Arcane Brilliance: Old mage armor sets and how to get them, part 2

Last week, we started our epic journey into old content to find some sweet retro threads for our totally trendy mages to wear at all the hottest mage events of the season, be they spellstealing soirées, Polymorph parties or warlock-wienie-roasts. This week, we delve into slightly more recent content.
Before we begin, we should point out a few important transmogrification details we've learned since we convened last week.
- Apparently only items with stats are candidates for transmogrification -- and by stats, I mean "other than armor." That rules out most cosmetic items. So no running around wielding a fish in each hand while raiding, I guess. Unless you can find a pair of fishes with stats on them, I guess.
- Weapons and off-hand items can only be transmogrified into similarly slotted items. That means no running around with two staves or dual-wielding daggers or perhaps a lantern in each hand. I don't know what you people are into ...
- Heirlooms are eligible, so good news for you speed levelers. Now you're not stuck for 80 levels with a single armor model.
- The gold cost isn't set but will probably be similar to reforging, meaning it will scale, being more expensive the higher the level of your equipped item happens to be -- so maybe not as much of a massive gold sink as I originally feared.
- No legendary items, which I sincerely hope changes at some point. I feel like if you earned a freaking legendary item, you should be able to keep that model on your upgraded gear if you want. Forever.
- All of this is still entirely subject to change.

Welcome to the first of the tier sets from Wrath of the Lich King, when the art team apparently restricted their color palette to various shades of brown and puke. Not that this is a bad-looking set, by any means, just a bit less, er, flamboyant than we were used to.
How to get it Get a few friends together and go hit Naxxramas. Kill lots of Scourge. Play Frogger with some slimes. Most of this set drops in Naxx, though the token for the gloves does drop from Sartharion in Obsidian Sanctum. There's also a different (and in my opinion sexier) color scheme available if you can manage the 25-man versions of this content.

As a great many of you reminded me last week, the various arena sets are still very much obtainable, they just take a bit of PVE currency farming. And boy howdy, do some of them look awesome. Take these Season 5 sets, for example. I did a lot of warlock killing in this gear, as I recall ... which was a nice change after like half a decade of getting my butt handed to me by those same warlocks over and over and over and ... I'm not bitter.
How to get it Justice points. Farm them. Kill bosses and such, then head into Dalaran and visit the legacy vendors for your faction there. Similarly, if you want to farm for some of the pre-Wrath arena sets, you can find the vendors on the Isle of Quel'Danas.

As with every other set in this expansion, this comes in two flavors, a 10-man version and a 25-man version. The picture above is of the 25-man variety, the Conqueror's set. This is the gear you want if you want your mage to look like a tank. The armor looks like plate, or mail at the very least, and what are those ... pants? My mage hasn't seen his pants in like five years. He may not even be wearing them anymore, for all I know.
How to get it Ulduar raiding, whooo! Gather a few friends and go smack Yogg-Saron in the grill with a Pyroblast. Once a week. Over and over. Until your gear drops. Sigh.

This is the arena Season 7 set. I think it makes me look like a ninja-mage. Which is how I like to think of myself. In real life.
How to get it Again, this one will cost you your hard-earned justice points, only in larger quantities than for the previous season.

The one pictured above is the Horde set, but the Alliance set is also pretty spiffy-looking. As old tier sets go, this one's pretty easily obtained, since the entire set can be purchased with justice points, which at this point, you probably can't give away. Good news, transmogrification has given you something to spend them on.
How to get it I just told you. Justice Points. You'll find the vendors hanging out in the cold way up north in Icecrown, outside the Argent Tournament coliseum. Go visit them. My guess is they're pretty lonely these days.

I'm not a fan of this set. It's kind of ugly, if you ask me -- and even if you didn't ask me, I'm still going to force my opinion on you, because that's how the internet works. Still, maybe you like the whole Viking mage look. If so, this set's still very much available.
How to get it You're going to have to go raid a lot in Icecrown Citadel. If you were around toward the end of Wrath, you probably had your fill of that place, but unless you still have the set in your inventory, you're going to have to go back to get this set. You can always just spend justice on the lowest-level version of this stuff, but it's even uglier than the rest.
Now that we have most of the major mage sets out of the way, look in the next few weeks for a column about weapons, off-hands, and other assorted transmogrification ideas. I love looking this stuff up.
And finally, for all you pervs out there:

Yes, this is the cloth set you want to grab if you want to look like a slut. Of course, it only looks this way on female characters. Because nobody wants to look at a fully-clothed female avatar, I guess? Anyway, if you're one of the people who want your female mage to look like this, you know who you are. And so does the FBI, I'm guessing.
How to get it Tailoring. Just make them yourself, or buy them. Then go take a shower to wash off that feeling of filthiness.
Filed under: Mage, Analysis / Opinion, (Mage) Arcane Brilliance






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
gobuywow Aug 27th 2011 8:10PM
Black Mageweave set looks so sex, but all my characters are male, it is so pity
Bellajtok Aug 27th 2011 8:11PM
It... It only looks that way on females? But... My sexy troll... He can't show off his awesome? BLIZZAAAAAARD!!!!
Bellajtok Aug 27th 2011 8:17PM
On a somewhat related note, you have produced yet another truly fantastic column, Mr. Belt. As ever, I salute you. But... You're not bitter? From warlock death? No. This will not do. We must harness our bitterness! Bitterness leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to dead warlocks. Piles of them.
Arrohon Aug 27th 2011 8:29PM
Hate led to the orc shamans to becoming Warlocks. If they didn't have an irrational hate against the draenei then they would've stayed shamans or at least had accepted their loss of power. Letting those warlocks upset you is letting them win. Warlocks love pain, others and their own. That's why you kill them before they can even feel their beloved pain!
david_turnell Aug 27th 2011 8:30PM
Don't hate. Hatred is for Warlocks. We don't have time for that, we're too busy burning/freezing/whatever-it-is-that-arcaney-stuff-does to them so that they won't feel that hatred.
It's a public service, really.
Bellajtok Aug 27th 2011 8:36PM
Shamans who hate become warlocks in their pursuit of power. Mages who hate become warlock-killing machines in the search for fun. It usually works too.
WoWie Zowie Aug 27th 2011 11:12PM
this is because male trolls are to stay away from da voodoo
Benzin Aug 28th 2011 1:08AM
Arcane mages be-dazzle.
Arrohon Aug 27th 2011 8:21PM
"So no running around wielding a fish in each hand while raiding, I guess. Unless you can find a pair of fishes with stats on them, I guess."
There is a dagger that looks like a fish with stats. However; there is a rule that items with a Silly Level above 10 can't be the source for mogging. The fish dagger has a slvl of 12. Why they would design an item and say it's too silly to use is beyond mortal comprehension.
Hih Aug 27th 2011 10:00PM
It's a little more acceptable to be killing something with a fish when you're just starting out, and your character presumably doesn't know the pointy end of sword from the grabby end. It's something else entirely to be killing [i]gods[/i] by slapping them with a fish. That's a reasonable place to draw the silliness line in my opinion.
Eyhk Aug 27th 2011 10:52PM
There is a rare fish that you can catch in wotlk that is a green dagger for level 80. I actually used it on my rogue for a bit
Pyromelter Aug 28th 2011 2:11AM
http://www.wowhead.com/item=44703/dark-herring
"Herring seeks your life!"
Aruhgulah Aug 28th 2011 11:03AM
Old Ironjaw has stats & is an offhand. He can be fished up in IF, if you're very very patient.
Fletcher Aug 27th 2011 8:38PM
If you're going for the mageweave look, it's worth grinding Consortium rep to revered - the Stormspire Vest has the same chest but transforms your gloves into full-length things. I accessorize with the Vile Fumigator's mask, but who knows if that'll be transmogrifiable?
It's worth noting that unless you're prepared to raid without shoulders or belt, you'll have to find something that doesn't look too jarring with the rest of the mageweave set.
And now, for more serious looks! http://www.wowhead.com/compare?items=21859:21861:21874:21873:31272:44095:54490:54492 is what I'm going for on my nelf mage; lots of BC craftables. I hope your server has primals for less than mine.
http://www.wowhead.com/compare?items=42103:42100:47226:47185:47564:47173:47181 is a set largely composed of things found in ToC5; it's remarkably colourful for Wrath!
Fletcher Aug 27th 2011 8:53PM
http://www.wowhead.com/compare?items=21850:21853:21852:21855:3427:24664.-22:21849:24611.-26
There's one for anyone who's ever thought they should look more like a rogue.
Babaloo Oct 21st 2011 3:10PM
Strangely enough, the Tier 8 pic with the fat Draenei was actually my character on the PTR, yeah I cheated for the gear but at least there's a screenshot of it. Also there were jaggies because I forgot to change some graphics settings lol.
Josho Aug 27th 2011 8:46PM
I love Bloodmage. Looks great on undead characters and blood elves; I assume it's based off the San'layn look.
Fletcher Aug 27th 2011 9:00PM
I loathe Bloodmage. In 3.3 I was careful to get only those pieces of T10 - the head and legs - that would be invisible beneath my gnome's T9.
I always assumed it was based on the vampire luchadores of Mexico.
Sunaseni Aug 27th 2011 9:17PM
All of the T10 sets were based off of minions of Arthas, so yes, Mage T10 is based off of the San'layn.
Randomize Aug 27th 2011 10:10PM
I love how the Bloodmage set looks on my blood elf too. While I'm not infatuated with the 264 coloring, I do like the 251 and 278 colorings, they look great. It's just a shame that it's tough to get a group together for 25H ICC.