Set looks good actually. A shame it conforms more with Ulduar then "Paladin" though. A little poor planning for female armor wearers perhaps, and the helm does look a tad unfinished although I must admit I very much enjoy the faceplate. Looks like it would need a metal "hood" or just to remove the top piece for better flow, although I believe a "hood" would be better for that reason. Almost strikes me as more of a PVP set. It'll be interesting to see the finished model running around.

That's where my hope still lies.

I donno. I'm picturing this on my Draenei and enjoying the image. If it ends up being Ulduar I won't be heartbroken. If it's PvP, even better.

And really that "interview" had so many red flags... It's like they took a whole 10 seconds to look up a bit of source material and then went crazy.

Oh dear, see item graphic design is the one area where Blizzard has not redeemed itself in WotLK.

Remove the shoulders and helmet and it looks very similar to some recolored T6. The helmet will obviously be on "hide", damn I dread having to go a whole other raid tier looking like crap.

The whole set looks very generic, meh.

Yea, I understand it's easier for them to do that than try to one-up themselves every time they design a class set, but I'm getting really tired of these lackluster sets.

Think back to Lightforge, Lawbringer, Judgement. R13 set. Ignoring the silly bits (McDonalds helmet and Banana shoulders), they all felt like true paladin sets. Lightbringer was amazing. I'm even one of the few people that liked the original (silver, not the recolored junk we have now) T3 though it took some getting used to (and hiding the helmet).

I don't get why after all these years they're still unable to grasp what players want.


Oh and never having matching boots for Ret, yea, that's another pet peeve of mine.


Edit: Damn this is even worse if you compare the Warrior set:



Ignoring the somewhat weird goat motif, those big runed shoulders look really cool. Darker, fitting colors.

Why do paladins always have to look like someone's retarded brother who fell into a bucked full of crayons... at this point I push for getting sets by spec (DPS plate = all the same) rather than this..

I think with a lot of the sets, something gets lost from the transition from illustration to 3d, but that's a problem with the limited polys they have to work with. There are some great illustrations of the Lawbringer and T3 (T3 is on Sons of the Storm). I would even add that the Kara set is very good, helm and all.

The one I consider completely unsuccessful is the AQ set. Crystalforge and this one are more suited for the dungeon (I don't actually consider crystalforge bad. Purple is traditionally a royal color and it fits with TK. However it does look much better on a female which is a good flaw). Another area to contend with is the fact of two light users. The questions arises as to how to handle these two classes who in beliefs (and perhaps function if you consider damage dealing and healing) are very similar, and to do this without overusing the same elements over and over. The "hybrid" nature of the paladin class as warrior priest may actually put it at a disadvantage in this area simply because it needs to say "warrior priest" without being "warrior" and "priest". Keep in mind these also need to be designed around the dungeon, a good example being T3/7 which has a very geometric feel while giving a "holy" feel with the wings.

I would actually like to see the "failed" designs. The armor sets will start out as ideas, thumbnail sketches will be drawn, the best shapes will be refined in sketches (many sketches), color studies, perhaps even take the absolute best ones and make illustrations. Then the absolute best one of those will be selected for modeling. I'd love to see this process some time. I wish the art team posted like GC, but I can understand why they don't.

*edit* Found this on MMO-champ forums after posting (page 1, about the middle of the "Palading Tie8" topic). This is what I mean about the limited engine.

Better pic.


The particle effects are runes that glow in the air above your head/shoulders, like in the artbook

I'd honestly prefer a kilt on it, because it'd cover up the fact we won't have matching boots.

I actually like the look of the set very much now that I see the rune on the head also. But I'd really love to get a kilt instead of pants! I would love to see some more images of other racers wearing the set aswell.

I have a cranial ridge and I'm not a Klingon! I agree the helm is off though, maybe it is just 'new and different' and it will grow on me.

Not up to date reading this thread (busy at work), but wanted to let folk know I have posted a heavily updated version of the Bellator's spreadsheet. Files Hosted By ExemplarWoW on FileFront

Updates:
Updated for 3.0.9.
Bugfixes.
Revamped layout - should be more user friendly.
Updated the Item Calculation - much faster. Thanks to Rurahk for a good suggestion.
Priorities! Using Left's program I've generated effective cooldown for every possible rotation. This allows you to select a rotation and have effective cooldowns populated. I've even automated a check for it to identify the best priority for your gear and target!
Tentative preliminary 3.1 modeling. Pretend Exorcism works on everything. Enjoy the RV and Fanatiscm nerfs. A true complete 3.1 version won't be released until 3.1 goes live and we're locked into actual changes.

P.S. I was contemplating Divine Intellect - it's worth about 550 mana fully raid buffed. Huzzah. Remember, it doesn't impact our base mana, only our Int and mana derived therein.

I highly doubt the trees will stay like this (even w/ the addition of the T1 prot ability) but, I'll probably dump my new points into Guardian's Favor, Stoicism, and 4/5 of the T1 Protection talent.