This Is How I Mog (April, '12 edition)

I played with the idea of making some very specific mog-sets in the past, and have had the luck of getting a few drops that let me finish my sets. These might not look incredibly creative but I like complete sets and I think a good way to set the look of a full-set apart is, as my friend Maara said, to accent it with a couple of off-set items that compliment the themes. It's a very good way to distinguish the uniqueness of your character, I think.

Given that, here are my sets that I'm using now, and will likely use until either I get bored of them (unlikely) or Pandaria (very likely).

ARMOR OF RADIANT GLORY
This to me is the best paladin tanking set in game right now. The white and gray accents are lovely, they match well, the feathered shoulders are delicate but evocative, and with a good tabard, you can hide the hideous plate-belly-shirt. Of course, snagging Holy feet and belt to complete the look is important and you can luckily buy both of them from Valor vendors along with almost all the other pieces. So, if you can win the Shoulders the rest of the set can be purchased with Valor making this an easy 'mog to put together and yet I almost never see people in it.

The accents here are the weapons. The sword is Honor's Call which comes from being Exalted with Honor Hold in Hellfire Penninsula (many thanks to Maara for suggesting the sword.) The shield is the current Season Conquest PvP shield (which I splurged on despite the fact that I don't play Holy-PvP). Here are all the pieces I'm using. Oh, and no helm, no cloak.

Slot	Item
Shoulder	Shoulderguards of Radiant Glory
Chest	Chestguard of Radiant Glory
Tabard	Argent Crusader's Tabard
Hands	Handguards of Radiant Glory
Belt	Dragonfracture Belt
Pants	Legguards of Radiant Glory
Boots	Pillarfoot Greaves
Sword	Honor's Call
Shield	Cataclysmic Gladiator's Redoubt

ARMOR OF VINDICATION

If the objective of PvP armor is to make you feel like a bad-ass while giving your class as aggressive a look a look without descending into farce and brutality, then this set manages the look hands down. Even the helm is awesome! However, the belt is a bit under-whelming so I'm using an off-set belt which matches it quite nicely. Also, I don't have the feet quite yet as I can't splurge on Transmog gear just yet, but I will have the matching feet by the time the set is finished.

However - the sword is what takes this set over the top. Ashkandi has always looked good but it seems to just match this set in a way I can't describe - the colors accent well, the scale and size of it just brilliantly reflects the kind of sheer power and burst Paladins can bring to bear, while being majestic and graceful - it never seems brutal. If it could reflect a subtle, smoking enchantment of some sort, it could be perfect. No cloak, no helm. Pure awesome.

Slot	Item
Shoulder	Cataclysmic Gladiator's Scaled Shoulders
Chest	Cataclysmic Gladiator's Scaled Chestpiece
Hands	Cataclysmic Gladiator's Scaled Gauntlets
Belt	Cataclysmic Gladiator's Girdle of Prowess
Pants	Cataclysmic Gladiator's Scaled Legguards
Boots	Cataclysmic Gladiator's Greaves of Alacrity (Shown: Cataclysmic Gladiator's Warboots of Cruelty)
Sword	Ashkandi, Greatsword of the Brotherhood

Dragon Soul Nerfs

This feels familiar, doesn't it?

I'm glad we've killed Deathwing a couple of times by now, and have the fight down pat and dry at this point or I'd be really pissed as I was over Ragnaros. As it is, I'm just shrugging it off, as I don't really see the point in further tuning this content as it is, if you'll excuse the elitism for a moment, relatively easy compared to pre-nerf Firelands, but difficulty is a relative thing.

That said, Madness of Deathwing is no Ragnaros. And Madness of Deathwing is certainly no pre-nerf Nefarian. It's more on par with, I don't know, Cho'gall maybe, or Ascendant Council in terms of difficulty. Once you know what to do, the fight is entirely a breeze and the right setup lets you breeze through so much of the fight it's not even funny.

To be fair, we had a number of wipes on Madness. Spine took us a night. But ever since we killed these bosses, it hasn't been a problem and we more or less 2-healed the whole place except for Zon'ozz and Spine. If we do all normal modes next week, I imagine we can clear out the place in less than three hours. Though I think our Raid Lead might want to do Heroic Morchok and Heroic Yor'sahj.

I don't know. I don't know that we're particularly great and our gear was more or less at normal-Firelands level when we started this tier. We even missed about two weeks of progression when we didn't have people over the holidays. So are the nerfs necessary? Not for us, they aren't.

But I think they probably are necessary for the guilds that were stuck on Ultraxion or Lootship or Spine. Those fights do have relatively steep DPS requirements.

Are you having trouble 2-healing in the 5th minute when you're getting hit with 300k every second? Can you get one of the adds down before the Sapper spawns? Can you take the hits of fire throughout the fight without loosing people? Can your tanks taunt swap and chain CDs to survive phase 2? Is everyone able to dodge fire and cones at the same time? Do Bloods overwhelm you in the third plate phase over and over? Do you just need a bit of DPS to get over the hump on that 4th limb of Deathwing or to clear the last 2% in phae 2?

If yes, then this will help you get over that little bump and that's not a bad thing.

Maybe another two weeks of gear will help, maybe you need a different strategy or composition, or whatever, but I've been there going in on the same fight, night after night after night and not being able to kill something and feeling the frustration with making absolutely no progress. I remember two years ago (holy crap) that the 5% nerf helped us down Sindragosa when she was wiping us with sub 5% enrages or something crazy for two or three weeks in a row, and then the week the buff hit, we killed her. It stung a bit, but I was just glad to finally be on Lich King.

As it is, my expectation and my performance is based on completing at least all of normal content pre-nerf and as long as I can manage that, I'm happy. And we've more than managed that this time around. To everyone else who's waiting to get over that hump - I hope you're able to make the magic happen before the nerfs hit, but if not, I'm sure you'll have those shiny titles after January 31.

Paladin Transmog Sets - Part 2

Right now I'm sporting a mixture of the first set I made, with a different shield than the one I showed there. Mostly because Human Female model covers her entire face with the shield and it's not a lot of fun. Also, I quite like the model's face so I'm actually not using the helm right now.

Anyway, once I do start to build up some Tier 13 gear, I'll be switching to a more contemporary look. However, there are some issues I have with the full Paladin set. Mostly with the fact that it brings back the bare midriff. Ugh.

Thankfully, we also happen to have an amazing PvP set this season, and with Conquest available through daily Random BGs at a reasonable pace, we can build what I think is a truly unique and inspirational, Paladin-y set.

I really like this set and I think this is what I'm going to be wearing till MoP comes out. The added benefit is that you can get a LOT of this gear without ever having to set foot into the raid. The only thing you'll need from the raid are the shoulders. Almost everything else is purchasable with Conquest or Valor.

The Shoulders, Hands and Legs are all Paladin Tier 13 gear, but, you can also buy the off-set pieces from the Valor vendor, or get the off-set healer pieces from the raid. I'll have to wind up buying or getting the healer Belt and Boots somehow myself. The Conquest sword and shield are absolutely amazing. Some of the best art that has come into the game in a long time. They're beautiful, but functional, and they are absolutely on-mark for Paladins.

The chest, sword and shield are all from Conquest gear. I'll be doing Arenas on Innana this season, so I expect to be able to get the weapon and shield fairly easily, however, I won't be doing it as Protection so it'll be a bit of a point-sink just for aesthetics. But oh, so worth it. Look at those gear - just absolutely lovely and perfect for a Light-wielding warrior. The cloak is actually a throw-back to ICC, and is purchasable with Justice for cheap. I like the colors as they synchronize well with the blue in the shield.

If you're a fan of helmets, I would recommend you forgo the winged Tier helm and actually grab the PvP conquest helm as well - it fits in quite nicely with the rest of the set and actually makes you look a bit like an avenging and wrathful angel of some sort straight out of the Old Testament.

Here are the individual items in detail and a link to the base set for you to start messing with.

Gloves: Handguards of Radiant Glory (Valor alternative: )
Leges: Legguards of Radiant Glory (Valor alternative: )
Shoulders: Shoulderguards of Radiant Glory
Chest: Cataclysmic Gladiator's Ornamented Chestguard (Conquest)
Belt: Blinding Girdle of Truth (Valor)
Boots: Silver Sabatons of Fury (Valor)
Sword: Cataclysmic Gladiator's Slicer (Conquest)
Shield: Cataclysmic Gladiator's Barrier (Conquest)
Cloak: Sentinel's Winter Cloak (Justice)

Helm: Cataclysmic Gladiator's Ornamented Headcover (Conquest)

If you are still dedicated to using the Tier chest, you can always sport it with an undershirt to eliminate the midriff. It doesn't fit perfectly, but the result isn't terrible either. Lastly, you always have the option of using a good looking Tabard to cloak yourself - but if you do this, I'd recommend ditching the cloak. You have some pretty good options here, and the set is just lovely. I've linked alternate set pictures below so you can decide what works best for you.

With a Formal White Shirt.

With the Argent Crusader's Tabard, sans cloak.

I realize this set is expensive to make in terms of the time commitment required to get all the items, but I think it's worth it in the long run. It's one of the best looks I can imagine for a Paladin that's in the game right now. Enjoy!

Paladin Tier 13 Armor On Female Models

I really love the Paladin Tier 13. I was looking forward to wearing this tier for a while. But then I saw how it looks on female models:

Sigh. I guess I'll have to find a shirt to wear underneath that'll blend well with the tier. For some reason I don't really have a problem with cloth-wearers or even mail or leather wearers having these kind of outfits. But doing it to plate just seems ridiculous. It could be that I'm reading way too much gritty fantasy where this kind of thing doesn't fly. It could be that I've been playing a female character as my main for nearly a year, now. And I know a lot of people don't have a problem with plate bikini or whatever as it's a fantasy setting.

But I find it absolutely ridiculous to wear a plate belly-shirt.

I really don't know how many women work in the Blizzard art-department, I'd be really curious. Maybe a woman designed this, I don't know, but it kind of doesn't matter, that still doesn't excuse this.


It just plain blows screaming chunks of suck and fail at the moon that I have to show off my bare mid-riff while tanking the god-damned Aspect of Death.

Paladin Tier 13 and Multi Specs

Is it me or is Blizzard in love with exorbitantly winged helms this tier? Compare the helm this time around with the Death Knight helm from Tier 12.

 Uncanny!

Unlike a lot of non-paladins who are poo-pooing Tier 13, I actually like it quite a bit, the color-scheme is subdued but still noble, the shoulders and helm manage to look very ceremonial - I imagine it's the kind of thing you'd wear before a grand ceremony.

Laying swords on shoulders to create Knights, bowing with a long white cloak to receive blessings from the Bishop. Sitting atop a white horse leading a parade. Or just giving a speech to rally the lost, exuding the powerful image of a white-knight to inspire and uplift the broken and huddled masses. Can't you just see that white armor glowing when the Paladin casts Holy Radiance?

Does it sound like I'm talking a bit like a Holy paladin? Don't tell anyone, but I've been futzing and tinkering with a holy set. I respec'd the other night and ran a couple of heroic and didn't kill anyone - and it was even fun. I would kill for a triple spec (or even unlimited specs) just to be able to try out different play styles. In an ideal world, I'd have the following on standby at any point:

1. PvE Protection Raid Progression (for Single Target tanking and survival)
2. PvP Retribution (For Arenas & BGs)
3. PvE Holy (For Dungeons & fill-heals during Raids)
4. PvE Protection Dungeon/Farm Raids (for AoE tanking and damage)
5. PvE Retribution (For off-spec play in encounters where we only need 1 tank)
6. PvP Holy (To putz around in)

They're ordered in my play-style preference right now. And I would happily pay incrementally more gold for each spec. And having a lot (a lot) of off-spec holy-gear that I've soaked up helps as well. I think my Holy set is about at par to heal through up to Domo probably. My Holy set which is, like, my fourth set of gear? - let's see - Protection, Retribution, PvP Retribution and Holy, yep, fourth set, not counting off-set pieces for mitigation or threat or whatever. I'm addicted to hording gear. Help.

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As for raids? Well. Let's just say Monday Tuesday night we cleared through 6 bosses in 2 hours and the only wipe we had was when I pulled 3 trash packs at the same time like a douche-bag. But you know what? I still had fun. And I know once everyone feels like giving heroics a shot, it'll be back to painful progression again, despite the nerf to heroics. And hey, this way, at least we'll be decked out in heroic raid gear when we face up to Tier 13.

I'll chalk this one up to a failure, and try to do better next tier. See? I can sound like a grownup sometimes. Man, this was a rambling post.