Blizzard Watch Weekly: The War Within Season 1, patch 11.0.5, and more from this week’s gaming news

It’s been a busy week in World of Warcraft, with Season 1 and our first news about the next patch. Yes, I know, it’s only been a couple of weeks since the last patch, but we’re already getting ready for the next one.

If you’re having trouble keeping up with what’s going on with Warcraft (and everything else) right now, here’s what happened over the past week and what’s coming up next week.

New this week

• The War Within Season 1 has begun! That means the Nerub-ar Palace raid Normal, Heroic, and LFR wing 1 are all available now, as well as Mythic zero dungeons, Delves Tier 4+, the latest PVP season, and the first boss in the World Boss rotation. That gives players a whole lot to do right now, and if you happen to be trying to gear up for the season, we have a rundown of all of the useful gear you can get from Renown — and the lower tiers aren’t a bad grind.

• World of Warcraft patch 11.0.5 was announced, and it will be (almost) all about the game’s 20th anniversary. It will include revamped tier sets, so obviously we had to rank them based on looks. There’s also a pretty big party, new classes for Dracthyr, and a baby dreadlord pet to collect. (Adopt? Kidnap? I'm not sure which applies.)

• The Traveling Travel Agency Hearthstone Miniset is now live, and it is full of puns.

• Annapurna Interactive, uh, well… Everybody quit. The company says all of its upcoming games are still happening, but it’s a little hard to believe things will be the same after this mass exodus.

Happening next week

As usual, everything is happening on Tuesday. Why does it always have to be Tuesday?

• More The War Within maintenance. Longer-than-normal maintenances are starting to become normal: The War Within servers will be down from 7am to 10am pacific for Tuesday maintenance.

• The Nerub-ar Palace Race to World First launches next week when Mythic difficulty opens. Story Mode and LFR Wing 2 will also open next week.

• Cataclysm Classic Phase 3 begins, with the Molten Front and Firelands raids. It’s a few weeks sooner than we expected, and with only four phases planned, that could put Cataclysm on a rather accelerated Classic timeline. That just begs the question: how far away are we from Pandaria?

• The Diablo 3 patch 2.7.8 PTR will open for testing stability improvements and a new Mac client, as well as the game’s upcoming Season 33. It’s another remix season, bringing back the Season 22 Shades of the Nephalem theme. Hope you like hanging out with your own shadow!

• World of Warcraft is coming to Overwatch with a bunch of new themed skins to earn.

And yes, all of that happens on Tuesday, September 17.

This week’s podcasts

• Blizzard Watch Podcast: Season 1 crash lands into The War Within

• Lore Watch Podcast: The recurring themes of echoes and memories in The War Within

For those who enjoy our podcasts, we’re going to be recording some bonus podcasts over the next month, with some tabletop games, Dragon Age Lore Watches, and one special edition Blizzard Watch podcast that I’m going to leave as a surprise for now. Your support on Patreon is what lets us do these podcasts, so if you want more of them, let us know!

What to play this weekend

Getting tired of the weird scaling in Delves, or wiping in LFR? If you need a break from WoW, we have some new game suggestions, including one that can only be described as “Balatro meets Yahtzee with The World Ends With You aesthetics.” If you understand that sentence, there’s a good chance you need to check out Dice Player One. 

Here are our game recommendations for this last bit of the weekend. You know, in case you needed some more things to play. (I sure don’t.)