Week 1 - Death Knight Appreciation

If you read my previous entry on Death Knights, you know how little I enjoy melee classes. That really hasn't changed much in the past few years. I don't enjoy playing with my character so close to the enemy as I feel that I just can't see what is going on. I've never really enjoyed tank or melee classes and after all these years it's highly unlikely to change. Because of this, I find it really uncomfortable to play them in groups. I can handle mucking about with quests on my own but as soon as I have to get other people involved I'm just too self-conscious. I never play them well as I don't enjoy them, and playing them badly makes me like them less and so on in a vicious loop.

My Dwarven maiden Death Knight, Brynwen,  has made it to level 110 though. I have completed her Class Hall quests which were nicely entertaining and even finished the quests for her class mount. I love the way that Legion brought in the Class Hall quests. It gave alt loving players so much more to enjoy rather than having to see just the same quests over and over. I have also completed the quests for all three of her artifacts even though I'm really only playing Frost spec as I wanted the three whelp pets from her Class Hall (yeah the pet addiction hasn't changed either!)

The transmog I use on my Death Knight has changed since I last posted too. While I do still love the original starting armour that the Death Knights get, Brynwen is wearing one of the recolours of the Tempered Saronite Battlegear from quests in Northrend, or at least most of it! I don't have a lot of plate transmog really but I like this one because it is fairly simple in design without being plain. The blue and gold shade ties in nicely with the Frost specialisation that she's been questing in too. Her pet of choice on these adventures is usually the Unborn Val'kyr (named Ellinde after a dear friend that sadly left WoW many years ago now).

As my Death Knight isn't a character I tend to play frequently, I decided to focus on finishing the Argus questline and optimising and equipping her followers so that I can get a little more gold from missions. I also decided to get a little more progress on her professions (Blacksmithing & Mining).

The Death Knight Class Mount (Frost version)

On the whole, I found this week a bit of a struggle. I didn't have a lot of spare time outside of raid commitments, dungeon runs etc and I felt like I was trying to make myself do something that just wasn't comfortable. That being said, my Death Knight does now have all her Argus missions and troops unlocked and has made some progress on her professions, so it certainly wasn't a wasted week.

Next week, Demon Hunter (more melee - yay!). I know I have a lot more to do on her.

What classes as "fat"?

I realise it has been more than six months since my last post. I've been struggling with a major health flare up from the M.E. and trying to still balance a little bit of World of Warcraft into the mix. Something had to give, and the most sensible thing was this blog. I'm feeling a little stronger now and plan on posting a bit more regularly if my body can manage it.

The incentive for today's post comes from a comment that I saw in WoW chat. It wasn't the first time, in fact, I've seen similar comments very frequently in the past month or two. The comment was referring to Pandaren and Dwarf being "fat races".

Obviously, anyone that reads this blog will know I am a fan of the WoW Dwarf race, but my objection to them being referred to as "fat" has nothing to do with my appreciation of them. I couldn't care less if they had huge great beer bellies or were stick thin (both of which would probably look a little odd), I like them because they are Dwarves. I am also one of the people that were very pleased to see Blizzard openly saying that they felt the Pandaren race should be more of a plump look given their culture's fixation on food and cooking. Far too many races with anatomies that look like they would snap if they tried to move in this game.

The trouble for me is that if Dwarves are openly viewed as fat, this only highlights the way our society is viewing body types. It is particularly disturbing as Dwarves are a muscley build with washboard flat tummies.  I dug out a midriff-showing transmog to highlight the physique for anyone that doesn't usually get to see Dwarves (I know, they are often overlooked).

 

As you can see from the above images, they do have well-defined hips and boobs, but there's no fat there at all. Not even a tiny bit!

It doesn't matter whether you like the Dwarf race or whether you don't. It doesn't matter if you find them attractive or ugly. If we allow people to keep saying that this is "fat" then we are all responsible for the self-image problems that the more impressionable players take away from the game. That may sound like an exaggeration, but its the little things like this that build up to create a whole picture and go unnoticed until its too late.

Armour graphics and variation by gender

When I created my post on green quality cloth outfits a little while ago, I mentioned that many outfits change drastically dependent on the race of the character.  Of course, they also vary hugely by the gender of the character too.  Anyone that has posted over a pair of formidably imposing leg plates from their male character only to be dismayed with the resulting hotpants on their female alt will have already been aware of this problem.

A friend of mine has been searching for a plate outfit for his Death Knight alt.  He had put in a lot of time and effort to get the outfit collected/bought and had based it from a picture he had seen on a website.  He felt that this set carried the gravitas and foreboding that he wished to convey, whilst opting for a blood-red colour scheme instead of the black armour collections that many tend to choose for their Death Knights (me included - I have a Goth Dwarf...what more can I say!).

He linked the set pieces over to me to view and give an opinion on.  At the time I did point out that as I was playing a female dwarf, the look could be fairly different to the human male version he was looking at, but he asked me to look anyway.

My friend saw an imposing-looking human male Death Knight clad in armour that perhaps was a slightly lighter shade of red than he had seen in the website picture, but impressive none-the-less.

I saw this:

Those boobs really leap out of the picture at you, don't they?

Now admittedly, I assumed that the male version that my friend was looking at had a little more coverage than the version I could see, but my eyes were instantly drawn to the heart on the belt and the overall impression it gave me wouldn't be out of place in a Care Bears cartoon.  Pink, hearts and probably highly sought after by every female paladin in Stormwind!

I tried to convey by chat the girly fantasy that the armour pieces were showing as to me but I really couldn't do it justice.  Did the male version really look sort of pink and have hearts on the belt, I asked?  There was a silent pause (presumably while my friend hurriedly checked the armour again) and then...why yes, the male version also has a heart on the belt and sort of looks a lot less 'blood red' and rather more 'pinkish', but "honestly I had never noticed that when I collected the set..."

We are now on the search for a more manly set of dark red plate ;)

Curves in all the right places!

No, no, not me! My Dwarf!

After weeks of searching for inspiration on an outfit for my little Discipline Priest, I finally found the outfit I want.  You may remember from previous posts that my aim was to find an outfit that looked like it was a complete set but that wasn't something that every priest I met would also be wearing.  It also had to look good on a female dwarf figure (not as easy as it sounds).

The outfit that I have put together for Swanhild allows her to have an item visible in the head slot without hiding her fantastic swirling braids when she casts (one of the best reasons ever for playing a female dwarf!).  The chest armour doesn't look stretched or oddly shaped, but instead compliments the large cleavage.  The entire look seems, for lack of a better term, dwarvish.  But don't take my word for it, have a look...

I love that while the outfit contains only cloth pieces, many of the individual parts look to be made from leather or metal.  The whole breastplate section had me thinking of Wagnerian valkyries at first glance!

The outfit is comprised of:

Head - Silk Headband, Shoulders - Frostwoven Shoulders, Chest - Moonshroud Robe, Waist - Plush Sash of Guzbah (this has exactly the same graphics as the robe beneath it so it is effectively invisible), Legs - anything you like as they are not visible, Boots - Savior's Slippers, Bracers - anything small so that it is hidden by the gloves, and Gloves - Moonshroud Gloves.

You'll notice that the outfit has an extra benefit of being mostly craftable by a tailor (all except the belt) and while that wasn't something I'd focussed on, I don't usually have the spare energy to run old raids very often.

So...what will YOU be wearing?

Cloth sets for vertically challenged females

There are many blogs and websites dedicated to displaying the lovely artwork of the rarely worn uncommon quality outfit sets. As you may remember from a previous post, I have been struggling to find an outfit that suited my Dwarf Priest, so I have been looking through many sites to find ideas.  After hours of searching I finally realised the problem.  Most sites dealing with outfit design for World of Warcraft like to display their assembled outfits on Humans or races that share a similar build (Draenei, Trolls, Elves etc.).  There are very few sites that try to show the outfits on smaller races such as Dwarves, Gnomes and Goblins.  There’s a very good reason for this.  When the outfit skins are applied to these races, they are very often greatly distorted.  These races (especially the Dwarves) tend to have a larger bust, which distorts graphics across the chest, and because of the difference in height often the outfit looks entirely different.

To pay homage to these sadly overlooked women, I have decided to use them as my models for the screenshots that will follow.  If you play a shorter character, this will give you a much more realistic idea of the appearance of the outfits rather than spending hours like I did looking at pictures of Blood Elves in skimpy bikinis that seriously need to be given some cake.  Please note, in some sets I have included the matching common quality items for completeness.  Be aware that currently there are no plans for common quality items to be useable for transmogrification.


Some of these sets have a robe option as well as a vest option.  The screenshots will show the vest option so that the pants can also be seen, but the links for each set do include the link for the robe also in case you wish to take a look at it.  Wowhead links have an option to view the item in 3d at the top right corner. Annoyingly, some of the armour graphics were changed for Catacysm so sometimes a “set” will have an item or two that doesn’t match the rest.  I am still including them for reference though.  Clicking on the pictures will take you to a larger version for a closer look.

From left to right: Beaded, Foreman, Journeyman, Ancestral, Disciple and Simple.

Beaded, Foreman, Journeyman, Ancestral, Disciple (there are common quality versions of the 4 Imbued items which share the same model that are named the same minus the "Imbued") and Simple.

From left to Right: Native, Spellbinder, Barbaric, Willow, Aboriginal and Seer.

Native, Spellbinder, Barbaric, Willow, Aboriginal and Seer.

From left to right: Buccaneer, Mystic, Ritual, Shimmering, Pagan and Bright.

Buccaneer, Mystic, Ritual, Shimmering, Pagan and Bright.

From left to right: Greenweave, Sanguine, Ivycloth, Watcher, Raincaller and Silver-Thread.

Greenweave, Sanguine, Ivycloth, Watcher, Raincaller and Silver-Thread.

From left to right: Sage, Resilient, Durable, Elder, Thistlefur and Nightsky.

Sage, Resilient, Durable, Elder, Thistlefur and Nightsky.

From left to right: Vital, Conjurer, Stonecloth, Twilight, Aurora and Geomancer.

Vital, Conjurer, Stonecloth, Twilight, Aurora and Geomancer.

From left to right: Embersilk, Sorcerer, Silksand, Regal, Darkmist and Mistscape (2 versions).

Embersilk, Sorcerer, Silksand, Regal, Darkmist and Mistscape.  I included two versions of the Mistscape outfit as the robe is a particularly nice one and totally changes the look if exchanged with the armor.

From left to right: Lunar, Royal, Windchaser, Gossamer (x2), Bloodwoven (x2) and Hibernal.

Lunar, Royal, Windchaser (I hate when they update the shoulders and helm so that they don't match anything else!), Gossamer, Bloodwoven and Hibernal.  Again, I chose to show two versions of the Gossamer and Bloodwoven sets as the helm and shoulders only match the robes.

From left to right: Gaea, Abjurer (x2), Venomshroud, Duskwoven (x2), Imperial Red (x2) and Opulent.

Gaea, Abjurer (identical to Mistscape except for hood), Venomshroud (identical to Hibernal except for Hood), Duskwoven, Imperial Red and Opulent. Alternate version of Abjurer, Imperial Red and Duskwoven added.

From left to right: Arachnidian (x2), Mystical (x2), Councillor (x2), Highborne and Bonecaster.

Arachnidian, Mystical, Councillor, Highborne and Bonecaster.  Alternate version of Arachnidian, Mystical and Councillor added.

This concludes the fashion parade for Azeroth.  If you are interested, I may move on to document Outlands outfits!

Does my bum look big in this?

The big news for the new WoW patch 4.3 appears to be the issue of Transmogrification.  Actually there were many other interesting things listed in the patch notes including a severe overhaul of the Darkmoon Faire, but all anyone seems to be focussing on is "mogging" (dear god, I seriously hate that shortened term *shudders*).

Most people would expect me to be hugely excited about this new feature.  I am after all the sort of person that spends hours in the Auction House looking for green quality sets of matching armour to level my character in as I detest the whole clown suit effect that you inevitably end up with whilst levelling.  Most of my characters have carefully matched outfits to wear whenever they aren't forced by necessity to don horrid mis-matched armour.  My Gnome auctioneer as you may recall from the picture on my millionaire post happily dresses to match her sunflower pet.

So, why am I not singing its praises?

For the time-being at least, there are many restrictions on what will constitute a valid piece of equipment to emulate.  No gimmicky items are currently useable (there goes my dream of wielding a frying pan), items must be green quality or higher and have stats on them.  Until the actual feature is applied to the live servers, we cannot be certain of the validity of any of the items we may wish for.  Then of course, there are definite favourites.  Already the majority of the priest community are rushing of to make sure they have a full set of the tier 6 armour yet once again we will see endless armies of identical looking priests.  Much as in real life, I cannot stand looking the same as everyone else I meet.

What will the Dwarf Wench be wearing?

Summertime and the raiding is easy

In an ideal world, Swanhild would be able to look like this (apologies for the head piece suddenly deciding to be transparent, perhaps I didn't earn my halo this week):

The colouring looks good on her, the decoration on the armour pieces is not too ostentatious and she doesn't give the impression that she requires a handy plug socket to power her armour.

The trouble is, several of these items are from the Midsummer Festival set which is white quality and has no stats - unlikely to be allowable.

For those that wish to know these things, the outfit shown on the right is made up of the following:

Head: Crown of the Fire Festival, Shoulder: Mantle of the Fire Festival, Shirt: Brawler's Harness, Chest: Vestment of Summer, Feet: Sandals of Summer and Hands: Handwraps of the Cleansing Flame.  I have not included pants or bracers as they will not be seen under the gloves and robes.

If I'm forced to make a decision on old Tier sets, I think my favourites when viewed on a female dwarf would have to be either the old and no longer available Tier 3 set or the Tier 5 Avatar set, both shown below.

Tier 3 Vestments of Faith

Tier 5 Avatar Raiment with Staff of Immaculate Recovery

I'm still hoping to find a non-tier cloth set that I actually like on a female dwarf.  Most cloth sets seem to either be too skimpy or just too boring.  Swanhild is a fairly modest dwarf and has no wish to have half her body on display (I swear the black mageweave and bunny ears is just a phase that she goes through each year to help the achievement hunters find her - honest!)