Blizzard Entertainment

[Updated Aug. 27] The Shadowlands Collector’s Edition is Shipping Early 

Good news! The Shadowlands Collector’s Edition will ship from retailers early beginning on October 13 ahead of the start of the October 26 expansion launch date.

Once you receive your Collector’s Edition, you’ll be able to explore the many keepsakes right out of the box including the Covenant Sigils– Four-Pin Collector’s Set, Art of the Shadowlands art book, Shattered Sky mousepad, and the Collector’s Edition Digital Soundtrack Key.

When you redeem your Epic Edition game key, you’ll also receive 30 days of game time along with access to the Epic Edition digital goodies immediately to enjoy while you wait for the official global launch of the Shadowlands expansion beginning October 26. Once live, you’ll be able to join with your allies to explore all of the epic ne...

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Since Blizzard began working from home full-time in March, the Hearthstone team hasn’t missed a beat, delivering regular content and updates to our players, and launching two full expansions, including the recently-released Scholomance Academy.

Undertaking a project as complex and involved as a Hearthstone expansion while working remotely requires adapting to uncertainty on the fly, and often wholly reinventing familiar processes. We spoke with a few members of the team to get insights on how they made it work, and asked them to share some advice on wrangling big projects while working from home. Of course, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to also ask them about their personal favorite Scholomance Academy cards. Check out their responses below.

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What were the biggest challenges you encountered while launching an expansion while working remotely? What advice would you give to someone in a similar situation?...

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As Shadowlands continues further into Beta, we wanted to provide an insider’s look at the development process of creating some of the great features that you’ll see in the expansion. In this Engineer’s Workshop, we’re focusing on developing a feature simultaneously for mobile and PC platforms with the new Adventures feature, our new offline progression system for Shadowlands. Adventures is a spiritual successor to Missions & Followers systems from previous expansions that allows you to send parties comprised of five adventurers to fight enemy encounters in an auto-battler format.

It Begins With System Design

Every feature begins in system design where our designers take a set of goals and hammer out the framework to create what’s known as a feature pitch, which t...

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GENERAL

• New observer interface added, “Pro 2020”.
  • Supports 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 games at 16x9.
  • Previously seen earlier this year at IEM Katowice and War Chest Team League.
  • Features larger numbers and icons for improved mobile and couch viewing.
  • Reduced text for multi-region broadcasts.

CO-OP MISSIONS

• Maps
  • Part and Parcel
    • The mission timer now starts with 90 additional seconds.
  • Scythe of Amon
    • The Warp Prism for the bonus objective will now announce its planned path 20 seconds before moving.
• Alarak
  • Shadow of Death Prestige
    • This Prestige has been reworked.
    • The Mothership and its Destroyers no longer receive reduced stats fro...

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Join us during the gamescom Opening Night Live stream to watch the first of four new animated shorts, Afterlives, offering you a window into the ancient and powerful Covenants that rule over the four new zones in Shadowlands.

Where: ...

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As a part of our ongoing series of articles featuring many of the collectibles in World of Warcraft, we've set our sights on Cataclysm. Dig into the many riches found in this expansion. There are a variety of ways to lay claim to these mounts, pets, and toys, whether it's from defeating a rare boss, collecting specific currencies, or proving your bravery on the Molten Front, you're sure to expand your stash of treasures.

Currencies

There are several different currencies used in Cataclysm. Here are some of the primary types that you'll want to make sure you have at hand.

• Gold
• ...

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We are excited to announce that in the Shadowlands beta, you can enhance your game’s visual fidelity with our newly added ray-traced shadows.

Ray tracing can provide heightened visual quality by rendering shadows more realistically. This visual improvement is a great fit for World of Warcraft’s distinct stylized art direction, and helps create a more immersive world.

Rendering Realism

World of Warcraft has historically used a single directional light (e.g. a skybox containing a sun, a glittering galaxy, or a chaotic cluster of lightning) to illuminate a scene. At times, we’d insert a light inside a space even when it didn’t necessarily have a source—for gameplay purposes, we can’t have you scouring a dungeon in complete darkness, even if the area has no obvious objects to act as a light source. With the addition of ray-traced shadows, World of Warcraft can now support additional shadow-casting lights (e...

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War is upon us. Earlier this month, one of the most anticipated events of World of Warcraft: Classic went live—the Ahn’Qiraj war effort. Entire Classic realms—the might of the Horde and Alliance combined—came together, contributing resources to open the gates and unlock the Ahn’Qiraj raids. When the War of the Shifting Sands took place the first (and only) time in 2006, thousands of players from each realm flew or hoofed it over to Silithus to partake in or witness the chaos. The turnout was beyond the development team’s wildest imaginings and, simply put, we were not prepared. Servers quickly become overloaded, and many players were caught in a loop of logging in, disconnecting, and trying to get back online over a 12-hour period while our engineers scrambled to hotfix issues and get players reconnected. While we did manage to stabilize servers during the event, and learned quite a few lessons, we saw opportunities to do better. Fifteen years later, we were read...

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Sixteen of the best Arena World Championship (AWC) teams from North America and Europe will compete in the very last stage of the AWC Battle for Azeroth season. Watch the AWC Battle for Azeroth Circuit live every weekend for four weeks beginning August 22 at 10 a.m. PDT only on YouTube Gaming to see who will compete at the AWC Regional Finals.

Enter the Arena

The top Arena teams in North America and Europe have emerged after a grueling four week-long season of open bracket AWC Cups. They have proven themselves worthy, and now face their biggest challenge. The eight best teams from each region will...

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Heroes of the Storm has just been updated with Hero balance changes! Read on for details.

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Quick Navigation:

• Heroes
• Bug Fixes

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Heroes

TANK	...

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The Horde and the Alliance face a new challenge within the Shadowlands, but even the most dedicated champions can’t be at their computer all of the time. To stay on top the latest events in Azeroth, you’ll be able to download the free mobile app that lets players take World of Warcraft with you anywhere you go with multiple expansion support—including the new Adventures feature in Shadowlands.

With the updated WoW Companion App, you’ll be able to choose from the Legion, Battle for Azeroth, and Shadowlands expansion to access the content you want on the go, view the latest World of Warcraft news, and set your favorite characters for quick access.

Note: To access each expansion’s content within the app, you’ll need to have first unlocked it within the game.

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Plan and Manage Your Shadowlands Adventures

With the updated WoW Companion App, you’ll be able to delve into your role ...

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Get swept away on an auditory journey through the music of the Tides of Vengeance, Rise of Azshara, and Visions of N’Zoth content updates.

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Music from Battle for Azeroth: Tides of Vengeance

0:00:00 - Boralus Intro by Sam Cardon, Leo Kaliski
0:00:24 - Kul Tiran Human Allied Race by Sam Cardon
0:17:39 - Kul Tiran Battle by Sam Cardon, Glenn Stafford
0:37:14 – Zandalar Forever by Sam Cardon
0:56:31 – Zandalari Troll Allied Race by Sam Cardon
1:19:43 – Forsaken Flame by Adam Burgess
1:37:17 – Night Warrior by Jason Hayes, Leo Kaliski
1:55:34 – Islands Dark Forest by Glenn Stafford
2:10:59 - Islands Vrykul Longboat by Glenn Stafford
2:22:42 – Crucible Of Storms by Neal Acree, Leo Kaliski
2:29:44 – Windrunner by Sam Cardon
2:39:36 – Warsong Gulch by Glenn Stafford
2:43:13 – Arathi Basin by Glenn Stafford
2:48:44 – A B...

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Ready your wands, the Scholomance Inn-vitational is upon us! Taking place on August 25, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. PT, the Scholomance Inn-vitational will split 20 Hearthstone personalities into 10 teams of 2 players, each representing a Dual-Class pairing! $100,000 in prizing is on the line, along with the bragging rights that come with being the Scholomance Inn-vitational champions!

How it works:

• Each team will prepare four decks using cards from their Dual-Class pairing and at least 10 Scholomance Academy cards overall.
• Each player will independently play through 4 rounds of best-of-three matches, with each game victory awarding their team 1 point.
• If both players on a team win their match with a 2-0 game score, that team will earn an additional 2 points.
• The final team placements and respective prizing will be determined by the total team point score after all 4 rounds have been complete...

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On August 18, we’ll be releasing a balance patch that includes a slew of Battlegrounds updates, adjustments for two minions in Standard, and handful of bug fixes.

Standard Balance Updates

Kael’thas Sunstrider

• Old: Every third spell you cast each turn costs (0). → New: Every third spell you cast each turn costs (1).

Mindrender Illucia

• Old: [Cost 2] → New: [Cost 3]

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Prepare to put your tactical skills to the test. In the expansion’s new Adventures feature, you’ll send your allies into the Shadowlands to tackle unique challenges for your chosen Covenant. You’ll need to be strategic about how you take on these combat puzzles, including who you’ll send to face them and how you’ll use their skills to claim victory.

You’ll also be able to check in on and continue your Adventures offline with the WoW Companion App.

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A New Way to Adventure

Once you’ve joined your chosen Covenant, you’ll be able to begin undertaking Adventures from the dedicated table within your Sanctum. Through the interface, you’ll be able to view available Adventures, the associated rewards, the cost to undertake them, the state of your units, and how challenging the enemies are within that Adventure. You’ll want to choose a solid mix from your Adventurers, Soulbinds, and troops to create a party o...

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Update on August 20: balance changes below have been reflected to the live Versus now.

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Hey everyone,

Last week we released a community update talking about our thoughts on the state of the game as well as some proposed changes along with our reasoning. As it was released a few hours after the patch notes themselves, we suspect some may have missed these notes, and we urge everyone to check them out before continuing. With that in mind, here are some small adjustments we’d like to make to our initial proposals.

Baneling

Previously Proposed Change:...

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You’re at the beach, sprawled out on a tastefully patterned towel on the postcard-perfect Mediterranean beachfront in Ilios. The sea breeze softly whispers by, gentle gusts complemented by the song of waves breaking on the shore. It’s perfect. It’s summer paradise.

Until it’s not.

Your reverie is shattered by seven screamed syllables. “No surfing in the swim zone!” shouts what you can only assume is a lifeguard. You hear the sound of torrential water, akin to twin fire hoses being sprayed furiously at a sand dune. Curious, you glance in the direction of this disturbance to your bliss, only to see. . . the lifeguard? Flying through the air toward a wayward surfboarder caught up by the tide? With a water jetpack?

A perfect marriage of futuristic lifeguard style with a hydrosports-inspired water jetpack in place of her combat suit, Lifeguard Pharah is just one of the eight new visions crafted by the Overwatch team’s skin concept artists for the 2020 O...

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Separated from the Swarm, a lone zergling must fight to overcome his own nature to defeat his sinister captors. Check out this excerpt, then download Operation Blind Devil by Cassandra Clarke, the final entry in a new series of StarCraft II short stories to celebrate the game's 10th anniversary.

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He moves cautiously, claws clicking against the shiny floor. It’s cold on his feet, smooth. Strange. It does not feel alive. It’s not spongy or warm, like the tissue of the leviathan in which he lives.

He walks in a circle, listening to the click click click. If he goes fast enough, the clicks seem to multiply as if he’s out where he’s supposed to be, following the Queen of Blades across the nerve center of her leviathan. Did his footsteps s...

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Hearthstone Grandmasters returns for Season 2 beginning August 14! Season 2 will run every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday through September 6, with a break for ...

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Hey all,

With the recent celebration of the 10^th anniversary of our beloved game, the conclusion of Dreamhack Masters Summer, and the imminent finale of GSL Season 2, we’d like to take this time to update you all on our thoughts on the state of the game since our last balance patch. As we haven’t seen many changes in TvT and ZvZ, we’ll be focusing on talking about the other matchups.

TvZ

Though we had some concerns regarding the matchup going into the current patch, the changes to Zerg seem to have been offset by changes in the map pool. Currently, we feel TvZ is very diverse and dynamic with possibly the highest number of strategies being employed from both sides in the matchup ever. Specifically, we’d like to call out the rise in popularity of Mech, transitions from Battlecruisers into Bio, and general Lurker play. Overall, we’re excited to see how this matchup develops.

TvP

A lot of trends we’ve noticed and m...

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