Fixin' Things

So in the wake of another winding-down expansion (Cataclysm, in case you forgot), I've decided to propose some solutions for things that are either considered broken by many people (archaeology, for example) or things that are considered broken by me (transmogrification, for example). I may even fix things that aren't broken, but could stand to be improved. Hey, if I'm waving this wand, I should wave it as much as I can.


Archaeology


This is something I really want to make fantastic, because it almost feels like a great time-waster, but not quite. And I think solid time-wasters are important for those times when you want to be on World of Warcraft (where some of your friends are) and doing something vaguely productive with your character. Blizzard definitely seems to agree, as their next expansion (Activity Stations of Pandaria, in case you had forgotten) seems to be chock full of attempts at giving us things to do that don't take hardcore time investment.

Still, archaeology is almost good, so here's my attempt to make it good.

I think that instead of adding a handful of starter epics, as they did with the introduction of the profession, they should add an enormous number of transmogrification pieces, with varying drop rates. Many different pieces ranging across the spectrum of cloth, leather, mail and plate, and all the various weapon types (or at least the most-used types...considering there are rarely best-in-slot fist weapons, it may be forgivable not to put in a lot of fist weapon transmogrification pieces). Cloaks, too, of course.

Now here's a key: all of these pieces should be account-bound. Forcing you to grind up the profession on every character and then making the vast majority of the drops useless (a cloth piece when you're excavating on your rogue, a plate piece when you're excavating on your hunter) would be vexing. Allow players to excavate on the character of their choice and still feel pleased about drops that their other characters can use. None of this stuff should be stat-filled power gear, so game balance in being able to fire stuff all around your account shouldn't be a relevant issue.

Many of these pieces should be quite rare, others not so rare. Conceptually, I'd say that if a player was likely to find one of these items a week when doing archaeology a fair amount (but not an incredible amount), then there's a pretty good sense of reward in excavating whenever you have some free time. You can do it by yourself, so you don't need to wait on the whims of friends or guild members (as you would for transmog runs through many instances) and it feeds into one form of character progression: the wardrobe you have available to put your own special stamp on your character.

Now, you may ask, "But where are all of these transmogrification pieces going to come from? Artist time isn't infinite and they're working on a lot of things!" I'm glad I had you ask that. One source of these piece, of course, could be recolored versions of existing items. Maybe a green or silver or multi-colored version of those feathery druid tier shoulders that my friend Khizzara loves so much. Or a replica of the Starshard Edge (full disclosure: I've been desperate to get my hands on that dagger, so this example might be a little self-serving).

Another source, if recolors and replicas leave you a little cold, is clothing that currently only NPCs wear. For example the gown that Azshara wears in the Well of Eternity dungeon. Or the gauzy dress that Tyrande wears in the...Well of Eternity dungeon (they really knocked themselves out for wardrobing their dungeon dwellers in 4.3). There are quite a few objets d'art that are worn throughout the game by NPCs. Why not assume some of them ended up buried for us to find?

In addition, yes, create some new stuff. These solutions weren't meant to be effort-free, but rather things Blizzard could do (at some cost to themselves) to upgrade game systems (in my view) without it being excessive in terms of resources spent. Combine some amount of new art, with some recolors/replicas, with some NPC-only pieces and you can create a pretty large number of options without having to design an inordinate amount of new stuff.

Plus, of course, you can toss in the requisite number of mounts and pets, which I assume they plan to do anyway. This would just be to supplement those.


Transmogrification


Okay, I don't truly think this is broken. I'm enjoying it. It's just not quite as magnificent, as conducive to self-expression, as I believe it could be.

Here's my list of fixes in a handy bullet-list format:

• This one's a two-parter and one part Blizzard has already said they're looking into. Allow players, when transmogrifying a weapon, to choose to carry over the enchantment glow on the source weapon in addition to the weapon art. In addition, allow the enchantment glow display on one's weapon to be toggled on and off, like the display of one's helm and cloak. The second, of course, is something Blizzard has already said they're interested in doing. The first, though, I think is a fairly obvious feature to implement. There are a number of enchantment glows in the game to select from and it offers players one more customization venue. And if they think their weapon looks best with no glow, well, that's what the toggle is for.
• Classify weapons by family and allow transmogrification within family. For example, here is a set of families: one-handed weapons (mace, dagger, fist weapon, sword, wand*), two-handed weapons (two-handed sword, two-handed mace, two-handed axe), pole-arms (pole-arm, staff), ranged (bow, crossbow, gun). You can't transmogrify a dagger to look like a staff or a two-handed axe to look like a fist weapon, but weapons of the same general class can be transmogrified into each other, so that if you have a two-handed mace, but really love the look of two-handed swords, you can still use that for your look. Blizzard already allows this with ranged weapons, so I think there's little to no conceptual leap to extend it.
• This one is not technically a mechanical issue of transmogrification, but I think it is quite related to the new world order of customizing one's appearance. Allow the display of one's shoulder piece to be toggled on or off, much like the current toggles for helm and cloak. I'd say that shoulder pieces are even more likely to be disruptive to one's desired look than cloaks. In the past, the argument against allowing this was the prestige-identifier theory--that players identified the power level of other players by the distinctive look that their shoulders, chestpiece and leggings created. However, with transmogrification, that's all out the window anyway...you can no longer have any idea of another player's gear level from the look of their gear if they choose to customize their look. So you might as well allow shoulders to be hidden, since a player intent on changing their image will likely be using the look of shoulders quite out of step with their actual ilevel.
• Allow white (common) items to be used as sources for transmogrification. It seems like a very arbitrary limitation and, perhaps surprisingly, there are quite a few very nice or very unique looking models hidden away in the statless items.

*In Mists of Pandaria, wands will be main hand weapons


Glyphs


I really should have written this post four months ago or so, like I had planned, rather than being lazy, because the fix for the glyph system that I would have presented is virtually identical to what Blizzard appears to be planning for Mists of Pandaria (minor glyphs being an extensive collection of fun and cosmetic choices, major glyphs allowing customization of one's play style and the "power" glyphs--the ones that just flatly power up your spells--removed and just baked into the spells and talents).

I would sue Blizzard but I've learned from past experience that the legal system is not sympathetic to claims of "thought robbery" while one is sleeping.

Still, I guess that's one game system Fixed(tm). I'm going to take credit for it and wait for my other fixes to be put into action. It's only a matter of time.


To be continued...someday...

Transmog Tuesday: So You Want To Be A Necromancer

In my continuing desire to find ways to look one's best when running around inside raids, I've decided to present a new ensemble, somewhat darker than my last offering. This is for those of you who want to be a necromancer (or "dark wizard" archetype of your choosing) for Halloween your next post-4.3 raid.

I want to reiterate that I'm probably taking far too much glee in the upcoming transmog feature. For me, a game like World of Warcraft is just as much a venue for self-expression, if not moreso, as it is for exercising game play mechanics. I've sometimes thought that the two points of fun for me are character creation (when I can visualize a character concept while playing with the customization options and names) and raiding. Everything in between (questing, dungeons, professions, etc) is filler. That might be putting it in overly extreme terms but, suffice it to say, character customization means a lot to me.

So let's dive right in!


Head (Or "The Evil Is In The Eyes")


I knew that to be dark, my clothie had to be wearing a cowl or hood. It had to hide some of the face. You see the full face of your neighbor, your co-worker, your mother. Those who work in the shadows (assassins, necromancers) hide at least part of their faces.

There was a specific looking cowl I wanted, one I had seen on my rogue when leveling using heirlooms. The Stained Shadowcraft Cap has a really nice, secretive look to it. So I dialed it up on wowhead and clicked on their wonderful "Same model as" tab to find a cloth version.

There was precisely one. The Abjurer's Hood. It wasn't black as I would have desired, ideally, but the rich blue was something I could work with in a dark set. If it had been yellow or green, I'd have been quite out of luck!

It really can't be farmed out in the world, as the drop rates for it are abysmal. Rather, I had to count on the combined farming efforts of the entire server (it's the Ahn-Qiraj war effort all over again!) and camp the auction house patiently. It took a few weeks, but I successfully stalked my prey and put the trophy in my bank.


Shoulders (Or "The Dark Cloud Around You")


This one was fairly straightforward. I wanted black shoulders with either silver or white accents, and there was an extremely accessible set that looked very nice: the Black Mageweave Shoulders.

Now, the Black Mageweave set has a measure of infamy for the Playboy Bunny-style garters and bodice that are a part of the set, but not all of it is for tarting up your female character, as you can see above! Necromancers don't have sex (at least, unless you're into certain fetishes).


Chest (Or "Everything Goes With Black")


Clearly, I'm not trying to reinvent the necromancer, here. This is going to be a dark set. There are several "actual black" looks (there are some other robes that are "off-black" but don't have that same, satisfyingly inky look), and I narrowed it down to one look that can be created with either one relatively rare robe or two not-too-rare pieces of gear.

This is the look:

There are two routes to this silver-and-black look. One is the Black Velvet Robes. This is a reasonably rare drop blue item, so it may take a while to find it on the auction house. The other option is to combine the Silver-Thread Robe with the Stylish Black Shirt. The shirt, obviously, you'll have to actually wear since you can't use a white no-stats item for transmog...but shirts aren't stat-generating gear, so it's no hardship to actually wear it. The Silver-Thread Robe leaves one's arms bare, which is why the shirt is needed, to provide the sleeves. Bared arms can be a sexy look, but it looks passing strange on a srs bsns necromancer.


Waist (Or "Free Accent Piece!")


Hey, remember that blue cowl-mask-thing? Well, I think it looks pretty cool, but it's going to look more than a bit out of place if it's the only blue in the ensemble. Maybe there should be a little bit more blue in order to make blue a true accent color, rather than a jarringly out-of-place color choice on the head. Fortunately, blue makes a nice accent to black.

Focusing in on the waist, we have:

It's a black belt with a sapphire at the center, as the buckle, known as the Sorcerer Sash. It matches the hood rather nicely, setting it off strikingly!


Cloak (Or "If You Have No Shadow To Stand In, Bring Your Own")


A good cloak or cape is essential to a strong outfit. Sure, you can hide your cloak (and I've done that often, when I've had an ugly cloak) but there's no fun in that when you can select your cape!

It's actually extremely hard to find a pure back cloak, more's the pity. Most of the darkest are very dark purple or brown. The closest I could find was a dark gray one that's almost black. A guildie of mine mentioned it on the auction house. I had already looked at it (on wowhead) and dismissed it as "not black." But after re-evaluating, I realized it was my best option. It cost quite a bit (it's a hard-to-find drop from Doomwalker, a world raid boss that is rarely wandering around) but it was worth it to me. What's gold worth, really (at least until the real-money auction house tells us!). Since she didn't want it, I figured I'd pick it up.

So, this is the cloak that you've probably seen peeking around the robe in some of the above screenshots, the Black-Iron Battlecloak.

Boots And Gloves (Or "No Big Deal")


I won't say much here, or bother with screenshots. They're just black gloves and shoes. I chose the Heroes' Gloves of Faith and the Black Mageweave Boots (again, nothing salacious!), but there are a lot of ways you could go here.


Weapons (Or "How To Make A Necromancer Look Like She Wants Your Gizzard")


There are a couple of choices, here. I focused on a staff option and a dagger plus off-hand option. Maces just don't "feel" like necromancy. Not sharp enough to make dark sacrifices, I'm sure.

Let's start with the staff. There are a few nicely evil staves, but I think nothing quite encapsulates the life-stealing bad of a scythe. More specifically, Lord Ahune's Frost Scythe.

It's got blue highlights, fitting the accent color we set with the cowl and belt, and a scythe has a very grim reaper feel--which has a pretty clear connection with death. In addition, it has a wonderful icy glow. It just screams death, as far as I'm concerned.

The other option here is the dagger and offhand combination. I selected this sleek, understated dagger that looks perfect for disemboweling innocents in ritual sacrifice (not that I busy my mind thinking about such things...) with an eerie purple glow. I paired a book-model offhand with it, as a grimoire, conceptually.

The dagger is the Mindfang (Horde) or the Sageclaw (Alliance). The book I used was the Fire Runed Grimoire from Molten Core, but there are many off-hand options that look like books. Another option for that model of dagger is the Sorcerous Dagger, also from Molten Core. It looks the same but has a green glow. Ultimately, I felt the purple fit better.


Putting It All Together


So there we have it. Here's what the completed outfit looks like, front and back.

I'll also provide a wowhead export for the ensemble, with the three-dimensional modeling, so you can examine it yourself and play around with it, adding and subtracting to it as you please.

Model It!

So, why would anyone want to be a necromancer? Because dark and dangerous is sexy, regardless of your affiliation. I play a priest main, a healing priest no less...and I will greatly enjoy sporting this look at some point.

As always, I hope this spurs you into pondering how you can tailor a look for yourself, possibly one that goes beyond tier sets. There are a lot of lovely weapons and pieces of armor out there, many of them merely uncommon and rare. Play around with them, find something that suits you!

Transmogrify All The Things!

The World of Warcraft community has been agog over the new functionality Blizzard unveiled for patch 4.3, known as "transmogrifying" (and by "agog," I mean many people are excited, many people hate it and some people don't care. You know...agog!).


Via the magic of transmogrification, you can make one thing look like another:

 Pictured: Science!

If you haven't read all the details on this magical scientific progress, please do click the link I provided above and read all about it. It's fiendishly interesting if you enjoy designing things, customization, style or dress-up. The basics are that, with a few restrictions, you can make one thing you own look like another thing you own, provided they are the same armor/weapon type and the same equipped slot.

This, of course, got me to thinking. I like designing things*. I like customization*. I like style*. I like dress up (apparently...I farmed a lot of fancy gear that is outdated and not useful for end-game). How would I use this new system on my main character, a female blood elf priest?

*None of these likes of mine may be evident in design of this site. That speaks to another liking of mine: laziness.

Well, that got me thinking further: what would be the ideal priest outfit? An outfit to fight and heal in, one that evokes priestliness and shows off fine, sophisticated style. It should be elegant, regal but not garish.

So here are the essential pieces that I've decided on for the Definitive Priest Look (all images courtesy of wowhead). Your DPL may vary, but I think this is a fun exercise that you should perform with your own main (of any class, of course). After all, how your character looks is one of the most important forms of self-expression in the game. Present your personality! 

Incidentally, I'm probably way too excited about this feature. To me, patch 4.3 is Transmogrification and oh yeah, the Deathwing raid plus new heroic dungeons and a total revamp of the threat system. Ah, c'est la vie. 


Head


This one is tricky. Remember I mentioned that there were "some limitations" on the gear you could use to source the look for a transmogrification? Well, one of those limitations, at least for now, is that the source material must have stats. That's a little ambiguous. If it means stats in the form of "+X" to a primary or secondary statistic, that essentially limits this to uncommon (green) quality items and better. 

However, some common (white) items have armor. Armor is certainly a stat, a rather important one to tanks. And there are equippable items with no armor, generally holiday gear. So it might be that white items with armor can be used and white items without armor cannot be.

If white items with armor qualify, then the Crown of the Fire Festival is pretty brilliant. It's a soft, subtle halo. Might seem a bit "on the nose," but I think it really does add a certain aura! 

Now, if such white items won't qualify, we have a couple of alternatives. I'm sticking with the halo/tiara of light concept. We have the T7 head, from the token that Kel'Thuzad in Naxxramas drops.

Finally, we have the Circle of Flame from Ambassador Flamelash, in Blackrock Depths.

In terms of the relative merits of the two back-up options, the tier 7 piece has the softer look that I think makes a better accent to an "always on" outfit. The Circle is more spectacular and the colors of the flame will go better with the rest of the outfit, but the "tower" of flame in the front can somewhat obscure your lovely face. The Circle is easier to get, solo.


Shoulders


A little gold is going to go a long way here. Red and gold is ideal but other accent colors to the gold will also work. That said, then, the perfect shoulders as far as I'm concerned also come from tier 7: the Heroes' Shoulderpads of Faith. The red and gold motif will nicely complement the golden halo or the orange-red fire tiara mentioned above. In addition, there's a pretty "shadow of light" emanation from the back.

If you can't use the Crown of the Fire Festival and don't have the Circle of Flame, or you don't want to farm Naxxramas for the tier token to get the Heroes' Shoulderpads of Faith, fear not. There's a good option that just costs a few justice points: the Valorous Mantle of Faith. It's also a tier 7 token set of shoulders, but this token you can buy with regular old justice points that you have kicking around. No need to farm Kel'Thuzad. These look the same as the above shoulderpads, except the accent color is blue-green instead of red. 

Addendum: The tier 1 priest shoulders, the Mantle of Prophecy, is both spectacular and a perfect fit in this set. It drops off the Sulfurion Harbinger, a boss in the Molten Core. I just love the regal look of the vestments hanging from either side of the neck.

Chest 


To me, there's a clear winner here, and it's actually not a particularly hallowed robe in terms of stats, level or notoriety. It's the Runecloth Robe. The white robe with the embroidered vestments down each side. It's both priestly and very stylish, in my opinion.

This used to be a limited supply pattern from a vendor in Moonglade, but now it's a baseline pattern that you can learn from any tailoring trainer. If you are not a tailor, essentially any tailor can make it for you. No need for alternatives here! 


Wrists


If you have the first option shoulderpads that I mentioned above, the wrists that go best with them are hugely easy to get. The First Sergeant's Silk Cuffs are vanilla PvP bracers and cost only 55 honor points from a legacy PvP quartermaster in Orgrimmar. 

Unfortunately, the Alliance version of these bracers (the Sergeant Major's Silk Cuffs) look completely different. Therefore, I would recommend the Flameheart Bracers if you are/can become friendly with the Aldor in Shattrath or the Bracers of Havok if not. Both of them look the same.

They are arguably better looking than the First Sergeant's Silk Cuffs...on one side, the red and gold side. However, the purple patch is a bit distracting as it doesn't fit much else in this ensemble. That drops it to "sub-optimal alternative" in my view. But still rather good.

Finally, if you weren't able to get ahold of the 10 man version of the tier 7 shoulderpads, the red and gold ones, but instead got the blue and gold 25 man version, then I have a pair of bracers to match the shoulders. Behold, the Runed Spell-Cuffs. They have an identical blue-green and gold motif and should complement the shoulders nicely.

You can purchase these from a vendor named G'eras in Shattrath City for the low, low price of 182 justice points.


Cloak


We'll need to visit G'eras anyway, because the first option for cloaks comes from him. He has the Cloak of Swift Reprieve. This a snowy white cloak with a red and gold trim. Considering the color themes of this outfit, this cloak is a natural fit.

Another 312 justice points from our fine Shattrath vendor, but style is important!


Feet


Back to the Midsummer Fire Festival. If those items are allowed (again, it has armor), then the Sandals of Summer round this set out nicely. They're just golden shoes, and the feet (as opposed to the ankles) are all that can be seen with a robe.

However, if they're not allowed, then we can go with the Omnicast Boots instead. They drop from Golem Lord Argelmach in Blackrock Depths. Ah, BRD...thank you for your contributions to style. These are simply golden hued boots, which work just as well peeking out from under your robe.

Hands


So, I suddenly realized that gloves are important to cover, as they can still be seen with the other gear. Then I realized that the gloves I'm going to use with this ensemble cover up the bracers. All of this I discovered after writing up the bracers section. Which makes that section a complete waste, but I'm leaving the bracers section in because deleting it all just feels wrong.

So, which gloves are these, the ones that make the bracers irrelevant? The Red Mageweave Gloves. They're red with gold filigree. They fit in nicely with the largely red, gold and white theme we have going here. They look really wonderful, as far as I'm concerned.

The only downside is that the pattern for these is a random world drop. So unless you feel like farming random mobs for a while, your best bet is to find either the gloves or the pattern on the auction house.


Waist


That just leaves the belt, in terms of armor. I've been looking through a lot of belts and there really isn't a stand-out that I've found. The belt that I decided on wasn't amazing, but it was nice enough and I included it because it at least ensures that an un-transmogged belt won't clash with the rest of the outfit.

I settled on the Mage-Fury Girdle. It has a red-and-almost-gold look that fits in decently with the rest of the ensemble. The metallic accent is really more of a brass look, but the belt has nice art and the red is strong enough to allow it to fit in, as far as I'm concerned.

Addendum: So, similarly to the shoulders, I realized after publishing this that there is a really nice belt option. The Girdle of Prophecy. Can you tell I just "discovered" the priest tier 1 set? I've seen it before, but the head (which I hate) soured me on it and I didn't pay close enough attention to the other pieces on an individual basis. However, like the shoulders, the belt is really lovely.

This is now the top option for this ensemble, as far as I'm concerned. Better yet, I happen to have it in my bank, so no need to farm the other belt anymore.


Weapon (Which Is To Say, Staff)


We have some options, when it comes to a weapon. We could use a staff, or else a dagger and off-hand or a mace and off-hand. However, I'm focused on staff-wielders, because of one weapon: Benediction.

Benediction is arguably the single most iconic class weapon in the game (though, of course, there are choices one could argue for, like Rhok'delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers). Not only is it hugely recognizable as symbolic of the priesthood in Azeroth, it's also a beautiful model with a spectacular "enchantment effect" (which is always present...it's part of the skin and overrides any enchantment placed upon it).

With the ability to transmogrify, and therefore the ability to effectively wield Benediction at any level, I may never wield anything but a staff for the rest of my priest's career!


Pulling It All Together


I didn't mention leggings to use because the leggings can't be seen with the robe. Therefore, there's no need to spend money on transmogrifying whichever leggings you use...your image will be unaffected.

If you would like to model the entire outfit, you can do so at wowhead here. Click on the small arrow in the upper left of the box containing the icons of all the items. Select "View in 3D" and then use the drop-down menus in the pop-up viewer to select the race and sex of the model you want to use. My priest, as I mentioned, is a female blood elf, so I aimed the outfit to suit her best (in my taste).

For those not inclined to go to those lengths, I'll post two images of the completed outfit from the viewer (as I still need to go farm the belt in the game!), front and back, to see the cloak and the shoulder special effect.

Of course, ultimately, the idea of this post was not really to imply that you use the same pieces of clothing for your priest's transmogrifying, even if you have a priest. It was to express my own exuberance at this new feature and urge you to do something similar, in terms of process: put together, in your mind, an ideal "look" for your main and then start finding the pieces you need to make it happen. That process is an enjoyable way to kill time and then you also have the mission to go out and acquire those pieces.

Also, remember...you're not restricted to just tier sets. If your favorite look in the game was a full tier set, great! But also consider mixing and matching a bit to build exactly the look that suits you.

If you're experiencing the summer doldrums, either because you're not raiding or between raid nights, this provides a whole new objective. Prepare yourself to outfit your main character exactly as you've always thought he or she should look! The choices you make for your main character's look is a major form of self-expression and you should take advantage of it.