Player housing highs and Diablo 4 lows

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.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're joined by Cory for this week's Blizzard Watch Podcast. There's no one big news item this week, but lots of tidbits around a ton of different games. For instance, Brewfest begins next week, and there's a new mount and some transmog, but everything else is same ol same ol. There's a Diablo 4 seasonal switchover coming soon with a very horrifyingly cute fox pet, plus a whole lot of WoW Classic phases and seasons.Our favorite news of the week may be that Hades 2 has an official release date. Even though it's been in Early Access for a while, this means we'll finally get to see all those juicy heartwrenching story beats we've come to expect -- and play it on the Switch.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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?If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The litany of Midnight updates and information continues with things ranging from UI updates to dual wielding baguettes. Of course, we pore over every tiny crumb of Player Housing info, as the upcoming truest true end game. Our staff Druid Cory joined us, with an appeal for more Druid forms -- there are a few from the teasers we've seen that he is specifically writing to Santa Metzen about. There's another new Hearthstone miniset to discuss, and to go with it another achingly adorable little pet you can only get by gatcha.Plus, the Heroes of the Storm team gave Cory his regularly scheduled hopium in the form of a relatively sweeping update just before the crew went live. And right before the end of the podcast, Blizzard dropped a whole bunch of blog posts about Midnight, so at least we'll have something to talk about next week!If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Midnight and Gamescom were the core topic of this week's Blizzard Watch Podcast. A big part of the discussion centered on just how odd -- and, frankly, frustrating -- the way the information disseminated throughout the convention. Events posted late, misinformation, and illogical choices plagued the newest expansion's reveal. We're still excited for Player Housing, but there could be more we're excited about just waiting on some cutting room floor. But, as they note, the beta is coming soon -- you can sign up now, as a matter of fact. We discussed the new Demon Hunter spec, the new battleground, and UI improvements which may or may not topple BigWigs after 20 long years (though we doubt it a little).Plus, our writer Flan joined the crew to talk about his experiences on the Legion Remix PTR. Runas is just as depressing in 2025, by the way.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you thought this week’s show would be entirely about the new Midnight trailer and the information we’re getting out of gamescom, you would be right. Site writer Rob Flanagan (who we all call Flan) joined Joe, Matt, and Liz to discuss the news, which included a heated discussion of Blood Elf lore, and whether we’ll miss our ol Delving buddy Brann. It’s a split house on almost every topic this week, so expect to explore a lot of different perspectives — with one notable exception. That sole exception was free transmog, which everyone was pumped at hearing, but unfortunately was reported a little hastily. You’ll be able to assign certain outfits and hotswap to those outfits for free, and you’ll be able to set conditional appearance swaps for free — like when you enter combat, or a rested area, for instance — but transmog is not full-on across the board free.Well, maybe we’ll find something else to agree on as the expansion gets closer.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.