How To Unlock the Haranir Allied Race in WoW: Midnight
When I first stumbled upon the term “Haranir”, my mind immediately started thinking “those are the mysterious, nature-loving weirdos I really need to play as”. Lore-wise the Haranir are a secretive subterranean bunch of naturalists living in Harandar, a bioluminescent fungal jungle wrapped round the roots of the World Trees. They’ve spent ages guarding the “rootways”, magical pathways that run deep through Azeroth’s bedrock. At their core – or rather their roots – is a culture built around keeping watch, surviving and listening to the call of their silent goddess. In Midnight, they finally step out of their isolation and into the faction war… but on their own terms.
Why You Should Unlock the Haranir
From a purely gaming perspective, the Haranir are worth unlocking for three big reasons: their racial powers, unique style and flexibility. Their racial kit actually has a real impact on gameplay as opposed to being some flavor button you never think about. They have a cool, super distinctive look that stands out from elves, humans and orcs. And because they can pick from a wide spread of classes and be either faction, you get to pick and choose how you want to plug them into your favourite builds. That’s quite a package for an allied race and makes the unlock feel like a genuine game-changer for your account.
To make it simple, here is how I’d sum up why they are worth the effort:
- Racial powers that do something real: their active root ability heals your mates and damages enemies, and their passives include crit bonuses and extra damage against Aberrations and Elementals, which is actually useful in Midnight content.
- Loads of class options: they can be Druids, Hunters, Mages, Monks, Priests, Rogues, Shamans, Warlocks, or Warriors, so pretty much every playstyle has a home.
- Visual flair: bioluminescent markings, root-grown armor themes, and a primal jungle aesthetic make them visually unique in a way that just does not come across in screenshots.
The end result is that unlocking Haranir does not feel like just picking up a random cosmetic; it feels like getting your hands on a whole new toolkit you can use to build entire characters and specs around. If you raid, Mythic+, PvP or just love making alts that are strong in WoW, they’ve got something for you. I personally like unlocking stuff that gives me long-term value on my account, and the Haranir check that box hard, between their racials, their aesthetics, and the likely Heritage Armor and racial mount you get for putting in the time.
Haranir Racial Abilities and What They Actually Do
Okay, time to talk racials, because this is where the Haranir stop being “neat lore” and start being “I really want this on my raid team”. Official previews and interviews outline a kit that focuses on roots, crits and slaying weird Void monsters. The headliner is a ground-targeted ability that summons a patch of living roots that both heal your mates and damage enemies standing in them. You drop it on a clump of mobs or mates and it acts like a mini combined HoT and AoE. In dungeons and battlegrounds that ability is going to get a lot of use.
Here’s a quick rundown of the confirmed racials in plain English:
- Root patch (active): You put down a patch of roots at a target location that damages enemies and heals allies inside it, like a small combined damage and healing zone.
- Crit bonus (passive): Haranir get increased critical strike damage and healing, similar to racials like Tauren Brawn or Dwarven Might of the Mountain.
- Aberration and Elemental slayer (passive): They deal extra damage to Aberrations and Elementals and take reduced damage from them, making them especially strong in Midnight’s Void-touched content.
- Rootway travel (utility): They have a travel-style racial that lets them move quickly between specific locations, similar to Mole Machine, with more destinations unlocked as you play.
In practice this means Haranir are especially going to shine in the kind of content where crit scaling and especially those Aberrations-heavy encounters come into play. Just imagine getting to progression raids where the main boss is flagged as an Aberration and your whole raid team is all about getting those extra Haranir racials in for some sweet sweet damage and survivability – that’s what we’re talking about here. And in Mythic+, the root patch will be giving tanks and healers a nice extra tool for stabilizing their pulls while your DPS folk can just use it as a bit of a light defensive – a nice little bonus. It’s one of those racial sets that sounds good on paper and will almost certainly get people arguing over whether “Is Haranir BiS for this spec?” on day one.
How To Unlock the Haranir Allied Race Step by Step
Right, so now that we’ve had that little chat about how good they are, it’s time to get onto the “how do I actually get them on my account” bit. The official line from Blizzard is that you unlock Haranir by playing through the Midnight level-up campaign and earning their trust as you go. So it’s just the main story, no weird side quests to do or old expansion grinds to worry about – just play the new expansion like normal. As you get through the campaign chapters and reach Harandar, you’ll get pulled into the Haranir storyline and you’ll be helping them deal with Void threats and all sorts of other internal drama. Finishing that story arc is the main requirement.
Here’s the basic flow of events, based on what Blizzard has said in the past and what’s been confirmed so far:
- Complete the Midnight main campaign: Just get through all the story chapters until you get to the end of the Harandar bit.
- Finish the Haranir recruitment quests: Once you’ve done the campaign, there will be a set of dedicated quests that unlock the Haranir – it’s similar to other allied race unlock chains.
- Get the Allied Race unlock pop-up: Once that’s done, you get the “Haranir unlocked” message, your racial mount and the ability to create a Haranir character on the selection screen.
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Something to keep in mind is that timing-wise, Blizzard has a pattern of releasing allied races a little after the expansion launches, so players get to experience the story beats that lead up to them. I’m pretty sure Haranir will follow this pattern, so you won’t get them right on launch day. Think of it like a little story gate that makes narrative sense for the Haranir to join your side – not just because the calendar flipped over.
Preparation Tips Before You Start the Haranir Unlock
Even though there’s not some wild rep grind to get in the way, you can still make the Haranir unlock process a bit smoother with a bit of prep work. I personally like to get at least one “main” character geared and ready to blast through the campaign before starting out. If your main is undergeared or behind on systems from the previous expansion, taking a bit of time to get that sorted will make your Midnight leveling experience a whole lot less painful – you’ll want to be focusing on the story and the Haranir arc, not struggling to kill every third quest mob.
Here are some small prep steps I recommend before Midnight launches or before you start your push for the Haranir:
- Clear out your current gearing goals: Having decent gear from the prior patch makes leveling a whole lot smoother and speeds up campaign progression.
- Clear those quest logs and bags: Empty out your old quests and junk so you can pick up new Midnight chains without constantly backtracking or vendoring.
- Plan your Haranir class ahead of time: Decide what class you want to play your Haranir as so you know what role you’re unlocking them for.
Once the expansion is live and you’re getting through the Midnight campaign, try to stick with it rather than bouncing between too many side distractions. The Haranir unlock is tied to the main story, so finishing those chapters is priority number one. After you’ve got the allied race unlocked, you can then start exploring all the corners of Harandar at your own pace, level up your new Haranir and grind any cosmetics or achievements you want. That’s my approach – unlock first, wander second.
ChaosBoost: Let Someone Else Unlock the Haranir for You
If you love the idea of Haranir but just don’t have the time or energy to push through a full campaign right now, my boosting service ChaosBoost can handle the grind for you instead. We’re all about safe, efficient WoW services at ChaosBoost, and one of the things we offer is full Haranir unlock assistance – we’ll take your character through the Midnight campaign, complete the Haranir recruitment questline and hand your account back over with the allied race ready to roll, so you can go straight into creating and playing your glowing jungle guardian without all that extra hassle.
My Thoughts as a Haranir-Obsessed Player
As someone who has played WoW for a long time and seen a lot of races come and go, the Haranir feel like one of the strongest allied race concepts Blizzard has put out. They have a clear visual theme, a unique homeland, a meaningful narrative hook in the expansion’s main story, and a racial kit that actually matters in combat. That combination is what makes an unlock feel truly worthwhile instead of just another checkbox in your achievements panel. The fact that they are neutral and have such a big class spread just adds even more replay value.
If you’re on the fence about spending the time & effort to get the Harani, I’ll give you a straight up gamer to gamer answer : yes, it’s worth it. You’re probably gonna end up playing most of the Midnight campaign anyway, just to get a feel for the new zones & systems – and the Harani unlock is built into that path so you don’t have to go out of your way for it. By the time you’ve done it you’ll have a great new character option, a likely gorgeous looking Heritage Armor set, and a lore tie in that makes your Harani feel like they were actually there for all the expansion’s key moments. Whether you do it yourself or leave the grind to a service like ChaosBoost, having Harani on your roster is gonna feel like one of those great account upgrades you should’ve gotten a long time ago
