This will be sort of a extension of my previous “visual design” post, since I want to talk a bit more about how Chi works in the world of WoW. The FLS rename wasn’t received well for a lot of people, but it actually inspired me to think about a new possible interpretation for offensive Chi usage.
Quick recap of what I talked about before: Chi is the pandaren name for “Spirit”, also known as the 5th element, Life. It’s an energy that most living things possess, with the probable notable exception of “elemental” creatures (void, light, fel, arcane, the other four major elements, etc). Monks are people that fight by cultivating and manipulating this energy in particular.
Now, the reason that the rename from Faeline Stomp to Jadefire Stomp is interesting to me is because it establishes Jadefire as a possible application for Chi manipulation for (as far as I know), the first time*. One possible exception is Spinning Fire Blossom, but that ability was removed quite a long time ago now. So why is this interesting? Well, if you remember from my previous post, I complained about Rushing Jade Wind being highly out of place for being seemingly the only time where a Jade Mist spell was used offensively. With Jadefire being a thing, RJW can easily be rebranded as a Jadefire spell to deal damage.
In terms of lore, each of the Chi manipulation styles can be attributed to one or more of the four August Celestials, since they would be the progenitors of the different schools of this martial art.
With that established, let’s talk about the different ways monk have learned to manipulate Chi:
First, we have Basic General Chi Manipulation, which we can call Physical Reinforcement. Quite simply, infuse one’s physical attacks with Chi to make them hit harder, or infuse your body to make it faster or more durable. It’s the foundation of our martial arts and the core reason why we can compete with massive two-handed weapons or magic with just our “bare hands”. All four Celestials teach this level of Chi manipulation, but Xuen more prominently than the others. This category covers the most techniques in the monk’s toolkit, including but not limited to:
- Tiger Palm
- Blackout Kick
- Rising Sun Kick
- Spinning Crane Kick
- Fists of Fury
- Chi Wave
- Chi Burst
- Resonant Fists
Next up, we have Basic Restorative Chi Manipulation, or Jade Mists. This is the ability to transform one’s Chi into a jade-colored mist which has a powerful healing effect. Arguably the most representative of this school is Soothing Mist, which simply channels this energy onto your target of choice and heals their wounds. Yu’lon is the primary teacher of this style, although Chi-Ji has his own interpretation of it. This covers most Mistweaver techniques as well as some general monk techniques:
- Vivify
- Expel Harm
- Detox
- Renewing Mist
- Enveloping Mist
- Revival
Now we have the third type of Basic Chi Manipulation, which I’ll call Chi Brewing. This is the ability to infuse concoctions with Chi, allowing them to impart effects that one cannot achieve with Chi manipulation alone. I imagine that the ingredients of the brews, elixirs, and teas are what determine the exact effects of the technique. Niuzao is the creator and teacher for this comparatively unusual application of Chi manipulation. Monks primarily (but not exclusively) use this ability to craft brews which improve one’s defensive abilities:
- Fortifying Brew
- Celestial Brew
- Keg Smash
- Thunder Focus Tea
- Healing Elixir
- Mana Tea
- Energizing Elixir (if that ever comes back)
Lastly for the well-established (if not properly categorized) styles, we have Adept Restorative Chi Manipulation, or Mist Shielding. This advanced form of Jade Mist techniques will add a defensive aspect to one’s mists. Examples include:
- Life Cocoon
- Chi Cocoon from Chi-Ji
- Zen Meditation
- Elusive Mists
You’ll note that there are still many monk techniques that don’t really fit any of these categories, but I’ll get to that.
Now we get into the territory of Chi Manipulation that is either not well-established in-game, not established at all, or my personal interpretation/suggestions.
First off, Adept Offensive Chi Manipulation. This is where the newly introduced Jadefire comes in, since it’s a great candidate for an improved form of Chi Manipulation that can tie in a lot of yet unmentioned techniques. Basically, this take one’s Jade Mist and further transforms it into Jadefire, allowing your Mist techniques to be used offensively. I would think that Chi-Ji and Yu’lon have a fairly equal share in this school. So far, the only ability that we can be sure of that would fall in this category is obviously Jadefire Stomp, but there are several other candidates:
- Rushing Jade Wind (I beg of you, make this happen at least)
- Breath of Fire
- Spinning Fire Blossom would end up here too
Furthermore, a couple of talents could be viable to pad out this category a bit more if they get rebranded a little bit: - Jade Ignition
- Glory of the Dawn
- Charred Passions
- Chi Surge
- Exploding Keg (I suppose this would be sort of a combination between Chi Brewing and Jadefire Manipulation)
Finally, we have Mastered Offensive Chi Manipulation, or Chi Lightning. This is the highest level that a monk can reach in terms of offensive techniques, and it transforms one’s Chi into a white lightning. This can only be attained by monks who’ve specialized as a Windwalker, and is only taught by Xuen. In order to make this work consistently, Crackling Jade Lightning would need a slight rework as I’ve lined out in the previous post, with Emperor’s Capacitor requiring some tweaks as well. This should be the style for the most powerful Windwalker techniques (with proper tuning, of course):
- Thunderfist
- Emperor’s Capacitor
- Storm Brew, or even better, something that functions the same way but without the brew aspect
- Invoke Xuen, in the way I’ve described in the previous post.
- Some Jadefire Stomp follow-up talent? I’ve suggested a rework to Way of the Fae (now Path of Jade) that would fit in this category in the previous post.
Ok let’s quickly take a look at some notable spells that weren’t brought up in this post yet:
- Touch of Karma: this one is pretty hard to explain in terms of Chi manipulation, but I’ll give it a shot. I imagine you apply a brand of your own Chi onto the target, which somehow allows you to transfer any damage you take (until the cap is reached) to that target’s internal Chi system.
- Diffuse Magic and Dampen Harm: surprisingly, these two are sort of out of place as well. They’re basically the only two direct defensive applications of Chi that I can think of, other than possibly Stagger and Elusive Brawler, but those work much more passively. Dampen Harm appears to be referencing the idea of using an attack’s force against itself, hence being more effective against stronger attacks, but that may just be a purely physical skill and therefore fall under Basic Chi Manipulation. Diffuse Magic is only effective against elemental damage, so perhaps we’re putting up a gauze of Jade Mist to absorb the attack, putting it under Adept Restorative Chi Manipulation.
- All of the Invoke spells. As discussed in the previous post, summoning a Celestial pet really isn’t something that feels in line with Chi manipulation as a concept, which is why I suggested a rework to each of them that was more about a sort of ultimate move that embodies the concept of each Celestial, but is still fundamentally a Chi technique to empower one’s own body.
- Bonedust Brew. I think it’s quite obvious, but this spell really needs to go. Either remove it completely, or rework it to fit one of the categories above. There is nothing about monk that explains why we would grind up the bones of fallen enemies to use as an offensive spell. Understandably so, perhaps, since it was a necrolord spell first and foremost, but it’s in the monk talent trees now and should be considered as such. I’d love to take its absence in the recent reveal of rework covenant spells as a sign that it’s on its way out, but I don’t feel entirely comfortable with that assumption. I’d love to see something along the lines of Storm Brew like previously mentioned, but Chi Lightning should remain a Windwalker exclusive ability in my opinion, so a different solution would need to be found for Brewmaster. Ideally, for Windwalker, I’d want to get the functionality of Storm Brew like I’ve outlined, but without any flavor of Chi Brewing involved. You can then rebrand the current Bonedust Brew as Jadefire Brew or something for Brewmaster.
Well, this post ended up a lot longer than I planned, honestly. I hope I’ve provided enough material to get the creative juices flowing for any aspiring monk developer, since god knows we need some of that right now.
- quick footnote, yes there was a boss called “Jadefire Masters” in Battle of Dazar’Alor, but they had that name because they were a monk and a fire mage. Neither was able to produce Jadefire individually, and they each exclusively used jade and fire abilities respectively.
