What the recommendation engine reads
Every equipped appearance contributes to an outfit-wide color profile. Strong, repeated colors carry more influence than a tiny isolated highlight, while empty slots contribute nothing. Adding a chest, shoulder, or weapon can therefore change suggestions for every remaining slot: the engine is responding to the evolving outfit rather than one fixed search.
Compatibility is applied before visual ranking. Armor type, class restrictions, slot, weapon category, and hand rules can remove an otherwise attractive result. This prevents a high color score from promoting a piece the selected character cannot normally use. The optional cross-armor beta changes the armor-type part of that calculation, but it does not erase every class or weapon rule.
Broad, Balanced, and Precise
| Mode | Use it when | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Broad | You are exploring or your outfit has unusual colors. | More variation, looser shade similarity, and a larger creative pool. |
| Balanced | You want a practical default for most outfits. | A compromise between palette similarity, coverage, and variety. |
| Precise | The outfit identity is already clear and near-matches are distracting. | A narrower list that favors close outfit-wide color relationships. |
Precise is not automatically “better.” If your equipped pieces contain warm gold, pale brass, brown leather, and a small violet effect, a strict match may reject a visually useful neutral or overvalue the violet accent. Start with Balanced, move to Precise when the list is noisy, and return to Broad when you want an unexpected bridge color.
Favor the colors that define the outfit
You can mark up to three equipped slots as favored color anchors. This is useful when one piece should define the look—for example, a rare shoulder tint while the chest and belt are supporting neutrals. The weighted option makes favored slots much more influential without removing the rest of the outfit. Favored-only ignores unfavored pieces when building the color target.
Use favored-only deliberately. It can solve an outfit where a large neutral chest overwhelms a smaller but important accent, but it can also produce recommendations that match the anchor and clash with everything else. Weighting is usually the safer first step.
What “Include same set” means
With the same-set option enabled, compatible pieces from a verified set family receive priority. The engine still considers appearance identity and color, because a raid family, PvP ensemble, or difficulty group can contain several recolors. A shared name or similar model is not by itself proof that two pieces use the same tint.
Turn the option off when you want the outfit to look assembled rather than collected, or when a family contains variants that are visually too close to distinguish in a small thumbnail. Excluding same-set pieces is also a good way to discover less obvious alternatives from another expansion.
A reliable completion workflow
- Equip two or three pieces that clearly establish the silhouette and palette.
- Leave the slot you want help with empty; recommendations are organized around useful empty slots.
- Start on Balanced and inspect both the thumbnail and the reported main and accent colors.
- Favor the strongest anchor slot if a large neutral piece is steering the results in the wrong direction.
- Compare same-set on and off. Keep the setting that supports your goal, not simply the highest numerical match.
- Add a candidate, rotate the complete model, and repeat for the next empty slot.
Why a good suggestion can still look wrong
Color extraction works from rendered appearance images. Metallic reflection, glow, transparency, shadows, and large areas of exposed character skin can alter the measured palette. Two items can also share colors but disagree in material, shape, visual age, or level of detail. Those qualities are difficult to reduce to a reliable color score.
If the list misses the mark, change one variable at a time: loosen the mode, select a favored anchor, remove an outlier item, or search the target slot directly. The recommendation panel is strongest as a shortlist generator. The full character preview—and ultimately the in-game Dressing Room—remains the final visual check.