With the hype of Classic in full swing and top 10ish Twitch streamers in the WoW game category all showing it off I’ve notice a few things that shouldn’t go unnoticed. Practically every streamer showing off Classic is praising the grind that comes along with it. Getting a new piece of gear is so rewarding that people haven’t felt this way in years. Even getting Legendary items in Legion didn’t feel this good. Leveling has meaning again and it doesn’t feel tedious or dry. The worries that some individuals had about Classic being too grindy are being squashed by the sense of community being found in the game. I truly believe a lot of this has to do with the itemization in Classic. And that sense of itemization while leveling is completely non existent in the current form of the game. So I come to the forums in the hopes of offering the idea of change to bring the current game to a better state. Here is my main idea
Remove physical heirloom items and instead introduce a Toy into the game that grants the boost to leveling EXP.
Reasoning:
The introduction of heirlooms single hand-idly has removed gear progression while leveling. This has created a lack luster leveling experience as the desire to seek upgrades or even be surprised by them when they come has been completely removed.
It opens up existing gear to become relevant again via stat upgrades throughout the leveling experience. Currently while leveling it is extremely rare to have any stats change while leveling unless you ding to a new level. If existing quest rewards or item drops have value again a player could see a change in between levels. Completing a hard quest that rewards a blue would feel like an accomplishment rather than “just another quest completed on the way to 120”.
Leveling will take on a new (really an older/better) feel because characters will have a sense of identity while leveling because players will look different. Currently everyone wheres the same old heirlooms and looks the same. I know transmog exists but that doesn’t really help. When I get a new piece of gear and it changes my appearance it makes me feel like i earned something. That feeling doesn’t exist currently.
Most people I’ve spoken with don’t really care about the stats in heirloom gear and simply only use them for the + EXP boost. It appears that leveling for the majority of players out there is about min maxing your + EXP gain. A toy that grants the same + EXP gain as a fully decked out heirloom character would provide that same min max feeling while granting all of the above pre-listed perks while leveling.
AND TO ALL THOSE THAT DISAGREE:
Blizz could simply keep the heirlooms available and just additionally add the toy that gives the + EXP. All they would have to do is remove the EXP gain on the items and keep the adjusting stats based on character level. This means that it would be more of a choice and not a forced decision for people wishing to level fast.
CONCLUSION:
I think the original idea of heirlooms was great. It gave people something to work for that gave them a competitive edge while leveling. The issue that is now present with them is that nearly everyone has 90% of them and there’s no longer that competitive edge. It’s simply became mandatory. Everyone wants to level fast. I get it. But surely there is a way to do so and also give leveling that same great feel that people currently playing the Classic Beta are experiencing.
I hope to promote a strong healthy conversation about this.
I think the classic is a different kind of WoW experience than modern WoW. If say, 4 months into classic, a bunch of people (like more people playing classic than modern) are still praising the classic experience, then perhaps retail wow could move towards a classic playstyle. But right now it’s still to speculative to make any kind of conclusion.
Leave the heirlooms in game so that their transmogs are still available. Just remove the exp gain from them and shift it into a toy. In doing so it removes the forced decision to have to use them. No one here loses anything. It’s a win win for everyone.
If you don’t want this type of change then can you tell me why we even have quest rewards if 95% of the time they are never used?
Don’t like them, then don’t use them. Not everyone wants a slower leveling experience through every single zone. You can choose not to use them to alter your speed, they are far from mandatory.
Don’t ask them to be removed because they offer a competitive (wtf?) advantage while leveling or they don’t make you feel special anymore.
50% XP buff and no cd. It’s not like it’s impossible to do.
Did you even read the original post or are you just trying to be negative? You would still have the ability to have an XP boost with my suggestion. It only opens up gearing opportunities. Right now there are thousands of items no one will ever use simply because heirlooms exist. That’s the problem with the leveling experience in modern WoW
Ignoring the fact that you didn’t actually read the OP, why are you still here if leveling being moderately slower would be a thing that convinces you to leave? That strong of a feeling implies you already hate the leveling process, and the fact that you’d quit over it implies you have been leveling a lot even though you apparently hate it.
Found the people who didn’t actually read the post.
I agree with you OP. The idea of a toy or a tabard for the xp boost is a great idea. Going 1-120 while only upgrading 2-3 slots is not very RPG’ish. It’s fun to get upgrades and heirlooms take away from that while leveling.
No, but me and other people are getting tired of seeing these “Classic will doom retail” or “learn from classic” threads here. At least until classic enters full swing, any of these such threads should be in the classic sub thread.
It doesn’t matter if you are tired of topics or not. His post is in the correct forum and well within the Code of Conduct. There are also no duplicate threads currently discussing heirlooms.
You however, could be considered spamming/trolling this thread by being off topic and non-constructive. If you have an opinion on heirlooms feel free to post it, if not then please stop being disruptive.
Anyways, heirlooms were added back in Wrath when blizzard realized that leveling up in the world was losing its charm. And would continue to be added over the course of the next several years with the increasingly long trek to max level content as they were not making anything in the middle fun or exciting. It’s a good system that helps you skip the deteriorating content.
However, part of the fantasy element is going on a journey with your weapon and armor that doesn’t fail you, so you have no need to replace it with new stuff. In addition, you can xmog it once and be done with that without having to update every time you pick up a new pair of absurdly large shoulders or a unicorn head piece.
I like heirlooms, but for the wrong reason. The problem with this rpg element of upgrading gear isn’t with the heirlooms, its with the leveling experience and it’s lack of challenge, even wearing nothing but weapons.