Hello, ex-heirloom enthusiast and current altoholic here. In all but the last expansion or two, I’ve even faithfully kept all of my heirlooms leveled up to be as current as possible. I only stopped sometime last expansion because, time and time again, I’ve failed to see the effort vs payout.
Ultimately, I’ve come to realize the following about heirlooms:
Redeeming qualities
No durability nonsense to deal with. However, you change gear so often when leveling that durability seldom is a factor.
Are cheap to transmog. Transmog fees suck and probably shouldn’t even exist, so with heirlooms you can “look cool” as you level without wasting gold with each new gear upgrade you get. About the only thing with no downsides!
Have some set abilities, but the value they have in their current form is questionable.
Are nice to outfit a fresh level 1 with, but I could easily just ignore the heirloom max level grind and transition to standard gear as the character levels and a given heirloom piece stops scaling. Like replacing any other piece of outdated gear, really.
Why they actually suck
Cost an abnormally high amount to keep updated to the current cap.
Don’t get their level cap raised until the expansion is mostly over. By then, my alts are already max level, and I suspect this is true for many others, too.
There are plenty of events that are good for leveling characters, to the point where all the time and effort required to keep heirlooms current is more than just leveling characters in those events without the convenience of heirlooms.
The “newer” set bonus, affecting rested exp, is barely noticeable.
The system is honestly underutilized. Past legendaries? “Cool” event drops like the Horseman’s sword or Ahune’s scythe? Our now-depleted artifact weapons? Why can’t they find new life as heirlooms?
There hasn’t been a new achievement related to heirloom collection in who knows how long.
Are basically trash at the “max” level. I get it, quest/dungeon/raid for the good stuff, but it’s worth mentioning, even though I get this one.
So again, i ask: What is the point of heirlooms in modern wow, and why is it worth a player’s time, effort, and resources to keep their heirlooms’ max levels upgraded?
How they could be better
Remove the whole system of upgrading your heirlooms, and just bump their max level up when the time is right. I’ve invested a lot into keeping mine updated for a long time, and I’m perfectly fine with everyone else getting that basically for free. Bad system, needs to go!
Add other cool things that are now outdated and have basically been trashed as old content. The previously-mentioned old legendaries, artifact weapons, event weapons, etc. Totally fine and understandable if the “cool” aspects of these are disabled in raids and battlegrounds/arenas, of course.
Bump their max levels up sooner in the expansion. The start of a given expansion’s first content patch seems reasonable.
Some new achievements or other reasons to collect heirlooms perhaps?
Replace the silly rested exp set bonus with one that multiplies exp, like before. Even if it’s just something small, like 10%.
Anyway, that’s just the thoughts of one person who used to go hard on heirlooms, but now doesn’t care about them. I’m not naive enough to think this post will change much or anything, but it feels good to vent, as well as to see if anyone else shares my feelings about the current state of heirlooms.
I mean their primary benefit used to be an increase to leveling speed, but leveling speed is already trivial. What else could you do with them besides make them overpowered stat wise? But people are already crushing leveling content with ease so that’s not a great idea either.
See all the things I listed in how they could be made better. Their other value was not needing to replace gear as you steamroll-leveled. You could look cool with your favorite transmog instead of looking like some technicolor nightmare reject.
I find they’re useful to not fall totaly behind as you level.
As the current meta is to skip every boss you can, you’re not getting nearly as many drops as you used to, so it’s not uncommon to have a level 2-3 item at level 40.
Some good ideas here. I like the one of legendaries turning into maybe warband heirlooms. Feels cool to ‘pass on the legacy’.
What i agree with regarding the rest of the suggestions:
Bump levels up sooner
Remove upgrade system (maybe add cost to base cost of them).
What i disagree with:
Experience bonus to them - this was removed to make heirlooms still useful but not mandatory. This has already been adjusted for the levelling process to be equitable for all.
With all said thank you for the post and appreciate the ideas.
This is the only one I feel like actually makes them useful in any way, and you’re just enhancing leveling speed, which was taken from heirlooms because it’s baked into the game now. It’s not a new or fresh function, it’s just a boost to what’s baseline.
Removing upgrading heirlooms is nice but it still doesn’t give a player incentive to use them
Adding new heirlooms would be cool but it still doesn’t give a player incentive to use them (other than visually, which we have transmog for)
Bumping up their max level sooner is nice but it still doesn’t give a player incentive to use them when other gear is comparable
No reason to add achievements to heirlooms when there’s no incentive to use them otherwise
I mean yeah that was an okay feature but it doesn’t really feel all that compelling
I’d be all for giving players some kind of incentive to use them again, but further increasing leveling speed or player power doesn’t feel necessary or like the right way to do it
Fair. I just use it as a way to dump the gold I passively accumulate doing everything else (BFA and SL transmog runs, rep grinds). Not even bothering with professions until the end of the expansion when prices are down.
Generally, checklist adherence and procedural conformity is laudable. I appreciate your dedication to the craft. I am lacking in heirloom compliance, though.
I 100% agree with this… the upgrade system has been an abhorrent piece of garbage since the level squish… the upgrade levels for heirlooms are a trainwreck… 29, 34, 39, 44, 49, 59, 69… the first 4 upgrades shouldn’t even have existed anymore after the level squish… heirlooms should have been left scaling from 1-49 and got new upgrades with each new expansion again… effectively a reset on the heirloom system… it would have been better than the nonsensical garbage we have now… which at this point they may as well just remove the upgrade system completely and just let them auto upgrade with expansion launches…
While making a new alt recently I was happy to have them for one reason alone. Leveling is so fast I arrived at level 52 wearing level 10 boots/bracers/belt etc.
Not enough loot drops to keep up with the pace of leveling. Loot drop rates and leveling should be designed to coexist, but here we are!
I hit 71 with some of my (tank) DK’s starting gear still equipped. You know… the level where the scaling becomes absolutely brutal.
Let’s just say I had to start pulling very carefully. And amazingly, when I apologized and offered to leave the group, the healer told me it was fine and we soldiered on!
Disagree. They do have value, but only until their scaling stops. If an heirloom scales to 39, its relevant until something for 40 and up drops. Removing the upgrade system and just scaling them all up the same way (currently 69, later 79) would make them more appealing for longer.
Before timewalking was ruined with the new scaling system, you could use the old Pandaria legendary cloak (for example) and enjoy its effects once again. Can’t transmog that.
“when other gear is comparable” being the key. A few of my 70s are in 480 gear, which seems to do okay until about 74 when I’m at the mercy of drops. Bumping scaling sooner means a smoother leveling experience if drops go badly, should someone choose dungeon crawling over questing.
I’ll agree that leveling speed is fine enough, I was just trying to think of some way to incentivize using them. The other benefits would be good enough IF they weren’t bound to upgrade maintenance or didn’t take so long into the expansion to have their max level raised.
3-5 expansions ago I stopped collecting them, I aint spending a billion marks/badges/whatever to lvl up a toon fast till lvl 20. It is akready fast enough anyway.
And amazingly, when I apologized and offered to leave the group, the healer told me it was fine and we soldiered on!