Armor Rant

[Xanthippe]

My hunter just got Tier 1 shoulders on a raid, and I swear they are going to squeeze my toon's ears off.

The better the armor the bigger the pieces.  WTF?

I don't want to look like a bunch of tin cans stuck together.  Less is more, particularly for female armor.

I already have helm switched off because the Tier 1 helm looks ridiculous.  Can't I please switch off the shoulders too?

Please get some fashion sense, Blizzard.  Hire someone besides teenaged boys to design armor sets, or add a new crafting specialty of Fashion Designer - someone who can remake the armor into something I actually want to see my toon in.

I really really really hate the whole circus look of mixed and matched pieces, as well as the hugeness of the lvl 60+ armor/weapons.

[Ironwood]

Tier Two Breasts on the Rogue.

It's not pretty.

[Alkiera]

While I agree that 'bigger is better' is ridiculous, it's what the achievers seem to want... It's easier to show off their e-peen if it can be seen without having to inspect them. 

Alkiera

[Ironwood]

For me, I just want a design that works.  As I mentioned in the other thread, the Dark Iron suit works.  The Wrath and Might suits don't.  Like stated, they're working with a 'bigger is better' or 'Stick more horns and knives on it' approach that is a little uneasy on the eyes.

[Merusk]

Yeah, all the *stalker shoulders are very odd-looking and of the helms only the Dragonstalker looks decent. (How about that beaststalker helm's problem with eyebrows out the eye holes. Great bug.)

Giantstalker shoulders/ helms are just plain obnoxious, but the armor itself looks nice.

I'm working on my PvP set, because I know my guild won't let me flip over to be a hunter when we're so short on healers.  Those shoulders, while still riduculously oversized, at least look better.

[cevik]

I think those shoulders should give the wearer extra attacks.. and maybe a.. lets say.. 80% chance of that attack backfiring and damaging the wearer..

In fact.. I think any movement in those shoulders should cause damage to the wearer.. a DoT that ticks on each step..

[kaid]

Just think of it this way if you squinch your shoulders together you have a fortress protecting your head.

Hehe ya the shoulder wear in this game has gone WAY over the top.


kaid

[Ironwood]

Maybe the Tier 4 set will be like Transformers, where your armor will turn into an epic car mount.

[cevik]

Maybe the Tier 4 set will be like Transformers, where your armor will turn into an epic car mount.

That would rock, since my guild is called Decepticon.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, you'd get flying epic mounts, but only in the new zones.

And you'd have to band together to defeat jetfire.

[Calantus]

I actually like the look of Gianstalker shoulders on a female NE. /shrug

[Ironwood]

That's another problem, of course - the races have such a diverse look.  Everything looks ass on an undead Male, since the ripped goth look is in.  Most things look great on a Human, since that's the standard.  Things look stupid on a Tauren because, well, they're cows.  Night Elfs usually end up looking, er, skimpy.  I mean, what kind of protection is this ??

 

[XMackenzie]

That's another problem, of course - the races have such a diverse look.  Everything looks ass on an undead Male, since the ripped goth look is in.  Most things look great on a Human, since that's the standard.  Things look stupid on a Tauren because, well, they're cows.  Night Elfs usually end up looking, er, skimpy.  I mean, what kind of protection is this ??

Protection against chastity (Although looks like a good pre-MC +defense set actually). 

Wait, Is that pubic hair I see?

[Threash]

The problem with the armor sets is that they are designed to have a very specific look so unless you are wearing all the pieces it just looks like a complete mess.  And yes the shoulders for most sets are incredibly stupid, ditto the helms.

[kaid]

And the problem with the complete set looks is until you basically max out the chances of you getting a set of anything is almost nonexistant.

All my characters are fashion atrocities and now that I can actually get the set pieces from the normal 5-10 man dungeons  I find I don't use them because their stats are not as good as my misc crap.

Still I almost prefer fashion atrocities to everybody looking exactally the same like you see in games like lineage 2 and until recently eq2.

[angry.bob]

The shoulder thing, as well as the rediculous weapons, is just an extension/byproduct/holdover of being so influenced by Games Workshop and comics. Space Marine armor FTWSF.

[cevik]

My suggestion:  Stop being queer and worrying about how your toon looks.  Go for all +sta +int +dmg (if you are a caster) or +sta +whatever the fuck melee's want, and pwn the other noobs in pvp.

Min/maxer 4 life!

;)

[Xanthippe]

Fashion designing as a craft - taking whatever armor a person has and tailoring a particular look for it - would be so awesome.  People could then look the way they want to look, instead of the horrors perpetuated on players now.

And no, I don't really know how it worked in any other game, but I do know that customization of toons is popular and not just among us women/manginas/metros.

People want to be different, they want to look a certain way, they want control over these things.  Give it to us!  Give us the power!

Where's the downside?

[Hoax]

I think we've had these talks.

Art assets are a major timesink, so designing every item so that it can be customized by crafters, while being a very good and very cool idea just isn't something we're going to see any time soon.

[cevik]

Where's the downside?

I just have one acronym for you:  SWG

[Xanthippe]

Art assets are a major timesink, so designing every item so that it can be customized by crafters, while being a very good and very cool idea just isn't something we're going to see any time soon.

They are _already_ designing items.  And it's not like Blizzard is hurting for cash.  I'm quite sure the company is profitable.

Just sayin'.

Besides, if I didn't have something to complain about why would I be reading this forum instead of playing.

  must be balanced with  sometimes, Valentines Day is the perfect day for it, no?

[cevik]

Besides, if I didn't have something to complain about why would I be reading this forum instead of playing.

Because the man forces you to work for 8 damned hours a day when you could, instead, be working on attaining HW?

[Fabricated]

As far as synergy in terms of looks, I really dig the Imperial Plate set. Shoulders are still huge, but not nearly as retarded looking as Wrath and Might. The Heavy Mithril Plate set looks really cool too all together.

If I had anything to complain about it would be the helmets. No plate helmets look good. Period. Not a single one of them.

Another thing the armor problem stems from is the lack of customization for toons. Race, hair, hair color, face...and that's it. I don't see what the problem with allowing body-size adjustments would be if they were kept within sane constraints. All human males look are the same rippling musclebound bodybuilder types, and all females have less realistic proportions than Barbie dolls. The sexist armor shit is stupid too, where as armor gains in power, it covers more of the male models and less of the female ones. If another Tier set comes out (and it inevitably will) female warriors will probably be wearing sparkling G-strings with protective cameltoe action.

[MisterNoisy]

I think we've had these talks.

Art assets are a major timesink, so designing every item so that it can be customized by crafters, while being a very good and very cool idea just isn't something we're going to see any time soon.

I dunno - a fairly low-impact implementation would be to simply allow you to select the model/skin of any 'same-type' armor (mail, plate, etc) that's lower level than the one originally assigned to it -- e.g.: if you've got your Tier3 piece, you could use the default model and skin or select the model and skin of anything of a lower item level.

No new art assets needed, and it lets people mix and match their gear's appearance to avoid the 'crazy patchwork mess' look.  Also preserves the e-peen factor of the uber gear for people that care about that stuff more than they care about how silly their toon looks.

[bhodi]

If you want epicly retarded, look at some of the new AQ armor. I saw it last night (thanks to the hero dress-up window!) and I couldn't stop laughing/crying. Specifically at Deathdealer's Helm on my gnome. I'll post a pic next time we're in there, I should have taken a screenshot but I was laughing too hard.

[Xanthippe]

I dunno - a fairly low-impact implementation would be to simply allow you to select the model/skin of any 'same-type' armor (mail, plate, etc) that's lower level than the one originally assigned to it -- e.g.: if you've got your Tier3 piece, you could use the default model and skin or select the model and skin of anything of a lower item level.

No new art assets needed, and it lets people mix and match their gear's appearance to avoid the 'crazy patchwork mess' look.  Also preserves the e-peen factor of the uber gear for people that care about that stuff more than they care about how silly their toon looks.

That's a brilliant solution.  Cheap, realistic, and do-able with a minimum of fuss.  Gives everyone what they want.

[jpark]

There are gear choices we like to make that break the rules and are suboptimal but look cool.  Simple example:  as a warrior you choose to wear the a chain helm, rather plate.

Asthetic choices in what we wear might become more viable with the arrival of socketable items.  This game mechanic gives us a chance to increase the power of any piece of gear.  At the high end it breaks down I guess if everyone is able to socket every item.

[Alkiera]

There are gear choices we like to make that break the rules and are suboptimal but look cool.  Simple example:  as a warrior you choose to wear the a chain helm, rather plate.

Asthetic choices in what we wear might become more viable with the arrival of socketable items.  This game mechanic gives us a chance to increase the power of any piece of gear.  At the high end it breaks down I guess if everyone is able to socket every item.

Diablo limited this by limiting your ability to socket the best items... originally it wasn't possible to socket uniques, then you could put one in... but some normal magic items(blue in d2 terms) would have up to 6 sockets, and rares(yellow) could have 3 or maybe more.

Just make it so greens and whatever's just above that can have X sockets, and as you go above that, less and less.  So you can take those one-group rewards and add sockets to make up the difference, whereas Mr. Checkout Myfullt3suit won't have much use for them once finished.

Alkiera

[Azazel]

I read a thread on the Blizz boards several weeks ago where someone was asking if they could please add a toggle for turning shoulders off, and the reply from Blue was basically that they feel that shoulders are an integral part of the "look" of WoW as opposed to helmets and cloaks and for that reason they won't be offering a toggle.

They won't offer more gem sockets for greens since the whole point of the 60-game is to make you grind those same fucking instances as often as possible to get your blue and purple gear. If anything, the higher-end shit will have more asbestos sockets.

[Dren]

I'd like to see them go the opposite route though.  Make greens and blues socketable so they can eventually be as nice as purples.  The benefit of purples is that they would look esthetically great or at least like they go together.

I can imagine the big difference between a raider and a more casual player is that one will glow and have a suit of armor that seems to all match and look correct, while the more casual player will have a mix and match of different gear with sockets in them.

I really looked at the socket idea like it was for Diablo, a nice lottery system.  It would lend to the casual side of the game which is sorely lacking, while not taking away from the raid side.

Another thought is to make crafted items easier to socket to give the crafting minigame a boost it needs.

[Ironwood]

Another thought is to make crafted items easier to socket to give the crafting minigame a boost it needs.

THIS.

Please.

[kaid]

Well the expansion is adding the jewel crafter and some of their stated abilities sounds awfully like socketed items from diablo so we shall see how they choose to implement it.

kaid

[Azazel]

Um.. yes.

That's why we've been babbling about it for the last half-dozen posts.

[Dren]

Maybe he's confused on my statement for the crafting minigame.  What I meant was, I'd like to see crafted items such as leather armor or metal armor, weapons, etc be easier somehow to socket and add gems to giving them *some* advantage over quest/drop items. (Crafted - 6 slots, drop/gree - 4 slots, drop/blue - 3 slots, drop/purple - 2 slots, etc.)

The raiders will have their shiney at the end of the path.  Those non-raiders could get a round-about item by building up items they find or quest for.  It would take longer and wouldn't look as cool, but give a different route other than raiding.

If you can't tell, I'll do most anything to avoid raiding. (Actually anything higher than 10 man raiding.  Below that isn't so much a pain and fits my casual schedule nicely.)

[Ironwood]

Yup, and that was the point I was agreeing with.  Suddenly there'd be a market for crafted stuff again, especially if you could create armor/weapons/items with higher resists/damage than what drops.  Sure, it wouldn't be what the guys would wear to the ball, but they'd take your fire shit down into MC with 'em.