Transmogrification, the hottest new game of dress-up

If you're anywhere near as addicted to transmogrification as I am, you've likely been collecting gear and creating multiple sets ever since the feature was introduced. Likely, your bank is full of sets, and your void storage may very well be full of sets too. In the last post of the Cataclysm post-mortem series, Ghostcrawler (lead systems designer Greg Street) talked about what worked with the expansion as well as what didn't -- and transmogrification was firmly on the amazing feature list. According to Ghostcrawler, it opened an entirely new avenue of gameplay, and more and more players are jumping into old dungeons and raids looking for the perfect look for their characters.
But what transmogrification has really accomplished is that it's given us a way to customize our characters in a unique and profound way. Let's face it -- the character creation screen in WoW doesn't exactly have a ton of options to choose from. No matter how unique you think your character looks, in a game with millions of people playing, there are likely millions of players out there with exactly the same hairstyle and face choices. And with tier sets becoming so prevalent, particularly in Cataclysm, all the characters had started looking like carbon copies of each other.
Transmogrification allows players to get that thing that they've been after since the early days of WoW -- a distinct and unique look for their characters.
But what transmogrification has really accomplished is that it's given us a way to customize our characters in a unique and profound way. Let's face it -- the character creation screen in WoW doesn't exactly have a ton of options to choose from. No matter how unique you think your character looks, in a game with millions of people playing, there are likely millions of players out there with exactly the same hairstyle and face choices. And with tier sets becoming so prevalent, particularly in Cataclysm, all the characters had started looking like carbon copies of each other.
Transmogrification allows players to get that thing that they've been after since the early days of WoW -- a distinct and unique look for their characters.

Just to keep things interesting, they're also including criteria for each round of tranmogrification entries, à la that pesky mystery basket of ingredients on Chopped. The first round is already open for submissions and requires a cloth outfit. The competition is open to anyone who wants to enter, and you can either submit your entry via email or just post the outfit you've created on any of the Mog Madness posts on the three blogs.
And that's the other cool factor in transmogrification -- it's brought together the WoW community in a weird sort of way. Countless blogs have popped up with transmogrification ideas, plenty of people are putting in their two cents on set pieces, and people are busily working together to get the pieces needed to make them stand out in style. In an odd way, transmogrification has brought friends and players a lot closer together simply by allowing us to express our individuality.

So what I'm really hoping to see in Mists, oddly enough, is a return to the Burning Crusade clown suits. Why? Because it's more variety in choice for our transmogging selves. We don't really need gear to match precisely anymore; we can make it look as good or as bad as we'd like it to. And if we have more variety in different colors and styles, that's more potential combinations to make some really cool looks.
I hope this gives the art team an excuse to go wild, too, because there's no longer a real restriction on making everything look matchy-matchy. It's gone. Between giving us an excuse to go back to old places, opening up opportunity to share our styles with others and allowing us to give our characters that unique look we've been craving for years, transmogrification is one of the biggest game changers we've seen this expansion, hands down.
Patch 4.3 lets you transmogrify your gear to look like any other gear your class can wear -- but you have to collect it first. Check out our coverage of transmogrification and start running those old dungeons!Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Transmogrification






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Lipstick Mar 14th 2012 4:16PM
Yesterday .. I actually got teased, because I am rocking the -actual- tier gear. They were like, aren't you going to transmog your gear..
I was like... no.... cause I like my priest tier gear this time around...
/sulks into a corner and hides..
I do enjoy playing dress up as much as the next person and it's dangerous for me because just like hairstyles back in wrath whenever I get bored I am off retransmogging something else only transmog costs a lot more than hair-style swaps via the barber shop did.
For me it also puts a strange sort of pressure on. Transmog gear or not to transmog gear. Transmog to a different tier set or dungeon set everyone is wearing -- or finding a perfect set of mixed and matched pieces to be totally original.
It's so hard to decide!
Ilmyrn Mar 14th 2012 4:28PM
I love the DS Priest tier, at least until it's actually in game.
Hopefully, one day Blizzard will get around to making armor meshes be able to deform. Any time there's a cowl or hood or whatever that's obviously supposed to be connected to the armor, it completely breaks as soon as the character moves their head.
Kuro Mar 14th 2012 5:30PM
I lurve transmog for this reason.
If the current tier is good, I want to show it off, but I also I want to MATCH!
Like we have that awkward period between tiers when you have the old stuff and then start to get the new set too. Or like Prot and Ret Paladins have a problem in that their belts, shoes, and off tier items don't usually match the regular tier. You get a lil DK tier here and a lil Warrior tier there.
Being done with t-13 MS and OS purchases.. I went and blew the 6k Valor points I had accumulated on T13 warrior matchy bits so I could make my tank set look great. I had the legs crafted for the tank-set too. So my tank set is mostly Warrior T13 and my healing set is Pally T13. Kinda like good and evil.
Lannden Mar 14th 2012 6:38PM
I kind of have the same issue. I'm a prot pally and I have been wanting Arthurian knight looking armor since vanilla. Most plate armor on the other hand is either black, gray, or gold and does not look very knight in shining armorish.
Finally t13 normal mode gear comes out and fits it perfectly, I even have my t13 heroic pants and chest mogged into it, and everyone is asking me why I don't have some other set. At least I'm like the only paladin on my server not in T2 or 6.
Ilmyrn Mar 14th 2012 4:21PM
Seems like this would be as good a place as any to ask for some transmogging help.
Ever since Vanilla, I've had a soft spot in my heart for the poor, misguided Druids of the Fang, enough that, when I rolled a druid, I RPd him as a Fang, and even farmed the entire set up. After I leveled out of the range it was even marginally useful in, it got relegated to Around Town status. Obviously, if you're just wearing something while hanging out at the AH, having a full set doesn't matter, but now that i can transmog and wear it, I'm faced with a problem: I can't find a single set of shoulders that match it.
Can anyone help?
Jyotai Mar 14th 2012 4:40PM
Get the addon moggit, and search by color. Should be something somewhere that will work for you.
vegetto375 Mar 14th 2012 4:41PM
Try the ones I'm wearing, it may not be a perfect match but is a good fit IMO.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/garithos/Kylara/simple
Anne Stickney Mar 14th 2012 4:42PM
Lesse, if you're looking for purple to match, you can try these out:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=24398 - drops from Keli'dan in Blood Furnace
http://www.wowhead.com/item=71456 - These are harder to get. They drop from heroic Baleroc over in Firelands on either 10 or 25 mode. (they're also the heroic tier for rogues, but if you aren't playing a rogue you won't nab that one).
http://www.wowhead.com/item=71450 - THOSE drop from heroic Shannox, which most groups find far, far easier to beat. Although I don't know, people may be clearing Baleroc with no difficulty, too.
Anne Stickney Mar 14th 2012 4:43PM
Also try this one maybe?
http://www.wowhead.com/item=30111 - drops from Lady Vash'j in Serpentshrine Cavern. It's not purple-purple, but it's got accents of purple and a pretty glow, too.
Luci Mar 14th 2012 4:47PM
Some great tips on completing that set here:
http://www.wowhead.com/transmog-set=890
Killik Mar 14th 2012 5:00PM
Headhunter's Spaulders are a decent, low-key match.
Twill Mar 14th 2012 5:06PM
Anne! Make a submit your own outfit column!!
Someone could submit the druid of the fang set, and there could be discussion on how to match it, etc.
WOULD BE GREAT. Are you hiring writers for it? :P
crystallinegirl Mar 14th 2012 5:54PM
My druid's wearing the of the Fang set, with these shoulders: http://www.wowhead.com/item=12927 They're gold, not purple, and look fantastic.
Andre Mar 14th 2012 6:01PM
http://www.wowhead.com/item=15357
Andre Mar 14th 2012 6:03PM
Also:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=39548
Steakntank Mar 14th 2012 4:27PM
I always enjoy reading Anne's posts. There is just a hint of excited little girl in all her posts. Makes me smile!
Kriegle Mar 14th 2012 7:41PM
Seconded whole-heartedly. Out of all the fantastic writers on this site, Anne's posts are the most interesting, well-organized, distinctly-voiced, and plain old fun to read.
christianrlopezg Mar 14th 2012 4:35PM
I recently was playing FE 10, and remembered how much i like Volke, so i wonder if there's a way to transmog into him. He's described as a look-a-like of Kakashi from the Naruto series. Sorry if this was the wrong place to ask.
Jyotai Mar 14th 2012 4:36PM
I've gotten all my taurens bikini armor.
After being that sexxy, what's left?
Now working on bikini armor sets for my worgen. :D
The best transmogs - whether silly like me or just plain out nice looking, tend to be low level greens and blues.
Once you hit Outlands, its a color disaster that would make Austin Powers proud. And all the epics WoW's been doing since the beginning have been way too much, in an over the top sort of way - especially the football shoulders and WWE wrestling champion belts...
So... Taurens in Bikinis... that's what I'm left with.
Boobah Mar 14th 2012 8:03PM
Oh, please. There's nothing wrong with the looks of Outlands gear. The problem with it, really, is that all the stuff out that way has very varied pallettes; if you have bits and pieces of three or four Outlands sets, it looks horrible.
Worse, the quest rewards didn't have any unifying theme to there appearances; they apparently took an RNG to the existing gear list and rolled away; how else do you explain the fact that the first begemmed pants most hunters and shamans ever saw reuse the model that you probably last saw as a grey in the starter sub-zone: http://www.wowhead.com/item=27717