Blizzard Entertainment

When Sylvanas Windrunner pierces the veil between life and death, you and your allies are pulled into the Maw, where the most wicked are damned to suffer for eternity. Yet Azeroth’s Champions are able to escape and soon make their way to the noble Kyrian in Bastion. Long has it been since a soul has been sent to their gleaming realm, and the locals are astonished by the arrival of a living mortal. However, it quickly becomes apparent that underneath Bastion’s glistening veneer lies unrest: The Kyrian’s anima—the soul-born essence that fuels their eternity of service—is on the verge of being completely depleted.

Before you can help them—and make them take your warnings of Sylvanas and the horrible truth of the Maw seriously—you must prove your worthiness as an aspirant and overcome all trials to earn your Kyrian wings by Ascending.

Unsure if you truly have moved on from the world of the living? We understand that this new reality may be difficult t...

ASHES OF OUTLAND IS NOW LIVE!

Outland has been razed by an unstoppable force for destruction known as the Rusted Legion! Now, the denizens scavenge to survive in the ashes of the war-torn realm. The Black Temple stands as the last bastion of civilization, where the self-proclaimed lord of Outland, Illidan Stormrage, and his army of Demon Hunters fight to take back their world.

Journey beyond the Dark Portal and enter the fray—Ashes of Outland is now live worldwide!

New Class: Demon Hunter

The ...

Pop quiz, hotshot: are the setting and story of StarCraft part of the military sci-fi, space opera, or sci-fi horror genres? If you answered, “All three!” then congratulations—you really know your science fiction subgenres. There’s a lot going on in the StarCraft universe, and it’s not always easy to keep it all straight. If you’re looking for a refresher—or just a simple way to explain StarCraft’s story to your friends—this blog has you covered.

Part 1: The Distant Past

Eons ago, the xel’naga arrived in our galaxy and kindled life on countless worlds throughout the Milky Way. Their goal: wait for two species to achieve what the xel’naga called “purity of essence” and “purity of form,” and help them ascend into a new form of life which would take the xel’naga’s place, thus restarting the cycle.

The xel’naga called this the Infinite Cycle. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a bit of a misnomer.

Amon, one of the xel’naga, resolved to break the cyc...

Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just hit the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting until the week of April 13, PDT. As always, if you encounter any bugs during your PTR play sessions, please stop by the PTR Bug Report forum to let us know about your experiences.

Quick Navigation:

• Nexus Anomaly
• ...

In light of the ongoing global COVID-19 situation, we have decided to hold both Masters Tour Jönköping and the next Masters Tour in Asia-Pacific online to ensure the health and safety of all players and staff. To maintain the global integrity and fairness for all competitors, Masters Tour Online: Jönköping will still take place June 12 – 14 during Central European Time, while Masters Tour Online: Asia-Pacific will take place July 16 – 19 during Korea Standard Time.

The Masters Tour is built around the principal of a global community of players coming together to compete, and the relationships forged at each event are core to Hearthstone esports. While combating the current health crisis has required these events to be held remotely this online structure is the exception. We will keep tracking the global situation and are excited to hopefully get back to coming together in-person for both Masters Tour Montreal and Masters Tour...

This year’s Archives event brings deadly new modifiers to your favorite missions, challenging you to demonstrate your tactical finesse in Rialto, King’s Row, and Havana. Looking for a story recap before you dive into the action? We’ve got you covered.

SPOILERS ahead for the Retribution, Uprising, and Storm Rising missions!

Retribution

Eight years ago, an explosive attack by the terrorist organization Talon left an Overwatch facility in Rome devastated and took dozens of agents’ lives. Since Overwatch itself was unable to retaliate in an official capacity, Gabriel Reyes, head of the organization’s covert ops division, Blackwatch, took it upon himself to enact revenge. With a strike team composed of former Deadlock Gang member–turned-Blackwatch-agent Jesse McCree, cybernetic ninja Genji Shimada, and geneticist Moira O’Deorain, Reyes set out to pursue Talon. The target: influential businessman and high-ranking...

In light of the ongoing global health risks associated with in-person gatherings, we are cancelling official Fireside Gatherings for the near future and disabling the ability to create public events. Additionally, any existing public events will be converted to private events.

We do, however, want individuals at home to have an opportunity to partake in the upcoming Pre-Release weekend, so we’ll be keeping private event functionality intact. Players can register their own one-person event to enjoy opening Ashes of Outland card packs the weekend of April 3–6.

Over the next week we’ll be implementing this transition of currently scheduled events to private status. Thank you all, innkeepers and patrons, for understanding.

Private Fireside Gatherings will:

• Be eligible to receive Nemsy Necrofizzle if they fulfill all hosting prerequi...

Hearthstone is partnering with Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. in the United States to commemorate the release of Ashes of Outland and the Demon Hunter! Quench your thirst for victory with an exclusive Hearthstone cup when you place a drive-through or carry out order for a large fountain drink from March 25 – April 21 at all Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. restaurants* in the US!

Carl’s Jr. delivery offerings:

• Postmates: Free delivery with the code CARLSJRNOW, through April 6, 2020.
• UBER Eats: Free delivery through the app through the end of March 2020, where available.
• Doordash: Free delivery with the code CARLSJRNOW, through the app through the end of March 2020, where available.

Hardee’s delivery offerings:

• UBER Eats: Free delivery through the app through the end of March 2020, where available.
• Doordash: ...

Zakarya “xBlyzes” Hail is the champion of Masters Tour Los Angeles and the first champion to win more than one Masters Tour! A powerhouse out of France, xBlyzes bested Wan “TNCAnswer” Maozhi in an insane 3-2 matchup, taking home another championship trophy and $32,500, while securing a European spot in Grandmasters Season 2.

Following his victory at Masters Tour Arlington, xBlyzes was the player to beat this weekend. With a strong Top 8, which saw the defeat of three Grandmasters and the 2019 Global Finals champion, xBlyzes and TNCAnswer faced off in an unbelievable championship match. The competitive final match went the d...

The Top 8 for ...

With so many around the world staying safe indoors right now, we wanted to make it a little easier for everyone to connect with each other through StarCraft II. So reach out to your friends on Battle.net to join forces and triumph over the battlefield: from Friday March 20 PT through Thursday April 2 PT, we are lifting the free-play level cap on all Co-op Commanders. We’ll also be enabling 100% Co-op bonus XP through Thursday, April 16 PT. With every Commander, every unit, and every ability now open to everyone, the Koprulu Sector is here for you and your friends to come together and stand against those who would oppose you.

Additionally, as always, everyone is welcome to experience the free StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty single-player campaign. Whether you’re looking to explore the StarCraft II universe for the first time or just want to relive this thrilling chapter, immerse yourself in a story of sacrifice, betrayal, and courage among the stars.

And if you’d lik...

Maps

• Ever Dream LE
  • Battlecruiser
    • Fixed an issue that caused the Battlecruiser’s Tactical Jump ability to incorrectly go on cooldown when it tries to Tactical Jump to a location with air pathing blockers. The Battlecruiser will now try its best to teleport to a location near the air pathing blockers, and the game will display a red error text if there is not enough room.
  • Reduced the size of the doodads at certain starting locations to improve the pathing for workers when they are gathering resources.
  • Fixed the color of certain plant doodads to be more consistent with other plant doodads.
  • Fixed the cliff type of some cliffs near the natural base.
  • Fixed the height of certain trim doodads to prevent visual distortions with other nearby doodads.
• Golden Wall LE
  • Fixed the location of rocks on certain ramps so that ...

Life has a way of catching up to you, but if you’re just returning to your level 120 character after a hiatus and want to catch up on the latest content, then this brief guide is for you.

Carry On, Wayward Sons and Daughters

It’s not too late to join in the fight against N’Zoth and his minions. If you’ve left a level 120 character behind, it’s easy to catch up on all the latest adventures in Azeroth.

When you log in with your level 120 character, you’ll automatically receive the quest “The Wolf’s Offensive” (Alliance) or “The War Chief’s Order” (Horde) to sail to Nazjatar. There, you’ll establish your base and set up a portal to Dazar’alor (Horde) or Boralus (Alliance).

Unlocking Essences

With your hub is established, you’ll be called upon by Speaker Magni Bronzebeard to join him at the Chamber of Heart. Through his series of quests, you’ll ...

You’ve seen her before: a sleek, cyclopean omnic, hovering in the backlines of the earliest Overwatch roster art. You’ve heard whispers of her progenitor: Mina Liao, one of the founders of Overwatch, her expertise invaluable to Jack Morrison, Gabriel Reyes, and Ana Amari against the looming threat of the Omnic Crisis. Now, she’s finally here—Echo, the 32nd hero to join the ranks of the Overwatch roster.

“Echo is a really special character for us in that our players have know...

“Brew is awesome. Brew is amazing,” says Trevor Jacobs.

“I’m OK,” says Andrew Kinabrew, sitting back in his chair with a slight smile and arms folded.

“He’s amazingly OK,” says Jacobs.

Interviewing Jacobs and Kinabrew—Heroes of the Storm Assistant Art Director and Senior Artist, respectively—is like interrogating two giddy suspects who can’t get their story straight, except they’re riffing off of their own jigsaw-fitted dynamic so well that you almost don’t care what you pulled them in for anyway. Their crime, in this case? Creating hundreds of accessories for in-game murder. We sat down with the artists to find out what exactly has been going on behind the scenes of their criminally creative skin pack concoctions.

First: Some background on our suspects. The awesome, amazingly OK Kinabrew started at Blizzard eight years ago on the project that would soon become Overwatch. After a year he switched onto Heroes of the Storm and has be...

On the ancient jungle world Zerus, slavering predators wage eternal war, striving to climb the universe’s bloodiest evolutionary ladder. This is also a great way to visualize the 14th TLnet Map Contest, wherein 163 of the StarCraft II mapmaking community’s bravest submissions were viciously winnowed down to 16. When the mist of combat settled, one submission had emerged above all others: Blackburn, an inventive and action-packed Rush map created by Alexander “Insidious” Hallmann. We reached out to Hallmann, an experienced submitter but first-time finalist, to chronicle the origin story of his 1st-place map.

Pay heed: Many TLnet Map Contest finalist submissions wind up on the official StarCraft II in-game ladder. The StarCraft II dev team’s finest map connoisseurs will be turning a critical eye to these creations in the weeks to come, and you can bet that Blackburn will warrant serious consideration.

...

We dropped a mountain of information about all the exciting changes to Hearthstone alongside today’s patch notes, including a deep dive on the new Demon Hunter class! When you’ve finished reading about the Year of the Phoenix, check out the rest of what we’ve got going on:

• Introducing the Demon Hunter Class
• Announcing...

UPDATE: For the overall safety and well-being of our staff and casters, and in alignment with California’s statewide ‘stay at home’ order, we are canceling the broadcast portion of Masters Tour Los Angeles. Matches will still take place online as previously scheduled. It is our intention to find a solution to showcase the Top 8 matches on Sunday and we will share those details as soon as we have more information. Best of luck to all of the competitors this weekend.

The Masters Tour returns this weekend for Master Tour Los Angeles! To protect the health and well-being of all players and staff, we recently ...

Presented by Blizzard Entertainment’s University Relations and World of Warcraft development teams, the ninth 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 runner-ups below for each of the four categories.

Environment Art Contest

Winners

...

Mark your calendars! On March 17 at 9 a.m. PT, on both Twitch and YouTube, Brian Kibler will kick off our massive reveal showcase stream with Hearthstone Game Director Ben Lee! From there, we’ll dive deeper into our plans with Game Designers Chadd Nervig and Dean Ayala. We’re going to share more than we ever have before, so tune in and be the first to know what’s comi...