Monday, February 25, 2013

Cloaks for Cloudkeeper's Legplates

A comment was recently posted on Cloudkeepers Legplates asking about cloaks for that particular set. I thought of several blue cloaks with gold borders. Well after trying these cloaks on, I decided that most won't work. The blue is too bright. So I started from scratch and went through every cloak in the game. I found several types of cloaks that work well with this set. Yellow, Blue, White, Gray and Fancy. Might be a bit of information overload, on the other hand, I do want to offer a selection so that you can fit your own style.

Also some of the cloaks listed may be of different lengths. And you can't just pick a cloak, go to Wowhead and click "same model as" since you'll get a TON of cloaks in all different colors. I've tried to select the easiest of each cloak to acquire for either faction. One of the cloaks is Alliance though. Too bad Blood Elves can't wear Stormwind Capes!

From left to right:

The Vintage Satin Cloak is a random green drop which you should be able to find on the AH. Of for an eventual sure drop hit the Underbog for Cloak of Healing Rays

Blightcloth Cloak is made by tailors. If you prefer a short cloak try the Bright Cloak which can be found on the AH.

Insignia Cloak is another one of those wonderful and easy to acquire lowbie AH items. Or just farm Scarlet Halls and Scarlet Monastery.

My favorite of this grouping is Tapestry of the Frozen Throne. Good luck getting it. It has an extremely low drop rate from the Captains Chest at the end of Halls of Reflection. However, for a short version of this cloak you can look for Patched Cape which drops off high level 60's.

From left to right:

Suede Cloak is a nice handy green drop. If you are Alliance, you can get this in long, short and split depend on which version of the Caretaker's Cape you purchase from Illiyana Moonblaze in Ashenvale.

The Abjurer's Cloak is best found while farming rare spawns in Tanaris if you can't manage to find it on the AH.

The Shattershore Cloak is a quest reward. Luckily it has the same graphic for both Horde and Alliance.

And the PvP cloak! Pretty much go to a PvP vendor for you faction and dressing room his cloaks until you find this one. One set is season 11 Ruthless. Or you can just have a tailor make you a Vicisou Embersilk Cape. If you have points to spare I'd just buy one though.

From left to right:

This is my favorite of the white ones, the Bonelink Cape and it's easy to acquire of find on the AH. Run Dire Maul or Razorfen Downs and you should see one drop.

The Gossamer Cape is another easy green drop. I personally don't care much for the red in the border but it has a crisper appearance than the other cloaks.

Reanimator's Cloak drops of any number of mobs in Drak'Theron Keep. Since it is BoE you may also find it on the AH.

And of course the Cape of Stormwind is purchased from the Stormwind faction vendor in, you guessed it, Stormwind. WARNING: Taurens, do NOT attempt to purchase!! It is Alliance only.

From left to right:

My favorite of this set, there are only two cloaks with this graphic. Shroud of the Citadel from Sapphirion in 10m Naxx or Drape of Icy Intent in the Rare Cache of Winter from 25m Ulduar. In order to access the Rare Cache you need to burn Hodir down before he smashes it.

The easiest two of this cloak to get (no green AH one sorry!) are from Ebon Blade Faction or a Sholazar quest. Post-partum Aggression rewards Cloak of the Deadliest Game. Or you can purchase the Dark Soldiers Cape once you reach honored with Ebon Blade.

A Leatherworker can you make you the Shifting Cloak.

And the Opulent Cape is a nice AH green! Or a common drop in Zul'Farrak.

From left to right:

Ooops! Small problem. Wowhead doesn't have this particular cloak in it's database! /cry Going by it's item number, it is most likely a Cata item that was never used. However you can get close to the same effect with Dreamcrusher Drape, a split cloak with the same colors. I'm hoping that we might see this cloak later in MoP. I feel like I've seen it before but can't find another quite like it.

The Cloak of Tranquil Cloud drops of any of the rare spawns in Vale of Eternal Blossoms. You can purchase a pointy version of the cloak from the Shado Pan. The Sagewhisper's Wrap is available at honored.

My favorite. I might have to design a set specifically for this cloak. The Nanoprecise Cape is a Cataclysm cloak that can now be purchased with Justice points.

And last but not least Cloak of the Iron Council drop off the Iron Council (surprise surprise!) in 10m Ulduar. The other option would be the Shroud of Redeemed Souls from the nasty caster sisters in Sunwell Plateau.


Well I hope this provides enough to get you started! While not all these cloaks are "perfect" most of them look decent with the set and if all else fails, use one until you can finally get that one raid drop cloak. I would personally probably go with the Cloak of the Iron Council with this set, although the Shroud of the Citadel would be a close second.

I also discovered some fun variations of this set posted on WoW Role Play Gear. I designed this set around the shoulders and legs for a friend of mine. Noelani designed her sets around the Truesilver Breastplate. She has some more ideas for shoulders, boots, etc.

Happy transmogging!


Sunday, February 24, 2013

Transmog in Patch 5.2

There are some exciting changes coming up in Patch 5.2, rumored to be released March 5. Many of these center around the Blacksmithing tradeskill and weapon transmogrification. I am personally looking forward to these changes because some incredible new graphics will be made available once again and you will have greater options of weapon transmog to match your gear.

  • Speed level blacksmithing with current materials
  • Return of the Master Crafter weapons such as Blazefury /drool
  • Reclassification of one hand and two hand Weapons
  • Levling Blacksmithing

    They plan on making it possible to level your craft using current materials, much the way you can now level cooking without having to go back and farm bear flanks and mystery meat. I discovered this while checking through Wowhead News for more information on the old BC Master Craft weapons. I recently dropped skinning on my paladin and have started leveling blacksmithing. It's a pain. I have to go back and farm copper, mithril, iron and so on. Once 5.2 hits you'll be able to level blacksmithing with just ghost iron. Here's a quick little video I found on YouTube that covers the gist of this change.

    This video was made closer to the beginning of testing. I just checked PTR and there is no quest to pick up. You simply learn the training projects from the trainer. I'm working on a more in depth post for the whole blacksmithing thing in 5.2.

    Alright, next question, how does this affect the Auction House? I know for a fact that there are people crying their eyes out that this will nerf their AHing profits. People who farm lowbie mats and then AH them. Well...IF this is available to 90's only then people who are leveling up their lowbies will still farm mats to level their tradeskills. Also this is for level purposes only. That Ornate Mithril set I want for my Death Knight? I'm still going to have to get the mats and pass them on to my favorite blacksmith. This change only covers leveling. It does not replace any of the old world recipes.

    So to sum up, what do you want to do in prep for 5.2 and black smith leveling? FARM GHOST IRON!

    Master Craft Weapons

    Back in Burning Crusade, they added the Master Crafting. You could specialize in hammers or swords or maces and what you would get, is a freaking cool weapon. You could upgrade that weapon into an even cooler looking weapon and they were BoP so that you could be one of the few who had that weapon. Too bad you couldn't make a killing selling them on the AH however. Well those quest lines and the corresponding weapons were removed from the game some time ago. This caused a great weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth when transmog was introduced. There have been many requests on the forums, on Wowhead comments and in general for these item skins to be reintroduced to the game. Well wish granted!!

    Wowhead gives a basic run down of all the weapons being "brought back" and how to obtain them. Blacksmithing will have its own discovery system much like Alchemy. Blacksmiths will create a Lightning Steel Ingot and in doing so have the chance to learn an unknown pattern, including some of the old Master Craft weapons. This item may or may not have a 24 CD. It most likely will (which will suck imo) but we can keep our fingers crossed until the patch comes out. These items will BoP so they will be for Blacksmiths only. Hooray for the new BS speed leveling option! I just dropped skinning on my pally and started leveling BS so she could make the Dawnsteel shoulders as shown in my Cloudkeeper Legs transmog post.

    So once again to sum up, what do you want to do in prep for 5.2 and blacksmith crafting? FARM GHOST IRON!

    And last but not least... Weapon RecLassification

    On the PTR you can now transmog swords into axes, axes into maces and so on. You can do this for both one and two hand items. You of course can't transmog a one hand with a two hand items however. Many of the item that were classified specifically as main hand or off hand are now simply one hand. BRAVO!! I had a heck of a time in Cata farming for the right weapon so I could transmog it to match my gear. I'd find the perfect hammer and then an upgrade would drop, like Souldrinker. Then it was back to the drawing board to either find a new transmog set or a new weapon.

    Here is my current two handed axe. On the PTR I transmogged it into The Oathkeeper a two handed hammer. I used The Oathkeeper with my Sapphirium pally tier set. All I can say is hoooray for this change!! I'm a fan to two handed swords personally, and I don't care to use a hammer or an axe usually. There are so many amazing two handed swords. The only problem is even if it is a two hander it still looks tiny on a Blood Elf.


    Current in live the Bronze Mace is a main hand weapon. Well I transferred my Blacksmith to the PTR and made one. (Good luck finding a weapon on the PTR auction house, BTW) On the PTR it is now a one hand weapon. I also made it, equipped and transmogged it to a sword. So you CAN xmog maces into sowrds and vice versa etc. The main hand / off hand restrictions have been removed on many of the weapons.

    So to sum up, farm a ton of ghost iron, level your Blacksmithing and dust off that sword you've been saving and be ready to change your axe!