WoW Forever Classic Mode and Appearance Settings

What WoW Forever Classic Mode does

The first time you log in, a mode selector asks how you want to play. On the Deep Dive panel, Blizzard described each mode as a preset of a handful of settings, any of which you can reconfigure later. If you pick Classic Mode, the visibility of other players’ transmog is disabled as soon as you enter the game; the written recap says transmog is disabled automatically. The goal, in the panel’s words, is to let you play as if transmog does not exist at all.

Blizzard’s starter guide lists the defaults: Classic uses SD character models, turns off quest map markers, the combined bag and transmog, uses keyboard turning and a Classic screen layout. Enhanced uses HD models, turns those features on, uses keyboard strafing and a centered layout. You can change the settings individually later.

Blizzard’s returning-player guide says you choose the experience preset before the ruleset. After the first login, change your selection or fine-tune settings under Options → System → Preset (English menu labels).

The transmog toggle

Transmog wasn’t in the original game, and Blizzard says outlandish outfits can break immersion for some players, so in Forever it is opt-in. Switch it off and you see everyone around you as they really are, in their equipped gear. Switch it on and you see your own and other players’ transmog.

• Off still collects. While transmog is off, new gear still adds its appearance to your collection, in case you turn it on later.
• Off still lets you style yourself. You can hide a slot such as your helm or cloak, or show a particular appearance on yourself, without switching the whole system on.
• Hidden helms stay hidden. With transmog off, you still see other players’ hidden helm and cloak settings, as in the original game.
• Bought outfits are optional too. The transmog sets in the Skyborne packs, such as the Shen’dorei Skyseer’s Garb, can be used in Forever and in modern WoW; wearing them is up to you like any other look. What each pack includes: WoW Forever editions.

Transmog rules in WoW Forever

For players who use it, transmog works much like in modern WoW, with Classic-minded limits meant to keep each character’s silhouette true to its gear and level.

• Same armor type. Plate transmogs only to plate and cloth only to cloth: a Paladin in a cloth robe needs another cloth chest. A saved outfit can hold a different armor type per slot, so it still works when you equip an upgrade of another type.
• Looks match your level. Low-level characters can’t use high-level appearances; “we want your silhouette to be relative to your level,” Blizzard said. At level 60 the level limits go away. Cosmetic-only items are the exception, and they will be rare.
• No rolling for looks in dungeons. A bind-on-pickup green or blue item from a dungeon gives its appearance to every eligible looter, so nobody needs to roll just for the look.
• Raid epics stay personal. Their appearance goes only to the player the item binds to. Grey and white items give theirs as soon as they are looted.
• PvP looks need the rank. PvP gear still requires the rank it asks for before you can use its appearance.

HD or SD character models

On the What’s Next panel, Blizzard said the character models are toggleable game-wide: your character, the NPCs and other players are shown together in HD or in SD. SD means the original Classic designs; HD is the newer modern models. Blizzard then showed an HD Dwarf running with the modern animations and again with the Classic animation set, and said it had restored the Classic animations across the HD character models.

In the September 17 Live Q&A, as Wowhead reported it, Blizzard said the HD models are there so that players who aren’t Classic diehards enjoy the game too, while Classic players have the SD models; that HD and SD models share the same skeletons; and that the race animations were updated while keeping the Classic feel, so the toggle can work.

In its returning-player guide, Blizzard says each new character can choose HD or SD models and animations, and that this character-specific appearance can later be changed in Options or at a barbershop. The guide does not explain how that choice relates to the game-wide display toggle described at the panel, or give the precise menu path.

On the beta, Wowhead reported on October 5 that the character creation screen, which had shown the HD portraits for every race even with the Classic option on, now has SD portraits too. The Skyborne are still the one race with no SD models of their own (their Druid forms included). Blizzard said on October 7 that SD Skyborne player characters, SD Druid forms included, are in development and arrive in early 2027; it agreed that HD Skyborne look jarring beside SD models. It is also reworking the HD Skyborne Druid forms: less softness, more detailed fur, adjusted colour saturation.

The barbershop

According to Wowhead, going by MrGM’s notes from the BlizzCon demo, Forever has a barbershop: you can change body type, hairstyle and more, with what looked like the same options as character creation, and randomize. The HD models can be toggled there to see yourself either way. Stormwind’s was the one confirmed; the other capitals likely have one too, and whether it costs gold wasn’t confirmed. On Blizzard’s first list of beta known issues, barber chairs caused a Lua error.

Everything else that changes from Classic, from talents to rulesets: WoW Forever vs Classic.