Arcane Brilliance: Old mage armor sets and how to get them, part 2
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we talk more about transmogrification, that oh-so-exciting upcoming feature in patch 4.3 that allows us to make our sweet tier 17 sets look like greens we got while questing in 2004. The aught-fours are so in right now!
Last week, we started our epic journey into old content to find some sweet retro threads for our totally trendy mages to wear at all the hottest mage events of the season, be they spellstealing soirées, Polymorph parties or warlock-wienie-roasts. This week, we delve into slightly more recent content.
Before we begin, we should point out a few important transmogrification details we've learned since we convened last week.
Apparently only items with stats are candidates for transmogrification -- and by stats, I mean "other than armor." That rules out most cosmetic items. So no running around wielding a fish in each hand while raiding, I guess. Unless you can find a pair of fishes with stats on them, I guess.
Weapons and off-hand items can only be transmogrified into similarly slotted items. That means no running around with two staves or dual-wielding daggers or perhaps a lantern in each hand. I don't know what you people are into ...
Heirlooms are eligible, so good news for you speed levelers. Now you're not stuck for 80 levels with a single armor model.
The gold cost isn't set but will probably be similar to reforging, meaning it will scale, being more expensive the higher the level of your equipped item happens to be -- so maybe not as much of a massive gold sink as I originally feared.
No legendary items, which I sincerely hope changes at some point. I feel like if you earned a freaking legendary item, you should be able to keep that model on your upgraded gear if you want. Forever.
All of this is still entirely subject to change.
And with that out of the way, on to some more of the armor sets you and I should both be hunting down and squirreling away right this very second.
Heroes/Valorous Frostfire Garb
Welcome to the first of the tier sets from Wrath of the Lich King, when the art team apparently restricted their color palette to various shades of brown and puke. Not that this is a bad-looking set, by any means, just a bit less, er, flamboyant than we were used to.
How to get it Get a few friends together and go hit Naxxramas. Kill lots of Scourge. Play Frogger with some slimes. Most of this set drops in Naxx, though the token for the gloves does drop from Sartharion in Obsidian Sanctum. There's also a different (and in my opinion sexier) color scheme available if you can manage the 25-man versions of this content.
Hateful Gladiator's Regalia/Deadly Gladiator's Regalia
As a great many of you reminded me last week, the various arena sets are still very much obtainable, they just take a bit of PVE currency farming. And boy howdy, do some of them look awesome. Take these Season 5 sets, for example. I did a lot of warlock killing in this gear, as I recall ... which was a nice change after like half a decade of getting my butt handed to me by those same warlocks over and over and over and ... I'm not bitter.
How to get it Justice points. Farm them. Kill bosses and such, then head into Dalaran and visit the legacy vendors for your faction there. Similarly, if you want to farm for some of the pre-Wrath arena sets, you can find the vendors on the Isle of Quel'Danas.
Kirin Tor Garb
As with every other set in this expansion, this comes in two flavors, a 10-man version and a 25-man version. The picture above is of the 25-man variety, the Conqueror's set. This is the gear you want if you want your mage to look like a tank. The armor looks like plate, or mail at the very least, and what are those ... pants? My mage hasn't seen his pants in like five years. He may not even be wearing them anymore, for all I know.
How to get it Ulduar raiding, whooo! Gather a few friends and go smack Yogg-Saron in the grill with a Pyroblast. Once a week. Over and over. Until your gear drops. Sigh.
Furious Gladiator's Regalia
This is the arena Season 7 set. I think it makes me look like a ninja-mage. Which is how I like to think of myself. In real life.
How to get it Again, this one will cost you your hard-earned justice points, only in larger quantities than for the previous season.
Tier 9 sets
The one pictured above is the Horde set, but the Alliance set is also pretty spiffy-looking. As old tier sets go, this one's pretty easily obtained, since the entire set can be purchased with justice points, which at this point, you probably can't give away. Good news, transmogrification has given you something to spend them on.
How to get it I just told you. Justice Points. You'll find the vendors hanging out in the cold way up north in Icecrown, outside the Argent Tournament coliseum. Go visit them. My guess is they're pretty lonely these days.
Bloodmage's Regalia
I'm not a fan of this set. It's kind of ugly, if you ask me -- and even if you didn't ask me, I'm still going to force my opinion on you, because that's how the internet works. Still, maybe you like the whole Viking mage look. If so, this set's still very much available.
How to get it You're going to have to go raid a lot in Icecrown Citadel. If you were around toward the end of Wrath, you probably had your fill of that place, but unless you still have the set in your inventory, you're going to have to go back to get this set. You can always just spend justice on the lowest-level version of this stuff, but it's even uglier than the rest.
Now that we have most of the major mage sets out of the way, look in the next few weeks for a column about weapons, off-hands, and other assorted transmogrification ideas. I love looking this stuff up.
And finally, for all you pervs out there:
Black Mageweave set
Yes, this is the cloth set you want to grab if you want to look like a slut. Of course, it only looks this way on female characters. Because nobody wants to look at a fully-clothed female avatar, I guess? Anyway, if you're one of the people who want your female mage to look like this, you know who you are. And so does the FBI, I'm guessing.
How to get it Tailoring. Just make them yourself, or buy them. Then go take a shower to wash off that feeling of filthiness.
Every week, Arcane Brilliance teleports you inside the wonderful world of mages and then hurls a Fireball in your face. Start out with our recent beginner's guide to being a mage, then check out our three-part State of the Mage columns on arcane, fire and frost. Don't forget to look at some of the addons your mage should probably be using.
