WoW Patch 9.2: The comeback of the tier sets? A visual disaster!

The class armor sets have always been an integral part of the World of Warcraft motivation spiral for me. I remember how proud I was back then to be one of the first rogues on the server to walk around with the full Tier 1 and Tier 2 set. How satisfying it was even now, in WoW Classic, to fully farm the Tier 3 set from Naxxramas for the rogue, or to complete the long Tier 0.5 quest line around the second dungeon set - including a posing session in Orgrimmar afterwards.

It wasn't even about the strength of the respective pet sets. Okay, okay - we rogues were quite lucky and could use the first tier sets - unlike many other classes - through the bank sensibly (although perhaps not as a complete set). But it was also the look of the sets that made them stand out from the crowd. And in Burning Crusade, the artists went one better and delivered some of the prettiest sets in WoW history - such as the Priests' Tier 5 and Tier 6 sets, the two Shaman counterparts, the iconic Paladins' Tier 6 set, and the three Warlock sets.
Those were still awesome tier sets for World of Warcraft! Source: Gamepedia
Even though Blizzard unfortunately couldn't maintain this visual quality across all tier levels, these sets still always remained a special motivating factor of WoW. Even if it was only to collect the many new sets for transmogging. So I thought it was a shame when Blizzard announced that they would no longer be designing class sets. And the set designs from Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands reinforced this opinion. There's just nothing like armor designed around the theme of your favorite class, with all sorts of playful details and cool visual effects (like the wings of the Sorcerer's Tier 6 set).

Failed comeback of tier sets with patch 9.2?!

With WoW patch 9.2, the tier sets are now celebrating their comeback. And I would have liked the art team to really go for it now and present us with class armor that completely blows us away visually. A creative explosion, so to speak, that feeds on what the artists must have piled up over the last few years.

But apparently, someone gave the directive: keep the class themes in the background and base the look on the Bastion armor sets, only somehow more primal, as if made by the first ones. Automa style, that is. The result is sets that have the visual brilliance of level armor, and where you have to think for a long time about which class they belong to. In other words, they are interchangeable and don't deliver what class tier sets have promised for many years.
WoW Patch 9.2: Here are the tier sets for the classes Hunter, Warrior, Demon Hunter, Mage, Warlock and Paladin. Source: Blizzard
I find it doubly sad that hobby artists have designed prettier armor in recent years (example 1, example 2) than what is presented to us now. Or that the new Legion Time Migration recolor sets from patch 9.1.5 turn me on more, and that (triple sad) mainly because the Tier 20 set was also just a high-res version of the Tier 6 sets at the time. Ok, I'll say it: Everything was better back then!

Are you also disappointed by the look of the new tier sets of WoW patch 9.2 or do you like the armors and Karsten has no idea? Tell us in the comments!

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