This other thread about how to level alts got me thinking again about the current situation and somewhat “uselessness” of heirlooms in their existing form. So what if Heirlooms worked differently like this:
First and foremost: wrist, glove and boots heirlooms added since we’re still missing them
All Heirlooms and at any upgrade tier work from level 1 to level [start of the current expansion]. For example they would currently work from 1 till 70. With the prepatch 12.0 they’d work from 1 till 80 without the player needing to do anything. Then with the prepatch for The Last Titan they’d work from 1 till 90 without the player needing to pay anything more etc.
All heirlooms at their base level of 1/x become slightly weaker than they currently are: They provide the stats of equivalent green/uncommon quality equipment that would be rewarded by a quest for the character at their level.
Set bonus reworked (current bonus will be used further below):
– 3 heirlooms increase all secondary stats provided by equipped heirlooms by 20%
– 6 heirlooms increase all secondary stats provided by equipped heirlooms by an additional 20%
– 9 heirlooms make primary stat and stamina provided by equipped heirlooms increase by 20%
– 12 heirlooms make primary stat and stamina provided by equipped heirlooms increase by an additional 20%
– 15 heirlooms make primary stat, stamina and secondary stats provided by equipped heirlooms increase by an additional 10%
– Offhands do not count to the tier bonus, because it would be unfair for 2hander users. That leaves 15 equipment slots.
Upgrade tiers reworked that would allow pretty much infinite number of tiers which would also make them immune to level squishes:
– 1/x is base version as it is purchased from the quartermaster. The heirloom returns cumulatively 1% of rested experienced used
– 2/x returns 2% of rested experience
– etc.
– x/x (where x is the number of available tiers which can be increased in the future…) returns x% of rested experience.
– 2Handers provide double the above bonus (to compensate for the lack of an offhand)
– Special effect: If the cumulative percentage of rested experience returned exceeds 100%, then the character gains double bonus from rested experience (ie. triple exp) without consuming that extra from the rested exp bar, and the percentage of rested experienced returned is reduced by 100%. If the cumulative bonus exceeds 200%, the the character gains triple bonus from rested experience (ie. 4x exp) and the percentage of rested experience returned is reduced by 200%. Etc.
What this means through 3 examples. Let’s assume I am levelling a character and I have equipped 6 heirlooms: 4/6 upgraded main hand, 3/6 upgraded offhand , 3/6 helmet, 2/6 chest, 1/6 legs and 2/4 trinket. I would have the following effects:
They would scale all the way up to level 70 (for today’s game). Next year they would scale till 80 without me needing to pay extra.
I have 6 heirlooms equipped, but one is an offhand. Therefore the game considers I have 5 set items equipped. Therefore all equipped heirlooms (even the offhand) provide 20% extra secondary stats.
The cumulative upgrades add up to: 4 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 1 + 2 = 15. Therefore every time rested experienced is consumed, 15% of the consumed part is returned. So if I killed an enemy which would reward me 500 base exp, I receive normally 1000 exp (500 base + 500 rested), and the rested exp bar decreases first by 500 exp (the one I got) but then increases by 75.
2nd example with an almost fully decked character with today’s heirloom upgrade tiers: I have 6/6 on all slots, 4/4 on trinkets and a 6/6 2hander. I would have the following effects:
Again they would scale today till 70, next year till 80 etc.
I have 15 set items equipped, therefore I have 50% primary stat, 50% stamina and 50% secondary stats from all equipment. It would be like I was decked in full epic gear if not better.
The cumulative upgades add up to: 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + (2*6) + 4 + 4 = 86. Therefore every time rested exp is consumed 86% is returned. It’d be almost as if I was levelling with constant rested exp.
3rd example. The same character as above, except we are in the future where heirlooms have reached 10 upgrade tiers (and trinkets are at 8).
Level scaling is the same as above
Primary and secondary stat bonuses as above
Cumulative upgrades add up to… 146 this time. That would mean 146% return on rested experience. Since this is above 100%, it would mean that every time I would gain rested exp, I gain double rested exp, and 46% is returned to the exp bar. So if I killed something that would give me 500 exp base, I instead receive 1500 exp (500 base + 1000 rested) and the rested exp bar would first decrease by only 500 (since that’s how much the base exp was) and then increase by 46% of 500 = 230 rested exp.
TLDR of this wall of text:
Heirlooms will always scale up to the start of the current expansion regardless on how much money you throw at them
Heirlooms can now be upgraded without limit since they are immune to any level squish.
More Heirlooms means more primary and secondary stats
Upgraded Heirlooms provide linearly faster exp gain exceeding 100%.
I’ll read your full thread in a moment, but I wanted to post my immediate thoughts first.
I completely agree that the heirloom system is in desperate need of a rework. I honestly can’t remember the last time I used them while leveling alts. For the past few years, I’ve only leveled during Timewalking events, and you replace heirloom gear so quickly with dungeon rewards that they feel completely useless. They provide no tangible benefit anymore.
Fingers crossed that the developers have a special project set aside to finally overhaul this system. It’s long overdue.
Now, I’m going to grab a cup of tea and read the rest of your thread!
Yes to the removal of the upgrades system… have it like how subs work, base cost right up to expansion prior to current, pay for current. As it stands it’s abysmally expensive and, frankly, worthless.
And, if anything else, its current set bonuses… FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAKE THE LEVEL UP THING A CONSUMABLE AND NOT POINTLESSLY TRIGGER WHEN TURNING IN QUESTS!!!
That’s one the intents of my suggestion. Essentially I am trying to (a) make Heirlooms still remain a better option compared to just regular equipment, (b) make them immune to any level squishes or level inflations and (c) allow for the addition of further tiers while maintaining a linear benefit of using them.
You can level up an Alt in 2h. Why do you need to make that even faster to 1 and a half hours?
I say this because originally, Hairlooms were made when you had to level from 1 to 100 old school. Starting in Durotar in the 1-10 zone and questing all the way to the current expac.
For veteran players that was annoying as hell to spend 2 weeks to get your alt. But on the other hand, blizzard could not let go of the “new player” situation (and they still arent) and threw the Veterans a bone.
All that changed when the zones scale to your level. It dosent matter anymore that you have to follow zones. You simply TP in DF and your done.
So I ask now: Do we even need Hairlooms? Wouldent it be simpler to delete them?
Most of player power comes from gear. Vast majority. Lions share of it.
If You try to level up just doing quests You’ll quickly find out that quests don’t provide upgrades frequently enough to keep up with level increases. Meanwhile, the world difficulty scales to Your level, not ilvl. This leads to a situation in which you feel (and actually are) weaker compared to the mobs around the more You level up.
Heirlooms that are always up to date can easily remedy that.
People that wanted hairlooms were interested in 1-shotting things and spamming dungeons to max level. Not to experience old expansions.
That’s my point.
It’s what I would do atleast. If I want to quest from Durotar and experience all the questlines, the last thing I would want is gear that allows me to 1-shot everything.
The idea is that Heirlooms were designed with the concept of reducing the levelling grind of a new alt character. They were first implemented during a time when levelling a character took months. But the fact that one can level without heirlooms in a matter of hours doesn’t mean that heirlooms shouldn’t make that even faster.
If anything, if it would help to put levelling-services out of business, it should be encouraged as a game feature!
The first heirlooms were implemented early in WotLK, when we had to level from 1 to 80. But we had to buy them from a vendor. If we accidentally destroyed one when we replaced it, we had to buy a new one. WoD simply added them all in our Collections.
No. Players have spent too much gold on them, me included. They are one of the largest goldsinks. What they need is to make that goldsink count.
With that logic, Hairlooms should be some items you wear to slow down the leveling process. So you have more time to actually do the quests (if you wish). Not to give more stats and QoL to toons that are already OP.
Right?
Well not sure about the “largest goldsinks”. Im sure Repairs and Mogs are up there in the list of sinks.
But either way. You have your collection and nobody will take that away from you.
What I am asking is: WHY do you want to use them? I only know 2 types of people that play alts:
Power levelers that want to get to max level as soon as possible.
People that want to experience old expansions slow and steady.
The 1st group of people are already happy. They can power level a toon in 2h but naked. They dont need any hairlooms to make that even faster.
It’s the 2nd group that is “under-serverd” if that makes any sense. So maybe Hairlooms should be targeted to them instead.
I can’t speak for others, but more me: I like doing quests and one shotting stuff.
And I prefer doing quests over spamming dungeons. But the quests shouldn’t feel slow and painful. Not when I’m leveling my Nth alt.
The only reason I use them anymore is because they save me the hassle of getting new gear all the time whilst leveling. They could definitely do with an update.
Heirlooms reduced the time one had to level at every iteration of the game, even today. My suggestion maintains that usefulness.
If we’d like to reduce levelling speed, we should have some new type of item that does that. I am not against it, but I would like for that system to provide some benefit that would entice me to use it outside of the “you now don’t outlevel content” perk.
It depends on the player. Someone who doesn’t level alts or doesn’t buy Heirlooms but does a lot of cutting edge content will of course have repairs as one of their largest goldsinks. But someone who does not do cutting edge content and levels lots of alts and buys heirlooms will have the heirloom system as a significant goldsink.
Napkin math tells me that to buy every single Heirloom and upgrade it to max currently would cost ballpark 1.8m gold. Someone who spends 1000g per day every day on repairs would have to be playing for almost 5 years to reach that amount on repairs.
…Wasn’t there a character statistic that counted how much gold is spent on repairs?
Sounds intriguing actually.
Like… When you reach max level with a character using those slow methods, you’re awarded with some special currency you can spend on cool looking transmog items.
I’d like that.
I was more considering something like rewarding Timewarped Badges while playing with those items. Or increasing gold drops from enemies. Or increasing chance of dropping green/blue/purple items that sell good at the Auction House. Generally a perk that would make players “Yes, I want to spend both my time and my gold on it”
Then give the %XP back. It’s the most streightforward solution to speed up leveling.
I dont see why we have to do super complex system of stat weights and balances when we can just put the XP buff and move on.
Yes. Go to the achevements page and there should be a tab called statistics. Including how much gold you made and where you spent it.
I missunderstood what “goldsink” means for you. Gold sink for me is a system in the game made to take away gold from the economy. From ALL players (in general).
Those that dont do high end content dont have to pay 1000g in repairs. They also dont have to farm gold either. Like the PvPers.
And I can confidently say that there are a lot of people paying for consumables and repairs out there. So 1000g times the # of people that do M+ is a lot of gold that dissapears.
I prefer Tah’s option. Cool mogs.
Gold rewards are for chums. Plus, they open the door to botters and abusers that will for sure exploit it.
The Wings and Wisdom pack for example costs 1.2 million gold.