Meanwhile in the multiverse where Blizzard allows fun...

[Fantazma]

I strongly believe that I'm not the only one who has seen a transmog of another "material" or exclusive to a class very different from its main-char .... and thought:
Jesus, this time Blizzard made the cutest xmogs, badass, etc... pieces I've ever seen. Too bad it's for Death Knight and I'm a Hunter, or... too bad it's for the mage but I'm a shaman... etc etc.

We all know that Blizzard's artistic notion of what is plate, mail armor, leather and cloth is quite warped. Okay, it's easy to distinguish a chest or helm made of cloth from one made of plate. But the wardrobe is full of sets that if Blizzard didn't tell us we'd never know if it's mail or plate... or leather or cloth... and even leather or plate.
So either they have next to no creativity or they don't care what armor looks like.

So I ask:
Why, after almost two decades of playing, they just don't release our toons to use in our main-char in a COSMETIC way the appearance that our alts already collected???

This (in the screenshots) is the rogue I'd like to be in the game.
chest, pants and shoulders = plate
hands and foot = leather
head = exclusive leather for druids.

I know that, (of course), many here (especially in the first few comments) people will find this ridiculous.

p.s: By the way, one day I will prove that all Warcraft forums have an automatic system that detects a topic saying some truths and immediately sends a dozen bots with questionable intelligence to defend the company. It's impressive.

...but I believe that Blizzard could stop the policy of nerfing all "fun detected" and give us more possibilities within the game.

If people (who like MMOS with a dark world, like me) have to watch the Dracktyrs spitting rainbows all the time... what's wrong with my rogue using a druid head and a DK shoulder?? I think people could take the "pain" of seeing this too, right?

p.s: Sorry about bad english. This is not my first lenguage.

[Biomega]

Why are xmogs armor restricted?

PvP.

They're afraid that Johnny Random sees a robe-wearing warrior and goes "THIS IS PRIEST. HEAL HEAL. WHY SMASH? AAAAH CONFUSE!".

That's it. That's literally all it is.

Is it completely stupid and ridiculous? You betcha.

[Fantazma]

Why are xmogs armor restricted?

PvP.

lol, in PVP I detect the healer and the DPSs through the colors in his health-bar. I don't even pay attention to his race, if he's dressed according to his class, or if he's wearing Santa's cosmetics, or if he's naked.

[Biomega]

lol, in PVP I detect the healer and the DPSs through the colors in his health-bar. I don't even pay attention to his race, if he's dressed according to his class, or if he's wearing Santa's cosmetics, or if he's naked.

You do, and I do, and every reasonable person with a brain does.

But that's not how Blizzard thinks.

They're looking at lowest common denominators, partly because yes there really are substantial amounts of absolutely terrible players who get confused by the dumbest shit, and partly because they have a bit of a perspective problem and are unwilling to jump over their own shadow and be bold with their design choices in general.

[Al Gorefiend]

Why are xmogs armor restricted?

PvP.

They're afraid that Johnny Random sees a robe-wearing warrior and goes "THIS IS PRIEST. HEAL HEAL. WHY SMASH? AAAAH CONFUSE!".

That's it. That's literally all it is.

Is it completely stupid and ridiculous? You betcha.

This isn't farce, this is actually true info people.

Same reason we never got a round of more cosmetic minor glyphs when they first debuted in MoP and subsequently never again (until a very, very few in Legion class halls); because they actually believe spell effects need to be iconic so that they're more recognizable in PvP.

[Fantazma]

You do, and I do, and every reasonable person with a brain does.

But that's not how Blizzard thinks.

They're looking at lowest common denominators, partly because yes there really are substantial amounts of absolutely terrible players who get confused by the dumbest shit, and partly because they have a bit of a perspective problem and are unwilling to jump over their own shadow and be bold with their design choices in general.

Your point is not wrong. There are some "extremes" in transmogs that are really weird... like a mage wearing 100% plate medieval knight armor...! But in WoW some (in fact most) sets, as I said above, we wouldn't know how to differentiate what kind of set it is (leather, mail, etc)... and I really don't see a problem (and many MMOs like Aion don't either no problem) in dressing as we please. Within certain limits... like the distance between a priest and a warrior...! But what is the difference between a druid and a shaman? Both could share the same Xmogs as cosmetics, of course.

reason we never got a round of more cosmetic minor glyphs when they first debuted in MoP and subsequently never again (until a very, very few in Legion class halls); because they actually believe spell effects need to be iconic so that they're more recognizable in PvP.

About the spells I agree 100%. But see this head in the image I put above. There is this same model for Rogue... but the badass color was exclusive to the druid. lol, sad! And about the DK/Warrior shoulders in a rogue... well... Blizzard released dozens of mawsworn "plate shoulders" as cosmetic rewards in corridors.
So, as we can see, Blizzard doesn't have a solid criteria for not allowing us to use most of the game's xmogs. Seems pretty much just a tantrum to me. A "Fun detected" issue that needs to be banned... because it's too cool.

[Jastall]

This isn't farce, this is actually true info people.

Same reason we never got a round of more cosmetic minor glyphs when they first debuted in MoP and subsequently never again (until a very, very few in Legion class halls); because they actually believe spell effects need to be iconic so that they're more recognizable in PvP.

I doubt much stops Blizzard from deactivating ability cosmetics in rated PvP activites, if that's an issue. As for plate wearers using robes or w/e, there's already a bunch of Paladin mogs with robe-like aesthetics, including arguably the most popular Pallly mog in the set in the Judgement set, and most of it is also available for Warriors and DKs. Similarly clothies have access to several mogs that look like mail or plate. If that's the real reason, it's not a good one.

IMO it's far more likely to be a question of resources and caring about the subject, like most things in game development. Cosmetic spell effects would take up dev time, and it may be a rabbit hole they don't want to fall into; changing Fireball, Ice Lance and Arcane Blast into myriad variants would be cool and doable for them, but then if they have to offer multiple variants of most Mage spells (which means dozens of spells with multiple choices) the workload is severely increased, and that's one class out of 13.

As for mog restrictions I dunno why they still care. My DK can prance around naked save for his boxers and dual wielding dead fishes but putting on a leather outfit is verbotten and oh so not representative of the class? Just cut us loose, there's nothing to be lost, more mog options never hurt anyone.

[Biomega]

A "Fun detected" issue that needs to be banned... because it's too cool.

Personally, I think the biggest problem is that their thinking is just ridiculously rigid. They cling to some notion of "fantasy" that has them vastly overrate and overemphasize thinks like identity visuals - they think something must "look shaman/warrior/dk/etc." or there's a problem, and they go out of their way to try and preserve that. Which makes sense, in a way, if you're designing NPCs - but is absolutely toxic bullshit when it comes to players, because you're effectively taking away agency and defining players' characters for them. "THIS is how a DK should look, period" is not a good take when it comes to an RPG, where people might want to, you know, express themselves through their character?

And frankly, they're overdoing it on the environment side, too. Just look at SL, and how everything was just shoehorned into a particular design/color palette for the various zones, and instead of narrative cohesion, we got completely indistinguishable masses of nondescript environments and NPCs whose entire identity was "I belong to <covenant>" and nothing else.

[arkanon]

You do, and I do, and every reasonable person with a brain does.

But that's not how Blizzard thinks.

They're looking at lowest common denominators.

The logic doesnt hold up though (theirs, not yours). The lowest common denominators are spamming white attacks against the guardian druid while the healer sits at the back freecasting. The skill gap or transition from "i really should be attacking the healers" to "i can identify the healer by using frames or addons" isnt a gaping chasm, its almost instant.

Secondly, every healer other than a priest kinda ruins this whole logic mess - even if you identify the pally as a pally because hes wearing plate, is he prot? is he ret? is he holy? Not so easy to tell. Same with monks, shammies, and to a lesser extent, druids.

Again, im not saying YOU are wrong, im saying Blizzard using this as an excuse doesnt hold ANY water - its entirely nonsensical.

My opinion has been the same for about 3 expansions now - wow is OLD, its WAY beyond its best before date. Its time to let go, open things up, unlock race/class combos, and greatly relax the xmog restrictions. I can understand some logical and reasonable restrictions with weapons - a warrior wielding a fist weapon as a shield and a offhand caster item as his main weapon doesnt really make a lot of sense at all, but hey, i guess if someone REALLY wants to do that.....

[Biomega]

Again, im not saying YOU are wrong, im saying Blizzard using this as an excuse doesnt hold ANY water - its entirely nonsensical.

It makes more sense if you shift the metric. Their interest isn't centered around doing well in PvP - it's about how the no-brain randos FEEL they're doing in PvP. Even if they're losing horribly, they don't want them to feel they're losing because they got confused about who's the priest and who's the warrior, because they're afraid that leaves a bad impression. Irrespective of whether or not that really WAS the cause of the loss, and irrespective of whether or not they'd be losing anyway.

It can be very difficult for "normal" players to properly internalize the mindset of the really broad, really terrible masses. They think in ways we'd never even consider, but they're the best Blizzard customers because they willingly pay up and don't look too closely at the actual product.

[huth]

I doubt much stops Blizzard from deactivating ability cosmetics in rated PvP activites, if that's an issue.

At this point, they should even be able to do it on a per-player basis, and extend it to spell effects (you already see spells differently as the caster than other people do to reduce visual clutter).

So the entire argument is nonsense and has no actual basis.

[LionSinMaikeru]

Why are xmogs armor restricted?

PvP.

They're afraid that Johnny Random sees a robe-wearing warrior and goes "THIS IS PRIEST. HEAL HEAL. WHY SMASH? AAAAH CONFUSE!".

That's it. That's literally all it is.

Is it completely stupid and ridiculous? You betcha.

Which is funny because this argument went entirely out of the window once they (A) introduced a neutral race that could be both factions and (B) started introducing transmog in the store.

So they're just being stubborn at this point.

[Biomega]

Which is funny because this argument went entirely out of the window once they (A) introduced a neutral race that could be both factions and (B) started introducing transmog in the store.

So they're just being stubborn at this point.

Pretty much, and they have relaxed SOME xmog restrictions over time. They also used to be vehemently against allowing old legendaries for xmog because "then everyone would just run around with Thunderfury" which is obvious and complete nonsense; and they went back on that and just allowed it, and the world did NOT collapse into a TF-shaped black hole.

So maybe we'll get cross-armor-type xmog at some point, too. Who knows.

...it's not like they don't already have xmogs that are type-agnostic, and somehow that isn't a problem either. It's just completely inane and pointless at this point to restrict things.

[Leyre]

I strongly believe that I'm not the only one who has seen a transmog of another "material" or exclusive to a class very different from its main-char .... and thought:
Jesus, this time Blizzard made the cutest xmogs, badass, etc... pieces I've ever seen. Too bad it's for Death Knight and I'm a Hunter, or... too bad it's for the mage but I'm a shaman... etc etc.

We all know that Blizzard's artistic notion of what is plate, mail armor, leather and cloth is quite warped. Okay, it's easy to distinguish a chest or helm made of cloth from one made of plate. But the wardrobe is full of sets that if Blizzard didn't tell us we'd never know if it's mail or plate... or leather or cloth... and even leather or plate.
So either they have next to no creativity or they don't care what armor looks like.

So I ask:
Why, after almost two decades of playing, they just don't release our toons to use in our main-char in a COSMETIC way the appearance that our alts already collected???

This (in the screenshots) is the rogue I'd like to be in the game.
chest, pants and shoulders = plate
hands and foot = leather
head = exclusive leather for druids.

I know that, (of course), many here (especially in the first few comments) people will find this ridiculous.

p.s: By the way, one day I will prove that all Warcraft forums have an automatic system that detects a topic saying some truths and immediately sends a dozen bots with questionable intelligence to defend the company. It's impressive.

...but I believe that Blizzard could stop the policy of nerfing all "fun detected" and give us more possibilities within the game.

If people (who like MMOS with a dark world, like me) have to watch the Dracktyrs spitting rainbows all the time... what's wrong with my rogue using a druid head and a DK shoulder?? I think people could take the "pain" of seeing this too, right?

p.s: Sorry about bad english. This is not my first lenguage.

You think this looks badass?? lmao this looks like an emo Vulpera

[Reinhart11]

As little effort as they consider necessary, while making as much money as possible. The reasons they talk about are just excuses.

On top of that, Blizzard just underestimate the value of customizations as evergreen content in general. Be race specific, class specific, playable races, transmog. While other companies realized that potential for money years and years ago, Blizzard is still clueless. Its mindboggling that they don't have a team that constantly and specifically works on these aspects of the game. How many threads and comments exist in regards to these topics? The demand is there no question. They just don't realize and also can't be arsed.

[SniperCT]

I'd even take learning cloth/plate/mail on my rogue to be able to use on my alts. So many cool BoP pieces i've picked up and then vendored because I got them on the wrong class for transmog.

IMO it's far more likely to be a question of resources and caring about the subject, like most things in game development. Cosmetic spell effects would take up dev time, and it may be a rabbit hole they don't want to fall into; changing Fireball, Ice Lance and Arcane Blast into myriad variants would be cool and doable for them, but then if they have to offer multiple variants of most Mage spells (which means dozens of spells with multiple choices) the workload is severely increased, and that's one class out of 13.

This is almost assuredly a factor. I mean how long did it take them to add green fire for warlocks? But in that case they went above and beyond, so I wonder if it's also a matter of wanting to make it a questline in some cases just to not make mages or other classes feel like they got shafted on some cool content. (and the warlock green fire questline is really awesome. I still wear that title on mine)

[Aucald]

I pretty much agree, and I think class-specific xmog restrictions should be the exception as opposed to the rule. There are cases where it does make sense, like for specific weapons or iconic pieces that wouldn't work on any other class - but those are generally few and far between. Perhaps have the current tier sets class-specific and then remove the barrier when we move to a new expansion and just open it up to all classes regardless of armor type.

That's my $0.02, in any case.

[Al Gorefiend]

IMO it's far more likely to be a question of resources and caring about the subject, like most things in game development. Cosmetic spell effects would take up dev time, and it may be a rabbit hole they don't want to fall into; changing Fireball, Ice Lance and Arcane Blast into myriad variants would be cool and doable for them, but then if they have to offer multiple variants of most Mage spells (which means dozens of spells with multiple choices) the workload is severely increased, and that's one class out of 13.

See I thought along this train of logic as well. But then I realize, they make pretty cool spell effects, SFX and colorful abilities for random NPCs all the time.

Nothing is actually stopping them from letting mages shoot blue fireballs, plenty of NPCs have it, the spell effect exists.

[Biomega]

See I thought along this train of logic as well. But then I realize, they make pretty cool spell effects, SFX and colorful abilities for random NPCs all the time.

Nothing is actually stopping them from letting mages shoot blue fireballs, plenty of NPCs have it, the spell effect exists.

They have said, literally and unequivocally, that the reason they're against changing spell effects like that is PvP. They don't want people to get confused about what's happening, just because they don't know all the 500 colors of the rainbow that a fireball could take.

...that being said, the idea of just disabling such cosmetics in PvP or making them so only you can see them but other players can't apparently didn't cross their mind, so fuck, who knows what's going on.

At the end of the day, it's very possible that "it's not worth the money to spend on it" is just a good enough reason, and the rest is just them giving excuses not to have to say that out loud.

[arkanon]

It makes more sense if you shift the metric. Their interest isn't centered around doing well in PvP - it's about how the no-brain randos FEEL they're doing in PvP. Even if they're losing horribly, they don't want them to feel they're losing because they got confused about who's the priest and who's the warrior, because they're afraid that leaves a bad impression. Irrespective of whether or not that really WAS the cause of the loss, and irrespective of whether or not they'd be losing anyway.

It can be very difficult for "normal" players to properly internalize the mindset of the really broad, really terrible masses. They think in ways we'd never even consider, but they're the best Blizzard customers because they willingly pay up and don't look too closely at the actual product.

Sorry, but none of this makes ANY sense. They are either attacking the healer, or they are not. Simple as that.