In order to swap spells, you'll need the following software:
- MyWarcraftStudio (or any other MPQ editor) - is necessary to open and create MPQ archives.
- DBC Editor - is required in order to open DBC files and edit spell IDs.
- (optinally) WoWModelViewer - while not necessary in order to swap spells, ModelViewer is good if you are looking for a cool swap. It shows a visual animation of the spell, which can make the choosing process a bit easier and faster.
First thing you need is a Spell.dbc. It's a database which holds tons of rows and columns, which WoW is using to handle all spell visuals in the game.
- First thing you will need is to extract your current Spell.dbc file. In order to do that, repeat the following:
- Open MyWarcraftStudio
- In the upper left corner press "File" -> "Open MPQ archive...". Now, navigate to your WoW installation folder. Usually found in program files. In your World of Warcraft folder go to "Data\enGB (or enUS - depending on your game localization)" folder and open "patch-enGB (or enUS - depending on your game localization)". Hit OK.
- If you did everything right, you should see the following
- Expand "DBFilesClient" by click on the "+" symbol. Find Spell.dbc in the list, Right click on the Spell.dbc string and "Extract File To...". Feel free to extract it anywhere you wish, just make sure you will find it later.
- When you are done extracting it, I recommend making a few copies of it because you will be using that file a lot of times.
- Now open DBC Editor. "File" - "Open" -> find your previously "Spell.dbc". Depending on your PC hardware, it might take up to a minute to open it.
- Once opened, you should see the following:
It has a lot of rows and columns. Do not modify anything yet. We'll just need to modify 1 value in there.
- Field 1 refers to the spell ID. Use http://www.openwow.com/ to find spell IDs
- Field 131 refers to the spell visual. (THE ONE WE NEED, THE MOST IMPORTANT)
- Field 133 refers to the spell icon.
- Field 136 refers to the spell name.
- Field 170 refers to spell description.
- First thing is to find the visual appearance of the spell you are looking for. In order to do that, you need to know the spell ID. Go to http://www.openwow.com/ and search for your spell. As for example, I want to modify my Shadowform (ID 15473) to Corruption of Time (ID 60422).
- In DBC Editor type the ID of the spell you are looking for in the search. I want to try the visual ID of Corruption of Time (ID 60422) so I type "60422" in the search.
- When you get the first result, make sure it's point to ID (column 1). Don't select anything and move the scroll bar up to field 131.
The visual ID of Corruption of Time is 12783.. - Repeat the process for spell your character has. I have Shadowform (ID 15473), so I go and type 15473 in the search. Navigate to field 131.
- Simply double click the cell and replace with new ID of the spell you want to modify with. I'm swapping Shadowform -> Corruption of time. Corruption of Time visual ID is 12783..
- Now hit "Save". Depending on your hardware, the saving can take up to 30+ minutes, so if it's "Not responding", it's saving. During that time, your PC can lag.
- Once you are done saving spell.dbc, you can close DBC Editor now.
- Open your MPQ editor now. In MyWarcraftStudio for example, click on Pack -> Create MPQ Archive. Save it to ...\World of Warcraft\Data\ and name it patch-6.MPQ.
- Name must follow the following format: patch-X.mpq where X is a number between 4 and 9.
- Click again on Pack and thenAdd Files to Archive. Click browse and locate your spell.dbc (the one you edited previously). When you find it spell.dbc select it and open it, but don't click on OK yet.
- Change the name to "DBFilesClient\spell.dbc". Hit OK
- Press Pack -> Save and Close Archive
You should be done now.
Some examples:
Red glow. Looks amazing in-game.
Black shadow form. Blame paint for quality.
In order to remove all your custom changes, simply delete patch-6.MPQ (or any other custom patch MPQ you did).