The argument about transmog in Classic has been running since 2019 and neither side was ever going to win it, because both sides were right. Transmog is a collection game people love. Transmog also means you cannot tell what anyone is wearing, which in a game where gear was the status is not a cosmetic change at all.
Forever does something I did not expect: it lets you opt out, and opting out actually works.
Classic or Enhanced, chosen at first login
The first time you log into Forever you pick a mode. Two presets, each a bundle of settings you can change later.
Classic is close to the true Classic experience: the older character models, no points of interest or quest objectives on the map, and no transmog.
Enhanced turns the modern conveniences on, transmog included.
Neither is a difficulty setting and neither locks you out of content. They are presentation, and you can change your mind: a dedicated NPC in certain cities turns transmog on or off whenever you like. There is a separate SD/HD toggle for the original visuals and animations versus the updated presentation.
Turning it off means turning it off
This is the part worth getting right, because it is not how transmog opt-outs usually work.
Turning transmog off will turn it off completely as though it never existed. You'll see everyone's gear as it truly is at all times.
Not "your character does not use transmog while everyone else parades past in mogged sets". You stop seeing other people's transmog. The paladin who spent four months assembling a look is, on your screen, wearing whatever they actually have equipped.
If you have ever argued that transmog broke Classic's gear-as-status loop, that argument just got answered properly. The loop still works for you, because on your client the information was never removed.
It cuts the other way too, and it is worth saying plainly: if you are the one who spent four months on a look, some portion of the playerbase is never going to see it.
The armour-type rule
While you are levelling, you can only transmog an item to the same type. Cloth to cloth, mail to mail. A Holy Paladin in a cloth robe is stuck transmogging into other cloth.
That is a deliberate concession to the Classic reading of gear. In a game where armour class tells you something about a player, letting a Warrior dress as a Mage would delete the same information the opt-out is protecting.
There is a sensible bit of grace built in: you can pick multiple armour-type appearances for each slot, so an upgrade that changes your armour class does not blow up your outfit. Set it once, keep the look through the gear change.
Appearances also have to be at your level or lower while you are levelling. Hitting 60 removes that restriction and opens everything up. PvP appearances require the appropriate ranking, which is Blizzard protecting the one status symbol nobody was ever going to let go of.
Who gets the appearance from a dungeon drop
This is the mechanic most likely to change how your five-man behaves, and almost nobody is talking about it.
Uncommon and rare bind-on-pickup dungeon gear grants the appearance to every eligible looter automatically. You do not have to win the roll. You do not have to press Need. Everyone who could have used it gets the look.
Epic gear does not work that way. Epic appearances stay bound to whoever loots and binds the item.
Read those two together and you can see exactly what Blizzard is doing. The blue that dropped in Scholomance is not worth starting an argument over any more, because the person who wanted it for the look already has it. The epic still is worth an argument, because prestige is the whole point of an epic and handing its appearance to five people at once would spend it.
Anyone who has watched a dungeon group turn poisonous over a greed roll on a blue with a nice shoulder model will recognise the problem being solved.
So which mode should you pick?
Be honest about which thing you are nostalgic for.
If what you miss is reading a stranger at a glance, knowing from across Ironforge roughly what somebody had done that week, take Classic mode and leave transmog off. It genuinely restores that, and it restores it unilaterally: you do not need anyone else to agree.
If what you miss is Azeroth, and transmog was never the thing that bothered you, take Enhanced. You are not opting into a different game. The armour-type rule and the level restriction keep it much closer to Classic's language than retail's anything-goes wardrobe.
And if you are not sure: take Enhanced, because the NPC that switches it off is not going anywhere, and the appearances you collect while you are deciding are still collected either way.
Still unknown
- Whether transmog costs gold, and how much. No cost has been published.
- Where the transmogrifier NPCs actually stand, beyond "certain cities".
- Whether the armour-type restriction also lifts at 60, or only the level requirement does.
- What else sits in the Classic and Enhanced presets. Character models, map markers and transmog are named; the full list is not.
- How the opt-out interacts with Camping and other new systems that render other players' things in the world.
The FAQ covers what a subscription does and does not get you, Forever versus Classic versus Retail is the one to read if you are still choosing between the three, and the realmless playstyles are the other choice Forever asks you to make before you have played it.
Cover art: Blizzard Entertainment, from the official World of Warcraft: Forever product page. HostedGG is not affiliated with or endorsed by Blizzard.
Sources: Blizzard Watch for the Classic and Enhanced modes, the complete opt-out and what it hides, the same-armour-type rule, the multiple appearances per slot, the level restriction lifting at 60, the PvP ranking requirement, and the uncommon and rare versus epic looter rules; Icy Veins for the SD/HD toggle and the description of what Classic mode turns off; Blizzard's World of Warcraft: Forever What's Next panel recap for opt-in transmog being a launch feature.
