Guild Wars 2

The druid shoulders look like an ugly tangled mess first glance, but on examination are an intricate diorama of ranger pets.

Ya, we know. But with appearances, first glance is what that counts….

Yeah I was impressed by the carved animals when I got the shoulders, then I tried to dye them and fit them into my toons style. It simply couldn’t work. They’re too massive, bulky and have only two dye slots. It really is a testament to anet that they managed to take an impressive concept model, then make it a hideous, unwieldy mess. Pretty much a metaphor for Ranger and druid.

You’re right. They aren’t ugly, they’re Effin’ hideous!

The problem about them is that they only have two dye channels. If they had 4 that were thought out a bit more they could potentially be very awesome =(

To be fair, I have only found the reaper skin to actually deliver. Chrono shoulders are okay too but the rest are kinda ugly as well.

The druid shoulder is detailed and well thought? Yes
Is it good looking? Nope.

Photinous.4628:

To be fair, I have only found the reaper skin to actually deliver. Chrono shoulders are okay too but the rest are kinda ugly as well.

DH gauntlet also looks good, too bad it is asymmetrical like Herald’s shoulder, otherwise I would use both.

It’s very Radagast the Brown-y

Belzebu.3912:

The druid shoulder is detailed and well thought? Yes
Is it good looking? Nope.

Photinous.4628:

To be fair, I have only found the reaper skin to actually deliver. Chrono shoulders are okay too but the rest are kinda ugly as well.

DH gauntlet also looks good, too bad it is asymmetrical like Herald’s shoulder, otherwise I would use both.

I think the design has an unhealthy obsession with asymmetrical armors and I do not like it… It’s right up there with the decision to have 99.99% of medium armors (male) to be dresses and skirts.

LughLongArm.5460:

Ya, we know. But with appearances, first glance is what that counts….

That’s what she said… ;(

Never noticed this up close, but it’s still hideous.

Photinous.4628:

To be fair, I have only found the reaper skin to actually deliver. Chrono shoulders are okay too but the rest are kinda ugly as well.

The berserker helm isn’t bad. You can definitely make it work. It’s almost like a heavy armor version of tribal.

Neat diorama, still an ugly shoulder piece.

They need it to look more simple and take out the brambles on it. This is a good example of a skin that looks good from afar and has some nice detail up close.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sovereign_Pillar_

I like em.

So that’s where all the druid/pet synergy went…

I personally love them, they remind me alot of something that a Warcraft druid would wear, which is what my druid is themed off of. If I had my way though the mess of branches would be replaced with feathers or something.

Just because something has intricate details it doesn’t mean it isn’t ugly. Personally I think these are pretty kitten bad, but thanks to medium armors being generally bad it’s still in the top 6-7.

It’s detailed yes, but it still is incredibly ugly. Also, no idea why it’s pet-themed when the trait line including exclusive weapon, exclusive utilities and exclusive class mechanic has absolutely nothing to do with pets. Should have been astral/celestial/blue-spaceman themed rather.

I don’t think the motif is inherently bad, but it should’ve been handled differently. There’s too many ideas competing for space on that shoulder piece. There’s 8 different animals that you counted on there! Results in all of them getting badly diminished in presence & detail. The bramble part of the shoulder-piece seem like their own design entirely.

They look like a half digested harpy, regurgitated by a river drake…

Yeah… Not ugly when you zoom in much as you can. But ugly as hell when you zoom out and have nothing to do with druid.

The shoulders aren’t ugly if you squint your eyes to the point you can barely see anything, then they look alright.

It’s kind of sad that medium (again) got handled this way. Just take a look at those chrono/tempest/revenant shoulders ..

Would have been a lot better if it was themed around planets, stars and all that druid type stuff – druids have nothing to do with animals whatsoever.

This would appear to be one of those concepts that is downright amazing in the concept room, but isn’t so great in practice.

Some artist is probably shedding bitter tears right now at the neglected detail of those shoulders, lost to the naked eye.

Idk why but i cringe a bit seeing those stuffed ‘dead’ animals attached to a clothing item.. no thanks, ill take my generic leather shoulder

Even if you liked its appearance you can’t mix and match to create a coherent look with any other armor pieces, and that’s not a matter of personal taste. You may like the look of twigs on top of your trench coat but there is zero continuity/coherency between them. Not even Sylvari cultural armor manages to pull it off; you have smooth lines then, suddenly, twigs.