Blizzard Watch Weekly: Our first round of roadmaps

Last week was a busy one for Warcraft fans as the State of Azeroth showcase dumped three roadmaps (and more) on our heads. More showcases are due for this month, which means we’ll be getting more news from the rest of Blizzard’s games soon.

But while we wait on that mysterious more, let’s catch up on what happened last week and talk about what’s coming up.

What happened last week?

• We finally have roadmaps for World of Warcraft throughout 2026, including modern, Mists Classic, and Classic Anniversary realms. It includes a speedy patch schedule for both modern and Anniversary realms, while Mists of Pandaria Classic’s list of phases wraps up by the middle of the year with the much maligned Siege of Orgrimmar. Hopefully it won’t stick around as long as the original.
  • …but modern WoW got more out of the roadmap announcements than the rest, with a Decor Duel prop hunt game mode in patch 12.0.5 and labyrinths (mega delves) in patch 12.1.5.
  • Those are the highlights from last week’s State of Azeroth event, but if you want every detail you should read Blizzard’s recap.
• But that’s all in the future. The most important news right now is the February WoW Trading Post, which comes with the usual array of new rewards, but more importantly a great deal of returning rewards, many at a discount to celebrate the Trading Post’s third anniversary.
• Everybody playing modern WoW can now get their own Dark Portal decor item just for logging on before the expansion comes out. That was exactly what your garden needed, wasn’t it?
• The Midnight pre-patch event launched, and things haven’t been going great. Blizzard has adjusted the rewards already, and we’ll see how things go this week.
• Just as soon as we all started complaining about Endeavor progress being too slow, Blizzard adjusted Endeavor progression so we can move through Neighborhood events more quickly.
• Transmog has gotten a big price cut, praise Elune.
• This week in Hearthstone, it’s The Great Amalgamation Tavern Brawl, in which every minion counts as every minion type. It’s a fun concept, but this wild Brawl will depend on you having the cards you need to build the perfect deck. Fortunately we have some suggestions.

What’s happening this week (and beyond)

• February 4 at 10am pacific (1pm eastern): Overwatch Spotlight
• February 5: The Burning Crusade Classic launches on Classic Anniversary realms
• February 9 at 9:30am pacific (12:30am eastern): Hearthstone Spotlight
• February 11 at 2pm pacific (5pm eastern): Diablo Spotlight
• Through February 17: The Cuddly Green Grrgl plushie decor Twitch Drop is available to decorate your in-game home through the 17th! Just watch four hours of Warcraft streams on Twitch to get yours.
• Through March 1: The Midnight pre-patch event is now live, and we have a rundown to help you earn the event’s rewards, including the not-suspicious-at-all Definitely Not a Cultist title.
• March 2: Midnight officially launches. There’s not long to wait now.
• Until they’re gone: BlizzCon 2026 tickets are on sale

Other things we’re playing, watching, and more

• This week’s Epic Game Store Definitely Not Fried Chicken which is a game about definitely not selling fried chicken. It’s right there in the name!
• Winter is terrible, but we’re keeping tabs on the adorable animals that love it. There’s never a situation that isn’t made better by adorable animals, even a weather emergency.

This week’s podcasts

• Blizzard Watch Podcast: Endeavoring to do Neighborhood Endeavors
• Lore Watch Podcast: What you need to know about the story of The War Within before Midnight
• Tavern Watch Plays D&D, Oops! All Artificers edition, episode 3: Attack of the 90 foot pigman

It’s been a busy week, but… oh, actually, we have one last thing.

Yeah, I think Blizzard’s just as excited about Player Housing as we are.

And now we’re all caught up. Here’s to another exciting week ahead.