The Importance of being Properly Dressed – A Blog Azeroth Shared Topic

The shared topic this week is Transmogrification and Void Storage, suggested by Essence.

So, by now, we’ve all seen the tidbits of Patch 4.3 that Blizz has decided to release to us. The hype, in particular, surrounds two things directly related–Transmogrification and Void Storage. If you do not have any idea at all about what the two of those are, you can view the blue posts here (Transmogrification) and here (Void Storage).

What are your thoughts on these two new things Blizz wants to put into the game? Has it fulfilled your need for bank space (a recent ST)? Will it make you more interested in the game? Could you care less? Is there anything you’d change? Let’s have at it, ladies and gents! Nitty and gritty!

I’m torn on the topic. Part of me, the bit that hoards clothes, weapons and other such fripperies is squealing with excitement at the very thought. Already I’ve been on WoWhead and RP blogs plotting suitable ensembles for each of my characters.

For my Druid, I think Terestian’s Stranglestaff or perhaps the Feral Staff of Lashing (yes, there is a theme here). Alongside the tier 1 recolour that you find in the Burning Crusade 5 mans. Yes, it screams Druid but I’m fighting a spot of nostalgia for Treeform, which I hated when we had it. I like the leafy look and I’m quite partial to antlers too. Sure, it won’t work as a disguise in PvP but who cares, I’ve got stealth and shadowmeld for hiding.

Whilst I was writing this, I remembered my Priest still has the awesome tier 6 shoulders hidden away in her bag (or at least I think she does, I hope they didn’t go the way of tier 1 when I was trying to make levelling space for Cataclysm), so that’s one slot taken care of. Finding things that go with the dark blue might prove a little tricky though.

My new favourite website has to be this one. So many possibilities to consider.

However, as someone who PvPs a lot and takes her PvP pretty seriously (I’m a rather bad loser), I’m a little unhappy with certain aspects of the idea. Right now, in battlegrounds, arenas or just out in the world, you make judgement calls based on what you can visually see about a person. Spec, class and gear can all be determined by a swift glance before you engage. Fast forward a few months and you’re confronted by a team which includes a Disc Priest, a Holy Paladin and a Resto Druid. One of them hit 85 yesterday and is wearing a mix of levelling gear, a few pieces of the crafted PvP set and one piece of justice point loot. One of them has the very best PvP gear and so much resilience it makes dpsers cry just thinking about it and one of them is wearing pure PvE gear. What you actually see is a Priest wearing blue overalls and a lumberjack shirt, a Druid dressed in the warbear leather set and a Paladin in a plate bikini. Clicking through each one and trying to figure out who is the squishiest based on health pool/mana pool takes time and isn’t always that accurate. Depending on class and choice of talents as well as gemming/trinkets the person with the least resilience might have the highest health pool.

When two people are chasing me, Mr Harpy has to make a decision as to who is the bigger threat ideally before they hit me. That is done on a visual basis. If he makes the wrong choice and wastes a stun or  repentance on the person I could have tanked indefinitely then we are in trouble.

I have no issue with concept in PvE, in fact as long as people mix it up a bit, I can even see it being useful in PvE. Being able to tell the difference between Paladin A and Paladin B at a distance might be useful especially when it comes to dealing with screwups. However that only works if they don’t all decide that tier 2 or tier 5 was the best thing ever and all show up wearing it. Plus, some of the various tiers Blizzard come up with are truly horrendous, personally I hated most of the Priest tiers in Wrath for example. Being able to hide them can only be a good thing, especially at the transition period where you are wearing the robe from one tier, the shoulders from another and offset gloves/helm which clashes with the lot.

However, in PvP, I would like to see it disabled. Yes, you can argue that for Feral and Balance Druids, the principle is already true. You have no idea of what their gear is like until they hit you or you hit them. However that’s one class out of ten, not all ten.  Then of course there are a few trinkets which change your appearance and gear, but these are the exception, not the rule.

The bottomline for me, is simple. I do not ever wish to be killed in PvP by someone who is dressed like this:

As for bigger storage capacity…. it’s a bit too late for me. My first ever Druid now languishing on a random server and never played has my Hyacinth Macaw because my Priest was struggling for bagspace back when it dropped. I sold my tier 1 obtained at great cost slowly and painfully in Vanilla (we hardly ever got Priest drops and we fielded about 8 priests per raid so competition was fierce). That said, I’m glad they are finally adding it in, even if I would have preferred something a tad more exciting sounding than Void Storage.