Customize my appearance?

[Mashugana.2843]

How can I customize my appearance in GW2? I think there are two ways - Outfits and Transmutation. Outfits are great and work the way other MMOs work. Easy to swap, no cost, and you can change how you look at will. But using Transmute charges seems painful. It looks like it is designed to be something you do once and leave alone due to the transmute costs, the fact that you may swap the gear and the appearance goes with your gear, and the inability to have several appearances saved anywhere.

Is there something else or have I made an error? GW2 has so many amazing armor appearances that I'd love to be able to switch my appearance at will to a variety of culture and other armors. But I do not think GW2 is set up for this.

Any advice? Thanks.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

Transmuting is definitely designed as something you don't do all the time, but after playing for a while, you'll likely stop considering the charges an actual cost, they trickle in pretty steadily for most players.Continual changes, such as region/climate based, is however pretty much outside what the game does, at least currently. (A decent amount of people are asking for better options though).I kind of miss LotRO's outfit system...

[Danikat.8537]

If you want to switch constantly between a few different armour sets then your only option is to get different armour pieces to apply the skins to and then carry them in your inventory. If you stick to exotics, and maybe 1 set of ascended it would be affordable (most people get far more exotic equipment than the need) and that way you won't need to spend transmutation charges each time. The downside is it would take a lot of space to store them.

But as Tanner said transmutation charges do build up over time if you're not using them constantly, so if you're just looking to update your armour periodically it should be fine. And there are always to get more quickly if you want them (like creating a temporary character in a spare slot to do map completion in the cities, which is always guaranteed to give transmutation charges).

[Mashugana.2843]

Thanks guys - that is much clearer. I too was looking for a LotRO sort of system but that's groovy :)

[Skotlex.7580]

Once upon a time GW2 had two types of charges: transmutation stones and transmutation crystals. The former worked on sub level 80 gear and were more or less easily acquired via map completion; the latter was usable on level 80 gear, and only available via the gem store.

When the wardrobe update hit, both systems were equalized, and players could convert their stones into the charges we have now (I think the rate was 3 to 1).

Currently, because charges aren't that easy to farm / acquire, people change looks sparingly, and never do it on sub 80 characters. Outfits is what players use to change their looks while levelling.

If it were up to me, I'd make sub 80 gear cost no charges to transmute. Every few months somebody also suggests some update to get rid of the charges altogether. It's the public's guess that if Anet hasn't removed the charges it's because it still profits from the sale of charges.

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

@Skotlex.7580 said:It's the public's guess that if Anet hasn't removed the charges it's because it still profits from the sale of charges.

I'd vote for that plus the point that there are enough sources of them in-game that it's not hard to get enough for a change. (Got a free character slot? Create a character, map-complete all five racial capitals and Lion's Arch, bingo! Six charges. Sell any sellable stuff the character has, delete, rinse, repeat.)

[Danikat.8537]

I'm actually more likely to change the skins on low level characters, because I make a lot of temporary ones who are never going to get to level 80 so there's no option to wait until then to give them good skins, and I like experimenting with different looks, especially ones which don't suit my permanent characters. Whereas my level 80 characters tend to get a look I really like and then stick with it until I'm bored with it or something new comes along which really suits them.

I have a rule that I always keep a minimum of 22 transmutation charges - enough to fully reskin 2 characters. But I can't remember the last time I was close to that, I normally have over 100 and I've never bought any from the gem store. (Doing map completion regularly helps I think.)

I do also have some outfits I use, but mainly for 'down time' in towns I have the common clothing, chefs and monks outfits as normal 'civilian' clothes and the noble count and wedding outfits for special occasions. (A habit I actually picked up in Elder Scrolls games where I'd carry a set of clothes to switch to when I got to a town because shopping in armour looked silly.) I also have the arctic explorer outfit because a lot of my characters have sleeveless armour (and my sylvari elementalist wears pretty much as little as possible) and seeing them wearing that in the snow will make me feel cold.

[Randulf.7614]

@Mashugana.2843 said:Thanks guys - that is much clearer. I too was looking for a LotRO sort of system but that's groovy :)

It is one of the few things lotro does better and would dearly love it copied here. A wardrobe system which is monetised via wardrobe tabs rather than charges, with each tab saved and accessed by a single keybind if desired.

Glorious

[Khisanth.2948]

@Skotlex.7580 said:Currently, because charges aren't that easy to farm / acquire, people change looks sparingly, and never do it on sub 80 characters. Outfits is what players use to change their looks while levelling.

That depends on what game mode you play ...

Charges are easy to get in WvW and PvP. They aren't especially hard to get in PvE but does requires going out of your way to get them whereas in WvW and PvP you get them as side effects of simply playing.

[Mashugana.2843]

Thanks again everyone - great advice