As players journey through Diablo 4, they will collect a variety of different armor pieces to help them in their travels. This equipment not only gives players various boosts to stats, but they also feature their own unique aesthetic. This means that players will quickly find themselves wearing a mismatched outfit, but luckily Blizzard thought about that and added a transmog system.
Transmog systems are nothing new to Blizzard games, and Diablo 4 would not be the first time a Diablo game included one. While players want to have the best equipment possible, they also want to be able to make their character look as cool as possible, and the wide variety of cosmetics makes that possible. It is an excellent feature that is relatively easy to use, and Blizzard's iconic MMO World of Warcraft may want to take some notes from it.
Diablo 4's Transmog System Explained
After players reach Diablo 4's first town, they are able to interact with the transmog system. To change the appearance of their armor they must head over to the wardrobe icon. Once they reach the wardrobe, they can change the look of their items for a price. They can select its style and its pigment, and they can do this for pretty much every piece of equipment that they have on.
When players first use the service, they may discover that they do not have many available options. This is because they have to head over to the blacksmith to salvage the look of various pieces of equipment. Anything with a hammer next to it can be salvaged for a new appearance, and that appearance is saved for whenever players utilize the wardrobe. As players adventure through Diablo 4, they will be able to discover new salvageable items, and they can also utilize the in-game shop to add even more cosmetics to their collection.
Diablo 4's transmog system works like a lot of other transmog systems with one very nice change. While some games will force the player to constantly revisit the transmog station every time they find a new piece of gear, Diablo 4 applies the chosen look to any new item players equip in that slot. Instead of applying the appearance to a specific piece of gear, it is applied to that specific gear slot. This means that anyone who nails down their perfect outfit early will never have to use the transmog system ever again, unless they want to change it up a bit.
WoW May Want to Take Some More Inspiration from Diablo
World of Warcraft has also featured a transmog system ever since Cataclysm, but it is nothing like Diablo 4's version. At first, players had to save the pieces they liked for whenever they wanted to transmog a new item. In World of Warcraft: Legion, Blizzard completely revamped the system by introducing a brand-new wardrobe collection inspired by Diablo 3's transmog system. Now, every unique item that players obtain will be added to that wardrobe for transmog purposes. It was a great change, but it might be time for another revamp.
World of Warcraft players have to constantly return to the transmog vendors every single time they find a new piece of armor because the appearance does not carry over. This can get rather tedious as players repeatedly spend gold to redo their outfits, but Diablo 4's model could make it so much nicer. The appearance should be applied to the specific gear slot rather than the armor itself so that players have little reason to constantly return to the same vendor.
Diablo 4's transmog system is a really nice feature, and hopefully Blizzard adds some exciting cosmetics to back it up. It lets players express themselves however they want, and it does not detract from the gameplay. Either way, it is something that World of Warcraft could definitely benefit from.
Diablo 4 is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.