Transmogrification Guide

wow cataclysm ethereal shop
  • Author: Luxrah
  • Date: May 2, 2024
  • Updated: May 9, 2024
  • Expansion: Cataclysm

Tired of wearing mismatched gear? Hate the look of your class’s tier sets, but love the set bonuses? Good news, everyone: transmogrification is now available in WoW Classic!

Originally launched in patch 4.3, the transmogrification system allows players to modify the visual appearance of their gear. So you can wear an item for its stats or bonuses while making it look like almost any other item of the same type.

Transmogrification was one of the most anticipated features of the expansion and is now available in the game as of the Cataclysm Classic Pre-Patch. This guide will give you all the details about this system so you can avoid any unpleasant encounters with the fashion police.

Transmogrifiers

You’ll find a new building in your faction’s capital city with several ethereals inside. These will include an Arcane Reforger and a Transmogrifier. Here are their locations in each city:

Orgrimmar

The Drag (58.0, 65.4)

Stormwind

Cathedral Square (50.8, 60.8)

Transmogrification Interface

The transmogrification interface in Cataclysm Classic is slightly upgraded from the original version of the UI. The original transmogrification interface required you to have the appearance item in your bags. You could then drag it onto the appropriate slot in the transmogrification window. The newer version of the interface includes a catalog of appearances from your Collections so you can choose your item’s appearance directly inside the window.

This implementation of the transmogrification window also allows you to transmogrify shirts and tabards, which were not originally available until later expansions.

Unlike in modern WoW, you won’t be able to transmogrify your weapon enchantments, and there are no options to hide piece of gear within this window. You can still hide your helm and cloak in the game settings, however.

cataclysm classic transmogrification interface
Hovering over transmogrified boots in the Transmogrification interface

Transmogrification Rules

There are several rules and limitations that determine what you can and can’t transmogrify.

  • Your character must be able to equip both the item you are using and the item you want it to look like. That means they must meet any level, reputation, class, or armor type requirements.
  • Only uncommon, rare, epic, legendary, and heirloom items are eligible to have their appearance used for transmogrification. Poor and common quality items are not eligible.
  • An armor appearance item must be the same armor type as the item it is being applied to (cloth, leather, mail, or plate).
  • A weapon appearance must be the same weapon type as the item it is being applied to – with the exception of guns, crossbows, and bows, all of which can share appearances with each other.
  • Main-hand weapons can only be applied to main-hand weapons, and off-hands can only be applied to off-hands. One-handed weapons can be applied to either.
  • Legendary items and fishing poles cannot have their appearance changed.
  • An item must be soulbound to you before its appearance will be available for transmogrification purposes.

Note that mailing an item, selling it to a vendor, putting it on the auction house, or placing it in a guild vault removes any transmogrification that has been applied to it.

Appearances Collections Tab

Originally, the Collections interface was not added to the game until the Legion expansion. In WoW Classic, it made its debut during Wrath of the Lich King. Cataclysm Classic adds a new Appearances tab to this window.

The Appearances tab makes it easy to browse the transmogrification looks that you have unlocked as well as those that you haven’t yet obtained.

collections appearances cataclysm classic
The Appearances tab in the Collections interface

Features Not Available in Cataclysm Classic

These are features that are available in modern World of Warcraft that have not been included at this point in WoW Classic.

Void Storage

Void Storage was a separate feature that was added to the game alongside transmogrification in the original version of Cataclysm. It provided additional storage space on top of your bank and guild bank. This feature was implemented to give players more room to store their items for transmogrification. With the addition of the Collections feature in Cataclysm Classic, Blizzard determined that this extra storage was not needed, so Void Storage is not included in Cataclysm Classic.

wow cataclysm void storage interface
This feature has been cut from Cataclysm Classic

Outfits

Outfits were originally added to the game in Legion, allowing you to create transmogrification sets that can quickly be applied to your gear. So far outfits have not been included in Cataclysm Classic.

wow cataclysm transmogrification outfit specialization
The outfit specialization menu in Dragonflight

Tooltips

Since Legion, items that have appearances you have not collected are noted in their tooltips in modern WoW. This feature has not been included in Cataclysm Classic at this point in time.

wow dragonflight appearances tooltip
A tooltip for an unobtained appearance in Dragonflight

 

About the Author

Luxrah

I've been playing World of Warcraft on and off since vanilla, usually as a healer or caster and often as a guild leader. I play both retail and classic. I also love RPGs, sandboxes, and sims.
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Tanner
Tanner
1 year ago

My bags/bank are currently filled with soulbound quest rewards waiting for the Cata tmog patch to be released. If the items are already soulbound to me right now, could I just vendor them before the actual Cata patch releases and still keep all these tmogs for my collection or am I just stuck holding onto these until the patch officially releases? I feel like a level 1 character with no bags right now.  😣 

Passion
Reply to  Tanner
1 year ago

I would not vendor them just yet, as we haven’t been given enough information to safely say they will be unlocked.

Hopefully they will be, but on the off chance that they aren’t, or even that something goes wrong, you don’t want to end up without them!

Palad
Palad
1 year ago

is the transmog by one character only or are different characters items available to all chars? – or like can you use the tabard from your rouges bag as a transmog for your warrior too?

Passion
Reply to  Palad
1 year ago

In the original Cataclysm version of transmog you would not be able to do this, as you needed to have the actual item when transmogging.

The retail version of transmog would unlock it account wide for you, meaning that you could use a tabard from your Rogues bag on your Warrior.

We don’t know for sure that this is what we will end up getting, but it seems likely.

Murlori
Murlori
11 months ago

So i have loremaster on my warrior in WotLK – obviously ive went threw and cleared many zones. My question is – some zones have unique gear appearances that i havent been able to hold onto due to over crowding in my bank. Will my character learn those appearances once this is released? I know cataclysm impacts alot of zones – questlines n other things so there is alot of things i wont be able to relearn. Will i have to create another warrior to farm gear?

Cata Classic
Cata Classic
3 months ago

The tooltip feature is active in the game as of today and has been for quite a while

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