Blizzard Watch Weekly Wrap-up: Love has indeed been in the air, though WoW’s Valentine’s Day event wraps up soon

It’s been a busy week for Diablo fans, with a new Ladder Season in Diablo 2: Resurrected, the imminent release of Diablo 3 Season 28, and the possible announcement of the Diablo 4 open beta this weekend. (Not to mention our own attempt at Diablo-themed Valentines.) If you’ve been having trouble keeping up with the news, here’s a rundown of what’s been happening this week as well as what’s coming up.

This week:

• For those of you who didn’t believe WoW’s X-45 Heartbreaker mount (previously known as the Big Love Rocket) existed, Blizzard increased the drop rate for your first kill of the day this year. So far I’ve seen three friends pick up the mount, which is an all-time record. If you’ve been trying to get the X-45 yourself, now’s the time to do it: Love is in the Air lasts through February 20.
• The WoW patch 10.0.7 PTR continues, this week with major changes to Paladins that I’m pretty excited about, the Forbidden Reach rolling out for testing, and we definitely can’t forget about the brand new Dragonriding features.
• WoW’s Valor and Conquest caps are now gone, so you can farm for gear upgrades to your heart’s content. Just don’t overdo it: one of my guildmates ran 23 Mythic+ dungeons on Tuesday, which I think is at least 21 too many. (And if you are running 20 dungeons a day, remember to take breaks to stretch and hydrate.)
• Diablo 2: Resurrected launched patch 2.6 and Ladder Season 3, complete with a selection of brand new Rune Words.
• The latest Hearthstone mini-set, Return to Naxxramas, went live on Tuesday with 38 new cards which you can by for 2000 gold (in-game currency) or 1500 runestones (cash-only currency). However you buy it, it’s nice to be able to get a guaranteed collection of good cards for a single purchase, potentially without spending any cash.
• Teron Gorefiend is now available in Hearthstone Battlegrounds, and this new hero is a perfect match for the game mode’s newly-introduced Undead minions.
• And in Blizzard news, employees have been told they need to return to the office this summer — and they aren’t happy about it. An Activision Blizzard spokesman commented that the company “look[s] forward to the increased in-person collaboration and teamwork.”

Coming soon:

• Diablo 3 Season 27 is coming to an end this weekend after nearly six months, making it the game’s longest Season ever. Finish your Season Journey while you can: it wraps up on February 19.
• Diablo 3 Season 28 will be starting soon after Season 27 wraps up: look for it next Friday, February 24. This may be the game’s biggest Season yet, introducing an entirely new talent tree to work through.
• IGN FanFest is this weekend, and Diablo 4 is on the agenda with a presentation on Saturday, February 18 at 10AM pacific. We suspect to see an open beta announcement, but if nothing else we’re likely to get some cool new game footage — or maybe a new launch cinematic. Tune in on IGN’s webpage to watch it live, or catch the news on Blizzard Watch.

And that’s a wrap for this week. Have a good weekend, everybody!