Thanks to some datamining this week, we are starting to get a clear picture of how gearing will work going into Midnight. Blizzard is making some fundamental changes to the system to better help those chasing their Best-in-Slot or collecting Transmogs.
Changes from The War Within to Midnight
Introduced in Dragonflight’s Patch 10.1, the current gearing system of Valorstones and crests been the way for players to gear in less of a deterministic way since its inception. Earlier this month Blizzard announced they were removing Valorstones from the upgrade system, a change met with positive feedback.
Ion Hazzikostas confirmed in an interview with MrGM that they are keeping crests. They want to streamline the process by making crests work exclusively within their own gear track.
In the current system, a Champion piece needs Carved Ethereal Crests and Runed Ethereal Crests to fully upgrade to 8/8. With a limit on crests and item levels overlapping between two different tracks of gear, it made gearing awkward in some instances since you might be inclined to hold onto crests waiting for a piece on a higher track. This created a bottleneck at certain item levels, making two pieces on different tracks virtually the same. For example, Champion 8/8 and Hero 4/6 are equivalent to each other if you are looking to upgrade that Hero piece into a Myth track piece because of the weekly limit on crests, and obtaining the piece on Myth means saving crests. In Midnight, you would only need one crest type. No more hanging onto crests waiting for the perfect item to upgrade!
Gear Upgrade Tracks
The upgrade tracks in Midnight are staying the same except the removal of the explorer track. This means we have five different upgrade tracks. Starting at Adventurer, each track will have their own associated Dawncrests to upgrade them. Getting crests will be similar to how it works now in TWW, but we don’t know what the weekly crest cap will be for each track.
Tracks from Champion gear and lower are seeing some changes as well. Previously going up to 8/8, all five upgrade tracks now require only 6/6 upgrades.
Just like TWW, there’s an overlap in item level between the 5/6 on an lower track and 1/6 on a higher track, however those higher levels will not require a different crest type. This leads to potentially interesting choices on how to spend lower and higher tier crests.
For Transmog collectors worried about needing a certain track of gear to get an appearance, Blizzard has clarified that previous tracks fully upgraded to 6/6 will unlock the appearance for the next tier. Your collections are safe.
Class Set and Raid Weapon Appearance Upgrades in Midnight
We’ve seen a great deal of feedback from players about how they hope to continue upgrading the look of class set items, which has been possible since patch 10.1 by upgrading items to the point that their required crest type changed. In Midnight, there will only be one crest type per item track, and we agree that this is functionality worth keeping in the game, so we’re changing how it works.
In Midnight, we’re maintaining that functionality with a clearer trigger: reach the highest level of power within a tier, and you unlock the next tier’s appearance.
Class set and raid weapon appearances will now change after the item has been fully upgraded to 6/6 on its upgrade track.
Thanks again for your feedback!
Gear Upgrade Tracks for Midnight Season 1
Here are the exact gear upgrade tracks and their item levels in Midnight Season 1. Keep in mind we’re getting a squish in the new expansion, so the item levels are obviously going down!
| Item Level | Adventurer | Veteran | Champion | Hero | Myth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 220 | Adventurer 1/6 | ||||
| 224 | Adventurer 2/6 | ||||
| 227 | Adventurer 3/6 | ||||
| 230 | Adventurer 4/6 | ||||
| 233 | Adventurer 5/6 | Veteran 1/6 | |||
| 237 | Adventurer 6/6 | Veteran 2/6 | |||
| 240 | Veteran 3/6 | ||||
| 243 | Veteran 4/6 | ||||
| 246 | Veteran 5/6 | Champion 1/6 | |||
| 250 | Veteran 6/6 | Champion 2/6 | |||
| 253 | Champion 3/6 | ||||
| 256 | Champion 4/6 | ||||
| 259 | Champion 5/6 | Hero 1/6 | |||
| 263 | Champion 6/6 | Hero 2/6 | |||
| 266 | Hero 3/6 | ||||
| 269 | Hero 4/6 | ||||
| 272 | Hero 5/6 | Myth 1/6 | |||
| 276 | Hero 6/6 | Myth 2/6 | |||
| 279 | Myth 3/6 | ||||
| 282 | Myth 4/6 | ||||
| 285 | Myth 5/6 | ||||
| 289 | Myth 6/6 |
Crest Types
There are 5 different types of Dawncrests, one for each upgrade track.
- Adventurer Crest – Used for Adventurer Gear tracks, and obtained from open world activities.
- Veteran Crest – Used for Veteran Gear, and obtained from LFR, Heroic Dungeons, and Delves up to Tier 5
- Champion Crest – Used for Champion Gear, and obtained from Normal Raids, M+ 2-3, and Delves Tier 6-10
- Hero Crest – Used for Hero Gear, and obtained from Heroic Raids, M+ 4-8, and Tier 11 Delves
- Mythic Crests – Used for Mythic Gear, and obtained from Mythic Raids, and M+9 and up.
Cost of Upgrading
Each level of a track currently requires a few Valorstones and 15 Crests of a specific type. With the removal of Valorstones, they’ve added the need for more crests to upgrade gear.
The first upgrade step from 1/6 to 2/6 will require 10 crests, with each additional level requiring an extra 10 crest. Upgrading to 6/6 will require 50 crests of a specific type.
The following rule applies to each track:
| Item Track Level | Crests Cost |
| 1/6 | 0 |
| 2/6 | 10 |
| 3/6 | 20 |
| 4/6 | 30 |
| 5/6 | 40 |
| 6/6 | 50 |
| Total: 150 |
What Do You think?
There’s still some unknowns when it comes to gearing in midnight, and as we approach Phase 4 and 5 of the Alpha Midnight where we get to level 90, we hope there’s more answers soon! What are your thoughts on the new gearing system and on the removal of Valorstones?
