Things My Evoker Wears, part 1 (outfits 1 – 10)

It’s taken me awhile to get this first “Things My [Class] Wears” post together for my Evoker because I have just not felt inspired about Mogging her. Only shoulders and belt show in Dracthyr form, and these have to coordinate with not only the rest of the armor in Visage form but also one of the 10 available colors for the Dracthyr form body armor.

6) Mysterious Moon


Cenarion Thicket Helm, Moonlit Mantle of Unrelenting Justice, Bonelink Armor, Moonlit Gloves of Unrelenting Justice, Moonlit Belt of Unrelenting Justice, Formidable Legguards, Moonlit Treads of Unrelenting Justice, Staff of Divine Infusion; Dracthyr Body Armor Color 6
I’ve seen white-scaled Dracthyr with the white and silver body armor and silver shoulders and belt around Valdrakken, and it looks rather magical. The “night” version of the Warden set seemed like the shoulders and belt to use. Finding other pieces for the Visage form version of the kit was more challenging than expected, however, because most “silver” mail has warmer, rather than cooler, undertones.

5) Cobalt Guardian



Diadem of the Spell-Keeper, Cobalt Guardian’s Pauldron, Deeprock Cape, Cobalt Guardian’s Hauberk, Cobalt Guardian’s Grips, Cobalt Guardian’s Belt, Cobalt Guardian’s Leggings, Cobalt Guardian’s Cover, Cobalt Bladewing Staff; Dracthyr Body Armor Color 2
This version of the set is obtained from the Cobalt Assembly, which was, at least for me, the most obnoxious grind experience of Dragonflight.
It is also the armor worn by Sindragosa in her Visage form, whose character the lore team did a fantastic job of rehabilitating with her simulacrum. I have become quite fond of Simulacrum!Sindragosa; when Kaelinda did the Azure Renewal questline, I was sad to see her go at the end of it.

4) Obsidian Dracthyr


Obsidian Dracthyr Battlegear Monnion, Obsidian Dracthyr Battlegear Hauberk, Obsidian Dracthyr Battlegear Grips, Obsidian Dracthyr Battlegear Belt, Obsidian Dracthyr Battlegear Leggings, Obsidian Dracthyr Battlegear Cover, Obsidian Spellcarver’s Stave; Dracthyr Body Armor Color 5
This version of the set is obtained from Wrathion/Sabellian reputation, which isn’t hard to do as long as there are lots of other people at the Obsidian Citadel working on it, too. As soon as Kamalia had acquired it, this became Kamalisaura’s default Mog, since it coordinates the most nicely with her scale coloration.

3) Sandshaped Dracthyr


Sandshaped Dracthyr Battlegear Monnion, Sandshaped Dracthyr Battlegear Hauberk, Sandshaped Dracthyr Battlegear Grips, Sandshaped Dracthyr Battlegear Belt, Sandshaped Dracthyr Battlegear Leggings, Sandshaped Dracthyr Battlegear Cover, Valdrakken Bladewing Staff; Dracthyr Body Armor Color 3
This version of the set just showed up, complete, in my Wardrobe collection one day. I’m not sure what the qualifications are for earning it. Maybe just getting to level 70 as a Mail-wearer? Or perhaps completing the Thaldrazsus leveling main storyline?

2) Crimson Dracthyr


Crimson Dracthyr Battlegear Monnion, Crimson Dracthyr Battlegear Hauberk, Crimson Dracthyr Battlegear Grips, Crimson Dracthyr Battlegear Belt, Crimson Dracthyr Battlegear Leggings, Crimson Dracthyr Battlegear Treads, Infinite Dragonspire; Dracthyr Body Armor Color 10
By the time a new Evoker has completed their Forbidden Reach starting zone, they will have collected this version of the set.

1) Emerald Winglord


Gleaming Mantle of Unrelenting Justice, Emerald Winglord’s Hauberk, Emerald Winglord’s Grips, Gleaming Belt of Unrelenting Justice, Emerald Winglord’s Greaves, Emerald Winglord’s Boots, Dragonspawn Wingtipped Staff; Dracthyr Body Armor Color 8
This version of the Dracthyr Battlegear is the Evoker starting gear set. It doesn’t have shoulders or a belt available as part of the set. The items from the green and gold version of the Warden set do fill in nicely, though.

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War Within alpha infodump reactions, part 1 of ?: PC Half-Elves, stout elves and slender humans

Well, well, well.
Invites for the War Within public alpha are going out, and the NDA on the War Within select content creators alpha has lifted, and information from the alpha is flooding Wowhead.

Between Blizzard Watch revealing this in their spoiler-coy headline and Wowhead revealing that in their spoiler-coy headline, the first major story beat of War Within is pretty well spoilt even without reading the articles.

I am quite excited about the Warbands concept, and I also quite like the Warbands group picture character selection screen idea. I’ve gotten really used to using the character selection screen to take nice clear pictures of outfits for the Sunday Mog Show, though — even if many of them have really terrible backdrop lighting and need levels adjustment — and I’m going to have to think about where is a place in the game with good, clear, even lighting that I can use to take outfit pictures for the Sunday Mog Show after the Warbands character selection screen goes live.

It seems that Dracthyr will be allowed to be more than just Evokers at some point in War Within. I’ll confess that I haven’t properly played my Evoker enough to understand how her abilities fit together, and that for me, the most fun thing about being a Dracthyr is Soaring. So if I can be a Dracthyr Mage (or Druid or Shaman) and Soar around, that might make being a Dracthyr more appealing to me than being a Dracthyr Evoker has been.

Customization previews for the new Allied Race, the Earthen, are up, and I find myself just as uninterested in rolling one as when they were first announced at Blizzcon. There’s another new race, which I don’t recall from Blizzcon coverage, that has enough customization options to potentially be a later-in-the-expansion Allied Race. They’re called the Harronir, and they appear to be some sort of bat-eared… porcupine? people. Not interested. In fact, I’m Not Interested enough in either of these new Allied Races that I’m once again, as I was right after Blizzcon, contemplating pruning the Minor Mages roster down to characters whom I’ve had for a very long time, characters I have written stories about, and characters of races whose Heritage Armor I would like to maybe get someday — just to break out of the “gotta catch ’em all”/”must have one of everything” mindset.

The most intriguing thing, to me, of what’s fountained out of the alpha thus far is some new ear customizations. Half-Elves are well-established in WoW lore: the High Elves Vereesa and Alleria Windrunner both have Human husbands and Half-Elf children, and Kalecgos is a Half-Elf in his Visage form. With the “Short” ear length customization currently available, Blood Elves and Void Elves can already RP as more elf-like Half-Elves. The “Pointed” ear customizations that have been discovered for Humans and Kul Tiran Humans will allow for RP as more human-like Half-Elves. Or, perhaps, they could allow someone to RP as a full-blooded Eversong Elf with a stouter body shape. The “Round” ear customizations that have been discovered for Blood Elves and Void Elves seem like a workaround to allow someone to RP as a Human with a more slender body shape.

I’ll save my thoughts on Transmogrification stuff that’s been previewed so far until the Season 1 Class sets for my three favorite Classes have all been shown; so far, only one of them has been written up.

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Dreamsurge disappointment, and other Patch 10.1.7 thoughts

1) I am extremely disappointed that the Dreambound gear from the Dreamsurges is visually the same as the Suffused gear from the Fyrakk assaults. This seems like such a missed opportunity to make a Green Dragonflight coloration of that armor set. Although the higher level version of the catch-up gear from the Dreamsurges would be upgrades for me, I am interested in acquiring gear more for its looks than its stats. So I guess the upside is that after having done the “hey go do the new thing!” Valdrakken weekly to find out what Dreamsurges are all about this week, I don’t need to bother with farming them.
2) I did the main Campaign progression questline with Shandris. I’m glad she trusts me, as a member of the Horde, more now than when I began helping her out with Tyrande in Ardenweald. Wondering why we didn’t get to rescue Gerithus before returning to Valdrakken, though. Quite surprised to see Vyranoth’s decision come so swiftly, considering what she said to Alexstrasza about “Your lies have become sweeter. Honey to hear. Poison to taste.” in the cinematic Nozdormu sent us to see in the previous patch. How will this play out in 10.2?
3) Progression on the Reforging Tyr questline is gated behind doing both the main Campaign questline and progressing the Bronze Dragonflight storyline. I haven’t done the Bronze Dragonflight storyline from the previous patch (leading into the Dawn of the Infinite dungeon) yet, however, because I have self-gated it behind replaying the Thaldraszus leveling storyline with Kaelinda first… Update: Contrary to the early reports, completing the “No Limits” Bronze/Infinte Dragonflight storyline is not required to progress on the Reforging Tyr questline. I took Kaelinda up to the Seat of the Aspects and she had both “No Limits” from Chromie and “A Dislocated Disc” from Nozdormu available. I picked up the latter without also picking up the former and flew over to Tyrhold; Eternus was there and I could turn in “A Disclocated Disc” and get the next quest in the chain.
4) I haven’t done the new Dracthyr storyline progression quests yet, but I will, eventually. I do like Emberthal.
5) But right now my first playtime priority is the Secrets of Azeroth event, because I’m having fun doing it. I did skim the Wowhead writeups of the event stages for the first couple of days, but I quickly realized that there was enough information provided in-game for me to figure it out all on my own (well, except when I can’t remember which zone a given sub-zone is in, and have to go look that up).

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May is here!

It’s nice this month that Children’s Week is early enough in the month that doing Holiday activities will actually be a significant contributor to collecting my Trading Post currency for the month, rather than being things I do after I’ve finished it off just for the fun of it.

I’ve already picked up the Wanderer’s Snowy Trappings and the pretty High Priestess’s Ceremonial Drape. The Lost Crown of the Arcane was an immediate must-have, too, seeing as how it is a recolor of one of my all-time favorite Mail Tier helms, the Crown of Flame from Firelands. I have the Magenta Cloud Serpent frozen from last month. I could get it this month if I choose not to get the Trial of Valor cloth set recolor or the Stormheim Vrykul leather set recolor. Knowing that stuff I’ve passed on will eventually come around again makes me feel less fretful about that decision.

As far as Children’s Week goes — I think I’ve done both the Classic and Cataclysm versions for both factions (because I seem to remember noticing the differences the first time I did the new versions); I’ve done the Burning Crusade quests for both factions; I’ve done both of the Wrath of the Lich King neutral options; but I was feeling burned out on Holidays during Battle for Azeroth and haven’t done the newest Children’s Week quests yet. So to do Children’s Week activities for the Trading Post, I guess I’ll start with the Zandalari and Kul Tiran orphans; to get the most out of that, I should go do them with characters who need XP, maybe my Druid and Human Mage. Then I think Kaelinda ought to go take Salandria to see her future self, and I haven’t quite decided which orphan to choose to round out the four for the Trading Post activity. My six characters who are doing the Wrath Dalaran fishing dailies in hopes of getting a Battered Jungle Hat have all chosen orphans to accompany them, to make the Trading Post activity for turning in dailies while accompanied by an orphan very easy to complete.

Here are my plans for Patch 10.1 tomorrow: BTH has an obligation on Tuesday nights, so while he’s out, I’ll log onto his account with his alt who is in my me-myself-and-I guild and invite my Void Elf Mage and my Dracthyr (who is Alliance to keep my Characters page more neatly organized :P) into the guild. I managed to finish up the lore questline in the Forbidden Reach (which I always want to call the Forgotten Reach, a name which is equally appropriate) in the past couple of weeks. I’ll probably do the first quests to go into Zaralek Cavern and fly around picking up all the new Dragonriding glyphs — and then I’ll set it aside for awhile. I’m still working on Dragonscale Expedition and Valdrakken Accord Renown and haven’t unlocked all of their 10.0 story content, and I think I’d like to complete that before I do the Zaralek Cavern lore questline.

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starting out in 10.0.7

Well, I went and collected all the new Dragonriding Glyphs so I could get my drakes some brakes. Kamalia set her hearth to the Forbidden Reach. I’ll work on the Forbidden Reach questline some more another day.
I’m keenly interested in the new Tauren lore in the Ohn’ahran Plains, but I think I’ll wait a week or two to do the questchain so that my screenshots won’t be quite so cluttered up with other players 😛

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Kamalisaura, the Dracthyr Evoker

Over the holidays, I eventually managed to get my Dracthyr Evoker out of the Forbidden Reach. Partly, I wanted to be sure I was through that questline in time for the Forbidden Reach opening up to everyone in Patch 10.0.5 (or will it be .7?). Partly, my pre-literate 5-year-old created a Dracthyr on another realm where I have a sufficiently high-level alt and was bugging me to get through the questline myself so I could tell him what to do.

I appreciated the insight into the main Dragonflight storyline and some of the other events we encounter around the Dragon Isles; it was worth playing through the Forbidden Reach storyline for that. Perhaps I’m just getting old and tired, though, because other than the gorgeous hair options for their Visage forms — which my Eversong Elves are totally envious of — I’m not too excited about either Dracthyr as a race or Evokers as a class.

After looking at all the bright colors, I was drawn to the grayish-brown for Kamalisaura’s scales because it seemed like it would probably be a relatively rare choice.

Dracthyr: Body Size 1, Primary Color 2, Secondary Color Strength 3, Secondary Color 3, Body Pattern 1, Body Markings 1, Markings Color 1, Chest Spikes No, Leg Spikes No
Horns 10, Horn Color 14, Horn Jewelry 4, Jewelry Color 5, Crest 10
Face 3, Snout 5, Face Pattern 1, Face Markings 1, Eyesight 1, Eye Color 2, Eye Style 1
Ears 6, Cheekbone 1, Cheek 1, Throat 1
Helm 2, Shoulders 3, Chest 3, Breastplate 3, Upper Arms 3, Lower Arms 4, Arm Spikes 1, Armor Color 5
Waist 3, Breechcloth 3, Thighs 6, Feet 4, Wing Decoration 1, Armor Style 1, Tail 7, Tail Ridge 1

Visage: Skin Color 1, Face 1, Hair Style 3, Hair Color 22, Hair Highlights 3, Hair Decoration Yes, Eyesight Both, Eye Color 2
Horns 1, Scale Pattern 1, Scale Markings 1, Scale Color 2, Eyebrows 3
Headdress 4, Ears 3, Earrings 3, Nose 1, Chin 1, Necklace 3, Jewelry Color 5
Underclothes Top 3, Underclothes Bottom 2, Underclothes Color 5, Body Scales 1

Shoulders and Belts showing up in Dracthyr form as well as in Visage form gives Mogging for Dracthyr a bit of complexity, because you’ll need to get the color scheme for the standard armor of the Visage form to coordinate with one of the 10 color schemes available for Dracthyr body armor. Speaking of which, I’m kinda annoyed that there are 10 colors for the body armor but only 5 colors for horn & hair jewelry, so you can’t always have your horn & hair jewelry match your body armor.

Also, I’m going to have to do Wrathion/Sabellian rep with Kamalia after all, because WELL, DUH that’s the source for the Obsidian variation of the Dracthyr Battlegear and also black scales for Dragonriding mounts.

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Tentative Dragonflight alt priorities

Thankfully, the Dragonflight Quest armor and Dungeon armor sets are not the same as the PvP armor. I like the both of the Cloth sets, the Dungeon Leather set, and the Quest Mail set, but I don’t find either of the Plate sets particularly inspiring.

Even better, that Dracthyr Battlegear is just the kind of awesome-looking new Mail armor that I was hoping we’d get with a new Mail-wearing class joining the game! Kamalia is really looking forward to wearing it… if it’s not ridiculously exclusive to Dracthyr Evokers, that is.

With that in mind, and keeping in mind that any alt management plan I concoct during the beta phase of a new expansion never ends up being exactly what I actually do with my characters — at the moment, I’m thinking that for Dragonflight, I’ll lead out with Kaelinda. Mages have unparallelled world mobility with their capital city teleport, and Invisibility is a pretty good aggro drop and run away ability. It’s okay for reconnaissance sneaking around, too, on occasion. Kamalia will go next; I missed her too much in early Shadowlands, and I’m excited about the new Mail armor. Then either Kerisa or Kasheena; I love being a Balance Druid AOE Goddess and a sneaky kitty to get from one place to another, but although I like the Leather armor, I want to get the Mail first. Then Kaelyla, to keep my Alliance Main caught up. And then… maybe Kamalisaura the Dracthyr Evoker, just to see how the new Class plays? She will be Alliance, so that I can put her in the “Blue Team” category on my Characters page instead of having to make a new category just for her.

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Renown 2.0 and Talents 4.0 (?) in Dragonflight

Ion Hazzikostas on Renown 2.0 in Dragonflight, from an interview with Hazelnutty, via summary by Wowhead: “…if you’re that outdoor world player who doesn’t do Mythic+, who doesn’t do progression raiding, all those players still want, deserve, and need gear progression of their own, and I think this is a more streamlined and elegant way to have those goals that you can work towards on your own pace…”
That player is me, and I am glad to be acknowledged and validated!
Having been so far behind the curve in Shadowlands that I was always riding the catch-up mechanics for Renown, I haven’t had the frustrations with it that others have expressed. If anything, I felt like it was a bit clumsy having both Covenant-agnostic zone faction Reputation and Covenant-specific Renown that both had to be ratcheted up. It was good that, in catch-up mode, Callings could contribute to both. From what little I’ve read, it seems like maybe the Renown iteration in Dragonflight is an iteration of both Renown and Reputation and might serve both purposes?
~*~*~
Which iteration of Talents are we on by now?
Let’s see, there was the Classic/BC version, and then I think there were some modifications to the tree for the Wrath/Cata version, and then we got the Mists rows which have persisted until now; and then there have been the Talent-like systems of Artifacts, Azerite Armor, and Soulbinds+Conduits.
From the information shared in this post and this post and this post, I am feeling cautiously optimistic about the new Talent system. It’ll be good to not have to choose anymore between a utility option and a throughput option in the same Talent row.
~*~*~
After we just had Venthyr, really Blizzard really Dracthyr???
I’m bound to roll a Dracthyr Evoker eventually to play with how the Class plays and to play with the racial customization options. She’s going to be named Kamalisaura and she’ll probably end up having a “phase” of her Draconic and Visage forms for each of the five Classic Dragonflight colors. I think I’ll probably look for versions of the scales (I keep wanting to call it “carapace” a la the Singers in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive…) that look less tiger-stripey and more lizardy.

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buy me a ticket to the DRAGON ISLES!

So, after three or four expansions of the leading fan favorite wish being “Dragon Isles”, at last for 10.0 the next expansion actually will be Dragon Isles.
The Dragonflight [sic. Dragonriding] system itself sounds like a minigame that I will find extremely frustrating until I finally get the hang of it, and then I’ll probably enjoy it; I probably won’t go all out to try to master it.
But of course there would be a Dragonborn-type race. The idea of a mutually-locked race/class combo is a different take on the new race, new class trope of new expansions, at least for WoW. I’ll want to try out the Evoker to see how the new class plays — I’ve had fun with Death Knight, Monk, and Demon Hunter as alts — but I’m not going to be in Dracthyr starting zone on launch day. The Evoker being mail-wearing is very nice — hopefully this means we’ll get lots of awesome-looking new mail armor for Kam to wear, too.
Feeling kinda meh about the Tier set previews, though. They have the same problem as the initial concept art preview for the Sepulcher sets — it’s a big guessing game which set is supposed to be for which class.
The glimpse of the revamped Talent system looks like it has promise. It also looks like setting up Talents just for my Four Mains (Elemental Shaman, Balance Druid, Fire Mage, Frost Mage) on systems patch day will be exhausting due to decision paralysis!
On the whole — wind in the sails to get done the stuff I want to get done in Shadowlands so that I’ll be in the clear to jump on the boat to the Dragon Isles on launch day!

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