Rocking the [Wound Dressing]
![Rockin' the [Wound Dressing]](http://altadin.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/larissyn_wounded.png "Too sexy for my shirt")
I'm going to let you in on a little secret.
... Promise not to tell? If it got out, it would totally ruin my girl cred.
Okay. Here goes!
The most important factor to consider when creating a gear plan is not /actually/ how pretty a particular piece looks or how nicely it matches the rest of your kit.
At this point, I have my guild more or less convinced that this is, in fact, how I roll. (No RNG-themed pun intended.) I am, after all, the shaman who maintained a running stream-of-conciousness in /guild chat while agonizing over which T9 piece to buy with my very first trophy:
We-ell. If I buy the helm, I know I'll just end up hiding it because — hello, femtaur! (All credit to Diodorus for coining that phrase, by the way.) But I still really like the look of those sweet goggles Flame Levi coughed up; they make me seem smart, and that's no small feat for a bipedal cow. I don't think I'm ready to part with them yet.
On the other hand, I've always hated how my T8 shoulders roll around when I jump. I can't wait to replace them! But Thrall's spaulders will clash horrifically with the rest of my tier gear and force me back into that ridiculous anchor to avoid breaking the my 4-piece bonus. So I think I'll just go with the pants for now. The T8 chest is a robe so no one will ever know that my legguards don't match, and by the time I have the emblems to bid on another trophy, I may have picked up some non-set pieces (with the same models as T9!) to tide me over.
Win? Win!
The world's most annoying shoulders.
At this point, our mage officer interrupted me to point out that my mace and shield look so silly together that it doesn't matter if the rest of my gear matches or not ... and he's right, the jerk. >.<
Anyway, see that bold sentence up there?
That's not the secret. Everyone knows that already.
No, the secret is that I have an Excel spreadsheet on my Desktop called Shaman Gear Comps.xls. I created it during some downtime at my last place of employment — and by "downtime," I mean when I should have been frantically busy but wasn't (because once you've been given your 90 day notice, what's the worst that can happen?).
I'll spare you all the math (This isn't that kind of blog! Although, I suppose, it could be ... /ponder), but, basically, I calculated Healing and Mana Equivalency Points based on my current gear, talents, and glyphs, and then used them to assign weights to the various healing stats according to two separate profiles: one that favors raw spellpower and crit for MT healing, and one that favors haste and mp5 for raid healing. I pre-filled the spreadsheet with items I can reasonably expect to attain (so, all Emblem of Triumph gear and anything that drops in Trial of the Crusader 10 or 25), with additional fields to plug in anything new that I might have missed or just didn't count on (such as hardmode loot, which I'm seeing much more quickly than I had anticipated).
By using and abusing this spreadsheet, I can make intelligent loot decisions more or less on the fly — but don't tell my guild. Like I said, girl cred.
So, what's the point of telling you? Or flashing a nearly naked Blood Elf at the top of this blogpost?
(Isn't she cute, by the way? I love the little red-headed Tinkerbell look she has going on!)
Well, the way I see it: since we all choose the best available gear for our class and spec as opposed to the best-looking gear, there isn't a whole lot of room for customization or, well, personality to shine through.
Except for one little, oft-over looked item:
Your shirt.
See, Larissyn isn't (just!) showing off her Blizzard-endowed assets. No, she's rocking the Wound Dressing — one of two shirt slot pieces you can buy from the first aid trainer in Dalaran. She wears this for two reasons. First, and most obviously, she's a tank. She's always taking a beating. Second, it's silent homage to her friend and mentor: a fellow tankadin who recently left the game to teach English in Japan. Alysanne always wore an Antiseptic-Soaked Wound Dressing under his armor (although in his pixelated form, he was actually a she), and so Larissyn does the same. It's just a little memento of our friendship.
As silly as it sounds, almost everyone I know has a story to tell about his or her character's shirt.
Some of my friends are wearing the the shirts they started out with, and can proudly boast — or sheepishly admit — that they haven't taken it off in 80 levels. (Ew, by the way.) Others, like my fiance, have a signature piece: every single one of Keaton's characters has a Lavendar Magewave Shirt crafted by yours truly. (He was actually wearing Lavendar Mageweave before we met, but at some relatively early point in our relationship I replaced them all with shirts <Created by Sarielle>.)
I have a theory that you can tell something about a character (or player, I suppose; we aren't all compulsive roleplayers) based on his or her shirt. It's actually the first slot I look at when I inspect random people (or orcs or trolls, as the case may be) while idling in Dalaran.
So, what about you? Are you wearing a White Swashbuckler's Shirt? (Very sexy on a female Blood Elf, by the way, especially paired with Tuxedo Pants and a pair of low level leather boots.) Or maybe you've gone a little more modern with a Sleeveless T-Shirt?
Inquiring minds want to know.
And by inquiring, I mean mine — and mostly to reassure myself I'm not completely insane.
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September 22nd, 2009 - 09:33
Orange Martial Shirt – Because nothing quite says “slut” like a female draenei (shaman) letting it all hang out…
September 23rd, 2009 - 12:34
I can’t picture that one… I’ll have to check it out in WoWModelViewer tonight!
Thanks for indulging me.
September 22nd, 2009 - 10:45
Linedan–a gigantic male Tauren warrior in four-piece T8 (including horned helmet), wielding a skulled barn door for a shield and carrying a sword big enough to spit and roast an elekk on–wears…
…a Pink Mageweave Shirt.
See, our raid’s MT, an orc named Gorebash, has this outfit he wears on his “off time.” It’s a Pink Mageweave Shirt, overalls, a straw hat, and a Thunderstrike (think pitchfork/trident). Yup. Farmer Orc. But the Pink Mageweave Shirt has been a part of his wardrobe for a long time.
So back during BC, one time, I had to fill in for him as main tank during a Tempest Keep run, the first time I’d personally MT’d TK (I was usually one of our two offtanks). I guess I did a credible, if not perfect job, because the next day, I got a [Pink Mageweave Shirt] in the mail from Gorebash along with congratulations.
Ever since, he has worn that pink shirt on EVERY raid he’s gone on with The Anvil. Every. Single. One. It’s totemic to him. It’s a combination good luck charm and badge of honor. Gore’s given pink shirts to a couple of other people in the raid as well, spawning the “Pink Shirt Mafia.”
So you can’t see it under all that armor, but that humongous cow that just Shield Slammed your ass into the next county? He’s got a pink shirt on.
Go ahead. Laugh. I dare you.
PS: I love the new blog! I’ve linked this one and Shaman on Ramen over at Achtung Panzercow.
September 23rd, 2009 - 12:56
I’m not laughing! … Really. I’m choking on my caprese sandwich. >.>
I love this story. Thanks for sharing it. <3
September 22nd, 2009 - 11:48
Primitive Mantle, yo.
Yes, I have been wearing the same shirt I started the game with two years ago.
It might smell.
September 23rd, 2009 - 12:57
I’d be more worried about the fleas than the smell!
I can Riptide the stench off of you, but those fleas are hardy.
September 22nd, 2009 - 14:03
Master Builder’s Shirt
Bind on pick-up
6% drop rate from a boss in Blackrock depths
I acquired this item while trying to get the “loremaster” and “The seeker” titles. I repeatably missed quests in BRD and ended up running it like 6-7 times to get them all completed. When this thing dropped I decided it was much cooler then what-ever I had been wearing previously and i haven’t taken it off since.
Bob the 2nd
September 23rd, 2009 - 13:00
I actually had that on Larissyn for a while. I ran her down to BRD (okay, Korev ported her to BRD with his mole machine after I got hopelessly lost trying to find the instance portal) to pick up an engineering schematic. I was having inventory issues, as usual, so I destroyed half of the junk I looted and — on a whim — equipped the Master Builder’s Shirt that ended up in my inventory.
In completely unrelated news: I miss the Bobs!
September 23rd, 2009 - 01:47
Being a man of simple tastes, my female toons all wear White Swashbuckler Shirts. Mmm, bewbs.
September 23rd, 2009 - 13:01
My Blood Elf banker was in that for the longest time. I’m a girl, obviously, and (mostly) straight … but that shirt is hot!
September 23rd, 2009 - 11:53
Thug Shirt. yep, my rogue had that shirt for the past 80 levels. Though considering him being a walking corpse already, the shirt is probably the part of him that smells -less-.
September 23rd, 2009 - 13:02
I’ve always wondered about Undead rogues. Have you ever lost a fingertip in some unwitting victim’s pocket?
September 24th, 2009 - 06:21
A new twist to “giving someone the finger”, I see. The good part of being a cadavre is the overabundance of spare parts.
September 23rd, 2009 - 21:08
Er, as it turns out, my Druid appears to be utterly shirtless. My warrior has some kind of Brawlers shirt on. I honestly don’t even know where that came from, let alone why he might be wearing it.
In regards to function before aesthetics, I agree. At least, at the intellectual level, there, I totally agree… Thaaat said though, I still occasionally allow me to be swayed by appearance if the functional difference is not altogether that great. I haven’t gone so far as to setup a spreadsheet for my gearing, but I do run with the addon RatingBuster and keep a good idea of where I need my stats to be, what’s good for me currently, what isn’t. i.e., I want to keep my haste at least 10% but after that it’s value dimishes quite rapidly, crit is of limited importance until I obtain 4pc tier 9 – long, long way off – spellpower through the roof, etc etc.
I know all this. And yet sometimes.. I make a decision based on aesthetics. Example, was going to buy either the T8.5 Helm or Robe the other day. Both pieces were an upgrade, no question. And it’s only a matter of time before I get the other one as well /anyway/.. But the helm sports haste, and the robe crit! But I like the robe more.. And it does have more int and sp and whatnot! So yes, ultimately I managed to justify buying the better looking option to myself. And besides, I still kept my 10% haste with it anyways.
But it actually bit me in the butt a little. Because you see, I was ‘trying on’ the Valourous version. Which I liked. The Conquerors version conversely was really quite ugly! Blech!
Naithin´s last blog ..Time to get this blasted achievement?
September 23rd, 2009 - 21:41
… but you’re a tree! It doesn’t matter how amazingly awesome your gear looks (and I totally agree that Valorous > Conqueror’s), because YOU CAN’T EVEN SEE IT.
Silly sapling.
September 23rd, 2009 - 21:51
*sigh* So well do I know this. Yet even knowing so does very little, save for the instances where an upgrade is too great to pass over for aesthetics alone, in which case I can then console myself with, “Well, no-one will really get to see it that often anyway.”
Mostly though, I do wish we had more chances to display our gear! Without significantly nerfing our healing, that is!
September 24th, 2009 - 10:09
I actually only just took off my Brawler’s Harness last night. I usually take that off pretty quick after making a character that wears them, but for some reason it got overlooked.
That being said, I’m not sure what shirt I want to wear. I feel that since I’m a tough Tauren warrior, I want something tough and Tauren-y… and what’s more Tauren-y than my own fur? I’ll probably opt for a Wound Dressing to fill the gap while I find a suitable shirt. There’s always a chance to find something that matches my armor!