For the Tauren!

I have to admit straight off that I have never really liked the Tauren model. Three fingers and a misplaced tail don't do much for me. On top of that I didn't care for Taurens being allowed to become paladins either. Now that we have that straight I'll let you know what inspired me for this particular set.

I ran into a Tauren pally in Orgrimmar last night. He must be hearth bound at the same Inn as myself since I see him quite a lot. And frankly he makes me green with envy. He has Invincible. I can't tell you how badly I want that mount, but we won't go there. So every now and then I take a moment to check out what he's wearing. He actually has several sets of role playing gear. Last night he was wearing a mix 'n' match set of whatever that looked very cool and very intimidating. And frankly, Tauren or not it wasn't half bad. So I took the challenge and I embarked on a quest to find a set of plate gear that looked good on a Tauren female.

I usually start the shoulder but this time I started with the chest. That chest is the most important piece on a female Tauren. It has to be feminine without making her look deformed. Trust me, some of those chest pieces do NOT look good. The Breastplate of Blade Turning was perfect. Not only does it have lovely smooth lines it doesn't distort. Some of the chest pieces that were full coverage made the Tauren female look as though she had no neck. Ick.

I continued the "skip the shoulders" trend and went to the legs next. The legs had to match color wise and transition smoothly at the waist. I didn't look very long. And frankly once I found Valorous Aegis Greaves I quit looking. I usually obsessively compulsively look at every single pair of legs to be sure I had the right ones but I loved the look. There must be something wrong with me. I HATE plate dresses but the feel that I wanted for this set was starting to evolve. I decided to finish the design with a healer in mind.

The shoulders had be something medium. The large one were HUGE and made her head disappear and the small ones seemed to stick out at funny angles or were just lost to the rest of her armor. There were quite a few decent bronze pairs but I chose a pewter winged look instead. I love the smooth profile and feather details of the Chilled Shoulderplates. They also seemed to lend the set a distinctive custom feel rather than a matchy matchy set feel.

The Belt of Regret and Gauntlets of Serene Blessing pulled it all together. The belt had that extra little touch of gray blue that pulled the shoulders in and the full gloves matched the legs (or skirt!) perfectly. The gloves needed to be fuller. The half gloves or the "skin tight" gloves just didn't feel right on a Tauren model.

Since I decided to design her with a healer in mind instead of a tank, I chose a hammer for the weapon. And a very fitting hammer it is! It's extremely unique, very lovely, matches the color scheme and is dropped off Arthas in Heroic 25M ICC, just like Invincible. I'm going to be keeping my fingers and my eyes crossed farming that thing. "Please drop the mount, please drop the mount, please drop the..." you get the idea. The (H) Royal Scepter of Terenas II even has the right shade of glowy. Make sure it's heroic, the regular has a slightly color.

The shield and cloak are both fairly common graphics. I listed the Drape of Fiery Dreams because it's a random BoE blue drop. There are quite a few other cloaks with the same graphic though, such as the Cape of the Brotherhood from heroic Deadmines. The shield, Observer's Shield, is a simple boss drop. It drops in Dire Maul or Mana Tombs or is a simple level 69 green.

And lastly, you may have noticed, I'm not a big fan of helms. I love the option to turn off the helm graphic. There was one particular helm back in Vanilla that I rather liked. I thought it might be a fitting match for this set. It would fit and frame the face without covering it. The particulat helm I was thinking of is no longer in game. Most of the helms sharing that graphic are actually mail not plate. So it took a bit of extra searching to find the Glorious Headdress

The only drawback with this set is that the legs are Paladin only. However, I chose not to sweat that detail since I was thinking healer. I mean when's the last time you saw a DK holding a shield and casting Holy Light on someone? For that reason I won't even be taking the time to find a possible two hander for the set at this time. Check back in a few days. I'll be doing this set on another race to see how it compares. At which point I'll find boots,(they didn't seem to show up under a Tauren's dress at all!) a possible alternate set of legs available to all classes and of course the optional two hand weapon.

---

Slot	Name	Source
Shoulders	Chilled Shoulderplates	H Stop the Plague A There‘s Something Going On In Those Caves
Chest	Breastplate of Blade Turning	Random Rare Drop
Belt	Belt of Regret	Neutral Quest Hazard Disposal
Legs	Valorous Aegis Greaves	PALADIN Only - Boss Drop or Token
Hands	Gauntlets of Serene Blessing	Justice Points
Back	Drape of Fiery Dreams	Random Rare Drop
Main Hand	(H) Royal Scepter of Terenas II	Boss Drop Heroic ICC 25
Shield	Observer's Shield	Boss Drop - Dire Mail
Helm	Glorious Headdress	Random Green

---

Imbued With Blue

While flipping through WoW Model Viewer I ran across a fun pair of legs. The Bejeweled Legguards are lovely. I love the cobalt blue with the red swirlies. Unfortunately, I ran into that funny problem that Cataclysm caused, they are no longer available in game. There was no "same model as" tab in Wowhead, but I proceded anyway. I knew there was a chest that seemed to match and I wanted to see how they looked together.

The chest is the Imbued Plate Armor. I quickly went through and checked to see if there were other Imbued Plate pieces. Woot! A full set! Complete with legs of the same graphics as the Bejeweled ones. One problem, I didn't quite like it. The shoulders were an obvious "Don't match!" and I felt the belt was a little too busy. It drew the eye to the waist and you missed the rest of the armor. So I switch out a few a pieces and here's what I came up with.ed

As you can see I switched out the belt, boots and shoulders. The shoulders were a "must" /shudder, and the quieter belt allowed the eye to look at the full set of the armor, not just the middle. The boots, those were personal preference. Unfortunately the Bloodsoaked Greaves in the redo are longer in game so I stayed with the Imbued Plate Greaves. I chose the Grimscale Belt since I felt the red of the Imbued Plate Girlde was too much. However if you do prefer the red for the belt the Girlde of Galantry is another fitting option.

I went through every set of plate shoulders I could find. Quite a few sort of fit, but with a "meh" feeling. The Pauldrons of the Great Ettin were the right color combination for all that they are of a totally different style. Their size balanced out the multitude of color in the armor and kept them from being too diminuitive. The Slatesteel Shoulders or the Symbolic Pauldrons were also good matches, but didn't have quite the impact as the Ettins.

I wasn't sure what I wanted when I began looking at cloaks. At first I was thinking of finding a red and blue one, not a very common combination. I hadn't looked far when I came across the Arakkoa Sage's Shawl. Not only was the blue perfect, the solid color once again supported the armor, rather than detracted from it.

I used the same rule of simplicity while looking for a sword and shield as well. This is one of the few sets I've put together where I haven't tried for an eye catching shield. The smooth lines and soft shades of the Rock Golem Bulwark allow you to look at the colors of the armor instead being intimidated by some giant bulwhark on the left arm. The Battlecaster's Edge nicely complemented both the shield and the armor set.

This set is MUCH easier to acquire than the Dark Iron plate. It is all drops or from quests that are available to either faction.

---

Slot	Name	Source
Shoulders	Pauldrons of the Great Ettin (H)	Heroic Raid Boss
Chest	Imbued Plate Armor	Random Green Drop
Belt	Grimscale Belt	Random Green Drop
Legs	Imbued Plate Legings	Random Green Drop
Boots	Imbued Plate Greaves	Random Green Drop
Hands	Imbued Plate Gauntlets	Random Green Drop
Back	Arakkoa Sage's Shawl	Quest - Horde or Alliance
Main Hand	Battlecaster's Edge	Quest - Horde or Alliance
Shield	Rock Golem Bulwark	Dungeon Boss Drop

---

The image below is an accidental "recolor". To be honest, I still have no idea how it happened but I thought it was quite interesting and gives a good idea of how armor is changed by simple recolors. I actually like the old red with the green too. All else fails I can just say my Human Female is getting ready for Halloween!

Dark Iron

When I started compiling this set I actually started with the Boulderfist Epaulets. In my usual fashion I went through and selected the rest of the boulderfist items. Well, the shades of black and red on the shoulders were a touch different than the rest of the Boulderfist set. The Boulderfist set had more of a dark maroon feel rather than actual black. So I went back to square one and started with the chest piece attempting to match a different chest to the shoulders. After going through a ton of chest pieces I came across the Dark Iron Plate. It matched perfectly, especially considering I was using a Dwarf maid model to start with! Lo and behold, the Dark Iron Shoulders had the same graphic as the Boulderfist ones, no surprise.

I selected the full set of Dark Iron Plate gear. Since there is no Dark Iron belt I used the Avenger's Waistguard. Then I moved on to cloaks. There were a great many cloaks that looked well with this armor! I selected the Crimson Paragon's Cover due to the way the black background and little spikes of red fit the armor set. The green was a nice touch of color without being too much. There are several cloaks from Wrath that are the same style such as the Royal Crimson Cloak or Greatcloak of the Turned Champion so be ready to run some Wrath raids if you're looking for black and red cloaks. There were plenty of plain black or red cloaks to choose from such as the Bloodmoon Cloak (red) or Blood Knight War Cloak(black) that looked well with the armor. For the alternate picture I used the Cloak of the Inciter. The white with a red border relieves the stark blackness of the armor set.

Next onto the shield! This was a tough one to start. There were a good many shields that matched or would look decent with the set. I took a moment to decide what I wanted for the look and tone of the set. The shield should be one with only black and red, no other colors and was well, intimidating. Once I set those standards the shield selection was cake. The Gladiator's Shield Wall had it all. Unfortunately, after doing all this work to put everything together I took a moment to jump in game to verify that this shield could still be purchased at the legacy honor quatermaster. It can not. So if you have it in your bank still, bully for you. As the other shield I chose one of my favorite ever in game shield, Ward of the Red Widow. The heroic version is blue I believe so you want the one from regular. This is a bind on equip drop from Beth'tilac. So if you're lucky you can get it off the Auction House for 50k gold.

For the sword, Broken Promise just looks so freaking cool. And hey! It's black and red. There were a couple other options such as Blackguard, however, I feltthe size and shape of Broken Promise balanced the Gladiator's Shield Wall quite nicely. For the alternate weapon I selected an axe, Rising Tide.

---

Slot	Name	Source
Shoulders	Dark Iron Shoulders	Crafted
Chest	Dark Iron Plate	Crafted
Belt	Avenger's Waistguard	PvP - Halaa Tokens
Legs	Dark Iron Leggings	Crafted
Boots	Dark Iron Boots	Crafted
Hands	Dark Iron Gauntlets	Crafted
Back	Crimson Paragon's Cover	Boss Drop-Sunwell Plateau
Main Hand	Broken Promise	Boss Drop Naxxramas 25
Shield	Gladiator's Shield Wall	PvP - Honor Points

---

---

Slot	Name	Source
Back	Cloak of the Inciter	Boss Drop - Shadow Labyrinth
Main Hand	Rising Tide	Boss Drop Black Temple
Shield	Ward of the Red Widow	Boss Drop - Firelands

---

The only problem with this set? Other than the shield not being available of course... It's crafted. You will need to find a blacksmith who can A) Smelt Dark Iron and B) Has the Dark Iron Plate plans. The plans can be purchsed from Lokhtos Darkbargainer if you have the required reputation with Thorium Brotherhood. Be prepared to help your blacksmith farm Blackrock Depths, to mine the ore and get faction drops for Thorium Brotherhood!

Welcome

This is Pyckles Fashion Plates, a site for the discerning plate wearer who wishes to look fashionable, daring, bold, confident, deadly, sexy or you name it. I will be compiling different sets of armor each week for you to preview and listing what each item is and how to get it, along with suggestions for pieces to switch in order to customize your look to your tastes. I also have numerous pages set up by color for individual armor pieces so that you can begin making your own personalized set.

I am very excited about Transmogging coming up in Patch 4.3. In Svarra's Closet I admitted I often selected a piece of armor by looks over stats until stats became more important at level 60 when I started raiding. Since transmogging allows you to make one piece of armor look like another piece of armor it gives you the ability to customize the look of what you're wearing and now I don't have to worry about whether my gear matches or not. There are restrictions however, take a second to check out the full Transmog Rules before you plan on switching your dagger to a fish or your polearm to a broom!

Even with Patch 4.2 a ways off, many people are already out farming their tier sets. I however don't just want a tier set, I want a set that looks killer. And since I like to change my outfits on occasion I want several sets that look killer. Since I'm a tank, I also need sword and shield to match. My quest log kept flagging me as "Failed" in my search for a site that gave a basic run down of plate set looks and individual pieces from quests, rare drops, etc. I finally found the site Role Paly Gear and perused Wowheadnews's Transmog Guides but while they were helpful they weren't quite satisfying.

So I got started. This site will under go daily updates to the color pages. I'll be adding links and reviews to other helpful Mogging or RPing sites for extra inspiriation and ideas. Since I'll be concentrating mainly on plate armor to begin with, I'll try to add the occasional suggestion for other armor sets well. Enjoy.