Phil Xavier

The Spiritborn is the new class being added to Diablo 4 in its first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, and it comes equipped with four Key Passives that are "designed to be more open-ended." But what does that mean?

You thought it was Anna… but it was me, Red!!!

I don’t own a bear named Rutherford Bear Hayes and I don’t have dozens of great literature recommendations, but I’ll still try my best to honor the age-old tradition of the Tuesday Queue as Anna enjoys her vacation.

I’m gonna play it safe: gotta go with Standard Tuesday Queue rules. Best of five, single elimination, no jackpot, winner takes it all.

So buckle up, birdos, and let’s Queue.

Sometimes all you wanna do is think about cute whelps having fun, and perhaps even wish you were in their shoes. (Do dragons wear shoes? I don’t know; someone should ask that on the next Queue).

But you don’t always have access to a pool, or bathtub, or the ocean, so you might consider doing the second best thing instead: answering questions, and adding fun prompts and pictures to embellish some of them.

I’m in luck, for I can do that second thing. So let’s get to that!

In a somewhat surprising decision, the Hearthstone team has decided to temporarily ban a card from Standard via a hotfix: Splish-Splash Whelp.

Diablo 4 made big changes to its itemization in Season 4, and many players who reached endgame during that season found that Legendary items were made much stronger overall -- which, in turn, made Unique items far less appealing in comparison.

“Hello, Peter.”

…I mean, there’s a chance that’s your name — at least a few of you are probably called Peter. But even if it isn’t, that’s okay: my character here is not Doctor Octopus either, he was just modeled after him.

So let’s model this column around answering some questions!

Starting today with the Midsummer Fire Festival, bad luck protection is being added to holiday boss drops in World of Warcraft.

All of our favorite Hearthstone characters were apparently in need of a vacation, as the next expansion is the vacation-themed Perils in Paradise.

Hearthstone patch 29.6 will reintroduce Buddies to the Battlegrounds, and the heroes who still didn't have their buddies will get them this time.

Dear Blizzard,

Why not add Skyreach as a choice on the same node as Rushing Reflexes at the bottom of the Monk talent tree?

I don’t mean the critical strike component, by the way — remove that. Make Skyreach an ability that’s all about dashing players to their next target, and nothing else. Rushing Reflexes, which is being added to the game, seems to serve the exact same purpose anyway — but based on the testing we’ve done so far, it gives you nowhere near the same sense of control about picking and approaching your intended target.

Sincerely,

a Monk player who finds Skyreach an extremely fun and useful ability, and sees no reason why it can’t be optional for those who enjoy it — rather than outright removed. (Trying to put the cat back in the bag feels awful for everyone involved: you, the cat, the person who’ll have to treat your infected scratches later, everyone.)