Mists of Pandaria Beta: Challenge Mode armor sets revealed

by Alex Ziebart Mar 23rd 2012 at 1:00PM

During the Mists of Pandaria press event, Mike Sacco and I had our fancies tickled by what little we saw of the upcoming Challenge Mode armor sets. They're vanity-only items meant for use with transmogrification, and they looked way awesome. Thankfully, we have Wowhead and Wowhead News around to show us most of the sets we didn't get to see.

I'm a sucker for winged armor, so the paladin set (embedded above) is my favorite by far. The shoulders on the rogue set are fantastic, and the shaman set seems tailor-made for trolls. Unfortunately the mage, warlock, warrior, and monk sets are still missing from the lineup, so we'll need to keep an eye out for those in future beta patches.

You can see a sampler of the currently available armor sets in the gallery below, but I do highly recommend checking out the 3D model viewer over at Wowhead as well. Wowhead has a whole slew of other models you should check out at the same time, such as mounts, more weapons, and miscellaneous quest reward gear sets.

Gallery: Mists of Pandaria: Challenge Mode armor sets

It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

Tags: armor-sets, challenge-mode, mists, mists-of-pandaria, pandaria

Filed under: Paladin, Mists of Pandaria

Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)

Vincentmagius Mar 23rd 2012 1:35PM

I'm not really feeling any of them myself. Maybe they'll add new one's on later I'll like. OH well, there's other sets I can use for transmog.

Probably run the challenge mode for the challenge, but won't keep this set of rewards.

Necromann Mar 23rd 2012 1:38PM

I do not like the priest set. It just does not appeal to me.

PeeWee Mar 23rd 2012 1:41PM

Without first looking at the gallery, let me guess.... the DK set has horns on the helmet?

blancester Mar 23rd 2012 2:28PM

They can't help it, they like their horns.

vayral Mar 23rd 2012 1:42PM

The video here doesn't do them justice - mmo champion's version has 3D belts :D

Butts Mar 23rd 2012 3:16PM

3d belts? I thought those were fanny packs...

Kilsek Mar 23rd 2012 1:49PM

Most are alright for my personal tastes save the shaman. That look is *just* not my cup of tea. I may enjoy the challenge modes but I will not be collecting that set that is for sure. Hopefully there will be other rewards to draw from. If not, oh well - such is life.

Caz Mar 23rd 2012 1:52PM

That picture of it on the orc is terrible - be sure to check out the images on MMO Champion. It's shown on human males and females, all three color options.

Caz Mar 23rd 2012 1:52PM

Ah...reply fail. Meant for Necromann.

Atanae Mar 23rd 2012 1:54PM

I think that though the armor sets are wonderfully done, they are missing something that makes them feel like iconic class sets. They feel far more like a raid theme set than anything else.

I know that Blizzard didn't specifically state that they were going to theme for class, but this is the perfect opportunity to do so.

Personally, and I know I'm going to get blasted for this, I'd almost rather see an update to the original dungeon sets and T1, T2 (selectively, of course), much like Blizzard redid Naxx-60 for T7. In this isnatnce, it's not being lazy - it's taking designs that pretty much defined most of the classes and updating the theme with the new technology, polygons, etc. Like what if the new Stormrage set had white glowing, ethereal antlers and claws on the shoulders? And the Prophecy tier is pretty much a perfect fit for Mists, especially given the extra bells and whistles Blizzard now has the capability of adding.

If Blizzard focused on theming purely on class flavor for Challenge modes and themed for content on tiers, both would stand out far more than one set being slightly less shiny content-themed than the other.

And it is no coincidence that a lot of transmog folks initially make a bee-line to the oldest tier content.

In any event, I want to look like a druid, not a dead tree. Did dead tree with the flaming unibrow waterbuffalo. Not a fan of that look. You would think that in such a lush land, the druid nature-themed set would reflect the lushness of the Pandarian lands, not it's wasteland.

Massa Mar 23rd 2012 3:11PM

I would actually love the higher polygon versions of old sets. (I have some of the recolored versions, but not the actual old sets). Being a tauren with antlers and horns, with leaves or eagles on my shoulders is awesome (course I also like the AQ dungeon set on my druid-one piece away from the full thing).

snarkygoldfish Mar 23rd 2012 1:55PM

That shaman set...oh that shaman set.

*cringe*

nickchadwick Mar 23rd 2012 1:56PM

Am I the only one who finds all of these ugly? I was thinking the challenge modes would give gear that was way different from normal sets to make them sought after, like ultra stylized outfits. Maybe a samurai set, a shogun warrior type set, things to make you easily pop out of a crowd and make people go 'Wow I want that where did you get it??' This stuff will make you pop out of a crowd, but just because your shoulders will be taller than everyone else >_>

PS - I don't think its an elitist attitude to want the challenge modes to drop stuff that's cooler than everything else. I don't even see me ever getting this stuff cause I'm Mr. super casual, I just thought it would be worth the extra effort. Not putting down blizz's art, it's not bad armor, just not what I was expecting.

Daedalus Mar 23rd 2012 2:05PM

Well, to be fair, we haven't seen any tier sets yet, so these designs could end up giving a radically different alternative to the standard gear.

My guess is, if they are doing asian themed sets, it'll come with the first batch of tier gear; that usually seems to be themed on the expansion.

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