4.3 - how dare you look awesome?

I already chose my look for 4.3 - did you?

Isn't it funny how one update announcement can cause such a massive stir? So we're officially getting the possibility to transfer the appearance of our favourite weapons and armor onto our current gear in World of Warcraft. Big whoop.

At first it might seem a little odd how a feature, which is so perfectly common in almost every single other MMORPG out there, can possibly cause so much excitement in WoW. But when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. We're talking about a game here, which sports a whopping twelve tiers of raid armor sets, ten seasons of pvp gear and a whole lot of personal MMO-history that goes along with these sets and their respective owners.

There are item sets, which I simply love to see - the unavoidable Judgement-set being one of them. I'm making a pretty safe prediction when I say there will be entire legions of paladins bringing this one back. Or take some of the old dungeon sets, such as the rogue's Shadowcraft-armor and its midnight-blue lookalike. And being located on an RP-PvP-Realm, I'm going to see a whole lot of the classic level 60 Horde and Alliance themed armor sets. And I can't wait!

Sure - not everybody has started off back in the over-glorified days of 'vanilla'. And now that our characters can change their sex, name, faction and just about any possible detail imaginable at the swipe of a credit card, there are folks out there, who aren't really attached to their virtual alter egos or the stories they tell. And there are people, who define themselves solely based on their item levels, their achievements and their raid progress. They couldn't care less about transmogrifying - in fact, many of them hate the idea, because now they might not get as much attention for showing off their endgame armor sets as believe they're entitled to.

Many outraged posts contained flames about how "every scrub can now run around in their precious T6" and "back in the day we still had to work to get those sets." Well, boo fucking hoo. The basic complaint here is how pretty much every not so hardcore player can now just walk into the old raid dungeons and grab any set they desire with just a few quick runs, as opposed to the oh so glorious days, where it took 39 idiots you hated, months of repetition and DKP-farming and a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears to obtain those very same sets of gear. Awww!

I'll level with you here: Sometimes I like putting on my old S1 arena set and I enjoy the messages and comments I get when I show it off in town. Because it says: "Yeah baby, I went to the arena before you knew this game existed!" And come 4.3, anyone who enjoys the looks of these old items will grab a few points or tokens and put on those sets, not to show off or to inflate their fragile egos, but simply because they look cool to them. And that's perfectly alright.

I like having a few treasured items, which have become insanely rare and used to be hard to obtain. Stuff, which some folks have never seen on their travels around Azeroth. But I'll gladly give up on that idea for the possibility to change the looks of my current gear - and the possibility for everybody around me to do the same.

Transmogrifying is one of the best things to ever happen in Azeroth. Log on to your server and look at Orgrimmar and Stormwind. What do you see there? Attack of the clones! Warriors with fireplace-helmets and WWE championship belts. Druids clad in dull, brown robes. Rogues that look like fucking Nascar racers. And hunters, which look like they got teleported from their favourite Asian F2P-Grinder to Azeroth. Not only do they all look entirely alike - most current tier items simply look shit.

So fucking WHAT if I had to work for some stupid old armor set eons ago and now everyone gets to use the same stuff? First of all, every single class out there will get TONS of different sets to choose from, not counting all the greens and blues, which aren't even part of any official set. And according to these guys, there's a fair chance we'll even get to use white and grey items for transmogrifying at some point.

Okay, so if you're a rogue, get ready for a whole lot of people donning their old bloodfang set. But guess what? No matter how awesome you may think you are - there have been other rogues around you wearing the exact same set back in the day. It's not exclusively yours, it never has been and it won't be, just because some 'scrub' might be farming BWL at level 85 this very moment, planning on completing the very same set. And guess what else? There's a ton of rogues out there, who don't even care about your favourite set, no matter how much you love it. And they're gonna use something completely different. So stop pissing yourself!

Ever since the announcement of 4.3, me and some of my guild mates have started paying regular visits to some of the raids now, just for the sake of getting neat-looking items. Is it new content? Of course not. Do we get any kickass gear out of it? Hell, no! But it's fucking hilarious to farm for the same old crap we always wanted back in our 60s and 70s. When's the last time you actually cheered after looting some ancient Tier 2 crap? Or some fancy cloak on a Kara-raid?

Not only does transmogrifying lure many veterans and newbies back to the old dungeons and raids, but it gives the eternal hunt for gear a whole new twist. All of a sudden, stats don't mean a thing. There is no pressure, no chasing after crap, which will become obsolete with the release of the next content update. You're just collecting stuff, because it looks nice! Because it might be of sentimental value.

You don't like a freshly-dinged level 85 toon in crappy quest blues running around in kickass armor sets, which used to be the absolute top of the range a couple years ago? Well, put on a fucking dress, you whiny cunts! Because that's what transmogrifying is all about.

-Cat