Blizzard clarifies transmogrification rules
by Mathew McCurley 
Sep 19th 2011 at 10:00PM
Personally, I am still of the opinion that a lot of the fun items that will not be available for transmog purposes should be. It's Warcraft, after all, and the goofy aesthetic has permeated all aspects of the game. It's not a huge loss, but one that would have its fun purposes. All in all, these transmog rules feel pretty lenient and acceptable to me, and I think that the new system is a great step in the right direction for more player customization.
Blizzard clarifies transmogrification guidelines
Since we announced the transmogrification feature coming to World of Warcraft with patch 4.3, we have monitored thousands of follow-up comments, questions and suggestions from players all over the world.
What follows is our current list of rules for transmogrification. This is a set of rules that we expect to change over time, and is not intended to be 100% comprehensive, but we hope that it can be referenced to answer most questions that players currently have about what they can and cannot expect to be able to do with transmogrification.
• The character must be able to equip both items.
• Only common (green), rare (blue) or epic (purple) items may be transmogrified. (exceptions: a select few of these items will prevented from being used to transmogrify if they are inappropriate)
• Items must share the same armor type (examples: plate for plate, cloth for cloth)
• Weapons must be the same weapon type (exceptions: Guns, Crossbows, or Bows)
• Guns, Crossbows, and Bows can be used to transmogrify Guns, Crossbows, or Bows.
• Main hand weapons can only be used to transmogrify Main hand weapons.
• Off-hand weapons can only be used to transmogrify Off-hand weapons.
• One handed weapons can be used to transmogrify a Main hand or Off-hand weapon.
• Using an item for transmogrify makes it soulbound.
• Using an item for transmogrify makes it non-refundable.
• Using an item for transmogrify makes it non-tradable.
• Heirlooms and Account Bound items can be transmogrified.
• Heirlooms and Account Bound items can be used to transmogrify.
• Legendary items cannot be transmogrified.
• Legendary items cannot be used to transmogrify.
• Fishing Poles cannot be transmogrified.
• Fishing Poles cannot be used to transmogrify.
• Mailing an item strips its transmogrification.
• Placing an item in Void Storage strips its transmogrification.
• Vendoring an item strips its transmogrification.
• The displayed enchant will be that of the currently equipped item.
• There may be individual items that are excluded from being transmogrified on the basis that they were originally added to the game as absurdities. (examples: a weapon that looks like a fish, or a chest piece that is invisible)
What follows is our current list of rules for transmogrification. This is a set of rules that we expect to change over time, and is not intended to be 100% comprehensive, but we hope that it can be referenced to answer most questions that players currently have about what they can and cannot expect to be able to do with transmogrification.
• The character must be able to equip both items.
• Only common (green), rare (blue) or epic (purple) items may be transmogrified. (exceptions: a select few of these items will prevented from being used to transmogrify if they are inappropriate)
• Items must share the same armor type (examples: plate for plate, cloth for cloth)
• Weapons must be the same weapon type (exceptions: Guns, Crossbows, or Bows)
• Guns, Crossbows, and Bows can be used to transmogrify Guns, Crossbows, or Bows.
• Main hand weapons can only be used to transmogrify Main hand weapons.
• Off-hand weapons can only be used to transmogrify Off-hand weapons.
• One handed weapons can be used to transmogrify a Main hand or Off-hand weapon.
• Using an item for transmogrify makes it soulbound.
• Using an item for transmogrify makes it non-refundable.
• Using an item for transmogrify makes it non-tradable.
• Heirlooms and Account Bound items can be transmogrified.
• Heirlooms and Account Bound items can be used to transmogrify.
• Legendary items cannot be transmogrified.
• Legendary items cannot be used to transmogrify.
• Fishing Poles cannot be transmogrified.
• Fishing Poles cannot be used to transmogrify.
• Mailing an item strips its transmogrification.
• Placing an item in Void Storage strips its transmogrification.
• Vendoring an item strips its transmogrification.
• The displayed enchant will be that of the currently equipped item.
• There may be individual items that are excluded from being transmogrified on the basis that they were originally added to the game as absurdities. (examples: a weapon that looks like a fish, or a chest piece that is invisible)
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back! Filed under: Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
Andrew Sep 19th 2011 10:04PM
I'm okay with pretty much all of this, except that very last one. Why can't we look like we're raiding shirtless? We've got armor that look like harnesses and bras, but shirtless is too much.
loop_not_defined Sep 19th 2011 11:04PM
Uh...what epic bras are you referring to? I know some show belly, but that's not really the same. o_O
Amanda A. Sep 19th 2011 11:25PM
Warrior's Embrace?
musicchan Sep 19th 2011 11:27PM
I'd be okay with all of this if my worgen could transmog their top hat and wear that forever, but it's still only a white item if I recall correctly :(
loop_not_defined Sep 20th 2011 6:32AM
Warrior's Embrace was a blue item from a Sunken Temple quest that's no longer available. I'm talking about stuff you'd see in raids or arenas.
deepred Sep 20th 2011 8:19AM
Actually, Warrior's Embrace is still available. The method of obtaining it has changed.
Sidvicious Sep 20th 2011 11:15AM
Also i dont understand why were not able to dual wield a pair of fishes. They should already come equipped with poison on them for Rogues
Nina Katarina Sep 20th 2011 11:16AM
Warrior's Embrace drops from Shade of Hakkar. It's pretty easy to farm; all the trash packs on the way there are skippable, he doesn't have a huge loot table, and the instance is easy to reset. Click on the skull pile to summon him.
There's also a golden mail barely-there chest, the Energized Chestplate, available from the last boss of Dire Maul East. Takes a little longer to farm but again, he doesn't have a huge hit table so you probably won't have to run it too many times.
And if you want blue plate bikini armor with yellow trim, check out the nether protector's chest, a quest reward from Slay the Brood Mother in Blade's Edge.
I have spent an inordinate amount of time looking for skimpy armor. That probably says something about me.
Bronwyn Sep 20th 2011 3:01PM
@Nina K
If you're looking for dupes of the Energized Chestplate in the same and/or different colors, you can also look for the glorious, lofty, and vanguard green armor sets, though I've been scouring the AH for them since transmog was announced with only limited luck :(
Eyhk Sep 20th 2011 3:02PM
It sounds like there are some disagreements an internal politics between game design and item design. They don't want the "absurdities" of the item designers to get in the way of serious game play.
Hellwraith Sep 19th 2011 10:05PM
And all the hunters can now squee with bliss.
Hellwraith Sep 19th 2011 10:06PM
By the way, it's not a sarcastic or snitty remark. I squeed big time :P
brain314 Sep 19th 2011 11:33PM
I still disagree with the gun/bow/crossbow thing. If they allow that, then they should allow all classes to transmog a usable one-hand into any other usable one-hand (and usable two-hands into other usable two-hands).
Necrosaro Sep 20th 2011 12:05AM
No that's the difference between an art issue and a sound issue. If you've ever had the misfortune of running with a hunter with a gun you know that sound.
*BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, CLUCK, BANG, BANG, BANG*
It's one of the more annoying problems in the game. This simplifies it for the players.
However changing MH/OH causes and issue where there would have to be reversed art for the exact same item (fist weapons would be the prime example of this, of course,) since not all the off hand items are the exact same from both sides.
And while it could be as simple as going in and flipping the OH weapon in the system, considering how many OH there are, that would take time, and require a larger patch overall, since the client side machines would have to be updated (more than likely.)
Considering how fast they're putting this out, I'm sure they wanted to simplify the process as much as possible to begin with, and then expand from there. So we may see MH/OH transmog, but they've given their reasoning as to why they won't do that, but will allow Bows, Xbox, and Gun Transmog.
Artificial Sep 20th 2011 12:50AM
If you go into your MPQs and extract the gun sounds, reduce their amplitude to one quarter of their original sound level (I tried one half at first but that was still way too loud), then save them in your data folder such that it will use them instead of the originals, their sound level matches that of the other sounds in the game. The fact that you have to cut down their amplitude by a factor of four to get them to match the same volume level as the other sounds in the game tells you how awfully they're done by default, like the TV commercial that comes on way, way louder than the program you were watching, except even in that case the amplitude difference is generally not that badly done.
JattTheRogue Sep 20th 2011 2:10AM
@Necrosaro: "However changing MH/OH causes and issue where there would have to be reversed art for the exact same item"
He didn't say anything about MH/OH weapons ... he said one-hand. One-hands can already be changed for either MH or OH of the same type, but he wants, for example, a one-hand dagger to be able to transmogrify to a one-hand axe if the class is able to use both types (and same with 2Hs). I see nothing wrong with that. Sure, the issue with the ranged weapons is sound, but if they're giving that to hunters why can't they throw the rest of us a bone and let us do melee weapons even if there's no other reason than we just want to make our weapons look cooler (to us) than they already do? I mean, isn't that the entire point of transmogrification anyway?
Maz Sep 20th 2011 5:11AM
It seems like a much more reasonable and fair option to just allow gun noises to be turned off, kind of like how you can turn off DK voice effects. I suppose since they aren't doing this that some ridiculous design flaw prevents them from doing it, either that or they just love handing out stuff to hunters and don't feel like coming out and saying "screw you" to every other class.
Tzivya Sep 20th 2011 5:37AM
This is actually a concession for the fact that there hasn't been a viable raid gun in like an expansion and a half, and when we seemed to be getting one, they inecplicably made it a crossbow instead. For those of us who actually like being guntards (My nelf has preffered guns since the day WoW came out!) it has been a long, long time since we had one. This saves Blizzard actually having to make one for us.
I do agree the sound is annoying, and has been since, well, the release of WoW. I don't get how they never fixed that, since even just making it quieter would be a vast improvement. But I play with sound off, so that is someone else's problem to deal with. :)
loop_not_defined Sep 20th 2011 6:35AM
I think the "sound" thing is heavily overplayed and doubt that's even remotely part of Blizzard's decision.
Ranged weapons are limited. Heavily. If my Warrior wants an upgrade, she's either using:
1) Strength gun.
2) Thrown weapon bought with VP.
That's it. She has almost no options.
Gigafreak Sep 20th 2011 9:05AM
You can't transmogrify between melee weapon types because certain attacks and talents require specific weapon types.
You can't Backstab with a hammer (that would be less of a "Backstab" and more of an "AAHHH MY SPIIIIINE"), nor Titan's Grip two staves (your dreams of becoming Champion Chopstick shall never come true).