Bold truth: World of Warcraft’s housing feature has arrived, and Horde homes are turning into testaments to one big problem: exterior aesthetics that clash with the rest of the world. The feature rolled out this week for players who grabbed the Midnight expansion early. While it’s very much in its infancy, people—including the author—are sinking hours into crafting elaborate homes with the available decor. The hitch? Horde exteriors feel visually out of place for many players who don’t embrace the spikes-and-metal look.
To be fair, orcs and fans of the orcish aesthetic—sharp spikes, flames, ragged metal plates, and rough wooden planks—will likely enjoy these exteriors as-is. The real snag is that a large portion of Horde players prefer a cleaner, less grungy finish. Alliance homes, by contrast, offer a single exterior option that leans toward cozy, conventional cottages that most players can tolerate without complaint.
Until Midnight fully launches, that’s the landscape: you pick one of two styles. Exterior customization exists, including roof color changes and chimney designs, but all options conform to the faction’s default look. Blizzard has promised that Night Elf and Blood Elf exteriors will arrive with Midnight and that more options are coming later. For now, you’re limited to either a cottage or a spike-adorned hut.
Some players, including the author, are making the best of it with outdoor decor. Here’s a modest hut that hides a cozy Shaman retreat inside—a magical library corner, a snug kitchen, and a stone altar honoring the elements—proving that the interior can be warm and inviting even if the outside is rigid.
Across the community, however, players are pushing creative boundaries to counter the exterior’s shortcomings. The decoration tools in Blizzard’s hands are precise enough to ignore collisions if desired, which has encouraged Horde players to camouflage their orcish shells with a wide range of adornments.
Examples from Reddit illustrate the trend:
- A house transformed into a cave-like sanctuary
- A Blood Elf-inspired exterior taking shape
- A simple, effective outdoor look that works well
- A couple of other standout builds that catch the eye
One major constraint is the exterior decor cap. Even as players get creative, there’s a limit to how much you can place outside, and many items used to obscure the orcish silhouette consume a lot of that limit. That means covering your house with rocks can leave little room for other yard decorations. This has led to a chorus of calls for Blizzard to raise the exterior decor cap, a change the team has acknowledged and said they’re working on.
Reality check: this isn’t a catastrophe. It’s an early-access feature, so some functionality is expected to be limited. The real entertainment comes from watching players stretch the tools to their limits—and imagining how much more they’ll achieve once outdoor space isn’t monopolized by large wooden platforms.
Midnight launches March 2, 2026. If eager players want housing ahead of the full release, pre-ordering any edition of the expansion is sufficient. IGN spoke with housing lead and principal game designer Jesse Kurlancheek, and senior UX designer Joanna Giannullis, about the housing feature—its beta performance, and what Midnight might bring to the table.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior IGN reporter. For story tips, reach rvalentine@ign.com.
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