The New Look for Circle of Thorns

My only hope is that those high-level mage outfits will be available to players and not just a small selection of the pieces. I'd really like to make an accuracte Death Mage necro/dark mastermind. At the very least can you tell us if we'll get the silly hats/creepy hoods? Pleeeease?

But which one is Lo Pan? o_0

Oh PANCAKE YEAH!

Now those I can get behind. They actually look a lot more interesting than those lackluster spandexy upgrades from ComiCon. The dark faces and the green glowing eyes. They're all there.

Okay, now these costumes I really like. This batch looks much improved over the costumes posted in the original thread. I've always loved the Circle's original look, but I realize that keeping the current, older design of the group just wasn't in the cards. However, IMO this newest design is a fantastic merger of the original CoT look with that first, less well-received update; when I look at these new images I actually think to myself, "That's the Circle of Thorns" again. The long garments, tall hats, and partially to fully obscured faces really make a big difference here. I especially like the newly updated look for the lieutenants (huge improvement on the Energy Mage from before) and the bosses. The Death Mage looks wicked. The base "minion" looks pretty good, too. Nice use of color all around (although I do hope that there's an as-yet-unseen red and black color scheme in there somewhere).

Major kudos to the Art Team for a very well done update and to the Developers in general for paying heed to the players' earnest feedback! My fears, such as they were, have been pretty much alleviated. Looking forward to seeing these guys (and gals!) in-game.

Wow! I like it. And for a second there, I thought they looked like action figures.

Much better. The elaborate spiked plate armor look is still a little too space magey for my personal taste, but at least they're recognizable as CoT. I just wonder how the new, modern costumes will fit against the backdrop of the old Oranbega maps.

lol, I'm going to have to use the same thing that was used against me about the across the board criticism of the entire CoT based off the sample photo... its a sample photo.

Personally, I can see how this wouldn't translate to low level play but could definitely see this level of [redacted] within the stronghold locations.

Perhaps, using a high res treatment of the original CoT models for low level and 'out-of-territory' play; while using the new models for Oreos and Thorn Isle. Or just modifying placement of CoT NPCs so the stand-out-like-a-sore-thumb effect is largely avoided (or a combo of both)

Maybe more earth-tone versions of the colors represented here to give them that more worn-in look (Brick/Rust instead of Red; Ochre instead of Yellow, etc)

The minion I don't mind being a hulking mage-slave. Makes sense... but is it a Thorn Wielder, an Archer or something new to the fold?

Now that's more like it! I didn't mind the others, especially considering we only saw a low rez image of them but these I REALLY like!

Much better. Their colors are a little too bright, their costumes a little too spikey, but that'll do, pig. That'll do.

This is a decent compromize.

I do have several suggestions. The colors for the minions are a bit wrong. I'd make their base color a darker green, and the thorn aspecs of the costume brown. I hope the Thorn Weilders are still black and red in the same manner.

Some of the amor, particularly the bracers on several of the mages look very bulky and not thorny enough to me. It's particularly evident on the Agony Mage's glove, maybe due to the angle, but I wonder if its the same for the Ruin and Death Mages as well. If so, I'd look to narrow down the large spike into a thorn.

I can't tell, but is that supossed to be the CoT symbol on the bottom teir mages' belts? Either way, the color is just off. I think it's suppossed to be purple, but its too bright and appears more pink in the picture.

Lastly, why does the Air Thorn Caster not have the same belt as the rest of the Casters?

Also, will it be possible to get the original CoT caster belt / sash as a player piece?

I love the way the death mage looks.. pure awesome.

I'm personally a little surprised by the amount of positive reactions here. I will grant that, yes, these are really cool looks overall, but the amount of flash and detail in these is seriously over-the-top for an enemy model we encounter before even reaching level 10, don't you think? Are these simply the high-level versions of the outfits and there are some fewer-pieced lowbie incarnations?

Also, while I don't mind the caster minions having a little ostentation to them, it seems like the guards and such shouldn't be entitled to the amount of flash they're getting.

Lastly, I can tell this isn't standard for the current art team, to go this big and frankly, over the top, with a look. Does no one else think that these outfits are a little odd when you picture the Circle standing next to pretty much any other mob in the game? You don't think every group introduced after this will feel a little underwhelming, visually? These guys even -look- more powerful than just about every Archvillain in the game, and that's not good. And I'm by no means suggesting or wanting a remodel like this for the other groups. My point is The Praetorian Guard is a great example of a well-done, recently created group. They aren't swimming in decoration and fancy bits and they look great. The redesign honestly feels like more of a marketing ploy than one of aesthetics. Why no more robes, despite it being one of the major complaints about the first look? Because they don't work on the player models. And what this redesign is really doing is trying to sell new pieces on the Paragon Market by giving very prominent examples of what they can do.

They're awesome costume pieces, but being used across an enemy group like this not only reduces their effect, but makes the group seem completely incongruous with everything in the game up this point, old or new. And not even in an ancient civilization way. There's some echoes of it I think- but there's still just a little too much happening to really sell that idea.

Wouldn't this look be better served on Elite Bosses and Archvillains? Enemy classes that deserve a little grandeur and don't show up so much that they reduce the impact of the design? The Circle really do work in their less is more approach, I promise. And without risking the artistic arc of the game, I think a few images on the website combined with player representation will sell these new pieces on the market just fine.