Medium armor skins - nearly all coats!

I noticed this when I started a heavy-armor character and got a skin that is basically a couple leather straps that leave the whole torso bare. I never saw anything like that on my main, a medium-armor wearing character (norn ranger). All he ever got was greatcoats with long ballooning skirts and swashbuckler jackets with long sleeves. I went through the whole wardrobe for medium-armor chest skins, and the best I could find for a Viking look was the Wolfborn vest with one sleeve missing, but it's a greatcoat with a big billowing skirt. Anyhow, when I saw that harness I thought it would look so cool on my medium-armor character, but there's no getting it. Have you seen similar oddities or gaps in wardrobe choice for you character's armor grade?

This is probably the most common complaint about armour in this game - each armour weight has a common theme and it's very rare to find things which break away from that.

Heavy armour is probably the most varied but the general theme is plate/chain/scale mail with tunics, and because those hang down below the waist but the cut-off point for the divide between the chest and leg pieces is the waist you get a lot of leggings with 'butt capes' which, if paired with the matching chest piece, are the bottom of the tunic or armor.

Medium armour is long trench coats and leather trousers.

And light armour is skirts and robes with random slits and openings. Female characters have more variety in terms of coverage but only 1 set of trousers without a skirt over it. Male characters get lots of trousers but very little variety - mostly variations on shirts and robes. (This has gotten a bit better with the new PoF armour, but not much.)

You can see all the armour options for characters in the Wiki's armour galleries: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Norn_male_medium_armor(Other race/gender/armour weight options are at the bottom.)

Yeah, I've been surprised that a game that places so much emphasis on collecting skins would have such poor variety in them (and such a heavy skew toward the comically grandiose/glowing/sparkling/on-fire, but I suppose that, I shouldn't be surprised about). I saw more varied armor pieces in vanilla WoW! Of course that may have just been different colorations of similar models, it's been a while and you couldn't choose your colors back then.

all the armors just have way to much fluf but nothing really interesting, in light armor i love an actual robe but all we get are tuxido's and dresses.

with medium armor they only think of long but stuck in theme, i like to look beyond that. (please, look at artistics and not the skimpy part)

we need to break free from this mono theme, get some variety.

That second picture you posted looks a bit like the medium Triumphant Hero's Armor (WvW armour).

Which coincidentally I just started working on today, because I like the skin and I thought it'd be a good alternative to most medium armour.

@"Corax.7692" said:Yeah, I've been surprised that a game that places so much emphasis on collecting skins would have such poor variety in them

I believe that, by now, this is a running gag among ANet's game designers and they purposely keep designing those ugly medium skins because they find the outrage they cause to be highly amusing.

Just a guess, of course, as I can't see any other logical explanation for it. We have given them tons of suggestions (example), with screenshots of NPC clothing and various other images (classic fantasy medium armor designs, medieval designs, and what not), of what we would like to see for a change, but those have constantly been ignored. Instead, it seems to have gotten even worse, with trenchcoaty sets being implemented in other armor weights as well.

(and such a heavy skew toward the comically grandiose/glowing/sparkling/on-fire

:+1: That is indeed an annoyance, but fortunately you do not have to do this kind of awful thing to your characters. I know I never will. ;)

@Ashantara.8731 said:I believe that, by now, this is a running gag among ANet's game designers and they purposely keep designing those ugly medium skins because they find the outrage they cause to be highly amusing.

I agree. There's no other sensible explanation.

Also, the near complete lack of pants for female light armor.

I WANT SOME PANTS. I HAVE BEEN WAITING 5 YEARS FOR FRIKKEN PANTS.

@"sorudo.9054" said:all the armors just have way to much fluf but nothing really interesting, in light armor i love an actual robe but all we get are tuxido's and dresses.

with medium armor they only think of long but stuck in theme, i like to look beyond that. (please, look at artistics and not the skimpy part)

we need to break free from this mono theme, get some variety.

Skimpyness can be artistic.

They’re not mutually exclusive.

@Corax.7692 said:Yeah, I've been surprised that a game that places so much emphasis on collecting skins would have such poor variety in them (and such a heavy skew toward the comically grandiose/glowing/sparkling/on-fire, but I suppose that, I shouldn't be surprised about). I saw more varied armor pieces in vanilla WoW! Of course that may have just been different colorations of similar models, it's been a while and you couldn't choose your colors back then.

Its a relic of the their design requirements from Gw1 and early GW2 doctrine. Armor needs to be read at a glance in PvP modes to understand your enemy before an opening attack. But given how outfits broke this doctrine, the purpose it serves is deprecated, yet the design doctrines are apparently still in place.

I'm curious to see what they're existing style guide is (they'd have to have one to keep this much adherence), and consider what it would take to redo the style guide to include at least 3 archtypes in each weight, for both male and female.

@starlinvf.1358 said:

@Corax.7692 said:Yeah, I've been surprised that a game that places so much emphasis on collecting skins would have such poor variety in them (and such a heavy skew toward the comically grandiose/glowing/sparkling/on-fire, but I suppose that, I shouldn't be surprised about). I saw more varied armor pieces in vanilla WoW! Of course that may have just been different colorations of similar models, it's been a while and you couldn't choose your colors back then.

One of the heavy armor chest pieces is literally a couple leather straps. So I guess part of those guidelines must be that if you can see a guy's upper torso, he's in heavy armor. =)

Reminds me of a character trait in Macho Women with Guns, where the less actual armor you wore, the more protection you had. Except for guys.

My favorite top piece medium is the human male duelist coat. I wish the arm portions were a little slimmer for showing slight arm form, but really only at the lower portion.

I chose it with the reason being that just because I am a thief doesn't mean I want to be an assassin's creed character.

I play a very muscular character so I wish I could have an armor between duelist and magic mike

Not sure on male norms but female human assassin cultural armor is not totally a long coat other than the knives filled satchel.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Assassin%27s_armor_human_female_front.jpg

Mm I don't have male characters ? but the females aren't that bad

ANet used to argue that each weight having a distinct silhouette was important for PvP/WvW modes, as it gives you a visual cue what you're up against.

But:

• Normalized character models in PvP/WvW
• Outfits that circumvent this regardeless of characters class

I think the trenchcoat look isn't as bad for me personally. But more options would be nice and always appreciated.