80-85 and Heirloom items

Heirloom items specifically state that they go from levels 1 to 80 so we don't currently plan to make the currently available items auto-update to go to level 85 in the next expansion.

As for the experience gain, nothing is set in stone yet, but I think it makes sense that we won't want players to get a 20% exp bonus when leveling to 85.

Q u o t e:


Any thoughts on letting them go to 85 after, say, a couple of months or so? I'm guessing there will just be different heirloom gear to unlock at 85 though...

Note, you are asking just for thoughts here, so in that sense, yes, we have thought of this, we have also thought of providing new heirloom items that must be earned at level 85. There are a lot of ways to go with this, nothing has been determined though.

Q u o t e:


Yeah, this sucks.

Next they'll tell us you can't give Heirloom items to your Worgen/Goblin alts... because they don't want you to have the bonus for the new races either.

Since nothing has been officially determined, I guess this is a possibility, but it seems highly unlikely. We feel that players can already get a lot of mileage out of the current heirloom items but don't want one piece to be the only thing you ever need to get. If you want to keep on progressing it seems a better route to keep earning new items.

Q u o t e:
why give us heirlooms in the first place then?

To help level from 1 to 80. These items help a huge deal in this aspect so for the one purchase you can get a lot of mileage out of them already.

Q u o t e:
the whole game changes at max level anyway, and thats when you start putting effort into your gear, versus just the mindset of leveling up.

I'm not sure what you mean by this, could you explain in more detail?

Q u o t e:
Do you even have a character that is 80th? How can you not know what is meant by that?

Leveling is so fast and easy, that unless you are twinking, nothing you do before 80 matters, because you never do anything where your gear will actually matter. You can keep your starter gear up through 60 and it's not really going to make a difference. Once you get Outlands gear you see a big jump, but you can get the very first starter quest gear from the Outlands and keep it through 70th, and it won't matter. Likewise, you can get the starter WotLK gear, and keep it until 80 without suffering any real consequences.

Gear doesn't matter for the most part until max level. I'm not sure how you cannot know this, unless you don't actually play the game, or don't actually have an 80.

Thanks for the information, so in connecting to the conversation, are you saying that heirloom items are useless? If so, you don't have to purchase them, they are entirely optional.

Q u o t e:


I want all my emblems and stonekeeper shards I wasted on them back then. That is epic amounts of BS that they wont scale to 85 right away. WTF does it matter if we get 20% bonus EXP when your just going to nerf exp gain anyways?

They items state that they work for levels 1 through 80 so you are continuing to get exactly what they said they would do.

Q u o t e:
This situation was not explicitely addressed, although may be subject to the same response as the goblins/worgen heirloom issue.

What does Blizzard have in mind, if anything at this point, about heirlooms for the new race/class combos. I'm planning on levelling a dwarf shaman myself and am hesitant about purchasing all the heirloom gear that will help in the levelling process. My question is will blizzard allow heirlooms to have their full functionality as they do now from 1-80 for new race/class combos; will they still gear that scales but the xp bonus is turned off; will they be completely nullified?

Things can possibly change, but currently there are no plans to change how the existing heirloom items work from levels 1 to 80.