The ex-warrior was rerolled as a monk, and I started to tinker with his character.  Story-wise, the idea was that he was already close friends with a human, and I had seen a few blood elves being played as high elves.  The idea caught on, and it just fit for him.  Ryel had never been one to agree with Kael’thas or the siphoning of fel magic to survive.  He was a monk!  He’d have conquered his arcane addiction through discipline.  He doesn’t think the Horde or Alliance are really bad, either, he just wouldn’t have agreed with the erstwhile prince.  Add to it that his human friend is a Crusader, and it set him up nicely to be in with the Argent Crusade.

Well, any good character deserves an outfit.  The problem was finding one that suited him.  I wanted a mog that would identify him as a “non red team” elf- lots of blue and gold!  If he was Alliance, it would have been simple enough to go to Trial of the Crusader and get the rogue tier 9 lookalike outfit.  I didn’t have things quite so simple.  He would need two outfits- an end-game transmog and a leveling one, mostly just because I hated staring at the leather heirlooms.

With heirlooms, it’s easy to create a nearly cohesive look during the leveling process.  Starting with shoulders and chest, you can get the two most important parts of an outfit.  With the new heirloom legs, even non-robe wearers can create a nearly complete outfit!  I went with the “glyphed” set as the base for his leveling transmog- many of the pieces have lookalikes from Ashenvale quests starting at level 19.

Even with non-matching gloves, belt, and boots, it’s still a solid set.  With heirlooms, there’s no worry to have to constantly re-mog every time I get an upgrade, a definite bonus!

• Shoulders: Manager’s Mantle (Ashenvale Quests)
• Chest: Felfire-Tainted Vest (Ashenvale Quests)
• Cloak: Defender Cloak (BoE)
• Legs: Leggings of Loss (Ashenvale Quests)

As soon as I am able to level my engineering, he’ll be getting some stylish goggles to cover up those green eyes.  As for the rest of his “endgame” outfit, well, if I can dream…

• Helm: Cogspinner Goggles (BoE, Engineering-Only)
• Shoulders: Spaulders of the Ring (Nagrand Quests)
• Chest: Lo’ap’s Tunic of Muck Diving (Nagrand Quests)
• Cloak: Shawl of Shifting Probabilities (Vendor- JP)
• Legs: Shattrath Leggings (Outland Quests)
• Boots: Camelhide Treads (BoE)
• Gloves: Safecracker’s Gloves (BoE)
• Belt: Hillman’s Belt (BoE)
• Staff: Icecore Staff (Ulduar 10)
• Tabard: Argent Crusader’s Tabard (Reputation)

It will be a lot of dailies and reputation grinding to get him looking the way I want, and for the time being I’ll have to settle with the regular Argent Crusade tabard.  Still, it’s nice to have a project!

 I think I took somewhere between 20 and 30 screen shots during that random heroic of Misogai before finally asking him to show me more. He was kind enough to sit down and show me some of his transmog sets on his other characters, and answer some questions as well.

Hi Misogai! I’ll start by saying when I saw your shamans transmog outfit in our random heroic last week, I loved it right away. Did it take you very long to compile it?
Thanks for the xmog love, it’s always nice when someone takes the time to appreciate the time and effort that goes into putting a set together. The set that Misogai is wearing took around 6 months or so to finish.

Before transmog became available, did you collect sets before then as well? And if you did, was it just for looks, or do you role play with your characters as well?
Unfortunately I did not save much before the announcement of transmogrification came out, I always wanted the space clear in my bags/bank.

What’s the longest you’ve spent building one of your sets. They’re not exactly tier items, must have taken some time.
I spent about 10 months gathering the glorious set for my Paladin, the legs were the last piece I needed and I finally got them a couple months back.

Which of your sets is your favourite, and why?
As you can see from my toons I really like sets that drop randomly from mobs as opposed to tier sets. My favorite changes quite often but at the moment I would have to say my warriors Bloodscale set. I recently got the shoulders to drop from Mount Hyjal after 20+ weekly attempts to finish his set off. I guess it means more when it takes so much effort to get. I also love his Very Light Saber weapon xmogs.

This one is my second favourite!

Are there any hard to get items you’re after right now for a set you’re in the process of making?
I am always putting more sets together, and currently I am working on the Vanguard Set for my Paladins dps set.

I really appericiate you taking the time to answer some questions and showing us all your sets. Final question; Is there any advice you’d give to other players looking to delve deeper into transmog?
Transmog is a really fun alternative thing to do in WoW. Collecting my sets has been a combination of a lot farming, checking the AH several times a day hoping for that one piece to show up, and finding friends on my realm that are also looking for the same type of items to trade.

If you would like to compile one of the sets seen in this post, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll dig a little and get you a list of the items seen. For now however, I will leave you with the raging red armor that is the Stylin’ Bloodlust Set. The level requirement to wear this set is level 70.

• Helm: Stylin’ Crimson Hat
• Shoulders: Bloodlust Epaulets
• Chest:  Bloodtlust Breastplate
• Gloves: Bloodlust Gauntlets
• Waist: Bloodlust Belt
• Legs: Bloodlust Britches
• Boots: Bloodlust Boots
• Weapon: Syphon of the Nathrezim

 I’ve recently moved most of my toons in the last few month from Horde back to Alliance. One of those is my warrior, and I have to say, I kind of regret it now that I’ve seen this outfit! I think the tabard really helps to complete this set, and the only other one I might pair it with is the Mag’har Tabard. Before I saw this outfit, I really disliked the Wrath i200-i213 plate shoulders, but now I quite like them.  I feel Shèng has really captured his new found faction quite well, with the dark reds, and of course, the Orgrimmar Tabard.

I did not manage to find out what his weapon was, his armory wasn’t showing the proper one at the time, and he is currently using an axe now. My own warrior being Fury though, I’d likely use Merciless Gladiator’s Bonecracker x2. Items can be purchased with Justice Points, Honor Points, or Tier 5 raid tokens depending on the item, with the exception of the shoulders, which drop in Anub’Rekhan in Naxxramas. The level requirement to wear this set is level 80.

• Shoulders: Pauldrons of Unnatural Death
• Chest:  Merciless Gladiator’s Plate Chestpiece
• Gloves: Merciless Gladiator’s Plate Gauntles
• Waist: Veteran’s Plate Belt
• Legs: Merciless Gladiator’s Plate Legguards
• Boots: Veteran’s Plate Greaves

EDIT: The sword has been found! The lovely @mainfloortank on Twitter sent a tweet with a link. It’s the Greatsword of the Sin’dorei. Thanks for finding it.

A while back Mataoka started a blog event called Azeroth’s Next Top Plate Model, where bloggers were invited to design a variety of different plate outfits for their characters. I entered, with Fabulor as my model, partially to gently buck tradition and partially because, well, he’s Fabulor.

I was quite happy with the outfits I came up with, but one in particular really caught my eye, the “Professional Wear” entry. I really liked the idea of Fabulor having an outfit that seemed more suited to a ballroom or opera house, rather than a battlefield. It was very “him”, and it also fit his in-game role as being a healer – why have huge chunky metal armor when (ideally) you’re not getting hit by anything?

I also loved the overly decorative detailing on the signature pieces, the little intricate gold patterns, the sharp contrasts, and how the chestpiece looks more like a soft fabric vest of some sort, rather than actual plates of steel. (And since Fabulor is a tailor, this makes even more sense!) It all screams prestige and decadence, which fits Fabulor’s personality exactly.

However, the beautiful gloves are no longer available in game, and the awesome boots require a 2200 arena rating to purchase, which Fabulor will almost certainly never attain. So this meant I had to dig around and see what other pieces would work as replacements. I also decided to scrap the shoulders, as the colors didn’t really match, and I’d never really been happy with them.

After some moderate farming, and gathering the OUTRAGEOUS materials needed to craft the Enchanted Thorium Leggings, Fabulor finally retired his Blood Knight outfit when patch 5.0.4 hit, and is now walking around looking like this:

The gloves are slightly bigger and bulkier than the originals, which had the decidedly un-plate-ish folded-over elbows (which I adore). However, these gloves were a perfect match color-wise, and look fancy and stylish enough to match the rest of the outfit.

The shoulders aren’t bad, though they are regrettably a little large. During the creation of this transmog outfit I came to the tragic realization that there are almost no plate shoulders that AREN’T huge and bulky. Which I suppose makes sense, being plate and all. But it was still a little disappointing.

(click for larger version)

Of course, no shield, as a shield would be much too heavy and brutish for this elegant outfit. Instead, Fabulor is sporting an expensive-looking platinum and gold staff and matching ornate mace. Matching blue gemwork insets – sapphires, perhaps – tie the weapons together nicely. Nothing but the best for this member of Sin’dorei nobility.

(Added bonus: the mace has its own built-in glow, which means it’s not horribly obscured and ruined by Power Torrent!)

(click for larger version, or here’s a text version with Wowhead links.)

Head: Overlord’s Crown (Bind-on-Equip green)
Shoulder: Spaulders of the Righteous (The Botanica)
Back: Shadow of the Past (Deadmines)
Chest: Imperial Plate Chest (Blacksmithing)
Hands: Gauntlets of the Righteous (Shattered Halls)
Waist: Handcrafted Mastersmith Girdle (Blackrock Spire)
Legs: Enchanted Thorium Leggings (Blacksmithing)
Feet: Grim Sabatons (Bind-on-Equip blue)
Main Hand: Lightsworn Hammer (Shattered Halls)
Off Hand: Geomancer’s Rod (Bind-on-Equip green)

(click for larger version) (This has become one of my favorite pictures.)

Recently I created a dwarf death knight over in Waypoint, to join in on Herald of the Titans fun. This week I finally got her geared up, gemmed and enchanted, which meant there was only one crucial task left – a transmog outfit!

Because Heralds are locked at 80, it was interesting looking at transmog options, since I wouldn’t be able to use most of the Cataclysm plate gear I’d gotten used to over the past year. Additionally, being Alliance-side meant that I’d be without my familiar Horde tabards!

(I also didn’t have a “bank” of transmog gear stashed away, since I haven’t been on this server very long, and this particular character has only been around for like a month.)

This was my first attempt at an outfit. Not terrible, fairly cohesive…but also pretty boring.

I did like the overall feel, but it was too bland. I also later ended up getting a different weapon, a 2-hand axe rather than sword.

I put the outfit aside for the time being and decided to find a great 2-hand axe first, then build the outfit around that. Fortunately, I got lucky at the Auction House and snagged the Glorious War-Axe for 25g, a real mogging bargain!

This iconic Burning Crusade axe fit my requirements perfectly – huge and cool looking, and also exactly the type of design to inspire an entire transmog set.

I saw the blue and gold colors and realized the Talonguard Gloves from my first attempt would match up very well. (I’m a big fan of the Talonguard set, having used the gloves before on my Horde death knight.) I had some more AH luck and grabbed the matching boots as well. Throw in the Fearless Girdle (which I had picked up during Outlands questing) and I was off to a good start!

With such a heavy blue/gold focus, I figured I HAD to go the Stormwind route. (Also, since I was actually playing Alliance and all that.) Not the horrible ugly city tabard though – I went with the much nicer Knight’s Colors instead, and threw in a chestpiece from Northrend that showed some yellow armor at the collarbone. This is plate armor! It doesn’t make any sense to have a huge, unarmored area right at your neck!

I knew the Shattershore Cloak would match the set perfectly, so I went and picked it up in Blasted Lands (about 15 quests). While I was doing this, I also queued for and ran a few Cataclysm regular dungeons, because I needed a few hundred more Justice Points to pick up the final, most important component – the shoulders.

I’d actually happened across the Pauldrons of the Cavalier (and its various recolors) long ago while browsing items in WoW Model Viewer, and I LOVED the look of them. Only after playing around with them for a while did I decide to Wowhead them, and learn they were Alliance-only, something that made me very sad. But here, finally, was my chance to actually use them! And not just use them, but use them as the finishing touch on this fun outfit.

As the additional the icing on the cake, during the last dungeon I ran to get enough Justice Points to purchase the Pauldrons, the Bind-on-Equip Alpheus Legguards dropped. Not only were they perfect for the transmog outfit, but I also genuinely needed them for my non-Herald gear. Added bonus – I was the only plate wearer in the group. It was fate.

Here’s the final gear list:

Shoulders: Pauldrons of the Cavalier (591 Justice Points)
Back – Shattershore Cloak (quest) or Cloak of the Devoured (C’Thun)
Chest – Chestguard of Salved Wounds (quest) or many others
Shirt – Stylish Black Shirt (60 silver)
Tabard – Knight’s Colors (100 Honor)
Hands – Talonguard Gloves (Bind-on-Equip green)
Waist – Girdle of Uther (Bind-on-Equip blue) or Fearless Girdle (quest)
Legs – Alpheus Legguards (Bind-on-Equip blue) or many others
Feet – Talonguard Greaves (Bind-on-Equip green)
Weapon – Glorious War-Axe (Bind-on-Equip green)

So bring it on, Algalon. You may be made of stars, but I look amazing.

On Druid Gear and The Past

Back in March of 2012,  I drafted a post about transmogging my main, Normanitee. This is how it started.

Here is a confession. When they introduced Transmogrification,  Norm did nothing about it. I didn’t collect a single piece of gear, I didn’t go on a single retro run. I didn’t design any outfits on Wowhead or wonder what she would wear. I already knew, and it was already in her bank, still gemmed and enchanted. For my Normanitee, transmogrification wasn’t an opportunity to explore new and creative ways of dressing or expressing her personality, but a chance to finally wear the outfit she’s always worn in my mind.

On Discovering the Darkmoose Within

“Haha, I should make some kind of Darkmoose Anti-Druid Fake Rogue outfit out of this hat!,” I laughed, while digging through my overflowing bank, and playing with vanity items with Rades, late one night shortly after I transferred.

#BlameRades

Protip: Never joke about transmog with Rades if you value your 7 remaining bagslots. “I have gloves that go with that in my second bank alt’s guild bank! Go on, equip them!! There’s this belt in the AH? Do these pants match? How about these pants?”

Before I knew it, I had most of an outfit thrown together, and to my surprise, it felt right to wear it. To be silly, to be completely different, to wear something unique that didn’t look like druid gear, to invert Norm’s moose antlers to become the dread DARKMOOSE. 

It’s a drastic change of pace from the swirly green mixed tier Norm typically wears for PvE healing, with it’s many straps and buckles, fur trim and rivets, all in black and grey. It reminds me that PvP is a different beast, and even the best druids will have to do as needs must when their faction calls them. It reminds me to be flexible on the field, and not get stuck into a healing rut, as if I were in a raid. I am not only a channeller of nature’s healing bounty, but also a stealthy cat, a sprinting cheetah, a durable bear.  Able to be a knife-like surprise, sharp and unexpected, like the shoulders. Not just a healer, but truly a druid.

It’s also gotten me over a long standing distaste for Norm’s knees.  What is it with knees in this game?

See, check out those visible knees!

Norm has decided that Moose Hats are her signature piece, and gets cranky when I ask her to wear anything else. Fortunately, there are Moose Hats in yellow (the druid-only T2 StormrageCovers ), navy and black (the Druidic Helmet of Second Sight), and blue and oak brown (the Moon-Crown Antlers).  Moose hats are nice because it’s always easy to spot myself in a crowd, both from a fashion standpoint, and from a game mechanics stand point. I find it entertaining that she has this dark, stealthy outfit, but is still brash enough, and druidic enough, to put antlers on top of it. I enjoy having a signature piece, even though I’m not sure it was exactly voluntary. Norm is a cow with opinions.

This outfit is difficult to capture in screenshots, because both the staff and the shoulders have brief, unpredictable animations that radically change the outfit. The staff’s central ember spins and pulses, and the head occasionally emits crackles of lightning. The shoulders are a recolor of Rogue T8. The pauldrons send out a trio of glowing orange claws which whip around the body incredibly quickly. They trigger every time you change forms, so they’re especially exciting when I’m popping in and out of flight form for archaeology.  Of course, every screenshot I’ve managed to catch of them in action is totally unusable for fashion reasons. Check them out in the 3D on Wowhead to really see what I mean.

The Bloodfire Greatstaff is one of those iconic pieces that I rarely see anyone wearing – I get occasional whispers from mogmaxing admirers over it. I love carrying a giant flaming iron brand Horde symbol onto the battlefield. I love thwacking totems with a mighty 8 foot smoldering pole.

Pretty sure your disguise isn’t fooling anyone, Norm.

Darkmoose Details

The set requires a leatherwearer of at least level 80 with access to Ulduar for the shoulders and hands. The rest of the pieces require level 70 and are mostly from BC Heroics. I recommend doing the Shadowmoon Valley Teron Gorefiend quest chain on all classes, for the T2 helm recolors.

• Helm: Druidic Helm of Second Sight
• Shoulders: Treacherous Shoulderpads
• Chest: Tunic of Assassination  
• Hands: Gloves of Fast Reaction
• Waist: Belt of Appeasement
• Legs: Leggings of Swift Reflexes or Leggings of Assassination
• Feet: Dandred Boots (invisible on toons with hooves, consider Treads of the Invader if you have visible feet.)
• Weapon: Bloodfire Greatstaff

See it in a dressing room on WowHead here.

On Taking A Journey

I find I can’t really write about finding Norm, without writing about community. Even this post feels grossly unfinished without credits. For Cyn and Cynwise, who have been making a baffling parallel journey with me and Norm.  For Cat, who sometimes knows my thoughts before I do. For Rades, for inspiration and trust, and for the Fajitas for being home.  For Snack, for writing the post that made me realize what this post was meant to be, and for running the guild that made me realize Norm exists outside the community, too.

Because the person I somehow want to thank is Normanitee. This digital avatar who doesn’t even exist, but does, because she is breathes through me. Norm is the nexus where Warcraft is not just a game. Where mechanics meet identity, where human connections that exist outside the game take action within digital spaces. I can be Narci, or even my real life identity online without her, but I cannot be Norm without being with this character.

She’s the focal point where fun isn’t just what’s fun right now, time frittered in “a game”, but fun is a process. Fun can be a journey undertaken together, with uphill slogs and mile markers. There are times when you just grit your teeth and do this thing because you’re doing it together, whether it be together with your friends, or together with this pixelated cow who is somehow my friend, as well. She is a part of me that, through divorce with the rest of me, I can love myself the way I love others.

Love isn’t love until it is shared, until it is actioned, given away and accepted back. It makes sense, perhaps, that I externalize this part of myself into an isolated, separate personality, item, locus. That it is far enough away from the me who is just me, indivisible, that I can respond to her the way I wish I could respond to myself.

So really, when I say thank you to Norm for waiting for me, I mean thank you to myself, for giving myself time to grow.  When I think that Norm has found a home, I know I mean I am more comfortable in my own skin, as well. And when I realized that Norm had found a way to move forward, what I know is that I, too, the rest of me, will find my way into a future I still haven’t imagined.

Hi, me. I’ve missed you.

A year ago I abandoned my main, Cynwise.

I had taken a week off WoW for personal reasons and logged back in to the middle of the PvP Season 9-10 transition fiasco, which turned out to be the straw that broke this particular camel’s back. I walked away from my warlock, from the endgame, and didn’t look back.

There were times I felt bad for Cynwise, neglected, alone, gathering dust. I would log in occasionally when I needed her to make bags for an alt, or occasionally to check something out which required an 85, but that was really about it.

The Conquest Vicious gear I was once so proud of became a symbol of shame, obsoleted first by Honor gear, then crafted PvP gear. And it was fugly gear, too; bright green and gold, a neon beacon across the BG, an eyesore. It was so very different from Wrath’s deep reds and browns. I got used to how it looked, but it was never the image I wanted Cynwise to portray – it was just the clothes she had to wear to do her job.

It’s so strange trying to find screenshots where I actually show Cynwise during this time. It’s like she just  vanished. The above picture is about the only detailed shot from that period – the robe is actually not that bad looking – but there are only a few long-range shots of her standing awkwardly in a bright green and gold flaming outfit, trying to blend in. I started zooming in on all my screenshots on Cynwise, unconsiously trying to crop her out of the frame.

It’s like I didn’t even want to look at her.

She wasn’t gone, by a long shot; she was there as I wrote my way through trying to understand my own reasons and motivations. The entirety of my Field Notes experiment had her abandonment in the background, but I couldn’t bear to pick her up again. I would hop on her for a few minutes, half-heartedly go through the motions, and then go play something else. I tried opening up the Firelands dailies and was just … ugh.

It’s not that I couldn’t play her, I just didn’t want to.

I’d look at that stupid green and gold gown and the glowing shoulders and wonder what the hell happened to the ambitious girl from Northshire wearing them. She and I used to be great together, and now we … weren’t. I couldn’t work myself up to grinding out a new Honor set which looked identical to the Conquest one I already had, and then getting a Conquest set which was greener and golder and had more glowing fire and spikes.

So, we took a break. I played with a bunch of elves.

The Season 11 Warlock PvP Set was the carrot which first started to draw me back.

I remember seeing the previews of this set and going, wow, that is a Warlock outfit. Gone were the bright greens and golds. In their place are dark blues, dark purples and greens, with an aggressively stylish look that dares an onlooker to make an inappropriate comment. It’s dangerous and sinister and gorgeous, but it’s also more than a little evil. I wanted it.

But, it turns out, I didn’t want it quite badly enough to pick Cynwise back up again in 4.3. I’ll get it in Mists, I told myself, but it’s not worth going through the Conquest grind to get them. I had other projects to work on in Warcraft. Getting nice looking clothes for a character I didn’t play anymore wasn’t a priority.

It was Midwinter when I tentatively logged back in to my warlock.

I remember how much I hated that stupid green and gold robe, that visible reminder of failure. I don’t even know that it was my failure. But it was a sign of failure nonetheless, and crafting the Vicious Emberfire set brought with it a palpable sense of relief. I put on the dark, moody clothes with the vaguely witch-like cowl and felt much, much better about my character.

I like the crafted cloth PvP sets. They are detailed, they’re distinctive, they’re sexy – they’re really fashionable sets. They give you a great, put-together look for starting out on the PvP grind. And with transmogrification – now live – I could avoid ever looking at the green and gold outfits again. As I geared up for LFR and battlegrounds, I kept Cynwise fully mogged into a set I liked and was fond of. Furious, Wrathful, Emberfire.

This tactical mogging was entirely deliberate – every time I looked at her I wanted to be reminded of a previous time when I enjoyed playing her. I mogged her into the Furious/Deadly combo I wore for so much of Wrath and couldn’t believe how right it felt, again. This is how Cynwise was supposed to look. Putting on my old Wrathful gear invoked all the memories of being a badass on the battlefield, memories I needed to get over the painful fact that I wasn’t a badass anymore.

But at least Cynwise looked like herself again.

After killing Deathwing in LFR, Cynwise took another break. She’d done the quests, killed the dragon, got a new outfit. She didn’t have the one outfit I really wanted for her, yet, but I figured it would come in time. It was a possibility, again, but my connection was so tenuous that I didn’t want to jeopardize it. I said at the time:

I’m done with Cataclysm. That’s strange to say, it feels strange to consider it that way, but it’s really true. I’ve won the xpac. I can go do something else now.

And I walked away from Cynwise again, this time mostly content. She looked like a Warlock again. I had achieved some small victories with her. It was enough, I thought.

Only, she didn’t have her robes yet. That bugged me a little bit. Not a lot, but a little bit.

And I didn’t expect some damn fool to ask questions about Warlock populations in Cataclysm.

I experienced the same effect writing that series that many readers reported reading it – it made me want to play my Warlock again. Not out of solidarity, or some vain attempt to prove the numbers wrong. No, it was curiosity, it was familiarity, it was … something else. I can’t explain it fully, at least not yet. But it happened.

I was spending all my time looking at Warlocks again. I’d jump on to check a spell duration, then spend 20 minutes  working through the various rotations. I started queueing for battlegrounds again. I transferred her to a different server with a more active guild, I dipped my toes back into the Arena. I ran dungeons and subbed in for raids and even went back to LFR so I could have matching shoulders for my outfit.

The Conquest points started coming in again.

By the time I could unmog my outfit from the Emberfire set to the complete Cataclysmic Gladiator’s Felweave, Cynwise was back.

It wasn’t like it was before between her and me.

But it was something.

In retrospect, it’s amazing how important my character’s appearance has been – is – to me.

This hasn’t been a story of wildly creative outfits or fashion ingenuity; it’s not that I found the perfect outfit and it made me suddenly fall in love with my main again. It took a lot of wardrobe changes, and there was nothing sudden about it. I still have a lot of conflicted feelings about playing a Warlock – I don’t think they’re as much fun as they were in Wrath, and I’m nervous about the changes coming in Mists – but getting Cynwise into this tier’s Conquest gear has been a big step back.

I don’t usually talk about tier gear here on GMY, because I don’t think I have much to say about a predefined look that is supposed to go together in ways that even green sets are not. But that’s shortsighted of me.

Tier sets define a time and place in the game for those who were there, and iconic looks for those who come after. They remind us of those times running Black Temple, or Ulduar, or that season we spent goofing around with our friends in Arena or learning to PvP in Wintergrasp and Alterac Valley.

Transmogrification saved Cynwise. It saved her because it allowed me to get past the appearance of S9 and S10 PvP gear and create a character I wanted to play again. Transmogrification allowed me to create the mental space I needed to get over my hangups about the gear grind and just get out there and play. It wasn’t the only thing, but it was an important thing. Seeing her in the Furious/Deadly mix I used to have as my blog header let me get past my reservations and go back to a time where I was more confident in my abilities to play this game.

Sometimes, the best thing you can do to feel different about yourself is go change your clothes.

(I kept the Season 9 gear, by the way. I had a lot of fun in S9 with my guildmates, and I want to remember those times. Not the breakdown, but the times which led up to it in the Arena with Psynister and Dolar and Janlen and the rest. Time will wash away the bad and leave only the good.)

CYNWISE’S “JUST FOLK NOW” OUTFIT

I just wrote in PvP Playbook: Portrait Psychology:

Intimidation isn’t a bad thing in PvP. If you look at someone and immediately identify that they’re in a full set of Conquest gear while your team is a mix of crafted and Honor, you’re going to treat that player with wary respect.

Parading around in full Conquest gear will get you noticed, and if you’re not running with your Arena team all the time, that might not be a great thing. I also found that, as much as I like the Cataclysmic Gladiator’s Felweave outfit, it represents a Warlock at the height of her powers. Cynwise’s story in my head isn’t there yet; she is still trying to come to grips with coming out of retirement. She got used to being a person, and not a Warlock.

So I’ve mogged my S11 over to myLFR  T13 for special occasions, and have gone a completely different direction with Cynwise’s normal (PvP) gear: she’s trying to look ordinary.

Warlocks are, in general, not very ordinary. But in searching for a way to express what’s happened to Cynwise over the course of Cataclysm, both the character and the player, I could that an ordinary appearance is as strong a statement I can make. Cyn and Cynwise alike found themselves not wanting to be Warlocks anymore; instead of the fancy ceremonial robes, let’s try sensible, realistic clothing for a change.

We’re just folk now.

• Head: Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat, Flying Tiger Goggles, or none.
• Shoulders: Archmage Mantle
• Chest: Gossamer Tunic
• Hands: Gossamer Gloves
• Waist: Chillbane Belt
• Legs: Gossamer Pants
• Feet: Durable Boots
• MH: Blade of Serration
• OH: Grayson’s Torch

I like that this outfit conveys several messages:

First, Cynwise looks lower level and less threatening than in S11. The set is mostly made up of mid-40s greens, with the exception of the belt and MH, and there’s a simple look to it. This doesn’t attract attention in PvP.

Second, she looks like an adventurer or an explorer, not a Warlock. There is nothing class-specific about this outfit (aside from it being cloth) and that is very much the point of it. She looks like someone appropriately outfitted for a desert or jungle expedition  - not something you can say about someone  in a dentata dress.

Third, it shows that Cynwise has legs. Wearing robes from level 20 through 85 has been … restricting. I’m sorry – I like dresses, but I’m so tired of robes. Robes convey a very strong image of a caster, not an ordinary person out and about. That can be a good look – but it’s counter to the idea that Cynwise is trying to put that all behind her, at least for a bit.

(And she has nice legs, too!)

The core of the outfit is the Gossamer Garb, one of several different recolors of the clothes you’ll see on human NPCs in Stormwind. The Gossamer Tunic is cut with more midriff showing than some of the others, but it’s also the brown one. Brown is not a warlock color. I wanted it. The Gossamer Pants could be replaced with long brown pants, like the Durable pants, but I liked the idea and look of khaki shorts with this outfit. (Especially when paired with the fishing hat!)

The Chillbane Belt is an unexpected addition to this set, as it’s a level 85 belt from a completely different set, and I find I like it quite a bit. It has nice detailing and is a very close color match, while being relatively narrow (for a cloth belt) and easy to get at 85. Belts are always the problem with any outfit, and I’m glad I had an easy solution for this one.

I like how this look fits in with normal activities, how you can put it with goggles or a hat and it still works. I originally selected the Flying Tiger Goggles because it was a way to show that Cynwise was still really bad at being inconspicuous and ordinary. Like, she’s trying to be just plain folks, a Stormwind Commoner, and then she busts out goggles and hops on a chopper or lolcopter and roars out of the parking lot.

But I’m moving away from that and trying out different looks.

I think there’s something to be said for matching your mount to the outfit. I have a few more mounts I’d like to try out with this outfit, but I switched away from the Headless Horseman’s Mount – too warlock – and went back to my engineering mounts.

A simple outfit calls for a relatively simple weapon. I went with the 1H Blade of Serration because it is simple but interesting, and has a good color match with brozne and red to the rest of the outfit. The model comes from the BC-era badge gear, and in getting it I discovered an interesting mogging rule. Casters daggers and swords are almost always Main Hand, while melee are 1H. You can mog a 1H on to a MH, but not a MH on to a 1H. I  thought I was going to have to use the Scryer’s Blade of Focus, which is blue/gray, but went ahead and tried the bronze/red rogue dagger instead. It doesn’t work in reverse, which sucks for melee classes for some models (like 1H lightsabers, unless they have the removed Argent Avenger). But it does give casters a lot of options.

I’m still wrestling with Power Torrent. I might need to choose a weapon that hides the glow, even if the model isn’t the exact one I want. (Claw of the Netherwing Flight is an option). I am trying to embrace the Torrent and paired it with Grayson’s Torch, but having hands full of fire is not very ordinary.

This outfit also transitions seamlessly into a fishing outfit. I started to grumble that it didn’t match my fishing pole, and that you can’t mog fishing poles, and that the Kalu’ak pole matches better, when I realized: I have a maxed out fisherwoman with Salty and I am quibbling over +10 Fishing skill.

… I can probably spend my time worrying about other things.

I don’t know what’s going to happen next with me and Cynwise. We’re getting along pretty well right now, though we both know there’s been a rough patch, with more changes to come. Mists is going to make Warlocks very different, and I’m not sure how it will all turn out.

We’ve been burned before, you see.

But that doesn’t mean we won’t keep on taking risks together.

Posing next to Danath. Well, sort of.

It was really important when I designed this look to stick to the idea that this set should be made for a soldier. Many of our armor sets in WoW are very elaborate, which in reality would have a significant cost. I wanted to create a look that was both practical and economical to outfit a footman in. The central item tying this look together is the Overlord’s Shield. The red fist is the sigil of Stromgarde, lending authenticity to this armor set. There are soldiers residing inside the crumbled remains of Stromgarde today, however the gear they are wearing is not attainable, nor is their tabard.

Those shoulders are boss! Where did you get them?!

Starting with the shield, I realized quickly that armor containing both white and red elements was extremely difficult if not impossible to find, so I quickly went another route. The white in the shield has a flat look to it, rather than glowing or polished. The Alabaster plate set matches this finish perfectly, and has a riveted and simple look that I felt matched the theme I had in mind. Not all the pieces were used however, as I felt it would become too one-dimensional. The weapons used are also meant to keep with the idea of the character being one of many, so they are not particularly impressive or ornate. The shirt worn underneath the breastplate is actually pretty important to giving the set red accents amongst all the white, gray, and black.

This walkway arches over the main path through the entrance of Stromgarde Keep.

• Chest: Alabaster Breastplate
• Shoulders: Grimscale Pauldrons (finish works well with Alabaster, and I thought it looked better than the Alabaster Plate Pauldrons)
• Gloves: Alabaster Plate Gauntlets
• Waist: Thorium Belt (This red belt creates a nice contrast between the breastplate and leggings)
• Legs: Alabaster Plate Leggings
• Feet: Alabaster Plate Greaves
• Shirt: Red Linen Shirt
• Shield: Overlord’s Shield
• Weapons: Fel Iron Hammer (Mace), Widow Blade (Sword)

With sword instead of mace. There are a metric ton of simple weapons that look good with this set.

Helms and cloaks are optional, and while I’ve found a helm that fits the look, it’s exceedingly difficult to get your hands on. The Whitesoul Helm is a rare headpiece whose blacksmithing pattern has a 0.4% drop rate from Nefarian in Blackwing Lair. See it in 3D.

Galen Trollbane can be found near Thoradin’s Wall. He’s a Forsaken though, so that would put a damper on a family reunion.

Acquiring these items will take some time. Alabaster plate has a moderately low drop rate, and your best bet is just to keep your eyes out for it on the AH. The shield is even lower a drop rate than the plate gear (I waiting about 2 months for it to show up on AH). The Red Linen Shirt is relatively easy to get your hands on, and there are so many weapons that work with this simple set that they should pose no problem either. The mace I use is crafted by blacksmiths.

The crumbling remains of Stromgarde Keep. I sincerely hope we get to restore it to its former glory and hold back the surge from the Dark Lady Sylvanas

This was a really fun set to put together, and perhaps made more satisfying for the time it took and the luck involved. There are few feelings quite like seeing that one piece you need to complete your look sitting on the Auction House after months of waiting.

Incidentally, Transmoggers Anonymous meets on Wednesdays at 6:00 pm in the high school cafeteria. Remember, the first step is admitting you have a problem. “Hi everyone, my name is Leodar, and I’m addicted to transmogrification. It has been 16 minutes, give or take, since I last opened MogIt or Wowhead model viewer.”

Cheers, and Happy Mogging!

So I finally got my freaking shield! It’s the Looking For Raid version, but it’s a big upgrade over the Ward of the Red Widow from Firelands! I’ve been doing LFR and Dragon Soul on normal for about 3 months now and this is the first time I’ve seen the shield drop. EVER. This event is doubly celebratory as I prefer the colors on the LFR version over the normal (and even heroic). If I end up picking up the Timepiece on normal, I will definitely transmog it to the LFR version.

So immediately after raid… okay the next morning… I set out to create an awesome transmog set to match this beautiful shield. But where to begin?

I recently realized that I’ve spent a small fortune in transmog fees. My gold stores had been getting low since my mount-buying binge, so I was not looking forward to spending more money on a mog set (that I may not keep longer than a week).

What’s a dorflady to do?

Rifle through her bags, bank, and Void Storage for suitable pieces >_>

The following set is what I’ve come up with and I think it matches the Timepiece very well. You’ll notice that almost half of my set is actually not mogged — I’ve turned off my helm and cloak displays; used my previous mog’s boots because they matched; and forgone wrist transmog because it just doesn’t show. Unfortunately, stupid Power Torrent covers up my mogged weapon, so you can’t exactly see how perfectly the Oscillating Power Hammer matches this outfit. It’s the only 1H mace (I believe) in this game that has purple as its main color. Yes, I squee’d when I found it :>

• Head: > Not Mogged <
• Shoulder: Furious Gladiator’s Ringmail Spaulders
• Back: > Not Mogged <
• Chest: Furious Gladiator’s Ringmail Armor
• Wrist: > Not Mogged <
• Hands: Furious Gladiator’s Mail Gauntlets
• Waist: Ornate Girdle (My favorite belt ever)
• Legs: > Not Mogged <
• Feet: Ornate Greaves
• Weapon: Oscillating Power Hammer
• Off hand: Timepiece of the Bronze Flight >Not Mogged<

This mog set is pretty simple to achieve. You can buy the PVP gears from a vendor in Dalaran or the Argent Tournament grounds:

• Shoulder: 591 JP
• Chest: 935 JP
• Hands: 591 JP
• Total: 2117 JP

The costs are not exactly dirt cheap, so you will need to invest some time in acquiring the needed JP.

I think my favorite parts of this set are the deep purples and blues and the fact that my favorite belt model fits in nicely, color-wise, with the shoulders. So sweet.

A while back, I noticed my guild did not have the guild achievement for obtaining Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros, Raggy’s’ legendary weapon. I decided to make this my new side project, since I’d been meaning to start running Molten Core anyway for easy gold and transmog gear. Well, I got extraordinarily lucky and nabbed an Eye of Sulfuras (a rare drop from Rags) after only a few runs, and realized that holy crap, this was actually within reach! A guildmate already had the Blacksmithing pattern to make the Sulfuron Hammer, so all that was left now was to farm up the materials required to craft it, combine it with the Eye, and presto, my first Legendary weapon!

Of course, those materials proved rather elusive. The Sulfuron Ingots only drop from two of Molten Core’s bosses, and rarely at that, so I was limited to two chances a week (per character). The other rare material, Blood of the Mountain, was a little better – they have a low chance of dropping from specific MC trash mobs, but these mobs respawn after half an hour, even if Ragnaros has been killed. So I’d head in, kill only these mobs, then log out and go do something else on another character for a while, then go back and kill the trash again, etc. I also caved at the end and bought a few Ingots off the Auction House, and got a few from guildies. Thank goodness they’re not Bind-on-Pickup!

Now obviously, I knew I didn’t just want to log on, create Sulfuras, then go about my day like normal. This was a special occasion! Not only was it a significant guild achievement, but this was a LEGENDARY WEAPON. This was serious business.

Time for a special transmog outfit.

I looked at the hammer model (which is extremely nice, considering it’s from Vanilla), and immediately knew the vibrant gold, orange and red colors would be the basis for my outfit. I thought of the Lightforge armor set, which uses those colors exactly, but discounted it for a few reasons. One, it would be nearly impossible for me to acquire the full set, since the pieces don’t actually drop anymore, and it would take me months of grinding Darkmoon Faire dailies to earn enough tokens to buy the full replica set. Two, I don’t mind using a piece of two from a set, but something I try to avoid as much as possible is using entire sets. There are so many different items in the game, and I feel it’s such a waste to simply use a pre-designed set rather than mixing-and-matching and coming up with your own unique look!

Make no mistake, this outfit is BRIGHT. I wanted to be the personification of Sulfuras itself, gleaming and fiery. Like the weapon, I didn’t want too much gold or too much red – it had to be a careful balance, with alternating colors.

One of the things I noticed while taking the screenshots was that the outfit actually has a fourth, secret color – rich black. It’s not even that Sulfuras has black areas, really, so much as it has intense levels of contrast. And when you put a sharp, vivid red alongside burnished gold, you naturally get intense areas of deep shadow and heavy shading. Combine this effect with Morgion’s black hair, and black highlights on her tabard and helm, and you get some quiet, understated dark tones. These match up very nicely with the molten rock and blackened granite so commonly found in both Molten Core and Ragnaros’ palace in the Firelands.

Here are the pieces that went into the look. None of them are that hard to acquire, with the obvious exception of Sulfuras. The only BoE drops are the Conqueror’s pieces, and those are extremely easy to find on the Auction House (although they can sometimes be pricey.)

Added bonus? No raid groups required! Not even for Sulfuras, since you don’t need a raid group if you get warped in by the NPC.

Head: Faceguard of Determination
Shoulders: Pristine Lightforge Spaulders or Replica Lightforge Spaulders
Back: Cloak of the Betrayed or Cloak of Impulsiveness
Chest: Conqueror’s Breastplate
Hands: Replica Lightforge Gauntlets
Waist: Girdle of Gallantry
Legs: Conqueror’s Legplates
Feet: Magma Tempered Boots
Tabard: Tabard of the Wyrmrest Accord
Shirt: Red Workman’s Shirt
Weapon: Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros
Pet: Phoenix Hatchling

Alternates:
Back: Phoenix-Wing Cloak
Tabard: Orgrimmar Tabard, Thrallmar Tabard, Ironforge Tabard
Pet: Lil’ Ragnaros, Searing Scorchling

Funny story: The Phoenix Hatchling fits the look perfectly, and I only happened to get it as I was chasing other pieces for this set! I was doing Magister’s Terrace to get the Cloak of the Betrayed, and figured hey, I’m already here, I may as well just finish off the place. And lo and behold – Phoenix Hatchling!

If that’s not the game telling you it approves of your transmog choice, I don’t know what is.