Winter is coming with the launch of the Wrath Classic pre-patch

We very wisely started off the podcast this week with all the other news. There's a new Hearthstone Battlegrounds season that just started, with a fun new mechanic which is actually pretty similar to Trinkets, if we think about it, but we can play as Chromie so everything else is irrelevant. Plus, there's an upcoming Diablo 4 season, and a potential announcement for the franchise at The Game Awards, with a bizarre statue in the California desert.And then, we finally got to talking about the most anticipated patch to hit WoW, perhaps ever. It wasn't without its foibles -- as our guest host Flan noted, some of these decor items are weirdly expensive in old mats, like arcanite bars. It's even more expensive in lumber, which had our hosts going all over the map to collect. And for each little item you want to place, you need to collect more and more of these things. It's a wonder they had time for the show 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.

Our intrepid hosts dragged writer Phil Ulrich along as we spent another show discussing transmog changes. As it turns out, making transmog very much more expensive last week, and then retuning it this week so that it's merely much more expensive like it's a gift hasn't really made our hosts happy. Purchased slots are warband wide now, at least, so that's better, but everything else remains awful (but slightly less awful).As a sliver lining, Player Housing comes out next week, yay! However, we're reminding you that all those oddball little currencies from expansions past are now suddenly, horrifically relevant again to purchase themed decor. Hope you hoarded some Apexis Crystals!We're also talking game awards, and how the "indie" categories seem to encompass a whole range of games with a lot of different levels of financial and personnel support.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 start off the show this week talking about WoW Classic, namely that Burning Crusade Anniversary realms were announced and are coming in January, perhaps concurrentish with the release of Midnight. It's fine, it's not like we have lives outside of this one video game or anything. Then, we pivot to the changes to transmog coming in Midnight, and it seems like every time we look at those changes they get worse and worse, much like the gear we had to wear right at the beginning of The Burning Crusade.While we're excited to see Vendetta, the new Overwatch 2 hero coming soon, it's kinda weird she calls herself a term used in both Italian and Spanish slang to mean "lady of the night." She does have a big sword, and she seems neat.Also, we're coming to the end of the year, so it's game awards season. Lots of awards have been announcing their nominees, and the lists aren't without controversy.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 Cory as the Midnight beta officially launched, with access for people who have preordered the Midnight epic edition. It was a little bumpy, per usual, but we made it. We would be testing, but transmog is unavailable until next week, so it's literally unplayable. BlizzCon was announced and early bird tickets were already sold out, but you can buy full price tickets next week. (They did not actually talk about Battlestar Galactica. I was memeing).We have a round of bad news from the other games, because NetEase pulled funding from a lot of indie studios. But it's not all bad, because Steam has an event highlighting games that feature animals, so our unplayed list just keeps getting longer.Plus, Hearthsteel. We're trying to speak positively about this new paid currently specifically earmarked for decor, which you apparently have to buy multiples of like every other decor. So. yep. Positive.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.

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 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 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!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.

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.