I know the Heirloom nerf happened 2 years ago, but I haven’t really leveled anything until recently because I feared how slow it would be. And man… It is dreadfully slow.
History:
Heirlooms were added to the game back in Wrath of the Lich King to speed up alt leveling. In WoD they were made duplicatable so you weren’t stuck to leveling only 1 character at a time. They were an amazing addition to the game for a few reasons:
- Leveling was fast!
- Mobs died in 1-2 hits!
- You almost never died! (Unless you were really bad at the class)
The cost of upgrading the level cap of Heirloom bonuses became more and more each expansion. But because the 55% XP bonus was -that- good, it was worth purchasing every time.
The Nerf:
They decided to nerf Heirlooms into the ground by removing it’s raw XP bonus and overhauling the bonuses as a whole. The bonuses now are:
- 60% reduced Rested XP consumption.
- Increased out-of-combat regeneration.
- AoE damage and 40% main stat when you level up.
These bonuses are… worthless. I’m almost never near an Inn when I want to log out, so I gather pretty much no Rested XP. Even with the 60% reduction, I still run out of it almost immediately. Out of combat regen is almost never needed because every class has an ability or passive that heals nowadays, except Mage (Shields and Frost spells keep enemies away). The AoE damage and main stat is nice, but I almost always level up at a questgiver, with my next quest location being far enough away for the buff to run out or be impossible to refresh in the time it takes to kill mobs.
For the investment put into upgrading Heirlooms, having them be -this- nerfed is really upsetting. Leveling just feels like a dreadful task now that’s mindnumbingly boring, while I used to really enjoy it and do it quite often.
My hopes:
I would love to see another rehaul of the Heirlooms or see a return of the raw XP buffs. Maybe reward it from completing the Loremaster achievement so you’ll atleast have to level through everything once, then be allowed to speedlevel. Just something like this:
[The Loremaster] Reward: Title, Loremasters Colors &
Increased Experience Gains while wearing Heirlooms.
But honestly? I have no hopes. Because this decision was likely made to make Character Boosts more appealing, just like the nerf/removal of XP pots. And those Boosts are still overpriced imo, so no thank you.
And on a sidenote, the DMF 10% XP buff, or any event XP buff for that matter, should really persist through death.
