The New Leveling Experience And Heirlooms in Shadowlands

[Thage]

If they're hell-bent on keeping the change, these set bonuses are a nice compromise. I have plenty of alts that effectively increasing their rested exp by 60% will be a nice shot in the arm, the increased regen out of combat sounds nice but I'd have to see how it functions, and the buff will be neat to play around with, but it'll probably end up being useful for only about half the time it's up due to most levelups happening from quest turnins.

[Azerate]

Actually heirlooms are among the best items in the game, they will absolutely eclipse any quest reward you can get especially with these new set bonuses. You're coping.

Except not. There's plenty of cases where a quest reward item gives you an upgrade over heirloom. Not sure if you leveled anything recently, but you don't seem to know much about the process.

Did I miss the part where they no longer level with you or remain of Rare (blue) quality?
Assuming the weird xpac breakpoint levels are addressed (60, 70, etc where greens were better), more often than not each heirloom will be better than a random quest reward (save for purple roll procs in Legion, for example), that's a plus.
Means I don't have to worry about swapping pieces, and the 3pc also looks cool, having more regen is never a bad thing, means more pulls/minute.

Yes, having the same item all the time and not having to swap it or upgrade it, or think about it, is an advantage and it makes the game easier very slightly but it's not a major advantage at all. This was brought up like 10 times in this thread already, but again, the quest rewards are pretty good and balanced for the class you are playing

nah they aren't going to refund anyone anything. people who bought them definitely should've used them (I know I have used mine for countless alts) thus making them very much worth their gold. and if someone did buy them but never used them well that person is just dumb.

I know they're not gonna, but they should.

If this change upsets you, please quit the fucking game. We need less people incapable of critical thinking playing this game.

And now we're getting cryptic. How does being critical of this change make you incapable of critical thinking? I'd say it's exactly the opposite. If you don't see these new heirloom bonuses are at the very least worse, then you're critical thinking is completely nonexistent.

I love how people throw around leveling times like it was dog treats, mostly conjuring up from their own imagination.
Even the wowhead article about this is like "it takes 10-20 hours". Like 10 and 20 was in the same fucking ballpark. Jeez.

10-20 hours means roughly in the middle between the two numbers.

[themaster24]

Except not. There's plenty of cases where a quest reward item gives you an upgrade over heirloom. Not sure if you leveled anything recently, but you don't seem to know much about the process.


Yes, having the same item all the time and not having to swap it or upgrade it, or think about it, is an advantage and it makes the game easier very slightly but it's not a major advantage at all. This was brought up like 10 times in this thread already, but again, the quest rewards are pretty good and balanced for the class you are playing

A fair amount of players enchant a lot of their heirlooms (Cloak, Chest, Shoulders, Weapons, Rings, Pants, Neck). Some of these enchants vary in usefulness, but being able to have all of those enchanted the whole way makes a significant difference. That's where the not having to replace gear, or even being able to put an enchant you normally wouldn't be able to, such as Hidden Satyr, comes into play.

[MrLachyG]

I know they're not gonna, but they should.

but why should they? people have used them, they've gotten their worth out of them. hell there are lots of things that have been removed from the game that cost gold but you don't hear people clamouring for refunds there - because they got their golds worth. cold flying is one of them, can't remember when that was removed but it cost a few hundred gold - people bought it, they could fly in Northrend until they just made it so that you could fly there from level 60.

I agree that the rested xp buff is a bit shit, hopefully they change at least one of them to something different. we don't need two.

[Lolsteak]

Not sure how I feel about the set bonuses

Rested XP increase seems worthless, If the leveling is as quick as they say it is you'll never have enough for it to make a noticeable difference

OOC regen is ok, Nothing special though

Set 4 proc when leveling up is pretty much worthless, It needs a rework imo

[Omians]

Looks good to me. Park any Character under 50 in a city to get rested as you level your main and or any other level 50s.

[Kallisto]

Blizzard Translation - We just aren't making enough money on paid level boosts because of these XP items, so no more XP items, gotta keep the shareholders happy!

If they were worried about the XP boost costs to keep the "shareholders" happy then there wouldn't even be a squish. Especially not one that turns level time with heirlooms right now near 100 hours down to essentially in Shadowlands a leveling experience down to as little as 5 hours without the heirlooms xp bonus.

[Biggles Worth]

I actually think those are reasonable and am surprised they didnt completely break them by making them useless. 60% slower consumption of rested XP is dope

Wait until you see what real dopeness looks like.

[Edward Wu]

Except not. There's plenty of cases where a quest reward item gives you an upgrade over heirloom. Not sure if you leveled anything recently, but you don't seem to know much about the process.

Dude, READ THE POST. Heirlooms are literally becoming even better than they are, purely from a stat perspective. Nobody is going to put on a fucking green or blue quest reward. Live in reality.

[Doffen]

For characters you are leveling up from last expansions max level, that rested XP bar bonus is okay. For any new alt you level from scratch however, not so much.

For me I level my main first and are busy with it for a week or two in the new expansion. Then I start level up the other alts from, in this example, BfA so I'll have max rested on them so the new rested xp bonus will work decently there.

But I see the criticism when it comes to new characters from level 1 or 10, they won't have much use for it if you are not one who levels few levels at a time then you do something else for days or weeks, then continue with it.

[themaster24]

For characters you are leveling up from last expansions max level, that rested XP bar bonus is okay. For any new alt you level from scratch however, not so much.

For me I level my main first and are busy with it for a week or two in the new expansion. Then I start level up the other alts from, in this example, BfA so I'll have max rested on them so the new rested xp bonus will work decently there.

But I see the criticism when it comes to new characters from level 1 or 10, they won't have much use for it if you are not one who levels few levels at a time then you do something else for days or weeks, then continue with it.

I wouldn't be surprised if Blizz's data shows this to be the most common situation and that's why they're doing it this way. For sure it is definitely not much of a benefit to someone who powers through an alt in a couple of days from creation, and for those players this will feel bad. We'll see if this is the final version, but Blizz has been quite amenable to feedback, so it's possible they make some changes to these bonuses.

[Noxina]

Hahaha for real? Rested EXP? So create a toon, don't play him for a while so he gets 150% rested, THEN level. What a healthy way to designing it. Well done Blizzard.

[Doffen]

I wouldn't be surprised if Blizz's data shows this to be the most common situation and that's why they're doing it this way. For sure it is definitely not much of a benefit to someone who powers through an alt in a couple of days from creation, and for those players this will feel bad. We'll see if this is the final version, but Blizz has been quite amenable to feedback, so it's possible they make some changes to these bonuses.

Yeah, I do think that a lot of people got alts that already have a few levels, like a lot of alts from WoD/Legion and in SL, BfA, so the rested xp bonus is definitely useable. I also think you are correct about there might be some changes.

I would think a good change would be to put the two 30% bonuses as one set bonus, then use the left over set bonus for something that would help fresh characters. But what that would be I don't know. Like 20% xp bonus up to level 20 or something maybe.

[themaster24]

Yeah, I do think that a lot of people got alts that already have a few levels, like a lot of alts from WoD/Legion and in SL, BfA, so the rested xp bonus is definitely useable. I also think you are correct about there might be some changes.

I would think a good change would be to put the two 30% bonuses as one set bonus, then use the left over set bonus for something that would help fresh characters. But what that would be I don't know. Like 20% xp bonus up to level 20 or something maybe.

I agree that they should combine the two Rested XP bonuses, but I doubt they would just put a flat XP bonus in there, as that defeats the point of removing it, even if they cap it at a certain level. More likely you would get something like movement speed or a damage increase (20%, 10%), or they double down on rested even more and make a bonus like, you earn rested xp 50% faster.

Edit: I got an idea that works similar to their Monk Xp buff replacement. They could make the first bonus be something like this "Completing a quest has a chance to grant you rested experience" That synergizes with rested XP lasting longer, and makes that bonuses work for characters that aren't staying logged off for long periods of time.

[Seranthor]

Looks like nothing more than a thumb jammed in your eye... I'd just rather they return the gold that was invested.

[Chewbacka]

I didn’t get a refund for dual spec, epic riding, epic flying, yadda yadda yadda.

Your reward for spending that gold was having those things at the time.

none of those were removed

[Darknessvamp]

I really don't see why they have to be so short sighted about this. People got heirlooms for the sake of leveling quicker, even with the squish they don't really give a damn how "awkward" it will be leveling even faster if they can just level faster. Not to mention what about future expansions? Surely they're not planning Shadowlands to be the last expansion or level 60 to be the new permanent level cap going forward.

[themaster24]

I really don't see why they have to be so short sighted about this. People got heirlooms for the sake of leveling quicker, even with the squish they don't really give a damn how "awkward" it will be leveling even faster if they can just level faster. Not to mention what about future expansions? Surely they're not planning Shadowlands to be the last expansion or level 60 to be the new permanent level cap going forward.

It's quite likely the intention is to retain the same leveling speed to reach whatever level is needed to start the next xpac (50, 60, 70, etc), such that you pick your leveling area, and you'll be at the given level by the end. In this way, your time to level never goes up, as everything would get scaled every xpac.

[Felmourn]

I think these bonuses are the best outcome we could have hoped for. They're not meant to be epic bonuses, so stop expecting platinum rewards from a silver rated system. You're gonna blow through content with LFG and quests, you likely won't realize how redundant any bonuses are.

[exochaft]

For characters you are leveling up from last expansions max level, that rested XP bar bonus is okay. For any new alt you level from scratch however, not so much.

For me I level my main first and are busy with it for a week or two in the new expansion. Then I start level up the other alts from, in this example, BfA so I'll have max rested on them so the new rested xp bonus will work decently there.

But I see the criticism when it comes to new characters from level 1 or 10, they won't have much use for it if you are not one who levels few levels at a time then you do something else for days or weeks, then continue with it.

Typically, the heirlooms aren't usable in the newest content for a long while, and their upgrades are implemented in a later X.1/X.2 patch. This is all assuming the upgrading mechanism stays the same, and there are level restraints. Unless one waits until the heirloom upgrades potentially come out, the rested xp set bonus won't likely apply to those leveling from 50 to 60.

Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that the players who even own a robust set of heirloom would almost never have any amount of rested XP available. If you sample all the leveling that occurs regardless of heirloom usage, I could see that rested xp gets used extensively. However, if you're using heirlooms to speed up your leveling, the chances that you'll have rested xp and the usefulness of a rested xp bonus become less and less.

I personally feel that if heirlooms will no longer supply XP bonuses, throughput increases and utility are probably the way to go. Whether this means heirlooms return to being more powerful than gear meant to be obtained at your current level or if set bonuses add perks to accomplish the same thing, it doesn't really matter. What does matter is that the amount of time/effort/gold invested in heirlooms is not minor, especially if you've been collecting them all and leveling a diverse amount of characters with them. It doesn't reach the gold levels of buying an AH mount, but it's still roughly a million gold just to upgrade all your heirlooms to 120 (buying most of the heirlooms costs even more gold). Even if you only upgrade a select few and ignore the rest, you can easily spend 100k to 200k gold fully upgrading your heirlooms that you'll use. For most players, that amount of gold is not insignificant.

I have a second sneaking suspicion that the reason Blizz went with rested xp instead of throughput/utility bonuses is PvP. There are ways around it, but it would still diminish their effectiveness or negate the bonuses entirely with most of the standard fixes Blizz likes to implement. Unfortunately, that just makes their proposed set bonus equally bad/useless for most of their target audience.

Regardless, the goal should be to have players who have invested in heirlooms to make it feel like they're worth it and fun to use. These set bonuses are almost a straight rip-off of D3-style mechanics (again...), which don't work well in practice in a game like WoW. Wonder if WoW team defaults to asking the D3 team for assistance when they run into a road block, and this is how we get D3-style implementations everywhere.