Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsCataclysm: No plans to extend current heirlooms to 85
by Michael Sacco 
Aug 31st 2009 at 7:00PM
There's been quite a burst of blue posts on the official forums post-BlizzCon; some by World Event Designer Kisirani talking about lore and the post-Cataclysm world, some by Lead Systems Designer Ghostcrawler talking about new game systems coming with 4.0, and some by the Community Managers, providing slightly less meaty morsels of information. It's not all chaff from the CMs, though -- there's some wheat in there.
Bornakk, for example, stopped by a thread asking about how heirloom items will work post-80 in Cataclysm. He said that there are no plans to extend the experience bonus they give past level 80, though there may eventually be new heirlooms available to help bridge that gap. That's not surprising, really -- if they were extended, heirlooms would essentially be mandatory for the people racing to get to 85 first, and that's a situation Blizzard would like to avoid.
Interestingly, he also noted that it's "unlikely" that heirlooms won't work on Worgen or Goblin characters, which is admittedly a relief, seeing how I just bought a set of them for my Worgen Warrior. Battle Howl, anyone?
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.Filed under: News items, Expansions, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
Nathanyel Aug 31st 2009 7:26PM
I'd say in the end, the items will level anyway, but only after a certain starting period. Plus, the same items will be available again through level 85 emblems, so you don't have to grind level 80 content to gear your alts.
Nick Aug 31st 2009 9:15PM
Once we're all 85, grinding level 80 content won't be too hard. Kind of like how you can solo level 70 heroics now, it shouldn't take more than 2 or 3 people for level 80 heroics.
Nathanyel Sep 1st 2009 8:59AM
Nick: The official reason to not grant the ability to convert Badges of Justice to Emblems of Heroism was that you shouldn't feel the need to do Level 70 content on your 80 (to receive a benefit that can also be acquired through Level 80 content)
Cyrus Aug 31st 2009 7:32PM
"if they were extended, heirlooms would essentially be mandatory for the people racing to get to 85 first, and that's a situation Blizzard would like to avoid."
This seems like a dumb thing for Blizzard to bother with. With or without heirlooms, the first level 85 will probably be in less than 24 hours. Less than a week on almost all servers, even relatively underpopulated ones. This has nothing to do with things being too easy; that's about as long as it took in BC. Whoever decides to make a serious try for a world first or server first level 85 will play nonstop until he or she gets it, with the support of friends and guildies. I assume the best way to do this is just run the highest level dungeon they can without wiping over and over again, but maybe they'll do it through questing nonstop, or world PVE. Somewhere or other I read about a strategy to power-level low level characters: chain pull mobs that are way, way over your level while ungrouped and have one higher level character or a group following you around to kill the mobs after they're flagged, so you get all the XP from the kills. I'm not sure how feasible that is with only five levels' difference, but either way, if you're specifically trying to ding 85 ASAP you can make the levels go a lot quicker than for everyone else.
So with that in mind, what's another 20 percent faster leveling? Especially since it's not hard to get the heirlooms. Call me cocky, but two weeks' worth of Argent Tournament dailies, or one week of dungeons and one week of dailies, are enough for two heirlooms that give an XP bonus. That doesn't sound unreasonable at all. I could level a character from scratch on a new server and STILL have two heirlooms in time for Cataclysm.
Of course, if they aren't that hard to get then it's not that big a deal either. Having access to them wouldn't be game-breaking, so not having access to them won't be crippling. I'm just saying I hope Blizzard doesn't waste any time figuring this out and changing the mechanics of heirlooms and stuff.
zombiesauridae Aug 31st 2009 7:36PM
"... he also noted that it's "unlikely" that heirlooms won't work on Worgen or Goblin characters..."
The double negatives here were alarming at first glance.
HyacinTB Sep 1st 2009 2:51PM
O M F G RAWR ...
That is TOTAL F'N BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have spent SO BLOODY LONG putting my heirloom set together IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY!!!!!!!!
FINE! Maybe don't let my *first* toon use them ... that's COMPLETELY understandable ... but then they should be able to buy some bloody BoA book or SOMETHING at 85 that *enables* the heirlooms I'VE SPENT TENS OF MANHOURS ON for the alts on the same account ... this is 10000000% TOTAL F'N B S
Michael Sacco Aug 31st 2009 7:49PM
I'm not sure you understand the post.
Heirlooms will still grant an experience bonus from 1-80. They just won't from 80-85.
slartibart Sep 1st 2009 12:21AM
This is my most favorite recent 'reader post' on wowinsider.
Not Mr. Sacco's the original.
Kaorael Aug 31st 2009 7:48PM
What I would like to see is the exp bonus from heirlooms working up to the level of your highest character in the realm/overall. That way the first character to level to 85 would need to go all the way without the bonus, but any character coming behind would profit from it.
And it's not like they don't have the tech to implement something along those lines, since they can check if you have a level 55 char somewhere to allow you to create Death Knights.
Ringo Flinthammer Aug 31st 2009 8:01PM
Since the patch at least, heirloom items already have a level restriction on them, capping their use at level 80. As it reads, you won't even be able to equip them at 81.
outlier Aug 31st 2009 8:06PM
Heirlooms over 80 would only really apply to players that are rerolling a new character for the expansion. Anyone who is even casually gearing can now (and if very casual, surely BY WOW Cat) get 8.5 chest/helm, 7.5 Shoulders and Pants all with badges. Do enough dailies and T9 is yours as well. I didn't work out the math myself but I am pretty sure that T8/T9 will still be better leveling than a scaled version of every heirloom AT 85. I would however like to see heirlooms expanded to other pieces of gear. Adding an experience boost is perhaps way too much to ask for but just having an item that will never need an upgrade is pretty sweet. I would also like to maybe see lvl 35+ Heirlooms, a tier 2 heirloom of sorts that could accept lvl 35+ enchants.
LilBanshee Sep 1st 2009 8:19AM
"I didn't work out the math myself but I am pretty sure that T8/T9 will still be better leveling than a scaled version of every heirloom AT 85."
You cannot do the math because its not a predictable formula. If it scaled steadily, then yes T8/9 gear would be better than heirloom gear at 85, but that's not how they work. If you watch how your heirloom items scale, they suddenly make huge jumps in quality when you ding level 58 and 68, to correspond with the much higher level of gear available in each expansion.
Consider that fact that random quest blues overtook T6 gear at around level 75 - halfway into the expansion. I would expect Blizzard to scale things this way again, making level 82-83 blues better than lev 80 epics to give some room for growth rather than wearing the same gear at 85 as you had at 80. And heirlooms have always been the same quality as a good blue item.
kalatash Aug 31st 2009 8:40PM
Aren't heirloom item stats only recalculated ever 10 levels? Or is it at every level? It would make sense for me to not have them have new stats for 85 if the former, though not necessarily for the latter.
soatari Aug 31st 2009 10:14PM
It's every level.
staffan.johansson Aug 31st 2009 8:56PM
Currently heirloom stats are recalculated every level to be just a little below what a blue item with that minlevel would be. Though of course not all stats will increase at every level, but over the course of 10 levels you should see a significant increase.
Tommy Aug 31st 2009 11:06PM
I'm glad to see this. The new expansion should allow for the all new experience of exploring and leveling appropriately. Then gimme my new heirlooms for the 80-85 *grind*.
_Rand_ Sep 1st 2009 12:21AM
Seems to me that the simplest solution would be to code it so that the BoA items will only level to the "teir" of your highest level character.
So until you hit 85, they remain at a max of level 80 and provide no XP bonus.
Next expansion when the cap goes to 90? Same thing, they don't work till one character hits 90.
No need to get new heirloom gear and it doesn't give bonuses until you have a character leveled to cap, best of both worlds IMO.
LilBanshee Sep 1st 2009 8:22AM
No need to get new stuff? Have you *played* World of Warcraft? They always make you get new stuff, no matter how cool what you had before was.
kmfolino Sep 1st 2009 1:24AM
My idea of a solution would be to introduce a level 85 set of heirlooms in the xpac, and our current batch of level 80's could be used as tokens (i.e. tier tokens) by our mains to buy the newer BoA's at 85. The new heirlooms could be something totally new or just an updated version of what we have now. Either way, what we have now won't be usable between 80-85, and we won't need to pay anything more to replace them.
theRaptor Sep 1st 2009 1:51AM
Wow, there is some "entitled casuals" here.
The items say "requires level 1 to 80" so why would you expect them to be useful for anything but levelling between 1 and 80? If you stopped and thought for 10 seconds it was entirely obvious that Blizzard was not going to allow everyone to stockpile heirlooms (easy to do now you can get them for AT champions seals) and blow through Blizzards new and improved "slower" levelling system 20% faster. This is similar to Cold Weather flying restricting mains levelling in Northrend, except we had no expectation of heirlooms working past level 80.
They are trying to not make it "race to end game and get bored as quick as possible". Additionally with the Old World levelling revamp and the fact that Blizz wants us to roll more alts they might nerf the exp bonus on heirlooms altogether. The XP bonus was a patch on the fact that the Old World sucked if you had seen Outland or Northrend.