The lull before a new expansion hits World of Warcraft has been dragged out for months in the past, but this time Blizzard isn't going to hold back the new stuff for very long. A patch is coming on December 2 that will act as a prologue to the Midnight expansion, and it'll mark the long, long-awaited arrival of player housing to the MMO.
Patch 11.2.7, The Warning, is described as a prologue in Blizzard's announcement blog post. This is your opportunity to catch up on the events of The War Within and to refresh yourself on the big players in Midnight.
Most of this will take place in a new set of quests and a flashback feature for replaying pivotal moments that set up the story in Midnight. There are four of these Lorewalking stories to play through that cover the most important events in WoW's history, which certainly beats making a new character and cramming old expansions in to get back up to speed for the expansion's release.
If the Midnight beta is any indication though, player housing will be the real draw of the patch. Anyone who has preordered Midnight will have access to housing a little early. It won't have everything available that's coming with the expansion, but you'll be able to start hunting for decorations and using them in your home. Endeavors, the events that let players spruce up their neighborhoods together, won't be around until Midnight is here.
An early December pre-patch heavily suggests we'll see Midnight launch in January or February. Blizzard doesn't typically leave a long gap between expansions, mostly because the final patches never include any new raids of dungeons for people to do. They're usually an opportunity to play with some of the new systems and get a feel for what's changed with all the classes.
The Midnight beta just started this week and will likely continue for another month before we finally get a release date. It's the quickest turnaround Blizzard has done for an expansion, especially one with so many changes. Not only are combat mods going away almost entirely, but many of the classes are becoming simpler as a result.
