Equip
To Equip is to place (wear or wield) an item (equipment) in a slot on the player character's paper doll. Typically this is done by either dragging the item from the inventory to the paper doll window or (assuming no vendor or bank window is open) right-clicking on the item in the inventory.
Bags are equipped by placing them in a bag slot, including in a bank bag slot.
The phrase Bind on Equip refers to items that bind when used in the manner above.
Available Equip Slots
- Main article: Equipment slot
The following slots are available on the Player character's paper doll:
- Head
- Neck
- Shoulder
- Back
- Chest
- Hands
- Wrists
- Legs
- Waist
- Feet
- Shirt
- Tabard
- 2x Finger
- 2x Trinket
- Main Hand
- Off Hand
Ranged/Relic- Removed in Patch 5.0.4Ammunition- Removed in Patch 4.0.1
Armor types
Type Limitations
- Main article: Proficiency
Items intended for the Head, Shoulder, Chest, Hands, Wrists, Legs, Waist and Feet slots are considered Armor. Items are equipped from the inventory in these slots as long as the character's class has the proficiency to wear that kind of armor.
The Neck, Back, Finger and Trinket slots are not considered armor and aren't limited to certain classes because of their material. However, Back items are always considered to be made of Cloth by the Auction House, which considers Neck, Finger and Trinket items to be Miscellaneous.
Weapon Limitations
The Main Hand and Off Hand are collectively considered the weapon slots, although the Off Hand slot may be used for weapons, shields, or other miscellaneous items.
There are several types of weapons, and each one has a weapon skill associated with it. Weapons can only be equipped by a character with the skill for its weapon type.
Some one-handed weapons' tooltips will say "Main Hand," meaning that they are not equippable in the Off Hand slot, only the Main Hand one. Some weapons (and other miscellaneous items) will actually say "Off Hand," meaning they can't be equipped in the Main Hand slot. Most often, one-handed weapons are able to be equipped in either the Main Hand or Off Hand slot, although the Dual Wield skill is required to equip two weapons at once.
Two-handed weapons such as staves, polearms, two-handed maces and two-handed swords can be equipped (given the appropriate weapon skill) in the Main Hand slot. Any items equipped in either the Main Hand or Off Hand slot will be moved to the character's bags, because characters cannot equip a two-handed weapon and an off-hand item.
Class Limitations
Over and above any other limitations, some items are explicitly limited to certain classes. For example, items of each class's Tier 0.5 armor set and higher cannot be equipped by anyone not of the class for which the item is intended. There are a few other class-limited items as well.
Skill Limitations
Some items require a character's trade skills to be greater than or equal to a certain level in order to equip an item. The most common examples of this are the various trinkets produced by Engineering, which almost always require some level of Engineering to equip.
Rank Limitations
The PvP Honor system has a number of items that can be purchased once a player reaches a certain Rank. Once purchased, characters may equip these items if your maximum rank matches or exceeds the rank requirement on the item, even if your rank decays and your current rank is lower than the requirement.
Reputation Limitations
Certain items require a minimum Reputation with one of the world's many factions in order to be equipped.
Combat
When in combat, characters cannot equip or unequip armor. Weapons, however, can be equipped or unequipped, causing a global cooldown.
Cooldowns
Some equippable items with active effects, especially trinkets, cannot be used immediately after being equipped -- instead, there will be a cooldown (typically 30 seconds) before they can be activated.