Blizzard Watch Podcast

Cory is our guest host for the Blizzard Watch Podcast this week and, spoilers, that means there's Heroes of the Storm news again. The PTR opened up for people to test Player Housing again this week, but it was already down again by the time they recorded the podcast. Liz was thrilled with this chance to collect more data though, because her house in the alpha is currently haunted. In other WoW news, the trading post means a ton of new goodies -- perhaps literally, if carrots fit your definition of goodies. Also, getting some of the Artifact appearances in Legion is busted.Beyond WoW, there was a new Hearthstone expansion this week to discuss, plus a new cinematic for Overwatch, which got us feeling a little nostalgic and sentimental. And yes, Heroes of the Storm. We couldn't have Cory on without a little dose of hopium.Plus, we have a contest running on Bluesky and Mastodon where you can enter to win a free key for an Epic edition of Midnight. All you have to do is tell us which housing plot where you'd recommend our realtor take her well-earned vacation (and also, please follow us because that will let us DM you if you win). We'll draw the winners on Monday.

If you thought we were going to talk about something other than changes coming to WoW in Midnight this week, you must be new, so hi, welcome to the podcast. The UI changes, specifically the changes that make it harder for us to change our own UI, was front and center. The hosts talked about the accessibility issues this could present, but personally I just think Friz Quadrata is ugly and would prefer my fonts sans their serifs. One slightly more important, both valid, and both currently a much tougher proposition.This week we had writer Liz Patt as our guest host, so it was a Diablorama, with the D4 PTR hitting servers. As discussed last week we are somewhat uncertain, to put it diplomatically, about the changes coming. From potion charges to seasonal journey changes -- including the names -- everything seems much more catered to a harder core than our squishy middles would prefer. We were glad Liz was on hand to not only relate her PTR experience, but explain everything in a way that us non-Diablites can understand.Plus, there's a new Steam sale and our wallets are yet again groaning -- this time with terror? Happy Halloween!

Since Player Housing hit the PTR last week -- for a briefer time than any of us realized -- we had a lot of Housing-related stuff to talk about. Lots of community members took their testing time to do things like build huge mechs made out of wagons in the backyard. Neat! Player Housing just does a lot of stuff like that.But for every high there must be a low, and this week, that was the discussion of Diablo 4 changes, almost all of which our hosts felt negatively about. They got rid of the seasonal journey, and instead replaced it with... another almost identical seasonal journey. There are fewer potion charges, defensive diminishing return changes, and a whole bunch of other stuff more or less aimed at making the game harder. Our hosts are not feeling that.Among other things our hosts are not feeling is the idea of doing seasonal bosses, even with their minimal mechanics, in story mode dungeons. It's always those NPCs, man.

The three Blizzard Watch Podcast amigos had a ton of Midnight news to discuss this week. They would have had more housing stuff to discuss, but the public PTR that was going to let us finally dig in was unceremoniously yanked off the schedule with no ETA. Surprise, it was released late Thursday, and it's still ending an hour after this podcast gets posted. Welp!Unsurprisingly, Matt says the first thing he's going to do is to create a throne of Ashkandis, but note that there is no actual Ashkandi decor item to enable him to do so. Joe hopes that, if there is a way to put Ashkandi in there, he only has to craft it once, and then can place it multiple times, but it's looking like that isn't the case, either.Plus, Steam Next Fest is this week and we have some recommendations for fun little indie games to check out while they're free to try.

Liz had the good fortune to make her way into the Midnight alpha, so this week's episode is a round of Ask A Beta Tester. Liz regaled us with discussion on the various housing plots available, some of how the talent changes and stat squish feels, plus what it looks like in a post-add on WoW (we're assuming more Friz Quadrata than we've opted for on the live servers).Also, you can feel the warmth in the room when they talk about how Valorstones are getting the axe. Bye, Felicia, literally nobody liked you.

This week our hosts Liz and Joe were joined by Nick, our WoW Classic expert. While they waited very impatiently for the next round of news about Midnight, they talked about the new trend in Classic, to use addons to make Hardcore mode even more Hardcore by obscuring certain heads up data in the UI. When is enough enough? But that wasn't all. There was a new Trading Post, the Turbo Boost, and a nice little bonus for Wrath of the Lich King users in China.But it wasn't all WoW. A whole new Hearthstone expansion was announced. Across the Timeways has a fun time travel angle with Chromie, though it feels like there are so many Hearthstone expansions these days (even though there are the same amount).Plus, there were patches for-- wait, let me check my notes again. StarCraft 2 and Heroes of the Storm? And Heroes of the Storm got a brand new adorable mount? Man, the hopium is strong this week.

This week, we got the announcement that the alpha for World of Warcraft's next expansion Midnight is beginning in just a few weeks. Blizzard ran down some of the content we'll be seeing and roughly when, which was a hot topic for the cohosts this week. Everything seems to be coming out October 2, from the Midnight alpha to Naxxramas in the WoW Classic Anniversary realms to the next season of Critical Role. Diablo 4 gave us a reprieve by being live already, with a few weirdly cute little guys to get from the seasonal journey and battle pass -- with an obligatory round of booing for microtransactions.

This week our writer Christian Thoma joined the mayhem that is the Blizzard Watch Podcast. Speaking of mayhem and the Blizzard Watch Podcast, you may recall that last week's episode ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, as the hosts discovered that, while they were recording the podcast, Blizzard released 14 blog posts detailing all the announcements that happened at Gamescom. This week, they discussed the highlights of all those posts, which made matters even more confusing as they contradicted some other interviews and information that came out right around the same time.Plus, another week, another new microtransaction most of us hate -- you can get a new cute capybara pet in WoW for spending a mere $75 on the Blizzard Gear Store (on specific items).Also, have you heard of a small indie game called Silksong?