Blizzard Watch Weekly: Last week was all about WoW Classic Season of Discovery, but this week will be about everything else

Last week was all about WoW Classic with the launch of Season of Discovery, which is gave Azeroth a new twist with Runes to discover that grant you all new class abilities. It seems to be all the WoW community is talking about and I can confirm that it’s all anyone coming to Blizzard Watch seems to be reading about. But if you haven’t caught up on this trend, we have the basics for you — and if you aren’t interested in Classic at all, there’s a lot coming up in gaming this week.

Here’s what’s new in Blizzard games.

Now live

• WoW Classic Season of Discovery is live, and it’s been quite the adventure so far. Servers are packed, healing Mages have already been nerfed, and we’re all exploring Azeroth as if for the first time. Season of Discovery launched without a PTR, so there was limited datamining: to find the Runes, you had to get out and explore. But even once all the Runes are discovered, this season still has an air of mystery that has been lacking in WoW. You can join the fun by firing up WoW Classic and selecting a Season of Discovery server — and if you want to know where the Runes are, Wowhead has a list.
• WoW December Trading Post has arrived, and while there are lots of rewards to earn the best is definitely the festive candy cane sword, though I still haven’t found the right transmog to pair it with.

Coming soon

• The Game Awards airs December 7 at 4:30pm pacific, though the first half hour will likely be devoted to a pre-show. Expect the usual rundown of awards peppered with new game announcements and trailers, including a special appearance by Gonzo. You can watch the show on YouTube or on Twitch.
• Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 6 is starting sooner than I expected: the season kicks off on December 5, and will add spells to the tavern for the first time. I’m going to have to rush through Season 6’s Battle Pass, but I think I can swing it.
• Overwatch 2 Season 6 also starts on December 5, bringing the new tank Mauga to the game.
• Diablo 4 Abattoir of Zir launches soon, on December 5. (Are you starting to feel like it will be a busy week? Because I’m starting to feel like it will be a busy week.) This new end-game challenge for level 100 players will push you to the limit — and provide a ton of XP for your Paragon Glyphs.
• Diablo 3 Season 30 PTR will also go live on December 5. The next season will bring some previous Season themes to the game permanently, but won’t introduce any brand new content. We expect Season 29 will wrap towards the end of the year, with Season 30 starting at the very end of December or early January. You can read the Season 30 patch notes to get a head start on the upcoming content.

There aren’t many games left out in the content deluge coming on Tuesday, but WoW will (finally) have a quiet week for all of us to catch our breath — though the final LFR wing is coming the following week, on December 12, giving all players a chance to tackle the Fyrakk encounter (and earn the new Legendary axe). Diablo 2 also lacks any big events this week, but we know the 22 Nights of Terror event is returning for the holiday season, which means it will start up soon — possibly on the December 12 as well.

Finally for those of you who have been following the struggles the site has had recently, I wrote up a post about the current state of Blizzard Watch. In short, things are looking pretty good at the moment and we hope to boost our posting through the month of December.

But for now that’s all I have — take care everyone and have a good week!