[Leather Gear] Do Blizzard devs don't know how to make Leather gear look cool?

Community General Discussion
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Seems like there is a constant theme of Plate and Cloth gear being relatively nice while Mail and Leather gear is usually… well… meh. And no I don’t want to take a dump on devs but I want to understand why e.g. Leather gear is always so underwhelming and even looking unfinished and done in a hurry.

Sure we can find 2-3 interesting sets like current 7th Legion set which I just love or Astral Warden set but then there is pretty much nothing more interesting when it comes to full sets.

Tbh, the more we go back in Leather sets the worse it gets. One thing which is always making me wonder wth is going on are those absurdly ugly Leather feet which look like an undefined lump instead of actual boots.

Why after 15 years we can’t get well-defined models? Why so many sets have awkwardly placed 3D models on top of models which scream 2004 design? Why there is soo much corner-cutting?

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Leather is generally quite good. It’s mail which always gets shafted.

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Yeah they do. There’s quite a few good looking leather sets. Mail on the other hand… very few of them make it up to par.

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Well, druids are shapeshifted, rogues are stealthed, demon hunters transmog everything to naked to show off their tattoos, and monks are furry pandas. So who would even want cool looking leather?

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The leather PvP set looks sick though

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cloth and plate are usually good
leather has some nice sets
mail didn’t have a set I liked since legion, I know it’s a matter of opinions but i think they’re mostry underwhelming.

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Try playing a hunter. Leather users are living the high life

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Looking at the covenant sets for Shadowlands, the leather sets look odd compared to the other armour types (check the Necrolords sets - the leather set is a completely different colour and theme whereas plate, cloth and mail all look alike).

I think it’s difficult to balance the different class fantasies of the leather wearers into a single set - what suits an assassination rogue doesn’t suit a resto druid. It’s a similar situation for mail wearers as mail sets will be either designed for hunters or for shaman (or for neither as yes, they do often get the worse end of the stick).

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Hunter sets are garbage all the time, it seems like they are done on a residual principle.

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The only mail I like that hunters can wear is the chosen set from trial of valor.

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Sorry man, but this is simply down to taste. I agree that mail usually looks like utter balls, but I tend to like the leather sets. And I keep hoping that one day Blizz will finally get rid of mail and just roll us into the ‘leather’ family so I can use some decent looking stuff.

But again; it’s all down to taste. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

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Legion and BfA had each one decent set but that’s it when it comes to hunters and leather xD

Seems like blizzard is unable to find a good foundation to design leather so every time they make one it’s just looking weird like someone didn’t know what to do so they just yolo’ed it.

The odd part is that the internet is full of great leather like concept art for gear design so why blizzard is failing at it. It’s not like they don’t have talented artists or something

Yep, the moment I saw Bastion leather set is was like “ohh no… not again” XD
The idea for leather sets are offten so weird and awkward. Also from what i’ve seen they keep making cahracter narrow at the feet and super wide at the shoulders which makes them look even worse.

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Leather is horrible in Shadowlands. We’re abominations among necromancers.
Mail is getting really epic, detailed sets - ALL of them - While ALL of Leather is either extremely boring, or actually ugly. (A leg out of my shoulder is not “cool” when I stand next to a plate-god of death.)

I’ve made a topic about it in Alpha forums, as well as in the Tmog section.
https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/about-leather-in-this-expac/145791?u=n%C3%A1ia-argent-dawn

Leather is almost always extremely dull, less detailed, or flat out disgusting.
We have very very few cool pieces, and as a metalhead - there’s even less that I go for.
I end up using old stuff majority of the time, and it’s usually off-pieces from Rogue that I find better.

As a druid, I am cursed to either be fluffy — or nasty. (Spider in shoulder?)…

I wish they put as much love into the leather sets as they do for Plate and Cloth, as now Mail is also getting a heckload of it.
But I guess I will just have to push my druid off the table and main my plate users, which I have more fun Tmogging than my druid due to the vast variety of looks I can go for… -.-

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I quite like some of the leather we’ve seen.

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Mediocre at best.

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Both warftronts on both factions plus season 3 pvp is sexy as well imo

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Do not open the links if you don’t wish to see upcoming armorsets/pieces/covenant stuff.

Compared to the others, We have vastly different taste.
Druid / Leather is dead branches in very plain, dulled off colors.

It’s not interesting, and it does not stand out from previously made leather sets either.
I’d say it reminds me too much of the set from Ulduar to even be considered New and Flashy / interesting…

h ttps://www.wowhead.com/transmog-set=519/conquerors-nightsong-battlegear-25-recolor

This is comparing it to say;
Plate for Fae:

h ttps://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/928319.png

Same covenant and quite unique look. It’s not something I am finding super fancy, but it’s unique.

Venthyr:

h ttps://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/923804.jpg
h ttps://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/928442.jpg
h ttps://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/923798.jpg

Compared to Leather Venthyr:

h ttps://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/923808.jpg

This is one of my only sets I actually like, especially in purple, but it’s SUPER plain compared to the other armor classes!
It’s like a little more polished Uldir set!

Necrolord:

h ttps://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/923097.jpg
h ttps://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/923100.jpg
h ttps://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/923110.jpg

Compared to Leather Necrolord (Abomination???)

h ttps://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/923107.jpg

This one in particular is an insult, sincerely from my heart - this is my feeling about it.
I feel like I am being told I am a drooly, garbage, slug next to NECROLORDS…

Kyrian Leather:

h ttps://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/923988.jpg

Again; Uldir “polished”, extremely dull, not creative in any way or form. Nothing sticks out from older stuff.

Kyrian other:

h ttps://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/924592.jpg
h ttps://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/926442.jpg
h ttps://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/923989.jpg

All of them more detailed, varied and sticks out from previous sets seen.
They look more unique, and pretty. I’d argue the plate set is most ugly, but it is more different than Leather and hence could add something interesting to the plate.

Other:

h ttps://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/928415.jpg
h ttps://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/924572.jpg

These two in particular are absolutely insane in my opinion.
The plate (Last one) being the biggest detailed piece of badassery of any I have seen before.

I’m tired of being the boring, or disgusting, piece in the pie.
Demon Hunters have interesting looking leather pieces specific for their class.
Rogue has interesting looking pieces specific for their class.
But overall / all-around usable, or Druid specific, are - USUALLY - extremely dull/boring/ugly/disgusting/nothing in comparison.

I can mention a few sets over the years that even remotely felt interesting:

  • Challenge Dungeon Set - Absolutely gorgeous piece of art.

  • Stormrage for its time was very unique looking, and still stands out eventho it has some re-skin now too.

  • Malorne Set - This feels very druidic, unqie, for its headpiece; The rest, not so interesting.

  • Haunted forest set is unique, but that headpiece seems like an accident, and again: “Disgusting” as we have a spider sitting in the shoulder, but it’s - as I said - at least unique looking and I like that they made the detail of the spider + fly there, that feels like some effort, at least.

  • Living Wood (MoP), this set with the right color looks more like it belongs in Necrolords than what we currently got…

  • Oathclaw Wargarb feels like they put some effort in, looks druidic too.

  • Astral Warden - Again, Druidic, some parts stick out; others - not so much.

  • Bearmantle - Felt druidic, more unique, but still got some quite downplayed stuff going on.

Meanwhile, the list of -unique- looking pieces for other classes that stick out from “A pair of gloves”, “A pair of pants”, “A slapped on chestpiece”, “Curved Shoulderpads”, “A helm, it has openings for the eyes, gg” are plenty…
(Except mail, mail only got into “god tier” in Shadowlands, and they deserve that too.)

I’m just super sad that the other classes are getting some INSANE looking pieces in Shadowlands, and have gotten VERY unique pieces across every expansion (Except mail).
It feels like whoever designs Plate is vastly more interested in details or making something unique, than Leather - for example.

Long post, thanks for reading, sorry for rambling.
I’m just sad.

Oh and now all of a sudden I am not allowed to include links in my posts, I could do that a second ago…
These forum ranks and their allowances are such a huge mess.

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If you are going to add links at least add working links.

You can use </> button to put links in

www.demonstrationlink.com

Others may be willing but I’m not faffing around with a load of links that don’t work because you put spaces in them :wink:

My statement still stands. I like some of the leather that is coming. I think there are always going to be sets in all armour types that people do and do not like. With the exception of hunters, who mostly get horrific looking sets.

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All Venthyr armors looks good. Leather looks like Demon Hunter set but anyway… Its good. Its not at level of Necrolords cloth (Damn I will be jealous of this one) but its fine.

Also~ what about Leather from Maw Raid? We dont have leak with it… Right?

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Subjective opinion at best.