Project Lore

Two new entries have been added to Blizzard's Official Tier 10 armor previews: the Paladin and Priest. Though you've likely seen them before, these two sets can now be considered "complete" and in their final forms. Even after much controversy, they remain roughly the same as they did when data-miners first pulled them out of the patch files, but let's have a quick evaluation of them anyway:

Paladin - As usual, I think this Tier 10 set looks better than the majority of the community seems to. The open-helmet design with glowing skull looks boss and the erupting shoulder pads do, too. I especially like the runed purple ribbon design that runs consistently throughout the outfit. Now, if the complaints have come from anywhere, it's from those players upset about having to wear a skirt again. Maybe it's the fact that I don't have to wear it, but it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal to me. One of the all-time favorite Paladin sets is Judgment (Tier 2), and that also features a dress as opposed to hard-plated armor. Even if Judgment still looks nice in terms of design, it's a bit of a wake-up call as to how far the art and modeling teams have come since then. Colors are deeper, shapes are more complex. The equipment shows off a little bit of wear and tear. It's just more interesting overall. And really, who wouldn't want to be as awesome as Tirion Fordring? Priest - Now people who haven't taken kindly to the Priest's Tier 10 seem to think that it just looks far too plain. And... I can see where they're coming from. I don't think it looks terrible by any means, it's well-enough designed, but players have come to expect their armor to look big and bombastic. This set seems rather mild by comparison and the random burning fires don't seem to add as much flair as the usual shoulder/head-slot embellishments do. If there's one thing that really stands out to me, it's the bad-ass collar. With the cowl thrown in there, casting shade over the Priest's face, I can see this Tier being a favorite of Shadow-specced players, as opposed to the usual holy-rollers.

If I can point to one thing that makes all of this armor look goofy, it's the terrible posing. Maybe it's just the traditionally stiff posture of the Male Human model or the weird angle that they're being photographed at (leaning forward on one foot and slightly hunched over?), but either way, I'm pretty sure it'll look more appropriate on live servers than it does on these test dummies. Of course, the big question now is: where the hell is the Shaman set. This far into devleopment, with most other sets good and ready to go, and not even the data-miners have been able to find one piece or texture from the Shaman's Tier 10. You know that if we find out anything, we'll keep you posted, but for now, it remains a mystery to everybody. I'd still love to hear your thoughts on the direction that the newest sets are headed in though, and feel free to talk about the others previously revealed if the mood strikes you!