Seri sez: So, about that new Tier 9 gear…
July 9, 2009Am I the only one that has been underwhelmed by the tier sets in this expansion? It kind of makes me long for the days when druids wore shrubberies on their shoulders and antlers on their heads. Granted, as a Rogue I get to wear shoulders with a quick-flick tentacle animation… it’s so cool it *almost* balances out the terribad terrorblade gargoyle-ate-me helm. But I also feel pretty bad for the Priests, who look kind of like Rogues-in-training with their little black bandit masks. It’s like someone’s manager decided in a meeting one day that they were tired of the top half of Priests’ faces being covered by cowls all the time and decided that this time the other half had to be covered and, let’s face it, there are only so many ways to do that, and unless you’re going for a sheer veil sort of thing (which, btw, would be awesome) it’s going to end up looking like a bandit mask. (At least, for clothies anyway… I seem to remember a certain plate set with its bear trap necklace… now that was creative, if abhorrent.)
Where was I? Oh right, WotLK tier sets. Blizzard is currently previewing the T9 sets, pointing out that for the first time the Alliance and Horde versions will look different! Well, that’s great I suppose. I mean, orange really isn’t all that flattering with my complexion but I doubt I’m going to be showing much skin unless the helm graphic is so terrible I have to turn it off (again).
What they don’t point out, which I noticed because I have a pretty keen eye for these sorts of things, is that they seem to be using the same model for every piece of cloth T9, recolored for different classes. Examples:
See what I mean? It’s all the same, just different colors (and slight changes on the bottom of the robe for Warlocks). I’m not even going to go into the phallic shape of the overall outfit, because I’m sure you’re all perfectly capable of going there yourselves.
I sure would like to know why Blizzard is going in this direction. Is it a time issue? Are they pushing to get content out so quickly that they’re scrimping in the art department? Did they blow their whole budget on the druid forms? Is this just another side-effect of class homogenization? Has it come down to ‘we’re not even going to make one class LOOK cooler than another class, for fear you’ll only take them to raids’?
All I know is that it really gets my knickers in a twist. I sure hope it’s a one-time thing and not the wave of the future.
World of Snarkcraft 
Perhaps we’re soldiers in the war against Arthas, so we get uniforms.
Gobble gobble
PS I like the bandit mask myself.
The biggest problem I have with this is that I visually won’t be able to recognize who I need to heal. And I found out the other day that I do use the visual a whole lot more than I thought when I had trouble healing the frost block on KT and someone had stuck on a blood elf disguise >_<
It’s actually only two less total sets of models, and a whole buttload more textures than the normal “one for each class” system, so it’s probably not much if any less work overall.
The official line I saw was that people have in the past expressed a desire to have faction-specific sets, and they thought the tournament raid was a good fit for that; makes some sense given the apparent encounter composition.
I basically am wholly unexcited about anything in the next patch, though, so myeh.
I dislike the ninja mask as well. Who on earth wants to progress so they can ‘need’ on an oversized sock to wrap around their mouth?
But I don’t mind turning off the helm graphic. Being an undead, it really adds character to my looks… like the cherry on a pie.
The new sets don’t look as promising but I’m clinging on to the hope that the Horde cloth set will look totally awesome. We all know we deserve that 🙂
I think it’s interesting they give all clothies the same armor. I’m not sure if I like it, but it will definitely give a more homogenous feel to a group with only 4 armor sets available. In PVP I can imagine this to have a nice impact. The distinction between the 2 factions is now bigger, but the variety between the classes is less.
@ Yuki “I basically am wholly unexcited about anything in the next patch, though, so myeh.”
yeah, pretty much me as well. Granted, I’m not keeping up on it too well, but what I have seen I’ve had a hard time getting interested in. I’d rather go back to Hyjal >.<
I think the new 5s dungeon looks like it will be a lot of fun. And there are a lot of utility changes that are going into the patch – like the “turn off XP” thing for twinks, and the ability to save raid lockouts – that will add to the game quality and, more importantly, help push MMO design in general.
I wouldn’t mind the same armor set if the colors were more noticably different. Give the warlocks deep purple and gold, mages bright blue and silver, and priests white and…I don’t know, red.
NOTICABLY DIFFERENT COLORS.
But noooo lets not do that…
I’m not at all excited about the new armor sets. I like knowing what class a person is at a glance. Also…I think sets should reflect what class you are. Meaning I want to LOOK like a priest. T8 Doesn’t look priestly to me, but at least I know a person is a priest when I see them in it. With T9 we are getting generic robes…yay I’m so excited. Oh well hopefully they do better with T10.
@Jov: At least there’s no exciting and dynamic waves of trash 😛
Mostly my lack of interest in the colosseum stems from its lack of epicness rather than a fundamental disagreement with the design; while the setup for the last fight sounds interesting, it’s still basically a big party game rather than an expedition to destroy dangerous monsters. It’s just harder to get excited about it.
Trash? You mean “epic-loot-dropping, non-boss mobs”, right? (Boy, I certainly don’t miss Eyonix’ attempts at community management).
I echo the sentiments around here – the whole Coliseum feels like a cop out from Blizzard, to throw us a bone whie they get Citadel ready. While I did like the Ring of Blood and Amphitheatre of Anguish quests, I really expect more (in terms of lore, epic feel, etc.) from 5-man dungeons, let alone raid ones.
I think this is the B team at work.
(http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/if-you-can-find-them-maybe-you-can-hire-the-b-team/)
The A team is off cataclysm’ing or their with Kaplan somewhere.
You’re not the only one underwhelmed by the design of the latest tier armor sets. We recently had a similar discussion… http://quirkyquiescence.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/a-quick-note-on-tier-9-models/
I *am* however looking forward to the new druid forms!
I completely agree about the Coliseum being a cop out, but I’m also irritated that it comes right after Ulduar (and makes it obsolete). Ulduar felt like what a raid should be, interesting backstory, memorable boss encounters, reasonable difficulty (I for one like the concept of hard modes). As cool as Ring of Blood was, it isn’t really epic as a raid.
Wat
they are different. Google t9 Mage gear
Wait, your talking about the alliance tiers? Haha sucks to be you guys
horde ftw
Disregard those last two comments, I sucks cock