Blizzard Entertainment

Attention: This blog was updated on March 13 with additional information about the Diablo IV Open Beta. The below red font text signifies new information.

Gather around, wanderer. Your desire to combat Lilith’s legions in Diablo IV can be played out during our Open Beta and Early Access weekends—available on Windows PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4. Those who have pre-purchased Diablo IV will receive Early Access to the Open Beta from March 17–19. On the following weekend, the Open Beta will be available to everyone from March 24–26.

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This weekend, from March 9–12, we’re upgrading all inactive World of Warcraft accounts. Returning players will have full access to the game* and all their characters—including Dragonflight, for those who don’t own the latest expansion.

Experience the early campaign quests**, unlock and learn the art of Dragonriding, take your professions to the next level, traverse new dungeons, and fully explore the Dragon Isles during the trial period. If you participated in the previous Dragonflight Trial, you can also continue your adventure with your dracthyr Evoker.

In this Developer Insight, WoW Developer Chimes takes you deep into the new upgrade system arriving with the release of the Embers of Neltharion content update.

One of the features in the Embers of Neltharion content update that we’re rolling out for Dragonflight Season Two is a new upgrade system that will replace many of the various upgrade systems currently in place, such as Valor and Storm Gear, with a single system that covers most of the game. This system will last for the duration of Season Two, and after that we’ll evaluate how well it’s working and whether we  want to keep it.

The Gnome-Sized Version

The basics of this system are simple: you’ll earn a new currency called Flightstones from just about anything you do— complete a world quest, kill a unique creature, run a Mythic Keystone dungeon, kill a raid boss, etc. You’ll also get items called Shadowflame Crests (or fragments of them), which come...

The stage is set for more adventures within the Forbidden Reach in the 10.0.7 content update. But much more is taking shape beyond those island shores as we delve deeper into the Dragon Isles with the next content update—Embers of Neltharion.

New Zone: Zaralek Cavern

Gather your courage as you venture into this mysterious underground cavern where you’ll explore, undertake new quests, meet intriguing new denizens, and experience new Dragonriding updates. Players will also encounter new rare and elite creatures and claim new treasures.

Yogg-Saron Awaits!

Ulduar Timewalking is now available and Yogg-Saron – the lucid dream, the monster in your nightmares, and the fiend of a thousand faces – awaits.

When: The Ulduar raid is available throughout the Wrath Timewalking event.
Difficulty: The difficulty is set to Normal and, like any Normal level raid, will not be available through Raid Finder.
Minimum Level: Players level 60 and above are eligible to participate.

During Wrath Timewalking, you can assemble a raid group of between 10 and 30 players, travel to Dalaran in Northrend, and speak with Vormu to access a Timewalking version of the Ulduar raid. The raid scales for your group size and your level and gear will be scaled to match the raid’s challenges.

Don’t have a regular group? The Group Finder (I) can help.  Create your own group in the ‘Premad...

Battlegrounds is bringing back Battlegrounds Buddies for the mid-season update in Patch 25.6! Buddies are those friends, sidekicks, or pets that are specific to each Battlegrounds Hero and designed to synergize with their style of play. Buddies are earned throughout the match and can give you a big boost when you need it most! Now that Buddies are back, we’re building on that friendship with a few updates.

New Buddies!

Buddies are back for every Hero that had a Battleground Buddy before, but Battlegrounds has grown since Buddies were last here, so there are plenty of opportunities to make a new best friend! Heroes who don’t already have a Buddy will be getting their Buddy in Patch 25.6, like Murloc Holmes’ iconic new Buddy, Watfin!

Blizzard and One-Punch Man are teaming up to bring the first major collaboration to Overwatch 2! Starting tomorrow, March 7, and going through April 6, you’ll be able to collect all-new skins celebrating One-Punch Man characters and take part in our One-Punch Man event challenges to nab cool rewards, including an exclusive FREE Legendary Mumen Rider-Soldier: 76 skin.

Heroes Celebrating Heroes

When bringing the universe of One-Punch Man to Overwatch 2, we wanted to do it in a way that shows our heroes celebrating Saitama and his friends. Looking at the hero roster, Doomfist was a perfect fit for donning the iconic yellow suit and white cape, capturing the signature trademark of Saitama’s ability to defeat any enemy in a single punch!

Genji also gets a whole new look, going from cybernetic ninja to the cybernetic brawler, Genos! And, when it came to bringing the powerful psychic, Terrible Tornado to life, we knew no other Overwatch 2 hero could match her pe...

It’s the month of March which means, its PachiMarchi time! We had a ton of fun planning this month to celebrate our favorite little alien onion and now want to invite YOU to compete in our Community Clash on March 21 and 22!

The Community Clash 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 an all-new game mode.

Want to compete? Sign-ups are open to the entire community so gather your team and get registered here by March 16 (11:59 PM PDT): ...

Presented by Blizzard Entertainment’s Early Careers and World of Warcraft development teams, the twelfth annual World of Warcraft Student Art Contest has drawn to a close. After some fervent debate and impassioned deliberation, our judges sifted through the many remarkable entries and identified the winning entries.

Check out the winners and runners-up below for each of the four categories.

Environment Art Category

Winner

With the defeat of Raszageth secured, a new opportunity to seek out and find answers about the dracthyr Evokers and their history arises within the Forbidden Reach. This max-level experience introduces new bosses and objectives, additional storms, new loot, and more.

Welcome to Morqut Village on the Morqut Islet

Every adventure in a new land has a starting point, and yours will begin on the Morqut Islet. You’ll find a variety of vendors and quest givers ready to send you on your first adventures within the Forbidden Reach.

You’ll want to keep your eye out for treasures and Bonus Objectives...

Patch 25.4.3 is a data-only patch launching March 2 with the following updates.

Hearthstone Card Updates

Dev Comment: Overall, this is a little bit of a lighter patch for Standard. We just had a big infusion of cards with the mini-set, so this patch is just looking to address two major outliers after that card infusion. We’re excited to see where the mini-set lands after these adjustments.

For Wild, we’ve been discussing potential updates to the mode. In this patch, we’re making changes to help curb some of the mode’s negative play experiences. We don’t view these changes as exhaustive, but we are working on some more long-term updates that we’re excited to share once they are more solidified.

Construct Quarter

• Old: [3 Mana]
• New: [4 Mana]

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Embrace your legacy with two new Heritage Armor sets—one for orcs and one for humans—coming with the release of the 10.0.7 content update.

Human: An Urgent Matter

The Defias Brotherhood is up to their thieving ways once more and have stolen a dangerous and powerful artifact from Stormwind Keep! You’ll undertake the quest, “An Urgent Matter” from Master Matthias Shaw where you’ll aid him and an unlikely ally to uncover a mystery deeply rooted in Stormwind’s shadowy past and stop the forces that march on Northshire… and threaten Stormwind itself.

This new quest is available for players level 50 and up —who have reached Exalted with Orgrimmar or Stormwind—to undertake and gain several variations of the new human Heritage Armor to add to their collection.

Hail wanderer! We’ve returned with our second Developer Update Livestream. On June 6, Diablo IV will inject new gameplay elements into the Diablo universe, while simultaneously capturing the nightmarish aesthetic of its predecessors that originally enamored players.

For this livestream, we were joined by game director Joe Shely, lead systems designer Meng Song, and lead world designer Art Peshkov—some of our resident Diablo IV experts—who dug into details about our upcoming Open Beta and Early Access weekends (including Beta rewards), Strongholds, and the game’s Armor system. We also held...

Heroes around the world have put their names forth, and after careful consideration, we’re thrilled to announce the 2023 Overwatch® World Cup competition committees for the 36 invited teams.

Check back later in March for the results of World Cup Trials and committee announcements for the wild card teams!

Argentina

General Manager: Nacho “Desastreger” De Saeger

Head Coach: Gianluca “Xyan” Beer

Social Lead: Ivan “ReptiliaX” Tiviroli

Australia

General Manager: Sam “Face” Merewether

Head Coach: Max “Unter” Unterwurzacher

Social Lead: Jarrod “Frogger” Meredith

Belgium

General Manager: Kevin “Kevh” Hondijk

Head Coach: Neo “TheWeevil” Claes

Social Lead: Demis “Deemzies” Holvoet

Brazil

General Manager: Gabriel “Nitrao” Ribeiro

Head Coach: Mauricio “Honorato” Honorato

Social Lead: Alicia “Mirsthy” Grucci

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Get up to 20% off the Base, Heroic, and Epic Editions of Dragonflight through March 15, 2023.

It’s the perfect time to gift someone a new adventure in the Dragon Isles. Get up to 20% off the Base, Heroic, and Epic Editions of Dragonflight through March 15, 2023 and heed the dragons’ call as their ancient homelands are revealed once more.

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After a long journey traversing the bounds between worlds, Inarius has arrived from the High Heavens to take his place amidst the curios in your home.

This 26-inch replica of the Angiris Council’s rogue angel captures his resilience in the face of eternal damnation in the Burning Hells and is now available for pre-order on the Blizzard Gear Store! Plus, get ready to return to Sanctuary for the Diablo IV Open Beta from March 24-26—or pre-purchase the game to get Early Access to the Beta from March 17-19!

Safeguard Sanctuary in style with additional collectibles, including:

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[UPDATED FEB 22]:The Dragonflight portion of the Valentine's Sale offer has been extended and will be valid through March 15, 2023.

Whether you’re shopping for a Valentine's gift for yourself or your friends, we’ve got what you need.

Peddlefeet will help you hit the mark this Valentine's with a bounty of lovely deals. Give the gift of  Dragonflight, snuggle up with the Ultimate Cuddly Pack—a collection of Azeroth's most lovable pets, and chill out in Northrend with a cool discount on the Heroic Northrend Upgrade and Epic Northrend Upgrade for Wrath of the Lich King Classic™.

Show Your Love with the Gift of Dragonflight

It’s the perfect time to gift someone a new adventure in the Dragon Isles. ...

Hail, Wanderer.

At the heart of every Diablo IV developer is a Diablo fan. Over the course of our new Inside the Game video series, we’ll sit down with our resident Diablo IV experts—members of the development team—to walk you through elements of the game.

Our first video in this series is The World of Sanctuary—an ode to the rich world that you will soon traverse and reclaim from Lilith’s grasp.

Now, join senior quest designer II Harrison Pink, game director Joe Shely, senior dungeon designer Dini McMurry, and art director John Mueller as they expound upon these aspects of Diablo IV in the below developer video: art direction, environment, monsters, gameplay innovations, and world building.

Enjoyed this video and are hungry for more? Stay tuned! Additional Inside the Game videos will be published in this same format once we’re ready...

Power from the days of yore rests silently across Sanctuary, waiting to be uncovered once more. To what ends is for you to decide, Nephalem. Season 28: Rites of Sanctuary, goes live on February 24 at 5 p.m. PST/CET/KST. For an in-depth look at the seasonal theme, rewards, and the balance changes made between the end of the Patch 2.7.5 PTR and now, take a gander below.

Seasonal Journey

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[Updated 2/23] It won’t be long until the vendors in Orgrimmar and Stormwind trade out their wares for new items for the month of March, and February’s items go into storage.

Before the month comes to an end, if you haven’t purchased that one “must-have” item yet, don’t worry. You can “freeze” an item so you can purchase it later. When you freeze an item, it will stay available month over month until it is purchased or replaced. Don’t forget to also finish your Traveler’s Log and claim Ash'adar, Harbinger of Dawn mount, before time runs out! Check your progress by opening the Adventure Guide (Shift-J).

If February’s offerings didn’t have the items you wanted, you can hang on to your Trader’s Tender for next month’s offerings. It won’t go anywhere, and unspent Tender will continue to accumulate each month.

The Trading Post^* is now open for business^** with a multitude of ...