Blizzard Watch WeeklyAug 24, 2026 9:00 am CT

Blizzard Watch Weekly: Our long national nightmare (of snakes) continues

By Elizabeth Harper

We’re just two weeks in to WoW patch 12.1, and I am tired of snakes. Which is unfortunate, because snakes are the whole point of this patch, so I can only hope that you are not as frightened of snakes as I am. But at least there’s more in the news than snakes over the past week, so let’s catch up on what’s been going on in the world of Blizzard games, and what’s coming up this week.

What happened last week?

The Race to World First for Venomous Abyss kicked off on weekly reset last week, but the race is only heating up this week, as the top guilds are finally geared up and heading into Mythic. Here’s how to watch the race!
This little change really flew under the radar: Blizzard has added a back button to the WoW achievement panel, and it’s more helpful than you might think.
The latest WoW patch lets you connect your WoW guild to your Discord server to easily access guild chat from anywhere, but we still have some security concerns.
Hearthstone’s next Class Sets are coming soon! Blizzard just announced Azeroth’s Most Wanted, which includes class-specific for Priest, Rogue, Warlock, and Warrior. Pick them up individually or as a full set (with a couple of bonuses). The set comes out this Tuesday.
This week’s Hearthstone Tavern Brawl is The Great Amalgamation, in which all minions count as all types of minions, so any cards that proc off specific minion types are great plays. Unfortunately you need to build a deck for this one, but fortunately we have some suggestions.

What’s happening this week (and beyond)

August 25 – 27: Gamescom, with Opening Night Live starting at 1pm eastern on August 25
August 25: Hearthstone Azeroth’s Most Wanted Class Set pack launches
August 27: The Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary phase 3
Through September 8: Sorcerer’s Grassy Garb transmog set in WoW available as a Twitch Drop
September 12 – 13: BlizzCon 2026
November 17: World of Warcraft D&D book launches

Other things we’re playing, watching, and more

We’re continuing to play the spooky mystery The Séance of Blake Manor on our weekly indie game stream. Catch us live Thursday at 8pm eastern (follow us on Twitch to get notifications of this and any one-off streams), or watch on YouTube later. Here’s the latest:

Blizzard Watch Plays The Séance of Blake Manor, episode 2: The mystery of the missing room 15

This week’s free game on the Epic Games Store is Cardpocalypse, a TCG with a charming art style and a cute framing story in which the monsters on the cards come to life. If you’re intrigued by this cute concept, you can grab the game free through Thursday.

And off the beaten path of gaming, this week we took some time off from doomscrolling to celebrate two baby pygmy hippos that were born this summer. Who could say no to these pudgy little darlings?