By my count there are 37 full medium armour sets in Guild Wars 2 and all but 1 include coats which extend beyond the waist. Furthermore, most are full-blown rain macs which go down past the knee (28/37). All but one includes butt-capes which stick stiffly out from our arse-cheeks, often they clip with boots, the edges of gloves or backpieces, weapons sheathed on the waist or back... every single medium armour player out there is dressed in a coat which you wouldn't be surprised to see donned by an old man hanging around the gates of the local primary school.
Frankly, its become a bit of a joke by now. One of the great things about MMOs is getting interesting and varied gear, so every player you see looks unique and individual. Seeing an announced armour set (or the illicit guilty pleasure of an as-yet unannounced datamine of new armour sets) is an exciting experience - but finding that, once again, the designers have created another trenchcoat is just disappointing. Its this disappointment I felt over the carapace/luminescent set, and the latest that_shaman find is absolutely no different.
I like the armours. I really do (Once I've completed the set I'm thinking of switching over to carapace or even luminescent if it dyes well). And I am super-super-super happy to have in-game armour added with at least some regularity now. But does it have to follow this exact same mold every time? Seeing players wearing these two armours at any distance but up close, it would be hard to tell them apart! Flared gloves, check, long coat, check, high boots, check. Its just such a wasted opportunity.
This problem is not limited to the medium armour professions, heavy armour seems to be also cursed with an over-abundance of armoured skirts as do the casters. But I think this lack of imagination is felt most potently in the medium armour professions.
The GW2 medium armour professions have so much scope for variety. It doesn't just have to be leather or cloth coats! What about light chain mail or a bodice/vest of hardened hide or chitin? What about scales, shells or fur? We had all three of those in GW1 and they didn't need a leather tail to balance out the set! There is so much opportunity for imagination, and whilst I don't doubt that whatever style this new armour set ends up having (and its important to note we've only seen the bare-bones image as of yet), it still appears to be a long coat, just like 36 of the 37 (now 37/38) other sets we have already.
