Blizzard Watch Weekly: It’s too hot.

This intro is the last thing I do before I hit the weekend, so it’s usually about what I have planned, something cool going on, you get the idea. However, today I went outside for fifteen (15) minutes and now every thought has exited my head other than “wow, it’s hot.”

So while I sit next to a fan, let’s look back at what happened this week, what we have to look forward to next week, plus some stuff you may have missed.

What happened this week?

• Season 3 of The War Within begins August 12
• This week’s Hearthstone Tavern Brawl: Dual Class Deckbuilding Tavern Brawl (Standard, Constructed)
• Active Twitch Drop campaigns
• Epic Games Store free game of the week: Totally Reliable Delivery Service and Hidden Folks

This week season 3 of The War Within began, and as such we’re glued to The Race to World First. If you’re not sure where or how to watch the Race to World First, we’ve got your back. Right now two bosses are down, and the big guilds haven’t even stepped into Mythic yet because they’re doing splits. We also made our writer Nick come up with a more relatable set of metrics to describe just how big Dimensius is, and he delivered.

The big guys aren’t the only ones raiding, so we rounded up a list of Manaforge Omega guides from several different outlets. Oh, and don’t forget to get your Reshii Wraps — we have a guide to skipping past the campaign on your alts so you can get that sweet loot sooner.

This week’s Cute post was two little tiny baby animals from species on the endangered species list. Yeah, that’s right, it’s not just cute, it’s hopeful. Downright optimistic. We also have a bunch of cute games from the Wholesome Gaming Steam fest, if you’re into that kind of thing too.

 What’s Happening Next Week (and beyond)

• Gamescom August 19-24
• Diablo 4 Season 10 PTR August 19-26

The huge news next week is the Midnight cinematic reveal, which is set to happen August 19 at gamescom — though we’re not exactly sure what time, specifically. We’re also looking forward to getting a ton more information from both Blizzard themselves and some of our best content creator buds from the convention. There was a teaser preview from the trailer they’re going to show, and maybe I’m just old but a teaser for a trailer for marketing for a game? Seems a little extra. There was also a trailer for the other content, from esports to a creator clash to Player Housing. And yes, we’re always going to emphasize the Player Housing.

Not to be outdone, we just got a ton of news about Legion Remix. It is currently live on the PTR, and it’s set to release alongside patch 11.2.5 — whenever that is. This would probably get lost in the sea of player housing and Xal’atath feet we’re sure to see during the convention.

And Diablo 4 is heading into its next season soon as Season 10, which is all about harnessing chaos with a selection of new Chaos Perks (with 880 different power combinations) — your standard seasonal power set — and Chaos Armor — max roll uniques that fit in different armor slots than usual. Diablo 4 patch 2.4.0 will be on the PTR with Season 10 from August 19 – 26. The season is scheduled to go live on September 23.

This week’s podcasts

• Blizzard Watch Podcast: Tazavesh is the best city ever, and more WoW patch 11.2 observations
• Lore Watch Podcast: Jurassic World, and all the dinosaurs InGen made up along the way
• Tavern Watch Plays Rebel Scum, Episode 1: A hive of scum and villainy

Since patch 11.2 released, that’s what most of the Blizzard Watch Podcast covered this week, though we had Liz Patt as a guest host, and she’s our Diablo maven, so there was a good bit of Diablo discussion as well. On Lore Watch, we had our second of two Jurassic Park lore discussions, this one zooming forward to the Jurassic World part of the series and beyond.

This week the Tavern Watchers started a new playthrough with Rebel Scum, a system so legally distinct from Star Wars that yeah, we’re just doing a Star Wars thing. With Phil Ulrich as as our intrepid GM, our players will fight with the Rebellion against the tyranny of the Empire.

I hope you have a great weekend, and I’ll see you back here next week. As long as I don’t melt first. It’s plausible.