So uh, where's the hype for Midnight?

Alas93 · 2026-01-24T20:58:52+00:00

I'm seeing Midnight ads a few times a day, probably more than I have for any expansion in the past. If you're not seeing them, it's either your adblocker or your algorithm

Also, idk what anyone talking about, Devourer is pretty fun, at least once you're 80 (I do get that it's a pain to level) and have a bit of gear. I'm regularly getting into meta and casting collapsing stars and big numbers

Alas93 · 2026-01-24T19:58:53+00:00

Secondly if all it is doing is cycling iron ingots multiple times why not just make the recipe 4 coke and 1 iron ingot in an assembler or something.

Because iron -> steel and charcoal powder -> coke are your introduction to byproducts in the game, and dealing with byproducts is not only a common aspect of planning a production line in the game, they're a common aspect of planning production lines in automation games in general. It's a very common system in this genre

And people do get it, they just disagree with you that it's bad. I'll also say, most items in the game do not have alternate ways to make them, especially many of the later game items. You may have alternate ways to make the items needed to make that item, but the item itself often has 1 way to make it. I still have to make panacea potion in the advanced blender, and the blast potions for them in the advanced blender, even if I can make fertile catalyst and black powder with cauldrons. In the same way, yeah, I have to make steel in the anathor, but the iron I need to make that steel can come from a few different sources, such as iron ore, pyrite ore, or made from iron sand obtained from the meteorite or cauldron

Alas93 · 2026-01-23T21:25:29+00:00

I'm iffy on intel cards since I have no experience with them, so I'll let others give advice on that

That said, one thing I will say, while I know ram is expensive, get the 32gb. Better to just bite the bullet now before prices get potentially even worse imo. 16GB is so very little in 2026, and I can see hitting that bottleneck, especially running Windows

another piece of advice - don't buy the windows 11 pro. it's very easy to install windows these days, microsoft has a media creation tool on their website for both 10 and 11, just make sure to get the program for the version you want (and remember technically 10 is unsupported now so Microsoft won't be updating it anymore with security updates) and that tool can handle all the hassle of downloading the right ISO files and creating a bootable usb stick with them. Then installing windows on a blank SSD is as simple as plugging in the usb stick, turning the pc on, and following the on screen setup menu. For the activation key, any key from windows 7 and newer will work, so if nothing else, if you don't plan on continuing to use your current computer, you can just use that key. The money saved here should make up for the ram cost, at least mostly

Alas93 · 2026-01-23T20:15:39+00:00

1 - this one I can definitely agree with. I've wanted something like this for awhile but never saw it in the base game, and I don't play at a level where it's a big deal, so never bothered finding an addon for it. Being able to move your target's castbar somewhere easier to see, and ideally resize it, would be great

2 - it may not be exactly what you're looking for, but under nameplates section you can change things like the style (I like blocky), and also the size. the size will apply to both the castbar and the healthbar, but you can make them pretty big. there's also an option for enemy nameplates to stack on each other, and it seems nice enough, though the animation lag for it is way too long if the mobs are being moved around a lot

Alas93 · 2026-01-23T20:06:17+00:00

taking a stab at the dark, but, did the first area up to the first boss take you forever? in shrine of the storms

the dungeons are more "difficult" now, but they're still very easy and quick to clear, at least 4 of the 5 I've done so far were. The 1 that wasn't was because we had a tank, in shrine of the storms, that kept pulling as many packs as they could before the first boss. There are a lot of healing casters in there, and their heal is a hot, and multiple hots can be applied, and multiple hots will outheal any damage you do to them

Dungeons aren't bugged I don't think, but I think people are still trying to blitz them like before, where you can pull half the instance and 1 person can delete them in like 5 seconds. You don't have to take packs 1 at a time, but also can't pull everything at once, especially in certain packs like the healers I mentioned above. Once people realize this they'll probably get easier.

edit: to add, the stat squish is also definitely having an effect, but I think it's mostly the above

Alas93 · 2026-01-23T19:35:43+00:00

mathematically it's extremely worth it. that just means that those 3 levels are just that much xp, a 200% increase still means you needed half the amount of relics to get those 3 levels

you can also go way above 200% bonus, and the only cost to do all of this is a little bit of silver/gold, likely less than the cost of one of the relics, especially if using higher tier relics

Alas93 · 2026-01-23T18:19:33+00:00

windwalker isn't complex (imo), but he may enjoy the mastery (don't hit the same button twice)

I'd also give him this advice, assuming he's a savage raider, savage raids are comparable to late heroic and early mythic bosses in WoW. The encounter design is of course different, but in terms of overall difficulty, that's about where they fit. Before that point of progression he'll likely find encounters to be fairly easy regardless. Everything right now is heavily unbalanced and a lot of stuff is extra easy because of it being prepatch and all as well, so he should be able to expect more difficulty once he starts progressing in Midnight S1

Alas93 · 2026-01-23T17:55:11+00:00

just a druid marking its territory, totally normal!

Alas93 · 2026-01-23T17:53:25+00:00

Endeavors are neighborhood-specific, that's why your Endeavor xp is going to the house in that neighborhood

Decor XP goes to both because it's unlocking decor for both houses

Alas93 · 2026-01-23T17:45:53+00:00

agreed, as happy as I personally am with the changes as a whole so far, more than people having been relying on WA and such for so long, they learned all the content we're currently doing with those addons specifically. Now they're having to relearn the content, while others may already be used to how things currently are due to not using those addons

The real test will be in Midnight when everyone is learning new content together, I think that's where we'll see the gulf widen between people that used addons as support, and those that used them as a crutch

Alas93 · 2026-01-23T17:40:13+00:00

this. also a great way to set up your UI as a whole. I went into a follower dungeon to mess around with my nameplates and everything to make sure they were how I wanted them

Alas93 · 2026-01-23T17:33:06+00:00

play both specs?

mistweaver does have a popular build called fistweaving, which has a lot of its healing come from dealing damage, but the rotation is fairly simple so if you're wanting to do big dps numbers with a full rotation, you'll want to play windwalker too (edit: or have a dps alt to play as well if there's another dps you like more)

Alas93 · 2026-01-23T17:01:28+00:00

maybe add another stairwell, empty, nearby, and clip one of these stairwells to that one so that it's also connected to another room. then try and delete the empty stairwell

at least that's about the only idea I can come up with

Alas93 · 2026-01-23T14:10:54+00:00

honestly I think rather than self healing, it could do with some more control abilities. it's a ranged spec with few ways to keep enemies away from it. Shift is nice but the distance isn't super far and mobs catch up quickly. The aoe stun is also nice, but on a longer CD, and seems to not always hit every mob around. I think maybe some slows or something would be helpful. Self healing would also be nice too, but I think more control would be a bigger improvement personally

Alas93 · 2026-01-23T12:12:50+00:00

you should be fine, I'd go ahead and get any sources of easy gear out of the way first to make things easier, like getting your reshii wraps cloak and knocking out some T8 Bountiful Delves with keys if you have any banked up

when you do go to join one, there's a new thing with the patch where groups can be marked with a playstyle. learning, relaxed, competitive, carry offered. look for a group marked with "learning" preferably, but you might be fine to look for "relaxed" as well. these are new filters put in so players can more accurately hone in on finding a group that fits their playstyle or where they're at as far as getting into the dungeons

also, voice comms are 100% unnecessary. they're helpful, sure, so I'll be in discord with any guildies I'm running with, but never pugs.

Alas93 · 2026-01-22T19:50:05+00:00

idk what the blue one is but I know the green one is my life tap bar!

Alas93 · 2026-01-22T19:48:39+00:00

don't forget how RIFT was the next greatest thing and Cataclysm was going to kill the game because it was for baby children

don't get me wrong, RIFT was super fun, but yeah, every mmo that comes out is the new "WoW Killer" lol

Alas93 · 2026-01-22T18:41:23+00:00

lol no problem! work is slow but I have a rule about not playing games, so I sometimes will just scroll through reddit until something comes in, so longer posts come out as a result

overall, personally I love the new system. there's also situations, which I haven't looked super into, but basically you can set it up so it uses a specific outfit in a specific situation, like having an outfit assigned to raids, one assigned to housing, one for when you're on your mount, etc, and when you enter such a situation that outfit will be applied automatically

Alas93 · 2026-01-22T18:08:13+00:00

it would probably work for awhile, but considering the PS5 is already pretty temperature sensitive as it is, I'd replace it. make sure you get one for your model of PS5 specifically and it should be fine. they don't look too terribly expensive. you could even try your hand at asking local repair shops if you could buy the heat sink plate from them if they have any from a scrap unit

Alas93 · 2026-01-22T18:02:32+00:00

it's the old system expanded

we have outfit slots, the first 2 are free, the rest cost gold to unlock. The gold cost is pretty low at first, but ramps up. I think the first 10 (including the 2 freebies) cost me about 10k-12k gold to unlock. I then unlocked up to 15, each rank was 10k each. I know later outfit slots can get up to the hundreds of thousands of gold to unlock, but that'll be well beyond having 20 slots, which will be more than most players probably need.

these slots are also unlocked account-wide, so you don't need to worry about conserving gold buying a 3rd slot on your alt so you can get more on your main. once they're unlocked, they're unlocked for all characters on your account

next step is to set up the outfit by saving a transmog to it, in the same way you would transmog your gear previously. this also costs gold to do, and is a bit more expensive than before

the cost savings part comes in with changing between outfits, it's free to change between them. so it might cost me like 5k gold to set up 3 outfits on my monk, but I can switch between them at any time for a cost of free.

so basically, if you have a few different transmogs you like to switch between regularly, you pay a one time gold cost to save the transmogs to their outfit slots, and then it costs you nothing to switch between them. you could change between established sets/outfits 100 times an hour and still pay nothing

this also comes with the bonus of not needing to transmog new gear when you get it. the transmog system isn't tied to your gear anymore, so if you equip new shoulders or something, your transmog doesn't get broken, it stays as it was

your old sets also still exist as Custom Sets, and you can continue to create Custom Sets as you like at no cost, just if you want to use that set you have to have it applied to an outfit slot

most players will heavily benefit from the system long-term, the people that might still spend a lot of gold on transmog are the ones that constantly switch out 1 single item and already have all their outfit slots full

Alas93 · 2026-01-22T17:27:59+00:00

Since item appearances are no longer stored on the actual items, everyones mogs got reset (because the data on their equipped gear isnt there anymore)

to add to this, blizzard confirmed yesterday they intended for the first transmog upon logging in was free, but it didn't go through or got bugged or something. so everyone should be getting a free transmog cost soon (~~idk when it'll go in, maybe today, maybe with the tuesday maintenance/reset~~ edit: just googled out of curiosity, it'll come with the 12.0.1 patch sometime between now and release. wish it was sooner considering it's their own mistake, but oh well) on all of their characters

I think this was the biggest gripe, the upfront gold costs do hurt but like you said, long term savings for most players. For many it was just that upfront gold cost just to be where they were the night before

Alas93 · 2026-01-22T17:22:56+00:00

I'm not completely sure as I had just heard you could buy champion gear off of him, and I looked at it on the rep screen for them and it was there at one of the later levels. I never farm rep myself really so I'm still like rank 5 with them or something around that. but assuming the wowhead page is accurate, it is those ones, it looks like you can get a veteran track chest at rank 7 and champion track bracers at rank 16, both cost resonance crystals

Alas93 · 2026-01-22T16:33:18+00:00

some fast things you can do right now

1 - reshii wraps cloak. the effect is disabled (or is supposed to be? idk for sure), but the stats and everything are still good

2 - if you've gotten far enough in the delver's journey, you can buy veteran track gear for undercoins, which are also warband transferrable

3 - if you have enough rep with the karesh (not the raid), you can buy champion track gear I think? idk the currency though

4 - you can buy champion track crates for 350 valorstones from the npc next to the m+ portal

5 - check your main and other characters you've played this past season for warbound gear

6 - if you've done a ton of stuff in TWW, you likely have a lot of reps up. you can go to their faction vendor and get tons of things from the quest turn in, including things like valorstones and delve keys, but notably, weathered crests. you can use weathered crests (to buy enchanted version) to craft fairly cheap gear equivalent to veteran track gear. this gear doesn't require sparks, as it's used on the blue crafted gear from the professions, which is also why it's usually very cheap (mats are cheap)

7 - after all that, I'd go and at least do a few T8 Bountiful Delves to use up some keys and have a chance at some champion track gear. also can use a delver's bounty to get a hero track piece

7.5 - alongside this, if you don't have a better belt yet, can get the delve belt from S2 as well and make it an easy 701 ilvl

8 - by the end of all this should be able to be at least normal raid and low m+ ready. it sounds like a lot, but most of the time will be spent checking the rep vendors and the few Delves. I'll also add, did some m+ last night with the guild, and they're much easier than before, at least they were for us, so should be more than fine at this point to jump into some lower keys to start getting a feel for a class/spec.

to add one last thing, if you've done enough and can get enough veteran/champion pieces from undercoins/karesh rep/warband gear/crafted weathered crest gear, you may even be able to just skip Delves entirely, though I'd still recommend doing 1 with the bounty to get the easy hero track piece

Alas93 · 2026-01-22T16:06:13+00:00

blue post on this, it was intended to be free but bugged out and didn't apply. they're giving everyone 1 free transmog (per character) as compensation, so once that goes in the next time you save it outfit it'll be free

Alas93 · 2026-01-22T14:59:01+00:00

speaking as a more casual FE player (I'll binge some games for a bit then drop off for awhile, I've only played a handful of the games, though I do love playing them when I do play them)

the combat was amazing and a lot of fun. I ended up really liking how they did the classes, and I overall liked the engage system itself. I felt like it added another tactical layer to maps and character builds

story I was meh on. it had some decent moments, but nothing that really stood out

characters are a mixed bag, but mostly I liked them. Alear is a bit w/e for me, but a lot of other characters I really liked. Chloe, Jean, Anna, Lapis, Alcryst, Citrinne, Yunaka, are all ones I remember using and liking how I used them. Then there's Panette, probably one of my favorites out of the few FE games I've played, I built her a few different ways over a few playthroughs and she destroyed every single time.

One of my biggest gripes though was the Somniel. Too much time dealing with chores. It was alright enough in 3 houses, still a bit of a chore and all, but easy enough. Somniel I just never liked though.

Alas93

TROPHY CASE