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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsHeirlooms for your main
by Eliah Hecht 
Jul 6th 2009 at 7:00PM
When the news broke that patch 3.2 would bring new chest heirlooms, with a stacking +10% XP bonus, one commenter made an interesting suggestion: get heirlooms for your level 80 characters, and bank them until the next expansion. So far between chest and shoulders you've got a +20% bonus to all XP right there, and having some quality equipment always helps the leveling process.
Of course, there's every chance that Blizzard will simply disable current heirlooms for characters past level 80, to prevent precisely this behavior. They've done level-based nerfing before, with items like the Riding Crop and enchants like Crusader.
The whole fate of heirlooms in the next expansion seems pretty nebulous to me, actually; will we need to go back and farm Emblems of Conquest at level 90 to gear up our alts? It's too early to tell. For now I would hold on to any extra badges you might have, but when the next expansion nears, you may be able to make good use of them.
Filed under: Items, Expansions, Leveling
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
Animalis Jul 7th 2009 1:07PM
They didnt turn off rested for bc. My main was 59 and 1/2 and i had rested till almost 62 in HF. looks like they just made 60s not gain it.
Arktic Jul 6th 2009 7:23PM
I really don't care either way, as long as they don't add 20% experience need each level from 80-90, expecting that everyone will have them anyway. Kind of like how Replenishment was implemented.
Cyanea Jul 6th 2009 7:25PM
I imagine once you get to 90, you pay a fee to "reactivate" your heirlooms for your other characters.
SixTwoSixFour Jul 6th 2009 8:37PM
That was my assumption as well.
Clevins Jul 6th 2009 7:28PM
Unless the chest heirloom is different from existing ones, it will be Bind to Account. hence talking about heirlooms 'for your main' or any other toon doesn't make sense aside from armor type considerations.
jbodar Jul 6th 2009 11:44PM
They are talking about armor type and stat considerations though. At least, that was the impression I got. You will still need to buy the right chest piece for your main.
Mr. Crow Jul 6th 2009 7:30PM
Heirlooms will quite likely be ineffective past 80. Even if they don't implement new Heirloom equipment at 90, having a 20% XP boost + RAF accounts + the reduced XP totals needed to level (which we can expect they might reduce the amount of XP needed to get from 70-80) and you have a situation where Blizzard is making the first half of the game a zip to get through. As other commenters have stated, Blizzard doesn't want people to rush through the new content, so if the last leg of getting to the second half of the game (the end-game at the level-cap) takes a little bit longer, that's a small price to play.
Seriously, Blizzard already does enough to make the endgame accessible to just about everyone who can read. Do we really need to be in a huge rush to get there?
Vandersveldt Jul 6th 2009 7:31PM
It very clearly says 1-80 on the heirloom. If lvling to 90 with two pieces of crap gear just for the xp bonus makes you happy inside, go right ahead. Just don't expect them to be good past 80.
Arashikou Jul 6th 2009 7:40PM
This is exactly what I first thought. The current heirlooms specify the level range they work on. I'm sure at 90, we'll be able to farm Badges of Pulchritude or whatever to get even heirloomier heirlooms that work 1-90 instead.
Creese5704 Jul 6th 2009 7:43PM
At the next expansion you know they are going to fix those to level 1-90 blizzard isn't stupid. It is smart for the casual player to get these they would help out leveling a lot by far.
jbodar Jul 6th 2009 11:45PM
They have these things called "patches" where they can change things when they want to...
vyx Jul 7th 2009 12:05PM
Exacty. I don't understand why people keep bringing this question up. The items clearly say "Requires level 1 to 80." So why do people keep wondering if they'll work from 80-90? They will work from level 80 to 81, and when you ding 81 you will no longer be able to use them. I'd hate to be mean but I wish people would read tool tips before writing articles.
Creese5704 Jul 6th 2009 7:42PM
if you are in T8 T9 you shouldn't worry about getting the heirlooms I was in T5-T6 and leveled easy in lich king and didn't replace most of my stuff until after I had hit 80 because there wasnt much better.
For the casual player not raider though thats a great idea.
obarthelemy Jul 6th 2009 8:23PM
Especially because I am in raiding purples, I'd be very happy to be allowed to trade some of my roxxorness for quicker XPs: leveling (via quests or via grinding) is a piece of cake anyway - you're supposed to have an easy time doing it in greens ! - I find that gear level has practically 0 impact on how quickly I level my alts. When starting from scratch, I used deck them out in AH greens and blues every 10 levels or so. Most of the leveling time is spent running around, so anything that makes the 10% or so time I'm actually killing mobs or handing back quests more profitable is very welcome.
My lvl 70 alts gladly traded their BT/ZA shoulders and trinkets for 10% XP and infinite mana while grinding to 80. My main would love being able to do that too.
daemeonkin Jul 6th 2009 7:50PM
I believe that they will only be level 1-80. What they may do is treat them like the Kirin Tor rings. At level 90, trade in current heirlooms + emblems = new 1-90 heirloom.
Doesn't make sense that they won't have some sort of heirloom for characters that already experienced the 80-90 content. It's a good system that they seem to believe is a compromise between "starting a player at 55" and alleviating the pain of leveling 1-80.
Royale Jul 6th 2009 7:59PM
Why the hell are so many people so concerned about leveling quickly. Enjoy the game. An alt... sure, but leveling a main through new content? Lame.
Colerejuste Jul 6th 2009 9:38PM
On one hand, there are raiders.. they're in it for the raiding, and want to get to the end game as fast as possible, so they can start progression raiding.
On the other hand, there are altoholics, like me. My goal for WotLK has been to level all 10 characters on my main realm to 80 and get them epic flyers. 4 from 10 for leveling, and 5 from 10 for epic flyers. A couple of alts are still under the 70 mark, and chest heirlooms will help a fair bit.
When the next expansion hits, it would be nice to have something to cut down the amount of time spent leveling (and I know I could just stick with one character, but I like to play them all). Having the bonus XP is.. a bonus, but having a slot that scales and will consistently be best in slot for an underdeveloped alt (until lvl 90) is even better.
travin Jul 6th 2009 8:12PM
I think better options than just making them not go past 80 would be disabling the exp bonus past 80, and then giving you an option to "upgrade" it via badges at the new end game.
Of course that being said, they should allow you to do that for legendary items as well, after all, they are LEGENDS, they shouldn't really become obsolete.
The best example I can think of would be if someone found Excalibur (imaginary weapon I know) and it was only able to just give 1/10" paper cuts.
It just seems kinda.... off...
Like an Atomic bomb being able to only take out that ant nest in your back yard.
lya Jul 6th 2009 9:09PM
Aged Pauldrons of The Five Thunders
Binds to account
Shoulder Mail
878 Armor
+51 Stamina
+34 Intellect
Requires level 1 to 80 (80)
Equip: Improves your resilience rating by 51 (0.62% @ L80).
Equip: Increases spell power by 59.
Equip: Experience gained from killing monsters and completing quests increased by 10%.
You see that Requires level 1 to 80 (80) right there right?
They don't even have to do anything, they are built to only scale up to 80 clear as can be.
johnny3 Jul 6th 2009 9:13PM
^
this