So I counted through over 300 comments and tallied up the opinions on the Dark Spear Troll Heritage Armor from my other post (linked below).
Vote Total BAD = 70, NEEDS WORK = 27, GOOD = 13
Most people agreed the set has loads of problems some of which I’ll list below, lots of others felt the set would be fine if Blizz would just fix that mask. Only about 13 people claimed to like the set in it’s entirety, about half of that 13 said they’d be leveling Trolls just for it which means they don’t even have Trolls… Even most of the people who overlooked the issues with the rest of the set can’t overlook the fitting of the mask (The fitting is the issue. See Below) It’d be fine as just some other Troll set, but not as the Heritage set. This set needs to go back to the drawing board.
Lets break down everything that’s wrong with it.
The set draws inspiration from multiple popular concept arts, Hero Characters like Sen’Jin and Vol’Jin and WC3 reforged models with some Zappy Boi in there too. Typically you’d expect a heritage armor to be based on only one or two, I don’t really have an issue with mixing and matching but this set takes really cool features from art and makes them more plain (like the back) or get the fit all wrong (like the mask). You know the mog is bad when Troll sets from Classic - BFA look leaps and bounds better.
Not a single skull on the entire set. How is that in keeping with Darkspear Heritage??? Didn’t feel like making a separate set for China?
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The Colors - Two Color Options and neither incorporate the Tealblue in keeping with the Darkspear Tabard, Flag, Raptor, and Vol’Jins mask? Bad start. More on the color problems at the bottom of the list. Orange and Black is way better than Red and Silver but still needs work.
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Helm - The mask was the direction I was hoping to see I love the wood and cloth combo but the nose and above is sub par, Sen’Jin and Zul’Jin and various Witch Doctors ALL wore the cloth bandana below the nose and around the tusks, this Heritage model leaves the cheeks bare and goes between the tusks and over the nose making the Troll look more like an Elephant or Turkey, the physics they added cause it to flop around making the issue worse (if it were worn properly the physics would be fine). The Upper Wooden portion is a call back to the WC3 Reforged Shadow Hunters and Zappyboi but both the masks in question look better than this one, could maybe make it taller, more asymmetric and better warpaint, that would make this a huge win it’s flat just don’t let it be flat if anything. It also clips deep into the Females chest, you’re not seriously going to let this go live?
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Belt - The belt is profoundly plain, the tiki plate could have been so much better. The belt clips HALFWAY into the male Trolls legs. The loin cloth is too short it looks goofy with the lanky Troll legs this is an issue with most loin cloths on Trolls. Could use an image on the cloth segment, maybe the serpent from the WC3 Shadowhunters? If you were gonna get creative on the belt you could have atleast added a skull, a potion, a voodoo pouch, just of the top of my head…
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The Back - Clearly based around the Icon of Shadows Racial Crest ( I like the idea of it) I think the entire Troll Community can agree we were hoping to see the back build upwards more like soooooo many of the other Troll back rigs we’ve seen in art and in WC3 and on NPCs skulls and sticks and or Big Tiki Masks. Removing the small tiki masks and Voodoo paraphernalia makes this back piece less interesting than the original crest (also fails to capture the dream catcher like aesthetic, not enough straps).
If you’re not gonna swap it out to one of the cooler rigs with skulls you should build it upward and slap a couple skulls and tiki plates on it, you’ve already taken creative liberties with it, why not make it better instead of worse? Or atleast make it a 1-1 with the Icon of Shadows. Leave things better than you found it or the same not worse. -
The Weapon - A sword? Don’t get me wrong it’s a cool sword, and there aren’t many Troll swords in the game. Probably because Trolls Aren’t known for using swords which is why this is such a disappointing choice for a Heritage Weapon. You really don’t want to give us Troll Glaives? They were the obvious choice. There are like 4 different Troll Glaives 2 of which look nothing like Demon Hunter Glaives they’re more like double sided spears/swords. No need to create new attack animations Vol’Jin and Rok’han both swing their glaives like swords., no excuses. If you’re dead set on not giving us any version of a Glaive at least consider hooking us up with a large Kukri in keeping with actual Darkspear Heritage.
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The Shoulders - Again if you’re going to take creative liberties with the set make it cooler not worse. Looks like the inspiration for the small shoulder either came from the WC3 Reforged Rokhan model, his small shoulder is cooler, this looks so uninspired and basic, or WC3R Sen’JIn (you probably could have picked a cooler small shoulder but even his looks better). Some Trolls wear 1 shoulder (like Vol’Jin who I believe the big shoulder is loosly based off and some WC3 shadow hunters) plenty of others wear 2 shoulders. You guys had so much art and so many models to choose from and you went with this??? The big shoulder isn’t bad you designed something decent, the small shoulder is pathetic. Again we’d have liked to have seen you guys build upward more, if not with the back piece then with the shoulders at least. Looks worse than the Tarnished Fanatics Shoulders from MOP, why is it worse than a MOP model? (Which everyone liked btw.)
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The Boots - Is this a joke? the boots are plainer and more basic than 50% of WoW Classic mogs. The only saving grace is the Tiny Tiki Plate which could have been a much cooler tiki in keeping with the actual older models and or it could have been bigger. Some of the RTS models have big wooden kneepads, that would have been amazing. Instead it looks like these are a flat texture less version of WC3 Sen’Jins without the shin plates… again if you’re gonna mix and match you could have done so much better.
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The Chest - Clearly inspired by Vol’Jin (The Black Cloth) and Sen’Jin (Shape + straps), not a bad choice, it fits well on the female model but fits much worse on the male model, Vol’Jin is bigger and has better posture allowing you to actually see his, on the Male Player Trolls it doesn’t stand out at all. The Little Tiki you have is actually on the shoulder not the chest making this item very boring. Vol’Jins has 2 little tikis ON THE CHEST. On the Black Set I like the call back to the Blue and orange strap but it’s very slim and doesn’t stand out, the rest of the fabric is so plain and uninspired. If you weren’t going to go with a different chest tyle maybe make the pattern you put on it more visible and add 1 or two little tikis, EZPZ. Maybe do something ANYTHING with the Arm Bands…
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The Gloves - The Gold Serpent from the Shadow Hunters in WC3 and old concept Arts and that 1 Vol’Jin image is a cool concept, only looks decent with the gold accent option really bad with the silver set, the Serpent doesn’t usually have a glove underneath though, and that glove underneath? SO BLAND. What possessed you to make such boring gloves?? Trolls mainly wear fancy Bracers anyway almost never do they wear gloves but if you gotta have something atleast make it better than that, a tiki plate with some bones on the other side not just bones and a nearly flat black fingerless glove, come on… Would’ve been cool to see some Forearm Bone Piercings anything but this.
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The Legs - Takes inspiration from Vol’Jin and the WC3 Reforged Shadowhunter and Rokhan models I like this kind of style it’s what I was hoping to see, a good belt could have made this better, and what is that silver paint on the red? What part of that screams Darkspear to you? Overall I think the fabric colors the red at least and maybe the black should be redone. Could use a Darkspear pattern and maybe some fur on the bottom in keeping with the WC3 model, maybe very slightly more coverage on the upper leg for the Male Trolls if you’re not gonna fix the belt. Could have done something with those leg bands, something leather and furry would probably have been more fitting that’s like the least of our problems though.
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The Colors - Two Color Options and neither incorporate the Tealblue in keeping with the Darkspear Tabard, Flag, Raptor, and Vol’Jins mask? Bad start. The Wood, Red, and Silver Set is a huge miss overall, I like the idea of the red especially for a mask but the color itself is not in keeping with any red the Darkspear ever wore too acrylic or something. The silver paint on it with the silver snake (snake has only ever been gold) the silver trim on the wood was never a thing before BFA, even the color of the wood too dark, shoulda gone with a Sen’Jin Village tiki brown or made it actually colorful, you know like a Darkspear Troll! The fabric and pattern color on the red set should go back to the drawing board silver paint has never been a thing.
I’ll be editing in links to things like the physics of the mask and links to the arts and models this set drew inspiration from. You’ll see what I mean when I say they took awesome parts from multiple concepts and then made each part worse than the original into a non cohesive flop. Blizz please get this set in order, there are people out there who would have loved to have the opportunity to design this set for you and would have done it for free, instead it looks like you let AI make this or an intern that’s unfamiliar with the Darkspear Tribe…who’s never worn a mask before.
While you’re at it if you could fix the Troll feet on the Blood Hunter set that’d be great you guys went back and fixed it for literally every race except Trolls… And please don’t do Vol’Jin dirty in this questline, man deserves to come back in an active role after what y’all did to him and all those build up quests EDIT: He’s pending rebirth and you guys straight up didn’t even mention him despite incorporating Bwon and Mue’zala from the same quest chain. I don’t even know what to say other than, are you serious? And no future plot lines established during the chain, nice.
The Physics (someone actually made physics for this and didn’t see anything wrong with it… this leads me to believe this is the final draft not a rough draft)
