So, that Dalaran-over-Karazhan questline, part II…

It was short and sweet. I was glad to see that it didn’t have a gear reward, because that meant I only had to run through it three times: with my Loremaster (Kamalia), my Alliance Main (Kaylynda), and my Main Horde Mage (Kaelinda).

I’ve seen some murmuring in the community that it was underwhelming. I think it was definitely necessary, though.

As players, we’ve known ever since the original Legion announcement that one of our goals in questing through the Broken Isles will be recovering the Pillars of Creation. But our characters didn’t know that yet, and this was a nice way to reveal that information to them.

Jaina’s replacement on the Council of Six is the obvious, natural choice.

When Kaylynda asked Kalec if he knew where Jaina had gone, he just shrugged and said, “Jaina is her own woman, and she hasn’t seen fit to contact me.”

After this questchain (both parts) and this encounter — which shows that to Khadgar, de Naal isn’t just a river in Uldum —

Kaylynda will be quite excited to discover that she gets to learn more about Alodi when she starts pursuing the Frost Mage Artifact! (She’s still going to get the Arcane Artifact, Aegwynn’s staff, first, though.)

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Sunday on the Promenade 1

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, by George Seurat, 1884; image from Wikipedia

I’ve been well aware for the past few years that as I change what my characters are wearing, I tend to let taking pictures of their new outfits and posting them to my fashion pages pile up. In fact, I frequently find myself scrambling to take and post pictures of a kit because it’s been long enough since I made it that I’m ready to make a new one!

I think it’s time for that to change. Because I tend to spend Sunday afternoon and evening doing Transmogrification photo shoots, picture processing, and posting to character outfit pages, I might as well make a general post the same day of any outfits that aren’t part of some themed Transmogrification collection that I’m working on.

These Sunday Mog Show posts will likely be on alternate weeks, as BTH and I are fortunate to live close enough to our families that we generally go to a family dinner about every-other Sunday. I hope, though, that they’ll be more frequent than just once a month.

First up for this first edition of the Sunday Mog Show, some timely kits for current events:

Kirin Tor of Dalaran

Theramore Arcanist’s Hat*, Mantle of Nimble Thought, Buccaneer’s Vest, Replica Sorcerer’s Belt, Khadgar’s Kilt of Abjuration, Exiled Dabbler’s Gloves, Footfalls of Memories, Kirin Tor Offensive Tabard, Staff of the Skymagi
Kaylynda needed to be appropriately dressed before she responded to King Varian’s call to arms for the assault on the Broken Shore — and with the meta-knowledge that events in Dalaran were to come (though I’d not spoilt myself on what those events would be), I decided to dress her in the kit that is the reason why I did Isle of Thunder with this character.
As I am too clumsy to solo Yogg-25 to get the token for the proper purple Conqueror’s Kirin Tor Shoulderpads, I borrowed the idea of wearing these crafted shoulders from the Kirin Tor Quartermaster in Wrath-Dalaran.
The tabard and the staff make this an Alliance-only kit.

With Dalaran becoming a hub city again in Legion, I’m planning to put together an updated version of my old “Essential Dalaran Wardrobe” post — this time with actual Transmogrification kits. I probably won’t try to do it all at once, though. Instead, I’ll start with a few outfits, including this one, and then add to the post as I create new kits using those purple robes — similar to what I’ve done with my Shado-Pan Helmet and Slinky Leia Robes posts.

Speaking of the Slinky Leia Robes…

Commander of Demons

Horns of the Left Hand Path, Vir’naal Spaulders, Robes of Insight, Zykes’ Belt, Bramble-Proof Leggings, Auchenai Keeper Gloves, Kurkenstoks, Demon Commander’s Drape, Drakebinder Greatstaff (LFR), Trapper’s Shirt*
As summoning demons and binding them to her will is part of a Warlock’s schtick, Kalaneia decided that she needed to buy the Demon Commander’s Drape from the Legion pre-launch events. Then, of course, she needed a new kit to go with it, and this was the robe that she wanted to wear. I did try making the outfit without shoulders, or a shirt, and with skimpy trousers in the Dressing Room… and I knew that I just wouldn’t feel comfortable running around like that. So I found some shoulders I liked and cued the colors for the shirt and pants off of the shoulders. As always with one of my kits using this style of robe, feel free to consider the shirt optional and use skimpier trousers if you wish.

Early in my WoW-playing career, I had an obsession with collecting as many of the level 1 starter clothes for RP-wear as I could. I made multiple level 1 alts just to send their clothes to my bank alt for my RP clothes collection. Although Cataclysm changed the level 1 starter tunic from a shirt to an actual chestpiece, I collected as many of the new styles as I could. Then Mists made the level 1 starter clothes be soulbound. I guarded my existing collection of non-soulbound pre-Cataclysm level 1 starter clothes carefully. My hoarding paid off in Patch 7.0 when all of those old, no-longer-obtainable shirts could still be added to the shirts tab in the new Appearances collection. This shirt was the original Tauren level 1 Hunter tunic.

The next outfit is one of the kits I designed for my “These Boots were Made for Mogging” event about three years ago. I was reminded that I hadn’t actually made it in-game yet when I recently used the same chestpiece & pants to make a new kit for my Dwarf Paladin.

Gold and Emeralds

Acid-Etched Pauldrons, Leonine Breastplate, Triad Girdle, Starcaller’s Plated Legguards, Gauntlets of Steadfast Determination, Boots of Avoidance, Blade of the Wretched, Fragment of Oshu’gun
I built this set more or less toes-to-head, starting by looking for pants that coordinated well with the boots. I’ve struggled with these pants because the green patches on the knees usually clash with the other colors I’m trying to use with the gold, so I was pleased with the two-toned green effect created by pairing these pants and these boots. That made me think of these two-toned green shoulders, where the dark side is more like the boots and the light side is more like the knee patches of the pants. After that, the mix of bright, lemon-lime greens already in the set seemed perfect for bringing in the gauntlets. The Belt of the Triad neatly matches the celadon green tones of the boots, and its gold blends perfectly with the chestpiece and pants.

This concept spun off from a kit I was working on for one of my current themed Transmogrification kit projects.

Bronze, Brass, and Steel

Blast-Proof Cowl, Ordon Legend-Keeper Spaulders, Bulging Chain Vest, Earthgrasp Girdle, Battle Scarred Leggings, Grips of Rekindling, Railwalker’s Ratcheted Boots, Bronze Blaster
This kit, with its grey metal tones and textures in the torso and brown leather tones and textures elsewhere, originated from wanting to use this bright shiny gold-leaf gilded helmet with this bright orange-yellow chestpiece that I thought might be part of the same set, but apparently isn’t. I hadn’t been paying close enough attention to the types of Mission chests they came out of — the hat is from the Highmaul/Blackrock Foundry Shaman tier-lookalike set, whereas the chestpiece is from the Hellfire Citadel LFR mail set. The belt, gloves, and boots, however, are from the same set as the hat.

Lastly, here are a couple of Sin’dorei-flavored outfits that, while not particularly creative, are certainly pretty. These kits are quite a bit older than the others in this post — I’m probably going to change what these characters are wearing very soon.

Teal Farstrider

Clefthoof Cover, Fizzy Spaulders, Rigid Tunic, Pilgrim’s Belt, Explorer’s Leggings, Clefthoof Gloves, Cenarion Expedition Boots, Dreadblade, Stung
The bottom half of this kit is a collection of Outland quest rewards; alas, the leather chestpiece and belt worn by the Farstrider NPCs are not available for players. The chestpiece and shoulders I’ve chosen have accent stripes that pick up on the blue-green color, and if the brown isn’t quite right to match the pants, at least they coordinate well with each other.

Sunfire

Sunwell Mage Regalia with Cloudscorcher Belt, Green Linen Shirt, and Golden Staff of the Sin’dorei
I didn’t LFR during Warlords — instead, I spend most of that expansion soloing legacy raids for Transmogrification shinies. I’d wanted this gorgeous kit for my Mage for, well, ever since Sunwell was new.
The belt that actually goes with the set blends into the robe, so I thought I’d spice it up a bit with this nicely coordinating Timeless Isle piece. I’ve included the shirt because to me, the skin windows in the robe just look silly.

I’ll mostly be posting my own Transmogrification kits, of course, but if any of you, my dear readers, have kits that you’d like to share, I’d be happy to add you to the show! Just email me your picture(s), along with a list of the items in the outfit. I don’t regularly check my blog email, though, so if you’ve sent me an outfit, please make a comment on the most recent Sunday Mog Show post so that I know to check my blog email for your contribution.

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So, that Dalaran-over-Karazhan questline…

I finally got the last of my characters through the Broken Shore event and their first Demon Invasion. Then I did a few more Demon Invasions with various characters until I’d completed the Transmogrification sets for each armor type. In the process, my Monk got that sweet looking polearm — the only one of the Invasions weapons that I was really truly interested in collecting for its appearance. I’m almost done with Invasions. My DK is still farming for the 2H axe and collecting Nethershards to get upgrade tokens for it so that she can use it for her off-spec during Legion*.

I also have yet to play through the Demon Hunter starting experience. I’d like to do that before August 30, though — in the lull between the big crowds from the early access and the big crowds from the actual launch. I think I’m just going to buy the Invasions warglaive for my Demon Hunter with some of Kamalia’s Nethershards so that I don’t have to worry about farming for the drop.

Anyhow, with Invasions no longer a top priority for my playtime, it was time to visit Dalaran in its temporary location over Karazhan. I did it with Kamalia. Then I did it with my Alliance Mage.

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So, those Demon Invasions…

Last Tuesday, my Priest was inadvertently the first of my characters to actually participate in a Demon Invasion. She’d hopped from the Shrine in the Vale to Wrath Dalaran to the Caverns of Time to run a CoT Heroic, and when she zoned in to Tanaris, an Invasion was in progress. Naturally, she had to go help out just to see what all the fuss was about.

I did a few with my Alliance Mage next, then Kamalia.

It is so cool to see mixed-faction flocks of flying mounts traveling around the zones to take out Legion structures and commanders!

It took me quite awhile to get to an Invasion in each zone with Kamalia for the achievement. For some reason, Azshara seemed to be the least frequently active during the hours when I play.

After doing several Invasions with my Priest, my Alliance Mage, and Kamalia, I found that by the time any one character had collected enough Nethershards to purchase one of the Transmogrification Ensembles, she’d already collected almost the entire set from the boss drop chests. With multiple characters of each armor type, if I do two or three Invasions with each one, there will be enough overlap in the drops they get that I shouldn’t have to spend any Nethershards on the Transmogrification ensembles — which means I can spend them on filling out accessory gear slots instead.

At the moment, though, I’m still working on just getting all my alts through the Broken Shore scenario and their first Demon Invasion for the quest chain. Then I can go back and start doing repeat Invasions to work on filling out the Transmogrification ensembles and equipped gear.

Kamalia had to do a lot Invasions before she got a weapon drop. I don’t think that I’ll have time to do enough Invasions with every character to get all of them a full kit of equipped 700 gear and a weapon drop. Bother this expansion and its pre-launch events coming out right at beginning-of-the-school-year crunch time!

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So, those Broken Shore storylines…

/bowled over

I did the Alliance version first. I hoped that the Horde version would make some more sense of some of Sylvanas’ actions. And yes, yes it very much did.

My absolute favorite thing about the whole experience, though, was what I observed when I took a thorough tour of the docks area before turning in the first quest. I don’t think it’s too terribly spoilery to write about this, as it’s not related to the big lore reveals and many folks may have missed it in their rush to get to and through the scenario itself.

I’ll put it behind a cut, though, just in case.

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I Have Returned

Do not mistake me for the woman who left, all those years ago.

There are some experiences that a person cannot endure and remain unchanged.

Becoming a Demon Hunter is one of those experiences.

The woman whom I was knowingly and willingly sacrificed herself to become me.

I honor her memory and her memories, but I am not that woman anymore.

Do not expect me to respond to you as she would have done, and do not get in my way.

Of course I had to create my Demon Hunter today. I quite like that a Demon Hunter can look almost completely normal, if they wish — no tattoos, no horns, not even a blindfold — on a Blood Elf, those glowing fel green eye sockets aren’t really that much different from usual. I had been thinking about choosing the smallest, stub horns for my Demon Hunter, but then when I saw the Yrel horns, well, I had to have those instead. The demon whose heart Kiralaira consumed was an Eredar sorceress.

I haven’t actually zoned in with her yet, though. I don’t want to deal with the crowds, the lag, the bugs, the bottlenecks. I want to be able to savor and document the starting zone experience without too many other people cluttering up my screenshots.

Instead, I’ll do my usual Tuesday routine of recruiting new Followers from the Inn (gotta catch ’em all!) and farming old raids for Mog stuffs. Then I’ll check out a Demon Invasion or two. I’ll take Kiralaira through the Demon Hunter starting zone later this week, or maybe next week, after the initial rush has tapered off (and I’ve completed more of my pre-semester prep work >.<)

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Things my Characters are Wearing with the Competitor’s Tabard (2016)

Eight years ago, the Summer Olympics were in Beijing, and Blizzard commemorated the event with the Competitor’s Tabard, an award for participating in any Battleground, win or lose. I got one for Kamalia, but not for any of my other characters who existed at that time (one year after I began playing).

Four years ago, the Summer Olympics were in London, and I created a set of Transmogrification kit ideas to go with the Competitor’s Tabard.

This year, the Summer Olympics are in Rio de Janeiro, and, thanks to the new Appearances system, I can have characters actually wearing Competitor’s Tabard outfits in-game!

Sleek Sprinter

Regal Armor, Serenity Belt, Shimmering Trousers, Riding Gloves* + Earthmender’s Bracer of Shattering, Sage’s Boots, Competitor’s Tabard, Helcular’s Other Rod or Torch of Austen + Tears of Heaven
I originally designed this outfit with the Swoop-Tail Shoulders and Sage’s Trousers. I was very well-pleased by how the green on top, red in the middle, blue on the bottom pattern of colors mimicked the pattern of the colors of the rings on the tabard. Now that we can hide shoulders, however, it seemed most appropriate to leave them off, so I shifted the green color to the trousers and the blue color to the shoes.
For the staff version, I chose a plain, straight staff to suggest a vaulting pole.
For the wand-and-off-hand version, of course she had to be running the Torch! I chose this flask off-hand to represent the water that would be carried by a distance/endurance runner.

On a whim, I decided to make the outfits for the other armor types with Alliance characters as well — meaning my low-level Dwarves. Thus, these outfits are rather different from the ideas I presented in my Competitor’s Tabard post four years ago.

Nimbletoes

Plainstalker Tunic*, Pilfered Kaldorei Belt, Bluegill Breeches*, Oilrag Handwraps*, Padded Running Shoes, Competitor’s Tabard, Bangalash’s Claw
Karolynne is level 22, so I didn’t have very many options for this leather kit. I started with the pale golden color of the pants (which I got from a Salvage Crate), then looked for other relatively light-colored brown items. It seemed appropriate to hide the shoulders for this outfit. Given their name, I couldn’t pass up this pair of boots!
How can this character be using so many items that are no longer available for this outfit? Thank the account-wide nature of the Appearances collection! I’m a bit sorry about that, as it will make the kit harder to replicate (especially for low-level characters). For high-level characters, I’d probably use the Marshseeker Gloves instead anyway.

Glittering Prize

Glimmering Mail Pauldrons & Girdle, Lambent Scale Breastplate & Legguards, Mail Combat Gauntlets & Boots, Competitor’s Tabard, Thun’grim’s Mace*, Glyphed Buckler
At level 30, Kjerstin was able to use the chestpiece & leggings from my original Competitor’s Tabard mail designs, but she had to choose different gloves & boots. Although the cloth and leather kits looked complete without shoulders, I felt like the heavier appearance of the mail items was more balanced with shoulders included.
This mace was one of the possible rewards from a pre-Cataclysm low-level Horde Warrior questchain.

Royal Champion

Princess Poobah’s Tiara, Mantle of the Horusath, Leonine Breastplate, Replica Belt of Valor, Starcaller’s Plated Legguards, Judicator’s Gauntlets, Slime Kickers, Competitor’s Tabard, Royal Mallet
Maybe it was her hairstyle that made me feel like Kyraleia (level 63) needed a headband with her Competitor’s Tabard kit when none of the other kits did. Again, I felt like the heavy plate items didn’t look quite right without shoulders.
Without the tabard, I’ve had this sort of kit for a Paladin in the back of my mind for quite a long time.

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