World of Warcraft: Midnight Season 2 Gear Chart Maps the Road From Explorer to Myth
Its ranges run from item level 245 Explorer gear to 344 Myth gear, while five Mistcrests map upgrade costs to the Adventurer-through-Myth tracks.
World of Warcraft: Midnight Season 2 will bring several ways to improve your gear, and a community-made chart shared in the WoW subreddit puts those upgrade paths in one place. The graphic covers Patch 12.1, Curse of Ula’tek, and marks August 18, 2026, as the North American Season 2 launch, with Europe scheduled to follow on August 19.
For players trying to decide whether to run dungeons, raid, craft an item, or spend time in Delves, the most useful part is the breakdown by gear track. Here is how the item-level bands are organized.
A live Google Sheet version of the chart is also available for players who want to revisit its reward values and sources. A companion video guide covers gear simulation, Warcraft Logs parsing, and other player-data tools for planning endgame upgrades.
Midnight Season 2 gear tracks
| Gear track | Item level range |
|---|---|
| Explorer | 245–269 |
| Adventurer | 260–284 |
| Veteran | 275–299 |
| Champion | 290–314 |
| Hero | 305–329 |
| Myth | 320–344 |
The tracks overlap, so the label alone does not tell the whole story. When comparing two pieces, check the actual item level and how far each one can be upgraded before spending crests or other materials.
Crests, crafting, and upgrade planning
Season 2 replaces Dawncrests with five Mistcrest types: Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, and Myth. Each type matches a specific Item Track, and the required currency appears in the gear tooltip. Every upgrade costs 20 Mistcrests of the matching type.
For example, taking an Adventurer item from 1/6 to 6/6 requires five upgrades, or 100 Adventurer Mistcrests. Moving a Hero item from 2/6 to 4/6 requires two upgrades, costing 40 Hero Mistcrests. During early Patch 12.1 testing, costs scaled with each rank, but the final system uses a fixed 20 crests per upgrade.
Where Mistcrests come from
Several activities can award more than one crest type depending on difficulty. Here is how the currencies map to content:
| Mistcrest | Sources |
|---|---|
| Adventurer Mistcrest | Repeatable Outdoor Events; Delves Tier 1 through 4 |
| Veteran Mistcrest | Repeatable Outdoor Events; The Venomous Abyss on Raid Finder; Heroic Dungeons; Delves Tier 5 and 6; Delve Maps Tier 4 and 5 |
| Champion Mistcrest | Weekly Outdoor Events; The Venomous Abyss on Normal; Mythic 0 Dungeons; Mythic+ levels +2 and +3; Delves Tier 7 through 10; Delve Maps Tier 6 and 7 |
| Hero Mistcrest | The Venomous Abyss on Heroic; Mythic+ levels +4 to +8; Delves Tier 11; Delve Maps Tier 8 or higher |
| Myth Mistcrest | The Venomous Abyss on Mythic; Mythic+ level +9 or higher |
Crafted equipment can reach item level 344, placing it at the top of the chart’s Myth range. The crest mapping is useful when deciding whether an upgrade is worth the cost, especially when a lower item-level drop still has room to move into a higher track.
The crafting table also separates created gear from ordinary drops. That makes it easier to plan a targeted slot instead of waiting for the right weapon, ring, or armor piece to appear in a random reward.
Catalyzed gear inherits the secondary stats and cantrip effects of the original item. Check those properties before using a Catalyst instead of judging the source item by its item level alone. Ascendant Venomstones, which are used as gear-upgrade items, will return later in Season 2.
Weekly Mistcrest caps
Each Mistcrest type has a global weekly cap, and every cap increases by 100 per week. Missing a weekly amount does not permanently remove it; those crests can be earned during the following week. Mousing over a Mistcrest shows the current cap.
Raid and Mythic+ rewards
The Venomous Abyss section compares LFR, Normal, Heroic, and Mythic rewards across the raid’s boss groups. Loot rises as the raid progresses, while the table’s final column shows the related Great Vault reward band. The chart also lists the Lair boss separately from the other reward entries. In practical terms, the chart lets players compare an immediate boss drop with the item level they can work toward through their weekly vault.
For LFR, Normal, and Heroic, Great Vault raid rewards provide 1/6 gear on the next track up. Mythic bosses 1–6 provide Myth 6/6 gear through the Vault, while bosses 7–8 provide item level 344 gear both as drops and through the Great Vault. A World Boss, also referred to as a Lair Boss, counts toward the raid row in the Great Vault.
Raid bonus-roll tokens
Starting in Week 3 of the patch, unlocking three Great Vault slots allows players to choose a bonus-roll token as their reward. Beginning in Week 9 of the patch, Orin Straylight, located near the Catalyst, can provide a bonus-roll token as well. Raid bonus rolls cost one token instead of two, allowing each token to cover more attempts at a desired raid item.
Mythic+ uses a separate comparison between end-of-dungeon rewards and Great Vault rewards. The direct completion reward is the immediate payoff for finishing a key, while the Great Vault row shows the higher weekly target tied to completed dungeon activity. Players choosing which keys to run can use both values together rather than judging a run only by the item that appears at the end.
Mythic 0 dungeons are subject to a daily lockout, so they should be planned as a once-per-day activity rather than an endlessly repeatable source of rewards.
Bountiful Delves and other gear sources
The Delves table focuses on Bountiful Delves and highlights Tier 4 as a recommended target. It also places Delve rewards beside other available sources, giving players a quick way to see where open-world activities fit within the larger gear ladder.
Open-world progression also includes Field Accolades, which can provide Veteran gear, while Vaults of Atal’utek fragments offer another reward source to track. These options give players additional ways to improve without treating group content as the only route forward.
Season 1 still has separate deadlines for competitive PvP, Mythic+, and raid achievements. The August 11/12 checklist lays out those regional windows before Season 2 begins, while the new chart can help players decide what to pursue once the season opens.
Will you focus on raids, Mythic+, crafting, or Delves when Season 2 begins? Share your thoughts in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.
World of Warcraft: Midnight
Developed by Blizzard Entertainment
