Transmo… what?!? How does Transmogrification work?

Published August 23, 2011 | By Myrddin

In case you wondered, nope myrddin.de hasn’t gone Wildstar! World of Warcraft is still my game, but it doesn’t hurt to peek to the sides now and then, does it?
The chant you seem to hear in WoW everywhere seems to be “Transmogrify!”. So we will take a look at how it works, what restrictions apply and I’ll show you my favourite gear.

The Ethereals are coming!

Ethereals would be a race I’d be looking forward to play, while that won’t be possible now I am nevertheless glad that they made their way back into the game and aren’t restricted to the outdated outlands.

The new ability to transmogrify your armor, which basically means it will look like another piece or armor while keeping its stats will be introduced in Patch 4.3. The content patch will also bring more 5 man instances and finally the new raid against Deathwing. One thing after another, Transmogrification first!

Below are excerpts coming from various blue posts and the official preview.

“The Ethereals, emerging from the nether, will bring with them a new technology they call Transmogrification. They’re heading to the capital cities of Azeroth to set up shop and to offer adventurers a unique service — copying the appearance of one magical item onto another. They only ask for a modest gold donation to recoup their costs.”
Visiting a Transmogrifier will present players with a new interface that will allow them to change the appearance of an item while retaining its original stats. This means that you can raid in your paladin tier 12 Immolation set, but look like you’re wearing Lightbringer, while priests can bring Benediction back — at least in spirit.

Restrictions

Blizzard aims to start this service with quite a lot of restrictions and then take it from there. There are also plans, that will most likely not make it to Patch 4.3. For example making gear “available by other means”, if it is no longer possible to acquire. What this exactly means I cannot tell you It is not unlike that we will see a comeback of for example Tier 3 and my favourite Misplaced Servo Arm.

Anyway here are snippets from blue posts about restrictions that will apply:

If you want to obtain the look of gear that you’ve deleted in the past, then yes, you’ll need to farm that old gear back.
The gear also still has to have stats aside from armor on it. That means that there are a lot of white or grey items that might not be available initially when Transmogrification goes live
You must also be able to wear both items when using this service
Similarly, they [Ethereals] won’t allow you to change weapon or armor types
Sneaky death knights can’t make that breastplate look like a cloth robe, and you can’t make a one-handed axe look like a two-handed axe, or transform a sword’s appearance into that of a mace. Guns, bows, and crossbows will be the exception to this rule
Mainhand can only be applied to mainhand, and offhand can only be applied to offhand.
You will not be able to transmogrify using a legendary item as either the source or the recipient of a change.
Heirlooms will be eligible targets for Transmogrification, trading, mailing, auctioning or depositing an item in a guild bank will remove the Transmogrified art.
If you transmogrify a Bind on Equip item, it will become bound to you. Items used in Transmogrification will also become non-refundable and non-tradeable as well.
We would like to offer some alternative ways to get favorite items that are no longer available, such as perhaps the dungeon tier sets or the DK start gear.
Weapons that look like fish, for example, probably won’t be available as source items for Transmogrification, even if one is technically a dagger and has stats.
The gold cost for Transmogrification hasn’t been set in stone, but it’s likely to be very similar to Reforging, meaning it’d scale with item level.

Cool Stuff

I haven’t really been a fan of recent Tier sets and to give us the opportunity to wear those old sets with currents stats is kind of nice. There aren’t many items I would like to wear as Enhancement Shaman though, maybe the T5 Cataclysm set, or the Sunwell Set … but I won’t be able to run around as Bloodsail Admiral awww.

I kept my cool weapons, for example The Lich King Axes, various Fist Weapons, sadly I threw away the Black Temple and Ulduar maces. In general though I am a fan of understatement and will maybe trying to get some lower set, maybe the BRD Gladiator Set and Ironfoe

Pictures

Warlock

My favourite Warlock Set, Tier 5/Season 2. Agreed, it is not looking super fearsome on my little gnome. But an orc or human weaing this used to be a scary sight, especially since gear was not so easy to come at the time

Rogue

My favourite rogue gear is Bonescythe, sadly I dont have a full set, missing the chest, so I’ll show you Bloofdang instead! Meet the infamous Macerogue of Ravencrest Slant!

I’ll keep you updated on this, especially on the progress in BRD and Ironfoe There seem to be lots of possibilities to the new system, something for everyone.