Gamers who are curious about World of Warcraft: Forever will soon have a chance to test the MMO experience out for free without any subscription or beta invite.

How TO Participate in the Wow: Forever Stress Test

Tons of players have already flocked to World of Warcraft: Forever during the games bet and spent hours leveling up characters and exploring Blizzard’s official take on the Classic+ experience.

Now that the upcoming pillar of WoW is approaching its early November launch date, Blizzard is preparing for a major stress test that will allow any interested gamers to dive into the experience and give it a try before launch.

 For a limited time on October 19, all interested players can sign into World of Warcraft: Forever and help us put the servers through their paces. Anyone can take part and no subscription, Game Time, invitation, or beta access is required.

he Stress Test runs on October 19 at the following times locally:

• North America: 2:00 p.m. PDT
• Europe: 19:00 CEST
• Korea: 06:00 KST (October 20)
• Taiwan: 05:00 CST (October 20)

The beta will be taken offline shortly before the Stress Test begins and is expected to return shortly after it ends. The test window may end earlier or run later as needed.

To join the upcoming WoW: Forever stress test, interested gamers need to take the following steps:

• Make sure your graphics drivers are up to date.
• Open the Battle.net desktop app and allow it to update if needed.
• Select World of Warcraft from the list of games.
• In the Game Version menu above the Play button, select World of Warcraft: Forever Stress Test under In Development, then select Install.
• Once installation is complete and the Stress Test begins, select Play and choose an available test realm.
• Create a new test character when available, enter the game, and join the test.

That should be everything players need to know to prepare their PCs and Battle.net apps for the upcoming stress test on October 19.

Players should definitely keep in mind that at the end of the Stress Test, all created characters, names, and guilds will be wiped from the Stress Test servers in preparation for the beginning of Name Reservations opening on October 27.

Be sure to check back soon for lots more World of Warcraft news and updates as the WoW: Forever release date approaches.

World of Warcraft is available now on PC. World of Warcraft: Forever releases on November 4, 2026 for PC.

The post How To Try World of Warcraft: Forever With No Subscription, Beta Invite, or Game Time appeared first on VICE.

Reality Fracture adds a lot of new cards to the arsenal for Magic: The Gathering players, but one deck continues to dominate the field in the Modern format metagame.

All The Most Popular Decks in the Modern Metagame

Magic: The Gathering’s Modern format doesn’t have as many major shakeups as a rotating format like Standard, but a new set launch tends to bring a few new staples into the card pool that can have an impact.

At this point in the season, enough tournaments have taken place after the Reality Fracture launch for the number crunchers to begin studying what sort of impact the new set has had. Frank Karsten’s latest Metagame Mentor report reveals that Broodscale Combo is dominating the format by taking up 17.3% of the field and boasting an impressive 54.8% match win rate.

“Decks with poor matchups against Broodscale Combo, such as Esper Goryo’s, Esper Blink, Eldrazi Tron, Boros Land Destruction, and Dimir Midrange, are gradually declining in popularity… At the same time, decks with favorable matchups against Broodscale Combo, including properly tuned Boros Energy, Jeskai Blink, Jeskai Chant, and Azorius Chant, have been climbing in popularity. Azorius Chant in particular went 149-76 against Broodscale Combo across the last five Regional Championships, good for a 66% matchup. As a result, Azorius Chant has emerged as one of the best ways to defeat Broodscale Combo.”

Here is the full breakdown of the most popular decks in the Modern format as of mid-October 2026 (in order of popularity and performance):

• Broodscale Combo
• Izzet Prowess
• Boros Energy
• Esper Blink
• Izzet Affinity
• Azorius Chant
• Domain Zoo
• Esper Goryo’s
• Eldrazi Tron
• Devoted Druid Combo
• Amulet Titan
• Ruby Storm
• Dimir Midrange
• Jeskai Blink
• Boros Land Destruction
• Living End
• Rakdos Delirium
• Simic Neoform
• Jeskai Chant
• Tameshi Belcher
• Eldrazi Trudge
• Other

For those who are less familiar with this format, Modern is a nonrotating 60-card format based on expansion sets, core sets, and straight-to-Modern sets from Eighth Edition forward, save for cards on the banned list.

Although Broodscale Combo is likely to be a top performer at upcoming tournaments, it sounds like there are plenty of decks that specialize in countering that strategy that players can bring to the table if they want to try and play the underdog and fight back against the top deck.

Be sure to check back soon for lots more Magic: The Gathering news and updates.

Magic: The Gathering is available now at local game shops and digitally through Magic Arena.

The post Magic: The Gathering’s Top Modern Deck (And How To Counter It) appeared first on VICE.

Rebel Wolves has revealed the features coming to The Blood of Dawnwalker Update 1.1. From the ability to reset your skills to a new Story mode with additional combat assistance, the upcoming patch brings several welcome changes to the vampire RPG. Here is everything announced so far, including what we know about its release date.

Blood of Dawnwalker Update 1.1 Features Revealed

If you’ve been wanting to try a different build in The Blood of Dawnwalker, the next update will make that a lot easier. Rebel Wolves has announced that Update 1.1 will introduce the Draught of Mind Rebirth, which lets you forget your abilities and reuse the time spent learning them on a different set of skills.

However, that isn’t the only new feature coming to the game. Players will also be able to pet dogs and cats, with the developer putting a pretty funny spin on the feature. Taking inspiration from the game’s directional combat system, Rebel Wolves is calling it “Directional. Animal. Petting.”

The patch also introduces more difficulty options, subtitle settings, and improvements to combat and traversal. For your convenience, here is the full list of features and changes revealed in the announcement.

New Features

• Draught of Mind Rebirth: Forget your Swordmastery, Witchcraft, and Vampirism abilities, then use the time spent learning them to master a different set of abilities.
• Petting Animals: Pet dogs and cats using a directional petting system inspired by the game’s combat.
• Updated Story Mode: The existing Story difficulty will be renamed Forgiving. A new Story mode will offer additional combat assistance.
• Additional Subtitle Settings: Increase subtitle font size and enable subtitles for all dialogue lines.

Changes and Improvements

• FrameGen Update: Updated frame generation technology, including dedicated settings.
• Camera Improvements: Adjusted animations and camera movement during combat.
• Combat Improvements: Improved targeting, locking onto enemies, and disengaging from them.
• Traversal Improvements: More responsive targeting and surface attachment when using Shadowstep and Planeshift.
• Japanese Version Update: Blood and gore will no longer be censored in the Japanese Steam version.
• Additional Fixes: Over 1,100 other improvements and fixes.

The Draught of Mind Rebirth is easily one of the most interesting additions here. Being able to put your invested learning time toward a different build should give players more room to experiment with the RPG’s abilities.

The new Story mode is also welcome for anyone who wants to focus on the adventure with some extra help during combat. With the existing Story difficulty becoming Forgiving, players will have another option to choose from.

When Is the Blood of Dawnwalker Update 1.1 Release Date?

The Blood of Dawnwalker Update 1.1 is planned for next week, but Rebel Wolves has not announced a specific release date yet. The announcement shared on October 16 confirms the release window without giving an exact day or launch time.

Thankfully, players shouldn’t have too much longer to wait to try the new features. We’ll update this article once Rebel Wolves confirms the Update 1.1 release date and shares the full patch notes. Our The Blood of Dawnwalker review called it one of the best RPGs this year. With all the new features and updates coming soon, this is the perfect time to jump into it!

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