Leveling professions in Midnight can be an expensive, tedious process, so we’re happy to report that the Darkmoon Faire is in town to award you with easy profession points right as the expansion launches. All it takes is venturing out to the Faire and doing a simple, fairly easily completed quest, which will give you two skill points and three knowledge points in your Midnight profession.

As you get higher in your profession, skill and knowledge can be hard-earned, so even these few points are valuable in the long journey to maxing out your professions. Even if you aren’t leveling professions, visiting the Faire and riding the carousel or roller coaster gives you the WHEE! buff, which increases XP and reputation gains — a nice bonus for leveling in the early expansion. We would also usually miss the Darkmoon Faire’s excellent reputation buff, but this buff does not apply to Midnight reputations. It’s a good way to catch up on older renown tracks, but won’t do anything for the latest content. Even so, it’s still well worth visiting the Faire for this small profession boost.

Here’s everything you need to know about training professions at the Darkmoon Faire, available through Saturday, July 11.

How to get to the Darkmoon Faire

First things first, you’ll need to get to the Faire itself. Go to your favorite capital city — though Orgrimmar and Stormwind are usually the easiest to reach — and look for a Darkmoon Faire Mystic Mage standing under a Darkmoon Faire banner and some balloons. In Stormwind, you’ll find them in the center of the city near the Auction House, while in Orgrimmar they’re on the upper level near the flight master. If you’ve never been to the Faire on this character, they’ll have a quest for you to visit which will award you a few tickets for your trouble. If you’ve visited the Faire before, they’ll offer to teleport you to the nearest portal for a scant 25 copper. (If you don’t want to spend the cash, you’ll find the portal outside Thunder Bluff for Horde and outside Goldshire for Alliance.)

There are two things you want to take care of before going through the portal:

• Make sure you’ve trained Midnight-level professions in Silvermoon. If you haven’t, these quests will only give you skill points for previous expansions, and since you can only earn these points once a month, it’s a little heartbreaking if you forgot your training.
• Pick up any specific reagents you need to complete these quests (usually found on general vendors or trade vendors in major cities). Most (but not all) crafting quests require items that aren’t sold at the Faire, be prepared by checking out the relevant quests below.

Now let’s take a look at the profession quests available at the Darkmoon Faire, and what you need to complete them.

How to get profession knowledge at the Darkmoon Faire

Once you’re at the Darkmoon Faire, there are a series of quests depending on your professions. These quests are given by questgivers across the Faire. Just head down the main drag and you’ll run into the questgivers, none of whom are far from the road.

Each primary profession quest rewards 2 skill points and 3 knowledge in the related profession:

• Chronos:
  • Herbalism: Herbs for Healing
  • Jewelcrafting: Keeping the Faire Sparkling
  • Skinning: Tan My Hide
• Sylannis:
  • Alchemy: A Fizzy Fusion (requires 5 Moonberry Juice)
• Yebb Neblegear:
  • Blacksmithing: Baby Needs Two Pair of Shoes
• Sayge:
  • Inscription: Writing the Future (requires 5 Light Parchment)
  • Enchanting: Putting Trash to Good Use
• Rinling:
  • Leatherworking: Eyes on the Prizes (requires 10 Shiny Bauble, 5 Coarse Thread, 5 Blue Dye)
  • Mining: Rearm, Reuse, Recycle
  • Engineering: Talkin’ Tonks
• Selina Dourman:
  • Tailoring: Banners, Banners Everywhere (requires 1 Coarse Thread, 1 Red Dye, 1 Blue Dye)

There are also quests for secondary professions that reward 3 skill points each. These are perhaps a bit less important as none of them have profession trees that require collecting knowledge — and Archeology doesn’t exist in recent expansions at all — but they’ll still help you level up a little faster.

• Stamp Thunderhorn:
  • Cooking: Putting the Crunch in the Frog (requires 5 Simple Flour)
  • Fishing: Spoilin’ for Salty Sea Dogs
• Professor Thaddeus Paleo:
  • Archeology: Fun for the Little Ones (requires 15 Fossil Archaeology Fragments) — skill points will be applied to your current top level Archeology profession

If you want a little something extra while you’re visiting the Faire, grab a ticket book and ride the carousel or the roller coaster to get +10% reputation and experience buff that lasts one hour, though the reputation buff does not apply to Midnight reputations. (Note that this buff does not persist through death, so be careful out there!) If you’re rep grinding or working on leveling, you can also pick up the consumable Darkmoon Top Hat for 10 prize tickets which will give you the same buff, but in hat form.

This will only be available while the Darkmoon Faire is up, so you should stop by before Saturday to grab these easy skill points while you can.

Originally published December 7, 2022. Updated July 6, 2026.

Hey, wasn’t I just here?

I could’ve sworn I was just here. Or is it more like I’m still here? Either way, I’m here, you’re here, my cat is here, let’s do this thing.

While I try to figure out if I’m alive, dead, or stuck in a box, it’s time for our daily question and answer column — The Queue!

HEY, RETPALLYJIL, I NEED SOMEONE TO SAVE ME NOW FROM ALL THE PAIN I SUFFER IN THE HEAVY WORLD THAT WEIGHS ME DOWN

Q4tQ:

My “If I could sneak an idea into Blizzard’s suggestion box” is one I am fairly sure everyone would hate me for, but I would be excited about:

Mythic + Raids.

Whatever the current tier is and then 2 others broken into wings like LFR.

The season would be 3 months, and only happen once a year, since there are fewer raids.

What do you think? Transcendent, Diabolical, or Imbecilic?

Our Answer:

There are some hurdles for sure, but I also love the idea. Let’s set 10/20 raiders loose into these places and force the whole group to do the super annoying skips perfectly every time. It’s gonna go so well, I bet. I also can’t wait to see the whole raid have to wait while the timers count down because someone got lost on a run back.

As long as they cap it to a wing, that’s basically just a larger-sized dungeon anyway. You’ve got X trash to clear and two to three bosses to take down. None of the bosses are likely to be a very long fight anymore. Maybe even add some extra trash to clear for some wings. The hardest part is just going to be corralling the players and herding them all in the right direction. It’s tough enough some nights to wrangle five players, now you want to double or quadruple that number? Madness!

I bet it would lead to some pretty interesting trash shenanigans from the upper-end groups, though. Pulling things onto bosses, mind controls for buffs, trying to pull two bosses at once — I mean if they didn’t despawn outside of their arena… Maybe Blizzard would relax those rules for the sake of the competition. Stranger things have happened!

If it works well enough, there could even be a Mythic Raider International to go alongside the dungeon version.

‘CAUSE I KEEP RUNNIN’, BUT I CAN’T ESCAPE THE SJHAWK TRY TO FIGHT THE FEELIN’ BUT IT’S KILLIN’ ME

QftQ – Should Timewalking expand its raid selection? We have Ulduar, Firelands, and Black Temple so far, so what raids from the other expansions would you add in?

Our Answer:

Yes, yes they should.

More importantly, I want them to bring back Siege of Orgrimmar or Nighthold. Both of which had a trinket that messed with cooldown times. I want to see the developers put that back into the game in a way that it’ll always be available to players in an expansion. Think of the wacky shenanigans that people could get up to with that!

Of course, there’s also all of the delicious drama that could arise as a result, too. Think of the RWF raiders who are forced to run Timewalking raids non-stop to earn their shorter cooldowns! Think of the vast sums of gold that would change hands because of it. It would be some fun chaos for people on the outside.

The raids are cool too, I guess. Both are large and sprawling, with a good variety of not-too-hard boss fights that could probably be dumbed down to timewalking levels. Garrosh and Gul’dan are both top tier Orc villains to beat, so they’ve got that going for them, too.

JALAMENOS THE WORLD AIN’T SWEET, IT’S BITTER TO TASTE BUT YOU CAN BE MY SAVIN’ GRACE

How does a tank miss the dungeon queue?
I’ve never understood that – what could possibly have happened in the .2 seconds between you clicking the Find Group button and the queue popping?

Our Answer:

Sometimes you just want to dangle the carrot of a dungeon in front of other people.

Other times, you were out doing things and then realized that you could see a herb or a mining node just over there. Only just as you’re about to pick it, something jumps out and attacks you. Being a tank, you slowly kill it, but between the killing and the mining afterwards, you’ve missed your group finder queue. That handful of materials was definitely worth your time to hit the requeue button, though.

Of course, there’s the secret third option, where you’ve just been attacked by a squirrel that broke into your house. This is considerably rarer, but it does happen. Those little guys can be vicious! They’ve got such sharp teeth and claws, and you just had to have that extra messy peanut butter sandwich right before you played.

Look at Bacardi there, poised and ready to leap into action to get you the best loot you can possibly get. Those are the eyes of a stone-cold loot hunter. Or a cat who’s just noticed that someone moved a bag of treats. Could go either way.

Would you rather

Live in a nice house on a volcano, that may or may not be active.

Or

Live in a shack out in the middle of a desert, that is on a fault line.

Today’s Anna Earworm™: Saving Grace

I’ll see y’all in a week! Make sure to leave lots of questions for the other Queue writers in the meantime.

I’m having a tough time working up the enthusiasm to tackle a new Diablo 4 season when I was just getting my character where I wanted it in the last Diablo 4 season. Do I really want to do that all over again? But that’s the gameplay loop the game presents us; level a character, then level another. But after a certain number of seasons (14, maybe), starting over is starting to feel less fun. I guess we’ll see whether I come up with the energy to dive in, but for now Warcraft (and a few other games) are keeping me pretty busy… and did I mention it’s SGDQ this week? Because it’s SGDQ this week.

But instead of talking about all of the amazing runs that we’ll see at SGDQ, it’s time to take a look at everything that’s been happening in Blizzard games over the last week, plus what’s coming up next.

What happened last week?

• With the start of Diablo 4 Season 14 last week, Matt is here to tell you why you should try leveling your next Diablo 4 character by playing through the campaign — it’s slower, but it’s absolutely rich with story, and it flows a lot better now that Lord of Hatred is here. But however you want to approach it, Season 14 is now live.
• Secret hunters have finally found The War Within’s most mysterious pet: here’s how to get your own K’aresh kitten by collecting the Unphazed Diver pet (you’ll want to set some time aside for this one).
• Turbulent Timeways has returned to World of Warcraft with another six weeks of Timewalking, starting off with the all new Dragonflight Timewalking. Pick up new Dragonflight rewards with Timewarped badges in Valdrakken, and do four weeks of Timewalking in order to pick up the new Vyranoth-themed mount.
• Summer Games Done Quick kicked off on Sunday, and it’s one of our favorite gaming events of the year. It’s a full week — and we do mean a full week, running 24 hours a day — of spectacular video game speed runs, all live-streamed for your entertainment. And charity. That’s important too.
• The latest Hearthstone Tavern Brawl is celebrating the upcoming release of the Escape from Violet Hold expansion… but unfortunately it’s a Brawliseum style brawl and so we are contractually obligated to hate it. We still have some deckbuilding advice if you’re giving it a try.
• Icymi, it’s now July, and a new month means a new WoW Trading Post, packed with Goblin and/or Gnome themed looks for your engineering alt (or just because). Here are the latest transmogs, mounts, and toys to collect.

What’s happening this week (and beyond)

• July 7: Hearthstone’s Escape from Violet Hold expansion launches
• Through July 9: Steam Summer Sale
• Through July 11: Summer Games Done Quick
• Through July 14: A new color of the plush murloc housing decor item is available as a Twitch Drop
• Through August 11: Turbulent Timeways returns to Midnight, starting with new Dragonflight Timewalking!

Other things we’re playing, watching, and more

• The Steam Summer Sale is still on through July 9 at 10am pacific (1pm eastern), so you just have a couple more days to add to your gaming backlog.
• This week’s Epic Games Store freebies are another mismatched pair of games, with River City Girls 2, a beat-em-up girlypop brawl, and Harlan Ellison’s I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, a point-and-click adventure based on the sci-fi classic. Both are free on the Epic Games Store through Thursday.

Our latest podcasts

• Blizzard Watch Podcast: The Timeways are Turbulent and BlizzCon is closing in
• Lore Watch Podcast: In the Amani Loa-fest, where is Bwonsamdi?
• Tavern Watch Podcast: Bad players get sent to the Water Temple

That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back next week with another weekly news recap!

Forget the Fourth of July — this weekend is all about the fifth of July, because it’s time for another Summer Games Done Quick! We Blizzard Watchers love Games Done Quick, but if you’ve never watched or just need a refresher: SGDQ is a week-long charity event that raises money for Doctors Without Borders (A.K.A. Médecins Sans Frontières) via video game speedruns.

It’s wholesome, fun, nerdy as heck, and supports an amazing cause. And when we say “week-long,” we mean it.

Summer Games Done Quick will be running nonstop from Sunday to Sunday on both Twitch and YouTube, which is why we’re here to help break down some of the runs we’re most excited about. Don’t worry if you can’t watch your favorite run live, though — you can watch anything you missed on YouTube, with runs usually posted during the marathon, a day or two after finishing.

Runs below are shared in central time, but the schedule is regularly updated with up-to-date timing adjustments, so be sure to check the Games Done Quick website for all the latest updates to the schedule. Games Done Quick’s schedule page will reflect your local time.

SGDQ favorites for Sunday, July 5

Kirby Air Riders — Air Ride – All Tracks by Bluekandy (9:13 p.m.)

I loved the original Air Rider game, and not having a Switch 2 to play the sequel has been felt like travesty my childhood self would not stand for. Thankfully, I can at least watch all of the tracks demolished on opening day.

Spyro: Year of the Dragon & Spyro Reignited Trilogy — Spyro 3 Race by Toronite and Dereklander (11:06 p.m.)

Another childhood favorite — and off the heels of an all-new Spyro title being announced just last month — a Spyro race on opening day sounds like a great time! Races at GDQ offer some of the most memorable moments, especially when things go unexpectedly. And it seems like we’ll be getting multiple platforms/versions of Spyro 3 for this. I can’t wait!

SGDQ favorites for Monday, July 6

Super Monkey Ball: Stardust — All Stunt Goals by Nambo (2:55 p.m.)

Super Monkey Ball titles are a quintessential speedrun watch, if you ask me. Every level feels like you’re watching someone play those arcade machines/old wooden toys where you have to move a marble by controlling vertical and horizontal tilt, except turned up to 11 and completed successfully like it’s nothing.

Super Mario Odyssey — All Story Moons by CheeseJay (7:12 p.m.)

Look, it’s hard for me to not pick an Mario platformer during these. Odyssey’s movement tech may offer some of the most potential for inhuman combos, and the fact that it’s an All Moons run means we’ll get to see a whole lot of incredible platforming.

SGDQ favorites for Tuesday, July 7

Gex: Enter the Gecko — Any% by Yoshipro (7:35 a.m.)

Gex is one of those series that instantly takes me back to the very first PS1 demo I ever had (and still have), which included Gex 2. I’ve always wanted to go back and play more of the games as an adult, but for now, I think a pre-8:00 a.m. speedrun is a good way to live that vicariously.

Stardew Valley — Mines vs. Crafts Room Race by Pr1nc3ssShortcake and MelMelMelCrochets (12:03 p.m.)

Stardew? Oddly specific race? Yes, count me in. I’m always interested to see how cozy games get turned into speedruns, and everything about this is right up my alley.

Hollow Knight: Silksong — Awoo% (All Fleas) by mathulu (6:33 p.m.)

I wasn’t going to include three picks this early in the week, but how could I not call out “Awoo%”?! Save those adorable fleas, mathulu!

SGDQ favorites for Wednesday, July 8

Pokémon FireRed — Elite Four Round 2 by Gunnermaniac and pokeguy (2:47 p.m.)

Super Mario and Luigi World: Brotherhood — First Playthrough — All Exits Race by GossipGreg, Hank_Sinatra, shovda, CircleFriendo, and Spirits (7:26 p.m.)

Okay, maybe this list is weighed a bit heavily toward races. But hey, they’re fun! And “First Playthrough” has me incredibly intrigued. Are we sight-reading speedruns? (Sight-running?)

SGDQ favorites for Thursday, July 9

Banjo-Tooie — Any% (No Bitclips) by TSR Stormed (12:40 a.m.)

I love this game, I love these characters. I’m sure I’ve picked this as a game in the past, but I don’t care. I’m excited to relive my childhood a little more.

The entire Thursday morning Silly Block

Every SGDQ has what we call the “Silly Block,” full of weird, whacky, weirder, and “what the heck?!” It starts early in the morning and runs through the early afternoon, but with games like these — not the full line-up, to be clear — the whole thing is worth tuning into. Plus, rolling right into Tears of the Kingdom after Wand of Gamelon? *chef’s kiss* to the scheduling crew.

• Snoopy (Commodore 64) — 9 Loops (6:50 a.m.) by Msushi
• Drywall Eating Simulator — Any% (8:06 a.m.) by chibicarrera
• Grandma, No! — All Main Tasks (8:33 a.m.) by Asuka424
• Randall The Grape Jelly Cube goes to Soda Valley for some reason — Any% (12:06 p.m.) by MatosMachine
• Sonic Schoolhouse — All Subjects (2:01 p.m.) by Katie4
• Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon — Any% (2:57 p.m.) by Brandino59

Elden Ring – All Bosses (4 Players) by Mitchriz, LilAggy, YoJosherino, and star0chris (9:57 p.m.)

This is Mitch bait, and I took it.

SGDQ favorites for Friday, July 10

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker — Randomizer — Co-op by Tomomodachi and gymnast86 (9:56 a.m.)

If you’ve never seen a Randomizer run (or even if you have), they’re regularly hilarious because the runners quite literally never know what’s going to happen in full. They can plan routes and plan as best as possible, but the random nature means on-the-fly route changes and adjustments, and it’s always fascinating to see how runners adapt so quickly.

SAROS — NG+ (All Bosses) by cavecavecave (12:54 p.m.)

This is currently my GOTY frontrunner, and having completed it top-to-bottom and then some, I want to see what how I could’ve been running this even faster. I could use a new personal challenge.

Super Mario Maker 2 — Troll Race by juzcook, Marble, and CarlSagan42 (6:42 p.m.)

I don’t know what “Troll Race” is but do I need to? Mario Maker runs are notoriously impressive and historically hilarious. With a category like “Troll Run,” I can’t imagine this one will miss either mark.

SGDQ favorites for Saturday, July 11

Yup, I’m recommending the whole dang day again

The final day of any GDQ event will always be packed with wall-to-wall bangers, and SGDQ 2026 is no exception. So, once again, I’m just gonna tell you to watch it all and show you the lineup for the last 12 or so hours of the event:

• Mass Effect 3 — Any% (Mod)  (12:25 p.m.) by MikeWave
• Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix — Randomizer — Hitlist Co-op (2:09 p.m.) by ZakTheRobot and SpikeVegeta
• Super Mario 64 — 120 Star TAS (5:45 p.m.) by Palix
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past — All Dungeons (Restricted Major Glitchless) (7:30 p.m.) by RequiemOfSpirit
• Super Dram World 3 (BONUS GAME) — Any% (9:16 p.m.) by revolug
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — Any% (Restricted) (11:11 p.m.) by Z3R01337

As always, though, these are just some of the runs to watch out for. The best moments are rarely predictable, and it’s hard to ever find a block that doesn’t have something fun to watch.

Want to see more from SGDQ? This year’s speedruns can be found on GDQ’s YouTube page for your enjoyment!

It’s Friday! The weekend is here, and hopefully that means you’ve all got lots of time to be lazy, and productive, and then lazy again. Laziness is an important part of many good weekends, as long as you’re not forgetting to pick someone up from the airport. Maybe you’ll go to a market and buy some fresh produce, or take in a movie. You should check out your local indie movie theater, maybe they have some fun stuff on offer. A couple of weeks ago, I saw Blazing Saddles in honor of Mel Brooks’ 100th birthday at my local indie theater, and it was a great time! We didn’t even plan on doing it, just noticed a flyer and were nearby with time to spare. It was fate.

While I try to figure out what to do with this weekend, it’s time for our daily question and answer column — The Queue!

SILENCE THE KALCHEUS, JUST LET THE LIGHT IN SECRETS TO KEEP, I WANT TO FEEL IT

Q4tCory: How was your Canada Day?

Our Answer:

It was great! My favorite person and I went out to a park and drank sugary drinks, watched some BMX tricks, relaxed on a hill, watched some live music, got rained on, sat in a car, and then came back for more live music and fireworks! The rain wasn’t even that bad, but lightning in the area meant that everything had to get shut down for a couple of hours. After it was all over, we got hot chocolate!

It was a great way to celebrate Canada, and I would do it again. Maybe in the meantime, we’ll buy some good camp chairs and my butt won’t hurt so bad by the end.

MUSEDMOOSE HUSH, IT’S GETTING TOO LOUD DON’T LET IT DROWN THE SOUND

Q4tCoryQueue: if when they bring back Heroes of the Storm, do you think they’ll add controller support? I was thinking about it earlier today, and wondering how that would affect the game.

Our Answer:

I think it’d be really hard to do with the game as it is. There are still a wildly different number of buttons across heroes, with Trait activations and extra action buttons that get added above your main abilities. Then you add on pinging and communication, and the standard controller starts to look a bit overwhelmed. Not that it would be impossible to shave off some of those edges and bring the button parity in line across the board. If you solved that hurdle, then you’ve still got the map to deal with. Sometimes you’ve gotta be able to snap your screen to another part of the map quickly for a skill shot or an escape move like Burrow or Flight. Last thing I want is to only go a lane away to escape, because if I took any longer to move the screen over, I would be dead on the ground. Again, not an insurmountable problem, but one that might make the move over to a controller tougher.

Also, what do you mean by if? Heroes 3.0 coming this BlizzCon!

Probably…

Definitely… maybe.

RED IT’S YOU AND ME NOW THERE’S CHAOS ALL AROUND

2BE: Long Long Man vs. Longcat

Our Answer:

I gotta go with Long Long Man, there’s just something special about that ridiculously escalating story about long gummy candy. No offense to Longcat or long cats, but there’s just more substance to be had with the gummies.

This, of course, just means that Long Long Man and Longcat should team up to sell more gummy candy than has ever been sold before.

LOA-SPEAKER FARADAI IT’S COMING CLOSER, BE STILL, BREATHE SLOWER SHOW SOME COMPOSURE

Q4TCory: Why do Canadians always get their dates for holidays like Independence Day and Thanksgiving wrong?

Our Answer:

We just want to get there first. We can have our own celebration without it being overshadowed by the louder and more explodey one happening to the south. Also, have you ever tried to have a harvest-related festival in Canadian November? It’s cold out there, man!

I wish I had a joke as good as Anna’s one about the conversion being the reason, but alas, I don’t. So I’ll just steal hers and say it’s the conversion rate.

KALCHEUS HUSH, IT’S GETTING TOO LOUD DON’T LET IT DROWN US OUT

Q4tQ What are you listening to now? I just picked up the Cage of Roses Original Soundtrack by Sarah Mancuso on Bandcamp.

Our Answer:

I just took the new Evanescence album, Sanctuary, out of my car’s CD player for the first time because I bought two new albums. I picked up The Wow Signal by MUSE and Dear God by The Pretty Reckless. Both are excellent, and I don’t think there’s a clear winner between the two. I love the new MUSE album’s flow from song to song, and I was surprised by how good Hush was. It was so good I played it again right after hearing it the first time. I had to make sure it was as good as I thought. I also love how it feels like a rock album that Daft Punk from TRON: Legacy might’ve worked on. Also, the opening track, The Dark Forest, has some amazing Lawrence of Arabia vibes that were such an interesting choice and hooked me right from jump.

The Pretty Reckless and singer Taylor Momsen have such a great sound. It’s raw, and she’s got an amazing rasp to her voice that sells the rock and roll of it all. I’m going to see them live in a month with my favorite person, and I’m very excited after listening to their latest album. For I Am Death has been in my regular song rotation for a while, and is a great start to the CD. It really reads like a reluctant villain who’s been trying to be good, but you keep forcing them to be bad, and thus they’ve got no choice but to stop you. It feels like a very personal album to Momsen, and I’m impressed at how great it sounds while she’s baring her soul.

There’s no vault to open tomorrow, and Bacardi is sad that he can’t give you good luck today. He doesn’t make the rules; that’s just how things work.

Would you rather

Be a window washer on a skyscraper

Or

Work as an elevator operator in a coal mine

Today’s Anna Cory Earworm™: Hush

Have a great weekend, everybody, and I’ll see y’all on Monday! Don’t forget to leave me lots of questions to answer, or the Monday Queue will just be a picture of Bacardi.

We are jumping right in to Turbulent Timeways this week, which have returned until August. It’s a great time to level an alt, before we roll into patch 12.1 and all its trolly goodness, though that’s on the PTR now. There’s a new Trading Post, which means lots of talk about transmog and its many endgame metas. The Darkspear Dash was the highlight of our week, but we wish there were more opportunities to have rainbow streamers on our feet at all times. Again, end game.

This week we got the news that Le Sserafim are coming back to close out BlizzCon 2026. Which, by the way, is both happening, and is happening in like, two months. Yikes.

We close it out with a few faves that are on sale for the Steam Summer Sale, and there are a lot (including Pacific Drive and The Long Dark, which they didn’t mention on the show, but I write the summary so I do what I want).

You can listen to the podcast directly from this post or click on “Follow” in the player below to follow the podcast in your podcast player of choice and download directly to your device.

Or catch up with recent episodes on our playlist to be sure you haven’t missed any of the latest news.

If you’d like to catch up on previous Blizzard Watch podcasts, our weekly Lore Watch podcast, or our ongoing TTRPG podcasts, check out our podcast page. You can also search for any of these programs in your favorite podcast player to subscribe and be notified when a new one is released.

And finally, if you subscribe to our Patreon Tier 2 or above you will not only get the uncut version of the Blizzard Watch podcast with a bonus 30 minute pre-show, but you will also be able to listen to the Blizzard Watch and Lore Watch podcasts before they’re released to the public.

Thanks for your support and enjoy the show!

Summer is well upon us, and with it a heat wave that has me staying well out of the sunshine. But the Ice Stone is still here, and still needs melting, so once again I queue up to kill Frost Lord Ahune for summertime festivity (and transmog).

Fortunately I can do this while staying indoors, because I really want all of the new Midsummer Fire Festival transmog.

But for now, this is the Queue, our daily Q&A column where I do my best to answer your definitely video game related questions. Let’s get to it.

XERIANNE ASKED:

Just saw the patch notes that were posted so when is the patch again? 14th?

Our Answer:

World of Warcraft has been very consistent about its patch schedule over the last few years: each patch is two months after the last, and usually has a PTR within a week of the last patch launching. I expect patch 12.1 will continue to fallow this pattern, and so far it has, with the patch announced a couple of days after patch 12.0.7 launched and the PTR coming online shortly afterwards.

Patch 12.0.7 launched on June 16, which puts patch 12.1 on track for August 11, which would be exactly eight weeks. So we still have a fair amount of time to wait, and a fair amount of time for the patch to continue to develop. As a major patch, it can probably use the lead time to shake out all the bugs before launch. (Hopefully shake out all the bugs before launch.)

MUSEDMOOSE ASKED:

D4 Q4tQ: do you ever find yourself getting too focused on gear stats as you’re leveling up? I can’t keep myself from checking new gear over thoroughly because I get so used to it at max level, and I have to remind myself, you are level thirty-six, it does not matter

Our Answer:

I won’t argue with whatever you find fun, but personally I don’t find obsessing over stats to be fun — and it’s something Diablo 4 strongly encourages you to do, even though it barely matters until you are into the late game.

Min-maxing stats and finding gear with the perfect RNG is what you have to do to make the most of your build and push the highest-tier Pit levels, but I personally find it time consuming and tedious. You get so much gear playing the game that you can spend 20 minutes sorting through it in town when your inventory is full. This one has +crit, but this one has +overpower and overpower is always good but my build really wants crit, or this one has more +crit but less +max health and maybe I need the survivability… you can spend forever evaluating pieces of gear, but while you’re leveling, and even while you’re max level but on lower torments and Pit levels, it’s a mountain of time you could be spending playing the game. For early leveling, you’re just looking for higher item levels. For mid-game, you’re looking for the right legendary aspects to power up your build. For early 70 play, you’re looking to upgrade everything to ancestral. For late game play, you’re looking to upgrade to mythic and find pieces with the best stats.

Until you hit a wall in progression, the optimization just isn’t necessary.

But some people find the min-maxing fun. Maybe you’re one of them. But if you aren’t and just feel compelled because the game is dumping all of this loot with all of these stats… well, try to resist. Until you get later in the game the time to value ratio just isn’t there.

KALCHEUS ASKED:

Q4tQ What are you listening to now? I just picked up the Cage of Roses Original Soundtrack by Sarah Mancuso on Bandcamp.

Our Answer:

I am looking forward to the new Mountain Goats album coming out next month, but in the meantime there are two singles to listen to. In the meantime, I’ll have to suffice with the latest from Death Cab for Cutie.

And that’s all for today, everybody. I’ve got to head back to my music library, but I’ll see you in the comments section.

Every week the Epic Games Store gives away a game or two for free. This week, we get one sequel to a cute lil girlypop beat em up game, and an existential crisis in game form.

• River City Girls 2
  • Release Date: December 15, 2022
  • Game Type: Beat Em Up, Adventure
  • POV: 3rd person, Sidescroller
  • Party: Single Player, co-op
  • DLC: The Double Dragon DLC adds two iconic fighters to the roster

River City Girls was offered for free a little while back, and this sequel is more of the same — which is just fine by me. While I don’t want to diminish the writing or the story here, when I play this sort of game, all that is more or less a pretext to more brawling action. You can choose from six characters — eight, if you buy the DLC — and each has their own moves, and presumably, storylines. It’s a fun romp, as long as your definition of fun romp includes skinned knuckles and kickboxing.

• Harlan Ellison’s I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream
  • Release Date: October  17, 2013
  • Game Type: Point & Click
  • POV: 3rd person
  • Party: Single Player (obviously)
  • DLC: none

I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream is a short story which is a foundational work in speculative SciFi, especially with regard to modern computers and technology, and its relationship to humans. Certain facets of Asimov’s Laws of Robotics are retained, and others are not. After all, “harm” in Asimov’s Laws are ill-defined, and perhaps don’t account for mental anguish, as one might feel after being imprisoned and kept alive and systematically mentally tortured by an emergent AI for over 100 years after a nuclear holocaust, along with the only other five people left on earth.

This is that, but in 2013 video game form.

I would hope that there is less reference to sexual assault and male anatomy than there was in the original, but it is 2013 video game form, so tread cautiously.

Turbulent Timeways has returned during World of Warcraft’s patch 12.0.7, starting June 30 and running through August 11. Turbulent Timeways is a favorite of mount collectors and leveling enthusiasts alike, in which we get multiple weeks of Timewalking dungeons in a row — perfect for building up a stockpile of Timewarped Badges — as well as access to an experience-increasing buff, Knowledge of the Timeways, that eventually culminates in a whopping 30% buff from Mastery of Timeways. Additionally, if you can achieve the Mastery of Timeways buff during any four weeks of the event (which is getting easier to do since the event runs for six weeks), you’ll get Master of the Turbulent Timeways V, which comes with a new mount: the frost-spiked Spawn of Vyranoth, modeled after the only one of the Primalists that actually likes us.

Like usual, this is also an opportunity for Blizzard to introduce a new set of Timewalking dungeons, and as you might have guessed from the mount reward, this time around Dragonflight dungeons are joining the Timewalking lineup. Dragonflight Timewalking will both be the first week and the last week of the event, so make sure you note those dates: June 30 through August 11. The Dragonflight dungeon pool for Timewalking includes Brackenhide Hollow, The Azure Vaults, Ruby Life Pools, Halls of Infusion, Neltharus, and a dungeon that I think we’re all very familiar with at this point, Algeth’ar Academy. You’ll also find new Timewalking rewards available from Xydan, a new vendor in the Bronze Enclave in Valdrakken; highlights include the Liquid Hot Magma Slug mount, as well as a number of mounts that previously were rewards for Turbulent Timeways, like the Timely Buzzbee.

There’s also the usual array of toys, pets, mounts, and starter gear available on all the Timewalking vendors. Also, if you’re more of a reputation hunter, you’ll also find reputation tokens for the relevant factions during their Timewalking week, along with a reputation buff for those factions — perfect for clearing up any Renowns or reputations you still want to max out in old content. Who knows, you might even get the lucky drop from any Timewalking dungeon of an Infinite Timereaver!

If any of this strikes your fancy, here’s the full schedule of Timewalking in WoW patch 12.0.7:

• Week One: Dragonflight
  • Brackenhide Hollow, The Azure Vaults, Ruby Life Pools, Halls of Infusion, Neltharus, Algeth’ar Academy
• Week Two: Battle for Azeroth
  • Atal’Dazar, Freehold, King’s Rest, Shrine of the Storm, Temple of Sethraliss, and Waycrest Manor
• Week Three: Shadowlands
  • De Other Side, Halls of Atonement, Necrotic Wake, Plaguefall, Sanguine Depths and Spires of Ascension
• Week Four: Classic
  • The Deadmines, Zul’Farrak, Dire Maul East (Warpwood Quarters), Dire Maul West (Capital Gardens), Stratholme Main Gate (Live) and Stratholme Service Entrance (Dead)
  • Raid: Blackrock Depths (the special Anniversary edition)
• Week Five: The Burning Crusade
  • Dungeons: Blood Furnace, Botanica, Magisters’ Terrace, Mana-Tombs, Shattered Halls, Underbog
  • Raid: Black Temple
• Week Six: Dragonflight, again
  • Brackenhide Hollow, The Azure Vaults, Ruby Life Pools, Halls of Infusion, Neltharus, Algeth’ar Academy

While the Black Temple raid is available during Burning Crusade week, it won’t have any additional rewards during Turbulent Timeways, nor does it count for your Mastery of the Turbulent Timeways. However, you can still earn 500 Timewarped Badges, and maybe this time you can hold onto Illidan’s glaives until he gets out. Keep telling yourself that.

Remember, if you want to get Mastery of the Turbulent Timeways, you need to do any four Timewalking dungeons on the same character during any four weeks of the event to get (and keep) the Mastery of the Timeways buff. The weeks it don’t have to be consecutive, so if you really dislike those Classic Dungeons, you never need to see them. In previous events, you’ve been able to do this achievement more easily by building up to Mastery of Timeways by running four Timewalking in one week on a character, logging off while they still have they buff, and then simply doing one dungeon in a subsequent week to maintain the buff — always worth a shot, if you’re into the whole “minimum effort, maximum reward” thing!

Originally published June 9, 2026. Updated July 2, 2026.

Hearthstone‘s next expansion, Escape From Violet Hold launches July 7, and we’re getting a pre-release Tavern Brawl where, as usual, we can open the new expansion packs in advance! If you already have Violet Hold packs you might have gotten from bundles, events, or drops, you can open them and use any new cards you get in this Brawl only. But you can’t actually purchase individual Escape From Violet Hold packs yet; you can only use those that you obtained from other sources.

However… this time they made a big rules change that made the experience considerably different from the previous times, and for the worse. Read on to find out what you might need to do to win this time.

Tavern Brawl basics

• Name: Escape Brawliseum!
• Description: Build a deck using valid cards from your collection, including cards from the upcoming expansion, and earn more new cards!
• Fun level: 2/10
• Difficulty: 8/10
• Replayability: 2/10
• Format: Special (see below)
• Type: PVP
• Deck: Constructed
• Rewards: Varies based upon how much you win

You likely already have at least a few Violet Hold packs that you obtained from drops, in-game events, or a bigger chunk if you got one of the pre-orders. You can open those packs, and use any new cards you get from them. But remember the rules regarding packs for this Brawl:

• You can’t buy individual Escape From Violet Hold packs yet.
• You can’t craft Escape From Violet hold cards yet.
• Standard packs won’t have any Escape From Violet Hold cards in them yet.

How exactly does this Tavern Brawl work?

First of all, you should open any Escape From Violet Hold packs you have. Once you do, enter the actual Tavern Brawl, and you’ll be greeted by a familiar Brawliseum screen. Remember that your first run is free. Build your deck, including any new cards if you want, and keep playing until you reach either six wins or three losses, whatever comes first.

Since this Brawl involves a run consisting of multiple games, keep in mind that you can interrupt your run at any point and pick it up later. You should be queued against players that have a similar win-loss ratio to what you have at the moment — so if you win games, you’ll likely face tougher opponents; but if you’re losing, you’ll probably be pitted other players who aren’t doing so well either.

Finally, if you want to keep playing after that free first run, the cost is either two Tavern Tickets, 300 Gold, or 400 Runestones. But in all honesty? We don’t recommend playing any more after your free run.

What cards can I use to build Escape From Violet Hold Pre-Release Tavern Brawl decks?

This time they really changed things up, and… opinions are not so great. The official rules this time are that everyone gets temporary access to all the common Escape From Violet Hold cards, and there are no class restrictions. That’s right: your class choice only determines your hero power, pretty much, because you can fill your decks with cards from any class.

While this may sound cool, what it means in practice is that all the decks from players who didn’t open many packs — that’s the majority of players — are the same. Everyone is playing the same cards: filling their decks with cheap common cards from every class, and playing the Vanessa the Ringleader legendary that everyone got for free.

What decks do I need to win the Escape From Violet Hold Pre-Release Tavern Brawl?

The truth is that your deck will most like contain almost nothing but the common cards from every class in the game, plus Vanessa, and maybe one or two other specific cards you might have opened — but that’s a big “maybe.”

There’s almost zero board control, healing, or armor gain, and the vast majority of the available minions are cheap, often costing two mana. What this means is that, in practice, both players will likely be playing a lot of the exact same minions turn after turn, until they get their big Vanessa turn. (You probably want to Prepare your Vanessa in advance so that she costs zero mana when you play her, of course.)

Here is the basic framework for you to get started with:

Escape Brawliseum Basic Deck: Demon Hunter

• Deck code:

  AAECAZICArDJB/bJBw7b1wek2Aed2Qfk2QeN2ge12gfX2gfb2gfW2we83Qew3wey3we85wfK5wcAAA==

This deck includes the following cards:

# ⬜ 2x (0) Secret Ingredient
# ⬜ 2x (1) Black Market Overseer
# ⬜ 2x (1) Spiderling
# ⬜ 2x (2) Bone Flurry
# ⬜ 2x (2) Contraband Wands
# ⬜ 2x (2) Demonic Confinement
# ⬜ 2x (2) Guard Dog
# ⬜ 2x (2) Holy Bola!
# ⬜ 2x (2) Holy Embrace
# ⬜ 2x (2) Lotus Bookie
# ⬜ 2x (2) Specter of Despair
# ⬜ 2x (2) Underbelly Network
# ⬜ 2x (2) Widow’s Bite
# ⬜ 2x (3) Blackpaw’s Whip
# ⬜ 1x (5) Hold Them Off!
# 🟨 1x (6) Vanessa the Ringleader

That’s a lot of common cards, and a lot of 2-cost cards. The only Legendary is Vanessa, which was given for free to all players — and which is your main way to win the game.

You want to play a lot of minions on the board, and trying to be aggressive in controlling the enemy board. Perform good trades, where you kill the enemy minions while keeping yours alive. Try to get some damage in their face early if you can.

When you draw Vanessa, make sure to Prepare her to reduce her mana cost. This is crucial. You want to reduce Vanessa to 0 mana, ideally, though 1 can also work.

Then, on your Vanessa turn, you want to play as many cards as you can, to keep generating more cards. If you went second and got The Coin, try to hold it until your Vanessa turn. That’s an extra card to play.

You want to play your cards that draw other cards, like Holy Bola! and the Underbelly Network location, as soon as you can. Drawing faster than your opponent will increase your chances a lot, since you’re more likely to get Vanessa before them, and since you’ll fill up your hand.

To control the board, a neat little combo is Black Market Overseer and Guard Dog. Also, playing Specter of Despair early on can really give you some breathing room.

That’s the basic framework for this Brawl. If you opened a lot of packs and got other powerful cards, you might consider including them, but make sure they work along with this general game plan. The truth is that you’ll most likely be unable to build a “coherent” deck based around your other cards, so you’ll probably have better odds of winning by sticking to a singular game plan instead of trying to do two different things at once.

The rule changes made this brawl kind of a fluke, but the free rewards are still worth your time

Rewards for this Pre-Release Tavern Brawl include Cataclysm packs, and Escape from Violet Hold packs, common cards, and rare cards. The number of rewards increases with each win, up to the maximum of six wins.

If you absolutely crash and burn and end the event with zero wins, you’ll still walk away with a very nice consolation prize: one Cataclysm pack and one Escape From Violet Hold pack. So even if you’re not super serious about the event, it’s still a good idea to try the brawl anyway, since the minimum reward is well worth it!

We really hope Blizzard reconsiders this format for the next time. Having everyone playing the same anemic deck is not a fun experience at all.

Here are some things to keep in mind about whether or not we have to start having memorials to Suchomimus, the Spinosaurid that has recently been in the Dinosaur loving news because a recent paper indicated that Cristatusaurus and Suchomimus may in fact have been the same animal. Why does that matter? Because if they are, then Suchomimus — the animal with more complete fossils — would become Cristatusaurus because it was named first and in taxonomy the first described specimen has naming priority.

The thing is, this isn’t determined yet, and since Cristatusaurus is known from extremely limited remains, it may not be determined for some time to come. Furthermore, complicating all this is a dinosaur named Baryonyx. Our boy Baryonyx is often considered to be the same animal as Cristatusaurus or at the least difficult to distinguish fron the few pieces of Cristatusaurus we have vs. the relatively well preserved Baryonyx fossils.

Also, while Cristatusaurus was described two months before Suchomimus, Baryonyx was described in 1986. So if Cristatusaurus ends up being considered the same species as Suchomimus it is extremely likely that Cristatusaurus will end up as a junior synonym of Baryonyx. And you have to admit, if we have to lose Suchomimus as a valid genera, Baryonyx is a lot cooler than Cristatusaurus.

XERIANNE

So the header got me thinking do you think in season two we’ll get added rewards to decor duel?

Our Answer:

I’m going to say yes just because I’d like it if all my friends got more rewards from Decor Duel.

KALCHEUS

Q4tQ Does the resetting of the Trading Post on the first of the month impact your playstyle? I’m basically taking the night off so I can save all my tasks for tomorrow when they’ll earn my tendies.

Our Answer:

Nope. I get the stuff I want, usually only a few pieces per month.

MOVEOVER

I’m excited for July. It’s cooking on the BBQ and in the smoker. Also it’s Comic Con month!

Our Answer:

I am currently living in Mosquitoland, and so many mosquitos have already feasted on me that I’m worried in the distant future when the descendants of the Vampire Squid are ruling the Earth they’ll mistakenly clone me thinking each mosquito has a different mammal’s DNA in the blood.

MUSEDMOOSE

Q4tQ: are you playing the new Diablo IV season? If so, what class?

I promised myself I’d play something I haven’t played much before, so I’ll probably go either rogue or spiritborn. Assuming I don’t say “hell with it” and start yet another barbarian after a week. 😅

Our Answer:

I am. Solo Self Found Seasonal character no less. And I won’t insult you by pretending there’s any doubt what class I’m playing.

HIGH DENSITY WAFFLES

Learning that Carrie had sequels is just as shocking as learning that the Scorpion King had sequels

Our Answer:

There are five Scorpion King movies in the franchise and apparently a reboot is in the works. The Rock is only in the first one.

I do not understand how I can possibly consider myself to be a sane person in a sane universe where multiple people have played the Scorpion King.

Seriously, four sequels to The Scorpion King? How? Why?

This is like the time I found out there actually was a Scorpion King, and in fact, there were two Scorpion Kings, and neither was from Akkadia. However, there’s evidence that they were making a lot of wine in Egypt at the time of Scorpion 1, so that’s neat.

The Loa of death Bwonsamdi is the first topic in this week’s Lore Watch Podcast. Bwonsamdi was everywhere in Battle for Azeroth, even being a major driver of events in that expansion. But now that we have a whole Troll area packed with Loa in Midnight, he hasn’t joined the party yet. Why? He seems like a party kind of guy. And where is he, if he isn’t here, and what is he up to?

Then, we move on to the second of two listener-submitted questions. The second part of the show concerns the Tree of Whispers from Diablo 4, and the lore fallout from the events of the most recent expansion. I don’t want to say exactly what all happened with the Tree of Whispers, because spoilers, so if you’re diving in this far, be warned. The Loremasters go from the events from the base game, all the way into the nature of Mephisto and his offspring.

If you want even more background story, we also have a guide to every Warcraft book in chronological order (for those of you who prefer reading that way).

You can listen to the podcast directly from this post or click on “Follow” in the player below to follow the podcast in your podcast player of choice.

Or catch up with recent episodes on our playlist to be sure you haven’t missed any of the latest discussion of video game lore.

The Lore Watch podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. If you’d like to catch up on previous Lore Watch podcasts, our weekly Blizzard Watch podcast, or our ongoing TTRPG podcasts, check out our podcast page. You can also search for any of these programs in your favorite podcast player to subscribe and be notified when a new episode is released.

And finally, if you subscribe to our Patreon Tier 2 or above you can listen to the Lore Watch and Blizzard Watch podcasts early and ad free!

Have lore questions for Matt and Joe? Email us at podcast@blizzardwatch.com to get them answered!

Thanks for listening and enjoy the show!

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With the Lord of Hatred expansion, I think it’s fair to say that Diablo 4 finally has a story that feels complete. That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for more expansions, but the conclusion of this Mephisto-focused trilogy leaves the game on solid narrative footing. To experience the story in full, I decided to see how it felt to play Diablo 4 by playing the campaign again, from the original story campaign, through Vessel of Hatred and Nahantu, and finally Lord of Hatred and Skovos.

It’s not the most efficient way to play the game, and if you do this you’ll level and gear more slowly than if you just started with Lord of Hatred (which you can do even if you’ve never played Vessel of Hatred). While the original campaign is rich with story, playing through it feels slow, and spending your first ten levels doing nothing but being fed blood petals and then dragged into chasing Lilith feels somewhat antiquated in terms of pacing and scope. The Vessel of Hatred and Lord of Hatred expansions are both more direct than the original hunt for Lilith, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Here’s my look at what it’s like to level through the Diablo 4 campaign, start to finish — and why you might want to give it a try.

Playing through the original Diablo 4 campaign in 2026

The opening three acts of Diablo 4 and the way they introduce you to Lorath, Neyrelle, and Donan manage to feel both tense and expansive. There’s an urgency to these storylines that constantly propels you forward, inevitably ending with an emotional gutpunch and the sense that even your successes have made things worse. I am never going to forget how Scosglen ends, or the way Neyrelle goes from a kid trying to save her mother to a young woman fighting to save all of Sanctuary (sometimes ill-advisedly, you could argue). I came to like Donan, Lorath, and Neyrelle as my fellow travelers.

Even after two expansions of development, the original Lilith campaign still holds up. Lilith herself stands out as the first sympathetic antagonist in the history of the Diablo franchise, while Elias is odious and arrogant even in death, and you can understand why he’d break the particular way he did while still very much wanting to kill him.

The story and the characters work. The original Diablo 4 campaign still feels great to play.

Heading into Vessel of Hatred

But from the original campaign, you move on to Vessel of Hatred, which doesn’t stand on its own very well — or at least it didn’t on launch. The middle of a trilogy is a narrative challenge for any story, and Vessel didn’t quite rise to that challenge. The abrupt ending felt like the story came to a halt just as it was picking up speed, and it was an awkward spot to leave the game at for a year and a half.

But the expansion feels more complete when you can immediately start Lord of Hatred when you finish it. Chasing after Neyrelle, then hunting for the Tomb of Akarat, dealing with the Cathedral of Light forces under Urivar, seeing Eru’s short-sighted betrayal, and finally Mephisto’s victory as he claims the entombed body of the long dead prophet — it all makes sense when it’s being used to set up the story of Skovos in Lord of Hatred. Looking at the story now, you can see Urivar as a herald of the exact same kind of fanaticism Mephisto has long known how to create and nurture. It makes this whole part of the campaign feel both more important and more terrifying, when Urivar initially felt like a misplaced side story.

As part of a trilogy, Vessel works well now that the trilogy is complete.

Onward to Skovos in Lord of Hatred

Lord of Hatred is a satisfying final chapter to Mephisto and Lilith’s stories. But even going into it directly after playing Vessel of Hatred lessens but does not alleviate one of my big issues with Lord of Hatred: the early expansion death of a major character (spoilers). While there are probably a lot of reasons why the Diablo team made this decision, I didn’t like how it felt — but having it happen immediately after leaving Nahantu makes it less bothersome for me (and a bit more narratively coherent). But I still don’t like it.

With Lilith returning for Lord of Hatred, we get some really great character moments that don’t soften her, which I was afraid of when I realized Lilith would be returning as a semi-ally. She’s still not nice and she’s still not friendly, so she still feels like herself.

From there, the story that plays out is great, and a satisfying wrap-up to the hours you spend playing to get here.

What’s gameplay like when playing the original campaign?

I’ve only talked about the narrative so far — what about the gameplay? How does it feel to play the game while going through the original campaign? It seems obvious that the developers don’t intend for you to level in Diablo 4 through the campaign, and some gameplay mechanics feel disjointed when you do. Here are some oddities that stood out when I tried leveling this way:

• Leveling is much quicker in the Lord of Hatred era, and you really feel it when you’re playing through the campaign. You’ll find yourself hitting max level before you’ve finished the campaign, even though you can’t access a lot of end-game systems until after you finish the campaign. I hit level 70 late in the original game campaign.
• There are some odd progression speed bumps if you level this way, because I was getting ilevel 850 legendaries (due to my level) well before I got to Skovos, even though these expansion-level items couldn’t be equipped yet. It’s possible that issues like this will have been fixed in the latest patch (or will be in a future one).
• The Season Journey was designed for people who are already on Skovos, so there are a lot of objectives you just can’t complete while playing through the campaign. That means that I was way behind and still playing catchup on the seasonal content when I reached Skovos, even though my character was well-geared and advanced enough to play on Torment 9.
• You don’t get access to the Horadric Cube until fairly late in the Lord of Hatred campaign. Getting access to the Horadric Cube as late as you do leveling from 1 to 70 by playing all three campaigns hurts.

In the end, I enjoyed doing 1 to 70 starting in the Fractured Peaks but I can imagine a lot of players — the ones who don’t obsess over every little lore fragment like I do — would prefer just getting to max level ASAP and starting on endgame. If you want to see the game’s story from start to a nice complete stopping point, I can recommend just starting a level 1 and rolling through all three campaigns… just be aware that it will stall your progression. But I’m in it for the lore, and if you’ve read this far there’s a good chance you are too.

Diablo 4 Season 14: Season of Death Awakening is now live, adding your standard seasonal invasion of Sanctuary, featuring throngs of enemies and a new Big Bad to thwart, with a Pandemonium theme. But while past seasonal themes have had a certain sameness to the player experience, Season 14 veers off the usual road straight into some serious gearing chaos while we (re-)defeat some old familiar faces. It’s Ruptures, Reapers, and Realmwalkers coming straight for you in Diablo 4 Season 14, which went live on June 30.

The developers describe the new season a little more poetically:

During Season 14, the division between Sanctuary and Pandemonium is ripped asunder by arcane rifts called Pandemonium Ruptures. These rifts call a new family of monsters to slay, the chance to summon a familiar boss, and new opportunities for loot by conquering the Deathtoll Chamber.

But it all comes down to new events to grind, new monsters to kill, and new loot to earn. Here’s what you need to know about Diablo 4 Season 14.

What are Pandemonium Ruptures?

Pandemonium Ruptures are the main activity in Diablo 4 Season 14; the ruptures are literal tears in the boundary separating Sanctuary and Pandemonium, the nexus realm created from scars on the universe when the primordial forces Anu and Tathamet killed each other (according to the Book of Lorath). We’ve been to Pandemonium Fortress before, in both Diablo 2 (Act 4) and Diablo 3 (Reaper of Souls/Act 5), as well as individual battlefields there, but it has remained separate from Sanctuary. Well, it had remained separate — and there lies our seasonal plight.

There are three ruptures you can encounter during the season: Normal, Surging, and Colossal:

• Normal Ruptures are the standard recurring overworld experience — possible everywhere, but “especially prevalent in Helltides.”
• Surging Ruptures are medium-sized rifts forming in any place where you could experience an “event” activity during a Helltide.
• Colossal Ruptures are the largest, and can only be found in the Fields of Desecration World Boss Arena in Hawezar.

Regardless of scope, these Ruptures all have the same goals: kill both monsters and guardians around the Death’s Head Idols to keep the Rupture open and farm more rewards. During the Ruptures, additional tears will open in your vicinity that you can close to help maintain an open Rupture. But expect to battle both some old familiar enemies during these events.

What monsters are we fighting in Season 14?

The denizens of Pandemonium are taking advantage of these Ruptures to assault Sanctuary, giving us the new (to D4) Risen monster family. They will be very familiar to D3 players — Gravehounds that drop orbs on death to empower Exarchs. Whether we’ll see other known horrors, like Executioners and Anarchs, remains to be seen.

Next up is a massive (literally) return to the enemy roster: Realmwalkers. These gigantic enemies appear in the most difficult of Ruptures to take down defenders. You won’t see them at Normal Ruptures, but Surging Ruptures have a chance to spawn a Realmwalker, and one is guaranteed at the completion of a Colossal Rupture. And like the Realmwalkers of old, taking them down opens a portal to a new challenge.

Finally, the biggest fight comes from a new Seasonal Lair Boss: the Corrupted Reaper. This holdover from Mathael’s reaping is accessible only from the Pandemonium Threshold’s entrance in Zarbinzet. While the fight is available with the Seasonal Campaign, its lair boss rewards cache can only be opened with Superior Lair Keys found in Torment difficulties. On the flip side, it will give players the “best direct drop chances for both Mythic Uniques and Mythic Unique Upgrade currency,” with better drop rates than any other activity. With changes to Uniques in Season 14, this is pretty appealing.

But how can you farm Superior Lair Keys to open these caches? Enter: the Deathtoll Chamber.

What is the Deathtoll Chamber?

The Deathtoll Chamber is going to be your best source for the Superior Lair Keys needed to unlock the Corrupted Reaper’s cache. It’s a mini-dungeon (more like the end-of-dungeon boss room than a true dungeon) that you reach by taking down a Realmwalker or by running a Nightmare Dungeon with the Rupture affix. You earn that Rupture affix after closing a number of Tears (yet unknown) during Pandemonium Ruptures.

After entering the Chamber from one of those two methods, you’ll complete a dedicated Rupture activity to net “even more rewards” than earned during the main rupture event, including Superior Lair Keys to spend opening Corrupted Reaper’s caches.

Why do you need Mythic Unique Upgrade currency? Enter Mythic Uniques 3.0

The Diablo 4 developers said it best: “In Season 14, every Unique can be Mythic. Strap in, folks.”

Instead of being the rarest of item types, the “Mythic” designation is an item property (or Item Quality) in Season 14 that can roll on any Unique item in the game. With this modifier, the Unique Power on a designated item is increased by 30%. And you’re not reliant on getting these special Uniques through drops alone; these are a few methods available during the season to craft or loot Mythic Uniques:

• Earn the seasonal currency, Pandemonium Fragments, as you progress through the Seasonal Rep Board, Resplendent Caches, and by defeating the Corrupted Reaper. The currency is then used as part of a new Horadric Cube recipe.
• Defeating the Corrupted Reaper nets you the upgrade currency (almost a form of bad luck protection) and grants a chance at earning a Mythic Unique drop.
• Progress through the Seasonal Ranks to earn a Mythic Unique specific to your class.
• Finally, there’s a very rare chance to find a Mythic Unique whenever an Ancestral Unique would drop on both Seasonal and Eternal realms.

Sadly, you’re limited to equipping only one crafted Mythic Unique (so you’ll want to make it count), but you can equip however many Mythic Unique drops as you can find. And that brings us back to farming Ruptures for Superior Lair Keys and killing the Corrupted Reaper to open its cache.

So get ready, because we’re spending Season 14 defending our home from the incursions of Pandemonium for glory, honor, and of course, boundless loot. The season is now live, so we’ll see you in Sanctuary!

Originally published June 22, 2026; updated June 30, 2026.

It’s too frickin hot for cogent thought, apologies.

This is The Queue, our daily column where you ask us the questions and we’ll answer — if you can find us!

KALCHEUS

Q4tQ Are you excited for July?

Our Answer:

Eh. It’s a mixed bag.

I have a ton of stuff to look forward to. The Fourth of July is always fun, we have a couple cookouts coming up, and a road trip to see family.

Also, I have a ton of stuff to just plain do. I have a bunch of Adulting nonsense, especially relating to my health, which are necessary but such a freakin hassle. It’s too damn hot to do anything, but I still have a ton of stuff to do outside. Plus, critters have eaten almost all my vegetable plants, which is usually how I con myself into getting all my outside stuff done. If I do chores, I get to do the fun thing I like! But the fun thing I like was eaten by chipmunks, so now the heck what.

Also I’m nowhere close to completing my Trading Post this month. Whoops.

RETPALYJIL

Q4tQ:

What’s your pick for the most out-there, outlandish, and outrageous armor design?

For me it has always been the Midsummer armor set with the flaming bowl atop your head to make you look like Arthur Brown (and the high-def version only piles more crazy on it.)

Our Answer:

The Rogue class is known for being sneaky, stealthy, and undetectable. They blend in with the shadows, but they can also glide undetected through a crowd in a busy market, or at a ball. The are suave and genteel, they can be acrobats, and they’re not typically known for taking trophies, because this would link them to the scene of the crime.

Which is why Rogue tier 10 is the most ridiculous, silly set I’ve ever seen. Not only does homie have a literal bag on his head — good luck with your parkour, babe — but the whole thing is radiating a miasma of glowing particle effects, and has a headlight. This was the ICC tier, so the geist-like styling makes some degree of sense, but it’s the absolute antithesis to every single thing I think about when I think about Rogues. Just weird.

MUSEDMOOSE

As per usual with sports, I don’t fully understand what’s going on, but Brazil beat Japan so apparently they get custody of Hatsune Miku.

Our Answer:

Nobody has custody of Hatsune Miku. She cannot be tamed. She is an entity onto herself.

KALCHEUS

Behold! The five scariest words in the English language:
Netflix Live Action Persona Show

Our Answer:

If we’re talking game-to-screen adaptions my cringe rests firmly with Pacific Drive, which could… maybe… be kind of cool, but is currently attached to James Wan. In case you don’t want to google him, he’s the co-creator of Saw, and also directed a few Fast and Furii as well as Aquaman. So, uh. At least he’s adaptable?

It’s been nearly a year, but the World of Warcraft secret finding community on Discord has finally located a dimension-traveling Purrkin that has eluded them since it was first revealed during our trip to K’aresh. We tip our collective mystery-solving hat to Aerinis, Colearu, and Mat, who teamed up to chase down this lost kitty clear across the Great Dark Beyond. Read on for a full rundown on how to quickly add the Unfazed Diver to your secret pet collection.

Attentive secret seekers immediately began looking for the Unfazed Diver when it was added to the game files in Patch 11.2, Ghosts of K’aresh, back in August 2025. While it appeared in the in-game pet journal, its source was listed as “???” and its description hinted that it managed to make its way extremely far from its home of Tazavesh.

The community of super sleuths at the WoW Secret Finding Discord channel spent the next ten months combing over every square meter of Tazavesh without turning up so much as a stray whisker. It turns out that all that searching was in vain, because the Unfazed Diver had actually made its way all the way to a planet not accessible until patch 12.0.7 sent us to investigate some Legion-invaded worlds.

Before you capture the Unfazed Diver, you’ll need a character at level 90 with the Reshii Wraps earned as part of the K’aresh main story. After using the phase conduit in central Tazavesh to phase dive, you can now find a note on the ground just before walking back out the door into the city. If you’re encountering problems trying to phase dive, try equipping your Reshii Wraps and then logging out and back in.

Reading this note gives you a Phase-Displaced Toy and a Bill of Lading. I’ll save you a trip to the dictionary: lading means having to to with freight or cargo, and sure enough, the note details an order of storage crates and transport skiffs for the Ethereum Overcroft. The Overcroft is an Ethereal-claimed plateau just southwest of Howling Ridge in Voidstorm. One of the storage crates in the southeast section of that area is tagged Odd-Smelling Crate. You won’t receive anything, but examining the crate will alert you to an aromatic substance inside of it and move your progress forward on the quest for the evasive kitty.

Next, you’ll need to head to Normal-difficulty Naigtal, one of the new zones from patch 12.0.7. On the eastern side of this fungal forest you’ll find Manaforge Arcvein. Once you’ve completed the previous steps in the process, you’ll be able to loot a Specimen Container Key from the Hal’hadar Manatechs that hang around the area. It’s not a 100% drop but you shouldn’t have to face off against too many Ethereals before you acquire the key.

After that it’s relatively straightforward to locate the Specimen Container within Manaforge Arcvein and open it, claiming your very own Unfazed Diver. While this feline stowaway has finally been hunted down, the WoW secret finding community never sleeps and is already on the lookout for new clues that may be coming in patch 12.1.

Don’t let the July celebrations fool you because the theme at the World of Warcraft Trading Post this month is red, blue, and dead. Most of the items are red and blue variants of each other to match the American holiday but lately the Trading Post has started to cycle in stock from previous years and for July, select items from last year’s Forsaken-themed Trading Post makes a return. You can grab these new and returning items, as well as your monthly Trader’s Tender rewards, from any Trading Post set up in Stormwind, Orgrimmar, Dornogal, and Silvermoon.

Whether you missed out on any Forsaken pieces, or if you’re just a really big fan of rockets, let’s take a look at what the Trading Post will have starting in July!

July Trading Post mounts

• Blackwater X-TREME Firework Rocket — 700 Trader’s Tender
• Wailing Banshee’s Charger — 575 Trader’s Tender

July Trading Post transmogs

The clear high-priority items are the returning Forsaken pieces from last July’s Trading Post. If you didn’t get it last time, now is your chance to get a few select items. If you’ve got the extra tenders, the real Ensembles (i.e. the sets with items for every slot) are also worth taking a look at and grabbing to expand your personal collections.

Outside of the Forsaken weapons, unless the goblin-rocket motif is really your jam then the selection is pretty lackluster and the same goes for the armor. For the armor pieces, personally, the only worthwhile items you can get are the headpieces and hats. Thanks to the sale of the individual and combinations of the war skirt and leg wraps, the Trading Post looks fraudulently full but it’s still characteristically lackluster.

Ensembles

• Ensemble: Wailing Banshee’s Collection — 700 Trader’s Tender
• Ensemble: Villager’s Seaside Collection — 440 Trader’s Tender
• Ensemble: Villager’s Seaside Attire — 440 Trader’s Tender
• Ensemble: Sorcerer’s Cloudy Garb — 100 Trader’s Tender
• Ensemble: Cloudy Sweatsuit — 100 Trader’s Tender

Weapons

• Rosy Extravaganza Sparkwheel — 250 Trader’s Tender
• Rosy Extravaganza Rocketmace — 250 Trader’s Tender
• Rosy Extravaganza Rocketstaff — 250 Trader’s Tender
• Azure Extravaganza Sparkwheel — 250 Trader’s Tender
• Azure Extravaganza Rocketmace — 250 Trader’s Tender
• Azure Extravaganza Rocketstaff — 250 Trader’s Tender
• Wailing Banshee’s Greatblade — 245 Trader’s Tender
• Wailing Banshee’s Warglaives — 200 Trader’s Tender
• Wailing Banshee’s Mace — 200 Trader’s Tender
• Wailing Banshee’s Blade — 200 Trader’s Tender
• Wailing Banshee’s Longbow — 175 Trader’s Tender
• Wailing Banshee’s Wand — 150 Trader’s Tender
• Quel’Danil Shortbow — 80 Trader’s Tender

Armor

• Wailing Banshee’s Cauldron — 200 Trader’s Tender
• Wailing Banshee’s Quiver — 175 Trader’s Tender
• Quel’Danil Quiver — 100 Trader’s Tender
• Bot Wrangler’s Crimson Apron — 100 Trader’s Tender
• Bot Wrangler’s Violet Apron — 100 Trader’s Tender
• Gunslinger’s Cloudy Lid — 50 Trader’s Tender
• Long Cloudy War Skirt and Leg Wraps — 50 Trader’s Tender
• Short Cloudy War Skirt and Leg Wraps — 50 Trader’s Tender
• Crown of Cloudy Springflowers — 50 Trader’s Tender
• Cloudy Winter Toque — 50 Trader’s Tender
• Classic Azure Eyepatch — 50 Trader’s Tender
• Bot Wrangler’s Belt — 50 Trader’s Tender
• Stylish Snowy Top Hat — 50 Trader’s Tender
• Long Cloudy War Skirt — 40 Trader’s Tender
• Short Cloudy War Skirt — 40 Trader’s Tender
• Bandit’s Cloudy Highboot — 40 Trader’s Tender
• Cloudy Dunecloth Vest — 35 Trader’s Tender
• Cloudy Dunecloth Skirt — 35 Trader’s Tender
• Cloudy Dunecloth Belt — 30 Trader’s Tender
• Banded Cloudy War Wraps — 20 Trader’s Tender
• Banded Cloudy War Slippers — 20 Trader’s Tender

July Trading Post pets

The dynamic robotic pet duo, Chillbot 9000 and Thrillbot 9000, from the previous Mountain Dew and Blizzard 2024 promotional event are available this month for 250 Trader’s Tender each. No Mountain Dew necessary this time!

July Trading Post bonus reward

The red-colored variant of the Blackwater rocket mount, the Bilgewater X-TREME, is the July Traveler’s Log bonus reward for completing monthly objectives.

Ah, the cactus. Truly the most tsundere of plants. Dangerous on the outside, but secretly surviving on minimal amounts of affection. Touch it wrong? It retaliates. Neglect it completely, leaving it abandoned in some forlorn corner of a convention hall? Somehow, it thrives.

This is The Queue, your daily Q&A column where I’m not Cory, and I’m writing two Queues in a row. It happens sometimes. Just like love for a spiky plant, adeptly captured in a liminal picture.

SAW HIGH DENSITY WAFFLE LYING THERE ON THE MARBLE SLAB

If Illidan knows he has an immortal demon soul, does that mean he died at some point? Did he die at some point?

Our Answer:

He did die at the end of Black Temple. But since he had already become a demon, his soul was sent to the Twisting Nether, and was thus able to return later.

As for how he knew that he had an immortal demon soul even before he died (and could teach new Demon Hunters about that, as seen in their starting zone, which takes place before Black Temple), we can ony assume he knew it by studying other demons. He was a pretty powerful Arcane Mage before the whole Demon Hunter thing, after all. So he probably had ways to infer that the same was true of him and any other mortals who went through the process to become Demon Hunters.

THE BEST TRIP THAT KALCHEUS EVER HAD

Q4tQ For big sale events like the Steam Summer Sale do you stick to picking up games on your wishlist or do you browse the sale itself to see if there’s something you might be interested in?

Our Answer:

I do both. I tend to stick mostly to my wishlist, but I do browse the sale as well.

ARTHONOS’ DRINK’S ALL EMPTY, NEEDS ANOTHER ROUND

Q4tQ: Everyone seems crazy about pygmy hippos, but how much love do regular hippos have in your heart?

Our Answer:

I LOVE them. I love hippos.

I love most big/sluggish animals. I don’t know why.

I WANNA FLY, WANNA RIDE WITH CORY

Q4tQ: what’s your favourite piece of dog media? Tv show/movie/book

I gotta say nothing really beats The Littlest Hobo for me. I watched it growing up, and who doesn’t love a dog roaming around and solving various crimes? Plus it has a banger of a theme song.

Our Answer:

I gave this some thought, and I landed on Muttley. Love the snicker. And I loved Wacky Races, a lot.

Honorable mentions: Snoopy from Peanuts because he’s just too iconic; and from videogames, we’ve got Interceptor from Final Fantasy 6 (who can somehow deal more damage than some of the strongest spells in the game just by biting real hard, I guess), and Koromaru from Persona 3, because he’s an actual playable party member, and the bestest boy.

IS THIS THE BEST THAT MUSEDMOOSE CAN DO?

Q4tQ: how much grinding are you willing to do in a game to get the stuff you want? Asking because I’ve reached The Very Definitely Final Dungeon in FFIV and I know there are some amazing weapons hidden behind bosses… and the first one I went for completely destroyed me. 😭 I’ll need to level up quite a bit to handle all this, but I think it’ll be worth it not to get destroyed by the final boss. But I’m also not the same gamer I was at twelve, so grinding feels like… yeah.

Our Answer:

That depends on a lot of factors.

1) I have to want the thing real bad. If it’s just something that won’t really make a difference to me, I probably won’t feel the necessary amount of motivation. If it’s just to complete some achievement, I’ll only bother if I’m, like, 95% done with the achievements on that game and going for 100%. If it’s just for bragging rights without even contributing to a larger thing, I probably won’t do it.

2) The grind can’t be something absolutely terrible. Some grinds are doable for me because I can do them in a mindless way, while watching some video on another screen or whatever. Those I can actually stomach. But if it’s a grind that requires me to pay attention, and it will go on for too long or get too annoying, I probably won’t do it. Grinds have to be mindless!

3) “Not the same gamer I was at twelve” is definitely a factor too. My tolerance for this kind of stuff is generally lower these days. But if it’s a game that I’m really enjoying for other reasons, that increases the chances I’ll bother.

HIGHER THAN A JET PLANE WITH ARTHONOS

Q4tQ: Why does Rome hate?

Our Answer:

Summer too hot.

Missed the World Cup for the THIRD time in a row.

Colosseum gift shop too crowded.

Had to wait days to get built.

WILL KALCHEUS ARRIVE IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE?

Q4tQ A Genie appears and offers you a deal: He will give you $1 million next summer if you purchase and play only one game, expansion, or DLC coming out between July 1 and next June 30. The catch is that you have to select the game now. What game/DLC do you choose?

Our Answer:

This is the most difficult question of my life. There are so many great games coming out in that time frame that I’m really looking forward to.

But I think I’m gonna go with Final Fantasy 7 Revelation. Assuming it has as much content as Rebirth had, that game could keep me extremely occupied for quite a while.

I’VE NEVER SEEN HIGH DENSITY WAFFLE BEFORE

Did Vanessa kill one of her Ogre henchmen to make her shoulders? The world may never know

Our Answer:

I doubt it. It was probably crafted by ogres in the image of their paragon of ogreness, Boulderfist Ogre. And it probably has good stats for its cost.

This is my Guardian Druid, and their cat, Bakardi. That name has nothing to do with any cats owned by other writers in this website, and it’s not a direct reference to a tasty adult beverage either. It’s because this cat is baka.

**Translator’s Note: ‘baka’ means ‘stupid.’

Would you rather

Become the protagonist of a harem anime, but all the cats are secretly trying to kill you (including your own cat)

Or

Being the protagonist’s cat, secretly trying to kill your master, and you’re also in a harem, but it’s made up of cacti that keep prickling you to show their love

Today’s Anna Earworm™: Auto Pilot

This has been The Queue. Cory (and the real Bacardi, I assume) will be back with you this Friday, so you won’t miss them for too long!

Everything has been coming up Warcraft recently, as WoW patch 12.0.7’s launch led directly to WoW patch 12.1’s announcement, but this week is about Diablo. Diablo 3 just started a new season, and Diablo 4 is just about to start a new season, its first full-featured season since the Lord of Hatred expansion launched. Though I say “full-featured,” the season still looks a little lightweight on paper, so we’ll have to see how it goes and whether it has any surprises in store when it launches on Tuesday. Still, it’s new content, and we’re always excited for the next new thing.

But for now, we’re sitting at the beginning of a brand new week. Here’s everything that’s been happening in Blizzard games, plus what’s coming up soon.

What happened last week?

• WoW’s Midsummer Fire Festival is here, and it comes with brand new collection of transmog to earn — if you haven’t started, you should get to work on collecting Burning Blossoms and killing Ahune to snag those rewards.
• Diablo 3 Season 38 ended unexpectedly (and unannounced), rolling into Season 39 on Friday. Jump in now to enjoy the returning Shades of the Nephalem theme, where you meet up with your shadow clones to slaughter mountains of demons. What joys, which only Diablo can provide.
• We’re learning more about BlizzCon 2026, as Le Sserafim has been announced for the closing concert. Much beloved Darin De Paul will be hosting community night again this year, which we are always there for. But as to what big announcements Blizzard plans, we’re still wondering…
• This week’s Hearthstone Tavern Brawl is the Battle for Tol Barad, in which you get a random zero-cost spell whenever you play a minion. This makes for a game that’s just as chaotic as it sounds, and because it’s a wild deckbuilding brawl, it’s even more chaotic than that — which is why we have deck recommendations for you.

What’s happening this week (and beyond)

• June 30: Diablo 4 Season 14 begins, with a theme that brings Pandemonium into the heart of Sanctuary with new Pandemonium rifts and a Corrupted Reaper lair boss to fight.
• June 30 – August 11: Turbulent Timeways returns to Midnight, starting with new Dragonflight Timewalking!
• Through July 5: WoW Midsummer Fire Festival
• July 7: Hearthstone’s Escape from Violet Hold expansion launches
• Through July 9: Steam Summer Sale
• Through July 14: A new color of the plush murloc housing decor item is available as a Twitch Drop

Other things we’re playing, watching, and more

• The Steam Summer Sale is on through July 9 at 10am pacific (1pm eastern), so jump in to find some of the best gaming deals of the year and to keep your gaming backlog growing.
• Say goodbye to your free time, because Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 is one of this week’s Epic Games Store freebies. While it isn’t quite as bad as the temptation to do just one more turn in Civilization games, it’s still dangerously addictive. Or for something completely different, try Voidwrought, a lovingly hand-drawn cosmic horror platformer. Both are free on the Epic Games Store through Thursday.

Our latest podcasts

• Blizzard Watch Podcast: Move over void purple! WoW patch 12.1 is snakes green.
• Lore Watch Podcast: Azshara: A lore deep dive
• Tavern Watch Plays Planet Mercenary, episode 3: Goose lizard or cobra chicken? We’re fighting it either way.

That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back next week with another weekly news recap!

After their adorable cinematic and skin collaboration with Overwatch, Le Sserafim closed out BlizzCon 2023, and now we’re ready to party til it’s early with our girlies for BlizzCon 2026 as they return to do the same. This will now technically kick off the band’s 2026 North American tour, with the first official date being September 16 in LA’s crypto.com arena. If BlizzCon tickets weren’t already sold out, they would be now.

The band and Blizzard shot a video to showcase the announcement. As is frequently the case, Yunjin did much of the heavy lifting with the script, as the only member conversationally fluent in English.

This is certainly a departure from the earlier days of BlizzCon, which featured closing acts that were generally heavier, with acts like Metallica closing out the conference. But between the catchy songs and upbeat energy, I absolutely love this matchup. Plus, kpop in general has been on a huge upswing in popularity internationally for the past few years, making it a great marketing move for everyone involved.

I’m just hoping this means we get cute Le Sserafim-inspired skins and cosmetics in some of Blizzard’s other games. Sure, those cute Sombra and Brigitte skins were no-brainers, but I’m sure the Diablo fans would love a thumb and forefinger tiny heart emote, right?