Heirlooms in World of Warcraft used to be all the rage. Now they are outdated and the whole system is no longer usable.
There are plenty of systems in World of Warcraft that have become a bit dusty over the years. One of them is definitely the heirloom system. It used to be popular, and the items were used regularly. Nowadays, the community agrees: it is not only unnecessarily complicated, but also a waste of time and gold.
What kind of equipment is this? Heirloom equipment has a long tradition in World of Warcraft. These are items that you store in your collection and can then use with every new character. The interesting part: the items scale with the character’s level. So if you are leveling a twink, they will, in theory, always have appropriate gear and won’t need to change it until just before reaching the maximum level.
Back then, there were additional bonuses on the items, such as a hefty XP buff that accelerated leveling. This was replaced over the years by other bonuses that provide only a small advantage in combat or extend the rest bonus.
What is the problem with heirlooms? Heirlooms have not only lost most of their utility in recent years, but have also become increasingly expensive. Specifically, the changes are as follows:
- Heirlooms no longer grant a bonus on received XP. This was removed when the leveling speed in the game was increased anyway.
- Heirlooms needed to be upgraded after each expansion. They initially only scale up to level 30 – for every additional 10 levels, an upgrade is required, which can cost several thousand gold.
- Heirlooms are now often significantly worse than gear from other sources – such as quests or dungeons.
Those who want a complete set of heirlooms have to pay several tens of thousands of gold and probably spend a long time dealing with the upgrade system to manually bring the items to the desired level piece by piece.
This is what the community thinks: The topic is actively discussed in the WoW Subreddit. Many mourn the heirlooms in their old form:
- “Heirlooms were so great back then, now they are just useless.” – susejesus
- “This is just a waste of gold now. Barely helps with leveling anymore.” – gaz8600
- “Since the XP bonus was removed, they are useless.” – dahid
- “I only use them so I can keep my transmog and don’t have to reapply it after every dungeon.” – undoingneptune94
How could this be fixed? There are a few ideas in the comments on how to make heirlooms more attractive again. Some of the summarized suggestions include:
- The base price for heirlooms should be higher, but the upgrades should be removed. The heirlooms scale on their own up to the current expansion.
- Heirlooms need to be equal in value to dungeon loot during leveling again.
Generally, there seems to be a consensus that heirlooms in their current state no longer serve a real purpose. They are an old system that is slowly being forgotten by many – which is a shame because many have spent hundreds of thousands of gold pieces on their collection.
While heirlooms have become weaker, tanks have become more powerful – and soon even stronger!
