This talent tier dealt with chi generation, either through granting chi directly (through a clickable skill or a timed proc), or indirectly through energy regeneration. Early in the expansion, Power Strikes was the only viable choice, since Ascension only increased maximum chi, and Chi Brew was a simple cooldown that provided an awkward 4 chi on use. Now that Ascension also increases energy regeneration and Chi Brew is a two-charge cooldown that provides Elusive Brew, they have finally established their own niches.
Best Hairstyles (and therefore, races)
The best races also have the best hair. It’s no coincidence — you never really see your character’s face in action, but you’ll see her pigtails swinging wildly every time you hit a thing. So here are the best ones.
The best hairs:
- Flow in the wind and with jumping.
- If they don’t bounce, then they should at least look flowy.
- Bangs are really important because foreheads are intimidating.
- No uncomfortable-looking parts.
- No frumpy pony tails (they just make your neck hot).
- No random pieces that shoot off in weird positions.
- Curls are a big plus.
- Pigtails — depends on the race. They just work better on round faces.
- The physics of the hair have to mostly make sense.
- I don’t want to see the back of some races’ necks (why are pandaren necks so wierd?).
- Variety. I want to be able to swap between many hairdos with each race.
Human
I don’t normally go with humans, but they do have a wide variety of good hairs.
A classic. Sideswept bangs, practical length. If only ever race could have this basic look.
Basic ponytail with sideswept bangs. For the active and stylish ladies.
Overlong bangs, but the curls are lovely.
Dwarf
Dwarves have the advantage of braids to add lots of movement. Sadly, most of the braided hairstyles have ugly bangs.
A round face to pull of short pigtails. This is acceptable. The bangs don’t hurt.
Cropped hair with lots of little braids throughout. This is my favorite dwarf style because it’s spunky but with just a little bit of dwarven complexity.
A classic bun. It feels like there’s a lot of thick red hair under control.
Gnome
Gnomes have one very cute hairstyle: the pigtails. But everyone has them, so you’ll have to look somewhere else if you want to break the mold.
Of course, can’t go without mentioning the classic. Lots of movement, nice bangs, strong silhouette.
A bit of a break from my mold, since this style doesn’t have sideswept bangs and long hair. But it makes up for that with some attitude!
Here’s a relaxed ponytail, which I typically don’t like but as gnomes don’t have many options, it’s the best we’ll get.
Night Elf
Night elves get to use some of the sportiest hairs, plus some awesome colors.
What a nice headband! The World of Warcraft needs more hair accessories.
A cute little pixie cut. Not bounce here, but she makes it look cute.
My favorite night elf haircut, just because of the cute little tail in the back. I wear my hair like this quite often (but with bangs).
Worgen
Worgen hair often looks the same at first glance, but there are many little details, like curls and braids, that really make each hairstyle stand out. They also benefit from having a mane, which means that hats will never turn the bulk of their hair off. Too bad all the color choices are boring.
Little pinned clumps and one of the few worgen styles with bangs. For the rugged worgen.
A tight little braid at the side plus some classy waves.
I like the bump at the top, provides some nice volume (not that worgens really lack for volume). Plus she has some cute little knots at the side.
This picture doesn’t do it justice, but this style is great because it has a thick braid down the back.
Draenei
Draenei have some cool styles that work around their horns. I can’t wait to see the upped resolution versions. (Their models are currently a little broken on beta.)
These are the best bangs, and the whole style incorporates the horns such that no race could borrow this hair do. It looks simple and athletic.
This pony tail is great. Nice bangs, high tail.
Bangs so full that they cover half the face. Elegant.
My favorite style ever. Curls and a headband that almost looks like a tiara.
Pandaren
As mentioned above, pandaren necks look strange for some reason. That’s unfortunate, given that pandaren have access to some otherwise excellent ponytails. They also only have direct control over the colorful accents, not the bulk of the hair.
She’s got some nice volume in the back, plus accessories (chopsticks?)!
My favorite pandaren style because it’s got everything: cool bangs, a pony tail for movement without baring the neck, braids, and accessories!
These are the best pigtails for pandaren because the hair color is nicely distributed.
Blood Elf
Blood elves have a ridiculous number of pretty hair styles. Many races borrowed these hairstyles, they’re just that good.
Ah, the “Rachel”. A classic hairstyle that looks good on any face.
The humans have this style too, but I think blood elves take it to an entirely different level.
I really like this style’s bangs and headband.
The classic ponytail, borrowed by the draenei.
Standard sideswept bangs with loose hair.
Goblin
Despite being a small race, usually relegated to one or two pigtail variations and that’s it, goblins actually lucked out with a multitude of complete looks.
Little curly cue.
Everyone needs more fauxhawks.
Just so many sideswept bangs. I can’t even.
Skull accessory!
Great way to break up a bare forehead — with some loose wisps of hair.
Not only are the bangs amazing, but the pigtails are giant ringlets.
I wish these bangs would show up more often in such a cute way.
Triple pigtails amg.
Troll
Trolls haven’t had their makeover yet, so I’m mostly assuming these styles will become more awesome at that point.
There’s just so much going on in this ‘do, a mohawk, braids. So much hair.
I don’t think this style looks great now, but I’ll give it points because I think it will look great with a few more polygons.
Sometimes it’s nice to have a style that doesn’t shave anything off.
Tauren
Poor tauren. They only have four styles total, so out of kindness I featured three.
The classic main. I like this one because it makes the most sense (where do they get all that hair for pig tails longer than the rest of the mane?).
This is the ‘cute’ style for tauren. Two pigtails aren’t good enough, why not four!
Undead
Undead really have no good choices right now, though that might get changed when the updated models are in the beta. But they’re always gross so good luck with that.
Really this hair is okay because it just goes everywhere.
I dunno, this is probably the style she died in.
Orc
Just that little spot on her head grows that much hair.
Not exactly sure how to describe this, but
Ranking
- Goblins. Not only do they have great accessories, lots of bangs, and fantastic colors, they have the biggest assortment of great combinations. Too bad goblins can’t be monks. :(
- Draenei. While many draenei ‘dos miss the mark, there are still quite a few varied choices. And really, they have my favorite curly style so that’s important.
- Blood Elves / Humans. They’re not my favorite races, but I have to give credit where credit is due — they got some great hairdos. (Lumped together because they have a very similar set.)
- Pandaren. The ursine race loses some points for base hair color, but they win some back from the multitude of styles with movement.
- Night elves. Not quite so many cool options as the others, but they have some great hairstyles for the monk in action. They have some of the best colors, too.
Mists Retrospective: Level 30 Talents
The level 30 talents focus on healing, specifically multi-person healing and damage. This tier was largely ignored by Brewmasters until Throne of Thunder, where the chi costs were removed and they became free to use. With that simple change, they went from unimportant to absolutely vital to our personal survival strategies.
5 easy tips for blogging with social anxiety
-
Worried that a disproportionate number of people are looking at your blog, judging you and everything you hold dear? The solution is to pretend no one reads! It’s easy to avoid analytics and comments, and to never promote your work in popular spaces. If you believe hard enough that no one is watching, it will come true.
-
Are people trying to talk to you ingame, on twitter, or in comments? Nip their enthusiasm for your content in the bud by giving terse replies! Some helpful suggestions are: “ty!” and “happy to hear it was helpful”. For alternative mediums, ‘like’ or ‘favorite’ will suffice.
-
Think you might actually have a valuable opinion to share with the developers, but too anxious to tweet them directly? Put it on your blog and hope they stumble across it in the various internet journeys! Hope is the best SEO tool.
-
Say something you regret in the unforgiving and unforgetting realm of the Internet? Maybe if you mull over it repeatedly for a few days you’ll feel better about it! Do you think people might have responded to the regretful thing? Avoid going to places those people might be! Isolation is the best way to stop saying stupid things.
-
As a general rule, never go to forums. There are dozens of social interactions just waiting to happen there.
Mists Retrospective: Level 15 Talents
The level 15 talents focus on movement, akin to the “charge” tiers of warriors and druids. Most high end brewmasters take Tiger’s Lust, though at the beginning of the expansion that was the least popular talent due to a chi cost. However, Celerity and Momentum aren’t bad choices, either.
How to Change The Size and Positioning of a Weak Aura
Thirty Days of Blogging
Starting today, July 7, and probably going to August 6, I’m going to try publishing one post a day. I’m taking a short break from raiding since we’re all done and instead will try to fill that time with blogging (and transmog runs and GW2).
I won’t be doing that 30 days of blogging meme, even though it’s sort of fun, because I want to focus on my own ideas. Many will be fluff blogs, many will be drafts that I need to just bite the bullet and publish. I have 15 posts in my queue right now, plus a bunch of potential beta stuff and Mists retrospectives so I think it’s possible.
I will probably fail on some days. But thirty days sounds like a much cleaner goal than five out of every seven days for a month.
This is sort of a boring post by itself, so here are some screenshots from beta.