Second in a continuing series of small changes or additions I would like to see in the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion to World of Warcraft – The Proper Treatment of Dwarf Beards.
// Exhibit One: We see here my Dwarf Paladin wearing a Vrykrul style helm out of the Utgarde Pinnacle dungeon, a helm that has an exposed lower jaw with no visor covering.
You will notice how the beard spills out from within the helm properly, showing both smaller sections coming from the lip and the longer, braided section coming from the chin. This is a proper treatment of the finely groomed Dwarven beard.
// Exhibit Two: Another Vrykrul style helm, this one coming from Ice Crown Citadel – thanks to a last minute invitation to an ICC achievement run (Thanks Jed!!!)
This helm is also one with no coverage of the lower jaw, having no visor or chin guard, and an “open mouth” style. Though something is quite different in the fact that the beard has been trimmed down to roughly an inch in length, cut short of its former 2 feet of glory – and mysteriously the upper lip has been shaved clean.
// Exhibit Three: This is the helm I currently have equipped, the Wrathful Gladiators Plate helm, as part of a complete Transmog set made from the full Wrathful Gladiators Regalia, the two-handed mace Oxheart from ICC, and the Argent Tournament tabard.
As we can see, this is a “closed-visor” style helm, with full coverage of the lower jaw, with a view of the wearers mouth below the nose-guard. I like very much how the beard does not “spill out” from beneath the jawline of the helm, but here again we see the mysteriously shaven upper lip.
// In Summation: It may seem a trivial thing, but it does bother me quite a bit that I have this epically badass looking Transmog set, including a helm with a fantastic model, but I often feel like I should turn off “Show Helm” because the artificial change to the beard makes me uncomfortable with the way my character looks.
Blizzard has confirmed that work is undergoing to improve the character models of the original races, so it is my hope that with those improvements will come a fix to not just the “Dwarf beard” issue, but a number of other small graphical issues involving the interaction of the characters and their gear. It would be wonderful if these changes were to come in the Mists of Pandaria expansion, but there has been no talk of exactly when this will happen. Or in other words, it will happen ” Soon(tm) “
Cheers!
~Ril
PS. It has been some time since I’ve written any posts, either here or over on the Twisted Nether Blogcast. I’ve been having issues with radial tunnel again in my arms, combined with a drastic increase in workload this past month equated to my ability to write being severely diminished. All the same, I do apologize for the lull between posts.
PPS. The helm really does tie together the whole of this Transmog set, but the mysteriously shaven lip REALLY bothers me.
