Heirloom Items

[Merusk]

Not to derail this exciting thread, but for those that have 'em, does the heirloom gear make that much of a difference in the 1-60 grind that it's worth farming the shards?  I've been in WG all of once, and it seemed a clusterfuck, so I just gather them incidentally from whenever the Alliance has WG.

Not to derail this exciting thread, but for those that have 'em, does the heirloom gear make that much of a difference in the 1-60 grind that it's worth farming the shards?

Yes.  I finished with the old world at Un'goro and went to Outlands on my latest character.  Usually I have to suck it up until Winterspring and Felwood are done.

And don't farm shards, farm heroics for 120 badges or so and be done with it.  If you choose to, it takes ~2 afternoons of hefty heroic running.

IMO, yes.  However, I bought mine using heroic badges I had building up on my raiding DK and argent crusade badges, not WG shards.  WG stuff has resil all over it, which isn't as useful for PvE as those few extra points of stats.

The 20% xp bonus from the shoulders and chest piece makes things go super quick.  Using the tour guide addon I was hitting a the next tier of the guide at only about 40-50% through the previous one.  Since I only play my rogue part time on the weekends, I can't give you a real great estimate of actual hours.  However,  I went from 29 to 70 in about 5 weeks of casually dicking around + battlegrounds. I don't think any play session of said rogue was longer than 3 1/2 hours, except possibly the first weekend I was AV eligible and I catassed for rep, honor and marks.

[Fordel]

If your playing a melee class, the heirloom weapons are pretty much cheat codes for the first 50-60 levels.

[caladein]

The Chest and Shoulders are a no-brainer, not only because of the XP but you can slap a +100 Health enchant on the Chest which is pretty darn nice early on.

I'd recommend the weapons just for melee types (or the bow/gun for Hunters).  I'd pick up the caster weapons or gun on a Warrior only if you have a Stone Keeper Shards coming out your butt... which doesn't seem to be the case for you.

The heirloom PvP trinket is a bit of rip-off.  It's got some Resil, but you can buy four characters their Classic trinkets for the same cost (250 for the Heirloom versus 4 x 60 for two Wintergrasp Commendations).

The +2% Health/+2% Mana trinkets didn't seem to have much of an impact on the two characters I've used them on.  That said, one of them was a Warlock (with both) and the other was a Warrior packing an Heirloom 2-Hander with Crusader .

On the Wintergrasp items vs. Heroism/Crusader's items: the differences are minor enough that I wouldn't use the Emblems/Seals if there was anything I was going after on my main (with the exception of the Chest, natch).

[Ingmar]

The caster weapons are far superior to anything else you can use as a leveling caster, they actually have spellpower on them and they will stay ahead of anything you're likely to get until the 70s. From 1-58 you'll never see a weapon with spellpower on it at all in all likelihood, its a really huge difference.

The trinkets are really nice for their passive effects, the little heal/mana procs are whatever. Keep in mind they're not unique so you can wear two of the haste ones if you want, etc.

[Fordel]

The 2% return trinkets are stack-able, it isn't immediately obvious to most folks. IE: You can have two of the same trinket and get 4% return every kill.

I have two of each, one set for my Prot Warrior (walk into half dozen mobs, walk out full life) and one set for my Shadow Priest where the extra mana is just enough to push me into the 'don't need to drink anymore' zone.



One thing about the caster weapons, is you can put a +40 SP enchant on them, which is more SP then you would have for the first 30-40 levels normally.

[brellium]

Heirloom items area awesome

I have three lowbie alts equiped with the pvp items.

I leveled up the druid with them from level 70-80 and was suitably impressed (I stole the leather gear from my rogue)

I just wish I had the time/desire to level up those three alts as I currently have 3 80's to deal with.

[Musashi]

Plus if you get hacked, you can still use them to level an alt because the farmers can't sell them.  Ask me how I know!

[Draegan]

Why would you promote that you hacked someone's account?

[Malakili]

I'm not even currently playing WoW anymore, but one of the first things I did when I was back in LK was get a set of shoulders + chests for cloth/leather/mail/plate.  Totally worth it.  I think I may have gotten a weapon as well, but I don't remember.

[fuser]

The 2% return trinkets are stack-able, it isn't immediately obvious to most folks. IE: You can have two of the same trinket and get 4% return every kill.

I'm leveling a frost mage aoe kiting with two of the mana one's. Downtime is minimal now.

There is a 5% exp ring heirloom now in 3.3. Dread Pirate Ring from the weekly fishing Northrend contest.

[Kail]

Extreme stupid incoming:

Is there a way to mail heirloom items cross server?  I know they set up the mail system so you can send them cross faction, just wondering if there's some way to do it cross realm besides handing it to a character and paying $15 for a server transfer.

[Ingmar]

Extreme stupid incoming:

Is there a way to mail heirloom items cross server?  I know they set up the mail system so you can send them cross faction, just wondering if there's some way to do it cross realm besides handing it to a character and paying $15 for a server transfer.

Only way is to server transfer.

[Fordel]

Blizzard has said it wants to enable cross server transfers in the future, but some technical hurdle is preventing it currently or some such.


Soon™ and all that 

[Hawkbit]

I got bored with my DK after he hit 80 with Wrath so I worked on getting chest, shoulder, 2hd axe and trinket heirlooms to make a baby paladin.  I flew through levels all the way up to 70 and then quit for four months due to RL issues.  Last Wednesday I resubbed and played him with full rest bonus which never ran out.  He hit 80 tonight, in 8 days.  Rest bonus + heirloom gear = awesome.

Best part is that I'm 80 and still have all of ZD, Shol, SP and IC zones to quest in.  Not to mention that I've started Argent dailies and dungeon randoms.   

[fuser]

Best part is that I'm 80 and still have all of ZD, Shol, SP and IC zones to quest in.  Not to mention that I've started Argent dailies and dungeon randoms.   

With the heirlooms + quest rewards/misc drops are you able to do the 3.2 dungeons in LFG? I'm doing a pally with the exact same setup (52 atm)

[Musashi]

Why would you promote that you hacked someone's account?

Are you joking?  I got hacked, guy.

[Draegan]

No I wasn't joking.  I think you should be banned.

[Hawkbit]

Best part is that I'm 80 and still have all of ZD, Shol, SP and IC zones to quest in.  Not to mention that I've started Argent dailies and dungeon randoms.   

With the heirlooms + quest rewards/misc drops are you able to do the 3.2 dungeons in LFG? I'm doing a pally with the exact same setup (52 atm)

Depends.  It wouldn't even let me queue up for some of them because my gear rating was too low.  It will let me in any Normal dungeon, but some of the Heroics are locked due to gear.  I'm trying to be a tank, but it's obvious that I'm going to have to Ret my way through the ranks for tank gear because people simply run through Heroics now. 

It's that age old issue in WoW.  In order to tank, you need the gear.  But dps can tag along usually and everyone gets by. 

[Ingmar]

Crafted saronite gear will get you most of the way there really, and it doesn't take a lot in the way of mats.

[fuser]

Depends.  It wouldn't even let me queue up for some of them because my gear rating was too low.  It will let me in any Normal dungeon, but some of the Heroics are locked due to gear.  I'm trying to be a tank, but it's obvious that I'm going to have to Ret my way through the ranks for tank gear because people simply run through Heroics now. 

It's that age old issue in WoW.  In order to tank, you need the gear.  But dps can tag along usually and everyone gets by. 

Yep wanted to know if you could get into purple rain on normal as a tank. Oh well looks like premake a set of

Crafted saronite gear

[Hawkbit]

If all you're doing is sub-ToC tanking, I'd wager crafted tempered saronite could get you by.  I've got a lot of it and I'm at 525 defense.  The only real issue is that virtually none of my gear has gem slots, so I'm stuck till I can upgrade.

The only other issue to be (or not to be) concerned with is that the LFD puts you in groups with people that want a knowledgeable, proficient tank.  That won't quite happen in the beginning, so be prepared for some douchbaggery from others.

[Musashi]

No I wasn't joking.  I think you should be banned.

Oh.  Okay. 

[Dren]

The only other issue to be (or not to be) concerned with is that the LFD puts you in groups with people that want a knowledgeable, proficient tank.  That won't quite happen in the beginning, so be prepared for some douchbaggery from others.

Realistically, you get to be quite knowledgeable after running tons of heroics and watching what the tanks do anyway.  By the time you get enough gear to tank yourself, this really isn't an issue (normally.)

My Paladin is now fully able to tank all the instances that qualify for the random.  Now I'm farming the hell out of them for triumph to cap out my gear that way.  My other spec is healer and I'm ICC25 cabalbe there.  So, getting into randoms isn't a problem what-so-ever!  My issue now is getting placed into hHoR with bad groups.  I can handle the tanking of it, but if the healing and dps aren't spot on, wipe.

[K9]

For levelling a warrior alt does anyone have any advice about whether 2h Arms, 2h Fury or DW 1H Fury (or DW Arms) produces the best results before level 50 and titan's grip. Heirloom gear isn't an issue, I have all the heirloom items bar a pair of one-handers, but can get them using left over badges now if it might be worth it.

[Gobbeldygook]

For levelling a warrior alt does anyone have any advice about whether 2h Arms, 2h Fury or DW 1H Fury (or DW Arms) produces the best results before level 50 and titan's grip. Heirloom gear isn't an issue, I have all the heirloom items bar a pair of one-handers, but can get them using left over badges now if it might be worth it.

2-h arms is less boring for boring than fury for a while.  At 40 you can get bloodthirst.  You should level as fury from there because glyphed blood thirst and Blood Craze are awesome for leveling/grinding.  Stick with 2-handed fury so you can use Slam to dump rage.

secret ninja option: Go prot, get to level 15, queue up for Ragefire Chasm, don't leave thunder bluff until level 58.

[K9]

Heh, I've been tanking RFC in my heirloom gear with thunderclap, think I do a decent job. Being #1 for damage done and DPS too is fun.

51DPS at level 16 is good right?  

Thanks for the advice.

[Musashi]

Alternatively, you can just stay Arms and MS the shit out of stuff the whole way.  You have to eat every once in a while tho.  But IMO it's more fun/better practice.  Running around with the Arcanite Reaper heirloom was like happy fun time.

[Selby]

secret ninja option: Go prot, get to level 15, queue up for Ragefire Chasm, don't leave thunder bluff until level 58.

I went protection after about 30 levels of snoozing in Arms, and found I kill stuff faster than I did with Arms *and* rarely ever come close to dying, even with 2-3 mobs attacking (more mobs is actually good, more rage).  I've now 68 and enjoying the hell out of it.

[Sheepherder]

Stick with 2-handed fury so you can use Slam to dump rage.

2H Fury is a pretty weak build and weapon combo, lower base damage than arms and worse scaling than any form of dual-wield.

EDIT: And dual-wield Arms is a complete joke.

[Fordel]

Just level as Protection via questing. I've taken my warrior from 1 to 51 now as protection, a good chunk of that was me just doing laps around the Elite Dragonkin in Dustwallow marsh. Walk into pack of 3 yellow elite mobs, walk out in 40 seconds with full life 

[Paelos]

Protection as a leveling spec is totally mind-boggling to a person who did it at release. It was a horrible way to even think about gaming.

Then again, I didn't even quest during the first expansion because my ass was always in dungeons, so what do I know. I guess at that point they fixed it.

[Musashi]

I think they fixed it very recently (wolk).  And then I think they nerfed it even more recently.  Because you know, mages were crying in PvP that they were dying.  And we can't have that.  I'm not entirely sure they really 'get' protection warriors.

[Selby]

Protection as a leveling spec is totally mind-boggling to a person who did it at release. It was a horrible way to even think about gaming.

Then again, I didn't even quest during the first expansion because my ass was always in dungeons, so what do I know. I guess at that point they fixed it.

Yes.  Leveling as protection then was a joke.  Why even bother?  You couldn't kill anything in under a minute, it was just so painful.  I didn't believe that it was possible until people here specifically told me about it because of my experiences at release.

Everyone claims dungeons are supposedly faster than questing, but I've always found questing to be much more reliable at getting levels than instances.  Not to mention running ST *again* is not something I look forward to, ever.  If you get a good group that can blitz them down fast, sure that can be good.  But when most tanks body pull or don't even understand aggro management, the "healer" is really a shadow priest or moonkin, and DPS doesn't understand a thing about focus fire or tank aggro it can become quite an expensive exercise in repair bills and corpse running.

[Paelos]

Dungeons are faster at the beginning of an expansion in the first 2 months when everyone is leveling characters and alts. After that, it's probably not as consistent.

[Musashi]

Yea.  It may be faster for a prot warrior to level in instances.  But for everyone else, including other flavors of warriors, it's WAY faster to download tom/tour guide and follow the arrow to the next quest.