In this tough world of ours, sometimes, it is drip or die.
The return of tier sets to WoW in late Shadowlands signified a few fun things. Unique gameplay tweaks! Optimizations to talent builds that change with external force modifiers per tier! More appearances to gather and unique silhouettes per class! But largely, especially given the catalyst system for making tier pieces, the only way to ever get a full tier appearance is to play a given class in content.
Embers of Neltharion has some…interesting tier set appearances. For every cool and well-executed one, there is the Shaman earthy pantsuit, and only complete doofus losers wear pantsuits. For me, a big part of the push around deciding my Season 2 Dragonflight goals hinges on a simple question – can the class of each of my characters pass a fit check? So to write something a bit more fun and less strictly analytical, I wanted to spend some time today just riffing on the tier sets from the forthcoming World of Warcraft patch.
Demon Hunter
Folks? It’s drip.
For my DH sensibilities, it has everything that I love about DHs that is kind of stupid in WoW – ab windows, exposed arms, big shoulders with ornate wings and glows, helmet holes conveniently placed for your horns, sharp-edges on boots and gloves, and the Mythic-level tinting is what I personally like in WoW armor when planning transmogs – a mostly-neutral color palette with a pop of something to plan around, and the lower tier looks all have some bad color choices, but the Mythic one just hits. Will I be grinding my DH up north of 2,000 Mythic Plus rating for the look? You’re damn right I will.
Death Knight
Am I a DK or a bug? Doofus look.
The armor looks more like an insect carapace than a Death Knight armor, and while the sharp, curved lines of the shoulder and helmet ornamentations are decent, the overall look is not going to replace the blood-tinted Throne of Thunder Heroic set for me. Pass (I’ll probably still goof around in keys on my DK, though).
Druid
It’s got leaves, bark, and leaf-wings. The helmet looks goofy as hell, but the rest of the look? Drip. I’ll cover my teammates in bugs that heal them inexplicably in order to get some tree dragon vibes, but the helmet comes off when we’re playing, The purple Mythic color tint isn’t quite as nice as the autumnal themes of one of the other tints (didn’t check the difficulty on that one), so I might not need to grind that hard for it.
Evoker
Like a good Evoker, I run between pulls in Visage form for the extra free health regen, so how the tier looks on my less-dragony form matters to me. The tier looks great on Visage! In Dracthyr form…well, the shoulder-slot wings are also shown with your wings in Dracthyr form, which looks so silly I turn around to unironic enjoyment of the look. My Evoker was already a Season 1 KSM, so I guess we’re running that next patch too!
Hunter
Blizzard has two modes for making Hunter tier artwork – it’s either a display of the trophies gathered from fallen enemies or it’s too “survival” themed and comes in as a hot mess of “I gathered these scraps to keep myself warm” look. 10.1 tier is the latter, and it is…not great, in my opinion! The bits of crystal are cool enough, but there’s just not much else there that I like, and the helmet would absolutely be hidden because it is a mess to me.
Mage
The normal tint of the Mage armor is golden and wouldn’t be out of place as Priest armor. The Mythic tint, pictured here, fits well for Arcane, the spec I am currently playing on my Mage, but I don’t like the brown pants and the lack of robes – Mage is just always going to feel like a robe-y class for me, sorry! Probably a pass overall, and outside of the look, also because Mage is probably my worst class in terms of how I play.
Monk
The Monk set this tier is wretched. Okay, that was my first take. When I saw it on my character on PTR, it was still pretty bad, especially compared to how good the art on the Vault tier set was for Monks. However, most of it settles on the stupid rice hat, which Blizzard insists on including in lots of Monk tier sets with varying results that are often bad. If you take that stupid hat off, though?
I respect it. I’d wear it. The Mythic tint only, though, as the other colors have too much McDonalds look. Due to how WoW handles specular textures and metallic looks, metallic gold looks so dull that when paired with red, it looks less like a hero’s garb and more like I’m getting ready to dunk some french fries in hot oil. More neutral greytones with that big pop of purple, though? Sure, I’ll take it. Either way, I’m gonna earn it because Monk is my current main!
Paladin
The Paladin tier set has a couple of funny quirks that I find in these sets. Firstly, some of the tints are misses for me, and the one I like the least is the Mythic tint. However, the Heroic appearance has a very nice neutral look that I really dig, and I’m a fan of robes on Paladin sets (they look like fabric in WoW all the time, but if the accents sufficiently have that plate quality, I’m game), so I could see trying to work my way towards this look.
Given that Prot Paladin is pretty much the best tank at the moment, I think I could pull this one off!
Priest
This right here is the set that absolutely made me go from “I kinda like priest gameplay” to “I am ABSOLUTELY playing Priest next patch.” The wings, the details, the thematic balance between shadow and holy as concepts meeting in the middle, all of it is so, so good. The Mythic coloration of the set is made to speak to me with the dark grey neutral tones and red accents for the wings and fabric details. This right here is drip – and I’m going to make a point out of getting it.
Rogue
It’s a good Rogue set, the Shredder motif is nice and it fits for Rogues, while looking good on even my Worgen. The purple used in many of the Mythic tints comes back here, and while it’s a smidge bright for Rogue tier, it still looks good. I don’t know that it would help me overcome my general aversion to playing Rogue, but it’s a good set!
Shaman
This is the only set that just completely puts me off. It’s got an interesting idea with how it kind of ends up being a pantsuit with the flaps on the sides of the legs, but it just looks bizarre on most races I’ve seen it on, including my own female Draenei Shaman, and the colors insist on having brown earthy tones in every tint, regardless of how well they fit (or don’t). The Mythic color uses the purple prominent in many of the Mythic colorations, but partnered with the brown it just feels weird to me. Probably going to pass on this set.
Warlock
Warlock sets generally look great, and this tier has the cool cross-over of Black Dragons and general warlock-y demon themes. The color of the Mythic set leans on the bright and warm red colors I liked in a lot of the prior sets, so I might have to bust out the Warlock more regularly!
Warrior
The Warrior set is an oddball one. Most of the colors look bad to me, too adjacent to the McDonalds palette I mentioned with the Monk tier and with the Normal tier looking like a Christmas card. The Dragon theme here is a little too overdone, especially compared to past Warrior tier sets with the Dragon motifs, like Dragon Soul or Nighthold, both of which do the theme better in my opinion. On color choice, one version of this tier does appeal to me though – the LFR version.
Given how much I’ve been enjoying Prot Warrior lately, I could see pushing low keys to get the pieces with the coloration I want.
So What Are My KSH/KSM Characters?
Well, based on this analysis (and their roles in my raid play), my first easy call is my Monk – who is going to be my first KSM and KSH regardless of the tier appearance as she is my raiding main, However, the Mythic tint sans hat is growing on me and I might very well opt to play with it anyways!
After that, my next toon to push is going to probably be my Priest. I have a MIGHTY NEED for that tier set, and I’ve enjoyed playing Discipline in dungeons enough this expansion so far to try a serious season 2 push with him.
My surefire KSM-only characters will probably end up as DH, Evoker, and Paladin. I can get to KSM and beyond without pushing to KSH to get the looks I want for DH and Evoker, and the Paladin tier looks best to me at Heroic level, so KSM is a good ceiling to let me earn up to that.
Outside of these, I plan to play Warrior a bit, Warlock, and Druid, because I like those appearances, even Warrior in the lowest-tier config. For the others…eh, I’ll probably goof around on alts here and there even outside of the ones I have identified for goals, but they’ll be in that more-traditional alt slot I tend towards where they get played sparingly as the season winds down.
But I will definitely chase the good fits, for sure.
Kaylriene 
I really like Evoker one, might actually make one.
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