Blizzard Watch

Midnight's prepatch kicked off this week, and we're talking Player Housing Neighborhood Endeavors -- in part because we hadn't seen much of them until now. We'll give you the rundown, and then we'll follow it up with our opinions on how the class revamps and addon revamps are going.Plus, we have some thoughts as to what we'd like to see Remixed next. And when I say "we" I mean the podcasters. Please don't yell at the person just summarizing what they said out loud in front of god and everybody.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're waiting on a whole lot this week -- servers to come up for the Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary realms pre-patch, and for the Midnight pre-patch next week, and all the sweeping changes that brings. The team discusses the addons they'll miss and why, which also serves as a bit of a reminder to you to make sure yours are all updated, or they won't work at all come patch 12.0. There was also a really nice technical post about that Burning Crusade Anniversary pre-patch rollover, which Joe and Phil Ulrich team up to try to explain to us less enterprising folks. (That's a pun, because it involves enterprise backups to tape).Also, oh hey, Guild Halls are coming soon to Player Housing! If you're surprised, don't worry -- so are we. This is the first time this was discussed beyond a far-reaching future possible feature, and now it's just kinda tossed off with a "coming soon," along with several other anticipated features.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to te

It's 2026, and the more things change, the more they stay the same. We start off with a new Hearthstone gatcha promotion, and follow it up with yet another splinter version of WoW Classic -- this time, WoW Classic Anniversary is splitting into WoW Classic Burning Crusade Anniversary and WoW Classic Classic Era Anniversary. Legion Remix is definitionally a rehash, but it's coming to an end relatively soon.But it's not all old news! Immediately thereafter is the Midnight pre-patch, with a lot of new events and features, and a prepatch event. A new Diablo 4 expansion was just announced with a release date in the new year as well, even if it sounds very similar to the previous one, even if it does add Paladins. We also talk about all the new games we're looking forward to in 2026.Plus, since Cory was a cohost, there was another edition of the Heroes of the Storm hopium corner. New year, same old us.If you have a few minutes, plea

This week we're looking back at the events of 2025, with our special guest Phil Ulrich. Rather than going at it chronologically, Matt consults a D8, which means we discuss one of our favorite things from the year which actually happened last: player housing! But there were a ton of things that happened in all of Blizzard's games this year, from Plunderstorm's return to Legion Remix, three Hearthstone expansions, and a ton of Diablo 4 seasons (though who can tell the difference between them). We also met new friends like Valentina, the lizard that was a part of a Hearthstonemarketing campaign we would die for, and King Krush, also a Hearthstone-based lizard. Probably a coincidence.The In Memoriam section this year is Warcraft Rumble. May it rest in peace.Then, all the other games that had us in a chokehold. But honestly, it's mostly the player housing.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected

Santa Rossi is visiting us this week with player housing-related delights, like the upcoming Night Elf and Blood Elf house exteriors! But beware, if you're naughty, Joe will tell you the tale of how healing, and especially resto shaman are shaping up on the Midnight beta -- and that's a ghost story that would kill a Victorian child. Liz also has a few dire predictions for transmog future, but this month's trading post fits the theme with a blood elf-styled red and gold theme.Plus, The Indie Awards takes a hardline anti-AI stance, which puts Clair Obscur front and center again, but in a way that would put coal in anyone's stocking.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can ge

This week our usual hosts were joined by our Diablo Maven Liz Patt to talk about the announcement of Lord of Hatred, the next Diablo 4 expansion. Lord of Hatred was announced at The Game Awards -- though it was not related to The Statue -- and we have a ton to say about the details we have so far. Liz Patt preordered the expansion, and so therefore got to play one of two new classes, the Paladin, hands-on, and chats about it with us a bit. The other class remains a mystery, but our cohosts had some ideas for what they think the class may be, as well as what they wish it was.We also talked about all the various winter events we're experiencing over the next few weeks in all Blizzard's games. They're only here for a short while so get your holiday fill while you can.Plus, we ran down a bunch of little tips and tricks we've seen for player housing. We also wrote about these on the website but they're so charming we just had to get them out there twice.If you have a few minutes,

This week we're still immersed in Player Housing, but just a little bit of the shine has worn off, mostly as we've tried to chop down enough trees to decorate the houses of our dreams. Maybe our power level is so high we're just out here decimating every tree we encounter into matchsticks. But not everything is Player Housing. Some versions of WoW are also Classic, and MoP Classic just hit its final phase. We also have some news on Legion Remix, but because Matt is playing a Mage, they're not necessarily very nice.We're waiting on some announcements for Diablo 4 which will be exciting but perhaps not too exciting. It seems like they really learned from the disaster that was the Diablo Immortal announcement (though we contend that it's actually a fun little game).Plus, Overwatch 2 has a new season, which is nice and all, but that also means the Winter Wonderland event is back too, and that's really the headline.If you have a few minutes, ple

We very wisely started off the podcast this week with all the other news. There's a new Hearthstone Battlegrounds season that just started, with a fun new mechanic which is actually pretty similar to Trinkets, if we think about it, but we can play as Chromie so everything else is irrelevant. Plus, there's an upcoming Diablo 4 season, and a potential announcement for the franchise at The Game Awards, with a bizarre statue in the California desert.And then, we finally got to talking about the most anticipated patch to hit WoW, perhaps ever. It wasn't without its foibles -- as our guest host Flan noted, some of these decor items are weirdly expensive in old mats, like arcanite bars. It's even more expensive in lumber, which had our hosts going all over the map to collect. And for each little item you want to place, you need to collect more and more of these things. It's a wonder they had time for the show this week.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell u

Our intrepid hosts dragged writer Phil Ulrich along as we spent another show discussing transmog changes. As it turns out, making transmog very much more expensive last week, and then retuning it this week so that it's merely much more expensive like it's a gift hasn't really made our hosts happy. Purchased slots are warband wide now, at least, so that's better, but everything else remains awful (but slightly less awful).As a sliver lining, Player Housing comes out next week, yay! However, we're reminding you that all those oddball little currencies from expansions past are now suddenly, horrifically relevant again to purchase themed decor. Hope you hoarded some Apexis Crystals!We're also talking game awards, and how the "indie" categories seem to encompass a whole range of games with a lot of different levels of financial and personnel support.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used

We start off the show this week talking about WoW Classic, namely that Burning Crusade Anniversary realms were announced and are coming in January, perhaps concurrentish with the release of Midnight. It's fine, it's not like we have lives outside of this one video game or anything. Then, we pivot to the changes to transmog coming in Midnight, and it seems like every time we look at those changes they get worse and worse, much like the gear we had to wear right at the beginning of The Burning Crusade.While we're excited to see Vendetta, the new Overwatch 2 hero coming soon, it's kinda weird she calls herself a term used in both Italian and Spanish slang to mean "lady of the night." She does have a big sword, and she seems neat.Also, we're coming to the end of the year, so it's game awards season. Lots of awards have been announcing their nominees, and the lists aren't without controversy.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think abou

This week our hosts Liz and Joe were joined by Cory as the Midnight beta officially launched, with access for people who have preordered the Midnight epic edition. It was a little bumpy, per usual, but we made it. We would be testing, but transmog is unavailable until next week, so it's literally unplayable. BlizzCon was announced and early bird tickets were already sold out, but you can buy full price tickets next week. (They did not actually talk about Battlestar Galactica. I was memeing).We have a round of bad news from the other games, because NetEase pulled funding from a lot of indie studios. But it's not all bad, because Steam has an event highlighting games that feature animals, so our unplayed list just keeps getting longer.Plus, Hearthsteel. We're trying to speak positively about this new paid currently specifically earmarked for decor, which you apparently have to buy multiples of like every other decor. So. yep. Positive.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell

Cory is our guest host for the Blizzard Watch Podcast this week and, spoilers, that means there's Heroes of the Storm news again. The PTR opened up for people to test Player Housing again this week, but it was already down again by the time they recorded the podcast. Liz was thrilled with this chance to collect more data though, because her house in the alpha is currently haunted. In other WoW news, the trading post means a ton of new goodies -- perhaps literally, if carrots fit your definition of goodies. Also, getting some of the Artifact appearances in Legion is busted.Beyond WoW, there was a new Hearthstone expansion this week to discuss, plus a new cinematic for Overwatch, which got us feeling a little nostalgic and sentimental. And yes, Heroes of the Storm. We couldn't have Cory on without a little dose of hopium.Plus, we have a contest running on Bluesky and Mastodon where you can enter to win a free key for an Epic edition of&n

If you thought we were going to talk about something other than changes coming to WoW in Midnight this week, you must be new, so hi, welcome to the podcast. The UI changes, specifically the changes that make it harder for us to change our own UI, was front and center. The hosts talked about the accessibility issues this could present, but personally I just think Friz Quadrata is ugly and would prefer my fonts sans their serifs. One slightly more important, both valid, and both currently a much tougher proposition.This week we had writer Liz Patt as our guest host, so it was a Diablorama, with the D4 PTR hitting servers. As discussed last week we are somewhat uncertain, to put it diplomatically, about the changes coming. From potion charges to seasonal journey changes -- including the names -- everything seems much more catered to a harder core than our squishy middles would prefer. We were glad Liz was on hand to not only relate her PTR experience, but explain everything in

Since Player Housing hit the PTR last week -- for a briefer time than any of us realized -- we had a lot of Housing-related stuff to talk about. Lots of community members took their testing time to do things like build huge mechs made out of wagons in the backyard. Neat! Player Housing just does a lot of stuff like that.But for every high there must be a low, and this week, that was the discussion of Diablo 4 changes, almost all of which our hosts felt negatively about. They got rid of the seasonal journey, and instead replaced it with... another almost identical seasonal journey. There are fewer potion charges, defensive diminishing return changes, and a whole bunch of other stuff more or less aimed at making the game harder. Our hosts are not feeling that.Among other things our hosts are not feeling is the idea of doing seasonal bosses, even with their minimal mechanics, in story mode dungeons. It's always those NPCs, man.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you th

The three Blizzard Watch Podcast amigos had a ton of Midnight news to discuss this week. They would have had more housing stuff to discuss, but the public PTR that was going to let us finally dig in was unceremoniously yanked off the schedule with no ETA. Surprise, it was released late Thursday, and it's still ending an hour after this podcast gets posted. Welp!Unsurprisingly, Matt says the first thing he's going to do is to create a throne of Ashkandis, but note that there is no actual Ashkandi decor item to enable him to do so. Joe hopes that, if there is a way to put Ashkandi in there, he only has to craft it once, and then can place it multiple times, but it's looking like that isn't the case, either.Plus, Steam Next Fest is this week and we have some recommendations for fun little indie games to check out while they're free to try.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used

Liz had the good fortune to make her way into the Midnight alpha, so this week's episode is a round of Ask A Beta Tester. Liz regaled us with discussion on the various housing plots available, some of how the talent changes and stat squish feels, plus what it looks like in a post-add on WoW (we're assuming more Friz Quadrata than we've opted for on the live servers).Also, you can feel the warmth in the room when they talk about how Valorstones are getting the axe. Bye, Felicia, literally nobody liked you.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week our hosts Liz and Joe were joined by Nick, our WoW Classic expert. While they waited very impatiently for the next round of news about Midnight, they talked about the new trend in Classic, to use addons to make Hardcore mode even more Hardcore by obscuring certain heads up data in the UI. When is enough enough? But that wasn't all. There was a new Trading Post, the Turbo Boost, and a nice little bonus for Wrath of the Lich King users in China.But it wasn't all WoW. A whole new Hearthstone expansion was announced. Across the Timeways has a fun time travel angle with Chromie, though it feels like there are so many Hearthstone expansions these days (even though there are the same amount).Plus, there were patches for-- wait, let me check my notes again. StarCraft 2 and Heroes of the Storm? And Heroes of the Storm got a brand new adorable mount? Man, the hopium is strong this week.If you have a few minutes

This week, we got the announcement that the alpha for World of Warcraft's next expansion Midnight is beginning in just a few weeks. Blizzard ran down some of the content we'll be seeing and roughly when, which was a hot topic for the cohosts this week. Everything seems to be coming out October 2, from the Midnight alpha to Naxxramas in the WoW Classic Anniversary realms to the next season of Critical Role. Diablo 4 gave us a reprieve by being live already, with a few weirdly cute little guys to get from the seasonal journey and battle pass -- with an obligatory round of booing for microtransactions.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get

We're joined by Cory for this week's Blizzard Watch Podcast. There's no one big news item this week, but lots of tidbits around a ton of different games. For instance, Brewfest begins next week, and there's a new mount and some transmog, but everything else is same ol same ol. There's a Diablo 4 seasonal switchover coming soon with a very horrifyingly cute fox pet, plus a whole lot of WoW Classic phases and seasons.Our favorite news of the week may be that Hades 2 has an official release date. Even though it's been in Early Access for a while, this means we'll finally get to see all those juicy heartwrenching story beats we've come to expect -- and play it on the Switch.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the s

This week our writer Christian Thoma joined the mayhem that is the Blizzard Watch Podcast. Speaking of mayhem and the Blizzard Watch Podcast, you may recall that last week's episode ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, as the hosts discovered that, while they were recording the podcast, Blizzard released 14 blog posts detailing all the announcements that happened at Gamescom. This week, they discussed the highlights of all those posts, which made matters even more confusing as they contradicted some other interviews and information that came out right around the same time.Plus, another week, another new microtransaction most of us hate -- you can get a new cute capybara pet in WoW for spending a mere $75 on the Blizzard Gear Store (on specific items).Also, have you heard of a small indie game called Silksong?If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the sho