Legion’s item changes will scuttle many transmog sets

Are you a Shaman or Hunter? Do you like collecting transmog sets? Well, then I have some bad news for you, although it’s good news for any transmog minded DK’s, Warriors and Paladins out there. You see, Legion is changing its transmog system, and as a part of that change, it’s changing the way armor types work in World of Warcraft. At present, several classes change their armor type as they level — Shaman and Hunter characters start in leather and switch to mail at level 40, while Warriors and Paladins start in mail and change to plate at level 40.

In Legion, that won’t be the case any more.

Transmog Chaos To Come

To give you one example, here are the Tell-Tale Bracers. On live servers, they are mail bracers with strength. On Legion servers, they’re plate bracers. They’re not the only pieces getting that treatment — many quest rewards and even crafted items are going from mail to plate in Legion, from the entire Glimmering Mail set (renamed the Glimmering Plate) to the Green Iron Hauberk and Silvered Bronze Breastplate and even the classic Demon-Forged Mail is now split between the original pieces (which are now plate) and later lookalike pieces that are higher level and mail.

Look at the Demon-Forged Mail transmog set assembled above and you’ll immediately notice a problem. If you are on a Hunter or Shaman and you’ve assembled that set right now, you’re using one of two sets of gloves. Both of those gloves are mail on live, but both will become plate in Legion. That means you won’t be able to complete the set any more. Some sets will be entirely converted over to plate, while others that are the exact same save for color variations will remain mail.

What does and doesn’t change

As it stands, if you’re a mail wearer and you’re using (as an example) the Banded Mail set, you’re fine… unless you’re using Thorbia’s Gauntlets with it. Those will be plate come Legion, and you’ll need to collect an alternative to complete the set. The Burnished Mail set? Well, that’s going plate. Anything specifically Strength mail below level 40 seems to be targeted for the change, with random enchant pieces seemingly staying mail, which is of course haphazard and leaves people having to search around to figure out what pieces are going to be mail or plate come the next expansion.

Of course, this isn’t live yet. But I’d argue that when this change is live, there needs to be a way to let players use sets they’ve been using all along, whether it’s as simple as making sure there are mail and plate alternatives for all of these sets, or perhaps finally abandoning some armor restrictions in transmog. Suddenly breaking a lot of player’s favorite transmogs seems uncool to me.