transmog
Latest
Try these 100 weapon transmogs for a new look
If you're on the hunt for the perfect weapon to compliment your transmog, The Lazy Peon has you covered with this video. In it, he shows off 100 different weapons from all angles to help you pin down the perfect look. (It's certainly easier than browsing through lists of swords on Wowhead.) Every weapon shown is currently obtainable, and you'll find out where to get it, what it costs, and its drop rate, too. This video does require a bit of an attention span, though -- as you might guess, showing that many weapons with that much info takes up a hefty amount of time, and the video clocks in at nearly 19 minutes. Still, if you want to get a good look at all of the best weapon options, this is probably easier (and perhaps even faster) than searching for images of each weapon -- though for those of you who prefer your information text based, there's a list below the video. Happy transmogging!
The Queue: Followers, transmog, and gross items
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. I managed to lose a day this week and thought today was Tuesday rather than Wednesday. For that reason, The Queue is a little late today. I hope you'll all forgive me. Snichy asked: Does getting a follower to "epic" quality have any benefits over them being the same iLevel but blue?
Why updated graphics matter
What you see above is the result of time marching on - in my draenei's right hand is Sulfuras, the Extinguished Hand, a drop from Firelands. In the left hand, Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros, the legendary drop from the original Molten Core. (Yes, I know technically it doesn't drop, the Eye drops, you craft a Sulfuron Hammer and then use the Eye on it, I've had the thing since MC I know how I got it.) What I'm showing you is essentially the orderly progression of time via graphic upgrades - you can essentially see the history of the game unfolding via the difference between these two weapons. Everything from the spikes to the grip to the shape of the head, it's all more detailed and crisp on the newer model. The older model is a collection of polygonal shapes that bear only a vague resemblance to a hammer compared to the newer model, which is itself still not as good as models we have in the game now, never mind some of the Warlords drops we're about to see. The gap between these two hammers is the gap between 2004 and 2011, and here we are, three years later than that - and they show us how much a ten year old game can in fact change.
The Importance of Legacy Content
Since patch 6.0.2 came out, I've rediscovered the love I once held for soloing older raids. More than rediscovered it - I've expanded it, because now I can pretty easily solo most Cataclysm raids (I'm working on Spine of Deathwing) and that broadens what I can gather for transmog. But it's more than transmog, and more than the sensation one gets when you push Rhyolith through all his phases so that he dies before he's even done yelling at you in an awesome parody of what it sounds like when I wake up. In a recent interview with PC Gamer magazine, Ion Hazzikostas pointed out that one of World of Warcraft's biggest strengths is its depth of content. The MMO has been going for ten years. There are old raids and dungeons everywhere. It's not just old content - it's a resource. And it makes WoW a game with incredible potential.
Warlords of Draenor: Transmoggable farm implements
Our friends over at Wowhead have uncovered a new feature in Warlords of Draenor that should make dedicated transmog enthusiasts very happy--transmoggable farm weapons. These include a Garden Hoe, Garden Shovel, Garden Pitchfork, Garden Scythe, and Garden Sickle. The Garden Hoe and Garden Sickle are classified as one-hand maces, all the rest are two-hand staves. They are vendor items sold by the NPCs around your Garrison's Herb Garden, and the cost is surprisingly steep--2,375 gold plus 500 Draenic Seeds for the one-handers, and 4,750 gold plus 1,000 Draenic Seeds for the two-handers. Draenic Seeds can be either grown in your Garrison's Herb Garden, or farmed out in the world by Herbalists. If you've ever dreamed of an amazing farmer transmog, these weapons are sure to complete the look along with the Red Lumberjack Shirt and the Blue Overalls--for clothies, at least. Who'd have thought that a warlock could look so convincingly nurturing?
Global Chat: A blast from the past
As many of you know, Massively doesn't really believe in reviews of MMOs, as they are ever-changing and shifting targets. Instead, we've provided impressions and continuing coverage of these games during their lifespans (and even after), which is something that many bloggers also favor. In this edition of Global Chat, we have several hands-on impressions of MMOs both new and old from the blogosphere. What is it like to head back to Asheron's Call after a long time away? Is Guild Wars 2's and Lord of the Rings Online's new content hitting the mark? And what will we miss most of all now that Vanguard has departed? It's all there and more, right after the break!
Warlords of Draenor: Illusions change your enchant effects
If you're one of those players who enjoys transmog but hates it when an enchant doesn't seem to go with your weapon, the folks at Wowhead have datamined an interesting new wrinkle - the ability to transmog your weapon effects. It seems to be achieved via an item called an illusion, like this one for the old BC era Executioner enchant, that applies only the visual aspect of a specific enchant. In addition, rogues get a special rogue only effect, Illusion - Poison, which does exactly what you'd expect, as well as certain Warlords enchants having a poisonous variant just for rogues with a similar effect. There's also another kind of enchant variant, the hidden variant, that has the same basic effect as the baseline enchant but which has no discernible visible effect. This is all pretty interesting stuff if you're an enchanter, or into transmog, or just don't like a specific enchant effect and want everything to look like it's got fire or butterflies on it. Ooh, fire butterflies.
Blizzard's vision and player choice
This past Thursday, Cory Stockton (aka Mumper) answered a simple question on Twitter. He told players that the faction hubs would no longer be located in the Temple of Karabor and Bladespire Fortress, but on the island of Ashran. The firestorm of controversy that followed seemed to take Blizzard by surprise. Lore took to the forums to explain the change. He gave Blizzard's reasoning, including the lore explanation for the new hubs. Far from mollifying the player base, it only served to inflame those who disagreed with the shift in locale. My response is this: Why not both? Why must one city or the other be the One Hub to Rule Them All? Why can't we, the players, choose which city to bind our hearthstone to -- without being punished for it? Why does there have to be one "right" answer on such a basic quality of life issue? Let us choose and use phasing so we only see our own choice as a hub. Although I don't condone the extremely negative way that some reacted to the announcement, the anger didn't surprise me at all. It points to a problem that has loomed over WoW for a long time: lack of player options and personalization.
Warlords of Draenor Alpha: Transmog changes
On live servers you can't transmog polearms over swords, axes or maces (and vice versa), but on the Alpha it's a totally different story, as you can see in the header image above. No idea if this is an intended change or not (I hope it is) but it's certainly a welcome one for those of us who happen to carry a Hellreaver in our bags.
Warlords of Draenor transmog preview on Wowhead
The folks at Wowhead have an extensive preview of weapon models, with multiple videos, showing off what they've datamined from Challenge Modes, Raids, and dungeons as well as PvP honor weapons. Some of the drops look like updated BC models, like this sword that has an unmistakably draenei feel to it, or this shield from challenge modes. It seems based on what's been mined so far that this time the weapons are the prestige draw from challenge modes instead of armor like in Pandaria. There's a lot to look at, so head over to the official preview on Wowhead and take a look.
What do you think is next for transmog?
It's no secret that we love transmog. We spend so much time with our WoW characters that we want them to look their best, so we scour the game world to collect unique and interesting looks. But with the idea that classes could now have their own unique class items in addition to unique class sets, we're starting to wonder what other kind of customization options Blizzard might be thinking about -- like what might be coming up for transmog. We've talked about the features -- like transmogrification -- from other games that you'd like added to WoW, but now let's just talk transmog. What do you want to see Blizzard add to transmog moving forward?
Breakfast Topic: What kind of class items do you want to see?
The addition of unique, cosmetic class items to the game is definitely an exciting step for character customization in World of Warcraft. Blizzard's told us, "We envision that class accessories will be rewarded from a variety of accomplishments in World of Warcraft. These could be as simple as attaining a new level, or as monumental as conquering a vicious raid boss. We want each player to have access to multiple accessories, but have some rarer accessories that take more effort to obtain." And that just leaves us with so many more questions -- the biggest of which is "what comes next?" This tiny preview just gives us a glimpse of what Blizzard is thinking of with this -- and since we've got nothing but time to speculate, let's talk! Tell us, readers, which kind of special class items would you like to see added to the game?
TERA's remodeling system removal causing player unrest
Avatar customization is a big deal in MMOs, especially ones as gorgeous as TERA. It's such a big deal, in fact, that changes to TERA's system brought on by the recent Reaper patch have resulted in a titanic forum protest thread that's well over 30 pages long as of this writing. In a nutshell, TERA's dearly departed remodeling system allowed players to alter the look of individual gear pieces. It was similar to World of Warcraft's transmogrification mechanics, but it has now been replaced by a system that necessitates grinding for tickets that may be exchanged for whole armor sets. [Thanks everyone who tipped us!]
Breakfast Topic: The features you want from other games
I've been playing a lot of Diablo 3 lately, which means that when I hop back into World of Warcraft I really miss how awesome my D3 character always looks. The art style of the two games is very different, and some players will like one more than the other -- but mostly I miss the ability to customize my look to be exactly what I want it to be. D3 has dyes -- including a vanishing dye that makes armor pieces invisible -- that lets you control the color of every piece of armor you wear. And as if that isn't enough, you can also transmogrify the look of armor or weapon into any other armor or weapon that you have ever had. I weep just thinking of the bag space that would be saved if I didn't have to hold on to every piece of armor with an interesting look or color. But for those who care less about transmog that's probably not a compelling feature set -- so tell us, readers, what features from other games (Blizzard or otherwise) do you wish World of Warcraft would adopt?
"A more elegant collection game" - Watcher on transmog
Today we posted a rundown on PAX East information. and one of the pieces of information was that Diablo III's transmog system is not coming to World of Warcraft. This made me sad, of course. Today, Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas tweeted the following update on that. @perculia Not in 6.0. We do have major plans to make transmog more elegant as a collection game in the future, though. - Watcher (@WatcherDev) April 14, 2014 Now, this doesn't tell us how they plan to make transmog more elegant. It doesn't even tell us for sure that there won't be a Diablo III style approach to it - it just tells us that it won't be in Patch 6.0, whatever it ends up being. Still, it's nice to know that it's still being worked on. The extra void storage tab is a nice feature. Until we know what it is going to be I'll just be over here staring wistfully at my complete lack of bag space.
The Queue: Monday potpourri
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Happy Monday morning, everyone! @rlloyd3 asked: Do we know of any potential changes to Azeroth in WoD? (Stormwind's Park District, for example.)
Dragon Soul LFR changes possible in 6.0
Transmog addicts may have some good news for patch 6.0. When LFR was introduced with Dragon Soul, the last raid in Cataclysm, players flocked to the content and gathered armor and items that had their own unique color schemes. After Mists of Pandaria was introduced, players leveled to 90 -- and the ability to run Dragon Soul on LFR difficulty disappeared. While players can still farm the raid on Normal and Heroic difficulties, the unique color sets released specifically for LFR were no longer available to those max level characters. This was in part due to the nature of LFR. The only way to raid LFR level content is to queue for it through the raid finder interface -- you can't simply change the dropdown difficulty on a per-character basis, as you can with Normal and Heroic difficulties. Once you've passed the level threshold for Cataclysm content, the option to raid Dragon Soul LFR simply disappears from the raid finder interface. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem -- but transmogrification addicts everywhere have been looking for a solution to obtaining those older, uniquely colored items, and Lead Game Designer Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas just tweeted that a solution may be on the way in patch 6.0.
The Queue: Blast of Baja
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Forgive me for being a stereotype but holy crap Baja Blast is probably being released in bottles this year. Taco Bell's decade of tyranny is coming to an end. HemttTanker asked: Are they having a Blizcon this year? And if so, might the delay in releasing any new WoW content be so they have stuff to talk about during the event?
The surprising importance of visual improvement
Before the introduction of transmogrification, I had no idea why anyone wanted it. Back then, I was a pretty involved raider (still am, but probably a step or so less) and almost all of my effort in-game was dedicated towards improving my gear's stats. I didn't give much thought to how it looked. Occasionally I'd make fun of myself for looks like the one above, when I simply couldn't get a hat or shoulders to drop in the first tier of Cataclysm raiding and had to settle for ones from Zul'Gurub or Zul'Aman. I wore them, because they were the best I could get, and every week I cursed the bosses in Blackwing Descent and Bastion of Twilight for not dropping better. But I always thought it was the stats that were important, not the fact that I looked like some demented tauren clown pretending to be a murloc to scare tauren children. It took me a long time to understand how important a feature that allows you to customize your character's look can be to get you invested in that character. My groaning bank and void storage, filled to bursting with transmog items, can certainly attest that I quickly learned that lesson. But it shouldn't have been so surprising to me, considering I played in vanilla -- and back in vanilla, it was the fact that the tier raiding sets were such stark visual improvements that was half the motivation in pursuing them.
Breakfast Topic: Where's my red Battlegear of Wrath?
Look, I'm a transmog aficionado. I have no bag space left because I collect gear constantly. So every time I go to Tempest Keep to kill Kael, I run into these guys and they irritate the heck out of me. I already have the Battlegear of Wrath, and its recolor. I prefer the classic look to the Burning Crusade green color dungeon set, but I'd very much prefer that red set above to either, and I can't get it. It doesn't drop anywhere - the only place you'll see it in game is on mobs like the guys in Tempest Keep and Ruul the Darkener, who makes it even worse by dual-wielding Thunderfury while he's at it. This irks me. I want this set, but I can't have it. It's not a major concern - it's just irritating. So let's make this about you - any mobs who have something you want - an item, gear, a special mount?
