Posted by Amatera on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 - 17 Comments
Tags: 3.3, armor set, Gul'dan, icc, Mage, Rogue, tier 10, Warlock
Not too long ago, we told you that Blizzard was planning on previewing the new tier of class armor on their very own website. They kicked off their Tier 10 catalog earlier in the month by showing off gear for the Death Knight, Druid, Hunter, and Warrior classes, presumably in an attempt to control the flow of information about what to expect in future content (community manager Nethaera even made a forum post to that effect). Since then, almost every other set has been revealed through data-mining, which places the “Big B” behind the curve.
The interesting thing about this whole dynamic is that it must be something of a buzzkill for the art and development teams; their work is revealed and scrutinized before its even officially available. As a result, fans who don’t mind the spoilers end up jumping to conclusions and — often times — making rather pejorative statements about the aesthetic qualities of the armor. The public can be a truly harsh mistress. I suppose the question at that point is: as an artist at Blizzard, do you stick to your guns or do you take the extra time to go back and tweak how the equipment looks? Well, at least this time, the response is to release more previews. After all, even if you’re producing art for a commercial product like World of Warcraft, the medium is sometimes about pushing the consumers’ expectations.
Let’s take a quick look at the three new additions to the official sneak peek:
Rogue - Tier 9 never really did it for me. Having to share the same basic look with other classes took away from the “lithe and deadly” feel that Rogue armor should. Instead, I got to run around like some goofy, shield-toting knight or something. Thankfully, Tier 10 marks a return to form with a set of armor based on the characteristically agile “geist” enemy. Well, aside from the gigantic shoulders, anyway (but then again, what class doesn’t have huge pauldrons?). Notice the trademark “closed hood” design of the helmet, and the glowing bits are a nice touch, as well.
Warlock - I’m sensing a hint of Gul’Dan here, and considering that he was considered to be, quite possibly, the most skilled and powerful Warlock that has ever lived, that’s nothing but a compliment to players of this class. That he was a former student of Ner’Zhul (i.e. one half of the Lich King) makes it even more fitting for a Tier 10 outfit. In my opinion, the pointed hood and skull-mask really make this one of the better Warlock sets out there.
Mage - Now this one, I admit, I’m having trouble pin-pointing. There’s some sort of cohesive design here, but I’m not sure that it screams “Mage” to me. Just looking around the internet at what other people have suggested, there are all sorts of inspirations they could’ve used for the Mage set. Liches, like the once-Mage Kel’Thuzad, would’ve worked, just as well as a basic Frostwyrm design. Tier 10 seems serviceable, but I can’t help but think that they missed some serious potential with this one.
Now that I’ve give you my thoughts on the latest Tier 10 reveals, I’d like to hear what you folks in the Project Lore community think of them. Spew your words below!
Related Posts: 3.3: More Official Tier 10 Previews, Tier WTF, Sneak Peak of an Emtpy Ulduar, Patch 3.3: Final Tier 10 Preview, Shaman, Too Soon for a New Tier?,
By Heartbourne on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
OLD
You should embed some images, mang
By vag on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Yeah, this is pretty old news.
By Amatera on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Thanks for the encouragement guys! I’d still like to cover it for you.
By 4Khazmodan on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Can someone post the link for a t10 pally set please? You said almost all of them have been data-mined, and I would love to have a peek.
By Lolmaster on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Shamans too! Playing a paladin, shaman and death knight, I REALLY want to see all of them. And now that one of them is covered …
By patric on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 12:24 am
MMO champion has almost all of the tier 10 pieces out that you can see exept i think shaman…. you about 5 days late on the info
By Dekarde on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 4:07 am
Wow, the rogue armor sure looks like a rip off of the movie 9. Just alittle bit, atleast thats what I first thought when I saw it. The rest of the previews are cool but the Mage one looks like a rehash of some armor just differently designed.
By ViperhawkZ on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 5:07 am
Mage one is clearly based off of the Darkfallen (Kheleseth and whatnot).
By Versatu on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 6:19 am
@ Amatera “The public can be a truly harsh mistress.”
So true
By Lion1314 on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 6:25 am
Mage gear doesn’t look so epic now i feel bad that i have to wear it to stay up to date with the gear trend D: ALL ABOUT THE STATS!!!
By Moophobia on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 8:57 am
i like them all, ‘cept for the rogue. i just don’t dig the helmet or shoulders…big spikes from the shoulders isn’t really conducive to sneaking around. i think for fun their should be storm shadow (aka, gi joe) outfit for rogues to obtain…lol, but the new tier stuff for rogues is crap
By Kyndranigar on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 11:48 am
As ViperhawkZ pointed out, the mage set is based off the “San’layn” blood elf vampire guys Arthas has working for him.
By Cryos on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Warlock tier 10= Dark Magician
By cocopuff on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
@cryos dark magician? as in yu-gi-yo? seriously? lol. i like the mage tier 10 i think it will look very cool on a gnome gnomes allways make gear look better something about thier size.
though the DK desighn is really getting old skulls and blue crystals on the armor the general theme seems to be blue
with sharp points on the helm.
rogues sure dont like to show their faces and honnostly i dont blame am
By Highwayman on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
After taking a closer look at the mage T10 gear…I think it does suit a mage. If you look closely at the feet, there are skeletal toes embossed on it and even fingers over the hand guards on the back. Of course there’s also the fangs on the face covering as well.
While this may not be exactly mage-y, it does bring to mind liches, undead mages etc.
The one thing I truly like about all the gear previews so far is that they’re truly getting back to the nature of the classes.
Hunters have the animal horns, straps and wicked looking stuff. The DK’s remind me of Mograine, and for those complaining about the ‘Lock stuff…remind yourself that locks are magic users who fiddle with dark and forbidden arts and therefore would be dark and faceless, lest they be recognized!
Over all, I have the impression that when TBC came out, the gear was to look appropriately ‘alien’, WotLK brought us somewhat ‘gothic’ looking gear, and now with the new expansion coming back, I can see traces of moving the gear sets back to a more classic, Azerothian look versus what’s been released in the previous expansions.
I’m very pleased with what I see and hope to nab more than just a couple of peices for myself….someday, somehow lol
By mrbbobg on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
@ametera yes plz keep covering the tier 10 happt hunting everyone
By mrbbobg on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
happy** damn to early to be typing