Blizzard Watch Weekly: When it rains

Last week was busy, the week after next is busy, but this coming week? Not so much.

Here’s our weekly roundup of the news we reported you may have missed, the stuff that’s coming up, plus a few suggestions for things to keep you busy over the weekend.

What Happened This Week

After a whole slew of extended maintenances, In addition to keeping an eye on the ongoing Race to World First which will likely conclude soon — and since the top four guilds are all hacking away at Queen Ansurek, it’s possible the race is over even before this post goes live. If you are, perhaps, not quite as… let’s go with “ambitious,” as cutting edge raiding, Story Mode, which allows players to essentially just waltz through the raid for the lore, also debuted this week. If you’re looking for something in between, the final wing of Nerub-ar Palace LFR opened this week, too.

If you’re not into group content at all, we have a few tips to help you do Delves successfully. We also have a lore primer on the Hallowfall Arathi — who they are, where they came from, and how that’ll inform their story going forward. Also, it seems like the dust has cleared a bit on the back end, and character restore is enabled again.

If you like your WoW a little less modern, phase 5 hit the WoW Classic Season of Discovery servers on Thursday. We have a guide to the new mechanics in Blackwing Lair, which just opened.

What’s Happening Next Week

So what’s happening next week? Honestly, almost nothing. After all the madness with the launch of The War Within and season 1 over the past month, and the anticipation for Vessel of Hatred the week after next — the first expansion to Diablo 4 which launches October 8 alongside season 6 — it’s quiet this coming week. It’s almost a little eerie.

That makes it a great time to start running down some checklists, though. There are always pets or mounts to collect and transmogs to, uh, transmog. We’d suggest making sure you peruse the Traveler’s Log and make sure you’re completing it this month, for instance, though of course several objectives have to wait til Hallow’s End at the end of the month, though Brewfest is continuing until next week. There’s also the ongoing Overwatch 2 crossover with World of Warcraft which goes til September 30 — since Overwatch 2 is still free-to-play it’s a pretty low-stakes thing to check out in the short term.

The PTR has concluded for Diablo 3 season 33, but we don’t have a start date as of yet — so, unlikely for this coming week, but incredibly likely for the week after. You know, the same week as that Diablo 4 expansion launch? I’m sure those audiences don’t have a ton of overlap, it’s probably fine.

Blizzard Watch Podcasts

• Blizzard Watch Podcast: The Nerub-ar Palace Race to World First has begun!
• Lore Watch Podcast: Are the Titans responsible for Xal’atath?

For someone who entered our lives as a particularly chatty piece of cutlery, Xal’atath’s arc remains deeply intriguing. Liz and the boys also talked at length about the Race to World first and how they’re enjoying the journey. Remember that if you enjoy our podcasts, you can subscribe to our Patreon to get them uncut and a little bit early — including an upcoming special episode with a special guest we’re really excited about.

What to play this weekend

As usual we have a weekly roundup of new game releases, old faves, and great deals we think you’d have a blast perusing. If you’re looking to purchase some snacks to keep you fueled for a lengthy Balatro sesh — a staff favorite newly available on iOS and Google Play — we’d suggest you sweeten the deal with some Trolli gummies, because they have a promotion going on where you can send in a photo of your receipt for in-game prizes from WoW and D4. Be warned that the promo is a little bit temperamental, and some people are left a bit sour because of its quirks.

Personally, if you need me, I’m going to be living my best life building a house on a chicken and hugging baby goats in Baba Yaga simulator REKA. It’s still a little early access-y, but the core vibes are spot on for October. They had me at the ominous violin duet. And the hugging baby goats. And the part where I got to build my own house on chicken legs. It’s the simple things.