Try playing a hunter with a gun. If you are firing, you probably won't hear your team-mates in vent.

It's needed, trust me. However, I would still like for blizzard to make it so that all weapons usable by a class can be transmogged to assuming you have the item. It may even happen in the future, cause blizz sayed there are starting with a lot of restrictions so they can gradually open it up more, instead of shutting a bunch down and upsetting players.

As a former hunter main, I agree. I guess I just got used to the gun sound. It's not that bad.

Also, beyond just the sound aspect, I though the ranged weapon transmorg exception was also because the ranged weapons tended to be more specifically tied to various in-game cultures than melee weapons.

For example, a night elf hunter with a gun doesn't seem right; and similarly, a dwarf with a bow just looks odd.

But for melee weapons, the same stuff doesn't really apply. For example, there are examples of orc lore warriors with every melee weapon, and same for human warriors.

So I though the ranged weapon transmorg exception was also sort of a role-playing exception because of those closer cultural associations.

I never had trouble hearing my teammates on Vent back in TBC when I had a gun.

Honestly, that excuse is a crock. Turn down the sound and you'll be fine.

Since the racial bonuses don't apply regardless, it's really a non-issue. Complaining about a feature that you didn't have an option for but now you do is really just annoying. Suggest on the forums that you'd like to see this change and be thankful if they have the time to implement it.

Back on topic, I actually like the gun sound. I guess its just old-school stuff but the rhythm of the autoshot was the metronome for moving while shooting. I wish there was a way to transmog bows and crossbows to the gun, both for personal preference and for the dwarf racial bonus, since it's not always easy to get a gun drop and for some tiers of raids, guns aren't even available. Same for swords and axes. Hopefully Blizz will let us do this in the future, but I'd love to see what they give us first regardless. Some of the past sets and weapons really meant a lot and I've kept most of them in my bags all this time.

Loved Zhar'doom, Greatstaff of the Devourer with the druid T6 set for some reason even though I've always been feral, although Journey's End is a close second. Can't wait to rock out in that gear once again. Oh wait...

@Methuus: While it might not be as iconic as dwarves + guns or night elves (or blood elves) + bows, I could have sworn there a bit of lore somewhere stating that Blood Knights weren't crazy about wielding hammers due to their heavy association with the Knights of the Silver Hand, and that they preferred swords and polearms as a way to further mark themselves apart. I could be pulling that out of my ass, admittedly, but I seriously remember that from one of the old class quests or something. Maybe I've been toking too much with my trolls?

All I know is I loathe using the damn things on my belfadin, and I got total sadface when I found out that weapon type t-mog was being restricted to ranged. I'm crossing my fingers that this is one of those rules that will be relaxed over time, as the blues mentioned.

I suppose Blizzard's rationalization for allowing ranged weapons to be T-mogged into other weapons is simply because those weapons are chiefly used by a single class. Sure, Rogues and Warriors can also use bows, guns and crossbows, but they rarely ever actually -use- them. Polearms and Staffs aren't really considered a signature element of hunters, and I bet most of them would happily settle for dual-wielding were it optimal, so they get more T-mog options to compensate for the fact their selections are already fairly limited.

Of course, guns being so much louder than any other weapon might also be part of the issue. I used to play a Dwarf Hunter, so I got used to the gun noises very quickly, but I can fully understand someone getting tired of it, specially since it has only one set of gunshot sounds to cycle through, regardless of whether you're using a lvl 5 blunderbuss or a steam-powered lvl 85 sniper gatling gun.

You won't understand unless you play a Hunter, or run with a Hunter using a gun.

All swords, axes, maces, ect. have different sounds, and different sounds depending on what ability you use. But a gun, it's the same sounds for the entire time. A loud click, a loud bang, and for abilities which are done in rapid-fire (no pun intended) you hear it mulitple times.

I have run with Hunters for a single instance, and been annoyed by their sounds.

Go find a Dwarf Hunter. Stick with him for awhile. They are most likely to be using a gun. To benefit from your racial boost you have to suffer that loud sound the entire time you play your character. A Human, or someone else who has a weapon bonus using a sword, or other melee weapon which isn't obnoxious.

Imagine the most annoying sound you can think of in the game. Now imagine that sound for every ability you cast.

I guess the issue is, everyone is explaining why Hunters can transmog weapons, but no one is going to give a reason why the other classes can't. If you want a racial bonus but the look of something else you're out of luck right now. Eventually Blizz may change their minds.

My main is a hunter and WITHOUT the "Gun Silencer" mod I would go nuts. I even threw it out there for some of my guildies who were, themselves, annoyed with the sound. If you've never heard the standard WoW gun audio well...enjoy: http://youtu.be/TCNuvMFqVhA

vocenoctum, we've explained it several times.

Hunters are the only class that has to put up with an annoying sound for the entire time you play that character. Don't like the sound of your mace? You can get a sword. If a Hunter is wanting to get their racial bonus, and is using a gun, all guns sound alike.

And as Noyou put it on the next page, every class that can use a bow can use a gun. Not every class who can use a sword can use a mace. So how would you feel if you saw a class charging towards you who are unable to use a mace, yet they are using a mace? How about a Mage using a mace? Or a Druid with a sword?

Plenty of races have bonuses with certain weapons. If my gnome wants the look/sound of an axe but using his sword for the bonus, I'm out of luck at the current time.

Again, no problem with hunters being able to change, has nothing to do with that. No need to defend hunters getting to change bow/gun.

And no, if some classes can't wield the weapon, they couldn't change it anyway since you need to be able to wield it.

As with anything, Blizzard drew an arbitrary line and that's just how it goes. It's not like they had to choose between hunters being able to change bows/guns and melee options, they just decided to do things this way.

My Dwarf hunter is 85. She has never used a gun, unless the benefits (stats) greatly outweighed the bow I had. Racial bonus be damned. I couldn't take the sound of the gun over, and over, and over, and over. It is one of the loudest in game actions I think there is. I play wow often late at night, and I play it to relax and the gun sound is obnoxious, and does not relax me.

I agree that all the weapons in game have a particular sound, but late and night, when all you want to do is relax and shoot something in the face while your pet mauls my enemies to shreds, the gun sound is very unique in it's annoyance. My hunter (and my late night sanity) approves of this change 100% and none of my other toons could care less.

It boils down to this.

When it comes down to ranged weapons, Hunters get three (bows and crossbows are audibly the same, but different stat-wise.) And there are always complaints that ranged weapons don't get equal representation. A BIS gun will annoy people who prefer bows or who get bonuses with bows. A BIS bow will annoy Dwarves. And while this same complaint exists elsewhere, someone may prefer a sword to a mace, and the BIS weapon at the time is a mace, it's not quite the same as someone who has to put up with the noise of a weapon they don't want.

It's obvious they don't want weapons to have their appearance to change between types. But ranged weapons are a concession so they no longer have to hear the complaints of Hunters, and don't have to make three separate, but equal ranged weapons for each place ranged weapons drop.

If it were not for these two complaints, it's likely no weapons would be allowed to visually change type.

people play with sound effects on?

As a hunter, I feel like the option for us to use a gun or a bow at our own preference is vital.

However, I also wish weapons could be changed within hander-type. I imagine the restriction has to do with rogues and their preferred combat style (does it still matter if you have maces or daggers or swords? I thought that used to be a really big deal), however, I agree that the weapon type is a huge flavor issue.

I think the weapon consolidation issue has made it so that some classes can't bring back a lot of their favorite weapons. Because feral druids and hunters have to share most weapons, it seems like all we get now are staves and polearms as agility weapons. I haven't seen a druid mace or a hunter axe in forever. I'd love to bring back my Trollbane from BC (especially seeing as it is now a STR weapon in the Zulagains), and I'm sure a lot of druids want their Earthwarden back.

We're all just hand waving and guessing here, but I think the "sound" element is a large one. I personally really don't like using guns because they are just too noisy. Other hunters (like Frostheim) love their guns and enjoy the sound they make, but despise quiet bows. It's a hunter-only issue.

There's also the element of flavor, as was mentioned. I don't like the gun sound, but even more than that, I just don't like using guns on my elf. It doesn't fit his flavor. It's not something his character would ever use. Interestingly, a lot of hunters feel pretty strongly about this even those that don't otherwise roleplay, like me.

This is also a single class item. Hunters have long desired to have both a viable bow and gun option for each raid tier. Yet that's adding several drops only used by a single class. (Yes, I'm well aware of holy paladins. They are also a special snowflake.) Adding multiple viable melee weapons to each tier is more reasonable because there are simply more people that will use them.

Finally, I think it's just more important to the hunter class as a whole. This goes back to flavor, as I mentioned. This is purely my own speculation and is doubtless hunter-biased, but the other classes just don't care as much. Oh, there are absolutely some warriors, paladins, etc that want a specific weapon type, but in my experience they seem a small portion of each class-base. Hunters are almost universal in their desire for only bows or only guns. I've got nothing to back that up, just my own experience and observations. If nothing else, we're more vocal about it, all the other classes just /sigh and move on. ;)

It's NOT a hunter only issue. It's also a bit of a druid issue.

Druids can use maces, and during Classic and TBC (and even a little bit of Wrath) there were agility and attack power 2H maces. During TBC, the maces were specifically designed for druids because hunters couldn't use maces. Then, gear homogenization happened, and no more agility maces.

So, if a druid like me wants to mog her weapon into the thing she toted around for 3/4 of TBC (the Earthwarden) she can't. Because now druids only have polearms and staves available to us, even though we CAN use maces. I think maces for druids ought to be an exception to the rule, too. Or they can just start making agility maces again. You know, whatever.

2H weapons should not be allowed to be changed axes-swords, swords-polearms, etc.

Same with 1H weapons. Why? Because it will make people roll they won't actually use for things based simply on appearance. They have to have the item for a transmog set, but nothing else. Death knights should never roll need for agility polearms, but if it looks awesome enough then they will. Thus, the hunter that can actually use it will NOT get his polearm. Despite our ability to transmog things, items should still only be rolled for with stats in mind.

Guns and bows and crossbows only make a difference to hunters. Because it's all across the same class, they would normally be rolling for things their class can use anyway. That's why guns/bows are not a big deal, but various melee weapon types are.