Changes to make this cooler/more practical:
- New really good looking badass gear sets (you could costumize part of it, like choosing the color) - no more old school repetitive sets.
- A set is a whole piece (one item includes all gear slots) - you don't need to collect them all
- You decide at lvl 1 if you want to do it heirloom style (you can hop off whenever you want but won't be able to hop back in)
Set "curses":
- No passive hp regen and very low mana regen (you can only heal through spells, potions, food, talents, first aid(?))
- -25% stamina
- No flying.
- -50% xp rate (~20hr game time instead of 10hr).
- Increased agro radius from hostile mobs, maybe (because you look badass).
Rewards:
- No gear from quests/dungeons (because your full set lvls up with you) but 300% increased gold income.
- No durability loss.
- Achievements for lvl 20, 40 and max lvl.
- Title reward for max lvl (class specific).
- Unlocks full set cosmetics at max lvl (like challenge mode in pandaria).
- Achievement to do it without dying.
- At max lvl you earn a battle chest with significant resources useful for the latest content, including any currency, prof mats, gold and one random epic weapon of decent iLvl).
Consequences:
Non heirloom lvling will have gearing up excitement (can just do it through quest rewards and be alright but dungeons give great stuff)
No real change to those who don't care about this
Exciting new way to lvl up for those who love to do it.
Great cosmetics to show off your effort.
Challenging leveling experience that makes you want to consider all game mechanics (all your abilities and professions)
Early food buffs could provide minor out of combat healing
People could cheese it but it doesn't matter because it's just cosmetic stuff
New full sets could be added in the future (randomly dropping from world content) which you could unlock the cosmetics if you lvled a new toon with it.
What do you think?