WoW Forever lets you play with or without transmog. The first time you launch the beta, it asks you to "Choose Your Experience Preset": Classic, which starts you with transmog off along with HD models, quest markers and other modern features, or Enhanced, which turns them on. Every setting can be changed later, and even with transmog off you keep collecting appearances. Here is what each preset does and how transmog works in Forever, from Blizzard's Deep Dive panel and the beta client.
Classic or Enhanced: your first choice
The beta client describes Classic as "a more traditional presentation with simpler visuals, standard character models, and fewer modern interface features enabled by default", for an original-style experience "with less automatic guidance". Enhanced is "an updated presentation with higher visual fidelity and additional interface features enabled by default". Both only set your starting settings:
| Starting setting |
Classic |
Enhanced |
| Character models |
Standard Definition |
High Definition |
| Quest points of interest and objective blobs |
Off |
On |
| One-bag |
Off |
On |
| Transmog |
Off |
On |
| Keyboard binds |
Camera turning |
Strafe movement |
| Screen UI layout |
Classic |
Centralized |
As the client puts it, "You can customize these settings later on", so the preset is a starting point, not a commitment.
HD or standard character models
The Character Models option switches between Standard Definition, "classic character model fidelity", and High Definition, "higher-detail character model fidelity". It applies across your account, and you can change it later in the Options menu or at a Barbershop; switching in-game requires a UI reload. Blizzard also restores the Classic animations on HD character models, so the new models move the way the old ones did.
The world itself gets small rendering touches that Blizzard lists by zone: rivers that flow through Elwynn Forest, mist over the waters of Darkshore and moonlight breaking through the trees of Ashenvale, while keeping the original art style. Forever also brings official gamepad support; in the beta, the option still reads "Enable Gamepad UI (Alpha)".
Transmog is opt-in
Transmog wasn't part of the original game, and Blizzard acknowledges that outlandish outfits can break immersion, so Forever supports both kinds of players. A transmogrifier in certain cities lets you configure outfits or disable the system entirely. With it off, you see the players around you in the gear they actually wear. Choosing the Classic preset disables transmog automatically when you enter the world, and you keep collecting appearances from new gear either way, in case you turn it on later.
Players with transmog off still see other players' hidden helm and cloak settings, as in the original game. Blizzard adds that disabling the system doesn't stop you from configuring your own transmog, to hide a helm or cloak or show a particular appearance. The beta's option, "Disable Transmog System", is stricter on one point: its tooltip says you will not see other players' transmogs "and they will not see yours". The launch version will settle which one applies.
How appearances are collected
- Dungeon drops: when a bind-on-pickup Uncommon or Rare item drops in a dungeon, every eligible looter gets its appearance as soon as it's looted. Nobody needs to roll against a player who needs the item as an upgrade just to collect its look.
- Epic raid drops: the appearance goes only to the player the item binds to, which keeps top rewards prestigious and leaves loot decisions to raid groups.
- Poor and Common items grant their appearance as soon as they're looted, without having to bind to you.
- Armor types still apply: plate transmogs to plate and cloth to cloth, so a Paladin wearing a cloth chest needs another cloth chest appearance for it.
- Level limits: low-level characters can't use high-level appearances until level 60, when level restrictions are lifted for valid appearances in your collection. Cosmetic-only items are the exception, and Blizzard says they will be rare in Forever.
Dungeon gear is where most appearances will come from: our dungeon guides list every boss in order and the loot players report, and the item database covers the rest. Before you create a character, our guide to rulesets and two-part names explains the other choice waiting at launch.
