Tier Sets on Dracthyr Evokers - Is this possible?

[elderu]

Is this something possible or planned? - Is the new race 'Visage form' or is it 'Dracthyr?'
Tier should be visible if they're a Dragon first & foremost.


Disclaimer: When photoshopping this, I did -NOT- alter the Dracthyr dragon form's proportions in the slightest. What you see here is the raw guy/gal just recoloured. I only brought over the armor and did mild scaling-changes (punintended)/cut-fitting so it matches the Dracthyr proportions. HD version --Here-- for any sharing.

"So Dracthyr, I think they’ll also be able to wear shoulders, tabards, belts across their visage and Dracthyr form. While the visage form is able to wear all-armor."
- Tina Wang via BlizzPlanet

I couldn't help but notice that when we saw the Tier Set lineup, the Tier gear for Evokers was designed for a Humanoid, but if you look at that helm, it's rather open-faced.

Almost as if it's meant for a big ol dragon face to slot in there? I wondered if they're designing this set with the Dracthyr-form in mind, and sure enough as I brought over the '3D' elements to the Dragon form it seemed in could indeed be.

Now to reference the quote I put beneath this image, I think it's really important Blizz clarifies how they mean "be able to wear shoulders"/etc/etc.
We've seen in the little bit of Dracthyr dragon-form footage, that there seem to be Armor Barbershop/Character Creation options for: Crowns, Shoulders, Tabards/Belts This leads me to question whether those are in fact the armors referenced in that quote, or what we would call "typical armor" after all.

I say this because though they do say "across their visage and Dracthyr form." I don't entirely doubt at the moment that this is referencing these golden/silver Dragon-y Barbershop Decoration Armors that will be/have been interpreted for their visage form.
---
When you think of a Worgen, do you feel you're playing a Human first and a Werewolf second? (sorry RPers I know you do, but that's not what I mean right now.) Or is it Wolf-woman/man first and Human as a fun racial option? Imagine how silly it would be if you couldn't fight your foes in your transmogs.

Your primary, combat-forced form for the Worgen is fully armored in Tier/any gear you've earned, and of course additionally your Human form racial can wear it too.
^^^ This is a precedent that Dracthyr should be following, but as of this moment we haven't been assured of it's eventuality or reality. ^^^

Hopefully they do mean the real deal 'typical armor', which would involve Tier Sets. Though why hasn't it been shown yet as a feature yet if so?
Where at least is the concept art of an armored Dracthyr?

Many will say pre-Alpha, and quite possibly so- I hope so too. As it stands we should get a clarification here on what Armor for Dracthyr means. Especially if Raiding and Tier is such the gameplay pillar, we want to see our hard-earned armor in combat.
Is the Evoker Armor on the Tier Lineup simply in Visage form for artist's convenience/showcase? Very likely and that's fine- as it will be used in that form, but that's not providing evidence towards Dracthyr 'dragon-forms' (aka the core part of the race, supposedly) being able to wear Tier/armor.

It's only to Blizzard's credit when I say, the Tier looks quacking rad on the Dracthyr and probably solves many issues folks have with the lean figure.

So I ask again, is the new race Dracthyr, the long-awaited dragonkin playable that could soar to greater heights? or is it Visage form, the hypercustomized Elf/Human?

[Rayr]

I think the only logical thing to say to this is "Let's just wait and see, we barely know anything yet"

[scrappybristol]

I'm guessing their tier sets will be made uniquley for them while other armor will have the tabard/belt/shoulders restrictions.

[elderu]

Just in case anyone was curious how the un-edited blackscaled Dracthyr used in the sample looked in this gear, seeing as it's pretty reminiscent of Deathwing.

edit: Without the helmet!

[bruxx]

Not even tier set showing would be sinful.

Inb4 people comparing the thing that they are selling us as a race to druids in bear form

[Playintrafic]

Just in case anyone was curious how the un-edited blackscaled Dracthyr used in the sample looked in this gear, seeing as it's pretty reminiscent of Deathwing.

You have given me hope that Dracthyr wont suck ass.

This actually looks awesome.

[enigma77]

It's gonna be the most disappointing aspect of Dragonflight if the new dragon race can't wear its own tier set armor in dragon form, lol.

[lordjust]

I don't think the dragon form will show the gear we're wearing because it doesn't look like it from the screenshots where we see the visage and dragon form. For now I think they're like druids with the dragon form for combat and the visage form to show off your gear and RP but in one of the newer interviews (the one from the german site buffed) they said they're already looking for ways to enable the visage form for combat so you transform into a dragon only for dragon specific abilities.

[rhorle]

They have two ways of doing it:

1)Custom model for tier sets only
2)unlock barber shop customizations themed after tier set but not tied to what is equipped.

[i3ackero]

In my opinion and I except this will happen:

Head: visible in both forms, if helmet is somehow cover all head, then those could not be visible in drakonid form, it still leave us plenty of transmog possibilities
Shoulders: visible in both forms
Cloak: visible only in visage form
Armor: visible in both forms, 3D parts are not such common on chests for mail (if any), but it still isn't timekeeping to do. I wouldn't cover arms though, just chest
Tabards: both forms
Belt: both forms
Wrists: both forms
Gloves: only visage form or eventually covering hands, but no fingers (like Worgens have)
Legs/Pants: only visage form or just covering upper part (like shorts) on drakonid form
Boots: only visage or just covering upper part (like Taurens and Draeneis have).

In general I agree that covering full body in armor is bad, and I think Dractyr looks good enough with their customization and only some gear like tabard, helm and shoulders and I would use this settings as default. But covering some parts of body (snout, wings, arms, legs, all claws) would look weird in fact.

[Nightshade711]

Just in case anyone was curious how the un-edited blackscaled Dracthyr used in the sample looked in this gear, seeing as it's pretty reminiscent of Deathwing.

edit: Without the helmet!

Here’s to hoping they do this, actually looks pretty dope.

[elderu]

They have two ways of doing it:
2)unlock barber shop customizations themed after tier set but not tied to what is equipped.

In the event we can't use traditional armor, this would be the most ideal situation to make up for it. It actually sets Evokers to be more incentivized to Raid in that case.

Inb4 people comparing the thing that they are selling us as a race to druids in bear form

Right? In that case, it's Visage Form Evokers with a Dracthyr Class/Battle Form ala Feral/Guardian.

For now I think they're like druids with the dragon form for combat and the visage form to show off your gear and RP but in one of the newer interviews (the one from the german site buffed) they said they're already looking for ways to enable the visage form for combat so you transform into a dragon only for dragon specific abilities.

See that's even worse for the case of Dracthyr actually being a dragon race first, and a fancy elf/human second if true. I haven't seen that quote/mention yet of them trying to make Visage forms usable in combat, but then honestly how can they call Dracthyr a race?

That would definitely just make it a Class Form for Evokers, which only Visage Form can be.


Blizz said it themselves in the reveal that the logic/thinking/planning behind Dracthyr stemmed from the fantasy of playing a Dragon first.

Why is it looking more like "Visage Forms" are a race called 'Dracthyr' that can turn into Dragons as a secondary feature? customizable as it may be.

[Gigantique]

I know they have confirmed shoulders, tabards and belts being shown on the dragon form, which alone makes it a lot more fun to mog the suckers. Some wrist/glove adornments and idk if I need much mor3 personally, maybe some legs/shorts?

[elderu]

I know they have confirmed shoulders, tabards and belts being shown on the dragon form,

Which would get you this, plus any barbershop head-armor options:



It's certainly far better than nothing, if that's indeed what they meant. Not exactly 'bare minimum' or anything, but not really going above and beyond for the new race either.

Agree that gauntlets/wrist decor either from the Barbershop, but preferably like actual Bracer/Glove items being shown would bump at least fill in some of the limb-bareness.

[Mekkle]

if they can give me at least wrists and legs with this before release ill be satisfied

[bruxx]

I really wish they had gone with chest over tabard, at least the ones that aren't robes, if they want to leave the legs nicely visible for animations.
I just never found tabards to look interesting in wow, and ofc those don't bring in new appearances with gear sets.

[Yarathir]

Considering Evoker is, as of now, a one-race class and a one-class race, it should be more than possible for Evoker tier armor to be fitted to both forms. It should be less work than other tier sets (bar DH) that require the armor to be fitted to several races at once.

[The Stormbringer]

Wait, SOME of the armor will be visible? Well, that's better than none, at least...

[Kumorii]

Considering Evoker is, as of now, a one-race class and a one-class race, it should be more than possible for Evoker tier armor to be fitted to both forms. It should be less work than other tier sets (bar DH) that require the armor to be fitted to several races at once.

Pretty sure they developed a system even back in vanilla to do armor pieces for all races. By adding connecting points to new races that auto position and scale stuff.
Which is why often armor looks best on humans since I believe that's the default.

There's no way that they go back and correct the thousands upon thousands of different armor pieces to each and every race. They use some armor models and tweak the position and rotation and scale needed for it and then that auto-applys to any model that gets put on. At least that's how I would do it for effective modelling for multiple races of all sizes. Just look at taurens and vulperas helm. Due to the position of tauren and the snout on both they have to scale the helmets quite much...and Dracthyrs face is much longer which probably makes it look bizarre. So helmets I understand, because I can't expect them to go back and make a new model for all previous helmets with an open face that's required for them. Going through older models and make exceptions for circlets and already open helmet is also a waste of time imo.

I think that's why adding pieces to a new race that is quite different is probably a lot more work. The system probably don't work fully with the new race and making exceptions takes time. Textures seems like it should work, like chest piece and legs...but now as I think about it the Dracthyr race has more pieces to their model. So matching the legs and chests UV mapping to old textures would probably cause the rest to have a very low resolution to work with.

Shoulders and belts have their own models with their own texture which is why they will work more easily.

At least that's my theory. But to actually respond to your comment, I think the time it would take is similar. Dracthyrs set could work on the model quite easy I think, though I think it gives a precedent that they have to either make everything else work retroactively. Which means recreating every piece of texture...

They could do that only new armors work on Dracthyr(which essentially means double the work from now on), but I'm afraid that would cause even more controversy than not doing it at all.

[Berkilak]

I will be very disappointed if they consider the visage form to be the "true" form.