Cataclysm Gear Journeys - Then and Now

There’s a few memes out there right now, but one of them flagged a little project of mine which I had to re-conceptualize when Transmogrification came out. Vidyala wrote an article on Manalicious titled “Then and Now” about comparing an old screenshot of your character to a new one, and this had me look at my old project again.

When Cataclysm went live, I decided to take a screenshot every time there was a change in my characters’ gear. Every expansion has a certain aesthetic and I wanted to capture the aesthetic of Cataclysm-gear. I thought of the changing look of my characters as a “gear Journey”.

There’s a good chance, that if you leveled through Outland pre-mogging, you will have suffered a mild trauma from being forced to look like a harlekin clown for 12 levels straight. Since Outland, leveling gear is more uniform, but often also a smudge of brown and grey. Regardless it’s still fun to see the changes as you move from a scrappy looking lvl 81 to a nicely matching raiding set at 85. It tells a very “material” story about what you did and where you’d been with your character.

Of course then mogging came out and it’s no longer required that we wear our fighting equipment. We can now fight in our ball gowns!

So the gear journey I was hoping to capture ended, but a new began. Surely we’ll all keep reassembling our mogging sets too, as we gain more clothing, new gadgets and weaponry.

Therefore here’s the Cataclysm gear journey of a few of my characters, short as it is. Besides the mogging sets, there’s also a few of my vanity sets that are sadly not moggable, but part of my collection anyhow.

Earliest Picture I still have of Ibi. I lost a lot of old screenshots when the previous computer of mine died.

Ibi in her lvl 80 gear ready for the new expansion. I looked like this for a long time.

Ibi lvl 84 – In leveling gear.

Hit 85 wearing this. Soooo grey and muddy.

This shot was taken on the day I got my first epic.

A while later – I really needed a Transmogrification make-over, as you can see.

The mog I ran with to begin with. It’s not a head turner and the staff doesn’t fit theme-wise. I have several nice shields and a dagger to go that matches way better.

My mog in game, here showcasing the shield+dagger version including fancy sparkles.

My poor and neglected priest – here at 81 still in her PvP gear.

lvl 82. I liked the cloth leveling sets in Cataclysm and have kept the robe and shoulders in the bank.

lvl 83 – Now more white, but still a shadowpriest!

My priest is now 85 and this is her prospective mog. Still looking for a belt.

A collection of my outfits prior to mogging came out – the Bonechewer set (leather).

My Flaming Ruby Guild set – designed around the tabard. A proper mix, sadly not moggable.

My favourite roleplay set before mogging. Simple but with a touch of shaman.

The Ebonhold set (mail). More formal looking with a white shirt underneath.

This is a green set that I’ve been trying to perfect for a while. Fully moggable, but I have not yet comitted.

What do we have here? An old picture of Ironyca and Noelani when they were “growing up” together.

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