The Underpowered Death Knight quietly dinged 70 at the beginning of this month while digging up Night Elf relics in Feralas, hoping to open up a Fossil site so that she could find some suitable bits of bone and stone for Professor Paleo at the Darkmoon Faire. She’s gotten most of the XP for those last ten levels from sources other than regular questing — holiday tours, archaeology, Darkmoon Faire first aid & archaeology work, even a little bit of pet battling.
While I was touring the Midsummer bonfires in Outland with Kaumalea earlier this week, she reminded me that she wanted some platekini:
“It’s summer, it’s hot, I want to go to the beach!”
Although I’ve done a couple of platekini-type outfits before — my Paladin’s “Brightly Colored Shell” set and my Warrior’s “Silver Morning” set — I am not much interested in that genre of Transmogrification. Platekini is outside my usual standards of modesty, and my Tauren women definitely don’t need to wear platekini to be beautiful. The first paragraph of Prinnie’s “Thoughts” regarding her “Project Platekini” sums up my opinions on the matter pretty well, too. Still, I’ve seen enough outfits using the classic comic book superheroine metal bra look of the Glorious Breastplate that I wanted to try my hand at making a set with it myself. Kaumalea volunteered to be the model because she loves all things blue and the blue version of this chestpiece style is readily available as an Outland quest reward.
Although her log was still full of Hellfire Peninsula quests when she reached level 70, she felt that she could now skip straight to Mok’Nathal Village in Blade’s Edge Mountains to obtain the Nether Protector’s Chest. And, indeed, she was able to do the necessary quests with surprising ease. A quick search of Outland quest rewards in MogIt turned up some other items that combined to make a really quite pretty ensemble with the chestpiece, so off she merrily went to acquire them.
After experimenting with wearing “pretty clothes” while still using only the DK’s starter five abilities during Love is in the Air, I decided instead to expand Kaumalea’s ability/spell list to everything she can learn without choosing a talent specialization, but keep her gear restrictions. Between that change and reaching level 70, questing in Outland has gotten much less painful. She can now handle green and even some yellow Outland quests without too much difficulty. She still has to stop and eat frequently, and she’ll still die if she accidentally pulls more than one or two mobs at a time or neglects to account for a patrol. Howling Fjord/Borean Tundra mobs remain a significant challenge, however, so she will need to stay in Outland probably at least until she reaches level 75.
Soak Up the Sun
Salvaged Ango’rosh Pauldrons, Nether Protector’s Chest, Stalwart Girdle, Lofty pants, Whiteknuckle Gauntlets, Bloodguard’s Greaves
I’d thought perhaps to use this chestpiece with the Symbolic or Imbued Plate pants that she already had, but in searching the AH for other coordinating items (before I decided to use quest rewards), lo and behold there were the Lofty pants for only 25 gold — a deal that was way too good to pass up!
Taunka Warrior Ice Princess
Circle’s Stalwart Helmet, Talonguard Epaulets, Nether Protector’s Chest, Stalwart Girdle, Lofty pants, Symbolic gloves & boots, Amber Filigreed Shirt
These blue items that Kaumalea already had on-hand also made a very nice set with the platekini chestpiece and pants.
One of my greatest difficulties with this particular alternative leveling project is not being able to use Transmogrifiable gear. I want to make Transmogrification kits for Kaumalea that synergize with her blue-and-white coloration. So I make the pretty outfits and do screenshot sessions with them, then switch back to her common and poor quality gear set for questing.
Previously: the Underpowered Death Knight and the orphans
Kamalia et alia 