Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Praise the Phantasmal Crab! Solo Old School Raids, here I come!

With 5.1, the requirement that one be in a raid group while entering pre-Mists raids is now gone.

This means many wonderful things, chief amongst them being that farming old tier gear for Transmog purposes will be far, far easier.

Obviously, hitting up Cataclysm raids will likely still be a hell of a challenge, and possibly impossible (at least until late Mists tiers, but even then probably by an elite few.) I expect, however, that BC raids will be very much in the realm of soloability (obviously barring certain mechanics that can't be soloed, like a Mind Control ability that resets the boss if everyone's MC'd.)

So let's see, what kind of stuff am I going to be on the lookout for?

Jarsus has got his Paladin tier 6 armor (full set,) but I think either he or Kerahn (the Tauren Paladin) has got to get a set of tier 8 (preferably in 25-man colors.) While it is a "plate skirt" set, which I usually don't like (ok, in fairness, a lot of the Plate skirts have actually been awesome, despite this. Tier 2 being the obvious example,) I absolutely love the look of Paladin Tier 8. Fitting very much with the Titan theme, it's like you're wearing a factory that produces holiness.

For Oterro, the Death Knight, the tier set I'd most like (other than Warrior tier 3, which ain't happening for a couple reasons) is tier 13, which will likely still be unsoloable until the next expansion. That said, I do have the LFR shoulders and pants already, so I can just get the JP versions of the rest of it, if I allow for some color inconsistency.

For Ardten, the Warrior, Wrathful Gladiator is the look I'm already working on, so not much trouble there. Then again, I would not mind picking up Armageddon, the absurdly huge sword from Four Horsemen 25 (that might be tricky to solo. Second Wind could help, though.)

For Darsino, the Rogue, completing a set of Tier 10 25-man would be great, though for his headpiece I'd have to go with Cursed Vision of Sargeras off of Illidan. Darsino is undead, and the "face option" I chose way back in the day was the one where his undead eye-lights are off. I always figured he was like a super badass blind undead assassin, so the simple blindfold off Illidan would be perfect for him.

For Tarbhad, the shaman, once again I love tier 8. I actually liked tier 13 a bunch for them, except for the helmet. But I got the LFR shoulders for that anyway, so I don't think he's really got to farm those up.

Now that we're out of the "Quintessential Quintet" (which I am just one Tarbhad away from getting, achievement-wise,) we'll talk about the other dudes.

Morcanis, the warlock, I will probably go for something simple. Not sure I even want to go tier on this, as most Warlock tier sets stress the "evil" look, and less of the "scholar of forbidden mysteries." If he were, say, an Orc, I'd go for tier 5, but my concept for Morcanis is more of a friendly, good guy who just happens to be really into some very dangerous magic, and sometimes becomes a demon.

Now, between the two Mages (Goraas, the Draenei, won out on the "who to get to 90 first" question. I'm going to try to wait to level up any class repeats until I get all 11 classes to 90, but Shibti, being one my original characters, gets an exemption here, and will probably precede the Priest and Monk.) Goraas already has a full set (minus gloves) of tier 13, which is not only my favorite mage tier set, but my favorite tier set of all. He has the JP gloves that match the normal mode, but I wouldn't mind getting a full set of normal-mode tier 13 at some point, even if the LFR version looks pretty good on his fishbelly white skin tones.

For Shibti, the troll mage, I think most helmets look a little odd on him. On one hand, I think that the tier 8 Kirin Tor look would be very appropriate to him (personality-wise, he was super happy to see the Kirin Tor recognizing Troll mages... might be a bit upset when Jaina takes charge...) On the other hand, I kind of like the simplicity of tier 4 for mages.

For Ordenar, the hunter, I'm not quite sure. Not many of the hunter tier sets have inspired me all that much, though 10's ok. Like all my engineers, he'll be keeping his goggles. (Actually, of all classes, high-tech goggles seem best suited to a hunter... well, maybe any ranged class.)

For Selarion, the druid, I've always wanted a set of tier 6. Yes, he's a Night Elf, and tier 6 for druids is CLEARLY meant for Tauren, but damn if it doesn't look awesome.

Finally, for Etharian, the Priest, I would not mind tier 6 - it's pretty well-suited to Shadow Priests.

Ok, so realistically, I doubt I'll get all of these. But with the removal of the need to coerce someone into forming a raid group with you, I expect to be hitting up these old instances with far greater frequency. Hell, I expect that I'll just head to Karazhan whenever I want a cool place to just hang out.

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