Breakfast Topic: Do you use heirlooms when leveling?
by Andrew Ross 
Feb 26th 2011 at 8:00AM
If you ask the guy or girl with the army of alts what they think of heirlooms, he or she will most likely tell you how great heirlooms are. When heirlooms were announced in Wrath, the players suffering from altitis all screamed out in joy. Something that would save them gold while leveling and make life just a little easier on the way to 80? Now 85? Yes, please!
At first, we had shoulder and weapon heirlooms that were only purchasable in Dalaran or Wintergrasp. The shoulder heirlooms sold in Wintergrasp were identical to the ones in Dalaran, save that you sacrificed a sometimes useful stat for resilience. In patch 3.2, the Argent Tournament was introduced and with it, chest heirlooms and another way to buy heirlooms. Once you obtained the
To some, the downside to these heirlooms is that they don't scale past 80. Cataclysm did introduce two new heirlooms that scale from 1 to 85: cloak and helm heirlooms purchasable once your guild hits the required level and you are honored.
I myself have a number of different heirlooms for my alts, everything from cloth to plate, with different weapons for each class and their specific role. I stopped using them on my priest because I was flying through the revamped zones and couldn't finish all the quest chains before they turned gray.
Do you have heirlooms for your alts? Do you prefer to use them while leveling, or do you keep it old-fashioned while leveling?
| Always | |
|---|---|
| Never | |
| Only if I'm pushing to level as quickly as possible |
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Shoikler Feb 26th 2011 8:14AM
For me, the poll answer would be... sometimes, but not for the reason indicated. I have a couple sets of heirlooms on a couple of the servers I play on, so I use them for the characters that can. The other characters on those servers and all the ones on the servers where nobody's high enough to buy them yet will just have to level without (or wait).
Hypersky Feb 26th 2011 9:34AM
that
Stephanie Feb 26th 2011 11:43AM
The first part of that. I use heirlooms sometimes but not for the reasons indicated. Certainly not if I'm trying to level as quick as possible.
If I'm leveling a caster because I only bothered to get Caster Heirloom gear. And even then I missed out on the gear upgrades (people hate them and I can understand why I just don't agree).
restodr00d Feb 26th 2011 2:01PM
Yeah on my main server I have all the heirlooms but the helm since the guild I'm in is only level 18, but yeah I would go crazy without Heirlooms, however I do level in other realms so i don't have heirlooms in there but it is still fun and frustrating, frustrating since I died a lot before level 9 hahaha, yeah paladins get their first healing spell at 9, was funny tho'
Twill Feb 26th 2011 2:38PM
I only wera heirlooms to level 60.
After that I buy the full PvP set at 60 and feel awesome. Then for level 70 I get the full Brutal Gladiators set.
I love to level in PvP. Its where oyu can seriously refine your skills with a new class. If you mess up, you DIE. Its not like PvE where we blast the crap out of everything. (Seriously, my guild did Gnomer when we were super lower than we should have been.)
Ice Feb 26th 2011 8:15AM
Pre-cata of course. I do use them now too but lately I've been wondering should I not use them because stuff die way too fast not because XP I get.
With chest, cloak, shoulders, bow and trinket stuff die in 1-2 shots and its not really "fun".
Tho even without heirlooms stuff die pretty fast, issue they should look into. I know theres new people in the game that might not always even use abilities they learn but its getting pretty boring after while when mobs give no real edge before cataclysm zones.
I do remember in vanilla when I died a lot when levelling because mobs had "lot" of health and damage was puny* but nowdays the damage is out of the roof and people have cool abilities like explosion shot/ambush/MS that takes 50% of mobs health regardless of gear.
*
Back in vanilla this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6SieyEObrg was pretty awesome thing to do and made quite few warrior nerfs, nowdays its what everyone does with cool talents and damage..
Ice Feb 26th 2011 8:18AM
And to add, in BGs of course no question about that. In dungeons too depending on gear I got from questing (if its competitive to those slots I wear normal items to not get too much XP and keep dungeon bit more exciting by making bosses last longer. If I have like lvl 20 bow in lvl 50 then yeah.. heirlooms)
Jack Spicer Feb 26th 2011 10:09AM
I definitely have to agree that the "Bite" has been taken out of the 1-60 content (perhaps 60-80, but I cannot comment). Instances in particular are a complete joke. As someone leveling alts, I don't really care too much, but I can't see how new players interested in any sort of challenge could possibly want to stick around in WoW long enough to get to the level cap.
The low levels are too easy. No just "easy" but "too" easy.
Udderpowered Feb 26th 2011 8:20AM
Always. And I'm keenly awaiting my guild getting to level 20 and those heirloom legs being released. The exp boost is nice, but the carnage you can cause in battlegrounds just makes it perfect.
Uriah Feb 26th 2011 8:20AM
Heirlooms: man's best friend!
chyllyphylly Feb 26th 2011 8:25AM
Leveling my rogue via pvp heirloomed up. All except the helm :)
chyllyphylly Feb 26th 2011 8:26AM
grrr @ no edit.....
As I was about to say, Heirlooms + sub rogue = dead horde
Twill Feb 26th 2011 2:34PM
Yea I LOVE them in that even when I'm in the lower levels of a PvP bracket I can still hold my own weight (to an extent).
Kurtis Feb 26th 2011 8:26AM
I server-transferred my main and pretty much abandoned the couple of alts I still had on that server. On my new server, I never bothered to get heirlooms for my alts. Then patch 4.0.3 dropped. Since then, I've started 3 alts that are all decked out in heirlooms. My main has already reached the revered/exalted levels he needs with the factions that have dailies, so the only thing he really needs Cata dailies for are TB commendations and getting Pebble. (9/10!) Spending a half-hour at the Argent Tournament is a pretty simple tradeoff for some great alt gear, particularly when he's heroic-geared so he can burn through most of the quests in a couple of minutes - just pull a big group of mobs, kill, loot and fly off. He solos Chillmaw plus the three adds without dropping below 100K health.
So far I haven't duplicated any gear, so I'll have a reasonably complete set to pick from for any future alts too. I actually have two hunters, but one was already over level 40 so I got the mail armor for that one and started with the leather for the other one. They do share an heirloom bow, just by mailing it back and forth. Instant, cross-faction mail for the win!
I suppose my main could use the seals to buy more mounts or pets, once I don't need any more heirlooms. Haven't decided yet whether I want to keep my warlock - he was fun to experience the new Forsaken zones, but haven't logged into him in a couple weeks. If I do, that will be another set of heirloom gear... I don't have any other clothies.
MikeLive Feb 26th 2011 8:36AM
The Mail heirlooms revert to Leather on characters below level 40, just like the Plate ones revert to Mail. You don't need two sets to level a Hunter :) (or Shaman/Warrior/Paladin for that matter)
Kurtis Feb 26th 2011 12:52PM
I know that. The ones the lower-level hunter is wearing will stay there throughout. However, my main is a druid so when I got the pieces for the higher-level hunter (was around 45-50 at the time?) I couldn't see what the converted stats on the leather -> mail pieces would be, so I just bought the mail.
Kurtis Feb 26th 2011 1:08PM
Ahh... I get it now. :) Yeah, I had that backward - the mail ones would be leather under level 40, but not the other way around. However, I didn't do this for two reasons - first, this was the look I wanted on the character (see my note on an earlier post...) and second, I didn't want to duplicate a set.
Verine Feb 26th 2011 8:31AM
I don't cerrently use them because all but 1 of my toons are 80+ on my main server. I have a caster staff, a melee mace, a healer mace and a leather dps set.
If I could send them to a different server where I have some new toons to see the re-done 1-60 areas I would probably not do it. The gear is much better and I'm outleveling areas with just plain questing. I'd like to have a weapon maybe.
Kurtis Feb 26th 2011 8:33AM
That depends a bit - in one case, my heirloom-geared alt is actually leveling with a friend. who has the same heirlooms. The fact that they look the same is actually a good thing.
In another case, the alt was really about a certain "look". The heirlooms provide the look I want in their slots (particularly the cloak - I really don't like the eye-bending cloak designs on some of the high-level Cata cloaks...), and I don't have to pop the "preview on character" window every time I'm at the auction house.
MikeLive Feb 26th 2011 8:34AM
Since the Sundering, I've not used an heirloom at all prior to Outland. Many zones are already overtuned as it is, and I've still got a few zones left to experience for the first time and I really want to do them at appropriate level. Once I get to Outland on a toon, heirlooms are fair game.