Does heirlooms ruin the leveling experience?

[Nerph-]

I personally like using heirlooms, not only because it makes me level quicker, but mobs die faster, and my character doesn't look as bad in heirloom gear as it would in random drops throughout leveling.

Yes cosmetics are important to me!

[Isilarya]

Leveling experience in WoW was like this "grind as much satyrs as you can from 51-58" in vanilla. Because you got fel cloth, maybe some 16bag and easy single player kills.

I don't know what casual these days fathom leveling was but.. sorry even in vanilla you were just casuals. Doesn't make you hardcore now.

I loved me those Azshara Satyr camps. And yes in Vanilla I primarily leveled via grinding because the time it took to travel 5 miles across a zone and then back again to be given a single follow back where you just were on the opposite end..The quests just were not rewarding enough for the time investment aside from so notable exceptions like Gadgetzans hub. I was repeatedly reported on my hunter for botting because i would pick a camp somehwere out in the world and grind for hours upon hours walking in circles with music on. Stones of Binding in Arathi grinding fire elementals usually netted me 1-200g from blues and elemental fire over the course of grinding 32-42 on them (for those that dont know 200g was actually a relevant amount of coin)

After having leveled 5-6 times during the painful clusterfuck that was Vanilla zones I have absolutely no interest in any way shape or form of experiencing low levels like that ever again. The time investment was heinous and I already had to look forward to waiting in town 4-5 hours a day for god knows how many days till I could find a jailbreak group...then pray to god that group could actually do it.

I like Vanilla overall...I would play on a server if it existed. But the current iteration of level progression is not bad to me, I would have so much less interest in expanding my pool of classes if it was the old system.

[Deleted]

I loved me those Azshara Satyr camps. And yes in Vanilla I primarily leveled via grinding because the time it took to travel 5 miles across a zone and then back again to be given a single follow back where you just were on the opposite end..The quests just were not rewarding enough for the time investment aside from so notable exceptions like Gadgetzans hub. I was repeatedly reported on my hunter for botting because i would pick a camp somehwere out in the world and grind for hours upon hours walking in circles with music on. Stones of Binding in Arathi grinding fire elementals usually netted me 1-200g from blues and elemental fire over the course of grinding 32-42 on them (for those that dont know 200g was actually a relevant amount of coin)

After having leveled 5-6 times during the painful clusterfuck that was Vanilla zones I have absolutely no interest in any way shape or form of experiencing low levels like that ever again. The time investment was heinous and I already had to look forward to waiting in town 4-5 hours a day for god knows how many days till I could find a jailbreak group...then pray to god that group could actually do it.

I like Vanilla overall...I would play on a server if it existed. But the current iteration of level progression is not bad to me, I would have so much less interest in expanding my pool of classes if it was the old system.

The thing here is... you COULD do BRD! Doing alliance Onyxia attunement combined with burning steps quests... And you could end up in an amazing hour/exp experience like at least 2-3 level here! If just your fellow people actually had a clue what they were doing! Prequests? Onyxia? exp/h ratio? WTF was the common reply. That is why some people took 4-7 days ingame and other... 8+ to get to max level. And also why some people still now think having every class at max level was special.

[Thage]

If heirlooms ruin your leveling experience, don't use them. That is how simple it is. Some it 'ruins' it for, and others it makes it better.

This. Some characters I level without heirlooms, and I don't have any problem keeping pace in dungeon groups full of loomed-out players, I just have to hit more than two skills to do so. I can also stick around and finish out zones at my leisure if I'm not interested in zooming through the level grind, it just takes a smidgen of self-control. On the other hand, sometimes I just wanna speed through so I'll heirloom up and crush my way through Azeroth.

[Sylv_]

The leveling experience was like 2004.
The new leveling experience has a final release date of on or before september 21st?
Heirlooms get you into the leveling experience.

It's a shame that RaF is not baseline with 300% bonus xp on top of looms. People would level more characters.
Leveling is tedious, and boring especially if you've done it numerous times over. You kind of just want to have it done and over with.

You know ^ is more to the non casulol player. Casulols basically aren't good at the same and are still like level 89 on their way to 100. Casuals on the other hand are just those that play casually.

[Sury]

I find heirlooms to be very convenient but at the same time they have serious draw backs when it comes to the immersion of what a leveling experience should be like. I find it a little strange to remove the necessity for gear acquisition throughout the leveling process. It is convenience at the cost of reward.

I use them for their convenience and speed of leveling. At the same time there is something missing when you rarely receive an upgrade from the quests or dungeons appropriate for the character level. I feel like there could be a better system when it comes to speeding up the leveling process while at the same time preserving the reward system of getting upgrades throughout the leveling process.

[PragmaticGamer]

Personally, I wish heirlooms came with more than one toggle switch ("use them" or "don't use them").

Heirlooms have several benefits.
1) They don't take damage, so that's one expense you don't deal with.
2) They are generally slightly weaker than blues/rares (that match your level), but regain the lead within a level or two.
3) They provide a small boost to your XP (from what I understand, they only provide a bonus to your XP from killing mobs, not from pet battling, gathering professions, or quest completion).

I'd like to see some more toggle switches, especially for #2 and #3.

So, for instance, a toggle that drops iLvl scaling to "slightly above greens/uncommons" if you want, so that you can have the fun of equipping the blue/rares you get from dungeons and end-of-zone quest rewards.

And a toggle that turns off XP bonuses (what little they provide, overall).

I could talk about what I'd like to see ADDED to heirlooms (because, hey, it'd be nice to have FUN while leveling...), but I've talked about it before in other heirloom threads. :-)

[Deleted]

Sure, when you want to squeeze every last number outta your precious twink, there might be better options. But who cares about twinks anyway? They are meant to be decked out for a certain level bracket. This thread is about regular leveling. Considering that you'd have to upgrade literally all of your "normal" gear every level to even have a remote go at matching heirloom power, heirlooms remain the only viable choice.

You have said heirlooms are "BiS" for leveling so are you going back on your word now? I can show you plenty of gear that have better stat than heirlooms. Your argument falls apart again.

Aight, see ya. Arguing with you was a bit like playing chess with a pigeon, lol!

I will take that as a compliment since pigeons can create GPS from Earth's magnetic field. So I would say they are pretty clever.

[trm90]

Recently hit 90 on my SPriest alt who I leveled without heirlooms/dungeon spamming (think I did 5 in total). Read the quest text patiently, followed the story. It was surprisingly very fun. I powered through to 100 on my main, I always skipped quests and thought leveling was a chore, so this was kinda new to me.

Yeah it took a long time to hit 90 in this way, but I have tons of memories. I remember all the quests I did, I remember exactly where I quested at what level, and I actually remember a couple of characters/quests along the way which were particularly fun, engaging, emotional etc.

The biggest plus was that I didn't outlevel Pandaria in an instant, and actually had a chance to quest in Krasarang and Dread Wastes. I missed out on MoP, and holy fuck, I didn't realise how much fun the zones are. There's so many challenging elite mobs (Zandalari Warbringers!?) and beautiful zones with intense stories.

I would wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone

[Deleted]

Btw, you don't need a max level character anymore to acquire heirlooms.

I've encountered completely new players that simply sold some game time tokens and pucrhased all the heirlooms they could.

[smokii]

sometimes, i'd like to be able to remove the XP boost from heirlooms so i can actually finish a quest area before outlevelling it.

that is all

[ItachiZaku]

They were already nerfing the group quests and leveling experience before heirlooms. At this point, the only time it matters is in lowbie PVP when you notice your only healer is a 791 hit point holy paladin. Meaning, you have no healer.

[Drpizka]

Fun fact:

I created a new pandaren shaman char, and started questing without any looms, just grays.

I was still able to 2-3 hit mobs and leveling was super fast.

And people are yet bored to level up this way.

[PragmaticGamer]

sometimes, i'd like to be able to remove the XP boost from heirlooms so i can actually finish a quest area before outlevelling it.

that is all

Isn't there an NPC you can visit in town to lock your XP?

[Deleted]

Fun fact:

I created a new pandaren shaman char, and started questing without any looms, just grays.

I was still able to 2-3 hit mobs and leveling was super fast.

And people are yet bored to level up this way.

I remember I rerolled in MoP just before cross-realm heirlooms were introduced, and I was on a new a server. In normal gear as a prot warrior I was actually one shotting mobs with shield slam all the way until outland.

[Drpizka]

I remember I rerolled in MoP just before cross-realm heirlooms were introduced, and I was on a new a server. In normal gear as a prot warrior I was actually one shotting mobs with shield slam all the way until outland.

True story bro, I am experiencing it now

- - - Updated - - -

Isn't there an NPC you can visit in town to lock your XP?

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=35364/slahtz

[PragmaticGamer]

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=35364/slahtz

The comments section mention his counterpart, "Behsten"

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=35365/behsten

Heh. "Behsten" "Slahtz"... (Best in Slots)

Pity there's only the two of them. Every zone should have one, so you don't have to schlep back to the capital cities every zone to unlock so you can get back to leveling in the new zone, then back again to lock it, so you can schlep back to the zone to finish all the quests, then repeat the process.

[Ciddy]

I don't think heirlooms ruined anything. They're optional. I've even done a few "challenges" with friends just for shits and giggles where we level without them. We also had "rules" like not being allowed to use items from the next expansion (I forget the exact numbers, but I remember one area maybe around Cataclysm where you could be level 85 but wear gear that's high enough item level to be useful for a 90). It was kind of fun just because I did it with friends.

And really, heirlooms don't make _that_ much of a difference. Leveling is pretty easy these days. Even without heirlooms, you still slaughter everything you come across. It's just a matter of 3-shotting things instead of 2-shotting things, in most cases. The only big difference they make is the XP bonus you get.

The fact that I've already done it numerous times over the years is what "ruins" the leveling experience for me. You get to the point where you're just going through the motions and don't care much about anything other than getting to the level cap because this is like the 5th time you've leveled a Hunter. Heirlooms help get it done faster. Considering that and the fact that they're optional, I don't see a problem.

[Pull My Finger]

Leveling is cancer, questing is cancer.

Time to grow up.

[smokii]

Isn't there an NPC you can visit in town to lock your XP?

not the point

i dont want to lock my XP, i just don't need the 50% extra xp that my heirlooms would give. besides which, the game now gives practically +50% xp for 1-90 levelling anyways.