I just returned to WOW and have some Heirloom gear that I’d like to upgrade but can’t find the vendor that sells the casings for armor. Is this no longer good or is there a way to upgrade the current heirloom gear to higher levels?
Looked for Estelle in Orgrimmar but she’s not at the Gates or on top…
Ohhh, Blizzard dug thmselves into a hole with all the phasing they added in Orgrimmar, depending on what bits of the story you have done. 
We really need a tearing-hair-out emoji for cases like this! 
Estelle will or will not be in Orgrimmar depending on what phase of the story you are in, and will or will not be in Undercity depending on what phase you are in.
If you don’t see undercity anymore because you firebombed it but still can’t see the vendor above the Org gates, it may be because you started the BFA intro quests. I had an issue and made a ticket, and this was the response I got.
Right now Orgrimmar is likely still phased because you have not quite completed the full Battle for Azeroth introductory quest, which ends with the achievement “Welcome to Zandalar”. Your next quest “A Dying World” is available at the Great Seal in Zandalar, and you’ll want to follow through to the last quest “We Need Each Other”.
After completing that quest chain, you should see the heirloom vendor Estelle Gendry appear atop the gates of Orgrimmar. Until then, she is currently available in the Rogues’ Quarter in Undercity, and you can go purchase heirlooms from her there immediately.
Hopefully, that helps someone because I was confused as heck.
Now, if Undercity isn’t there for you, look for Zidormi on the map of Tirisfal Glades, near UC. The icon you are looking for is a speech balloon. Go there, talk to Zidormi, and Undercity - and Estelle - should appear.
Having said that, decide on whether the Heirlooms are still worth it to you. They may be, ofc, depending on how much gold you have got, but Blizz have a serious case of shrinkflation going on with them, with both higher prices for each level upgrade, and less functionality. They are less powerful than they were, and also don’t increase your XP gains, but just increase the amount of restedXP you get a bit. So if you are tight on gold, it’s not a major loss if you’re missing a few pieces.
I have several pieces from 8+ toons (now all at level 45 due to the stat/level crunch), and the current iLvl is 163 compared to the 130iLvl for the upgrade gear. Probably not worth the gold, which I have, if the stats don’t really increase for each piece upgrade. I’ll research a bit more but TY, I’ll at least go to UC and see if it’s there.
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I think to some extent it comes down to how often you play alts. The ilvls will basically match up with quest gear for the level (but without worrying about how many levels it’s been since you’ve had a reward for a certain slot.) I keep one set for each armor type upgraded, but I level a lot of alts.
Since they removed the xp bonus from the heirloom set it’s largely useless now imo. Yes, the gear scales with level but gear also isn’t really important till you’re in the current xpac/max level.
The BFA gear, with it’s massive amounts of main stats, is now better for leveling than any heirloom gear.