Hayword’s Fashion Farming

A guide to collecting transmogrification appearances in World of Warcraft as of The War Within pre-patch.

A new expansion is fast approaching and World of Warcraft’s true end game is upon us: fashion! Thanks to a major overhaul of transmogrification unlocks thanks to Warbands, I have been reinvigorated to farm missing appearances. About 4 weeks into farming nearly every raid, I thought writing up a guide to consolidate my learnings would be helpful for anyone willing to read it, and for when I revisit transmog farming in the future. While it’s not intended to be an absolutely comprehensive source of transmog farming recommendations, it will at least get you through all of WoW’s major raids that were farmable during Dragonflight and all of their size and difficulty nuances. Before diving in, know that farming all of the raids and difficulties is at least 20+ hours of mindless content per week. Nobody said you have to do every single raid and every single difficulty every single week. Researching in-game which appearances you might prefer to target has never been easier thanks to UI improvements.

In-game To-Do’s and Add-ons

Before stepping foot in a raid, I recommend to do the following:

Choose a speedy class and spec

As of the writing of this guide, I have tested and ranked the following specs for their transmog farming speed: Havoc Demon Hunter, Enhancement Shaman, Feral Druid, Windwalker Monk, Retribution Paladin, Frost Death Knight. I know that Rogue is probably highly ranked, but I do not have a max level one until after Remix ends. The actual class you choose to farm on only matters in specific raids (discussed in a separate section). I will also have a separate section dedicated to must-have talents per spec so you can be as efficient as possible.

You will want your chosen spec to be a maximum level character, or at least 11 levels (aka 2 expansions) higher than the raid you are farming. The 11 level rule is critical due to legacy loot rules. Legacy loot rules will maximize your transmog farming results.

Set up your bags for success

You should buy all of the largest, most affordable bags from the Auction House for your preferred farming character(s). If you have your bags personally organized, you should note how the farmed transmog items will fill up in your bags. When mass-selling recently farmed items, having them intermingled with items you need to keep can make it hard to sell efficiently. You can also utilize an add-on like BetterBags, which can make sorting through items a bit easier. You can also use the strategy of ignoring looting anything in raids and let the Postmaster ship it to you. It’s still helpful to have bigger bags because your mailbox will have tons of items in it. Understanding this is also useful for if a boss or chest glitches and you can’t get the loot immediately. I prefer looting as I go because I really like my dopamine microdoses and ctrl-clicking items to see what they look like.

Buy faction city teleport cloaks

This is a must-have. Depending on your reputation with you guild, you can purchase from a guild vendor in the main faction cities (Orgrimmar/Stormwind) cloaks that let you teleport directly to that city on separate 2/4/8 hour cooldowns. If you farm raids on a main toon like I do, this can cut out one leg of the trip rather than stopping in your current expansion’s main hub and then taking the portal to Orgrimmar/Stormwind.

Download Better Wardrobe and Transmog

This is my favorite add-on for managing my transmogs, Better Wardrobe and Transmog. Outside of helping with farming, it makes it easier to find and sort through the transmogrification UIs within WoW. It even includes a list of ‘Extra’ transmog sets that aren’t identified in the WoW UI.

Obtain a parasol if your class dislikes falling from heights (optional)

While you can always wait for elevators or take the intended routes, sometimes utilizing a parasol will cut down on a repair bill or on time when farming some raids with opportunities for falling with style.

Download Can I Mog It? (optional)

I like to use Can I Mog It? for the tooltip icons, especially when browsing through the raid journal loot tables to see which bosses still have transmoggable loot remaining. It also puts icons on your items in your bag, which can get a little overwhelming and you can luckily turn this feature off.

Buy the Transmog and Vendor Mount (optional)

For the cool price of 120,000 gold, you can buy the Reins of the Grand Expedition Yak that lets you transmog and sell items anywhere you can mount. This might be my single greatest purchase in-game and I even have a separate key binding for it so I can take care of dire fashion emergencies in a flash.

What’s new in transmog for the TWW pre-patch?

As of The War Within pre-patch, a major change to transmog was implemented thanks to the new Warband system. You can now unlock any item appearance on any class, regardless of whether that class can use the item. The only exception to this rule are items marked with class restrictions, like tier armor from Molten Core. In addition to this added flexibility, armor tier tokens are now warbound, meaning you can transfer them between classes to unlock tier even if they are not the ones that farmed it. You can even store tier tokens in your warbank for future alts. With this added flexibility, transmog farming becomes more about farming on the fastest class and spec rather than the one you want the armor on.

In a later patch in TWW, Blizzard has announced that they will implement the tech required to lift the class restrictions on transmog. It will even be retroactive if it’s in your inventory, so feel free to bank class armor from Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, Blackrock Foundry, Hellfire Citadel, Nighthold, Tomb of Sargeras, and Antorus, the Burning Throne until the patch comes out.

Raids that drop tier tokens (so you can farm on any class)

I recommend farming these raids on the fastest class/spec or with a high level alt parked outside the raid, unless otherwise noted with class recommendations for legendary and class-specific transmog items. You cannot do multiple difficulties per week until Siege of Orgrimmar, with exception for Firelands in Cataclysm since it was upcycled for Timewalking.

Classic/Vanilla

There’s only one difficulty/size
  • Temple of Ahn’Qiraj (ToAQ) in Classic/Vanilla

Entire Burning Crusade (TBC)

There’s only one difficulty/size

Entire Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK)

You can only do one size (10/25) per week for different loot colors
  • Naxxramas (Naxx)
  • Obsidian Sanctum (OS)
  • The Eye of Eternity (EoE)
  • Ulduar (ULD)
  • Trial of the Crusader (TOC)
    • Normal/Heroic difficulty was added, so you have to pick both size and difficulty for your one clear per week
  • Icecrown Citadel (ICC)
    • Choose Normal/Heroic difficulty and size (10/25) for one clear per week per character
    • Consider taking warrior, paladin, or death knight for legendary 2H axe transmog, Shadowmourne
  • Ruby Sanctum (RS)
    • Choose Normal/Heroic difficulty and size (10/25) for one clear per week per character

Entire Cataclysm (CATA)

You can only do Normal or Heroic for different color options, except for Firelands, thanks to Timewalking. Always choose 25-man group size to maximize loot drops.
  • Bastion of Twilight (BoT)
  • Blackwing Descent (BWD)
  • Throne of the Four Winds (TOFW)
  • Firelands (FL)
    • Consider taking shaman, druid, mage, warlock, monk, or priest for legendary staff mog, Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest
    • You can clear both Normal and Heroic difficulty for both color options because this raid was upcycled for Timewalking
  • Dragon Soul (DS)
    • Consider taking rogue for legendary daggers mog, Fangs of the Father
    • Looking for Raid (LFR) was added for this raid, and you can queue for at an NPC outside the instance. Its lockout is independent from the Normal/Heroic restriction

Entire Mists of Pandaria (MOP)

You can only do Normal or Heroic each week, except for SoO. Always choose 25-man group size. This section is not very up to date because Remix broke some encounters and made many transmogs easy to obtain
  • Mogu’shan Vaults (MSV)
  • Heart of Fear (HoF)
  • Terrace of Endless Spring (TES)
  • Throne of Thunder (ToT)
  • Siege of Orgrimmar (SoO)
    • Tested up to Galakras, which was broken due to MOP Remix

One Warlords of Draenor Raid (WoD)

  • Highmaul (HM), drops tier recolor or filler pieces for Blackrock Foundry (BRF)

One Legion Raid (LEG)

  • Emerald Nightmare (EN), drops tier recolor or filler pieces for Nighthold
    • Consider taking druid, hunter, monk, or priest to unlock hidden artifact appearances

Entire Battle for Azeroth (BFA)

Tier sets didn’t exist so you can unlock every armor on any character
  • Uldir (ULD)
  • Battle of Dazar’alor (BoD)
  • Crucible of Storms (CoS)
  • The Eternal Palace (EP)
  • Ny’alotha, the Walking City (NYL?)

Entire Shadowlands (SL)

Shadowlands will be legacy content after you hit level 71 in The War Within
  • Castle Nathria (CN)
    • No tier sets, just one armor per armor type — yay Covenants!
  • Sanctum of Domination (SoD)
    • No tier sets, just one armor per armor type — yay Shards of Domination?
  • Sepulcher of the First Ones (SotFO)
    • Back to tier tokens

Dragonflight (DF)

Will not be legacy content until expansion after TWW, Midnight

Raids that DON’T drop tier tokens

You will want to farm these raids on a character to unlock their tier appearances. You will still unlock non-class restricted pieces. Legion is especially a bummer because there are no weapon appearances since they had the Artifact Weapon system back in the day.

Most raids in Classic/Vanilla

Only one difficulty/size
  • Molten Core (MC)
  • For best overlap of legendary and tier drops, take warrior or paladin
  • Blackwing Lair (BWL)
  • Onyxia’s Lair (OL)
    • This was technically relaunched during WotLK for the 5-year anniversary, but still drops all the same appearances and has the same raid size/difficulty restrictions

Two Warlords of Draenor Raids (WoD)

Can farm all difficulties each week. Flex raiding introduced for LFR/Normal/Heroic
  • Blackrock Foundry (BRF)
  • Hellfire Citadel (HFC)

Three Legion Raids (LEG)

Can farm all difficulties each week
  • The Nighthold (NH)
  • Tomb of Sargeras (ToS)
  • Trial of Valor
    • Drops non-tier armor plus meta quest per armor type (cloth/leather/mail/plate) for different color ensembles.
      • Raid finder appearance is random drop per boss on any difficulty, so you get 12 chances per week
      • Normal appearance ensemble is a quest
      • Heroic appearance is guaranteed drop from Mythic/Heroic
      • Consider taking shaman or warrior for the hidden artifact appearances
  • Antorus, the Burning Throne (ABT)