This is a bit of a rant as well as suggestion for the game’s transmog system.
There are cloth items that look like plate, and plate items that look like cloth. Plenty of Mail items from Classic look like Leather, because Hunters and Shamans used to start out with Leather and learn Mail later. Similar with Mail and Plate. I can’t recall if Druids started with cloth and moved on to leather.
Beside that, we have several cosmetic armor options that can apply on top of any type of material. So, there is no concern from a gameplay standpoint - while it would probably be helpful in PVP to see players wearing their respective armor types, and thus be able to easily identify what class they are (to an extent) without hovering them, it’s already not the case thanks to cosmetic items. As an extension, why not unrestrict plate/mail/leather/cloth transmogs? Maybe make it so you have to play a class that wears the material to unlock the item for transmog, but then you can use it on any other class as well. Class-only restrictions also make little sense, and there are few sets that have the requirement in the first place. For example, while Blood Elves can get Blood Knight armor if they’re Paladins, Draenei can’t get some unique Vindicator armor if they’re Paladins, Orcs don’t get some unique Farseer armor if they’re Shamans, etc. Why not remove the restriction?
I know the above has been talked about before, but what I haven’t found was anything suggesting the following in addition:
Make all weapons transmoggable into any other weapon that makes sense for the class.
Melee weapons can be transmogged into melee weapons, Ranged weapons can be transmogged into ranged weapons (the second bit is already the case).
More than that, since there are stat differences between using dual wielding and using a two-handed weapon, even if you might prefer to have two weapons for cosmetic purposes, you’ll more likely go for the better stat option. Why not make melee weapons able to switch between two-handed weapon and two one-handed weapons? As a system, I’m thinking of something like the “Transmog shoulder pieces separately” option. A toggle in the interface to enable transmogging into other things. Then you don’t need to change anything about abilities, and the one weapon / two weapon thing is just cosmetic.
I’m then imagining things such as mogging a dagger into an offhand for a mage, making a dual-wielding retribution paladin, a polearm-wielding Outlaw rogue, a dagger-wielding demon hunter (Like the skin for Valeera in HOTS), etc.
Most of the skills used by every class have animations that translate into other weapons’ animations (i.e. “one handed attack” becomes “two handed attack” “one handed special” becomes “two handed special” etc, at least going by Model Viewer)
In addition to all of that, I’d suggest bringing back Thrown weapons - plenty of cool models that could be used as daggers or off-hands. Not the Thrown weapon type, or the slot requirement for rogues, just the weapon models and make them fist weapons or daggers or something. Trading Post, Trial of Style, or just random drops from the dungeons they used to drop, but as cosmetic unlockables. Heroic mode only or something so as not to interfere with dungeon based leveling where it’s all normal difficulty.
Are there any people who would like to see these options? I’ve seen people complain about dual wielding being less efficient than a two-handed weapon, but I haven’t seen anyone knock the cosmetic aspect of having two weapons.