Blizzard Watch Weekly: Did I do that?

I feel like I’ve been reverted back to the 90s with how hard I’m feeling the TGIF of it all this week. Before I blow this popsicle stand, Watcherinos, here’s a rundown of everything that happened this week, coming next week, and some helpful reminders to get you through the weekend.

What Happened This Week?

• Hearthstone expansion The Great Beyond released
• This week’s Hearthstone Tavern Brawl: The Great Beyond Recipe Brawl
• This week’s WoW World Boss: Aggregation of Horrors
• Active Twitch Drop campaigns.
• World of Warcraft 20th Anniversary Event through January 6, 2025

Hearthstone‘s latest expansion The Great Beyond launched — no, literally, launched. A core mechanic introduced involves you building a spaceship. They also added a new tribe, Draenei, which was sort of leaked via trinkets in Battlegrounds — which I’m sure will be getting them next season in that mode. I’m not the hugest fan of Constructed, but I gotta respect anything that zany.

StarCraft and StarCraft 2 are now on the PC Xbox Game Pass — though you’ll have to re-buy any cosmetics from the store.

In good boys and girls news, we’re revisiting our mount collection in D4, with a guide to collecting as many free (or free-ish) big cat mounts as possible.

You may recall we were a tad bit excited about Dragon Age last week, and N7 day (ie, November 7 in Bioware fan) brought a new patch which contained mostly bug fixes, but also a Mass Effect armor for your Rook.

What’s Happening Next Week (and beyond)

• November 12: Dungeon Master’s Guide 2024 official release date
• November 12: Diablo 4 Campfire Chat
• November 12: Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct

The biggest firm news we have going into next week is the release of the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide. This first book in the trilogy of new D&D manuals releasing over the next few months.

However, the thing which has the potential for biggest news is the Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct. We’re not sure exactly what the nature of this event will be. It could simply be a rosy retrospective of the last 30 years, in which case we’ll have a nice little nostalgia hit but little in the way of reporting. Conversely, and especially since BlizzCon usually happens in the first week of November or so, it’s definitely possible we see a glut of announcements across a good half of Blizzard’s active IPs. Hearthstone, Warcraft Rumble, WoW, and any Warcraft RTS remasters fall under the Warcraft umbrella — not to mention any tertiary media like shows, books, comics, or movies — so we have the potential for a lot of news next week. It’s a toss up, and worth tuning in.

If nothing else we expect this Direct to show us a little something about patch 11.0.7, which is coming soon(tm), and will bring with it a new Battle for Azeroth achievement, and the return of Plunderstorm. Plus we got news this week there won’t be flying on Siren Isle, the new zone coming in patch 11.0.7.

Podcasts

• Blizzard Watch Podcast: Giving the side eye to WoW 11.0.7’s Siren Isle
• Lore Watch: A Dragon Age Origins story overview

It remains Dragon Age o’clock on the Lore Watch podcast, as we recap the events of Dragon Age Origins (though really, what do you need to know besides Alistair and his big dumb adorable 2004-era hairstyle?). Ahem. We were also rather nonplussed about the Siren Isle announcement for 11.0.7 on the main podcast, though we made up for it with two (2!) guest hosts, Liz Patt and Phil Ulrich.

Remember that if you enjoy our podcasts, you can subscribe to our Patreon to get them uncut and a little bit early.

Reminders, to-dos, and ICYMIs

After stocking up on Doritos and Dew, the biggest ongoing reminder is to just keep up with your WoW Anniversary stuff. It takes a ton of currency to get everything, but as long as you keep on top of your wizard chores now, you won’t have to exert yourself in a panic as the event comes to a close.

Also, reminder that tiny baby hippos. That’s it, that’s the whole sentence.

As for me, I’m picking up the completely off the wall new indie release Death of the Reprobate, but this weekend Icarus is having a free-to-try weekend, plus it’s half off, so I’m going to see if I’ve hyped it up too much in my own mind or not.