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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsMighty Battle: Rogue and Shaman Tier 9 sets
by Zach Yonzon 
Jul 23rd 2009 at 3:00PM
While I've outlined my criteria for judging the armor sets, we've spiced things up with a reader poll to see which armor you guys like and from the results thus far it looks like the Horde have gained a good edge in the voting. Is it a result of faction-bias? Are the armor sets really that much better for the Horde? Hit the jump to find out!
ROGUE
We'll take a look at the Alliance version first, as we've done in the past few days. This time we're looking at a leather armor set identical to the Druid set, albeit with different coloration. The dark blue coloration with bronze highlights is pretty elegant and gives off a different vibe than previous Rogue sets. Though the bladed shoulders are reminiscent of past tier armor, the rest gives off a more tailored look. The pockets on the shoulders are utility belt-ish, and while we're on that track, the mask gives off a Batman vibe. Or crow-man. Either way, I think it works.
The Horde set is decidedly more rough around the edges and gives off more of a 'brawler' feel, lending itself better to a Combat spec, as opposed to the Assassination and Subtlety vibe of the Alliance set. The large stitching gives it a more leather feel than the Alliance one, which looks like cloth. One beef I've got with this set are the brightly glowing shoulders. Why would a Rogue, a master of stealth, announce his presence with sun lamps?
Verdict: The Horde set looks great, no question, but the Alliance set feels more Rogue-ish. The Alliance slips past this one.
Round 2: Faction
There isn't much going for the Alliance set here other than the blue and gold coloration. Because it lacks the kilt or skirt of the Druid version, there isn't enough Elvish filigree to 'theme' the armor. The Horde Rogue set is rust-colored with charcoal, which also echoes the red and black hues of the Horde, but in addition to that, Horde symbol design elements are scattered throughout the armor set. The cool thing is that the Alliance version evokes a more 'civilized' feel as opposed to the more primal tone of the Horde version, which works for both armor sets.
Verdict: By virtue of a few more Horde symbols, the Horde take this round.
Round 3: Overall Look
I know more than a few of you aren't fans of the corseted look, but I really, really like it. Yes, it looks phenomenally better on female characters, but it works well for male toons, too. And some armor really are tied together in that manner. It's different, it looks unlike any armor we've seen in the game so far, actually. On the other hand, as cool as the Horde armor is, there's nothing particularly memorable about it. It gets points for raised leg armor, but otherwise it isn't distinctive. At least Tier 8 had that bald man helm to make it stand out.
Verdict: I'm scoring this one for the Alliance simply because it carries a distinctive style as opposed to the generic cool-and-spiky assemblage of the Horde.
Winner: Alliance 2-1
SHAMAN
Round 1: Class
If anybody looked at the Alliance armor, they'd be hard-pressed to say what class it actually represents. For one thing, it lacks any of the signature elements - pardon the pun - of a Shaman tier set. None of the colors evoke shamanism, and the teal doesn't even feel natural. On the other hand, it is an alien race wearing this set, so the teal just might be fitting. The only thing this set has going for it is the kilt, which for many players is a very shamanistic thing.
Its counterpart blatantly rips off from the awesome Cataclysm armor sets, using a similar helm style and utilizing molten earth elements on the shoulders and gloves, replacing what would be chitin on the Hunter armor. It distinguishes itself from the Hunter armor more than mere coloration, which is great. The only downside to this set? Pants. I'm sure Enhancement Shaman would enjoy it, but watch the caster Shamans groan.
Verdict: Horde scorch the Alliance on this front.
Round 2: Faction
Sure, there are those signature lion heads on the Alliance tier shoulders, but even they look off with this set. Their colors don't even match the entire armor. Removing the symbols might even do this particular set some good. On the flip side, we've got the Horde Shaman armor which has one Horde symbol-like thing on the chest. That's it. For those of you who'd like to argue that it looks very Horde-like, I encourage you to imagine this set on a Draenei. It would look awesome and not Horde-exclusive at all. Never mind that there's just too much indigo on this set for it to evoke red bloodthirst.
Verdict: Symbols notwithstanding, both sets are faction fail.
Round 3: Overall Look
Fine, some of you guys seem to like the boat shoulders. I don't. The Shredder helmet seems alright, though, but that's about it. Overall, the combination of teal, orange, and lavender trims is just awful. It looks like, as one commenter put it, "a jar of jelly beans." I consume copious amounts of Jelly Belly, but I don't want it on my armor set. Contrast this with the Cataclym redux of the Horde Tier 9. Even though the indigo isn't very Horde-like, it adds a great contrasting color to the set that brings out the molten lava. The only thing that would make this set perfect would be a kilt... and don't rule that out just yet. The files are only data-mined, which means there could be a kilt version out there somewhere.
Verdict: Horde shocks the Alliance version big time!
Winner: Horde 2-0-1
BATTLE RESULTS THURSDAY: 5 Horde vs. 5 Alliance
By my reckoning, the Horde have won three match-ups - Death Knight, Hunter, and now the Shaman sets - while the Alliance have scored three of their own with the Druid, Paladin, and Rogue sets. Both factions score even by tying on the Mage and Priest sets, bringing the total tally to 5 points apiece. Of course, our polls indicate a totally different trend, and we'll recap everything this weekend when you've all had a chance to give your call. Tomorrow we conclude Mighty Battle when the Warlock and Warrior sets clash head to head! Stay tuned and don't forget to vote!
Round 1: Class
If anybody looked at the Alliance armor, they'd be hard-pressed to say what class it actually represents. For one thing, it lacks any of the signature elements - pardon the pun - of a Shaman tier set. None of the colors evoke shamanism, and the teal doesn't even feel natural. On the other hand, it is an alien race wearing this set, so the teal just might be fitting. The only thing this set has going for it is the kilt, which for many players is a very shamanistic thing.
Its counterpart blatantly rips off from the awesome Cataclysm armor sets, using a similar helm style and utilizing molten earth elements on the shoulders and gloves, replacing what would be chitin on the Hunter armor. It distinguishes itself from the Hunter armor more than mere coloration, which is great. The only downside to this set? Pants. I'm sure Enhancement Shaman would enjoy it, but watch the caster Shamans groan.
Verdict: Horde scorch the Alliance on this front.
Round 2: Faction
Sure, there are those signature lion heads on the Alliance tier shoulders, but even they look off with this set. Their colors don't even match the entire armor. Removing the symbols might even do this particular set some good. On the flip side, we've got the Horde Shaman armor which has one Horde symbol-like thing on the chest. That's it. For those of you who'd like to argue that it looks very Horde-like, I encourage you to imagine this set on a Draenei. It would look awesome and not Horde-exclusive at all. Never mind that there's just too much indigo on this set for it to evoke red bloodthirst.
Verdict: Symbols notwithstanding, both sets are faction fail.
Round 3: Overall Look
Fine, some of you guys seem to like the boat shoulders. I don't. The Shredder helmet seems alright, though, but that's about it. Overall, the combination of teal, orange, and lavender trims is just awful. It looks like, as one commenter put it, "a jar of jelly beans." I consume copious amounts of Jelly Belly, but I don't want it on my armor set. Contrast this with the Cataclym redux of the Horde Tier 9. Even though the indigo isn't very Horde-like, it adds a great contrasting color to the set that brings out the molten lava. The only thing that would make this set perfect would be a kilt... and don't rule that out just yet. The files are only data-mined, which means there could be a kilt version out there somewhere.
Verdict: Horde shocks the Alliance version big time!
Winner: Horde 2-0-1
BATTLE RESULTS THURSDAY: 5 Horde vs. 5 Alliance
By my reckoning, the Horde have won three match-ups - Death Knight, Hunter, and now the Shaman sets - while the Alliance have scored three of their own with the Druid, Paladin, and Rogue sets. Both factions score even by tying on the Mage and Priest sets, bringing the total tally to 5 points apiece. Of course, our polls indicate a totally different trend, and we'll recap everything this weekend when you've all had a chance to give your call. Tomorrow we conclude Mighty Battle when the Warlock and Warrior sets clash head to head! Stay tuned and don't forget to vote!
Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!Filed under: Rogue, Shaman, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Humor
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 5)
yunkndatwunk Jul 23rd 2009 7:40PM
The rogue set must be in preparation for the upcoming Battle of the Planets movie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_Ninja_Team_Gatchaman_(2010_film)
Now you, too can be a member of G-Force! Still have a crush on Princess? Now you and another rogue can RP it!
Aubrecia Jul 23rd 2009 7:43PM
You seriously gave the Rogue prize to Alliance?
I have to agree with what some others have said. This is the problem with uniformity across armor class. The Alliance leather set looks great for druids, not so great for rogues. Whereas it's vice-versa for the Horde set -- great on rogues, ridiculous on druids.
Condor Jul 23rd 2009 8:03PM
I play alliance only because my girlfriend wanted to be pretty and blood elves weren't out yet. That said, I'd really like to see how often people like their own sides.
Most of these sets' polls are relatively close calls, a testament to Blizzard's art team. I'd really like to see an overall poll to see if people favor their own side or if the grass is always greener. I know across the board, I'd rather my draenai shaman wear the horde armor.
Steve Jul 23rd 2009 8:27PM
You think the glowing shoulders are bad for sneaking? Have you forgotten what rogues had in the first round of racial armor? Bonfires on your shoulders anyone?
MrSands Jul 23rd 2009 9:04PM
I would argue that the gryphon head is a pretty alliancy symbol (on the rogue shoulder).
Badger Jul 23rd 2009 10:27PM
I'm glad Zach is giving each design a fair chance. The Commenters in these "Might Battle" discussions are blatantly biased toward the Horde for some reason.
... And before anybody shoots their mouth off about being an Alliance fan-boy, I'm Horde at heart.
Anaughtybear Jul 23rd 2009 11:48PM
You made my day by using my jelly beans line. Although I am pretty Horde-centric, I actually voted for the Alliance rogue set on this one. I'm not sure why I don't like the Horde rogue set, but even a beak face tops it.
Angus Jul 24th 2009 1:25AM
The DK set was obvious. Trying to shoe in the paladin, warrior, and DK with all the same basic look meant one of the three was going to suffer. Note that the Paladin Hordeside was pretty awful.
Alliance armor is pretty specific.
Plate armor on is Paladin Armor. Warriors look okay and DKs look awful.
Mail armor is hunter armor. Shaman got an ugly color and a kilt to distinguish it.
Leather armor is a HORRIBLE combo of rogue and druid and neither looks good in it.
Cloth armor is priest armor. Everyone else can be a nice, stuffy, caster.
Horde side is different.
Plate armor is DK armor. Paladins suffered while warriors did okay again.
Mail is still hunter and getting vanilla wow tacked onto the shoulders didn't change it.
Leather armor is druid armor. Rogues got to have a rough look to their armor, suffered.
Cloth armor is warlock armor. Priests melt faces or look bad and mages go fire for burning things.
Some classes will lend themselves very well to this set up. I would expect the Hunters to be pretty even, and shaman likely to be close. Horde DKs, locks, and druids should walk away with it in their match ups. Alliance priests and paladins should win and the rest should be close.
I think the readers saw this inherent pattern. Your numbers don't match up quite the same way and I don't think it the bias is on the readers part. Pretty much everyone is sick of looking at arcane mages. They are all over Dalaran. The fire mage was a fresh direction. The druid set for alliance had nature loving shapeshifters in a corset with batman shoulders. You called it for them.
Making a Alliance vs Horde thing out of this was a disservice. If anything the best article on this would have been looking at each armor category and judging how well they forced them to work for each class.
Alex Jul 24th 2009 10:03AM
Best post yet, you summarize the looks really well.
My personal opinion is that blizz moved their entire dev team to some other project. WotLK is one of the, if not the best selling games ever and what do we get in return? T3 all over again to pass as T7, T8 sets that look from average to BAD(thank god I see my t8 rogue helm from behind), and now, goddamned tier NINE, the ninth epic, supposedly hard to achieve set in this 4.5 year long game with looks that could only pass as acceptable on let's say, dungeon set 4.
When blizz announced faction specific sets I expected to see a comeback in the looks of level 60 PvP gear, but what we got instead are some hastly designed flawed models that look as about as non-epic as they get.
The only consolation to this entire mess is that I play horde and I won't be seeing on my chars paladin gear for death knights and warriors or a goddamn and on my ROGUE(for the people disagreeing with this, the game's name is still WARcraft, not barbie dressup).
Angus Jul 24th 2009 1:57PM
Truth is, I'd rather see the armors that deserve to have been worn for their insane looks come back.
I walked around Dalaran in 3 pieces of T5 with the Hyjal fist weapons and I had a ton of people whispering me asking where they could get it. When informed it was Shaman Tier 5 they could not believe that the armor was so much better looking than current ones.
Faction specific armor would have worked very well if they hadn't made each type of armor be a single base type and slightly modified them.
Heavy modification might have worked. But so much that certain aspects (corsets on druids) would have had to have been completely absent on some of them. This stuff looks like they altered the shoulders a little, added some extra bits of spikes/skulls.whatever and called it good. The end result is a design philosophy that harkens more to Games Workshop ("what should I put on this?" "Just add some skulls on the knees/shoulder plates.") and feels less like awesome armor.
Tier 5 had some of the most gorgeous armor in the game. I'd rather they had redone it instead of this stuff. By the time those places were accessible to the common raider MH and BT were in place and they got skipped over past loot reaver for better or easier stuff.
Random Jul 24th 2009 3:29AM
Shammy was easy, but rogue was a tough decision... until I realized that the corset thing has an open chest above it. This might be acceptable on a cloth set, or even certain other sets, but armor that's supposed to look like serious armor... which this obviously is supposed to resemble... should not have an open chest. Ally rogue set = fail...
freeway8989 Jul 24th 2009 4:08AM
I like the leather sets for both classes. And say what you will, but the corset looks nice and I'm jealous of the Alliance for it.
Lately, Blizzard has been going for over-the-top, abstract designs for tier sets instead of ones reminiscent of medieval armor. The corset, however, not only reminds me of the setting in which the game is supposed to be set, but has a sophisticated and elegant look to it rather than a superfluous and ridiculous one--at least on female characters. Plus, I'm glad Blizzard is adding new 3D elements to leg pieces instead of making another recolored skin.
Groth Jul 24th 2009 5:16AM
I'm amused that the same armor is more Druidish and more Rogueish based purely on a skirt or trousers.
For the people claiming that corsets are good for armor, pls go find examples, and don't cry when you can't find any. Corsetry can be worn, but would go under the armor, not over it. The male corset should also be alot shorter (as men dont need the cleavage).
The rogue armor doesnt look to bad on a Nelf, but really doesnt look anywhere near as good on any of the other races. The Horde armor doesnt look great on any race, but doesnt look bad on any either.
As for the rogues having lights on their shoulders, which is the mark of a true master of stealth- someone who can hide wearing black, or someone who can be invisible with a couple of nightlights on their shoulders?
K. Y. Jelly Jul 24th 2009 1:23PM
If the allys shamans shoulders could talk they would say "IM ON A GOAT AND DONT U EVER FORGET"
Moonchild Jul 24th 2009 11:25PM
"...blatantly rips off from the awesome Cataclysm armor sets..."
and even with that somehow horde 'won' in the Class category
in my opinion if i wanted a set that looks like the Cataclysm armor, id go farm some t5 tokens, horde should LOSE points for re-using a theme from such an amazing set, total and complete lack of imagination...
blizz devs creation process: "spikes, check... deformed horde symbol, check... what else to do, what else to do... eureka!!! lets rip off the one original part of the tier5 set and come up with TWO sets instead of one, check"
Lemons Jul 26th 2009 2:58AM
I can't believe there's a freakin corset on the alli rogue set. This is worse than any mage-dress. Now whenever they complain I'll just point to my freaking CORSET and give them an awkwardly long stare into their very soul.