By my recollection, heirlooms were ever-so-slightly worse than same-level blues at their most powerful (possibly with the exception of the Garrosh weapons, which are likely quite a bit better than blue even still).
They are currently roughly equivalent to greens.
A bit back they where close to purples. But blizz nerfed them cause of battlegrounds. People would lock their level and use heirlooms and wreck house. The stats got lowered cause of PVP basically.
Unless they buffed them in WoD (the only expansion I never played at all) but then nerfed them before Legion, they were never close to purples. Thatâs just blatantly false and on-its-face ridiculous due to the reasons I mentioned in my above reply to Dullmoments.
It would make all content between hitting max level and the first raid tier completely useless.
When i had them around wrath they where really good. Also because they where harder to obtain.
Thatâs when they were released. They were ever-so-slightly worse than blues.
That depended entirely on how broke you were. I had no issue.
Hey, listen, 50% off xmog 
huh? Good right? 
https://www.engadget.com/2009-09-16-wow-rookie-heirlooms-ease-the-way-for-alts.html
Heirlooms approximate the stats and attributes of a blue-quality rare item thatâs the level of the character currently wearing it. At level 80, they are roughly equivalent to an item level 187 rare. Once you hit level 80, youâll want to replace them with gear from quests, instances, or PvP.
Quite simply, you need to participate in Wrath 's content. Items suited to PvE are acquired via Emblems of Heroism and items suited for PvP are acquired via Stone Keeperâs Shards.
https://www.engadget.com/2008-11-24-wrath-101-heirloom-items-and-how-to-get-them.html
The joy of the internet is that everything is saved somewhere
notice how you had to change the topic from permanence to obsolescence mid-sentence ?
Theyâre still permanent.
Then it was even easier than I remembered. Emblems of Heroism were farmable in dungeons.
I dunno, gold seems easier than dungeons. This is current content wrath we are talking about here so at one point it was still pre LFD
Maybe for a DPS.
Iâm a tank, so people actually wanted me to join their group.
They wonât. Theyâve been around since Wrath, youâve gotten your moneyâs worth⌠let it go.
You donât return your 9 year old toaster for a refund.
If you bought it from a good company with reliable products and meaningful warranties, you absolutely do return it when it stops working.
I will still use mine because I have them enchanted and keep them in storage on an alt. So unless they remove my ability to enchant my 'looms, I will still have a use for them.
I read and understand your thoughtfully written out post Darien.
I was going to say you would lvl out of the bracket soon enough. However, after careful consideration, that would lead you into another bracket where twinks will swarm.
In my honest opinion, End-Game PvP has been stale and uninspiring; I have yet to feel my heart pump with adrenaline after WoD. Legion and beyond is poop. Regardless of heirlooms, BiS gear will always be available to those with experience off with some farming. I will enter the fray of lower brackets myself, if Shadowlands proves to be less than exemplary. No doubt the PvP gearing system will be based on rating to attain ilvl. If I can not have equal footed ilvl in PvP like the MoP and WoD PvP vendors then I am hopping into lower brackets. Which will no doubt, with much enjoyment, have lower queue times due to having less brackets. Opponents will have their BiS and so shall I; anything less is cannon-fodder.
Remove them from all accounts, refund the gold, and if people want them back they can buy them back.
Donât increase the price of them either.
Some did. Some didnât. I bought my way to chauffeur just this year. Had a cloth plate and leather set, decided to fill out my roster. Just because theyâve been available 10 years does not mean everyone bought them at launch.
Theyâre not going to be giving any refunds.
At that point, they might as well remove quest rewards, too. I mean⌠what would be the point?
What about the people who just upgraded last month?