The first major World of Warcraft: Shadowlands patch is coming, and it's packed with all kinds of big updates. Chains of Domination takes players deep inside the Maw with a foothold to lay siege upon the forces of darkness, adds flying to Shadowlands, and adds two huge endgame dungeon experiences to the mix alongside a smattering of other upgrades for Covenants, soulbinds, and more.

To kick things off, players will finally be able to mount up and access other normal amenities in the hostile environment of the Maw at last. With the Covenants joining forces against the common enemy of the Jailer, this battle takes players through the Maw and to the Sanctum of Domination, a new 10-boss raid full of familiar faces and new surprises. Players get to face off against Torghast's legendary big bad, the Terragrue inside this raid, but the epic dungeon run culminates with a battle against Sylvanas herself. The Banshee Queen certainly won't be a pushover, as WoW's larger-than-life main characters often make for powerful raid adversaries. We're all hoping that after we defeat Sylvanas that it won't be revealed that she was really good the whole time and just doing what she had to in order to save Azeroth. Blizzard please no redemption arc for Sylvanas!

Okay, now that I got that out of my system, moving right along to more fun stuff. Outside of the raid, there's a new wacky 8-boss Mythic mega-dungeon known as Tazavesh, the Veiled Market. The area is run by the Brokers and features travelers, creatures, artifacts and oddities from all over Azeroth, giving Blizzard a chance to explore some fun nods and faces from the world over. While this dungeon is sure to be challenging, it's going to be a lot more lighthearted and whimsical than the Sanctum of Domination.

"I don't want to say it's like a carnival because it's more like a seedy trading city. But it's just a such a fun vibe to work with. All the different Broker cartels have kind of come together over the years and created this floating trading outpost where you see more of Broker society, you see different types of Brokers, you're also going to see what an alien rat that maybe they had brought in a portal from another world might look like," says principal game designer Jeremy Feasel. "It's also an opportunity for us to do some really kind of interesting and wacky one-off bosses. So for the first half of the of the mega dungeon, you're going to be kind of heading around this trading city and checking it out and learning about Broker things, you go into an auction house, into a portal room, so a lot of Broker culture there. And then for the second half of the dungeon, that's where we get into the heist portion. And this is where a broker steals an artifact and then tries to escape from us by jumping through a whole bunch of portals. So we're gonna follow him through those portals and fight through a variety of interesting bosses including an infinite pirate dragon, which was not something I ever thought I would say but ends up being pretty awesome."

Well, I'm in for anything that has pirate dragons, so looking forward to exploring Tazavesh!

Hearthstone: Mercenaries is coming this year, a new game mode (Really, more of a new game entirely) being added to Hearthstone. In Hearthstone: Mercenaries, players assemble teams of legendary characters from the Warcraft universe and play through a strategy RPG with roguelike elements. Along the way, you'll clear maps, level up your crew, find and equip loot, and more! Today we're going to look at a few of the characters inside Mercenaries, but first, here's our exclusive reveal for one of the characters coming to the mode – Shadow Hunter Vol’Jin.

The Hearthstone team is being fairly secretive about the exact stat loadouts and how those look, but what we do know is that he is "a powerful caster with access to shadow magic", along with these three parts of artwork that show how Vol'Jin progresses as he levels up and evolves through Mercenaries. At each evolution tier, your characters gain spikes in power and new abilities! Fans of World of Warcraft will know Vol'Jin well, as he's been a major character for some time in the MMORPG.

Before we check out some of the other characters and how they look as they evolve, let's take a peek at a map. Players work through these maps, encounter to encounter, taking on battles and sometimes finding other secrets. For instance, you may choose to hit up a resurrection tile in order to bring one of your fallen heroes back to life. Chart your course!

Now let's look at some of the other big, legendary characters that we can level up and play with in Mercenaries. Look, it's Ragnaros! The titanic boss of Molten Core has made his way to mercenaries, and I'm sure he'll be punishing "insects" with his big hammer and sloshing fire around everywhere.

Next, another big raid boss that's part of the Mercenaries core. Maybe not as high-profile as Ragnaros in the Warcraft universe, but Gruul is a big smashing force of nature that may serve as one of Mercenaries' tanky heroes.

The next one, King Krush, may not be the highest profile Warcraft character but it's one of the cleanest and clear evolutions that we've seen so far. Starting as a cute little chomper just out of an egg and transforming into a massive dinosaur lord, Krush's artwork exemplifies the power process that Mercenaries brings to the table. Roar!

Hearthstone: Mercenaries is slated to arrive this year, and I'm excited about the prospect of a strategy RPG experience being added to the Heathstone suite.