Looking Good!

Mists of Pandaria Screenshot of the Day 3/16/12, copyright Blizzard

Well, unless they decided to start with the Tauren, this screenshot kind of disproves my "new models" theory, at least in the very near future. I actually did not think that the earlier screenshot really was new Tauren, but I stand by my earlier post about the need for character model buffs.

I assume what we're looking at is a Mage/Warlock/Priest wearing a set of Mists gear. Personally I'd guess this is the "blue dungeon" set, as opposed to leveling greens because they seem to make the dungeon gear a bit more colorful (though I would be pleasantly surprised if I was wrong.)

Gear models are something on which I tend to disagree with the general populace. I started playing a couple months before Burning Crusade, hitting 70 on my first level-capped toon some time in the fall of '07 (Darsino, the rogue - it took me that long to level because I was already an altoholic then, and I tended to wander off from my current quest without completing it if it took too long. Also leveling was just a longer process back then. Damn kids!) Anyway, there was something back then that players called your "clown costume." As you gathered gear from various sources, you were basically guaranteed that none of it would match. For example, while leveling my Mage (well, the older of two) through Netherstorm (admittedly this was during Wrath, but the point remains valid,) he looked like this:

Far out, mon!

A lot of people didn't like looking like that.

So, as a result, when Blizzard came out with Wrath, the made one or two models for each gear type, gave them about two shades of grey or brown, and basically told you to wait until you were raiding for you to have any color on your gear.

Now, I'm of a different mind: I think that Shibti looks freaking amazing up there. If you knew someone who could manipulate the flow of time and shoot fireballs from his hand, would you really think that this is someone who would dress like a normal person?

Admittedly, this is a look that people can achieve if they just do a bit of transmogrification, but I think this should be the rule, rather than the exception. Let those people who want to stay in tier 6-model armor forever do so (don't look at Jarsus' Armory page. I was weak!) and the rest of us should load up on crazy-looking mismatched stuff.

Now, admittedly, a big reason why so much BC gear looked weird and mismatched was that it was mostly reused models - either the recolored tier sets or just random crap. In no way do I think that Blizzard should stop making new gear models.

Really I think the best thing to do is what they did with some of the gear in Ulduar. Most of it was recolored versions of tier 8 gear, but occasionally you'd find, for example, a caster mail helmet that looked like a pair of goggles.

I also think that those recolored versions of older tiers could be a fun way for people to get their hands on lookalike pieces. Have you ever tried soloing (or two-manning) the first boss in Blackwing Lair so that you can go farm up some tier 2? It is, I'm pretty sure, literally impossible - no matter how much health and dps you have. I have a feeling I'll never get my hands on a full tier 13 set for either of my mages (especially not the normal-mode version, which is my favorite,) but I know that if I were to ever put in the effort, I could farm up purple Judgement on any of my plate toons.

I guess what I'm saying here is that that new set of gear looks great, and by all means I think we should be able to get a set that looks like that. But wouldn't it be fun, as a kind of surprise, to see, say, Herod's Shoulder make a cameo appearance?

Actually, related to that last one, the revamped heroics do offer a bit of a chance for this kind of stuff. While Deadmines and SFK largely stuck to the standardized Cataclysm armor models, we did see some familiar old weapon models. I can't imagine that the revamped Scarlet Monastery is going to pass on Whitemane's Chapeau, or Herod's Shoulder, both fairly iconic pieces of gear (slightly unclear whether the shoulder should be mail or plate - it was designed for Warriors and Paladins in their 30s, but the Heirloom version is for Hunters and Enhancement Shamans.) Personally, I'll be looking for the Aegis of the Scarlet Crusade, which was my first blue-quality shield.

The point, as always, is variety. Let's have matching sets for the squares and awesome Space Hippie Wizard garb for the rest of us.