Hey everyone!
I’m back for another thread so prepare yourself - this is a mega thread.
If you’d rather not read through this absolute monster of a thread, I’ve released a video covering everything you’ll see below. Video can be found here:
For those of you on the Dragonflight Beta, I’ve posted an identical thread to the Beta forums for folks there to join the discussion:
Transmog Change History
Over the course of the last few expansions, we have seen a variety of Transmog restrictions altered or removed/lifted & it is clear that the community playerbase loves seeing more freedom and choice in how their character looks.
While these changes are great, I believe that more Transmog restrictions can be changed without disrupting core elements of the RPG side of WoW but still falls in line with granting players more freedom and customization.
While I know there’s many who would argue that all restrictions should be removed across the board, the bulk of this thread will focus on weapon restrictions and why I believe it’s time to lift some of the 2004 restrictions in regards to weapon accessibility.
We have heard from the developers that giving players the freedom of choice to be who they want to be is important (race customization, class/race combos) and I believe Transmog is an important part of this mentality.
“Ongoing expansion and customization of it is something we are looking to do certainly by Dragonflight, possibly before then is rolling a lot of the white and grey quality items into the transmog system so that you can choose from a lot of simpler, humbler civilian attire-type looks. We want to keep adding in more options for customization and self-expression." - Ion Hazzikostas
Class Silhouette
Whether they’re identified by their weapon or armor, a players class silhouette makes it clear what exactly they are.
In original World of Warcraft, class silhouette was vital to the game to differentiate between the noble, gold-armor wearing Paladin and the battle-hardened barbarian-like Warrior or between battle casters like Mages and Warlocks and cleric-like casters like Priests.
It was a vital RPG element that went into set and armor design to ensure players felt like they were recognized as the class they were playing.
But over the years, class silhouettes have become obsolete. As raids began to release ‘look-a-like sets’, players as far back as Wrath of the Lich King could look like Death Knights but play as a Paladin or Warrior. When transmog was released, players could decide exactly how they wanted to look.
Look-a-like set featuring a Warrior? Paladin? Death Knight? By silhouette alone, you don't know.
With the implementation of ‘cosmetic sets’ and heritage armor, class silhouette has all but faded as these sets usually break the typical theme that would be worn by one armor class or another.
The Paladin on the left defies all Paladin-stereotypical Class Silhouettes. What class is the Tauren on the right? Would you believe me if I said he was a Shaman?
Despite transmog and cosmetic sets making class silhouettes a thing of the past, I’d argue that most players don’t rely on another players visual appearance to identify their class. There are plenty of addons that identify a players spec and class, not to mention the default UI color codes players by class. Spell kits also play a huge role in showcasing what class someone is; a plated silhouette exploding into wings of pure holy energy clearly indicates a Paladin.
Ultimately: Class silhouette was important in 2004 but serves no role in modern World of Warcraft.
A class silhouette is an important factor for tier sets as they are meant to reflect themes of each individual class, but that silhouette SHOULD be up to the player to embrace.
A change in Weapon restrictions
Weapon restrictions tie in with the idea of Class Silhouettes as they once helped identify/establish the visual identifiers for certain classes. While that made sense in 2004, in 2022 those rules shouldn’t apply any more. I’ll be breaking down all of the weapon restrictions that stand out as egregiously with images to prove my point.
The fact that the Paladin on the left is possible and the Hunter on the right isn't clearly showcases why "class silhouette" is truly a meaningless, archaic idea that hinders/holds back player customization.
As a note: I am not advocating for weapon types to be given to all of these classes. I would not expect a caster 1-handed sword to be available to Priests who now have to share their loot pools with Mages, Warlocks and Holy Paladins. The idea would be to remove these weapon restrictions strictly for transmog purposes(somehow) without disrupting loot tables or creating problems with itemization.
Warglaives
Easily the most bizarrely restricted weapon-type added to the game. Despite being added in Legion with Demon Hunters, Warglaives had an in-game precedence in both official and unofficial capacity.
OG Glaives usable by other melee classes - for what reason?
In TBC, we had the Warglaives of Azzinoth added (1-handed swords) and were usable by Warriors and Rogues and later Death Knights and Monks. Throughout the years, glaive-like-weapons have been made available to players and have either functioned as swords or fist weapons.
Let’s start with Trolls, specifically Shadow Hunters.
Trolls of all kinds are featured wielding glaives across Azeroth.
Trolls are often seen wielding glaives throughout Azeroth. Most notably, of course, is Vol’jin who died on the Broken Shore wielding a glaive. Darkspear and Sandfury Shadow Hunters have all been featured wielding this iconic dual-bladed weapon.
Since Vanilla, nearly every single Night Elf NPC guard has appeared to be wielding glaives, whether it was in the form of the double-sided blade as seen in Silithus or the iconic tri-bladed featured on the Night Elf Crest.
Name a more iconic racial-themed weapon not usable by 95% of the Race.
In BFA, during the Darkshore revamp, we were finally given the iconic Moon Glaive as an obtainable weapon - a weapon that has been featured since WC3 as the favored weapon of Kaldorei Sentinels, Priestesses, Huntresses and Warriors and instead of making this accessible to most Night Elves, it was restricted to the Demon-infused social outcast of Kaldorei society.
Elven Guards using Elven Glaives
In TBC, Blood Elf guards were seen wielding glaives (similar to that of the Spell Breakers in WC3) and these weapons were even updated in BFA for the new guards. Like Silvermoon Guards, Suramar guards were also given spell-glaives.
There is neither lore nor gameplay precedent to keep the glaive locked to the class with the least playable races, not to mentioned zero lore significance to the actual weapon type outside of Illidan’s blades (which again, were usable by melee classes). Death Knights did not get runeblades as a unique weapon type - they got unique runeblades worked into their kits. Same with Monks and their staves/battle-staves.
The most iconic Night Elf weapon in Warcraft History remains unusable by Rogues, Warriors, Hunters, Priests, Monks and more.
I know some Demon Hunters may say that warglaives are what make their class unique but to that I say: why can you use other weapons then? Every glaive is used by a DH but not every Demon Hunter uses glaives.
If other classes got access to Glaives, Demon Hunters would still keep their unique Glaive animations. Glaive could (and do) use the 1-handed animations for non-DH races, letting Demon Hunters keep some uniqueness with class-unique animations.
Besides their one optional weapon type, the unique factors behind the Demon Hunter class also include
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Wide array of customization options unique to Demon Hunters (in addition to the Shadowlands additions)
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Incredibly mobility and speed (Fel rush, leap, double jump, glide)
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Demon-transforming + Fel kit (taken from Warlocks)
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Incredibly survivability
Clear demonstration of glaive-like-weapons using fist/sword animations.
Opening the warglaive weapon type to other classes unlocks a ton of potential for class and player fantasy whether that be through Kaldorei Sentinels, Blood Elf Spellbreakers, Troll Shadow Hunters, Suramar Spellblades and more.
Cloth Class Restrictions
1-handed Weapons
During the early days of World of Warcraft, weapon restrictions for Casters were largely aligned with a few choice exceptions. Warlocks and Mages were permitted to use swords to create that battle-caster silhouette while Priests were assigned maces as their martial weapon to help create that battle-cleric silhouette.
But now, in an age where class silhouette is completely up to player choice, why do weapon restrictions matter for cloth classes?
Is a Priest wielding a sword that detrimental or silhouette-shattering to the Priest class fantasy? The original Paladins were Priests of Northshire Abbey so why can’t Priests wield swords?
Can a Warlock really wield a dagger and sword but somehow not wield an axe or a mace?
What’s stopping a mage from putting down their battle-sword and picking up an enchanted battle-mace?
Polearms
While we’re at it - why can’t Priests, Warlocks, Mages (and Shamans) wield Polearms?
Staves & Polearms overlap model-wise so what's the harm in letting them use these?
It’s not like these Casters use their weapons in combat so, really, why the restriction? Half the Polearms out there look like Staves anyways while half the Staves look like Spears or Polearms. I understand the idea of larger weapons maybe looking out of place on Casters, but the overlap between Polearms and Staves nowadays is so broad, it’s hard to really tell which is what without the in-game weapon tag.
Leather Class Restrictions
Druids & Dual-wielding
As far back as Warcraft 3, we’ve had the ‘Druids of the Claw’ type fantasy with Druids wielding huge animal-like claw weapons on either hand and in Legion that fantasy became a reality. With the Claws of Ursoc and Fangs of Ashamane, Druids were finally allowed to Dual-wield their weapons much like the units in WC3.
But can Druids actually Dual-wield? Nope! And really - why not?
An iconic, class-fantasy that isn't actually possible in-game.
Since Druids are often stuck in their animal forms anyways, why not give them as much customization as possible and allow them to transmog their weapons into 2 1-handers.
On that note - why can’t Druids wield a 1-handed axe or sword? They can use daggers, fist weapons and maces so why not the other 2?
The class silhouette of giving a Druid an axe (you know, those things used to chop down trees which would upset druids) was understandable for 2004 but is a Druid wielding an edged weapon that bizarre in 2022?
Rogues
Subtely & Assassination spec Rogues are stuck using their daggers and only daggers. Forget every previous restriction I’ve talked about and think about this one: 2 specs in modern day World of Warcraft are restricted to using a single weapon type, despite their class being able to use all 3 types of 1-handed weapons. Even Hunters, who are mainly range, have variety and option in their weapons yet Sub/Assassination Rogues are stuck.
Hard to believe 2/3 Rogue specs are locked to a single weapon type. Does the Tauren Rogue look so off as a Sub rogue?
Now yes, clipping does play a role in why they can’t use larger weapons but really - using the /backstab animation while wielding a club? That’s gonna look like it hurts. Rogues move at such a high speed that weapon clipping shouldn’t really play a role - not when half the daggers out there are the size of broadswords. I haven’t played my rogue in years but while doing research on this topic, this was brought to my attention and I was so baffled I actually didn’t believe it to be true and tested it out in-game myself.
One class, 2 specs locked to a single weapon? Mind boggling. Rogues, speak up!
Monk
While Monks are pretty versatile in what weapons they can use, it’s a bit strange that they can wield nearly every melee weapon but can’t use daggers? If the Class fantasy is that monks are these martial experts who are equally as deadly with a weapon as they are without, then what’s the harm in having them transmog two daggers?
On that note - if they can mog staves and polearms into each other, why not let them mog the other 2-handed weapons? Monks are supposed to be the ultimate agile martial class and if they can wield a polearm and staff while rolling and stumbling around, why can’t they wield a 2-handed mace, axe or sword?
Blademasters of the Burning Blade Clan are very Monk-like both in aesthetic and in-game abilities (Samuro’s abilities in HotS are Monk spells and they’re used by multiple Burning Blade NPC’s) and they can wield enormous 2-handed weapons of all kinds so what’s the harm?
Mail Class Restrictions
Hunter
This is bound to be a hot topic so let’s jump right into it: dual-wielding survival. Bring it back!
I know - this is bound to start a hot debate much like Warriors and their “SMF vs 2-handers” argument but keep in mind that I am trying to propose this strictly from a Transmog perspective.
Dual-wielding Hunters used to be possible back in the day, so why not try and bring it back? Every iconic Hunter character is depicted as a dual-wielder:
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Tyrande Whisperwind with her Glaives
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Nathanos Blightcaller with his twin-axes
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Even Sylvanas Windrunner was depicted at the end of BFA and in SL wielding two weapons.
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Rexxar and his dual-axes.
Now - would it even be possible for a Hunter using a staff or polearm to transmog their weapon into 2 weapons for appearances only? To be honest I have no idea but there is a similar precedent I’d like to point out.
Post-Legion Artifact Mogging
Towards the end of Legion, many classes feared losing their artifact appearances in BFA due to the way transmogging worked. Throughout all of Legion, Holy Paladins utilized a 2-handed weapon and it was likely the meta would return to 1-hander and a shield. To ensure this didn’t happen, the Devs enabled a clever exception that allowed Holy Paladins to turn their 1-handers + shield into their artifact 2 hander.
This also allowed Guardian/Feral Druids to turn their 2-handed weapons into the Claws/Fangs and allows for Warlocks and Mages to turn their daggers/swords + offhands into their favorite Artifact staff. If it’s possible to turn 2 weapons into one artifact, can it be reversed engineered to allow a Hunter to turn their staff into let’s say two glaives? Stat-wise they would be using the 2-handed weapon but appearance wise they are dual-wielding like the glorious days of melee hunters.
On the topic of Hunters: they can use polearms, staves, axes and swords but not maces? Really, from an purely cosmetic transmog point of view - what’s silhouette shattering about a Hunter using a 2-handed mace? At this point, not allowing a weapon type to be usable by a class simply because they can use most of the other similar weapon types seems like exclusion for no other reason than to keep them from having all options.
Shamans
Shamans, specifically Enhancement spec Shamans, are masters of Dual-wielding. They can use fist weapons, maces, axes…but not swords? I’ll admit, I can see why swords weren’t allowed for Shamans back in 2004 - they didn’t really fit the intended, brutish, Horde-aligned silhouette that was meant for Shamans. Heavy, blunt and edged weapons like maces and axes were intended - not swords (As Thrall says “Too much blade; not enough heft”)
But come on - it’s 2022. Are swords that silhouette breaking when it comes defining their class-theme?
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Is wielding a pair of crystalline swords on a Draenei really not appropriate for a Shaman?
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Do Dwarven, rune-forged swords seem out of place and inappropriate on a Dwarven Shaman?
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Or a Zandalari Shaman wielding a pair of Sethrak swords, fused in the sands of Vol’dun durin a dangerous elemental storm?
And much like my previous idea for allowing Hunters to turn a 2-hander into 2 1-handers, why not the reversed for Shamans and bring back 2-handed Enhancement?
Bring back 2-H Enhance!
Let Shamans transmog Polearms and other 2-handed weapons for that old-school Enhancement Fantasy! I know many Shaman who would be ecstatic about the return of 2-handed Enhancement, even if it was purely for Transmog purposes (the complications of making it happen stat/weapon-wise would likely be a nightmare to sort out).
Why not bring back that two-handed class fantasy to Shamans who had it so long ago but haven’t been able to tap into it since?
Plate Class Restrictions
While most plate classes have access to a fair-share of weapons, one restriction has always baffled me: Staves
Warriors can wield every weapon type, staves included yet Paladins and Death Knights cannot. I know the general assumption is that “staves are for casters! They’re small, delicate weapons” but it’s time to look that argument straight in the face and realize that it’s simply not true.
A Paladin can wield every large 2-handed weapon except staves - why?
Many staves and polearms overlap appearance wise - they share the exact same model and yet, they’re often classified as either weapon type. Since DK/Paladins can wield massive 2-handed swords, axes and maces and polearms, why is a staff any different? If Hunters/Monks/Druids/Warriors can all wield them as martial, melee weapons then why should they be any different for Paladins and Death Knights?
Do these staves look so wrong on Death Knights?
Does this staff look terrible on a Paladin?
This brutish, terrifying weapon is not possible to wear as a Death Knight simply because: it’s a staff despite looking heavier than the actual race that would wield it.
In addition to staves for Paladins and Death Knights, I’d like to take a special moment to highlight the Fury Warrior plight.
SMF Fury
As we know, in Dragonflight, SMF is currently poised to be less incentivising for Warriors compared to using 2 2-handed weapons. While I’m sure the logistics of figuring out the balance between 2 2-handers vs 2 1-handers is an absolute nightmare, why not simply allow it to be cosmetic only?
What’s the harm in granting Fury Warriors a special allowance that, because of their SMF / Titans Grip talents, allows them to mog their weapon, regardless of size, into any other shaped weapon they want. If a Warrior wants to dual-wield fish or two of the largest weapons in-game, let them! Let the class-fantasy not be tied to any meta or talent and be purely for cosmetics sake.
Closing Rambles
I’m sure I’ve missed a few weapon examples that could be lifted but if you’ve made it this far, you probably agree that I’ve gone on long enough.
Weapon restrictions really are part of an older, outdated system that was crucial to the core RPG element of WoW back in 2004; Class silhouettes. But with the creation of Transmog, Cosmetic armor and more, class silhouettes are now only relevant when it comes to class-tier armor (in that they should clearly define what class they represent) and should not be something forced onto the players.
Weapon restrictions, for the sake of cosmetics and transmog, really do more damage than any sort of good - they are restrictive and punishing to player expression and in most cases, can easily be disproven with in-game/in-lore examples on why those restrictions simply don’t make any sense.
Again, I think these rules should be lifted purely for cosmetic/visual purposes. I think expecting cloth caster 1-handed axes or Paladin DPS staves to drop would be kind of silly/unneeded for itemization. Instead, grant this sweeping movement of restriction-free customization through the transmog menu alone. I can’t imagine any player who enjoys this game, who enjoys transmog and enjoys the free-range ability to express themselve in-game being against this.
I think this would be a big win, Blizzard. Please consider it for 10.1. Much like the individual shoulder transmog, grey/white mogs and more: the community would let out a collective roar of celebration and excitement.
YES!
