Posts with tag transmogrification-sets

OK, look. We know according to current lore, blood elves cannot be druids. The quel'dorei left behind Nordrassil and any tree-hugging ways they might have had when they were banished after the War of the Ancients, thousands and thousands of years ago. Blood elves are all about the arcane, not about nature magic. But apparently, there's a huge contingent of people out there that would still like to be able to play them in game.

It's doubtful we will ever see that particular race and class combination come into play. However, the magic of transmogrification can at least give you the look you're going for. There's no shape-shifting or nature spells with this look, and you'll need a leather-wearing class to pull it off -- for blood elves, that pretty much means a rogue. But if you're dead set on blood elf druids and you'd still like the look of one, even if you can't play the class ... well, this combination ought to do the trick!

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.

I have a problem, and its name is transmogrification. I like collecting gear sets. I like picking up different pieces of gear and putting them together. I like making my character look unique and pretty, and I cannot stop. Every time I think I've found the perfect outfit, I keep it for about a week or two until someone in my guild invariably links a piece of gear that is just so cool that I have to find it and build another set around it. You'd think void storage would have solved my bank woes, but it really hasn't.

In fact, transmogrification has only made the issue worse -- and it all has to do with quest rewards. See, once you complete a quest and get the reward for it, you can't get that reward back again if you delete it to make room for things. Unfortunately, a lot of the nicest sets out there are floating about in 1-to-60 zones as part of quest chains that you cannot redo if you happen to lose that quest item. So if you want to continue to use it for transmogrification, you have to keep it. Forever.

You see the inherent problem here?

Bolvar Fordragon is one of the coolest figures in Warcraft lore (check out our Know Your Lore: Bolvar Fordragon for a detailed rundown). While he was once a noble lord of Stormwind, Bolvar's story throughout the course of Wrath was an epic tale of nobility and heroism in the face of damnation. Today, we're going to create a look based on Bolvar. No, not the extra-crispy, end-of-Wrath version -- and not the shining vanilla-era Bolvar, either. And definitely not the in-between Bolvar that is comprised mostly of Alliance PvP gear.

While I was looking at olden-days Bolvar, I realized his look could not be recreated; his armor is pretty unique, and it isn't something players can obtain in game. But as I was looking at Bolvar then and Bolvar now, I had a idea. What if we take a little of Bolvar's fate and apply that to the look of the shining hero of yesteryear? Take that distinct, filigreed, gold and silver plate look and tarnish it just a little, a reflection of what Bolvar's been through in the course of his lifetime?

Thisalee Crow is one of the new NPCs of Cataclysm, encountered in Hyjal. A member of the Druids of the Talon, Thisalee's unique personality immediately set her apart from her fellow druids -- and so does her unique set of threads. Thisalee's a fashionable sort, whether she's sitting quietly on the sidelines or holding a dagger to a harpy's neck. It's her gear that sets her apart in this case. You're not really going to see that particular set of gear on a player character, and there are a few good reasons for that.

Thisalee's model has a few distinct characteristics that can't be recreated with transmogrification. First off, she's wearing a Feathered Breastplate as a shirt, with another leather chestpiece on top of it -- something we can't do at all. Secondly, those gorgeous, white leafy shoulders? Sadly, we can't get those in game. However, that doesn't mean Miss Crow's look can't be cleverly replicated with a little transmogrification ... albeit in a slightly different color scheme.

So maybe you don't really want to be an esteemed member of the Stormwind guard, or maybe you just don't play a plate-wearing class. Well, there's good news for you -- if you happen to wear leather, that is. The Orgrimmar guard -- not to be confused with the Kor'kron that watches over the Undercity -- has been a fixture in Orgrimmar since the days of vanilla, well before Garrosh's makeover of the city. And the guards all wear the same distinctive outfit, though it isn't anywhere near as fancy as the plate of the Stormwind guard.

Back in the early days of Warcraft, Stormwind was one of the first cities developed, and it got a lot of attention to detail -- like the guards and those fancy helmets they wear. In contrast, Orgrimmar changed several times before finally getting to what we saw in vanilla. Alpha videos of Orgrimmar show how much the city developed between alpha and release. The Orgrimmar guards don't really have any special pieces of gear, nothing that is unique to their particular model like the Stormwind guard.

And back in vanilla, there were a lot of player complaints about how Orgrimmar wasn't really fancy at all, compared to majestic city streets of Stormwind. Regardless of favoritism complaints, there's one good thing about the somewhat bland looking Orgrimmar guard -- they are incredibly easy to copy. In fact, every piece of gear on the Orgrimmar models was taken from armor available to players ... which means it's easy to get your hands on.

If you've spent any time in Stormwind at all as an Alliance player, you're likely well familiar with the Stormwind guards that respond to emote commands. And if you're a Horde player who's stormed the walls of Stormwind, then you're definitely familiar with the Stormwind guards, although not in a friendly capacity. The uniform of the Stormwind guard is an iconic look that's been around since vanilla -- classic steel plate armor with blue accents, a shield emblazoned with the Stormwind lion, and the iconic plate helm all make up the look of the Stormwind guard.

With transmogrification, you can morph yourself into one of these classic uniforms as well. Even better than that, almost all the pieces of this particular outfit can be crafted via blacksmithing, without need for endless farming. Though donning this set as a Horde player won't make the guards any less hostile, if you've ever wanted to try and fool people into thinking you're an NPC, it's incredibly easy to do.