If you think that MMORPGs are better off without a solid fashion and cosmetic system, that’s an unpopular opinion. As heroes of a fantasy world, sometimes you want and need to look like a hero and not wear your level 10 rags in the final raid boss fight. Wardrobe and Outfit systems have been a large part of MMORPGs since the start of the genre. Players love looking good, and are grateful when developers give them the tools to play dress up with. So now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, which MMORPG has the dandiest fashion system of the mall? Let’s take a look.
5. RIFT
Trion’s RIFT has had something of a resurgence this year because of its Prime server. Cosmetics aren’t the reason people play the game – that’s down to unique class Soul system, the challenging Raids and the landscape content. But we sure do appreciate the cosmetic system that RIFT has.
On your Hero panel (C) players are able to bring up the Wardrobe tab. It is from here that you can customize what you wear. It’s a very simple system where you pick from armor and weapon choices – skins that you have unlocked account wide. Dyes are also the same way, each armor will have two dye streams, and you simple choose which ones you want based on what you’ve unlocked.
The cool part is you can also save your creations into multiple Wardrobe sets, allowing you to swap them on the fly from anywhere out in Telara.
4. LOTRO
If there’s one thing that players love about The Lord of the Rings Online, it’s the outfits. LOTRO is renowned for having the looks, style and feel of an authentic Middle Earth. And that’s impressive considering its lore and fantasy world caters to races such as Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits and of course the race of Men. LOTRO’s outfit system begins with the Wardrobe tab in your bank. You are given limited slots to store and save all kinds of armor for every slot in there, including weapons and caps. You can then apply dyes to them right there.
Once done, simply open your Character Panel (C) and drag and drop which look you want into the slots on your Outfit tab. It’s that simple, and handy too. You are also given a few Outfit tabs to start with but can purchase more if you wish.
3. World of Warcraft
Up next is World of Warcraft’s transmog system. Player characters are able to visit one of the Ethereal Transmogrifiers to use the service. Once a player speaks to the NPC, the transmogrification interface will appear. This interface displays the character’s item slots on the left, and a collection of all available appearances on the right. Players select the “skin” of the new appearance by clicking on the item slot they want to change (on the left), then selecting the desired appearance from the right. The appearance will be previewed on the character within the interface, before players commit to the change by spending gold.
The thing we love about Transmog is that it pulls all the skins from account wide. Dying unfortunately, is not a big thing in WoW and one must do the challenging content to unlock a different color of their favorite pieces.
2. Elder Scrolls Online
The Elder Scrolls online would not have been on this list had they not included the brand new outfit system earlier this year. A new addition to ESO in 2018, the game added Outfit Stations everywhere in game to replace the old Dye stations. Previously, ESO didn’t have a robust outfitting mechanic, and had all you could do was just dye cosmetic outfits/costumes or change equipped armor color.
Now however, ESO has gotten the memo and included a fairly good system when compared to what other big MMORPGs have done. With the new outfit system, you are able to change every part of your armor based on what Motifs – both racial, store and other that you currently have. And it’s also account wide which is cool. Once done, you can save it into an Outfit slot for Gold or a token, and then swapped between them whenever.
1. Guild Wars 2
And last but not least, we arrive at Guild Wars 2. The Wardrobe system at the time was way ahead of the curve. Much of what GW2 did to stand out from the MMO crowd in 2012 is add more player convenience to many systems. This includes outfits and dyes. For starters both are account wide and are easy to get as a long term of short term progression. Every weapon and armor skin in-game becomes and unlock able skin. Once you have that, simply open your Hero panel (H) anywhere out in the world. Then, just select which skin you want and spend a Transmutation token to change the look.
Dyes work the same way too. And the real awesome thing is there’s no stations required, and no NPC to talk to. All of this can be done anywhere as long as players are out of combat.
