As the name of this blog implies, I have a lot of Alts.
This September, I'll have been playing WoW for 20 years, which will also be half my lifetime at that point, which is, frankly, insane (I'm anxious about the 4-0 milestone, though the terrifying state of the world is beating it as my primary source of anxiety, so that's... fun.)
Anyway, horrifying descent into totalitarianism aside, let's talk Demon Hunters!
Tuesday marks the release of the Midnight pre-patch. We know there's a stat-squish incoming (boy, remember when that was, like, a huge deal? Now it feels like it happens every other expansion. I doubt we'll get a level squish until after The Last Titan, though, where I assume we'll hit 100 and that feels like a reasonable time to go back down to 60 afterward).
There's no new class in Midnight, but we're getting roughly a third of one, finally granting Demon Hunters their third spec (I suspect Augmentation was always intended for Evokers in Dragonflight, but given how weird it is they needed more development time, hence its later launch). This will once again push the average specs per class out of a precise 3.
I haven't actually followed the development of the spec very closely, but I know that it's a short-ranged DPS spec like Devastation Evokers - you'll have some moves (and I think be able to build around them) that take you into melee only to hop back with Vengeful Retreat. It also appears that there will be a system somewhat akin to the Legion-era Shadow Priest, where you will ideally try to stay in your transformed Metamorphosis form as long as you can. I believe it will be something like a "long-term" rotational ability rather than a big damage cooldown like it is for Havoc (in fairness, Havoc has talents that allow Eye Beam to extend the duration, but you'll never get enough haste and cooldown reduction to keep it going indefinitely).
With a new spec, though, we're also getting a new Race option. Technically, there were only two playable races for Paladins and Druids in Vanilla, but Paladins got Draenei and Blood Elves in BC and then Druids got Worgen and Trolls in Cataclysm. Until the single-race Evoker (which remains the case for them) in Dragonflight, Demon Hunters were the most limited-option class in the game, with only one race per faction (similar to how Druids started out).
Now, Void Elves are getting their chance. You have to do a quest chain in K'aresh to unlock this (the spec is available immediately). I know you can start the quest line now, but the final part of it that actually unlocks the option becomes available on Tuesday.
I have two max-level Demon Hunters, my Night Elf Havoc one and my Blood Elf Vengeance one (though the latter more or less just hit 80 and has been chilling, while the Night Elf is kind of my tertiary main, after my Paladin and Death Knight).
Anyway, rather than leaping into a new spec at max level, my plan is to create a Void Elf Demon Hunter and spec them (likely her, as I already have a male Void Elf Rogue) Devourer so that I can figure out the spec over the course of leveling.
It isn't quite getting a whole new class, but it is pretty fun to get something like this. WoW has been much more generous with playable races, which makes sense given the relatively simpler balancing task (racial bonuses are usually minor enough to make them somewhat marginal except in extreme min-maxxing situations). We are, of course, getting the Haranir in Midnight, like we got the Earthen in War Within. That means, I believe that means that Warlords of Draenor and Shadowlands are the only expansions to give us no other major character options (as in, Race or Class). Even without Devourer, Midnight would count given that we're getting Haranir. Though it is notable that there are more and more "neutral" races - which reflects both an in-lore reconciliation between Alliance and Horde as well as, you know, probably being easier on the developers if they only have to worry about a single new race.
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