The Transmogger's Manifesto

WoW's transmogrification system is great in the abstract, but a bit of a mess in practice. Making the system more open seems like the easiest way for Blizzard to increase character customization, which World of Warcraft sorely lacks compared to more modern games -- no new art or animation required, mostly just changes in the database.Here are my suggestions to Blizzard.Allow any and all armor slots to be hidden. It's already possible for characters to run around naked (by taking off gear), so the transmog restriction doesn't prevent anyone from seeing characters in their underwear. Most players wouldn't do this anyway -- the goal is to allow strategic hiding of slots when a particular look calls for it. If it's just not possible to allow all slots to be hidden, at least allow it for all slots other than chest and legs (head, shoulders, shirt, tabard, wrists, hands, waist, feet).Allow all gear qualities to be included in the transmog system. It's very frustrating to see vendors selling white gear with appearances that aren't available on other items and thus can't be used for transmog. Removing this restriction would make it exciting when you come across the random armor and weapon vendors in the world who might have an item you haven't collected, and would also be a modest gold sink. Also, it's just cruel that Worgen can't transmog Lord Walden's top hat.Just give up on not allowing silly things in the transmog system. WoW is often a silly game, which is surely why many people like it. Why give players silly items if you don't want them to be used? If I want to transmog my sword to a fish, what's the big deal? There are plenty of silly things that are allowed, so let's just get rid of the arbitrary restrictions.Remove holiday transmog restrictions and find better ways to accomplish the same goals. Some holiday items do legitimately help increase excitement for the holiday, such as Christmas hats and sweaters for Winterveil, but that could be accomplished by encouraging their use during Winterveil rather than restricting it outside of the holiday. For example, you could put holiday items in the back of the appearance sorting normally, but move them to the front during the holiday. The current system more often ruins the excitement of the holiday items by restricting them -- witch hats should be usable year-round in a game where wizard hats are; sunglasses only being allowed for a couple weeks in November makes no sense; and why can I wear a tuxedo only around Easter?If you are worried that it will be off-putting to see characters running around wearing Christmas outfits in July, social pressures would keep that from becoming too rampant, and most people wouldn't want to in the first place. Worst case scenario, someone in your LFR group has a stupid outfit, so what? That is certainly possible already. On the flip side, someone might come up with an outfit that perfectly utilizes a Winterveil hat and puts it in a different context, and we should be allowed to do that.I have heard a rationale that there is some goal not to punish people who aren't able to log on during holidays by depriving them of full-time transmog appearances, but that makes little sense given the overall system. There are items like the drops from the Headless Horseman that can be transmogged at any time, and the entire elite PvP transmog conceit involves locking appearances to specific achievements at specific times.The current stated intention for artifact transmogs post-Legion is to restrict these to the spec they came from. This is a mistake. Restricting them to the class is reasonable (hunters wielding Ashbringer would be a bit weird), but my subtlety rogue shouldn't be restricted from using assassination appearances. Fury warriors should be able to use arms appearances, and destruction warlocks should be able to use affliction appearances. It might be weird for a balance druid to have the guardian bear form, but the system could restrict this based on weapon types (e.g. don't let balance druids transmog fist weapons).Items that require reputation to get should be usable across all characters on your account who can wear them, once you have the rep on one character. Grinding the same rep on multiple alts is purely un-fun.The legacy loot mode that was recently announced is a very welcome change. I don't have much to say about it other than that the sooner it can get to live servers, the better.These are my suggestions. I've attempted to limit them to practical things Blizzard could do without a lot of new art or engineering work. I'd love to hear thoughts from the community and discussion of other issues with the transmog system that my list doesn't cover.(Edit for formatting)