The New Armory

At the suggestion of Saniel at Primal Precision, I took at look at the new WoW Armory.  I had known it was there, but had forgotten the potential implications for bloggers (i.e., broken links).  As luck would have it, I do not have any links to the old Armory, so there are no old posts I need to update, but I took another look at the new Armory, anyway.

The first thing which strikes me about the new Armory is that it, like the new forums, has a lot of orange.  /sigh.  I don't really like orange, but it's not my design, and I understand the implication of flame, etc., associated with it, so I'll live with the new scheme.  (As if I had any alternative . . .)

The next interesting thing is that my character is posed in some sort of battle stance.  Whether it is intended to be aggressive or defensive, I cannot say (initial impression is defensive, from my ancient lessons in martial arts), but it looks sort of funny to see a Restoration Druid brandishing Val'anyr and her Sundial of Eternal Dusk in front of her.

One new and interesting feature in the new Armory is the capability to have Simple or Advanced view.  The Advanced view shows details of the character's gear right there on the page, including name, ilevel, gems, and enchants.  There is also a consolidated list of the gems, enchants, and reforging activity below the character display, as well as an audit to check for empty glyph slots and other simple ways in which the character can be improved.  I think I will stick with Advanced view, as it tells me more of what I am trying to see, anyway.  (And, at level 81, no, I haven't replaced anything yet.  My Recent Activity shows that I picked up a new healing mace from Blackrock Caverns--on a Greed roll, I might add--but it doesn't strike me as being good enough to relegate Val'anyr to the bank.)

On a totally off-the-wall note, my Recent Activity also shows that I picked up Crepuscular Shield from Blackrock Caverns.  I knew Crepuscular rays are those rays which stream through the clouds and evoke images of God talking to prophets, but how that related to a shield, I had no idea . . . until I looked up the word in the dictionary.  Apparently, Webster says it means "of, relating to, or resembling twilight."  Well, considering that Blackrock Caverns is all about the Twilight Hammer's clan, it suddenly makes all kinds of sense.

There is also a Raid Progression display at the bottom of the page.  Interestingly enough, it doesn't seem to make the distinction between 10 and 25-man raids in its display.  I can see this because I know I have not seen Anub'arak in 25-man ToGC die . . . in fact, we tend to deny his existence . . . but it shows that I have seen him die 21 times in Heroic.  It would have to have been in 10-man.  Again, in Ulduar, it says I have seen 2 kills of Algalon.  That is true, but one was in 10-man (the Herald run) and one was in 25-man (the last boss of the last raid of the Wrath expansion.)  So while it's fun for the "Gee Whiz" factor, I'm not sure how helpful this feature will be for me.

Oddball ramblings aside, I do like the new features in the Advanced view of the new Armory, and I think it will be helpful when I am evaluating either my own characters or applicants to the guild.

Note to self:  Must pick up Moonkin Hatchling soon . . .