Posts with tag transmogrification

If you're a fan of mogging whose bags are already full to bursting, then MMO-Champion brings good news: in patch 5.3, you'll be able to transmogrify using items that are currently in the bank or void storage. The ability is actually already in the game for void storage, but there's no UI elements that let you access it. However, anyone wanting to get ahead of the curve can download the VoidTransmog addon, and transmogrify away without the bother of actually pulling your items out of storage.

While it's a small change, we're sure transmog fans will appreciate the convenience of this tweak. Of course, patch 5.3 is still far on the horizon and it's likely that eager transmogrifiers will be waiting on this for quite a while.

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There are a few things I do in World of Warcraft. I raid. I do dungeons and scenarios for valor points and also to test out specs and gear optimization for use later in raids. I run LFR for gear to use as a stopgap in later raids, or to supplement my bad luck (for instance, I really really need a trinket). And I do a lot of older content, because I am a transmogrification junkie and I always have a hankering for a new look. Every few months, I get the urge to PvP because I remember the six months I spent PvPing at the end of Vanilla and the on and off arena days of The Burning Crusade with equal parts fondness and loathing, and when fondness overwhelms loathing I go give it another shot.

These are the things I do in World of Warcraft. Everything else, I either don't do, or I do haphazardly. I don't do cooking anymore at all -- I used to, but one look at the current state of cooking and how intertwined it seems to be with the Tillers completely soured me on it. I don't do the Tillers. I only do dailies until I no longer need the rep to buy something and then I never do them again. I have two professions that I like to keep maxed, but I rarely do anything with them for profit, I just have them for the raiding benefits. In short, I play World of Warcraft to kill things and to look good while I do it. And that's enough for me.

But I know it's not enough for everyone. Mists of Pandaria will be six months old this April 21st, and for a lot of people, it's the expansion that increased choices -- the expansion that expanded their options. And in fact, it did so for me, as well. Because one of the great things about options is that they are optional, and you can choose not to do them. So for me some of the greatest aspects of Mists of Pandaria have been all the things I haven't bothered to do.

Sometimes the forums come up with some interesting discussions. Poster Locomonkey over on the EU forums posted this doozy of an idea, which Taepsilum then responded to in detail. They both have me thinking about the idea as well -- what if every raid, from the original 60 raids to the Cataclysm level 85 raids, was updated to level 90? What if, when the next expansion came out, all the Mists of Pandaria raids as well as all those previous raids were in some fashion made current with level 95, or 100, or whatever current endgame happens to be? What are the pros and cons of this idea?

I'm not going to dredge over every point already made, you can go read Locomonkey's original post, and Taepsilum's well reasoned list of what the pitfalls to avoid in such a system would be. Instead, I'm going to speculate on how you could address those pitfalls. How do you make a system with so many potential raids tuned and balanced, deal with all the updated loot from those instances, and keep from drowning raid groups in choices? My suggestions are as follows:

Would you be caught dead in this outfit? Apparently, the answer is emphatically a yes for Rubedo of Draenor (US). With his rather flavorful mog, Rubedo seems willing not only to be caught dead but also to be caught in public and caught with his pants down. "That's uh, quite an outfit," remarked an admiring Community Manager Daxxarri about Rubedo's flamboyant outfit. "The socks with sandals are a nice touch."

Personally, I love Rubedo's game sense of humor, but not everyone can pull off such a look. Check out this Darkmoon Faire-esque look on Mathryn of Wyrmrest Accord. There's nothing overtly goofy about it, but I'm afraid my main would feel foolish questing and doing business in town looking like a carnie. I'd wear it in a heartbeat on the right alt, but wearing something this offbeat on a full-time basis feels awkward to me.

How far are you willing to take your daily mog? Do you want an look that lends your character dignity or deepens your immersion, or are you more interested in poking a bit of fun at the whole thing? How silly do things have to get before you start feeling a little ridiculous?

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When I first created my gnome monk, I immediately noticed that while the other class options had stylish starting gear, my monk had a sleeveless black shirt, plain black pants, and no shoes. I assumed that, as a monk, my gnome valued simplicity over flash -- but, really, a sleeveless shirt and bare feet in the endless Dun Morogh snow just seemed impractical. Wouldn't she get cold? Did I need to be concerned about frostbite? What if my poor gnome stepped on something sharp?

Fortunately, I soon found a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of boots and was able to stop worrying about it. Until level 64 when, questing in Hellfire Peninsula, I received a pair of boots that was a huge upgrade from my old boots, but weren't quite boots. Instead, they were bright green bands that wrapped around the ankle and covered the top of the foot, but left the bottom bare: Hardly practical footware for exploring the demon-infested Outland.

It was this that finally drove me to figure out WoW's transmogrification system, which lets you make one piece of gear (armor or weapon) look like another. Though this feature seems primarily designed for high level players who have had the time to collect numerous pieces of gear, you can start transmogrifying at any level. The only downside to starting early is that you'll be tempted to find and buy gear just for its looks -- which can be pricey! But if you're a savvy auction house trader, you can use everyone else's transmogrification obsession to make some cash.

So what else surprised me? What else did they do that I didn't see coming? To be honest, there are so many that narrowing it down to five is a bit hard for me. I never expected playable pandaren, for one thing. That's not going on the list, but it did surprise me. I'm going to do five aside from transmog, because I natter on about that one a lot.

I'm greedy. Oh, not in a monetary sense - I'm notoriously bad at even pretending to care about money - but whenever Blizzard puts out a cool new feature it immediately gets me thinking about other cool new features I'd like to see added to the game. I know, I know, I should be happy with what I have. But since I'm not, here comes a list of features I wish they'd add to World of Warcraft, be it in patch 5.2 or in some future patch.

All of these are based purely on my selfish desires, and are in now way promised or even hinted at by Blizzard, so please don't start asking Blizzard why they haven't delivered on any of them. That would be like going to McDonald's and demanding that Bacon Sausage Egg McMuffin (with Canadian Bacon) that I dreamed up when I was 20. Seriously, how has that never actually been a thing? My cardiovascular health dodged a bullet there.

The Revenge for Southshore battleground/World PvP hub

Seriously, how is it this hasn't happened yet? It seems like a natural to me. While the World PvP might be a bit too disruptive to leveling characters (relatively easily fixed with a phasing change, but it might be better to just make it a battleground up front) the actual idea seems simple enough - Alliance landing craft disgorge a massive force on the beaches south of the ruined Southshore and begin their push north. As players, we either defend Tarren Mill, or take part in the drive for revenge northward. Victory is achieved by claiming a series of important strategic points and then taking the other faction's starting zone and successfully destroying it. Perhaps it's just nostalgia for all the times we ran into Tarren Mill back in the day only to discover we couldn't really do anything, but I'd love to finally set it on fire.

2012 is nearly over. If you were playing WoW on this date in 2011, you were playing a significantly different game, raiding the ultimate raid of Cataclysm with the Dragon Soul, or... probably not doing much else. One of the biggest changes between then and now is one that's often commented on, namely that there's a much wider variety of content in Mists of Pandaria at the endgame level. Level 90 players can choose to run scenarios, heroic dungeons, use the Looking for Raid tool, engage in pet battles, pursue one of a wide variety of daily quests which allow for the gaining of reputation with various factions, run challenge mode dungeons, or get involved in 10/25 man raiding. One can even step into older raid content with or without a group for the purposes of collecting gear for transmogrification or simply for fun.

I've said before and will say again that quests like Welcome to the Machine demonstrated real mastery on the part of the development team behind Cataclysm. To my mind, the real lesson of the Cataclysm to Mists transition is threefold. Cataclysm was extremely well designed, but the majority of its best content is in those revamped 1 to 60 jones, or to coin a term, is in vertical content, a pillar of content that players ascend. Mists content is horizontal -- while there are several zones to level from 85 to 90 in, the true flowering of the vast majority of Mists content is a plateau, an expanse that blossoms outward. Once you ascend those five levels, you get more to do, not less. However, it must be said that this isn't a trend that Mists invented. Pretty much every innovation in Mists of Pandaria's content delivery is built on the edifice of Cataclysm, which itself built on previous expansions.

Are you a proud orc, or just like to dress like one, and you want to show solidarity with the Kor'kron Overseers who've been watching Undercity since Varimathras pulled his attempted coup? Well, we have a look for you! It actually comes fairly close to matching up with the Kor'kron. Now, this is a plate set, because that's what the Kor'kron wear, and it's designed around the use of a 2h weapon for the same reason. Also note, this is specifically designed to look like the Kor'kron Overseers that guard Undercity - it's not a match for the old Kor'kron who guarded Thrall in Orgrimmar, or the ones you see in Northrend, Cataclysm's zones or Mists.

Despite the fact that this is a set modeled after the Kor'kron, it's technically speaking not a Horde specific set. It can be mostly replicated by any Alliance players who just want to feel Hordely for a day. Yes, I know that's not a word. What's interesting about the Kor'kron Overseer look is that it can be approximated fairly closely with in-game items and you can even vary the color on several of the pieces if you don't like the original for whatever reason.

WoW's friendly skull, Zarhym, took to Twitter last night with a hint about potential upcoming changes to the transmogrification system in patch 5.2. Essentially the main-hand vs off-hand transmog distinction may possibly be getting cut, along with adding some exceptions to the absolute restriction of similar weapon types (ie: axes vs. swords). Expect any changes make sense -- so no shields as main-hand weapons.

We need to emphasis here that these changes are only possible, and are by no means set in stone. Don't get upset if you don't see in them in patch 5.2; or ever. You haven't been promised anything.

That said, it's neat to see what Blizzard is thinking for the next patch. Zarhym's tweet as follows:

.@iizeppii Removing main-hand/off-hand Xmog restrictions maybe by 5.2. Also allowing Xmog of weaps w/ similar anims (2H axe/2H sword, etc).

- Zarhym (@CM_Zarhym) December 3, 2012

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