The Next Frontier in Transmog

There's a character class that I'm sure exists somewhere. I feel like there's a game somewhere out there that has this class, and it works exactly like I imagine it to work, but for some reason I can never seem to find it. That class is the Battlemage.

The idea is that a Battlemage uses Arcane magic - namely, the kind of Wizard-style magic like shooting bolts of ice and fire or, better yet, magic-missile sparkly-glowy stuff. But they're not wearing some robe and standing far back. Instead, they're coming in swinging a big war hammer that is glowing with magic lightning and creating massive shockwaves to blast away foes. Remember that scene in the prologue of Fellowship of the Ring where Sauron is smashing dozens of soldiers with each swing of his mace? Think that, but a good guy.

Anyway, such a class does not exist in WoW, and there's not really much of a precedent to introduce anything like it. Instead, Battlemages are really just Mages, and they fill that classic Wizard archetype, standing at the back lobbing blasts of magical energy at their foes, wearing what I imagine is comfortable clothing that does very little to protect them, despite the fact that the Paladin healer standing next to them is wearing plate that has just as much intellect on it as their thin cloth robes.

Now granted, my default Mage tranmog set is Normal-mode Time Lord's Regalia (I think I'm still missing the chest piece. Really ought to go back for that, as it should be pretty easy to get now.) But I've found an alternative that I'm really enjoying, and that is the Stormwind Guard set (minus the helmet - I have him wearing the monocle from Blackrock Depths.)

Most transmog pieces are limited to a particular armor type, but we've started getting a few that are labeled simply "Cosmetic," and that includes the very plate-looking Stormwind Guard set (the Orgrimmar Grunt one could work for either Plate or Mail, but I assume it is likewise available to all.)

And I think that's fantastic. I want more.

The transmog system has had a slow evolution since its introduction in 4.3, and we have seen some restrictions eased. For example, you can now make any weapon look like another weapon you could use, as long as it's the right basic category. This used to be based on animation, but now you can even transmogrify polearms with their other two-handed physical weapon kin. If you're a Warrior, and thus capable of using everything that's not a Wand, you can even transmog your axes to look like Staves (not sure if you can make one-handed swords look like daggers.)

So my hope is that we can see some of this extend to armor.

Before Cataclysm came out, Gnomechewer made a machinima called Gilnean Like Me. I'll embed it because I this is the song that introduced me to TV on the Radio, which is an awesome band.

Anyway, even with the old human model, there's something really badass about a dude in plate with an eyepatch. I would love for my Worgen character to have a similar look (though probably using the second-season Wrath PvP set,) but as it stands at the moment, you can't do so. Being able to do that, or perhaps give my Paladin a priestly hood (or my Death Knight) would be really awesome and allow for some great visual variation.

Transmog did wonders for the visual look of the game. There was a time during Wrath when basically everyone of any given class looked identical. Partially that was due to the relative ease of acquiring tier sets, but transmog would have fixed that. I think it's time to let player take the next step in defining the visuals of their characters. Let's have some cloth-clad Monks and plate-wearing Mages fighting alongside badass werewolf warriors with eyepatches!