Armour and vanity

Kuanchichi got his shoulders last night!

Well, OK. There is a lot of loot in Wow and that statement might not mean much to someone who doesn't track shaman gear over the last couple years, or who plays mostly Alliance. But, it goes like this. The shaman T0 (Elements) and 0.5 (Five Thunders) gear (known to Blizzard as "Dungeon Set 1 and 2", as shown on their Armor Sets page, which will make following the rest of the paragraph easier), has shoulders known in common Horde palance as "coatracks" because, well, that's what they look like. These are so incredibly ugly on a male troll that to avoid them, I deliberately assembled a hybrid gear set that was 4xT0, and the full Blue Dragon Mail, just so Kuan could match and not have the ugly shoulders, which were even worse when he jumped and they got all tangled. This also kept him from having to wear a skirt (or maybe not, as that thing never has dropped for Kuan off of Rivendare).

The next set up was Tier 1 (Earthfury) from Molten Core. That set is all lavalike; it does have better-looking shoulders, although the hat is awful. Kuan not only has some of those pieces, but also some Outland gear that reuses that model. But really, for the longest time in the game, the top set was Tier 2: Ten Storms. And once Blizzard remodeled the set, with patch 1.9, Ten Storms has got to have been the prettiest armor set in the game, and honestly, still is.

In my opinion, of course. But, a shaman wearing the gear will usually turn heads and cause others to Inspect. The higher level gear just isn't as interesting looking. And also in my opinion, the best two pieces are the head, which is sort of a circlet with sideburns and thus still shows the toon's hair; and shoulders, which have animated lightning playing around the wolf heads. The head model was used as the basis for the Shamanistic Helm of Second Sight, and SMV quest reward Kuan has; and the shoulders pretty much duplicated in what Kuan got last night, the Pauldrons of Wild Magic.

So very pretty.

Of course, the bonuses ain't so bad either...