Blizzard Entertainment

Wrath of the Lich King Classic provides new opportunities to make a few changes that will improve the gameplay experience in the next chapter of Classic WoW. In this Developer Update, the World of Warcraft Classic Team takes you through some of those changes and what they can mean for the future of Wrath Classic.

#SomeChanges

When World of Warcraft Classic first launched, it followed a very strict design pillar: #NoChanges. At Blizzard, we faithfully recreated World of Warcraft as it existed in 2006, with as few changes as possible, while still making it able to run in the more modern environment of 2019. But World of Warcraft didn’t stop in 2006. It continued to evolve and change over the years. So, we re-released the Burning Crusade expansion last year in 2021, and plans are underway to re-release the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

However,...

Junker Queen joins the Overwatch 2 roster as the newest tank hero with a big axe and even bigger ideas. As we saw in The Wastelander cinematic, the Scrapyard’s sovereign is fierce, resourceful, and no stranger to survival. And now, she’s come to claim her rightful throne.

Junker Queen’s playstyle and kit were built from her pre-existing Overwatch lore. The Junkertown map showcases her tough, almost brutal, personality, and we wanted her abilities and playstyle to match that energy. This type of design—constructing a character’s kit to match their established identity—is called top-down design. Junker Queen was in Overwatch’s narrative well before we had a design for her kit, which meant she had big community expectations resting on her stately shoulders. Now, as she steps out of the lore and into the l...

World of Warcraft®: Dragonflight is now available for pre-purchase in-game and through the Blizzard Shop!

As long-dormant forces begin to stir in their sacred homeland, the dragons of Azeroth—at times both allies and adversaries of the mortal races—call on the heroes of the Alliance and Horde to help reckon with the looming threats and ancient mysteries on the verge of awakening.

Audio Description version.

Take Wing to a New Beginning

Welcome the summer with great WoW® deals on special items up to 50% off now through July 4! Read on to discover what’s on sale.

Give the gift of World of Warcraft®: Shadowlands This Summer

• Base Edition: $19.99 (Reg. $39.99) 
• Heroic Edition: $29.99 (Reg. $59.99) 
• Epic Edition: $44.99 (Reg. $79.99) 

Join millions of players and get the complete Shadowlands experience to enjoy a timeless adventure into the realms of the afterlife and across Azeroth. With a single subscription, you can access World of Warcraft®, World of Warcraft®: Burning Crusade Classic™, and World of Warcraft Classic! 

...

It’s time for Azeroth’s hottest season of the year, the Midsummer Fire Festival!

Shadowlands

When: June 21–July 5
Where: Major Horde and Alliance Cities
Currency: Burning Blossom

"A time of merriment and celebration, dedicated to the hottest season of the year."

• Activities
• Achievements
• ...

The festivities have begun as the citizens of Azeroth and Outland celebrate the hottest of seasons by playing with fire!

When: June 21–July 5
Where: Located Capital Cities

Midsummer Fire Festival

Across Azeroth and Outland, brilliant bonfires have been lit to rekindle peoples’ spirits and ward off ancient evils. Each year, new guardians are chosen to watch over the sacred flames and ensure that they are never extinguished.

Called "Flame Keepers" or "Flame Wardens," these chosen few request the aid of brave adventurers to traverse the land and journey into the dark recesses of Azeroth's dungeons. It is rumored that any heroes who are willing to brave the terrors placed before them will be rewarded for their efforts through the power of the flames.

Activities

The third Battlegrounds: Lobby Legends is ready to light up the weekend! The top 16 Battlegrounds players from around the world will put on their dancing shoes and compete for their share of the $50,000 (USD) prize pool, while showcasing Hero Skins and the Disco Dynamite Battlegrounds Strike from within the brand-new ...

In this week's news roundup, the World of Warcraft®: Dragonflight Druid and Death Knight talent previews are available, "Fresh Start" realms coming for Wrath of the Lich King Classic™, player-submitted screenshots, and more!

Dragonflight News and Development

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight Talent Preview

Dragonflight contains major updates to World of Warcraft classes, centering on the re-introduction of talent trees. In case you missed our preview, we take a first look at the prototype trees for the Druid and Death Knight classes. These and all the other trees still have a lot of work to be done, but we want to share what we can to start collecting detailed feedback at this early stage, so be sure to share your thoughts with us. [...

The next Overwatch 2 Beta is on its way and will include console support, Junker Queen, and Rio—a hybrid map that’s home to Lucio’s “Clube Sinestesia!” This next phase of testing is slated to begin June 28 at 11:00 a.m. PDT and run until July 18. Please keep in mind the end date may be extended based on what our testing needs are at that time.

The beta will be available on PC, Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Because we’re expanding this beta to more platforms, all players, including those who previously had access, will need to opt-in again starting June 16 at 11:00 a.m. PDT. Players will need to specify which platform they would like to play on when they opt in for this beta. 

We are here to help and answer some of your most burning questions! 

Q. I had access to the first Overwatch 2 PVP Beta, will I automatically roll over to the next beta as well? 
A. Beta access does not roll over from the previous Overwatch 2 PvP Beta. For the u...

This week, we shared something near and dear to the team’s heart—Overwatch is back. 

Overwatch 2 is releasing on October 4 as a free-to-play live experience, and we'd like to explain exactly what that means for our game. Overwatch 2 will have seasonal updates on a regular cadence and a Battle Pass that will feature new content including new heroes, game modes, maps, cosmetics, and more! We’ll also be outlining Seasons One and Two and plans extending into 2023 with a roadmap for the game. 

A free-to-play, live experience

Making Overwatch 2 free-to play is a natural step forward for our game and our players. Overwatch, even since its debut, has always been a social game, and our community has always has the most fun when we come together. Free-to-play removes the barrier to entry, allowing anyone, anywhere to jump into the game, group up with friends, or find people to play with online. Along with this shift to free-to-play, we’ll be adding cross–progre...

Patch 23.4.3, launching June 16, includes balance changes to Standard, Battlegrounds, and Mercenaries, plus more!

Card Updates

Dev Comments: We have a lot of big Standard balance changes coming this patch (and one for Wild!) which are attempting to accomplish a few different goals. First, we want to lower the power level of the most powerful decks in the current metagame - Fel Demon Hunter and Control Warrior variants. Roughly half of the changes in this patch are balance-motivated and intended to target the winrates of these decks directly.

The rest of the changes in this patch are not primarily motivated by power level, but are instead focused on improving the play-against experience of some of the more polarizing cards in the game.

The following cards have been adjusted to have their power reduced:

Shield Shatter

• Old: Deal 5 damage to ...

Diablo fans around the world have turned to tattoos to manifest not just their passion for the franchise, but the stories of family, friendships, and memories they’ve made playing Diablo games.

To honor our community and celebrate Diablo’s 25th anniversary this year, we’re launching the Diablo Hell’s Ink tattoo shop takeover tour, which will kick off in Los Angeles and travel East. . .always to the East.

Each Diablo Hell’s Ink takeover event will feature some of the world’s greatest tattoo artists creating bespoke tattoos, inspired by the Diablo universe with their own unique art style, for a few of the world’s biggest Diablo fans.

...

Gather your staunchest allies and head into the Firelands raid dungeon to take on the elemental lord Ragnaros and his cohorts—and take on six dungeons from Deathwing’s era— during Cataclysm Timewalking.

The Firelands is the molten domain forged by the titans to house Ragnaros and his wayward minions. Following Deathwing’s emergence into Azeroth, Ragnaros and his servants surged onto the slopes of Mount Hyjal before being driven back by the sacred mountain’s valiant defenders. Now Ragnaros is rallying his loyalists to defend the Firelands from Azeroth’s champions.

When: The ...

Overwatch 2, launching on October 4, will be free-to-play on Windows® PC and Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, and Nintendo Switch™ consoles.

Anyone can join, and anyone can play and take part in our always-on, always-evolving live service. This is the most significant release in Overwatch history since its debut, and it will begin with early access to a new PvP experience, heroes, maps, and more with a new, free-to-play model.

At its core, we believe the game is a social experience that should be shared with everyone. This shift to free-to-play will open up and make the world of Overwatch available to more people than ever before, removing the barrier of entry and making it easier than ever to quickly jump into a match with friends. Inclusion is a strong driving force for this decision; when we stick together and work as a team, there's nothing that can stand in our way.

Save the Date for the Overwatch 2 Reveal Event 

...

The Overwatch team has some exciting, fresh-off-the-press news to share with our community. We've been eagerly awaiting the moment we can show you all the things we have been creating, so mark your calendars, set your alarms, and don’t miss out! The Overwatch 2 Reveal Event will be on the PlayOverwatch YouTube and Twitch channels on June 16 at 10:00 a.m. PDT.

Up until now, we have introduced the new damage hero, Sojourn, Push, hero reworks, new maps, and a variety of new features all coming to Overwatch 2. The team is committed to being trans...

The Overwatch team has been ideating and experimenting with a handful of heroes since the PvP Beta wrapped up. Here’s a hint to one of the heroes we’ve been working on so far:

"The true struggle is for the superiority of ideas."

We’ve been cooking up some new ideas for Moira, and we’re considering how she will perform as we step into the future of the game.

Led by Associate Hero Designer Alex Kwok, the Hero Balance and Design Team is looking at how to best update Moira’s kit for Overwatch 2. She’s an effective support—sometimes too effective in certain metas like GOATS. However, we believe she lacks the play-making ability and utility possessed by other supports on the roster. To improve the feel of her gameplay, we’re iterating on fresh changes that will give her kit more depth; as we navigate toward this goal, we’re here to give you an inside look at how we ideate and iterate on hero design.

Hero Balance and Design Iteration Process

Steel yourself for Battleground combat!

Seven Days on the Battlegrounds

All this week, heading to the Battlegrounds will net you some extra Honor along with bonus loot for completing this week’s quest. To enter the fray, open Group Finder (hotkey: "I") and then select the Player vs. Player tab. Next choose Quick Match, select Random Battlegrounds or Random Epic Battlegrounds, and hit the Join Battle button—you’ll be matched up with other players and sent to one of these 12 battlegrounds:

• Alterac Valley
• Arathi Basin
• Ashran
• Battle for Gilneas
• Battle for Wintergrasp
• Deepwind Gorge
• Eye of the Storm
• Isle of Conquest
• Seething Shore
• Silvershard Mines
• Temple of Kotmogu
• Twin Peaks
• Warsong Gulch

Weekly Quest

Before you get started, speak to Caretaker Kah-Toll in Oribos who has a que...

Slip into summer during the Thousand Boat Bash taking place in Thousand Needles from June 6-8!

Call of the Scarab
[January 21-23]

To commemorate the first ringing of the Scarab Gong on January 23, 2006, players will be able to relive a portion of the Ahn’Qiraj gate opening by collecting items for turn-in. The winning faction will then be able to claim bragging rights and have their faction flag hang over the gates until the next Call of the Scarab micro-holiday event.

Hatching of the Hippogryphs
[February 23]

Those wh...

Dragonflight contains major updates to World of Warcraft classes, centering on the re-introduction of talent trees. In this preview, we take a first look at the prototype trees for the Druid and Death Knight classes. These and all the other trees still have a lot of work to be done, but we want to share what we can to start collecting detailed feedback at this early stage.

Some of our biggest goals in a class and talent revamp are to increase player agency over your character’s progression and build, provide meaningful rewards while leveling, and reinforce your character’s connection to both their class and their spec. In addition, we felt we had to retain many features of modern World of Warcraft sp...

Skarn’s devilishly diabolical minions have invaded Hearthstone, Call of Duty: Mobile, and Diablo III. Instead of leaving destruction in their wake, they have left behind flame-kissed rewards for players to acquire—an unorthodox turn of events in celebration of Diablo Immortal’s recent launch. Can these mysterious gifts from Hell’s emissaries be trusted? There’s only one way to find out—YOU must collect them all! To aid you in this quest, we’ve notated each item below and how it can be obtained.

If you haven’t already joined the fight to reclaim Sanctuary, download Diablo Immortal for iOS, Android, or PC in Open Beta. You’ll also receive the Horad...