Sadly, this week’s Hearthstone Tavern Brawl is the Heroic Brawliseum Standard (which you should not play). The game mode itself — like a mixture of Arena and Ladder — is fine; the problem is that the Heroic Brawliseum is very expensive to play — because it costs either 1000 Runestones (about $10) or 1000 gold to even get started. And you need to have a really good performance for your investment to be worth it, which the vast majority of players simply won’t have. Most people will lose money on this.

This year, they don’t seem to have added the extra quest, “Call of the Brawl,” for a free pack to replace the pack players would have gotten from their first weekly Brawl win, which is a BAD miss on Blizzard’s part. Makes it even worse that we’re essentially “missing” a free pack this week.

But if you’re still willing to pay for this Tavern Brawl (you probably shouldn’t), you can try for some nice rewards. So let’s dig into how to win the Heroic Brawliseum Tavern Brawl.

(Don’t play Heroic Brawliseum.)

Tavern Brawl basics

• Name: Heroic Brawliseum
• Description: Make a Standard deck to compete with the best! Stakes are high, the competition is intense. More wins means more rewards. Can you make it to 12 wins, or will 3 losses end your run?
• Fun level: 1/10
• Difficulty: 10/10
• Replayability: 1/10
• Format: Constructed
• Type: PVP
• Deck: Standard
• Rewards: Varies based upon how much you win

Step one to playing this week’s brawl to get your wallet. The entry fee is either 1000 Runestones ($10) or 1000 in-game gold — that’s significantly pricier than an Arena run, but the rewards are potentially better as well — if you win. Once you’ve paid your entry fee, you’ll need to build a Standard deck before starting your first game. The game itself it plays out exactly like a normal match — use your awesome cards and bring your opponent’s life total to zero.

You continue your run by playing additional games until you experience the thrill of 12 victories or the agony of three defeats, whichever comes first. Fortunately you can stop between games and come back later to continue your run, so you don’t need to have a marathon play session to win. Every victory increases the difficulty of your next opponent. If you have four wins, you’re matched up against other players who also have four wins.

But each victory also upgrades the chest your get at the end of your run. Here’s a handy dandy chart of the winnings:

Can you win enough to make the entry fee worth it? If we assume 1 pack equals 100 gold, the the break even point is somewhere around 7 or 8 wins depending on how you want to value the Arcane Dust into your equation.

(You shouldn’t play this game mode.)

How to win the Heroic Brawliseum Tavern Brawl Standard

Most Constructed Brawls fall into their own meta, but with this Brawl, the Brawl meta is the Standard Ladder meta. You’ll see the same decks that dominate on the Ladder — so if you play much Standard ranked Hearthstone, this Brawl will be very familiar. Like most Constructed Brawls, the key to winning is building a good deck and piloting it well.

With the high $10 admission fee to this Brawl, if you’re not familiar with the Hearthstone meta, or don’t have a large card collection, we strongly recommend you skip this Brawl. And even if you are familiar with the Standard meta, stick to proven decks: this isn’t the time to try something new or off meta. Stick to the tried and true decks, and think about consistency over big plays. Survive and advance should be your mindset.

(The best way to win this week is not to play the Heroic Brawliseum.)

Top Decks for Heroic Brawliseum (Standard)

Here are a few decks that are doing very well in the Standard ladder at the moment, and might help you with this Heroic Brawliseum if you decide to go for it (you shouldn’t).

Zee Shaman

• Deck code:

  AAECAaoICsmeBsODB9C/B/nDB4LUB5vUB8/bB9DbB4jdB9/lBwqe1ATt5gbgnQexsAePvge1wAfJwAfJ2wfI5Qfm/QcAAA==

• This is a really fun deck filled with zero spells, where you aim to play a lot of minions, knowing that you’ll get a double Battlecry every fifth one (easily trackable with a special meter on your Hero Power). Make sure to spend this on something that will have a big effect. Using your gun, Tiny Pal, is also very important: it a powerful effect for every game situation.

Mug Shaman

• Deck code:

  AAECAaoIBK+fBNO+BtDbB9/lBw3RmwfQnQfwqgf8rQe8sQfLtgfDwAfTwAf3wAfH2wfK2wfN2wfa3wcAAA==

• The opposite of Zee, Mug Shaman has a lot of spells and no minions (naturally), but you have several ways to generate minions — and the first minion you play each turn is discounted by two mana, which is a very powerful effect. This is one of the most fun decks in the game at the moment.

Face Hunter

• Deck code:

  AAECAR8EmacHmqcHm6cHxbEHDamfBKqfBK+SB4WVB86bB5inB7nAB7vAB97EB6zYB9faB9PbB9fbBwAA

• I hate that I have to suggest this, but it’s too powerful not to, even if it’s a deck I’d rather see deleted from existence. Use your overpowered Tripwires and your overpowered Confront the Tol’vir to probably win the game with very little effort. Yay!

Troublemaker Rogue

• Deck code:

  AAECAaIHBpegBIaoB4eoB4ioB6HYB4jZBwz3nwTQngbZogb3gQfBlweaswf5wwfVxQfL1QeN2ge/9wfl9wcAAA==

• This is another pretty fun deck to play (even if it’s not as fun to be on the receiving end of those Lotus Troublemakers). Make sure to play all of your 2-cost cards to setup your Troublemaker and your Jade Guardians, another extremely powerful card.

Aura Paladin

• Deck code:

  AAECAZ8FBvD+Bu6oB++oB/CoB+XBB53dBwzJoATLqQfErge+sgfiwQfowQfqwQeDwgerxgfc1QeZ3QfX4gcAAQGa3Qed3QcAAA==

• A solid deck since last expansion that has had its ups and downs. Your effects are powerful, but require you to maintain board presence and draw the right cards, so in some games you’re unstoppable, and in others you can feel like you can’t do anything.

Chef Druid

• Deck code:

  AAECAZICAtnEB93YBw7igQeIgwekiQeqrwesrwfosQfLtgffwAePwQep2Af92QeR2ge85wfK5wcAAA==

• This deck is not as strong as the previous choices on this list, but it does have one big advantage: it’s slightly favored against Face Hunter (a deck you’re likely to see everywhere on this Brawliseum). The idea is to survive until turn 6, and then overwhelm your opponent with high value cards from Azshara’s Triumph (and Spiteful Chef to facilitate things).

Are you feeling lucky?

If your main use of Tavern Brawls is to enjoy a rollicking good time where the size of your card collection may not matter much, the only winning play this week might be to not play. If you’re going to play, I’d suggest playing early in the week — Wednesday or Thursday — when you still have people trying out the Brawl. Later in the week, it will likely be serious players only.

If you’re just looking for your pack, remember the “Call of the Brawl” quest. You can play Casual, Ranked, or even Battlegrounds to earn your win — and your free pack.

If you’re consistently hitting high ranks on the Standard Ladder and are confident in your abilities, there are some fantastic prizes to be had. Best of luck to you if you choose to venture in!

(You shouldn’t play the Heroic Brawliseum. Don’t play the Heroic Brawliseum.)

Last published April 15, 2026. Updated August 12, 2026 with contributions by Phil Xavier.

Behold, Dimetrodon! Not a direct ancestor of us mammals, they are still a beloved relative of us all and more closely related to you (yes, even you, Kalcheus) than they are to the Dinosaurs people often mistake them for.

The genus Dimetrodon has a variety of species, from the extremely small Dimetrodon teutonis which was 60 centimeters and 14 kilograms, to the nearly 5 meter long Dimetrodon angelensis.

And I know nobody asked but I don’t care, I love Dimetrodon like a drunk uncle that approves of us mammals in a distant, confused way.

BOVEN WHITEHOOF

Well now I have to fight the urge to complain about Centaurs in my neighborhood.

Our Answer:

These are the centaurs in your neighborhood
in your neighborhood
in your neeeigh-eeeeeegh-borhood

These are the centaurs in your neighborhood
the half human have equine people that you meet
destroying the street with their horseshoed feet

The half horse half homind people that you don’t meet
Each day

ENO

oh, Rose did let Samwise go to Boston after all

Our Answer:

I thought you meant the fellow who draws extremely aggressive pandas but then I remembered that he’s named after the character from Tolkien and you were talking about Sean Astin.

JALAMENOS

Playing around on a site where you build your PC.
Not because I need an upgrade, I was just curious about the price nowadays.
Anyways, there’s an nvidia gpu called the RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell that goes for €16,100. And it’s sold out! What? Who buys that?

Our Answer:

Horrible soul destroying reasons GPU are so expensive now:

• In addition to requiring enormous amounts of water, AI data centers also use many GPU’s in tandem to deal with the horrific waste heat threatening to melt the equipment.
• People still use them to ‘mine’ digital currency
• They’re considered luxury items because you don’t need to be able to play video games
• All the demand causes them to be scarce and thus, more expensive

HIGH DENSITY WAFFLE

What’s the recap on what Xally is doing? I miss that rascal

Our Answer:

As a person who had parts of his foot cut off this year, I envy her flawless toes.

But I believe last time we heard she was making her way down into the deeps of Azeroth to find and potentially supplant the World Soul.

SJHAWK

So, what you’re saying is we should all start submitting Shadowlands related content ideas?

Our Answer:

My sixteen part Kael’Thas and Lady Vashj making out fanfic is going to be canon, you just wait.

Okay, that’s the Queue for today. Nobody asked me about Dimetrodon grandis, but there’s always next week. Heck, maybe I’ll get to talk about Dimetrodon angelensis. A man can dream.

Doom‘s gore-fueled Hell was one of those games Tipper Gore woke up in cold sweats dreaming about in the 90s when they were all about censoring things for the good of the children. The story of Doom was initially a bit light on the ground (of Mars), being mostly just a vehicle for good ol fashioned wanton violence. But there have been so many entries in the series that now that Doom has several different alternate timelines worth of story. Joe and Matt rip and tear their way through the lore of Doom, from the early days through the Dark Ages and beyond.

Oh, and Isabelle from Animal Crossing and Doomguy are married. It’s canon now. I don’t make the rules.

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!

Please support us on Patreon by subscribing or increasing your Patreon tier. 

World of Warcraft patch 12.1 adds one of the most requested features for the Player Housing system: Blueprints. This is Blizzard’s system for saving, storing, importing, and sharing housing designs within World of Warcraft, letting players easily share their designs (and other players easily add those designs to their own homesteads).

It’s a big improvement to the housing system for practically every player — including those who may not have engaged much in housing before. Creative types who love designing may want to back up their current design before making changes, like decorating for the holidays with an easy way to take those decorations down (and put up new ones) later. When you have an almost perfect design but what to try something new, it’s hard to commit when your original design is gone forever, but Blueprints will make it simple to save your current home so you can play with design ideas as much as you’d like. But for Players who have trouble coming up with ideas — or who are just overwhelmed by the huge number of options — Blueprints may give them a place to start, by using some else’s room or whole house design and then tweaking it for themselves. We’ve seen plenty of impressive homes in Azeroth, but they aren’t always easy to DIY, and Blueprints will make it possible to build the in-game home of your dreams without starting from scratch. Want to add a swimming pool to enjoy the final days of summer? Adding something like this can now be as simple as importing a room from a creator who’s already made it.

So let’s talk about how Blueprints work in World of Warcraft patch 12.1, and how you can use them back up, build, change, and grow your home into the Azerothian mansion, hedge maze, or hobbit hole of your dreams.

How to access Blueprints in Player Housing

You can get to Blueprints from the Player Housing HUD, which is pops up at the top of your screen when you’re in your home or on your housing plot. At the top of the screen you’ll see a new icon to the left of the Edit House button to save or import Blueprints.

You can also view your Blueprints (but not import them) from your Housing Dashboard (hotkey H); there’s a new tab on the right-hand side of the dashboard labeled Blueprints.

How to save a Blueprint in Player Housing

Open the Blueprints menu from the Player Housing HUD and select Save Blueprint. You’ll be able to choose one of these options to save:

• Full Layout: Entire home, including both the interior and exterior
• Exterior only
• Interior only
• Current Room: You will need to be inside your home for this option to appear

When you save the Blueprint you will be given the option to name it, and you can store up to 50 Blueprints at any time.

Each Blueprint has a short code that you can share for anyone else to use, but unlike sharing talent builds, this code does not include the entirety of the build — there’s just too much information in a home for that to work. Instead, it’s a reference to where the build is stored on the Blizzard servers. If the owner of the Blueprint deletes it from their catalog, it is also deleted from the Blizzard servers and the code will stop working.

How to import a Blueprint

Open the Blueprints menu in the Player Housing HUD and select Import Blueprint. When you choose to import a build, you can choose what you want to import, just like when saving a Blueprint. You can replace everything or build it up a zone or room at a time. You can import a Blueprint you’ve previously saved, or add one using a code from another player.

When you select a design to import, it will show you a list of the decor items required. You can filter for items you’re missing and dyes you might need. If you import a design and you don’t have all of the decor or dyes, everything else will still be added and you can fill in the blanks yourself — but if you want to go collect the rest of the items, you can reject the import and return when you have everything you need.

To import a design you must have a house eligible for importing that design — for example you could not import a design that uses a large exterior building type if you have not yet unlocked it, or import a design that uses an artisanal room you have not yet acquired. When placing a single room you will need to select a valid placement for that room — you need to have the placement budget to add the room, and it needs to fit in the selected space. Note that some rooms have both height as well as footprint requirements.

When you import an entire house, Blizzard creates a temporary hidden save slot not counted in the initial 50 that allows you to revert to the previous saved house.

How to share Blueprints

There are two ways you can share Blueprints:

• Sharing the code created when you save a Blueprint
• Allowing players to export their own Blueprint while visiting your house

Once you’ve saved a Blueprint, you can share it anywhere you want, whether that’s Discord, social media, or a Blueprint archiving website.

But if you set your house permissions appropriately, players visiting your home can save Blueprints of your designs. The permissions are granular, so you can allow anyone, guild members, friends, party members or no one to export Blueprints. (The default setting is no one.) You can set that option under House Settings, located to the right of the Edit House button in the Player Housing HUD that pops up when you’re on your plot.

If you allow other people to export Blueprints of your house, that Blueprint they generate is part of their 50 saved blueprints and is independent of any Blueprints you may have saved.

What Blueprints can’t do (yet)

Export groups of items. Because we don’t yet have the ability to group decor items into larger objects, the smallest grouping of items you can export is an entire room. If you want to get the grand piano you saw a creator build on their channel, you would need to import the entire room and then delete the parts you don’t want. and hope the room is the right type and the piano is in the right place. Otherwise you would need to move it component by component to where you want it. Blizzard has talked about adding a way to group objects, but we don’t have a timeline on when we would see this.

Showcase your house (without passing out your home address). Blizzard has also talked about the possibility of creating a system similar to the Dream Address system from Animal Crossing: New Horizons, where you can choose to upload a Blueprint to a specific neighborhood that will allow other people to go view it without them coming and visiting your plot in your neighborhood. This saved Blueprint would be locked to the version you uploaded and would not reflect any changes you make to your house. As yet there has been no information on whether these houses would be selected by the community or whether individuals would be able to elect to upload them. 

Housing design competitions. The same system has also been discussed as a way to submit houses to housing design competitions. But this would need support from Blizzard to make available specific neighborhoods for these events, and how it handles multiple submissions for the same plot and whether it has access to all required decor items.

Blueprints for Staircase Rooms can be a problem

Multistory rooms created by Staircase Rooms have a special behavior when you save a Blueprint of these rooms. Because staircases can be expanded up or down to a maximum of 100 levels, each level is treated as its own room, which causes odd behavior with a single room export.

Testing on the PTR suggests that to save the Blueprint for a staircase room, your character needs to stand within the footprint of the room, on the lowest level on the floor or slightly higher. For any level above the bottom floor you will need to be around one third of the way up the height of the room for it to properly register which level you are on. If you have tall staircase, you will need to save a blueprint for each level you want to save.

Importing staircase rooms are also tricksy.

This sounds counter-intuitive, but testing has shown that you have to start at the top of the staircase when you try to import multiple staircase rooms. You will need to place the highest room first and then start importing saved staircase rooms to sit below it, which places the newly imported room in the lower half of a staircase room. To add a level, import the floor below it, selecting the down option for the target location. Repeat this for each level you wish to import. Once you’ve imported all the levels, in the room placement tool, go back to the top of the staircase and delete the empty top level. There are some reports that you can do a similar method working from the bottom up, but it will leave you with an empty bottom level that you may not want

Depending on how tall a staircase you are building, you will need to get up there first to put a room to anchor your highest staircase room to, and then work your way down. You can build your scaffold and then delete it after you have imported your new staircase, but you obviously need the placement budget to have both sets of stairs, which could be costly.

Importing pet beds with Blueprints

While a saved Blueprint will remember that you have a pet bed placed as a piece of decor, it doesn’t remember which pet was assigned to it, nor whether it was set to stationary or roaming. Keep this in mind if saving a Blueprint that has a large number of pet beds included, especially if they’re are embedded in other objects. You’ll have to configure the pets manually after importing these Blueprints.

What do you plan to do with Blueprints?

Are you excited for Blueprints? Do you plan to share Blueprints with other people? Are you hoping to use designs created by others? Do you intend to keep your builds just for yourself?

Blizzard is continuing to refine and add to the cooldown manager’s functionality in World of Warcraft when patch 12.1, the Curse of Ula’tek, goes live on August 11, 2026. These include some changes to the cooldown managers user interface that allows you to expand your tracking capabilities, more interactive capabilities between the cooldown manager and the ping system, and some API tweaks designed to support existing add-ons.

Changes to the cooldown manager you should know about

Once patch 12.1 is live, players can use the cooldown manager to track trinkets, potions, racial abilities and durations. The cooldown settings menu gives a quick breakdown between your essential and utility cooldowns to display, as well as showing you which items and abilities will not be shown.

Overall buff and debuff icons on raid frames can have different sizes and border scales but perhaps more importantly, healers can prioritize which buffs they want to visually show on certain raid frames and hide the ones they don’t, allowing parties to streamline relevant information.

The cooldown manager will have a new category called “Short” sounds that can be configured in the Combat Audio Assist accessibility feature of the settings menu.

Where the ping system works with the cooldown manager

The cross-section of the ping system and cooldown manager gives players the ability to do the following as of patch 12.1:

• Ping action bar and spells on the cooldown manager
• Ping trinkets, potions, and healthstones on the cooldown manager
• Ping certain players resources such as health or mana, which then appear as a chat bubble

New APIs have been added that allow certain addons to display filtered sets of auras (aka buffs and debuffs) with more customizable options but without exposing certain combat information that could be used for combat automation. If you have any addons that display aura/buff and debuffs, they’ll need to be updated to support these APIs.

I adore that we actually get to hang out with some of these friends in Neighborhoods. They are adorable and I miss them, and they were too good to be a silly little throwaway in one expansion. Given their adventurous nature, I’m surprised we don’t see more little contingents and quest camps of exploring old friends sometimes. There are always new friends, but sometimes the old buddies are fun, too.

This is The Queue, our daily column where you ask us the questions and we’ll reminisce a bit, maybe over some tea.

KALCHEUS

Q4tQ Which of the four new neighborhood Endeavors are you most excited for: Griftah’s “Amani”, Ohn’ahran Centaurs, Tortollans, or Ringing Deeps Kobolds?

Our Answer:

Kobolds by a longshot, then Tortollans, then Griftah, then the Centaurs. I always adored the little Kobold voice lines and I’m excited to have them back in the mix. Add to that candles, candles, and more candles for decor? This is the Endeavor I’ve been saving for. I may even go completely feral and try neighborhood hopping among my friends to go purchase some sooner.

I always liked the Tortollans as a race but I’m meh on their decor. The Centaurs are extremely meh in both aspects. I’m curious to see what Griftah has to offer. It’s a wildcard for sure. But there’s no way what he’s frauding together is better than weird lil guys with candles.

FUZZYBUNNY

Has there been mention of the transmog that will become available on Twitch after the patch drops?

Our Answer:

The Sorcerer’s Grassy Garb is now available on Twitch! Compared to the little murloc decor guys we’ve been getting, I’m kind of underwhelmed, but then I find this transmog underwhelming when it’s on the Trading Post, too. This is possibly because I rarely play classes that would wear a pointy hat like this, and I almost never show my cape. But hey, if you’re into it, it’s available now. Even if not, 4 hours of background noise isn’t a high bar for some free transmog. Maybe it’ll come in clutch for a Trial of Style?

KALCHEUS

Did you ever have the perfect idea for a Game Changer and wonder if you should put the effort into writing it out and blind emailing Sam Reich in the hopes he agrees it’s perfect?

Our Answer:

I have often had brilliant ideas for properties I didn’t write and don’t control. Unfortunately, cold pitching is usually an extremely bad idea for a number of reasons. It likely won’t be read, but if it is read, or even if it’s just received and not read, it’s possible for the producers to land into legal trouble with copyright and IP.

I know the WoW team has said that, on occasion they had begun lightly foreshadowing something and then had to change trajectory because someone came up with a strikingly similar idea out of the clear blue sky. Not that we all aren’t trying to puzzle out a way to bring Garrosh back for a fourth villain arc, but cold emailing the WoW narrative team with a particular vehicle for doing so closes off that vehicle to them even if they have documented proof (storyboards, internal communications) that email wasn’t the catalyst.

Plus, while you may not find yourself hosting a chaotic evil game show in the near future, the core of that idea could be a decent one. I have a huge slush pile of scrapped nonsense in Notion that I pull from with all kinds of stuff like this. And while I won’t be able to use Lisa Gilroy herself, I could always use a character inspired by her. I’ll cast Kristin Bell, it’ll be great.

So yes, broadly, this is a bad idea.

KALCHEUS

Q4tQ Have you ever been to Cleveland?

Our Answer:

Yes, though a very long time ago, so I don’t remember a lot of the particulars. We went to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and the Museum of Fine Art, but I forget what else we did, or what we ate, which is really saying something. I do know Cleveland has a lot of eastern european expats, so there are a lot of places to get excellent pierogis, paczki, blini, paprikash, stuff like that.

I would definitely encourage you to seek out a small fish shack-style restaurant on the lake for dinner, sometime after 7:30, 8 pm. It’s gonna be slammed and annoying, especially if you go on a weekend, and the shore will be rocky and you’ll twist your ankles, but there are certain aspects of it that are uniquely Great Lakes, and the sun will set over the water and be gorgeous. You’ll probably want a sweatshirt or windbreaker for the wind, though.

KALCHEUS

Q4tQ Corn or flour tortillas?

Our Answer:

Most of the time, corn. It’s more flavorful, but somewhat less versatile. I prefer corn for enchiladas, tacos, tostadas, or with eggs. I always have flour in the house though, because I like to make hummus wraps and pb&j wraps, and corn doesn’t really work for those.

The latest World of Warcraft Twitch Drop is Sorcerer’s Grassy Garb, a green color variant of the wizard hat and cloak transmog we’ve seen on World of Warcraft’s monthly Trading Post a few times now. It features a stitched-together green cloak, and a hat with a rounded point that slumps whimsically backwards. The green is a muted midtone grassy green that skews a bit toward teal, so it’s an aptly named transmog.

The Sorcerer’s Grassy Garb transmog appearance is available from August 11 at 10am pacific (1pm eastern) through September 8 at 10am pacific (1pm eastern). In order to get this plushie, you need to watch four hours of any participating World of Warcraft streamer on Twitch to pick up your new prize. If you’re new to Twitch Drops, there are a few things to set up before you can rack up rewards in Blizzard games.

Here’s how to earn the Sorcerer’s Grassy Garb in World of Warcraft, starting with linking your Battle.net account to Twitch. It’s as simple as it gets, and you have plenty of time to pick it up, so don’t stress.

How to connect your Battle.net account to your Twitch account

It’s a straightforward process that will only require logging into Twitch and then going to your Battle.net settings — but keep your Battle.net Authenticator handy if you use one.

1. Log in to your Twitch account.
2. Go to the Battle.net Connections pane. If you’re not already logged into your Battle.net account, you’ll be prompted to do so.
3. Scroll until you find the Twitch option, and click +Connect.
4. Follow the instructions.
5. Watch the streams.

Twitch channels that have drops active are labeled as such (there’s a “Drops Enabled” message near the stream categories). A great way to keep track of your progress is at the Twitch Drops Inventory page, which constantly updates with how close you are to earning the drop.

Once you finish watching for the required amount of time, a clickable message will pop up in the stream chat telling you that your drop is ready to be claimed, or you can claim it via the Drops Inventory page. You’ll receive the confirmation that you got it at that time, and you can always check the Drops Inventory page later to review successful acquisition.

Note that the rewards are independent of possessing or playing the game in question — they’re associated with your Battle.net account so they’ll be available when you play the game.

How to connect your Battle.net account to your YouTube account

There are currently no rewards available on YouTube, but here’s how to connect your accounts for future promotions.

YouTube and Battle.net integration is relatively easy to set up.

1. Make sure you are logged in on your YouTube account.
2. Go to your YouTube Account Sharing page.
3. For Battle.net click the Connect button. You’ll need to be using a personal account to connect, not a “brand” account.
4. If you’re not logged into your Battle.net account you’ll be prompted to do so. Make sure you have your authenticator handy!
5. Watch the streams.

If you’re gaining credit towards the rewards you’ll see “Connected” underneath the broadcast window. If you don’t see this, ensure that your account is linked and refresh the page. Because the connection is fully integrated with YouTube you won’t need to “claim” the rewards; instead they should appear on your account shortly after you’ve watched for the specified time.

Originally published December 4, 2023. Most recently updated August 11, 2026.

The latest WoW patch is now live: patch 12.1, the Curse of Ula’tek, features a new zone with new activities including public events, dungeons, delves, and a new raid launches on August 11, 2026, and the servers are expected to come back online at 3pm pacific (6pm eastern). A lead-in quest with Zul’jan went live on July 7, 2026, but if you haven’t done it yet, the quest will be there for you when the servers come back online and lead you straight to the latest content.

But what’s in patch 12.1? Let’s take a look at everything we know about coming with the Curse of Ula’tek.

What’s in World of Warcraft patch 12.1?

• Midnight story continues
• New zone and zone activities
  • The Coiled Isle
    • Vaults of Atal’Utek
    • Curse Surges
    • Cursed Fishing
  • Instanced World Boss Lairs
• New Delves:
  • The Ring of Glory
  • Gnarldor Isle
  • Venomfall Deeps (Nemesis)
• New 8-boss raid, the Venomous Abyss
• Midnight Season 2
  • New PVP season
    • Introducing new Training Grounds mode: Arena vs bots
  • New Prey targets, including new affixes
  • New Mythic+ dungeon rotation:
    • Altar of Fangs
    • Murder Row
    • Den of Nalorakk
    • The Blinding Vale
    • Voidscar Arena
    • Kings’ Rest (Battle for Azeroth)
    • Ruby Life Pools (Dragonflight)
    • Temple of Sethraliss (Battle for Azeroth)
• User interface and Housing updates

In patch 12.1, players will continue the Midnight story with Zul’jan and Zul’jarra on the Coiled Isle, a new zone off the coast of Zul’Aman, which players already speculated would be where the story took us next. The Coiled Isle is the main setting for this patch, with a new raid, a new dungeon, and three new delves. The region will have its own zone-specific skill tree that will help you survive the isle, full of toxic pools and other hazards, with buffs and powers only available on the island.

The zone is much what you would expect from a major patch. There will of  new public events, located inside the mountain on the island, the Vaults of Atal’Utek and generally plenty to keep you busy. Throughout the Coiled Isle are Curse Surges, rare elites that regularly spawn at five rotation locations. Killing these elites will unlock Cursed Fishing at that spot and you’ll get to go through a mini-story quest with Tokka, a tortollan captain. Tokka has a crew you can gain reputation with, which means they’ll probably have a quartermaster that will sell you stuff.

Patch 12.1 also introduces Lairs, a system that essentially makes World Bosses instanced and queueable, and with variable difficulty, like dungeons or Delves. Players will be able to visit a specific spot to queue for an instanced fight with a World Boss at either Normal, Heroic, or (flexible) Mythic difficulty. Lairs groups will be between 15-25 players, and since making player grouping easier was noted as a goal for this system, there’s a good chance matchmaking will be tied into whichever Lair difficulty you choose. We don’t know if this change will be retroactive for all Midnight World Bosses or will only take place starting with the patch 12.1 World Boss(es), but either way it’s likely to cut lag in zones with these new instanced World Bosses.

Midnight Season 2 will begin August 18 and when it does players will be able to take on the new eight-boss Venomous Abyss raid, a new Mythic+ Dungeon rotation featuring eight total dungeons, a new PVP season, Delves (and Bountiful Delves) with new snake and venom themes, and and this time around, a new Prey targets with new affixes matching the snake/poison theme of the Coiled Isle.

User interface updates for the Cooldown Manager and ping system will also be included in patch 12.1, adding the ability to track trinkets and potions for consumable management, pinging your action bars or Cooldown Manager for spell and ability tracking, and specific configurations to help healers keep track of buffs and prioritize their heals.

On the Housing side, players are getting new blueprints, endeavors, and the ability to import and export both interior and exterior areas of your home to share with others. A huge addition coming in patch 12.1 are pets who can be added to your home by placing the Pet Bed decor item, enabling them to live and wander throughout the house.

For more details on WoW patch 12.1, read the full patch notes.

Published on June 19, 2026; updated August 11, 2026.

World of Warcraft patch 12.1 is going live today, and that means big maintenance for Midnight realms. If you play on modern realms, you have a full eight hours of downtime to look forward to… but maybe you could consider it a nice break from the regular onslaught of content, or a chance to recover from the Decor Duels you binged through yesterday for the last minute rewards.

Here’s the WoW maintenance schedule for Tuesday, August 11:

• Midnight: Offline from 7am – 3pm pacific (10am – 6pm eastern)
• Mists of Pandaria Classic: Offline from 7am – 8am pacific (10am – 11am eastern)
• WoW Classic (including Classic Era, Season of Discovery, and Hardcore realms): Offline from 7am – 8am pacific (10am – 11am eastern)
• The Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary realms: Offline from 7am – 8am pacific (10am – 11am eastern)

All World of Warcraft realms are back online!

Classic players have nothing to worry about today, as all Classic realms are scheduled to be back online within an hour. For Midnight players, patch 12.1 is a sizable patch, packed with new content, and that means downtime. But that also means plenty to look forward to once the servers come back online.

Midnight players are venturing to the Coiled Isle, continuing the main story campaign from the Zul’jan quest added in patch 12.0.7. Will Zul’jan chase his grandfather’s legacy of glory — and conquest — for the Amani? Or will Zul’jarra and the tribe’s Loa win the day? We’ll be doing a lot of questing to find out. The Coiled Isle will also have plenty of world content, including zone-specific abilities to unlock, a Tortollan pirate to befriend, and something Blizzard calls “cursed fishing.” (Like fishing isn’t already cursed.) There’s also a new dungeon (the Altar of Fangs), two new Delves, new Prey targets, and new Arcantina quests to keep you busy. If you aren’t interested in venturing too far from home, there’s also a lot of new Player Housing content in patch 12.1, including blueprints that let you share and import designs, new exterior options, new room types, a streamlined decor dye system, new Endeavors, and pets wandering inside your home.

Next week, Midnight Season 2 starts with the Venomous Abyss raid, a fresh Mythic+ dungeon rotation, Nightmare Prey, the Tidebound Grotto lair (an instanced World Boss), Bountiful Delves, and the Great Vault gets Season 2 rewards. The Race to World First will kick off when Venomous Abyss launches next week, so even if you aren’t raiding yourself, you can watch some of the game’s top guilds burn down bosses.

Honestly, I kind of need a nap just thinking about how much there is to do when the patch goes live.

Midnight realms came back online just as scheduled, without issues (at least none that I’ve seen so far). Hopefully I’ll see you in Azeroth soon!

It’s road trip time with my favorite person! We’re going to go see a band I like, visit some hot springs, and do other things! It’s gonna be fun on the bun. Or at least fun on the Twizzlers and other gummy candies, as the only way I can buy road trip snacks is to act like an eight-year-old who’s just been given a twenty in a candy shop.

By the time you’re reading this, I’ll have already been driving for a few hours, so wish me good coffee and clear roads.

While I check the map once again to see if there’s any short cuts to take, it’s time for our daily question and answer column — The Queue!

KALCHEUS WAS A HIGHWAYMAN ALONG THE COACH ROADS THEY DID RIDE

Q4tQ Why do rogues have two charges on their hearthstone?

Our Answer:

They actually have pulled off the Office Space scam on everybody else in the game. They steal fractional bits of hearthstone cooldowns from other people to give themselves a whole extra one. The trick is to not be greedy, which is the hardest part for a Rogue.

Of course, if your Rogue isn’t getting a second charge on their hearthstone, it’s probably because they’re bad at stealing. You should work on that with them. Don’t come back until you can steal the sword out of Azeroth without anyone noticing.

FUZZYBUNNY WAS A SAILOR THEY WERE BORN UPON THE TIDE

It was International Cat Day.

Our Answer:

Every day is International Cat Day when you’ve got a cat who’s travelled internationally.

A million years ago, I lived in Chicago, and I took Bacardi with me when I went. He got to fly in a carrier with me, and did mostly ok. He did meow a lot. Like a lot a lot. But he made it safely, and they accepted his paws-port at the border. It was interesting getting him out of his carrier and through security by myself, though. I was worried he was going to squirm away and then I’d have to chase him through an airport. Luckily it didn’t happen, and he went and came back safely. He’s a well-travelled cat!

MUSEDMOOSE WAS A DAM BUILDER ACROSS A RIVER DEEP AND WIDE

Q4tQ: how often do you consult guides for games you haven’t played?

I’ve started on the Final Fantasy V pixel remaster, and it’s my first time playing a FF game with the swappable job system. It’s not that it’s overwhelming, it’s that the game doesn’t tell you what abilities you get at what level, so you kind of have to learn as you go, which means a lot of grinding if you suddenly realize you need an ability from a job you haven’t been leveling. I’m thinking about consulting a guide or two as I play, both to avoid this and because I’d like to get good at the job system. Swapping around abilities based on the situation sounds like a good time, but tactical thinking is not my strength.

Also, I want to check a guide to not miss out on blue mage spells, because I love the mechanic but it’s way too easy to miss stuff

Our Answer:

I’m not one to do it for major decisions or long-term gameplay things. I’d rather do my playthrough blind and make the choices that feel right in the moment, not try to do things to satisfy some perfect ending hours away. It’s a more honest experience that way.

I will use it if I see a treasure or a secret stuck somewhere and I have already tried to get it myself without cheating, though. I’m not going to go right to cheating first up, but if I’ve given a reasonable effort to solve the puzzle and still can’t do it, then I’ll check a guide. Secrets are usually something great, like cosmetics or power — and I gotta look good while playing.

KALCHEUS WITH SWORD AND PISTOL BY THEIR SIDE MANY A YOUNG MAID LOST HER BAUBLES TO HIS TRADE

Q4tQ how did we wait to be seated at restaurants before phones?

Our Answer:

We talked to each other, Kal, gosh. It’s like you’ve never people-watched and made up stories about the diners around you. I didn’t know your world was so devoid of whimsy. Sometimes we even read the menu.

TETSEMI FLIES A STARSHIP ACROSS THE UNIVERSE DIVIDE

Q4tQ – What’s your go to comfort game when you’re overwhelemed and just need to dip out for a few minutes/hours/

Our Answer:

I know this will shock almost none of you, but Heroes of the Storm. I can tailor it to just how overwhelmed I’m feeling; if I just wanna zone out, I can do AI matches. If I wanna do low-stakes matches, I have ARAM mode, and if I just wanna be an annoying jerk, I can always play Junkrat in quick match. Nothing says annoying like Junkrat!

I’d also play Diablo for low-stakes zone-out time. Putting demons through a wood chipper for shiny loot is always fun. Especially when you’re playing a build with unlimited highly mobile killing potential like the Whirlwind Barbarians. You spend the whole time yelling at your enemies and spinning to winning. It’s great, and more importantly, for easy gaming, it’s super easy to play.

XERIANNE WILL REMAIN AND THEY’LL BE BACK AGAIN

What is the strangest food you have ever eaten? Did you enjoy it and would eat it again or was it a pass on future eating?

Our Answer:

I used to eat shrimp and green pepper on my pizzas. I saw shrimp as an option at a local pizza place and thought that it sounded weird but compelling, and I did like it! Then it got harder to find shrimp as a topping option, so I stopped ordering it. It’s been ages since then; if I saw the option, I’d jump at it.

In the last couple of Weird Beer tours my local craft breweries do, I’ve had cricket-based beer, and so many pickle-based things. Also one that was loosely based on an “Animal style” burger from In-N-Out Burger. To varying degrees of success. The burger beer I wouldn’t go back for more of, the avocado toast beer I would’ve. Who knew! I also wouldn’t go back for the absinthe-infused beer; it was too bitter. Maybe someday I’ll have proper absinthe with the wormwood in it, and I can figure out if I like that on its own.

Today’s Bacardi is tuckered out. He told me that while I was gone, he was gonna work extra hard to make sure that you all have extra shiny loot. Never mind that; it’s a new season. Maybe you’ll get the rare drop mounts from the new zone! Or maybe you’ll find Jimothy. I hear he’s prowling around somewhere in 12.1.

Would you rather

Turn into a crow and the only way to turn back is to collect twenty dollars

Or

Turn into a seagull and the only way to turn back is to steal forty french fries.

Today’s Anna Earworm™: The Highwaymen

Drive safe, folks! Remember: don’t trust that plumber eating the banana in the lane next to you.

It’s almost time! WoW patch 12.1 comes out this week, and it’s a big one. Like all major patches, we’ll be exploring a new zone, with plenty of world content, a new dungeon, new delves, and a brand new raid… and yes, it’s the long-awaited return of the Troll raid. There will be plenty to sink our metaphorical teeth into after the patch goes live on Tuesday — but please don’t bite any actual Trolls, at least not without their consent.

But that’s still a day away, so while we wait for the patch to launch, let’s catch up on what’s been going on in the world of Blizzard games, and what’s coming up this week.

What happened last week?

• A particularly destructive Player Housing bug lingered until WoW patch 12.1 was nearly ready to go live; but was fortunately fixed on Friday, so your blueprints should be safe when the patch comes back up on Tuesday.
• Housing dyes became temporarily Warbound last week, so you can’t trade them or put them on the Auction House. But things should go back to normal when patch 12.1 launches on Tuesday with a new, simplified dye system.
• Overwatch has announced its next hero: D.Mon, the leader of MEKA squadron and D.Va’s best frenemy. D.Mon goes live on August 11 with Season 4.
• This week’s Hearthstone Tavern Brawl is Henchmania, and it allows you to play as a potential henchman hoping to join the League of E.V.I.L. Every hero has a unique hero power and a pre-built deck, and it can be a fun change of pace from the traditional meta — plus an easy free pack.
• There’s just one day left of Turbulent Timeways in World of Warcraft. It’s Dragonflight Timewalking through reset, so get in any last minute dungeons and pick up rewards before Timewalking vanishes again.

What’s happening this week (and beyond)

• August 11: WoW patch 12.1 launches, starting with a long maintenance. The servers are due to be offline until 3pm pacific (6pm eastern).
• August 11: Overwatch Season 4 begins with new hero D.Mon
• Through August 11: Diablo 4 patch 3.2.0 PTR concludes soon
• Through August 11: Turbulent Timeways in Midnight
• August 18: Midnight Season 2 begins as the
• August 27: The Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary phase 3
• September 12 – 13: BlizzCon 2026
• November 17: World of Warcraft D&D book launches

Other things we’re playing, watching, and more

On our Thursday indie game stream, I’m still playing Desktop Explorer, but I think I’m getting pretty close to the end. It’s a surreal with big Windows 95 vibes and a Clippy-like companion who may be taking lessons from GLaDOS. Catch us live Thursday at 8pm eastern (follow us on Twitch to get notifications of this and any one-off streams), or watch on YouTube later. There are two more new episodes this week, both featuring Joe’s problem-solving skills:

• Blizzard Watch Plays Desktop Explorer, episode 5: Exploring a creepy abandoned virtual mall
• Blizzard Watch Plays Desktop Explorer, episode 6: Meet the Windows 95 version of an evil AI

This week’s free games on the Epic Games Store are the charming adventure game Beacon Pines and the co-op puzzle game We Were Here Together (which we love except for the co-op part, but nothing’s perfect). Grab both of them for free through Thursday.

Plus: we’re still waiting for  The Elder Scrolls 6. Possibly into retirement age at this point.

Our latest podcasts

• Blizzard Watch Podcast: Player Housing makes us want to dye
• Lore Watch Podcast: Dwelling on the Shadowlands in World of Warcraft
• Tavern Watch Podcast: The GenCon 2026 announcement roundup!

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

It’s just about time to turn the pages of World of Warcraft once again with the Curse of Ula’tek update going live Tuesday. That means it’s the perfect time to sit around the Circular Silvermoon Table and share our feelings on Midnight’s first phase as it comes to a close.

My first impressions of WoW’s twelfth chapter were very positive, and that feeling carried through as I explored the initial four zones and got into the 12.0 end game. Player Housing was, depending on how you look at it, an extremely fulfilling way to connect my Warband or a very successful ploy to distract me from actually playing the game. Either way, collecting decor and messing around on my riverside plot definitely sparked joy for me in the initial months of Midnight.

There were a lot of specific things I liked about the first few patches of the expansion. Revisiting Eversong Woods hit me with just as much nostaliga as I’m sure the developers intended. Decor Duels were a surprising bright spot, and I’m glad I earned my awesome glaive-y sword before the game mode apparently goes away for an unknown but possibly infinite amount of time. I won’t claim that the lore developments were a flawless masterpiece, but I approve of the narrative as the action-packed middle third of a trilogy that I want answers from.

One of the main criticisms that I have does not come from me alone: the content pace and delivery has been hard to keep up with from both sides of the login screen. I’m far from the only player who has felt that stepping away from the game for even a little bit results in entire game modes or features running their course, being halfway through grinds that suddenly become unnecessary, or feeling so overwhelmed with things to do that other games or hobbies start to call. I’ve had Abyss Anglers highlighted in red on my to-do list for almost four months and I still haven’t so much as rented my first harpoon gun.

On the flip side, we’ve seen the unstoppable boulder that is the eight-week patch cadence put significant strain on the relationship between player and game, as less-than-smooth patch days have led to uncertainty if bugs will eat your house and even recognition from the team that they need to do better. Let the record show that this era of World of Warcraft is where I started worrying that fast-paced content drops might be great for shareholders but are starting to crack the game from the edges in.

With all that being said, I’m still on board the Worldsoul Saga train. I finally spent some quality time with Zul’jan last week and brought a crate of dusty Elixirs of Poison Resistance down from my Player Housing attic in preparation for flying across the Straight of Hexx’alor when patch 12.1 goes live. So what are your overarching thoughts on Midnight’s opening chapter?

Midnight patch 12.1 almost launched with a bug that would’ve been utter tragedy for fans of the upcoming blueprint feature for saving, sharing, and reusing house layouts. Luckily, this bug has been fixed on the PTR in time for the patch release! Regardless, it’s still a good idea to take a backup of your house’s inside and outside even if there aren’t any known bugs — just to be on the safe side, or to undo any changes you might regret!

As first reported by user Deicide-UH on Reddit, the bug worked as such: importing an entire exterior or interior blueprint, then editing whichever one you didn’t import, would clear out all furnishings in the part you didn’t import. That is, if you used a blueprint to import an entire exterior layout, then entered Edit Mode inside your house, every single piece of furniture inside your house would have been packed up and put away — only the rooms would remain. Similarly, if you imported an interior layout to your house, then entered Edit Mode outside your house, everything outside your house would have been removed — only the house itself would still be where you left it. The good news is, this didn’t seem to apply to single-room blueprints or whole-house blueprints, so those should be safe to use — and the better news is, this has been confirmed fixed at this point.

We did have confirmation that the developers were aware of it — Jesse Kurlancheek posted on X that they were aware of the bug, and kept folks updated in places like WOWKEA‘s Discord server. But the fix didn’t go out until just before the patch, which left some of us nervous it wouldn’t go live for patch day. It’s good to know that a fix has finally arrived on the PTR, but just to be safe, when patch 12.1 releases, you may want to take a couple of blueprint backups of your current layout, whether to prevent any further bugs or just to revert the fact that the drapes don’t really go with that brand new “Cursed Gaze of Ula’tek” Mural anyway.

Originally published August 7, 2026; updated August 10, 2026.

Together, we ride. We go to some ranch and we rent some horses for two hours or something, I don’t know. We’ll figure this out.

This is The Queue, our daily column where if Qs were horses and As were also horses, we’d ride them! Together!

ELIZABETH HARPER

How are you feeling about the new Hearthstone Battlegrounds season so far? What’s good, what’s bad, what’s too overpowered to deal with?

Our Answer:

Battlegrounds. I have to remind myself to use Dark Gift, because playing without pressing that button is so ingrained.

Power levels seem VERY high. Some of the new minions are ridiculously powerful, and Dark Gifts kinda throw balance out of the window.

Activate doesn’t seem to have made that much of a splash for me so far, but maybe I simply haven’t found the right minions. The one I liked the most was the Elemental where you activate for it to gain the stats of the next minion you buy. In shop-based builds it can be really strong.

So far, it’s been fun. I always love it when a major shake-up happens and everything is new and there’s a ton of exploration and discovery. Time will tell if it’s in dire need of a balance patch.

LOA-SPEAKER FARADAI

Q4TRed: Void DH nerf good enough? How do you feel the meta is shaping up? (Assuming you’re not just playing BGs).

Our Answer:

All they changed was a single Battlecry, but I feel like they might have over-nerfed Demon Hunter, believe it or not. The difference between “guaranteed and instant Void Soul from a Battlecry + bonus, non-guaranteed Void Soul later from a Deathrattle” and “just the one from the Deathrattle” is massive.

Shaman is good and has two viable and completely decks built around the same Legendary, which is insane. It was the first Legendary I decided to craft this expansion, long before the meta settled the way it did now, so I’m bappy.

Classes that were bad, like Warlock, Druid, DK, and Mage, are still bad, so the buffs didn’t hit the way Blizzard intended. Priest too: Azalina is actually viable now, but still very inconsistent. But the Azalina buff was definitely much more of a success than the buffs those other classes got.

Hunter is still good, but I feel less bad about Confront the Tol’vir now than before its nerf. It’s still a very powerful card, but doesn’t feel as oppressive now as it did before.

I hate playing against Lotus Troublemaker Rogue. If it were up to me, that deck would be getting a “feels infuriating to play against” nerf.

Paladin could be a little stronger, but it’s okay that it’s not; lets other classes (like Shaman and Rogue) take the spotlight for a bit.

Overall, I’m having fun, but I feel like we need more buffs. More buffs! More buffs!!!

ARTHONOS

1) Q4tQ: Of the 10 music tracks released for Fortune’s Weave, which is your favorite? How would you rank the themes of each of the 4 heroes?

2) Yet another Fortune’s Weave question: are you going to play all 4 routes evenly, play a single route to completion, or switch at random?

Our Answer:

1) I’m just gonna give my impressions on the entire thing, because I’m a tiny little bit passionate about the subject of video game music.

The style of the Fortune’s Weave soundtrack starts out sounding very different from Three Houses music — far more “sunny” and less “dense” — but the more you listen, the more similarities you find.

• I love the Spanish influence in The Blaze – Cycle of the Sun. Spanish guitars, clapping. Then it turns more cinematic and Three Houses-like.
• Legend of the Flame incorporates the iconic Fire Emblem leitmotif that’s in every game. I love that stuff. Also very Spanish-influenced. (I just hope they don’t pull a “I am… the Fire Emblem!” like they did for Alear in Engage.)
• Hope Endures sounds much more like Three Houses, and has that “pulsing” effect that reminds me of the Sothis theme in that game. 99% sure it’s intentional.

Now for the heroes.

• Cai’s theme, True to His Colors, sounds very Fire Emblem but with a bit of an odd choice of main instrument — they picked something that would feel more at home in a Donkey Kong or Mario game, I think. Reminds me of the kazoo in the Pandaria inns. But the composition itself is pretty good and has a very memorable main riff.
• Dietrich’s theme, Shadow from Elsewhere (of course the edgelord gets the edgelord song title) is actually pretty great! Distorted guitars! It sounds like the kind of music I hear in fighting games — could easily fit into Guilty Gear or The King of Fighters. Could this be the “Shambhala” of Fortune’s Weave? Either way, this might be my favorite of the four heroes’ themes from a pure “feeling” standpoint.
• Theodora’s theme, Queen’s Gambit, brings back Spain in full force. I could see it being used as Vega’s theme in some Street Fighter game. When we get to the middle part it grows really intense and the violins go crazy. Really like this one.
• Leda’s theme, Storm of Petals, is by far the most experimental of the bunch. It features a “weird-sounding” riff, vocals (that once again make me think of the Sothis theme in Three Houses), time signature breaks, very clean and beautiful guitars, more vocals (this time just building atmosphere), and you never really know where it’s going. From a purely musical standpoint, this is A+. I guess it makes sense, given that Leda herself is a musician (who, by the way, plays a vihuela, a predecessor to the modern Spanish guitar).

Then the rest:

• A Life of Glory: WAIT A MINUTE, I HAVE HEARD THIS BEFORE. This is Together We Ride from Blazing Blade (which also got reused as Contract in Fire Emblem: Heroes)! But then it shifts away from that a little. Still, it’s a time-tested piece of Fire Emblem music returning one more time. I love the ending riff on this version.
• Bloodstained Arena sounds nothing like music that would play in a bloodstained arena if you ask me. But it’s a good piece of music, if a bit short.
• Voice Upon the Peak seems to be the theme of the new goddess, Fortuna (affectionately called “Alolan Sothis” by the community). And yes, I keep mentioning Sothis’s theme, The Spirit Dais, but this one even uses the exact same vocalization.

Overall, a very promising soundtrack so far, even if we haven’t heard anything like God Shattering Star, A Funeral of Flowers, or The Edge of Dawn yet. But there’s definitely hope we’ll get there! (And this soundtrack already impresses me more than most songs in Engage.)

2) The biggest factor on this is how much I end up liking the game and how much effort it takes to play the other routes. From what we’ve seen so far, it looks like you might be able to do everything in a single playthrough, just jumping back and forth between protagonists? If that’s the case, that makes it considerably easier to justify going all the way with all four of them, and I might just do that.

But if I have to pick, or if I simply don’t feel like playing all of them, my order of priority (right now) is Leda -> Theodora -> Cai -> Dietrich. Of course, as we actually play the game and understand what each character and each route is really about, this might change. (As much as I currently dislike Dietrich, I’m fairly positive that his route will have the biggest connection to Three Houses, so it might end up being very compelling.)

TELWAR

Apologies if this has been asked recently, buuuuuttt…why do the Amani feel the need for Lightwood to fight the Twilights/Voidies? My rogue can stabinate them just fine. Is this a “every +1 matters” sort of thing? Lack of confidence on the part of the Amani? An opportunity to hurt the belves at the same time? Something else?

Our Answer:

Dis is their land. Troll land!

They do whatever they want mon.

You wanna stay?

You stay there forevah!

They gonna bury you there.

ENO

Red, what Azerothian landmark did you have the best memories of

Our Answer:

Does Dalaran, floating in the sky, count as a landmark?

BOVEN WHITEHOOF

Where should we go for Mayla and my double date with Cuzolth and Vaskarn?

Our Answer:

Dalaran.

Which version is up to you. The important part is that it has great ice cream!

This has been The Queue. Go play something this weekend, I don’t know!

There have been few hopes dashed harder than when Matt looked at our topics and thought for a brief, shining moment that maybe dyes were coming to transmog, and not just staying in Player Housing. But no, it’s just for Player Housing, and there have been some changes to dyes as we head into patch 12.1 next week. Because we livestream the recording every week, and Liz has been playing WoW our guest host for this week Six took us on a quick tour of his apparently bonkers Housing creation, and we talked about some of the incredible looks you can get with creative item combinations. (And if you like streaming, Liz has been streaming indie games on Twitch, and you can catch the videos on YouTube if you miss the livestream.)

And speaking of streaming, we have confirmation this week that BlizzCon will be livestreamed for free. And speaking of things being announced, did you hear there’s going to be a new World of Warcraft adventure for Dungeons & Dragons? Pretty wild they announced that with about a month to go til BlizzCon. Makes me kind of excited to see what will be unveiled during the big show.

Oh, and this is proof that if you send us some questions for the podcast, we will answer them! Eventually!

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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.

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MEKA squadron leader and D.Va’s best frenemy D.Mon finally joins the Overwatch hero roster in season 4, which releases August 11. We were first sort-of introduced to D.Mon back in 2018, with her red room in Busan next to D.Va’s pink one giving us a small taste of her character via environment, and then-narrative lead Michael Chu giving a few hints on his Twitter. D.Mon will, naturally, be a new Tank hero, and if the trailer is any indication, she’s going to be a tough nut to crack on the battlefield.

This brings the Talon and Overwatch conflict to new places, with the Junkers on the side of Talon …possibly? They always seemed like a chaotic neutral sort of group, but here their actions align neatly with the goals of Talon. What are Vendetta and the crew going to do with that EMP? Maybe it takes a whole arsenal to replace Sombra’s role on the team? Both teams seem incredibly tech-heavy, so it’ll be interesting to see how they deploy all this stuff without shooting themselves in their own feet, perhaps literally. I’m interested to hear what Hammond has to, uh, say about all this, too.

More information will be rolling out about D.Mon in the leadup to season 14. We do know that she’s voiced by Twitch legend LilyPichu, who also reads the new short story released to Overwatch’s official YouTube channel with some of D.Mon’s backstory.

Mitch and I had a great time streaming the cute little game of Penguin Colony last night, in which you are a penguin sliding around a serene antarctic landscape, and also some other things happen. I won’t bore you with the details, but I do have penguins on the brain today.

But we can talk about more than penguins. We can even talk about more animals than penguins, so we should get started on that. This is the Queue, our daily Q&A column where I do my best to answer whatever questions you throw at me.

MUSEDMOOSE ASKED:

Q4tQ: what cute animal do you not see represented nearly enough in games?

Hear me out: a metroidvania platformer with a cute spider could be awesome. Crawl on all surfaces, pick up different kinds of webs as power-ups, so on and so forth. But I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a game starring a cute spider.

Our Answer:

My favorite animal, the hippo, is vastly underrepresented in the gaming space. I have been following Baby Pygmy Hippo Zoo for years with nothing to show for it. Pygmy hippos, especially when they’re babies, can be pretty adorable, and if you pay attention to Moo Deng, also pretty troublesome. But they’re hardly the only hippos out there.

A full-sized hippopotamus is a chubby round blob that spends its days lazing around, chomping on veggies and watermelon. But how would a hippo fit into a video game? A zoo game, with habitat design, maybe? We must look deeper at the hippo to understand their role.

Jenny Lawson talks about them in her newest book, saying “Hippos look like enormous, goofy water babies who like long soaks, but really they’re murder potatoes who kill over five hundred people a year; they’re literally deadlier than lions. And hippos are vegetarians, so they’re not even doing it to eat you. They just want to kill you for fun. (I assume.)”

I don’t think it’s for fun, exactly. Hippos just don’t let anyone mess with them. If you’re playing two bosses enter, it’s always the hippo who’s going to leave. They’d rather be relaxing, but if a lion or a crocodile gets in their face? The hippo is going to make sure they leave, and they aren’t going to be nice about it.

Maybe a hippo game is essentially a walking simulator (except as a hippo) traveling along someplace pleasant. Like an art museum or a garden full of tulips. And when someone bothers them, they get destroyed. and when someone gives them a watermelon, there are little hearts over the hippo’s head as it devours this sweet bounty gifted by its new friend. Maybe at some point the cops are called, and man, this hippo just wants to have a nice stroll through the garden and everyone is getting on its case. Rude.

I’m not sure how gameplay goes beyond that, but there’s a definite juxtaposition of soft and sweet with the murder machines that hippos are capable of being.

It’s perfect. Let’s start prototyping immediately.

KALCHEUS ASKED:

Q4tQ what is your favorite type of cake? We had salted caramel cake and it was yummy.

Our Answer:

I’m happy with vanilla and buttercream, as everyone should be.

FALRINN SAID:

Well since I’m back, I think it’s time to ramble about some topic related to WoW. Today, it’s the “unreliable narrator”.

An unreliable narrator in media is when a character says something that’s not true because they are mistaken/lying. Blizzard has used this mechanism both directly, and to justify retcons after the fact. ie you don’t retcon what was said, you retcon whether it was true.

When it’s employed intentionally, it’s usually pretty obvious when they are doing it. Most often it’s because the truth is revealed in the same release as the lie happened, and it’s certainly not unchallenged in the moment.

However, what I see far too often is people invoking unreliable narrator because they had a half-baked theory that’s obviously disproven by the text of the story. But instead of modifying or discarding their theory when they get a fuller picture they declare the text to be an example of an unreliable narrator. Please never do this.

Our Answer:

This is an interesting point, though I think Blizzard rarely uses the unreliable narrator trope itself, but instead has a tendency to retcon or change story directions or add big chunks of lore that change our perspective on what’s happening. Sometimes there is a character who is intentionally lying or misleading others. None of that is necessarily indicative of an unreliable narrator, and the fact that World of Warcraft has no single narrator or point of view character makes it very hard to push an unreliable narrator story; there are too many perspectives and we are never stuck with a single person’s distorted view of the world that informs the whole story: WoW doesn’t have a narrator, so it’s hard to have an unreliable narrator. Instead, it has a lot of characters, some of whom are more trustworthy than others.

And unreliable narrators, when actually used as a story device, can be a lot of fun, so blaming a story that doesn’t go as you expect on an unreliable narrator is really doing a disservice to actual unreliable narrators.

Here’s an example of Blizzard using the unreliable narrator trope really well: Flynn Fairwind narrating the Battle for Dazar’alor raid, in his characteristic style. It’s an exaggerated version of the truth, and I think the narration really makes this raid one of the best storytelling Warcraft has done. Similarly, there’s fan-favorite quest The Day that Deathwing Came, which is interesting precisely because it is a wildly exaggerated story of Deathwing’s attack and vanquishing.

In books, one of my favorite series is The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. It’s in first person, narrated by the titular Murderbot, and Murderbot is not a reliable narrator. It’s not because it’s lying, but because it has a unique perspective on the world and itself, and everything in the books is presented from that perspective. The perspective makes the story more interesting than a simple factual recounting of what may have happened, and that’s what makes an unreliable narrator story so great. It’s about perspective.

There is an interesting comparison to note here, in that the TV series for Murderbot is different from the books, which fans have mixed feelings about, but which I feel is entirely because Murderbot is an unreliable narrator, and to make a TV show the perspective had to be broadened to include other characters. Warcraft simply doesn’t have the kind of myopic view to create a problem like this in the first place.

The main narrative of World of Warcraft doesn’t have a perspective, just dozens of characters doing their own things, with their own personalities and desires, clashing or cooperating as the situation suits. A character who lies is just a character who lies. A retcon is just a retcon. It’s not always an unreliable narrator to blame; sometimes it’s just the sort of disjointed storytelling that a 22 year old video game has by its very nature, because it’s been building this jenga tower of a story for 22 years. No reason to poison a perfectly fun narrative technique because of it.

XERIANNE ASKED:

To go with the bullet theme: Qs4tQ:

• Is there anything special such as a mount or pet from fishing in Midnight?
• What is your favorite Delve in Season 1 that you’d love to see more stories in now that season 2 starts soon?
• Does anyone actually like plunder or abyss fishing?
• Why are the fun trivial things in WoW always canceled/no longer updated/removed?
• What is the recommended ilevel to start the new zone when the patch hits?
• If Blizzard put out a Trivia game updated through the end of Titan, would you buy it, if it was priced reasonably?

Our Answer:

Let’s do a Q&A speedrun, with bonus bulleted list:

• Midnight has a lot of rare cosmetics that you can only get by fishing them up (or buying them for outrageous prices on the auction house). You will sometimes fish up treasure chests that can include an egg that hatches into a void drake mount (also can randomly drop while fishing in Voidstorm), the Bubbling Snapling pet, and a number of cosmetic weapon transmogs.
• I like Collegiate Calamity, the delve in Silvermoon City. First it’s just very easy to get to, but also the school setting gives it a lot of potential story hooks. It’s not too long and it’s not too short and it doesn’t require a ton of ambling around to get where you’re going. (My least favorite is The Grudge Pit, which is just one big room where you keep getting swarmed.)
• I like Plunderstorm and Abyss Anglers to a point… and it doesn’t take me too long to get to that point. Plunderstorm I find mostly frustrating, but it’s fun to play a bit. Abyss Anglers I actually think is a fun little challenge, but the lack of real rewards means I don’t feel compelled to keep playing.
• The fun little things can be fun little unpopular things, which means they get neglected so that Blizzard can make time to work on more popular features. So went Archeology, Pet Battles, Decor Duels, the Dance Studio, etc.
• Blizzard hasn’t said anything, but I’m going to guess based off requirements for LFR for March on Quel’danas. I know it’s a little arbitrary, but that’s what we’ve got. Quel’danas has an ilevel 230 requirement to enter, and drops ilevel 240 and 243 loot on LFR. A similar 230 suggestion for the next level of content seems feasible, and isn’t too hard to get even for solo players right now.
• Blizzard game trivia is not really my thing, so probably not.

Whew! We’ve just gotten in our minimum requirement for bulleted lists for the day.

That’s all for now, so take care of yourselves, because we’re nearly to another weekend! I’ll see you in the comments section.

Every week the Epic Games Store gives away a game or two for free. This week, there are two indie games for free: a mysterious visual novel, and a co-op arctic puzzle game.

• Beacon Pines
  • Release Date: September 22, 2022
  • Game Type: Visual Novel, Mystery
  • POV: 3rd person
  • Party: Single Player
  • DLC: None, but there is a soundtrack and art book available on Steam

Beacon Pines is a visual novel with a very self-aware posturing. The entire game takes place within a book, and you use the book to navigate through the various scenes and conversations through the game. The book is crucial to unraveling the mystery of Beacon Pines. Also, all the characters are lightly anthropomorphized animals, but I don’t think this is ever explained. It’s perhaps unimportant to the plot as presented, but it still seems a little weird.

• We Were Here Together
  • Release Date: October 10, 2019
  • Game Type: Puzzle
  • POV: First Person
  • Party: Co-Op
  • DLC: None

As a total sicko for both puzzle games and survival games, particularly those set in the arctic with the liminal, lonely vibe that represents, the We Were Here series is both amazing and unfortunate. Amazing because it takes those two things and runs with it, but unfortunate because it’s forced multiplayer. I get it, because you have to communicate using your walkies to solve the puzzles and such, but I like the arctic settings for the lonely vibes, and I don’t really get that with somebody asking me if I have the red piece or whatever. Still, if you have a friend who’s into puzzles — or even if not, because there is a queueing PUG feature — this second entry in the series can be a fun time.

It’s hard find good help these days, but we’re here to help with the Hearthstone Henchmania Tavern Brawl, in which the League of E.V.I.L. is on the lookout for some qualified new henchmen.

After unsuccessfully trying out to join The League Of Villainous Evildoers Maniacally United For Frightening Investments in Naughtiness aka L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N., Dangeraffe and her trusted companion Dangerbil set their sites on joining the League of E.V.I.L.

Luckily for our two aspiring supervillains, the League of E.V.I.L. just happened to be having tryouts for new henchmen. You have to start at the bottom in the supervillain world. Dangeraffe was all on board. But when The Dangerbil found out, she quipped, “Oh no, you did not just tell me to hench.”

Tavern Brawl basics

• Name: Henchmania
• Description: The League of E.V.I.L. is hosting henchman auditions! Do you have what it takes!? Choose who you’d like to work for and get a bonus!
• Fun level: 6/10
• Difficulty: 5/10
• Replayability: 5/10
• Format: Wild
• Type: PVP
• Deck: Provided
• Rewards: 1 Escape From Violet Hold pack

You begin by choosing one of nine special Heroes. These characters appeared in Hearthstone prior to the 2019 initial release of this Brawl, and many have made additional appearances since. Each Hero is analogous to the class, though each comes with a custom deck and a custom Hero Power. Not all of the classes are represented. For instance, there’s no Warlock hero. Some classes have multiple representatives like the many Rogue heroes.

Let’s take a look at your options.

Heroes available in Henchmania Tavern Brawl

• Mr. Chu
  • Warrior
  • Hero Power (1 mana): Shuffle an Explosive into your opponent’s deck
• Candlebeard
  • Rogue
  • Hero Power (1 mana): Give a minion Charge
  • This was before the introduction of Rush so this is the old implementation of Charge, which can go straight to the face.
• Myra Rotspring
  • Rogue
  • Hero Power (1 mana): Trigger a random friendly minion’s Deathrattle
• George the Fallen
  • Paladin
  • Hero Power (2 mana): Give all your minions Divine Shield
• Manhunter Ivan
  • Hunter
  • Hero Power (2 mana): Put a random Secret from your deck into the battlefield
• Voodoomaster Vex
  • Rogue
  • Hero Power (passive): Make all Battlecries and Deathrattles trigger twice
• Russell the Bard
  • Rogue
  • Hero Power (2 mana):Take over an enemy minion with 2 or less Attack
• Sephira Dusktalon
  • Druid
  • Hero Power (passive): Any time your opponent casts a spell, draw a spell from your deck
• Raeth Ghostsong
  • Priest
  • Hero Power (1 mana): Deals 1 damage to all minions. If any die, refresh this.

Once you pick your hero, you’ll go into the game against another player and their hero. On the first turn of the game, you’ll be presented with a choice of which member of the League of E.V.I.L. to work for. This gives you a permanent aura throughout the match.

• Work for Hagatha: At the end of your turn transform a random friendly minion into one that costs 1 more.
• Work for Dr. Boom: Give all friendly minions Deathrattle: Deal 1-2 damage to a random enemy.
• Work for Togwaggle: After you play a Minion add a Coin to your hand.
• Work for Madame Lazul: After you play a spell, gain a copy of a random card in your opponent’s hand.

The game then proceeds like a normal game of Hearthstone where you use your minions, spells, and Hero power to try to kill your opponent before they can kill you.

How to win the Henchmania Tavern Brawl

There are a couple of excellent combinations for this Brawl.

Tier 1

• Hero: Myra Rotspring
  • Work for Dr. Boom
  • Dr. Boom gives all your minions a Deathrattle that causes 1-2 damage to random enemy. You then trigger this Deathrattle over and over with Myra’s Hero power.
• Hero: Voodoomaster Vex
  • Work for Dr. Boom
  • Again, Dr. Boom gives you the damaging Deathrattle. This time, you use Vex’s Hero Power to make it go off twice. The game will likely be over by turn six.

Tier 2

• Hero: Candlebeard
  • Work for Togwaggle
  • Every time you play a minion, you get a coin. The coin enables your Hero power to give the minion Charge. Essentially, every minion in your deck has Charge. If you get Vicious Fledging down, it’s going to be very hard for your opponent to win.

Tier 3

• Hero : George the Fallen
• Work for Hagatha
• George’s Hero power giving his minions Divine Shield makes them rather sticky. This allow Hagatha to continue to increase their power. Do note that Hagatha’s transformation will remove the Divine Shield buff, and sometimes the RNG of what she turns them into is going to make them much less powerful.

The best Heroes and “works for” auras have already largely been figured out by the community. Expect a lot of Vex and Rotspring mirror matches. It’s just a Brawl so don’t be shy about conceding and queuing again if it isn’t going well for you.

Last published September 3, 2025; updated August 5, 2026.

Why?

• They make it easier to organize my thoughts
• Often I sit down and use a bulleted list to group together related ideas
  • For example, using a subsidiary bullet to list an idea complimentary to a previous full bullet point
  • Like you could have a bullet saying Theropods and then several sub-bullets like Extinct Theropods with all the various groups like:
    • Carcharadontosaurs
    • Ceratosaurs
    • Megalosaurs
    • Coelurosaurs
      • Extinct Coelurosaurs
      • Extant Coelurosaurs aka birds

Now, let’s Queue this.

MUSEDMOOSE

Q4tQ why has it been such a rough week

Our Answer:

Reasonable guesses on what’s going on:

• Monkey’s Paw
• The Mayan Apocalypse of 2012 was extremely slow acting
• The show Selfie
• Angry fey folk visiting us all in our sleep, and beating us
• Mister Rogers is still dead
• Insufficient amounts of Godzilla

KALCHEUS

Q4tQ What announcement at Gencon for D&D are you most excited for?

Our Answer:

Looks like we’re getting another bulleted list. This one’s in ascending order, meaning that the one I want most is the one I list last.

• Arcana Unleashed — I don’t hate the Forgotten Realms, but several settings I prefer to it are on this list or have been released in previous years. And I’m also not terribly excited by the Red Wizards of Thay.
• Star Wars — Without knowing more than the simple fact of its existence, I’m more in the I’m interested but wary camp for now.
• World of Warcraft — I think this one’s pretty obvious and finally my Night Elf Paladin will be real.
• Greyhawk: Crown of the Witch Queen — Look, I’m a total sucker for Greyhawk. The fact that this is above the WoW book should tell you that.
• Dark Sun — Been waiting for 5e to take a crack at the Burnt World of Athas since 2016.

 

KALCHEUS

Q4tQ what is your favorite song from the classic 1990 They Might Be Giants album Flood?

Our Answer:

Another bulleted list! We’re going crazy! Once again in ascending order, although I love all of them equally

• Brian Wilson
• The Old Apartment
• Jane
• Spider in My Room
• Pinch Me
• If I had $1000000

RETPALLYJIL

Q4tQ:

Should I just sell this pile of Ascendant Voidcores before they become trash, or are they carrying over?

Our Answer:

• Yes
• Wait, that was a question with two options.
• You should just sell the Voidcores unless you’re trying to gear up an offspec or something.
• There, we got the requisite number of bullet points to slake our dark thirst.

RED

“I’m a healer, but…” might be my favorite meme ever

Our Answer:

I love a lot of memes, here’s a few of my favorites:

• Anything with the Doom Slayer and Isabelle.
• Godzilla napping in the Colosseum
• Pretty much any meme with Dinosaurs in it
  • Especially the one with the T-Rex realizing he can’t clap his hands
  • Or the one with the human standing there waving next to a whole lot of enormous carnivorous Theropod dinos and the caption Why are you waving? Run!
• This meme with Warduke from D&D because it has Warduke from D&D.
• Leeeeroy Jenkinnns

That’s the Queue for today. If y’all want to help me out, next Wednesday you could ask me some questions about prehistoric animals.