Guest Post: Doing The 'Mog Right

I know plenty of awesome 'Mogeres but none who've decked out every one of their alts in awesome and unique sets like my co-tank and DK extraordinaire, Miss Maara. I've convinced her to write out her process and guide, and she was gracious enough to do a guest post. There are 5 distinct sets listed here, and they really show the breadth of her design, from a very practical outfits for her Priest and Mage to the more ethereal and gloomy outfit for her Druid. The 'mogs on the Shaman and DK are a blending of the two, with more flash and cool-factor built in. If you're looking for some custom and unique sets, these might give you some ideas. I love 'em - enjoy!

--

My friend and fellow Turtle Saif has asked me to write a guest blog for Raiding After Dark on the subject of Transmogrification. Here's my go at it, but please don't blame me if it sucks. Blame Saif. It was totally his idea.

I guess the basic root of finding a good 'mog set is determining what, exactly, makes a look "good." This, of course, is extremely subjective. Some people love shiny sparklies while others prefer a more subdued look. Still others favor a look from an old raid set from the Days of Yore.

Buuuuuut, since Saif asked Yours Truly, you'll get my opinion and you'll like it!

Generally speaking, my philosophy for creating a solid 'mog look is to pick one or two items that you want to showcase, and choose the rest of the outfit around that. That piece can be thematic to the character, or simply awesome-looking, but whatever it is, the key is to make it shine (and I don't mean literally.)

To illustrate, I'll go though a few examples of this philosophy.

This is my shaman, Lumena. She's not my main, but she's my most showy 'mog currently. It took me a while to decide how to show her off... the draenei are somewhat under-represented lore-wise, so I decided on a look that was mostly "draenei" with less emphasis on the wild, shaman-y aspect. My starting point was actually the shield, though it was the last item I managed to acquire. It was uniquely draenei-looking, and the set flowed from that. I was lucky that the entire [Steadfast] set fit well, with a sort of aged, yet polished look. The [Mantle of the Sea Wolf] are the dash of shaman, and I chose them for that along with the color scheme that fit so well. The [Vicious Spellblade] I chose simply because its ambient effect overwrites any enchant effect and Power Torrent gives me a headache.

An outfit doesn't have to "match" though, to be a solid look. My mage, Kaelie, for example, or my priest, Lilienne, both sport looks that are more subdued. My mage I picture as something of a woodsy, active sort of person. I started with the [Legwraps of the Master Conjurer], a texture I'd noticed and loved back in Wrath. The rest just sort of fell into place... so many chest items look great with them! Once more, I chose a dagger based on mageyness and the ability to nullify the Power Torrent appearance.

Similarly, with my priest, I wanted her to look like a priest-on-the-go. (She served at the Cathedral in Gilneas, but is now at home in Stormwind). Her mace was the main piece of the set, and I let it carry the rest, keeping her simple and (I hope) subtle.

The set I am most proud of at the moment is my DK's frost gear. I started with a shoulder model, [Chilled Shoulderplates], that I absolutely loved. I wanted to convey the idea of a frozen, fallen Sentinel, so I chose smooth armor that matched the plate of the shoulders. I also loves the pattern on [Permafrost Cape], so when weapons don't clip it, I turn it on. For the weapons themselves I am currently 'mogged to [Stellaris] because it feels almost like a Night Elf glaive, but I've also enjoyed the look of [Teldrassil Protector], because it is very much in keeping with Maara's theme and color scheme.

Most recently I've put together a look for my resto druid, who is something of a wanna-be-devotee of Malorne (and the self-appointed intern of Elrahd). The center item for her was the [Druidic Helmet of Second Sight] and the rest followed easily enough. I find that matching your cloak to either your helm or your shoulder piece allows for a consistent look while still contrasting nicely with any given look. I'm not entirely happy with it, but the ideal black leather pieces drop from ToC and will take longer to get! For now the  basic leather set works nicely and [Brutal Gladiator's Staff] is perfect to accent it.

Yeah, maybe I have a 'mogging addiction. Maybe it's some deep-seated girly urge to play dress-up. Whatever it is, I love transmogrification!

The next set on the table is going to be a tougher one to tackle: my little gnome Gnelly is convinced that she's a hunter and once she's 85 I'm determined to have her look like one. My plan is something along the lines of this, but I guess we'll see how it goes!

For anyone wanting to play with hunting down great transmogrification ideas, Mogit is a fantastic addon, if you have the space to run it. Otherwise, just find an item you love, and just choose everything else with it its awesomeness in mind! Even if you have a favorite pair of boots, or an extra lucky hat, you're already halfway to an awesome 'mog!

--

If you're interested, here are the complete looks above:

Lumena (Shaman)

Head: Steadfast Coronet
Shoulder: Mantle of the Sea Wolf
Chest: Steadfast Breastplate
Wrist:Steadfast Bracelets
Hands: Steadfast Gloves
Waist: Steadfast Girdle
Legs: Steadfast Legplates
Feet: Steadfast Stompers
Dagger: Vicious Spellblade
Shield: Aldori Legacy Defender

Maara (Death Knight)

Head: Warleader's Crown
Shoulders: Chilled Shoulderplates
Chest: Heroic Armor
Hands: Truesilver Gauntlets
Waist: Grimscale Belt
Legs: Heroic Legplates
Feet: Vicious Gladiators Warboots of Alacrity
Axes: Stellaris
Back: Permafrost Cape

Lilienne (Priest)

Shoulder: Double-stitched Woolen Shoulders
Chest: Aurora Armor
Shirt: Rustic Workman's Shirt
Wrist: Archmage Bracelets
Hands: Heavy Linen Gloves
Waist: Bloodthirsty Embersilk Belt
Legs: Regal Leggings
Feet: Archmage Slippers
Mace: Mogor's Anointing Club
Offhand: Divine Companion

Celaen (Druid)

Head: Druidic Helmet of Second Sight
Shoulder: Hide of the Lone Hunter
Back: Proudmoore Cloak
Chest: Vest of Discovery
Shirt: Stylish Black Shirt
Hands: Infectis Puffer Gloves
Waist: Ghostwalker Belt
Legs: Golly Gosh Leggings
Feet: Grazle's Sandals
Staff: Brutal Gladiator's Staff

Kaelie (Mage)

Shoulders: Laughing Skull Shoulderpads
Back: Cloak of Insomnia
Chest: Mooncloth Vest
Shirt: Blue Lumberjack Shirt
Wrist: Laughing Skull Bracelets
Hands: Black Mageweave Gloves
Waist: Black Belt of Knowledge
Legs: Legwraps of the Master Conjurer
Feet: Kayser's Boots of Precision
Dagger: Jaded Crystal Dagger
Offhand: Globe of Moonlight

Tanking Legendary

We've been collecting materials as we kill bosses in Firelands and as I watch our Shadow Priest picked for the Legendary collect them, I feel a pang of jealousy. We didn't do a lot of 25-man content in Wrath, but I did run some 25s with big guilds, and I felt the same pang watching their DKs and Priests collecting Shards for Shadowmourne and Val'anyr.

And next tier, I'll watch our Rogue collect the Fangs of the Father.

At this point, every role has had a legendary except for tanks. Healers have had Val'anyr, melee DPS have had the Warglaives, Sulfuras, Thunderfury, and Shadowmourne, hunters had Thori'dal, and pretty much every caster could use Atiesh and Dragonwrath.

You could make the point that Death Knights used Shadowmourne to tank, but that still left 3/4 of tanking classes without a tanking Legendary.

Point being, tanks have never had a legendary tanking weapon, and a lot of the reasoning behind it is that there are way too many tanking classes that all use different weapons.

The bigger (and real) reason is that if you have a Legendary that only one or two tank classes can use, every raid will drop the other tanks to make room for them. If a raid was tanking with a DK and a Druid, they would drop one or both to bring in a Paladin and Warrior if there was a Legendary shield, and they would certainly be right to do so. And that completely screws up the tanking population and rightly so, isolates and insults those who can't get it.

Tanks are generally the characters who gear up the fastest in raids - they have little competition over drops and the more geared your tanks get, the easier it is for the raid to progress as they can ignore the "tank can't take hits" problem and focus on other issues of the raid. Tank gear matters and I can see balance issues with giving one tank a legendary and essentially making him a Main Tank which is a concept I absolutely loathe.

There are two tanks, they both do their jobs, swapping from one duty to the other as benefits their class abilities best. But I digress.

You hear about Blizzard doing a tanking legendary in the same way that they did Quel'Delar. It comes close but I can see Blizzard's point in rejecting that model for a legendary - something like that makes for an awesome questline and an epic item, but not for a Legendary weapon that needs to be instantly recognizable, is iconic, and, well, Legendary. An item, of monumental power, not something with multiple models.

So how do you reconcile this? I might have a thought.

Make a Legendary Mace.

Every tank class can use Maces. The model can stay the same.

Tweak it so that it can be used two-handed by Druids and DKs with a boost to stats to make up for a missign off-hand, and keep the same model for it across the board.

It is the same weapon in essence, it's just that Druids and DKs need to use it two-handed. Whatever stats and bonus it has should probably be tailored to tanking to keep it from DPS hands and you could probably have a tanking legendary.

Would I rather have a Palain specific questline and build a Holy Aegis that will sing with pathos and grace? A shield that would be a beacon in the darkest of places? A barrier against the most grievous harm?

Absolutely. But, you know. I'm willing to share with the other classes and settle for a mace. I'm sure there are other solutions out there, but I think this is a reasonable one even if it would require Blizzard to scale the item a bit differently between the 2-handed and 1-handed versions of it.

There are solutions out there, and I hope Blizzard keeps this in mind going into the next expansion.

Tanking: Then And Now

I've been thinking about class balance lately as I look at my own raid team and I thought back to my raiding career over the last couple of years. This is going to be a bit long and rambling, but hopefully productive. :-)

When I started raiding, I was very good friends with a Holy Paladin who healed my bear through all the TBC heroics, Kara and Z'A. A Holy Paladin/Bear combo was pretty beastly in TBC raiding. Bears had massive armor and health (more than any other class) and Holy Paladins could keep spot healing them all day long. Back then, we were the only class that would eat Crushing Blows (unless one of the shield tanks missed keeping a buff up) and the Paladin would just land a big heal to cover it. We could keep a boss going till enrage fairly easily. During this time my tanking partners rotated a lot but I raided a lot with another paladin tank (who were strictly AoE or main tanks and made terrible off-tanks just due to the amount of agro that Holy Shield generated.)

Ashenvale

Monday night, I logged in to game and reset the hearths for all of my characters, I took a stroll around Stormwind, killing Elementals as I went, and then I paused, thinking about all the places in the game world I'd spent time in. What was the one place I wanted to ride through, one last time?

Even though my Paladin is my main and will always be my favorite character to play, he wasn't my first. I barely remember the leveling process through Vanilla and TBC. I have fond memories of the leveling process in Wrath due to my leveling partner and all of the RP that came out of it, but that wasn't at stake here.

What was at stake here was the old world.

And I remember my first two attempts at leveling, they were confused, uncertain, fitful things. First a mage, then a warrior, both of which were left in the mid forties over some unquantifiable misgiving and so I rerolled for the third time, a Night Elf druid, and I began to level, with a bit more certainty and confidence.

Now that I knew how the game worked, I was able to focus on the lore, the stories, the environment. In my head, a story began to write itself about who this guy was, the world he came from, the confusion of waking up into a world so changed from the world he went to sleep in so long ago.

Teldrassil and Darkshore were fine and entertaining, but his story really hit me when I came to Ashenvale. It is likely the most Night Elfish of all the zones in the games, purely executed, and though it comes across like a bit of a new-age crystal shop at times, I can indulge myself and enjoy the music and lighting and the purple colors. I remember leveling as Feral and prowling through the misty glens and hiding in leafy bushes, running solo as I went, and the place carved a little space for itself in my heart.

There was a quest in Ashenvale, long gone now, I'm sure, and at the culmination of the quest, you were given a vial that would grant three seconds of invulnerability so you could defeat some elite boss, but I thought the vial was so amazing that I couldn't use it for a simple quest, so I saved it and saved it and saved it.

I remember when I began raiding, tanking the Prince in Kara, when I wanted to take the potion to save a wipe but I never did. I went on to Gruul, Magtheridon, Zul'Aman, pieces of the next tier, but never used the potion. It stayed in my bags.

It was like a piece of Ashenvale that I never got rid of, that stayed with me.

So, on Monday night, I rode from one end to the other, back and forth, over and over, until finally I sighed, bid farewell to the purple glen and hearthed for the last time.