Blizzard Entertainment

Each week we’ll look ahead to what’s in store for World of Warcraft, share the latest news, and keep you in the know byte by byte.  The way into Zaralek Cavern opens May 2 with all new adventures to undertake, new dangers to face, and much more to explore.

News and Events This Week

• May 1
  • (Event) Children’s Week Holiday May 1-8
  • (Shop) Give the Gift of Dragonflight and Save on Select Character Services
• May 2
  • (Event) Embers of Neltharion Now Live
    • New Gameplay Trailer
  • (Event) PvP Brawl: Southshore vs. Tarren Mill
  • (Event)Turbulent Timeways: Wrath of the Lich King
  • (Promotion) New Twitch Drops Available
• May 4
  • (Promotion) Bring Your Friends and Take Wing with the Dragonflight Expansion Trial
  ...

It’s the perfect time to gift someone a new adventure in the Dragon Isles. Get up to 40% off the Base, Heroic, and Epic Editions of Dragonflight through May 15, 2023 and heed the dragons’ call as their ancient homelands are revealed once more.

Buy Now

Whether you’re new to Dragonflight or a seasoned veteran bringing along ...

It’s time to give back to the children of Azeroth during Children’s Week! Take an orphan under your wing and show them the wonders of the world.

Throughout the year, the orphans of Azeroth spend much of their time wandering their home cities, dreaming of the day they’ll be old enough (and big enough) to go out into the world to experience the adventures and marvels they’ve missed as children. During Children’s Week, the giving souls of the Horde and the Alliance can help make those dreams come true.

Also, you can earn even more Trader's Tender while completing select activities with your little protégé.

Traveling with orphans is now easier than ever! All orphans (except Wolvar and Oracle) now have their own mounts, making it all that much easier to show them the wonders of Azeroth.

Overview

New items are in full bloom at the Trading Post for the month of May. You’re bound to find something new to add to your collection. 

Visit T&W (Tawney and Wilder) just outside the Mage District in Stormwind or the Zen’shiri Trading Post next to Grommash Hold in Orgrimmar to check out all the latest items they have available.

Here’s What’s in Stock for May

Stay up to date with World of Warcraft when you join us each week as we round up some of the latest top blue posts and discussions.

Here are this week's highlights:

• Updates and Reminders for Dragonflight Season 2: Updates and reminders on transitioning to Dragonflight Season 2 are available, including how Mythic Keystones and the Revival Catalyst will work.
• Thundering Hero Mythic+ Title Cutoff: Every day through the end of Dragonflight Season 1, we're updating the rating cutoff for this title that goes to the top 0.1% of Mythic+ players. (...

Heroes across the galaxy will converge in our next open community tournament! Gather your friends, practice your best heroes, and sign up for our single-elimination tournament taking place on May 10 and 11!

The Starwatch Open will be a 2-day single-elimination tournament for PC players featuring a $20,000 prize pool. We’ll be broadcasting the semifinals and finals on our PlayOverwatch Twitch Channel, along with a fun exhibition game featuring the new Starwatch PVP game mode.

Want to compete? Sign-ups are open to the entire community, so gather your team and get registered here by May 7 (11:59 PM PDT): ...

Join us for the first episode of WoWCast, where we journey through Embers of Neltharion with World of Warcraft Associate Game Director Morgan Day and Lead Game Designer - Worlds Maria Hamilton, hosted by Community Manager Bethany Stout.

We look forward to your continuing adventures on the Dragon Isles.

We’re teaming up with Amazon Prime Gaming for a special offer. For a limited time, Prime Gaming subscribers can obtain an irascible pet!

Starting April 27, 2023 at 9:30 a.m. PDT until May 25, 2023 at 9:29 PDT Prime Gaming members can claim a Lil'XT pet.

Programmed with boundless energy and a child-like enthusiasm, Lil’ XT, the mini-Deconstructor is an irascible pet. Despite his diminutive size, Lil’ XT can still fracture the ground beneath his feet with his tiny tympanic tantrums that discharge massive amounts of electricity into the air.

Claim Offer

Patch 26.0.4 is a data-only patch that includes bug fixes and balance updates to Standard, Wild, Battlegrounds, and Duels!

Hearthstone Updates

Dev Comment: Overall, we’re pretty happy with meta diversity and power in Standard right now. There are a few outliers that we’re looking to reign in with this patch, but the bigger focus is on raising the power level of some of the new Festival of Legends cards and archetypes, so that they can compete with the stronger stuff and people can feel better about trying out these fun new strategies.

System Update

All Death Knight cards with any three-rune requirements (Frost-Frost-Frost, Blood-Frost-Unholy, etc.) are now removed from all Discover pools and random generation effects.

Dev Comment: Death Knight is very strong as a class right now, and this change weakens the class across the board. We’ve also...

Dragonflight Season 2 introduces an all-new way to upgrade your gear with a new upgrade system. This system will replace most of the upgrade systems that are in place, including Valor and Storm Gear. You’ll be able to optimize your gear by upgrading almost any item you earn during the season, whether you earn it from a World Quest or Heroic Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible.

New Upgrade Currencies

There are two new primary currencies you’ll gain as you make your way through the latest content available: Flightstones and Shadowflame Crests. Flightstones can be earned from doing quests, found in treasures, and many other activities. You’ll be able to have 2,000 Flightstones at a time during the season, but there’s no limit on how many you can earn (and spend!) in a week. Shadowflame Crest Fragments are available in four varieties, depending on the difficulty of the content they come from, and can be ea...

We’re teaming up with Amazon Prime Gaming once again for a special offer. For a limited time, Prime Gaming subscribers can obtain a fearsome mount!

Starting today until April 27, 2023 Prime Gaming members can bring their awesomeness to bear when they claim this epic mount. 

Claim Offer

Not a Prime Gaming member? Click here to activate your account or start a FREE 30-day trial!

Once you claim ...

During our Twitch Makes Overwatch livestream last December, developers teamed up with the community to think up one of the most exaggerated concepts for an Overwatch 2 map ever. Senior game director Aaron Keller, art director Dion Rogers, and community manager Andy Belford all followed your suggestions to build a one-of-a-kind, non-canon Control map that’s surely a death trap for nearly every Overwatch hero. Thus, the underwater base Talon was born, featuring jump pads and an elevator that allows players to choose up to five different ways to approach the control point. Now, at long last, the community will be able to play this Talantis map for a limited time today through May 8.

All Overwatch 2 maps begin with a “blockout”, which builds from basic shapes to establish a general play style and theme. The blockout for Talantis was created in a span of a few hours while live on stream, with Twitch viewers commenting on features they wanted to see added to the map. It...

Each week we’ll look ahead to what’s in store for World of Warcraft, share the latest news, and keep you in the know byte by byte.  Here’s what is in the queue this week as we draw closer to the release of Embers of Neltharion the week of May 2.

Learn more about everything that’s arriving in the Embers of Neltharion content update in our latest video featuring Kelani.

News and Events This Week

• April 24
  • (Video) Everything Coming in Embers of Neltharion | Featuring Kelani
• April 25
  • (Event) Battleground Bonus Event
  • (Event) PvP Brawl: Temple of Hotmogu
  • (Event)Turbulent Timeways: Burning Crusade Timewalking
• April 26
  • (Article) New Twitch Drops Ahead
  ...

Customization is a cornerstone of Diablo IV. From how your character looks, to the Skills they wield, to the appearance of their Gear and Mount, Diablo IV empowers players with a level of agency never previously offered in a Diablo game. The decision of what type of wanderer you want to play in the world of Sanctuary begins at the Class selection screen and follows you into the Endgame. It’s up to YOU to decide how your character will grow and evolve as they pursue Lilith.

Watch the latest Inside the Game developer video on player choice and continue reading for more insight into the customization available to players. Plus, learn how you can play Diablo IV from May 12–14 during Server Slam.

Codex

Watch the Newest Inside the Game Developer Video

...

Stay up to date with World of Warcraft when you join us each week as we round up some of the latest top blue posts and discussions.

• Embers of Neltharion PTR: On Wednesday, the latest PTR development notes were published, and the Embers of Neltharion PTR was updated for testing. Updates this week included cla...

Calling all wanderers! In preparation for the launch of Diablo IV on June 6, we must enlist your demon-cleansing services for one final task: Server Slam.

From May 12, 12 p.m.–May 14, 12 p.m. PDT, everyone can come to Sanctuary’s defense on Windows PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4—along with couch co-op for consoles and cross-play and cross-progression for all platforms—against the armies of the Burning Hells to help us test the durability of our servers.

Journal

What to Expect During Server Slam

Earn Server Slam Rewards as...

Looking back, we saw many changes go into Season Three to minimize role deltas in matches, and we wanted to take a look at the results we saw following the change. Let’s jump into the details with Senior Software Engineer Morgan Maddren and Lead Meta Designer Scott Mercer.

Season Three Role Delta Results

Role delta is something we’ve talked about previously on matchmaking blogs as well as the ...

The first Masters Tour of the year is this weekend, with players competing on the newest expansion, Festival of Legends! Sixteen of the top players from the January, February, and March Ladders will face off for their share of the $50,000 (USD) prize pool and an invite to the 2023 World Championship. Read on for everything you need to know to enjoy the action, only on Twitch and ...

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, Wrath of the Lich King Classic, Burning Crusade Classic and WoW Classic. Some of the hotfixes below take effect the moment they were implemented, while others may require scheduled realm restarts to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. This list will be updated as additional hotfixes are applied.

Hotfixes

April 18, 2023

Classes

• Warlock
  • Demonology
    • Fixed an issue where Immutable Hatred would persist while untalented.

April 14, 2023

Classes

• Warlock
  • Demonology...

No longer will you have to wish your Horde heart could find a home with the amazing Alliance guild you just cleared a random raid with. Nor do you have to don a cheery Alliance front after wishing a fond farewell to some fantastic Horde heroes after a successful Heroic.

We're blurring the faction line for guilds and allowing players to create and join same-realm guilds with their friends from the opposite faction when the Embers of Neltharion update arrives on May 2.

Some things to remember with cross-faction guilds:

• Guild affiliation with the Alliance or Horde will depend on the faction of the Guild Leader, and guild achievements and vendors will still reflect the guild's primary faction.
• Guild members of the opposite faction will benefit from unlocked shared perks but cannot contribute to specific achievements. As an example, Alliance members of a Horde guild could not contribute progress towards the "Alliance Slayer" guild achie...