What is transmogrification, you ask? It’s an act of changing appearance of something.
In game terms it’s a mechanic that was touched upon in different titles letting us players change the looks of items to get that perfect look for our character to fullfil their fantasy.
I love to be able to change item appearance to fit my idea of how that particular character should look like and I think I’m not the only one. I know the game has cosmetic purchases that look amazing, but hear me out.
I liked and disliked at the same time the system introduced in Diablo 3. It allowed for full customization, with basic appearances unlocked with gold and unique and set items looks becoming available the second we pick up that particular item. In the long run we could get a rather big collection with little to no effort.
I’d very much prefer an item to item approach. If I’d want to transmog, let’s say, a wand, it should require me to get an item that has the desired look and sacrifice it, adding a tag to my item it has been transmogrified. It could be limited to once per item. It could require getting a new special catalyst for such a process that could drop from a certain boss monster. Or maybe an introduction of another dungeon that lets us change one item’s look per completed run? I’m not sure what approach would be the best in this situation.
About cosmetics. They are their own thing that add a piece or overwrite the looks of whatever we have equipped in a particular slot. I would let it stay as they are and let transmog be used only with items that can drop in the game already. This way we have a pool of appearances that would change with an introduction of new bases, uniques or set items, that would require us to farm for a specific item we want to transmog out item into, and another that consists of cosmetics we unlocked through in-game purchases that is able to change the looks of an item at will and with entirely different options than what can actually drop in the game.
This is my take on an item. I know it’s quite a huge block of text. I’d be happy to see your point of view on the matter. Maybe there’s something I overlooked? Maybe there’s a better way to implement such a system I didn’t think of? Let everyone know below.