Melmorta's Twilight

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Inspiration

The inspiration here came from seeing these amazing shoulders drop during some achievement runs I was doing through TBC content. They are some of the best looking in the game, and fairly easy to get. So I just had to whip up a hunter-friendly set with them!

Challenges

The only true challenge in this set was to substitute the actual shaman-based set pieces that go with the shoulders. I hate kilts (especially on hunters), and the other pieces have a pastel-green color that just looks horrid in my opinion.

Bringing it Together

It's been a while since I had to cobble a set together without using most or all of an actual matching set, so this one was pretty fun for me. I used some Wrath-era pieces for the chest and legs, and some off pieces as the boots and gloves.

Helm: Headdress of the Tides. The only matching set piece I used. Self explanatory, matches the shoulders perfectly and has the bonus points for being open-faced.

Shoulders: Mantle of the Sea Wolf. Awesome design and great lightning graphics. Honestly, these shoulders and their recolors are some of the best in the game.

Chest: Tundrastrider Ringmail recolor. The only real items I could find with the same tones of light purple/pink as the shoulders.

Shirt: Sightless Mantle. A nice dark shirt that matches the black/green dark coloring on the chest and legs.

Tabard: None.

Cloak: Cape of Azure Fury. Has a nice patch of the same pink/purple as the shoulders, with some "spiky" accents as well. The shot of blue helps break up any chromatic monotony and matches the tiny tufts of blue fur on the chest piece.

Bracers: Tundrastrider Ringmail recolor.

Gloves: Nethersteel Gauntlets. matching steel theme of the Tundrastrider set, and looks to be wrapped in light purple cloth as well, which matches perfectly with the boots below.

Belt: Tundrastrider Ringmail recolor.

Legs: Tundrastrider Ringmail recolor.

Boots: Abyssal Mail Greaves. Looks amazing with the gloves above.

Weapon: Melmorta's Twilight Longbow. The only real choice here. Matching color scheme, and comes with some cool circular "targeting" graphics as well.

That's it fans! Let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions or ideas in the comments below!

-TFH

Dark Phoenix

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Inspiration

I have a worgen resto druid that I have been playing a lot of random BG's with when I need a break from my Hunter main. The idea for this set came from the desire to look like an evil healer. So I browsed a few sets and fell for the Dark Phoenix look-alike set for rogues from heroic Firelands.

Challenges

The only real challenges here were to find a matching weapon and cloak, which did not take too long. I wanted a staff that matched the avian theme of this set. All and all and easy outfit to create (farming it however, took a good while).

Bringing it Together

I added the Origin of Nightmares from Naxxramas, and a Cataclysm era cloak to match the purple of the set.

Helm: Dark Phoenix look-alike. I find that a lot of helms look awful on worgen. The muzzle is too long, and it stretches models out. I find that the only way around it is to use helms that don't cover the jaw/chin (or go helm-less, which isn't a bad idea on the bestial worgen). Luckily this helm works very well.

Shoulders: Dark Phoenix look-alike. I like the giant bird shoulders, and the cool purple smoke animation is nice for my dark healer theme.

Chest: Dark Phoenix look-alike. Matching chest, looks awesome.

Shirt: None.

Tabard: None.

Cloak: Cloak of Ancient Wisdom. Has matching dark purple color, and some nice bright purple/pink as well to lighten it up just a touch. Has a few yellow squares on the bottom of the cape, that feel right at home with the yellow accents on the set itself.

Bracers: Flickering Wristbands. Matching off-set gloves.

Gloves: Dark Phoenix look-alike. I like the little bit of yellow from the gloves (and helm and belt) to break up the purple.

Belt: Riplimb's Lost Collar. Matching off-set belt.

Legs: Dark Phoenix look-alike. Thank god it's not a kilt.

Boots: Sandals of Leaping Coals. Matching off-set boots.

Weapon: Origin of Nightmares. Matching bird head at the top, and some nice dark purple wrappings that match. I like that it has a bit of wood texture and coloring as well. The birds head has blue glowing eyes, that match the blue lettering on the cape.

That's it fans! Let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions or ideas in the comments below!

-TFH

Smoking Dreams

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Inspiration

The inspiration for this outfit is pretty straight forward. I think that the shaman raid set from Siege of Orgrimmar is crazy good looking! I like the hunter set from SoO, but this one is amazing! So I set out to whip up a hunter-friendly outfit that's sure to turn heads.

Challenges

The challenge here was how to replace the kilt leggings of the original set with real pants, and to replace the boots which didn't have a lot going on (by design, i'm sure, since they were covered by the kilt).

Bringing it Together

I used some gold and red pants to replace the kilt, and some Cataclysm era pvp boots to bring the whole thing together.

Helm: Cowl of Smoking Dreams. I love the plate helm, with the red and gold bandanna over the face, and the glowing blue animation on the forehead is just stunning. 

Shoulders: Fleshsmoke Chain Spaulders. Great animations with the spinning rings.

Chest: Ebon Blood Chestguard. Matches the set, and balances out the red and gold with a nice light grey stone feather look.

Shirt: None.

Tabard: None.

Cloak: Phoenix-wing Cloak. A blast of matching red and gold to give the impression that the drape and bandanna over the face is a single piece wrapped around.

Bracers: Not visible under the gloves, so it doesn't matter. User something small.

Gloves: Grips of Tidal Force. Matching gloves, with awesome red and gold over the back of the hands.

Belt: Belt of the Iron Prison. Matching belt with the same cool blue gem found on the gloves. The lines created by the two tusk-like protrusions from the bottom of the belt buckle line up perfectly with the chestguard, and flows into the replacement pants for this set.

Legs: Sunfury Legguards. The same gold and red, with some nice lines that appear to flow with the belt and chest. The best replacement for the kilt I could find.

Boots: Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Sabatons of Cruelty. They have the same blue orb-like gem as the belt and gloves. A great fit and easy enough to get.

Weapon: Voice of the Quilen (normal mode). The gun itself is aggressively gold with a bit of grey that matches the set. And almost perfectly, the center of the gun has the same blue orb-like gem as the rest of the set.

That's it fans! Let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions or ideas in the comments below!

-TFH

The Illidari Hunter

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Inspiration

The idea behind this outfit came to me when I was browsing through item models of capes for a different outfit. I came across the cloak in this set, and was immediately taken by the bright purple and green coloring, as well as being reminded of the equally purple and green Illidari Trophy tabard from TBC. I felt the call to create an outfit that would do these items proud!

Challenges

Honestly, the only challenge here was to find accompanying items that wouldn't drown out a players eyes with too much neon green and purple. I had to use gear that would allow the colors of the tabard and cloak be the main focus, but still match the set.

Bringing it Together

I decided to start out with finding a weapon to match. The bow I decided on was a clear winner the moment I saw it. It has the same shades of purple and green, and has a nice crystallized look. That made it easy to match up to the heroic legion dungeon mail set.

Helm: Legion Heroic Dungeon Set. I enjoy the exposed head, and the green jewel at the neck matches the bow.

Shoulders: Legion Heroic Dungeon Set.

Chest: Legion Heroic Dungeon Set. The sleeves of this piece have more of the matching green crystals tied around your characters arms, almost like ammunition.

Shirt: None. I tried a few purple shirts, but found they clashed with the blue/purple of the armor set, so I left the shirt off.

Tabard: Purple Trophy Tabard of the Illidari. Beautiful.

Cloak: Thalassian Wildercloak. Again, beautiful. I'm so happy that there is a matching cloak/tabard out in the game like these.

Bracers: Legion Heroic Dungeon Set.

Gloves: Legion Heroic Dungeon Set.

Belt: Legion Heroic Dungeon Set. I tried a few different belts, some with crystals too. They looked OK with the tabard and bow, but they definitely didn't match the rest of the armor.

Legs: Legion Heroic Dungeon Set.

Boots: Legion Heroic Dungeon Set.

Weapon: Crystalline Branch of the Brackenspore. Holy cow this bow is cool. Same green crystals as the armor set, and some nice dark purple wrappings on the limbs that match the style of the armor set, and offer a different shade of purple to contrast the tabard and cloak.

That's it fans! Let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions or ideas in the comments below!

-TFH

Steelspine Faceguard

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Inspiration

The gorgeous Steelspine Faceguard from Kara. I had this on my old orc hunter, and loved the look of a warrior helm on my arrow slinging raider! Unfortunately it looked like trash with my Demon Stalker's set I was using.

Challenges

Wouldn't it have been nice for the design team to make the entire Battlegear of Might warrior set into hunter mail? Instead, they just threw us the helm and flipped the colors from grey/dark grey to a brown/gold that doesn't match a whole lot of piece that we can 'mog. The big challenge here was to find something, ANYTHING that matched this color scheme.

Bringing it Together

After (I hate to admit it) hours of scanning the databases for any of the same gold/brown colors, I found a cloak with the same dark brown as the helm, right at the top of the back, and yellow that matched the diamond shape on the back of the helm. These two pieces together, when viewed from behind (the most common sight for the WoW player) looked like they were made for each other. 

Once that was set, I looked for armor that matched the cloak/helm combo and went with the Alliance recolor of the Warmongering Combatant's set from WoD. My apologies to any Horde hunters reading this, but this is literally the only set I found that worked).

Helm: Steelspine Faceguard. A mail version of the old warrior set helm. I love the aggressive spikes around the characters head, and the open top lets your 'toons eyes and hair be on display as well.

Shoulders: Warmongering Combatant's. The silver/copper hues of the trim on the armor and the brown/gold of the feather-looking spiky bits on the Warmongering set matches well with the colors of the helm. And the extra spikes don't hurt.

Chest: Warmongering Combatant's.

Shirt: None. I decided in this case it was better looking to allow some skin to show.

Tabard:

Cloak: Gray Hair Cloak. This was the key to the set. Just look at that.

The top of the cloak lines up and matches the yellow and brown of the back of the helm, while the blue design on it is the same blue as the armor set. This view of the helm, shoulders, and cape solidified this set for me.

Bracers: Warmongering Combatant's.

Gloves: Warmongering Combatant's.

Belt: Warmongering Combatant's.

Legs: Warmongering Combatant's.

Boots: Warmongering Combatant's.

Weapon: Amber Messenger. I tried a lot of weapons here, trying to find matching spikes to the set, or matching colors. This bow is (I feel) the best match overall. I really liked the Huntmaster's Bow (Legion hunter order hall vendor bow), as it had nice spikes that matched the shoulders, and also the same rings as the ones hanging from the small spikes on the shoulders, but the color was way off. I tried it with the Horde recolor, and it didn't look bad, but it definitely did not go with the helm.

That's it fans! Let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions or ideas in the comments below!

-TFH

Striker's Garb

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Inspiration

I was never able to raid in Vanilla, but I remember browsing through the raid sets that Blizzard used to show on it's website (like an early version of the Wowhead dressing room). I was always taken aback by the bright contrasting red and purple of the Striker's Garb. Now that the level cap is 110, there's no reason why a quick run through AQ can't be done a few times to earn this neat little outfit!

Challenges

So. Much. Purple. The only problem that arises with bright and colorful armor sets, is that it get's a bit overwhelming and unpleasant to look at for too long. The challenge was in how to tone down the purple, while allowing it to stand out at the same time.

Bringing it Together

Once I equipped the set in the dressing room, the pieces available to add to the set were a shirt, cloak, weapon, and tabard. I tried a few combinations of colors, and found that a black cloak and shirt brought the brightness down a few notches.

Helm: Striker's. I love headgear that allows you're character's hair or facial features to show along with your set, and this awesome helm does both!

Shoulders: Striker's. I'm a big fan of asymmetrical armor, especially shoulders. The spikes on these point off in different directions.

Chest: Striker's. Has the same colors as the rest of the set, but adds a little shot of bright pink in the center, which we match with our choice of belt.

Shirt: Stylish Black Shirt. This armor set leaves the forearms and part of the lower stomach exposed. Filling in those spaces with a black shirt helps tone down the sharp purple, and matches the cloak as well.

Tabard: None.

Cloak: Blood Knight War Cloak. The black pulls the set together by toning down the purple, matches the black shirt, and has red trim that matches the red of the set. Works very well as a backdrop for The Gunblade when it is sheathed on your back.

Bracers: Hero's Bracers. Any small bracer will do, as the gloves cover most of the forearm, but I went with these ones since the match the purple and red of the set.

Gloves: Vek'lor's Gloves of Devastation. Not actually part of the Striker's set, but the are intended to match and are a drop from one of the bosses in AQ.

Belt: Girdle of Ferocity. I didn't like the actual matching belt, as it had some yellow/orange color to it that you don't see anywhere else on this set. 

So I used this belt from Shadow Labyrinths, as it has a bit of red, and the same pink as the chest piece.

Legs: Striker's.

Boots: Striker's. Bonus points: if you can't get the boots from AQ, these are the same model as some level 70 boots available for purchase in Shattrath.

Weapon: The Gunblade. Really the only clear choice. The exact same purple and red as the outfit and has a bit of a spiky look to it. BOE, so gold is the only limit here. It's about 1000g on my server.

That's it fans! Let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions or ideas in the comments below!

-TFH

Storm Helm

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Inspiration

This bad boy is inspired by the one-and-only Storm Helm, crafted by blacksmiths in TBC. Back in the day, I thought this was the single best looking helm I had ever seen, and farmed for the materials needed for weeks! The folded black hood, the face cover, the yellow and red eyed dragon/bird flowing along the sides! The only disappointment I had was the fact that it matched absolutely nothing at all in the game (transmog wasn't even a thing yet). Luckily, there's a few pieces nowadays that would work nicely!

Challenges

This one took a lot of searching. The helm uses a shade of black that is almost a dark blue when viewed in certain lighting. There is plenty of "black" armor in WoW, but it all had tones of grey or brown. This helm is so gorgeous that it makes me think that the designers had a full set of armor in mind, but for some reason couldn't get it into the game.

Bringing it Together

The trick here, after seeing how the helm looked in a hundred different transmog sets over in the Wowhead dressing room, was to find pieces of gear that didn't match the black of the hood, but the blue-black of the hood when viewed from behind. With that in mind, I found that the Legion "Dominant Gladiator" mail set has a nearly identical shading. With that as the base of the set, I just had to swap a couple different pieces and we had a gangster looking set!

Helm: Storm Helm. So nice. Doesn't take long nowadays to farm for the materials (if you know a friendly blacksmith with the pattern), or it is sometimes in the AH for a few thousand gold.

Shoulders: Dominant Gladiator's. 

Chest: Mistshroud Tunic. The gladiator's chest piece was too light of a color scheme, and really made you notice that the shading on the helm didn't EXACTLY match the set. So I swapped it out with the Mistshroud, which is a bit darker, but has nice gold/yellow to match the helm, and a touch of red around the collar to match the red eyes on the helm.

Shirt: Black Swashbuckler's Shirt. Same shade as the Dominant set. I tried a few yellow and red shirts, but they didn't seem to fit.

Tabard: None.

Cloak: Dominant Gladiator's.

Bracers: Dominant Gladiator's.

Gloves: Dominant Gladiator's.

Belt: Dominant Gladiator's.

Legs: Dominant Gladiator's.

Boots: Dominant Gladiator's.

Weapon: Skyfire Hawk-bow. Here was the final key to the set. A feathered design to match the bird/dragon on the helm, same shade of yellow, and a couple of bright red jewels near the handle to match the eyes on the helm.

That's it fans! Let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions or ideas in the comments below!

-TFH

The Torn-Heart

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Inspiration

I have loved this bow ever since TBC. It was great entry level bow to begin heroics and the early 10-man raids, and the quest chain for it was very fun and deep with lore.

Challenges

The color scheme and specific shading on this bow are very unique in WoW. The light blue/green/grey (depending on what angle and lighting you are viewing it with) made it quite challenging to create a set around.

Bringing it Together

I spent an ungodly amount of time scouring the wow transmog database and the icy veins transmog lists looking for ANYTHING at all that matched this bow, to at least have a starting point. I couldn't find any armor that matched its coloring, but I did come across a cape that looked like it might work. The Farstrider Defender's Cloak is a very light pastel green shade, but is accented with stripes along the sides and across the middle a few times. If you look at the stripes at the top of the cape, they are the same blue as the gems on the bow, and as you move down the cape (lighting/angle changes) the stripes fade into the same grey as the bow itself. This cape was the key to it all. Once that was in hand, I changed gears and began trying to find armor that matched the cape. I thought if it matched the cape, and the cape matched the bow, it might come together. I came to the Bloodthirsty Gladiator's set from Cataclysm. It has nice colors that match the cape perfectly, and accents of blue gem-like spheres that match the gems on the bow as well.

Helm: Bloodthirsty Gladiator's. I really like the eye-patch and chain mail face cover.

Shoulders: Bloodthirsty Gladiator's. The red fiery/sparks on these and the helm add a nice animated touch to the set.

Chest: Bloodthirsty Gladiator's. Nice blue gem in the center to match the bow.

Shirt: Can't see it under the armor, so whatever you want.

Tabard: None.

Cloak: Farstrider Defender's Cloak. Buy it in Shattrath.

Bracers: Bloodthirsty Gladiator's.

Gloves: Bloodthirsty Gladiator's. When viewed from behind, the blue/green/grey trim on the gloves is the exact same shade as the trim on the cape at the same height. Flawless.

Belt: Bloodthirsty Gladiator's. Another blue gem for the bow.

Legs: Bloodthirsty Gladiator's.

Boots: Bloodthirsty Gladiator's. Blue gems everywhere.

Weapon: Lohn'goron, Bow of the Torn-Heart. Just gorgeous. A large bow, when sheathed on your characters back, it's the main thing you can see. Easy to get (quest reward) and I don't see a ton of them around, so you get to be a little unique.

That's it this week guys. Let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions or ideas in the comments below!

-TFH

Valanos'

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Inspiration

It all started with that bow. I played through Burning Crusade when it as first released, shortly after leveling to 60 on my first hunter. I never had the chance to earn cool looking gear, as I didn't raid in vanilla. This weapon was the very first time I had gear with a cool animation on it! I held on to this bow forever, reluctantly letting it go in favor of the cross bow that drops in the old Karazhan raid. Now I'm happy to see it once again in a snazzy transmog set.

Challenges

The biggest challenge was finding matching armor and cloak that worked with Valanos' green and purple coloring. The shades are pretty unique, with armor either being too dark or not the right tone.

Bringing it Together

I started out looking through all the sets of quest and BoE greens to see if I could piece together something that worked, but all the shades of purple and green were off. I ended up seeing a complimentary shade of purple in the Cataclysm gladiator's gear, and was very happy when the green in it matched as well! Very rarely do I get lucky enough to be able to use a complete matching set!

Helm: Ruthless Gladiator's.

Shoulders: Ruthless Gladiator's.

Chest: Ruthless Gladiator's.

Shirt: Green Holiday Shirt. The green in this set only matches when viewed at certain angles. This shirt holds down the green, and makes you notice it elsewhere as well.

Tabard: None.

Cloak: Sarannis' Mystic Sheen. Easily obtainable from the first boss in the Mechanar. Purple and green work perfectly.

Bracers: Ruthless Gladiator's. If you wanted to save some Marks of Honor, you could opt to use any smaller sized bracer that doesn't show over the gloves.

Gloves: Ruthless Gladiator's.

Belt: Ruthless Gladiator's.

Legs: Ruthless Gladiator's.

Boots: Ruthless Gladiator's.

Weapon: Valanos' Longbow / Starbolt Longbow

I hope you enjoy this one (and sorry for the delay in posting). Let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions in the comments!

-TFH