This is something thats been bugging me for a while now in terms of blizzards development team and how they create armor sets.
While the degree of how they design the armor ingame is exceptional, I have an enormous issue with how they seem to set a standard for all armor creations, that being of the male human model.
We see it all the time, here on mmo champ, when a new armor set comes out, it is always displayed on a human male model to show of there great new work they are giving the players. And for obvious reason, because the human male model is so straight backed, plain and unassuming, nothing can look bad when using such a generic model.
And thats where the problems come from, when using armor pieces on other racial models (more male I'd say, since all females in wow are straight backed and petite), clipping issues come into it, ultimately ruining the way armor prices look on other characters.
this is a generic look at the last tier set for cataclysm on a human male. looks great doesn't it?
That is until you have that peice shown on a worgen male:
Now suddenly not so great. Makes the warlock head look like a worgen with a bad chin infection.
Likewise on a tauren:
But its not just helms, Given the straight backed generic model humans have, remember all the fuss they made about the new belts they introduced into mists of pandaria, how it used a new form of visual technology that was above anything they tried before:
Fantastic, on a human or a pandaren.. Until you try leveling a troll or another hunched character, and you get this:
(Given, worgen can't be monks so can't get this belt, but its still there to see)
I honestly could go on posting loads of images of examples where armor peices are obviously designed using the generic human male, and left by chance for the other races to look good, despite looking awful. But theres to many to count right now.
I just wonder if the developers even consider so much of this when designing the sets, given I can appreciate its a pain staking job to get new armor pieces turned out. But its so rare to find armor that can look good and actually works for all characters across the spectrum and doesn't involve clipping, being to large, or look like shoulderpads floating over the characters shoulders (like most draenei or orcs).
Sometimes the small details make for the better choice, and here I would like to see that taken notice of by the developers.