Blizzard Watch Weekly: What week?

This whole week has been a total mess. I feel like I’ve aged three years, but really I just need to drink a ton more water. The kids are finally back at school after our second snowpocalypse of the winter so I’m trying to catch up on everything that happened this week in the space of a few short carefree hours.
I guess that’s kind of the point of writing this roundup every week for y’all, huh. Salut.
Here’s what happened this week, what’s happening next week, and more stuff.
What Happened This Week?
- Diablo 4 season 7 began January 21
- Heroes of StarCraft Hearthstone miniset released January 21
- This week’s Hearthstone Tavern Brawl: Shake, Deathrattle, and Roll (Wild, Deck Provided)
- Active Twitch Drop campaigns
- Epic Games Store free game of the week: Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery
First, a slight apology, as our staff is still obsessed with Balatro, and are now publishing tips and tricks to also pass the fun addiction to you. Whoops, I meant to say “tips to play better.” Something like that, anyway.
Season 7 began in Diablo 4, which brought about a lot of new quality-of-life changes. We’d also very much suggest you get moving on the Diablo 4 seasonal journey ASAP. We’re not nearly at the point where the band starts playing to get you to wrap it up, but the Journey this season involves a raven pet, so we’re ultra motivated to see it through this season. If you’re not familiar with this season in general, we have a guide to the new Witchcraft powers to get you started.
Also, if you’re into Overwatch 2, there was a hefty mid-season patch with a lot of fun stuff to explore, including some new and improved Arcade modes. You may also want to take a spin past Marvel Rivals and their Spring Festival, which features a legally distinct not-Lucioball mode.
Is it just me, or does it feel like the Heroes of StarCraft miniset already release? I mean, it did, but only this week. Maybe I’m thinking of the Hearthstone Battlegrounds seasonal theme, which did release a while back. Regardless of which you’re playing, there’s a fun little event to earn a few packs with daily quests going on.
Speaking of things that felt like they already released forever ago, the first official Warcraft tarot deck only came out last month, but doesn’t a WoW tarot deck feel like something that’s been around since Mists of Pandaria? We got our grubby hands on a deck, and spoiler, we’re really digging it.
This week’s weekend gaming post features a few games that have recently released, including Ender Magnolia, the sequel to Ender Lilies, which can only possibly get more floral from here.
What’s Happening Next Week (and beyond)
- WoW Classic Season of Discovery season 7 releases January 28
- Diablo 3 season 34 begins
January 19January 31 - Darkening of Tristram Diablo 3 event through January 31
- Warcraft Rumble Lunar New Year event through February 5
- Plunderstorm returns through February 18
- Turbulent Timeways through February 25
After Diablo 3 season 33 ended, even though it ended real weird, we expected the season to begin the next week like the previous seasons. Instead it was announced at the eleventh hour that, oh wait, D4 has a new season starting that day too, so let’s punt til next week. So now D3‘s season 34 begins next week — for really reals this time, allegedly — and this sequence of events is so bizarre. Maybe they should set up calendar sharing in Notion? Consult the weekly bulleted list of events published by a semi-pro fansite, perhaps? Just baffling.
As Turbulent Timeways continues, we posted a list of tips for using the event to level your alts.
Looking ahead, patch 11.1 will allow us to skip bosses in the raid, and we have a guide on how to earn the ability to do so. It involves the Gallagio Loyalty Rewards Club, which is mostly just a to say “renown,” but with Goblin panache.
Podcasts
- Blizzard Watch Podcast: The Gen X of Diablos
- Lore Watch Podcast: The lore and history of the goblins in WoW
- Tavern Watch Plays: Starfinder 1: Does anybody know how to fly this thing? Maybe.
This week Liz Patt joined the BW podcast crew to talk about various Diabli, plus a smattering of nostalgia for WoW Classic. Lore Watch talks about Goblins in WoW — very timely, considering we’re about to go run roughshod over a few of ’em in patch 11.1. Over on Tavern Watch, we started a new Starfinder game with a literal bang, but I don’t want to say much more, because spoilers.
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