Recap (pics) of Challenge Mode Armour Sets

[Neilaren]

They're very slowly getting the set onto that little armor rack the other sets are on (in the hub in the vale) -- I noticed they put the shoulder on there yesterday, but the wolf was gray and not brown.
But I haven't seen a model viewer version yet -- the human female is the closest I can project the model onto my blood elf with but I still would just rather see how big that wolf is on Tiny McShoulders.

[Ziarre]

Hunters are keepers of the natural balance, similar to druids in a sense, BUT (this is a huge but) they are more proactive about it. Rather than try to passively maintain it, they use the Hunt to do so...like, for instance, culling herds or packs that have grown too large. As such, I feel the challenge mode armor fits hunters well enough.

[Albain]

I am tired of being stuck in some variant of brown over and over again, so I am not keen at /all/ on the Hunter set. The paladin set reminds me of the bananshoulder set, I need it desperately. :O

[Danielfboone]

I like the top PvP set a lot better but I will never have it since I don't do Arenas. The Challenge Helm is, as usual for us, hideous. Again I like the PvP one.

[Neilaren]

I don't suppose anybody's seen any of these sets in person in the Beta yet? I've been waiting to update my armor model post with the new challenge mode models, but the WoWhead model viewer is giving me this when I try to view them...it looks like it's trying to apply the textures from the feathered hat gear to the wolf-shoulder models, and the results aren't pretty.

I wish the Wowhead model viewer was even working right now... seems to just get me stuck on a white screen. Gah, Wowhead, why.

[Slickrock]

Thank God for tmog.

The Shaman set would look amazing on a troll, terrible on a space-goat.

While the feather-in-the-cap set was good, it just missed a little bit as well.

Nothing here that I really like except the rogue, and I hate rogues.

[Wain]

To me the shaman set looks the most absurd, and unfortunately my main is a shammy. There's, like, enormous tree trunk-sized totems chained to your back with enormous, heavy chains. Oh, and they're on fire, which will drip down and burn your exposed nipples off. I actually love it when shaman gear looks a bit tribal. The final Northrend tier, with the shoveltusk shoulders, is one of my favourites ever. But I can't help but feel that this missed the mark. It makes me feel more like the armour was scrounged than crafted.

The hunter one, to me, is just aesthetically unpleasing. Kinda messy, as if it was put together not by a professional hunter, but by a wilderness survivalist. Hunters might hunt animals, but that doesn't mean they have to wear heads and pelts I can't help but think this was done by the same designers as the Thrall shaman set at the end of Wrath, which I also disliked because it looked like it was assembled from scraps.

Most of the rest of them I either like a lot (especially the rogue!) or find not too bad. Of all of them I'd say the Warrior takes the prize for being the most... standard.

[Chimera]

All sets except for druid, mage, and shaman are ok.

Shaman is terrible. just, terrible.

mage is terrible and rather scary, id probably jump and yelp if i saw one stalking the shadows in that gear.

druid i FREAKING AMAZING I CANNOT WAIT TO HAVE IIITTTTTT

[Wain]

druid i FREAKING AMAZING I CANNOT WAIT TO HAVE IIITTTTTT

Now you can command Deth'tilac on one toon, and wear his legs as ornaments on your other

[Chimera]

druid i FREAKING AMAZING I CANNOT WAIT TO HAVE IIITTTTTT

Now you can command Deth'tilac on one toon, and wear his legs as ornaments on your other

i totally didnt even notice they look like lava spider legs

[Sasrei]

Why do hunters look like orc with road kill on there shoulder? Im sorry but my wolf pet may never like me again if I wore that. So much potential.. though the wolf head makes me want a new wolf model like that!
Love the druid set though a ton.

[SpiritBinder]

I like how of all the sets, when you compare the male and female versions of the Mage armor, it was like blizzard held of as long as they could before they were like "Must.... show.... more.... BOOBIES!!!!" Really ?

The male version has a pretty dam cool jacket look, with great lapels and design, and then the female version... "Ummm we could just through a bra on her, that would be hawt!" Now the head/hood then looks kinda disconnected and overly heavy when your wearing the "bra", it just makes it look a tad awkward imo.
Don't get me wrong, if they want to create a design so the model has their tits out, by all means go ahead, but this one just does not flow so well...

One thing to note, is that quite a few of these sets have got reaaaaaaly interesting belts. These are one off, hand worked, 3d models, built just for this use. The Mage, Rogue, Shammy, Druids are all really quite impressive. Never has blizzard done this before, ever, its actually pretty dam impressive imo.

[Silivren]

Honestly my favorite is warrior. Idk why it just seems the most fitting and not overly done.

[Slickrock]

My mage will be in T13, I love that set.

Slick will likely be in a steampunk set, especially with the new goggles.

My former orc to-be-panderan... dunno yet.

But none of these sets.

[Lupis]

Huh.

…Huh. Wall of text incoming. Because I feel like typing.

I dunno what I think about a lot of these. The hunter one, which is the one I have any chance at all of getting, is rather… dull… rather unimpressive. To be fair, I love the wolf shoulder, despite the fact that most pets would be running the other way at the sight of a hunter with a beast's HEAD strapped to their armor. It's just kind of pretty I dunno. I like wolves so having wolves on my armor is cool. xD And the chestplate is neat, I like the wolf face. But the helm just… What? It doesn't follow the wolf theme at all. If they'd made the rest of the armor wolfy instead of just plain spiky stuff with some fur, it would look a lot better. Now it just looks kind of boring and ugly.

The Warlock armor steals the show, though. I love that they integrated the glowing Demon Hunter tattoos into the armor, as well as the fact that Demon Hunters don't wear chest armor. And my god those horns. o.o Those are so amazing. DO WANT. Admittedly, they look a little… neck breakingly heavy… And they might sort of mess up some animations… But Illidan horns yes freaking please. I love antler/horn helmets and that one is breathtaking.

The DK armor is neat, I like the shapes, especially on the helm and shoulders. The wide, big talons and the bars in front of the face are very cool, and I like the widespread eyes and the glowing breath. The horns also look nice, and the whole thing looks like it has good light graphics- very shiny. The only real downside is the color. Bright yellow and blue don't really seem… Death Knighty to me. They seem like Paladin colors. But would you look at that belt!

I really like that druid set, actually. It's not as beastly as I'd prefer, but the sort of bioluminescent glow is very pretty, and I like the fur linings. I also really like the glowing crescent moons- very striking. Again, this set has a gorgeous belt. It even has a little hanging thingy. Very "tree of life", which I kind of like, even if I don't like resto spec all that much. Why don't trents have pretty glowing parts? xD

I see what they were trying to get at with the mage set. Mage a set that has the "Classic wizard" vibe and include all three specs- ice, fire and arcane. I get it. I see it. It just looks a little… uh… cluttered? The two-colored eyes really get me. Although the more I look, the less clown-like and the more demonic they get… The big ropes definitely give off a "clown" vibe, though, as well as the exaggerated hat shape. And I have to agree with Spiritbinder- what is WITH the female set? Instead of cool lapels, suddenly BOOBS! I'm not scared of boobs (I'm a female after all) but come on. It completely messes up the flow of the set.

I *really like* the Monk set. Just not on humans. xD But the shoulders are gorgeous, with the funny brewmaster vibe of all those kegs and bottles, and the paw prints. Great colors and smooth details, too. I really can't complain except to say that it looks really funny on a white haired old human dude.

The Paladin set is quite beautiful and I love it, they echoed the blade motif really well. The glow on the shoulders/helm is gorgeous and the color scheme is quite nice. I like how the chest and the shoulders sort of melt together. I really love the helm, or rather the neck of the helm- I adore that fabric going up both sides of the neck. Many helms look very out of place because they lack any neck covering, so your throat is sticking out like a giant target. This covers up the throat nicely. But boy it must be hot in that armor! xD And again, a beautiful belt.

The priest set is… weird. I like the idea, and the shoulders are rather neat with the glowing orbs and such, but it seems so very dull for priests. They're all about incredibly bright spells, and they'd look strange coming from a priest dressed in entirely neutral colors. They look more like golems than priests. Not too much to say about this one, really… Nice belt, again? >.>

Rogues. OH JUST STOP IT. WE KNOW YOU LOOK BADASS. Hguiesahfgsuaih just not fair. They even have an awesome mist over their eyes to shroud their faces! Not fair! Although I admit, the hood makes their heads look to small on the males, and that's… really really funny next to those big (amazing, awesome) shoulders. AND THE BELT. NOT FAIR.

Shamans are so close to cool. *So close*. I freaking adore the helm, with that great furry ruff thing and the awesome tribal mask. The glowing eyes really make it look like they're windows into your character's head, and your character is full of all the rage of the elements. Awesome. It's just… those shoulders… That's the definition of "excessive". The huge chains, the ridiculously massive totems… Why would you ever chain two huge, flaming totems to your shoulders?! No, no, too much. Tone it down a little. The chest doesn't help at all, which looks just ridiculous. I think they went with the "Pygmy" theme here, especially with the funky female one. Seriously, they just threw on a green bra. No. Do something cool. Not all shamans are jungle savages. -.- I… love the belt though?

Warlock. HAUGIH FHSaiufhe giuahgui aguiaefh iasf*DROOOL* Such a perfect way to tie in the details of Demon Hunters! It even has the classic bare chest (which they deal with expertly on the girls), the green tattoos, the lack of eyes (though they did add the glowing green ones, but at least there's the blindfold in place)… And oh my god those horns. I admit the colors are a little garish in my tastes, I'd like them to be a little darker (though the green can stay that bright), but the horns and the belt make up for everything. Though I have to wonder how many animations will look really silly with those huge horns, and woe unto those with weak necks, those horns must be HEAVY. And have a good time getting through doors… On the other hand, gnome warlocks will now have convenient handles to grab before punting them over the walls of Stormwind! (Kidding, kidding.)

The warrior set is rather dull, but it sort of fits. It's rather lackluster compared to the others, but on the other hand, I can't really see anything I really dislike about them.

Okay wall of text done.

Edit- holy fel that is a heck of a wall of text.

[Wain]

The DK armor is neat, I like the shapes, especially on the helm and shoulders. ..... The only real downside is the color. Bright yellow and blue don't really seem… Death Knighty to me. They seem like Paladin colors.

You know, as I read this I had a thought...

The traditional Chinese funeral colour, associated with death, isn't black, it's white. How amazingly different could a deathly, perhaps corpulent, white DK set be?

[Taeliana]

LIKES:

• I really really like the hunter set overall. I love the green and brown, which actually look like something someone would wear in the wilderness while hunting, rather than like, the Flamewaker Stalker or Murloc Stalker sets from t12 and t11.

• I love the fingerless gloves...makes SO much more sense for someone who needs their fingers available to work bowstrings and triggers.

• I LOVE the giant wolf-bear head strapped to one shoulder. I know a lot of people are not in favor of the asymmetrical shoulders, but I enjoy them immensely. And its about time we wore the trophy head of our kill someplace other than our head...
  although, having something like that wolf-bear helm would probably kick butt.

• I love the fur wrapping around the upper chest area, that extends down beneath the "armored" place in the middle sort of like a fur tunic.
  So not only did you use a wolf-bear skull as a pauldron, you wrapped the remainder of the pelt as a shirt like some sort of taxidermist-gone-mad.

• Those boots appear to be the type that will look good on a Draenei. It's tough to tell, but usually boots that are at least knee high on a human and like, folded over at the top (or some other "at the knee" detail manage to look somewhat normal on Draeneic hooves.
  The worst are the short boots that cut off at Draeneic ankles and just look gawd awful.

• The leather strapping around the mail parts of the pants looks cool. I'm also partial to that style that has like, overlapping plates on the outer thighs.
  They've always looked good on my toon.

DO NOT LIKES:

• Snarling stomach beast (I am assuming this is the "mail" part of our breast plate. Do not want.
  Just make it regular mail with some sort of leather strapping.
  We already have a bear-wolf head strapped to our shoulder, we get it, we're beast masters, you don't need to echo it with the breast plate overkill)

• Snarling beast is AGAIN reflected on our gloves AND on the toes of the boots. Overkill. That's all i'm sayin'.

• The camel toe look of the pants. That motif keeps repeating in all the mail armor sets I've seen thus far, and it's like...come on, really???
  Why??? Do we really need to "know the toe" over and over and over?
  From what I've seen thus far in the model viewer, the look is especially pronounced on Draenei females.

• The red gem accents just look out of place.
  I feel like they're just added in to reflect the eyes of the aforementioned unnecessary snarling stomach/glove/boot beast.

• Dat helm....ugggggggggggg.
  Why would a hunter wear something that would so restrict their field of view?????

Overall, i think it is a cool set. Very "hunter-esq", more so than anything I've seen in a while. I just wish the art department would ease off the random snarling beasts whose only intent is to make it apparent that "Yo dawg, i heard you like hunting beasts. So we put some beasts all over your beast hunting gear so you can hunt beast gear while you hunt beasts".

I'm curious to hear more peoples' opinions on the matter.

[Taeliana]

I also really like the paladin armor, especially on the females. They look like PALADINS FROM SPAAAAAAACE!!! or something

[Ziarre]

I think the belts-with-buckles are the art team's response to the dislike of the "wrestling belt" look. The huge belts made it easier for them to put in more detail, but not many liked having their stomachs covered by their belts. Answer = buckles! Pretty detail, while not as huge.

[Neilaren]

Well, now Wowhead model viewer has the right textures, but at least one of the models is wrong...figures, the models were correct before.
Also, figures, it's mostly the shoulder, which is the one thing I wanted to check.
The belt also isn't showing up.


I'm going to affectionately start calling this set "A Tribute to Raider Kerr and his wolf who had a nasty encounter with a Steamroller this past Tuesday".