’ve played WoW at any serious level you already know this feeling. Every expansion launch is secretly also a class identity crisis. The good news is Midnight has enough variety in its class design that there’s genuinely something for everyone. The bad news is you might need to spend your entire first month finding out what that something is.
Fury Warrior clicked for me because it’s loud, fast, and lets me turn my brain off a little when I’m grinding. Which is exactly what I need at the end of a long day.
M+ and Raids: WoW Still Does This Better Than Anyone
This is the real reason I came back. I genuinely missed Mythic Plus. No other MMO has cracked what Blizzard built here. GW2 Fractals are fun in their own way but they don’t scratch the same itch. The timed, scaling, rotation of affixes and keys system is still uniquely satisfying in 2026, and Midnight’s dungeon pool is solid.
I hit my goal of 2k IO and I’ve cleared 9/9 Normal and sitting at 6/9 Heroic on raid progression. The goal was always AOTC. Whether I get it or not is whatever at this point, but the progression itself has been genuinely fun to work through with the group.
The Silvermoon raid setting in particular is a real visual treat. Say what you want about Blizzard but they still know how to make a raid feel like an event. My favorite boss so far, has been Belo’ren. A beautiful blend of coordination, visually stunning and fun boss.
On the lore side, the Windrunner sisters are exactly as frustrating as I expected. Alleria and Vereesa make decisions so baffling I started wondering if Blizzard was writing them on purpose to make players mad. Sylvanas showing up to save the day was telegraphed from a mile away, but honestly? It still landed. Sometimes the expected thing is expected because it’s right. Mild spoiler, consider yourself warned.
The Lows
Let me be real with you because there are two things about Midnight that genuinely push me to alt-F4 and go play something else.
First, battleground queues. Ten to twenty minutes on average. In 2026. For casual PvP content. I don’t have a satisfying explanation for why this is still the case and neither does Blizzard apparently.
Second, and this one really gets me: M+ party finder is a coin flip. Some nights I’m in a key within five minutes. Other nights I spend an hour, posting my own key or signing up for every group in the Party Finder, and I get absolutely nothing. An hour of my evening gone without playing a single dungeon. That’s not a mild inconvenience. That’s a dealbreaker. I’ve logged off mid-queue and gone back to play some Dragon Ball Gekishin Squadra or Maplestory, more times than I’d like to admit.
For a game mode that’s supposed to be the signature endgame experience, the friction of actually getting into it is genuinely embarrassing.
And housing? I created my house, did the intro quest, and haven’t gone back unless a quest dragged me there for gear upgrade materials. The feature that WoW players asked for twenty years is technically in the game. Whether it’s actually fun is another conversation.
Is Midnight Worth Coming Back For?
If your friends are playing, yes. Full stop. WoW has always been at its best when you have people to play it with, and Midnight is no different. The content is there, the dungeon design is good, and the expansion gives you enough to do that you won’t run out of reasons to log in and the best thing is, you don’t need to deal with party finder unless your trying fill up or something.
On the question of whether you’re “too late” or “too behind,” the answer is always no with WoW. Every expansion effectively resets the gear floor and the leveling experience. You’re never late to the party. Brand new player or someone returning after years away, Midnight puts you in Quel’Thalas and lets you start fresh. The catch-up is baked into the expansion launch by design and even if it’s mid-expansion, there are always plenty of catch up mechanics in place to ensure you are always able to catch up within 1-3 weeks if you actively play.
The sub cost is what it is. If you’re playing actively it’s easy to justify. If you’re logging in twice a week and spending half that time in a queue, it stings a little more.
Come back for the M+. Come back for your friends. Just maybe have a backup game ready for the nights the Party Finder decides it hates you.
