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
Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria news





Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
VezRoth Mar 14th 2012 7:17PM
Only thing that I wish they had included was somekind of "Transmog Hunter" feature where you could queue for those old dungeons with groups of like-minded people. They didn't have to change the difficulty, there really isn't any need. Not at 85, you know? But sometimes there are pieces that will MAKE a set, fit it like a glove.... but that glove is buried in the ass end of Ulduar 25, or deep in the darkest bowels of Trial of the Crusader 25. Nobody wants to do anything in ToC.. Anub'arak is evil Especially at 85.
But with some kind of Dungeon Hunter feature you could get together (A scaled appropriate amount of people, you don't want 25 people in Mount Hyjal... try it. You won't like it.) a few people and go grind out some cool Transmog sets.
Rezina Mar 14th 2012 8:22PM
I love Transmog and have really gotten into it! But most of my favorite gear sets are from TBC. Right now in my free time I am running my pally through BC dungeons looking for the purple "Judgement" recolor set. My warlock, who's really nothing more than a glorified bank toon, made most of her own transmog gear. She's my favorite creation so far, and the one I thin is most creative.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/turalyon/Naughtia/simple
Now, here's my question--I have a blood elf hunter who's level 80. Most of the hunter gear sets are so, umm, not befitting pretty ladies. Any suggestions for some nice looking hunter gear for girl toons? I'm thinking maybe rogue sets?
emma.ryle Mar 15th 2012 1:25AM
I find that Dragonstalker (T2) looks very attractive on my female draenei hunter. I'm not sure if it's because the chunkiness of the boots is limited on a draenei with hooves, though.
Shiro Mar 15th 2012 7:12AM
OK, here's a question for you moggers out there. Where is a good set of forums to ask "what do I wear to match this" questions.
My example is similar to our druid earlier. I've got my Zandalar Vindicator's Breastplate, which is no longer available and is an awesome deep blue and red. I'm pairing it with Imbued plate "stuff" because they match the blue and red look reasonably well.
Shoulders are a problem though. Runic plate is OK, but the gold accent bothers me a bit, and I haven't seen anything else that I like for the shoulder slot. I'm willing to live with the Runic ones, but....
What on earth do I use for a shield?
I have yet to find anything even remotely interesting to me, so I'm sure that there is something in an instance/raid somewhere that would match, but I can't seem to find it.
Anyone have any ideas?
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/earthen-ring/Raving/simple (for my current favorite mog set)
Killik Mar 15th 2012 9:39AM
High Warlord's Shield Wall, if you can transmog it? http://www.wowhead.com/item=18826
jdkenada Mar 25th 2012 12:14PM
Just thought I'd share the results if anyone wanted to see the great entries we had in the first round!
http://arcanewordsmith.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/mog-madness-round-one-results/