Blizzard Entertainment

Update on 11/19: PTR 2.7.2 testing has ended. Thank you all for your contributions and support. See you next season!

Update on 11/18: PTR 2.7.2 duration has been updated. Please see the link here for additional information.

Update on 11/12: PTR 2.7.2 has been updated. Please see below for changes and "Developer Note" annotations in RED

Our two-week PTR testing period for the 2.7.2 update begins November 4 and we're asking for your help to quell the tides of surging demons. Take a look at the preliminary patch notes below and start theorycrafting how you'll make the most of the Soul Shard system and item balance changes; Patch 2.7.2 PTR will be arriving soon.

Table of Contents

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In what proved to be a scary-good Global Finals, Echo prevailed as the champion with $150,000 (USD) prizing and the Mythic Dungeon International (MDI) gold medals!

The most winning team in MDI history, and now four-time champions, Echo has continued their incredible run after defeating Aster.Y 3-1 in the MDI Global Finals. Aster.Y, the first team out of China to make a top 2 in MDI history, will receive the silver medals while Ambition, winners of the Season 2 Last Stand Tournament to qualify for the Global Finals, will take home bronze. Heading into the Lower Finals when Aster.Y faced off Ambition to advance to the Grand Finals, AutomaticJak wasn’t mincing his words as he declared this to be “the most competitive Global Finals that we’ve ever had. The best teams that we’ve ever had, across the board.”

Echo entered the weekend in fifth seed, quickly defeating both Complexity and then Ambition to a...

Patch 21.6, launching November 2, brings big updates across Hearthstone, including a Mini-Set full of scoundrels and scallywags! Arrrrr you ready?!

Deadmines Mini-Set Launches on November 2!

Delve into the Deadmines in the United in Stormwind Mini-Set, coming November 2! Edwin VanCleef and his crew are waiting for you with 35 unique new cards featuring Pirates and new Tradeable synergies! Get them in United in Stormwind packs, or get the entire 66-card Mini-Set* for $14.99 or 2000 Gold! Card reveals will take place over the weekend and the full Mini-Set will be published in a ...

Embrace the cool of autumn with a purrfectly fuzzy friend—the Sunwarmed Furline mount*. This lovable kitty is pawsitively bound to pounce upon your heart.

Cozy up with a Purrfect Friend

With eyes of pure emerald and the tail of a fox, this magical cat can carry you effortlessly from land to land. But its favorite places in all of Azeroth happen to be anywhere the sun shines through the autumn leaves, especially when the warmth of a campfire is nearby.

You’ll be ready to take on new adventures wherever you go with this fuzziest of mounts. Now available in the Blizzard Shop and in-game Shop.

*Mount not available in World of Warcraft® Cl...

As the ride of the Headless Horseman draws to an end and his fires quenched, the citizens of Azeroth look toward celebrating the Day of the Dead. You won't need an invitation to have a /dance with Catrina, and you could even be a contender this year if you have the right outfit.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, and the news is out! The Shadowlands 9.1.5 content update goes live on November 2, while WoW Classic Season of Mastery opens name reservations on November 11 and goes live on November 16. Learn more about the design process behind the character creation UI in Shadowlands, the latest esports events, and more in this newest edition.

Shadowlands Under Development

The 9.1.5 Content Update Arrives November 2!

The 9.1.5 content update brings improvements to the Shadowlands Covenant systems, new ...

The release of Shadowlands provided a new opportunity to streamline and redesign the character creation process. Go behind-the-scenes with Senior UI Designer Jeff Liu to learn more about the thought processes behind it.

Greetings, denizens of Azeroth! My name is Jeff Liu, and I’m a Senior UI Designer on the World of Warcraft User Interface Team. I’m here to share some insights into the Character Creation redesign that launched with Shadowlands. With all the great new customization options that have been introduced recently, we thought this was a great time to pull back the curtain and show off a bit more of the behind-the-scenes design choices we’ve made to the user interface (UI).

I previously worked on the Transmogrification System and Auction House redesigns. Revamping old UIs is by far my favorite type of project, so I was incredibly excited to redesign the Character Creation screen.

This was part of the New Play...

Soldiers arise, stand, and fight! Bring victory at last to this fallen knight! 

Hallow’s End this year not only brings terror and delight to Azeroth but the spookiest MDI Global Finals have ever seen! What tricks and treats will the Casters and Players have in store? Following the culmination of four incredible weeks of MDI competition, the top six teams from the Global Region will join the top team from China and the top team from the Last Stand Tournament, where they will compete in a series of Best of 3, double-elimination matches, on their path to the Grand Finals on October 29. With a $300,000 (USD) prize pool on the line, you won’t want to miss any of the action when matches begin each broadcast day at 10 am PDT / 19:00 CEST, live on...

As we introduce a new name, you might have the desire to do the same. Starting 22 October, 2021 and continuing through 5 November, 2021, all players will be offered a free BattleTag name change. This applies to anyone who does not currently have a free name change available. Existing name changes will not stack for future use.

Players can request a name change through this form. You will receive a notification once your request has been processed. Please allow up to four weeks for processing.

Thanks and we’ll see you in game!

The Overwatch Team

The 21.4.4 patch, releasing later today, includes bug fixes, Battlegrounds updates, and miscellaneous non-player-facing backend updates.

Battlegrounds Updates

MINION UPDATES

Omega Buster

• Old: 6 Attack, 6 Health. Deathrattle: Summon six 1/1 Microbots. For each that doesn’t fit, give your Mechs +1/+1. → New: 5 Attack, 5 Health. Deathrattle: Summon five 1/1 Microbots. For each that doesn’t fit, give your Mechs +1/+1.

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We’re thrilled to announce details for the second competitive dungeon one-off tournament of the year, as The Great Push returns for Season 2, December 10-12! 

One of our core goals this year has been to push the boundaries of what competitive dungeon-running can look like, to look beyond the standard formats of the Mythic Dungeon International (MDI) to see how we can expand PVE Competition. In May we introduced the first-ever The Great Push, challenging teams to push keystones as high as possible within a limited time, with community and player response exceeding what we could have hoped.

For Season 2 we are evolving The Great Push to make it even better than before! We’re once again asking teams to push Keystones across six dungeons; in addition to four from Shadowlands, we are time walking all the way back to Legion for the remaining two! While only six teams will make it to the main event and compete for their share o...

With the release of the 9.1.5 content update, players will have access to new character customizations for select races allowing you to create a new version of your hero to take on the dangers of Azeroth. These new character customization options will be available for Highmountain Tauren, Lightforged Draenei, Nightborne, and Void Elves in character creation and with a visit to the in-game Barber. You'll be able to choose new jewelry, new tattoos, new hairstyles, and more.

Here are some examples below of the choices that await you.

Highmountain Tauren

Gather ‘round and listen in, it’s time for Tavern Talks, the series that highlights some of the amazing members of our fine tavern!

Luke “NoHandsGamer” Kooken is the talented Americas Grandmaster known for playing Hearthstone without using his hands. Here, he talks about how mindset is so important for living with his disability, and for thriving at the top level of competition. So, pull up a chair, it’s time for Tavern Talks!

The following interview has been edited for readability.

Q: Tell us about yourself and how you got into Hearthstone.

A: I have a chronic pain disability, which started in around 2009. In 2016, my pain levels flared up substantially. I started having trouble with the controls for other games, so my brother introduced me to Hear...

Hallow’s End has returned! The Headless Horseman has taken over the tavern and the festivities are underway! The spooky celebration is spread out over three weeks this year, from October 19 through November 9, with freebies, special offers, and fan-favorite activities across that time.

Pick Out Your Costume

First things first, it’s not Hallow’s End without some costumes. With the Fairy Tales Bundle, you get classic, fairy tales-themed costumes for your Hunter, Mage, Priest, and Shaman heroes! Or, if you plan to spend your time in Bob’s tavern this Hallow’s End, you can pick up the Battlegrounds Hallow’s End bundle, which includes a Gala Medivh alternate Bartender and seven costumes for your Battlegrounds heroes.

...

The Masters Tour heads to the Alliance capital of Stormwind! More than 400 invited players from over 40 countries will compete for a chance to take home a share of the $250,000 (USD) prize pool. Earn Year of the Phoenix Drops as you watch top players from around the world battle for their shot at claiming the title of Masters Tour Stormwind champion, only on YouTube!

Details

• Dates: Friday, October 22– Sunday, October 24, 2021
  • Day 1: Swiss Rounds 1-4
  • Day 2: Swiss Rounds 5-8
  • Day 3: Round of...

For a limited time*, you can get a slew of Hearthstone goodies when you purchase a World of Warcraft 6-Month Subscription from the Blizzard Shop.

What you Get:

Once you’ve purchased your subscription, you’ll receive 15 card packs to United in Stormwind, a Tavern Pass, and Battleground Perks. You’ll receive an additional 15 Mercenaries card packs with the release of Mercenaries on October 12.

As an additional bonus, you’ll also receive 15 card packs from a future Hearthstone expansion along with 15 Mercenaries card packs, a Tavern Pass, and Battleground perks at a future date.

For those who already own a 6-Month subscription, please visit our ...

The spookiest time of year is drawing nigh, as the citizens of Azeroth prepare for Hallow’s End and look to the sky for the return of the Headless Horseman!

This week, learn about some of the latest updates made to the 9.1.5 PTR including an additional player customization, class balancing, and much more. In WoW Classic, groups can queue together to take on pre-made PvP in Burning Crusade Classic battlegrounds. Plus, get more insight into the design intentions and changes coming to WoW Classic Season of Mastery.

Don’t forget to unlock Sarge’s Tale, a free World of Warcraft* mount, through Hearthstone’s new Mercenaries game mode.

Play Hearthstone Mercenaries® and Ride into action on Sarge!

Earn the new mount Sarge free when you play Hearthstone® Mercenaries, an all-new single-player roguelike game mode! Learn more details in our ...

The spookiest event of the season has returned to Overwatch, bringing with it a slew of sinister new skins guaranteed to transform every battlefield into a graveyard smash. Some of the treats you might find in your Loot Boxes this Halloween include Echo’s blood-chilling Vampire Bat attire, a grim new getup for Bastion, and the styled-to-slay Vampire Hunter Brigitte.

To celebrate this frightful event, we caught up with concept artists Daryl Tan and Morten Skaalvik to discuss how they approached designing three of the latest Legendaries.

Halloween Terror gives the minds on the Overwatch team a chance to indulge their spookiest artistic senses. From ‘80s slasher flicks

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Greetings! I’m Tian, a Lead Data Scientist on the Hearthstone team. In this blog post, I am going to talk about some details behind ratings and matchmaking in the PvP Fighting Pit of our brand-new game mode, Mercenaries!

The Mercenaries rating and matchmaking system is the most complicated rating and matchmaking system we’ve ever used in one of our game modes! At its core, though, we had two simple ideas:

• For ratings, our main goal was to make the value best indicate player skill over time, rather than Mercenary level, Ability/Equipment level, or team composition.
• For matchmaking, our main goal was to achieve “fair” matches within a reasonable queue time, taking into account your rating, Merc levels, Ability/Equipment levels, and Party Roles.

There are several factors that impact how we update your post game ratings and how we find you an opponent during the matchmaking phase, including: your ratings, the level of y...

Earn the new mount Sarge free when you play Hearthstone® Mercenaries*, an all-new a single-player roguelike game mode!

Build and customize your dream team of iconic Warcraft characters—like Sylvanas Windrunner or Ragnaros the Firelord—to take into battle, vanquish foes, and collect bounties. Use your earnings to customize, upgrade, and equip your team with the abilities and treasures needed to jump back into battle and storm through ever-changing maps. . . or other players! As your Mercenaries progress, so too will their opponents, so keep your strategies at the forefront as you tackle this all-new combat system.

How to get your very own Sarge

Interested in adding Sarge to your World of Warcraft coll...

The 21.4 patch, releasing tomorrow, launches Hearthstone’s newest game mode, Mercenaries! The patch also includes some bug fixes and preparations for future updates.

Quite the Roster

Mercenaries is launching with 51 playable Mercenaries! We’ve compiled a list of all Mercenaries who will be playable at launch, as well as all their Abilities and Equipment. The Card Library will hold all this in...