Guild Wars 2

It seems that the nicest designs are going to outfits.

Of course we never get armors in the TP anymore (I understand outfits are easier to program); but why do the in-game reward armors (leystone, bladed, silverwastes) have to be so… ugly? Covered in geegaws or hideously asymmetrical? There’s so little flow to anything. And the Pigpen-vapors from the leystone armor are sad.

To be sure, the outfits, too, are often covered in geegaws or hideously asymmetrical.

There seems to be an aversion to grace or simplicity among the designers. Or, rather, a bipolar inconsistency. For every Balthazar’s or Ironclad you get a thrown-together… well, I’ll be nice and not name the messy outfits.

The big shame is that, granting armors are hard to program, it’s a shame that the few times the effort is made to create new armors, they turn out so… not awesome. Ah, if only Ironclad were an armor (i.e., not all or nothing) and a Verdant Brink reward…

I actually use the Silverwastes heavy and medium armors, and I like the Leystone armor, even if I haven’t collected enough parts for it. Bladed doesn’t do much for me.

Meanwhile, I think the Ironclad armor looks goofy, and there are a number of other outfits (Slayers, Nature’s Oath) that I don’t care for. There are lots of cool designs as well, but it’s important to remember that armor tastes are very subjective. You could say “Most of the new designs are going to outfits,” and you’d be right, but I think it’s a stretch to say all the nice ones are outfits, while the in-game ones don’t get the same polish. That’s just not my experience, according to my tastes.

I agree that a lot of the skins ANet is providing are way too busy or ornate, including most of the outfits. Personally, I wouldn’t pay two cents for the Balthazar outfit, and Ironclad, while simpler, looks worse (imo) than many of the early heavy sets (like banded).

As to why they can’t be awesome… well, since awesome is subjective, it’s not likely a skin is going to please everyone.

Yeah, I hate all the HoT armor and many of the outfits. They’re literally an abstract mess thrown together and the armor never actually fits to your body form, especially for males.

Bandit Sniper is my favorite outfit since it actually fits tight and proper and has a normal, well organised appearance. As long as you’re not a Charr and look at feet, then it’s cringe. Wish there was armor like that~ or just gimme GW1 Assassin gear.

There are lots of awesome armors, depending on tast. I like most of the core armors, HoT ones not so much. But everyone is different.