Azerite Knowledge To Resume Next Week
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
With scheduled weekly maintenance in each region, we will resume the Azerite Knowledge effect next week.

Azerite Knowledge will then continue for four more weeks, with its final increment for Season 2 beginning the week of April 23 and ending with weekly maintenance the week of April 30.

We feel like this is the right way to make sure that Azerite powers on current gear are more broadly attainable for as many players as possible.

In this region, weekly maintenance should begin at 7:00 a.m. PDT on Tuesday, April 2.

Jaina Statue Preorder
The 18" Jaina Proudmoore statue seen at Blizzcon is now available for preorder on the official Blizzard Gear Store. It is scheduled to be delivered by the end of Q3 2019 and costs $350. Click the banner below for more info from the official site.





Viewer’s Guide: Mythic Dungeon International Spring Season
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
The Mythic Dungeon International (MDI) is a global tournament where the top dungeon-running teams in the world use their skill, intelligence, and creativity to secure the best times possible in some of the most difficult Mythic Dungeons on offer. We are entering the first tournament of the year, the MDI Spring Season, so here’s a breakdown of what you need to know!

Many Turtles Made It To the Water
We opened the Proving Grounds and thousands of players around the world answered the call, completing five different level 14 Mythic Keystone Dungeons to earn their spot on the Tournament Realm. These players will have the chance every second week to compete in the Time Trials for their region, West (North America, Latin America, and Europe) and East (China, Korea, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand). The dungeons and affixes are different for each Time Trial, offering new challenges and fresh chances to make the week’s Top 8, which will be broadcast live in the following languages:

Language Streams

Broadcast Schedule
All MDI Cups will broadcast on Saturdays and Sundays local region time. See below for the broadcast dates and start times by region.


Each Cup will give players a chance to get their share of USD $12,000 prize money and MDI points. The top point-earning teams from the East and West will combine in a live, cross-regional, in-person Spring Season LAN final in June. This LAN offers a share of USD $100,000 in prize money, as well as a coveted place at the MDI Global Finals. We’ll share more details about the MDI Spring Season’s finals soon!

Casters


The bald and beautiful Ted “Sloot” Bacinschi has been playing World of Warcraft since the early days. He’s been raiding just as long, if you count stepping foot in Zul’Gurub, getting to the first boss and wiping over and over again. Sloot isn’t just a tank on the desk, he’s also a tank extraordinaire in game as a master of many tank specializations. An iconic figure in the North American and European PvE scenes, you can often find him streaming.

Hailing from Italy, Caroline “Naguura” Forer has come a long way from waiting for her brothers to get off the computer so she could log in and play her Paladin back in Classic. “When I couldn't play, I would just sit for hours and watch my brothers play, then jump straight on as soon as they left the chair,” she said. From Paladin to Druid and from healing to damage, Caroline grew up with the game and went on to establish herself at the core of the EU PvE scene. Now with years of experience, a multitude of World Firsts under her belt and her own forays into WoW esports (both competing and casting), she returns to the MDI casting team.

Daniel "AutomaticJak" Azenberger has been raiding in World of Warcraft for many years and is perhaps most well-known for his healing guides on YouTube and Wowhead, where he specializes in Holy/Discipline Priest and Mistweaver Monk play. He has been creating guides for over five years and enjoys sharing his knowledge and love of healing, so if you’re a healer looking to step up your game, or a tank/DPS looking to understand your healers more, AutomaticJak’s is the voice that will help you do that during MDI.

Aaron "Sours" Shaffer is a former competitor who played Hunter in the second Tespa Great Collegiate Dungeon Race in 2016 and MDI 2017. He then transitioned into casting, helping to bring North American and Chinese MDI to your screens, as well as taking on a role as an analyst at the first ever MDI LAN. He hopes to help highlight the skill and talent of the world’s best dungeon runners. His advice to the competitors is to "focus on your own game—it's not about who makes the first mistake in a race, it's about who makes the last". His goal with the MDI program is for viewers to appreciate the time and effort that competitors put into optimizing their play when they stand at the top of the world.

Former captain of the 4-man MDI team Sinking Ship, and self-proclaimed #2 Balance Druid, Peyton “Tettles” Tettleton’s appearance on the MDI desk will be one for the ages. Overall, his goal for the broadcast is to help viewers understand what makes the runs successful. “There is a lot of nuance in Mythic Plus and being able to teach the path to victory for each team is important,” he said. You can catch him on his stream or on YouTube where he primarily focuses on PVE content. He also authors the Wowhead Balance Druid Guide. He loves a good-natured meme and ridiculous photos of himself photoshopped.

Rounding out the MDI desk team, Alex "Xyronic" Tatge is an Affliction Warlock extraordinaire. You can find his guides on Wowhead, where he breaks down everything a master of shadow magic would need to know, from talent builds, Azerite gear, spell rotations, macros and addons, Mythic+ guides, and more!

After existing for years as an invitational tournament, the Mythic Dungeon International is not just an expanded, worldwide, merit-based tournament—it’s a thank you to all the fans of dungeon running around the globe. We can’t wait to get started. To stay on top of Time Trial results each week and the MDI Cups, check out Raider.IO, and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Twitch. We’ll see you in chat!

Asia-Pacific Enters the Arena
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
While the Arena World Championships (AWC) are taking a break in North America and Europe before their LAN finals, it’s time for Asia-Pacific to get in on the action.

AWC Korea, AWC Australia/New Zealand, and AWC Taiwan are kicking off soon, all adjusted from last year to fall in line with the points-based online cups of North America and Europe. These three tournaments will culminate in a live, cross-regional LAN finals in South Korea, which will take place September 28-29. There, the top three point-earning teams from ANZ, the top three point-earning teams from South Korea, and the top two point-earning teams from Taiwan will battle it out for a $36,000 prize pool, the title of APAC champions, and a spot at the AWC Global Finals.

Signups for ANZ are open now, while signups for Korea and Taiwan open soon. We can’t wait for our Asia-Pacific friends to join the fray! Follow us on Twitter to stay up to date with all things World of Warcraft.

AWC Australia/New Zealand
Cup dates (in Australian Eastern time):

  • ANZ Cup 1: April 5
  • ANZ Cup 2: April 19
  • ANZ Cup 3: May 17
  • ANZ Cup 4: June 14

Tournament format: Double-elimination, best of 5. Finals are best-of-7.

Prize pool: AUD $2,000 per Cup

Signups: Open now.

AWC Korea

Cup dates (in Korean Standard time):

  • KR Cup 1: May 11
  • KR Cup 2: June 1
  • KR Cup 3: June 22
  • KR Cup 4: July 13

Tournament format: Double-elimination, best of 5. Finals are best-of-7.

Prize pool: USD $2,500 per Cup

Signups: Open soon – keep this page bookmarked!

AWC Taiwan
Information, broadcast times and registration will be available in a TW-specific blog post in mid-April.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Azerite Knowledge Resuming, Jaina Statue Preorder, MDI Spring Season, AWC Asia started by chaud View original post
Comments 101 Comments
  1. Alexeht's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Mendzia View Post
    350$ for that face? Oh, god...
    Just horrible and not really similar
  1. Gadzooks's Avatar
    I don't buy "collectibles", but there are some magnificent pieces out there.

    This one isn't one of them.

    And it's a damned shame, for such an iconic character. The pose is is just as bad as the face. The hooded pose from warbringinger would have been gorgeous. This looks like a generic mobile game female caster pose, like they took 3D clip art and morphed Jaina stuff onto it - and forgot the face.

    Seems to be a theme with Blizzard these days - build you up with hype...and then let you down in a soulkilling manner.
  1. Esper's Avatar
    The statue would look better if they HAD outsourced it to some Japanese company to make it. They pump out hundreds of high quality figures every year.
  1. Trumpcat's Avatar
    This is no a Jaina statue. This is a statue of someone wearing Jaina's clothes. And it is not a cosplayer either because they do better job with makeup to resemble the character. This face has different jaw line, mouth, eyebrows, eyes and nose. Aka all the main features of a face. Jaina doesn't even wear lipstick.

    Incredibly disappointed because if this looked like Jaina at least a bit, I would buy it. She is my favorite character.
  1. BlakeArt's Avatar
    Seriously, an editor validated her face ? I mean, com'on, it's beautiful, but that's not Jaina, simply as that.
  1. Nevcairiel's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Puri View Post
    Err am I seeing ghosts or wasn't there four days ago the message that azerite knowledge is maxed now for season 2?
    If you were to read the announcement, you would notice that they speak of extending it beyond its original deadline after considering feedback and evaluating the current azerite levels in the community. So it was scheduled to end this week, and then they decided to extend it. How is that so confusing?
  1. FelPlague's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Puri View Post
    Err am I seeing ghosts or wasn't there four days ago the message that azerite knowledge is maxed now for season 2?
    that was on our end, we knew it was ending based on code in the game it was set to end this week for along time, but entering this week they noticed alot of people are still under leveled and are going to keep increasing it
    blizzard then today said "oh yeah its going to continue" as they are going to add morte levels

    i just hit 47 with no like "days of doing islands" so im all fine 1 more level then ive got all my traits
  1. Puri's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nevcairiel View Post
    If you were to read the announcement, you would notice that they speak of extending it beyond its original deadline after considering feedback and evaluating the current azerite levels in the community. So it was scheduled to end this week, and then they decided to extend it. How is that so confusing?
    Ok, thanks, but no idea what announcement you read, it's not that which is quoted in the news.
  1. FelPlague's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Puri View Post
    Ok, thanks, but no idea what announcement you read, it's not that which is quoted in the news.
  1. Eleccybubb's Avatar
    350 dollars for that.... Or I can get actual expertly crafted figures for 1/3 of the price. Or statues....

    That statue is not an expertly crafted one.

    I could buy 3-7 Play Arts Kai figures for the cost of this single statue alone. And the Batman ones are pretty damn good.
  1. Clozer's Avatar
    it looks kinda awesome but her face doesnt look like jaina AT ALL.
  1. trapmaster's Avatar
    Holy fuck, that's ONE UGLY ASS STATUE OF "JANIA" It look like someone is in her clothes... What the fuck is this? Nothing's like jania..... 350 dollars for that? I could get better deal large pounds of weed over this. Just no, maybe 3.50 dollars for that statue and throw in trash when it arrive in my mail.
  1. Laylriana's Avatar
    Did anybody at Blizzard look at the face on that Jaina statue? Anybody who was familiar with Jaina anyway. It would be an awesome statue if it looked like Jaina. Unfortunately, it doesn't.
  1. Sanguinerd's Avatar
    It's not a bad statue it's just not Jaina
  1. ablib's Avatar
    Jaina's face. What the hell Blizzard?
  1. Th3Scourge's Avatar
    How did that statue get passed QA?

    oh, wait..
  1. Cosmic Janitor's Avatar
    I mean it is in line with Jaina and Sylvanas in the other media of Blizzard lately. Each artist just artsies his own version, no matter how different. Why should a statue be diffrent, this ones arist just used brigitte nielsen as a model. He/she was probably scared disney would sue their ass if they kept cloning elsa.
  1. guardian_titan's Avatar
    Always easy to be the critic and say that sucks but not so easy to be the artist. To the people who are saying the statue looks like crap, can you honestly do better? Why not show your statues if you think you can do better?

    That said, I can't say I'm a fan of the statue myself. The hair looks like they brushed yellow (blonde) over a white base coat making it look splotchy. The face is also off significantly. The Sylvanas one wasn't too accurate, either, but it eventually made it into cinematics so it had use. This Jaina statue is not what we see even in cinematics. I was going to preorder it after seeing it showcased at Blizzcon, but now I think I'll pass. I own the Sylvanas statue and was impressed by the quality, but not so much this one. I'm hoping for a Varian or an Anduin statue, but I'm hoping they'll be better than this one. Likely won't see one for another 2-4 years, though. A horde statue will likely be next.
  1. MrExcelion's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by guardian_titan View Post
    Always easy to be the critic and say that sucks but not so easy to be the artist. To the people who are saying the statue looks like crap, can you honestly do better? Why not show your statues if you think you can do better?
    I get where you're coming from, but that face is too far off the mark for a high-end $350 product. If it was something cheaper then it'd get more slack, but not for 350.

    Artist Credits:

    Ehren Bienert (Sculpt)
    Laurel Austin (Paint)
    Special thanks - Glenn Rane, Chris Robinson, Ely Cannon
    Marco Sipriaso (Graphic Design)
    Blizzard Consumer Products
    Blizzard Animation
    World of Warcraft Development Team

    Note: Each statue is hand painted, there may be a slight variance in the final production piece.

    Ehren Bienert might have some better works out there, this one was a miss though.

    Edit: Here's his/her artstation, seems to be employed in-house

    https://www.artstation.com/ehren

    https://www.artstation.com/artwork/6ga25

    Dva statue turned out great, the face made this one a miss though. Ehren was probably focused on a certain emotion from Jaina when making the face, like making her unwavering/confident, but as someone who buys a lot of statues, I prefer a recognizable face. Just my two cents. Not saying your opinion is invalid or anything. I know it sucks to make something as an artist and then see it trashed, but I do think Blizzard should have told her to change it internally before the final product (since she's in-house)
  1. Sorrowseer's Avatar
    Costs too much for the quality.

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