heirlooms
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Chauffered Chopper heirloom mount coming in patch 6.1
Sure, with heirlooms you can deck your alts out in great gear and make the leveling process a lot easier. But what about getting around? Your mounts may be shared across all of your characters, but you still can't ride those mounts when you get started -- which leaves your new alt stuck running around the world. How undignified! Enter the Chauffered Chopper, which is currently on the patch 6.1 test realm. Like the name implies, this is a motorcycle-style mount with a driver (currently orc Koak Hoburn, likely a nod to Driving Miss Daisy chauffeur Hoke Colburn). Having your own chauffeur means that you can ride around in this chopper at any level, making it a must-have for alt-a-holics on the move. You can pick up your own by nabbing the Heirloom Hoarder achievement for collecting 35 heirlooms. The mount isn't currently working on the PTR, so it appears to be a work in progress. Also, it's more than a little odd to have an orc chauffeur for a distinctly alliance-styled mount, so we wonder if its look might be changing before it goes live. We'll keep an eye on the PTR for more info when it's there!
Patch 6.1: The heirloom tab and how it works
As we've mentioned previously, the heirloom collection UI (or "heirloom tab") is now live on the PTR. The UI resembles the Toy Box and functions in much the same way: if you have an heirloom item on your account, it will be automatically added to your collection. Unlike toys, mounts, and pets, when you acquire a new heirloom, it will be added directly into your collection with no need to "learn" the item. When you want to equip one of your heirlooms, you click on the item in your collection and the game creates a duplicate of that item in your bags. If you want to get rid of it, you simply throw that item away like a piece of old paper. If you wanted to, you could fill your entire inventory with Bloodied Arcanite Reapers. I don't know why you'd want to do that, but with the new heirloom system, you could. The system for upgrading those heirlooms doesn't seem to be fully implemented in the current PTR build. While we know heirlooms will be able to be upgraded all the way to level 100, the items for doing so are not currently available on the heirloom vendors. The vendors, Krom Stoutarm for the Alliance and Estelle Gendry for the Horde, sell a variety of heirlooms and the level 90 upgrade items: Ancient Heirloom Armor Casing and Ancient Heirloom Scabbard. The Scabbards don't seem to work at all right now and the Armor Casings don't bring an heirloom up to level 90 as described -- it brings them up to level 85.
Patch 6.1 PTR realms are up
The patch 6.1 PTR realms are now live, but without any level 100 characters there isn't much to test yet. All PTR realms are still locked to Mists of Pandaria and there is currently no ETA for when they'll be upgraded to Warlords of Draenor. Character copy is disabled, but you can make pre-made level 90 toons. One of the few things available for testing is the new heirloom interface. Once you own a heirloom, it's a simple matter of clicking it in your heirloom tab to create a copy of the item in your bags. You can buy heirlooms and upgrade tokens from Estelle Gendry (Undercity) and Krom Stoutarm (Ironforge). Base level heirlooms scale from 1-60 and can be upgraded twice to level 85 and level 100. See here for a full list of the heirlooms available. For more details on the status of the PTR realms, check the blue post after the break.
World of Warcraft gives players a 100% chance to get heirlooms for Warlords of Draenor
The World of Warcraft faithful are busy devouring the recent Patch 6.0.2 in anticipation for the much larger expansion pack that's coming next month. To help players prepare for Warlords of Draenor, Blizzard is currently running a Smash 'n Grab event that will award players prized heirlooms. By running any difficulty level of Siege of Orgrimmar, players will get a 100% chance to obtain their first Garrosh weapon if they haven't already for that difficulty. The caveat is that players will have to run this without the assistance of the raid finder. The Smash 'n Grab event is currently running and will end on November 13th.
Reminder: Get your content cleared before 6.0.2
Blizzard posted a reminder earlier this week regarding several features that will either be changed or removed from the game entirely in patch 6.0.2. While we don't at present time have a release date set for the introductory patch of Warlords of Draenor, it would still be in your best interests to complete the content now, rather than waiting and possibly missing out for good. And of course, removed content means those achievements you've gathered will be filed away as either Legacy achievements, or Feats of Strength in the upcoming expansion. Challenge Modes should be top priority if you've got your eyes on those Mists of Pandaria sets, because they will no longer be available as of 6.0.2 -- the phoenix mounts will also be going away, although players that have earned one of the mounts will have access to all variations. Players looking for heirloom weapons from Garrosh Hellscream should hop to it, as those will also be removed once Warlords of Draenor is released in November. In addition, the Brawler's Guild will be taking a hiatus once patch 6.0.2 hits -- the bosses and encounters in the Brawler's Guild will be re-tuned for level 100. However, if you've already gained access to the Brawler's Guild, you'll still retain that access when the new expansion launches -- no need to dig up another invite. Lastly, if you have not started the legendary cloak quest chain by patch 6.0.2, you'll no longer be able to obtain it. Players already on the chain will still retain the quests, although they will be slightly altered, as the section of the chain that requires players to collect Valor Points will be gone altogether with the removal of Valor Points in 6.0.2. For more information on changes and removals with the arrival of both patch 6.0.2 and Warlords of Draenor itself, take a look at Blizzard's full post on the official site.
Heirloom gold vendors to be removed in patch 6.0.2
Up until today we were all expecting to be able to purchase heirlooms with gold come patch 6.0.2. This was going to happen due to the removal of Justice Points and Valor Points. However Blizzard has decided to make a change and remove the ability to purchase these heirlooms with gold completely from the game. You'll still be able to get them from other dedicated currency, like the Darkmoon Faire tokens -- but that's a far cry from being able to buy them with Justice Points or gold. Bashiok notes that this change is due to the new Heirloom system that they're developing, and they don't want to set up bad expectations. The full post is as follows: Bashiok With the upcoming release of Patch 6.0.2, we'll be sending the vendors who sell Heirlooms for Justice Points on a nice vacation. As you might already be aware, both Justice and Valor Points are being removed as currencies from the game in 6.0.2. As we started to work on new ways to buy Heirlooms, we found that we were setting their value up for a rollercoaster ride. That's because we're also working on a larger Heirloom system for a future patch, and we don't want to introduce an interim pricing scheme that could temporarily devalue Heirlooms or limit how we'd be able to give them out in the future. Rather than make players face buyer's remorse and hand-wringing decisions about when to buy, we're going to give the Justice Heirloom vendors some time off while we work on improving the system as a whole. One thing to note is that this change only affects vendors that sell Heirlooms for Justice. PvE Heirlooms will still remain available at the Darkmoon Faire and the Trial of the Crusader, and PvP Heirlooms will continue to be available for Honor. source
You'll still be able to buy item upgrades and heirlooms in 6.0
There are lots of changes headed to WoW in patch 6.0, but perhaps the scariest change is the removal of valor and justice points, which have served as a primary form of in-game currency for quite a while. However, Blizzard staff have been working to reassure people that the loss of these currencies isn't the end of the world (or even the end of World of Warcraft). Almost everything you'd currently buy with valor or justice you'll be able to buy with gold moving forward, so heirlooms will have a gold cost. The one exception is with item upgrades, which you'll be able to purchase with Lesser Charms of Good Fortune (for Mists gear only; Warlords gear won't be upgradable) after patch 6.0 lands. Though the number may change before release, currently the cost is 50 charms per upgrade, with no cap on the amount of charms or how many upgrades you can do a week. Additionally, with valor being gone, the Test of Valor phase of the legendary quest chain is being removed. For those of you trying to level and gear alts before Warlords of Draenor arrives, this will be a big help -- provided patch 6.0's arrival date leaves enough time to make use of them.
Reminder: Get your Garrosh heirlooms while you still can
When Garrosh Hellscream's loot list for Siege of Orgrimmar was first revealed, the list included a ton of heirloom weapons for every spec and class under the sun. However, unlike every other heirloom currently present in the game, the weapons are intended for use from level 90 through level 100 -- to be used while leveling through Warlords of Draenor. It's a pretty cool idea, one that will likely help, at least a little, with leveling both mains and alts through Warlords content. However, if you want to get your hands on these heirlooms, you better act quickly. Once Warlords is here, the heirlooms will be removed from Garrosh's loot table. @Meerkatx The Garrosh heirlooms are specifically a reward for doing Flex+ while relevant. They won't be available once Draenor unlocks. - Watcher (@WatcherDev) April 26, 2014 Currently, there are no intentions at all to add the heirloom weapons to Garrosh's loot table in LFR -- as Watcher mentioned, they were meant as a reward for those doing Flex and above difficulty. And once Warlords is out and Draenor is unlocked, the rewards will be going away, so that players can't simply farm Hellscream for more heirloom items when they outgear the former Warchief. If you've been meaning to get your hands on these heirlooms, be aware that there is a finite limit as to how long they'll be available -- and get them while you still can.
The case against heirlooms
So I've been leveling my lowbie hunter through the fifties, in part because I'm such a fan of Happy Days (note - that's not at all true) and mostly because I got the bow off of Garrosh so it's time to get my hunter to max level. Ironically, it was the fact that I got this heirloom that has me realizing that I hate heirlooms. Why? Why do I hate these bringers of bonus XP, these delightfully powerful pieces that free you from the tyranny of gear upgrades for up to 85 levels? How could I have anything but praise for them? Well, here's how. The first, and most often cited reason, is that they make dungeon loot unimportant. You end up chaining dungeons, and almost any and all gear that you get is sharded or vendored. When boots or gloves drop it's a party, but helms, shoulders, chests, legs, cloaks and weapons are at best saved for future transmog. (Being a mog addict, that's what I'm doing anyway.) You can't even reasonably forgo heirlooms - I've actually tried to do so, and switching to the various quest greens and blue drops over my heirlooms means doing markedly less DPS (I'm a hunter, DPS is all I do) and getting crap in my dungeon runs from the heirloom clad tank and even, in some cases, the heirloom clad healer over it. Heirlooms are the expected norm nowadays - if you don't have them it's noticeable. Doing PvP on an heirloom clad hunter? Trivial. No one can stop me. I've actually stopped going. I tried going heirloomless for a while - all the people I'd annoyed seemed to come out of the woodwork for revenge. Ultimately, for myself at least, there's two issues with heirlooms - I like and want to preserve the bonus XP they grant, while disliking and wanting to remove the way they grant power and remove the fun of gear acquisition. So what am I suggesting?
What are heirlooms and how can I get them?
If you're new or recently returned to World of Warcraft, you've probably heard mention of heirlooms. This stellar leveling gear binds to your account rather than your characters -- so you can mail it to your alts -- and levels as you do, getting better as your character advances through the game. And best of all, heirloom gear often grants you an experience bonus for equipping it -- typically 5% or 10% bonus experience for each piece of armor. What that means is faster leveling with no need to worry about hunting down the best gear along the way. Because heirlooms are targeted squarely at level 90 characters leveling alts, you might not have put much thought into them -- but we're here to tell you that you don't need to wait until level 90 to pick up some heirloom gear for your character. If you know where and how to get it, you can grab a few pieces as you advance -- and with the sizable benefits they offer, you'll probably be glad you did. But whether you're a new character leveling up or a long-time level 90 thinking about a new alt, we'll walk you through what's available and where to find it.
Cross-realm account-bound mail now live, mailing rules
It's time to roll that new alt! Those of you playing on multiple realms -- or those of you who want to -- have reason to rejoice today, because with patch 5.4.2 you can now mail account-bound items between realms. This is at least true on North American realms and Oceanic realms -- European realms can expect the feature to pop up tomorrow after the patch. The process isn't much more complicated than sending items on a single server: just send your mail to "charactername-servername" -- without the quotation marks, of course. If your server name has spaces in it, skip the spaces. (So "The Venture Co" server would be "theventureco" for mailing purposes.) Bashiok explains the syntax: 5.4.2 is live and brings true account-bound items. Cross-realm mailing syntax is name-nospaceserver. Ex.: joeyjoejoeshabadujr-theventureco - Bashiok (@Bashiok) December 10, 2013 Like any mail you send to yourself, once you've clicked "send," the item immediately appears in your mailbox. And though heirlooms are the most obvious items to mail from character to character, there are a number of items that fall into the account bound category, including archeology items, Timeless Isle armor tokens, and more. However, you still can't send cash or non account-bound items, so your gold stash is tied to your server.
Patch 5.4.2 PTR Patch notes
Patch notes for patch 5.4.2 have finally been released, confirming at least some of the new features we can expect to see in the next Mists patch. Keep in mind that 5.4.2 is not a content patch -- there will be no new content to play through, no new raids, scenarios or dungeons added. However, 5.4.2 is adding several new features that players have been clamoring for for quite some time. The Cross-realm raid browser now has new categories for Mists of Pandaria world bosses -- the Celestials and Ordos, as well as Flexible raid difficulty for the Siege of Orgrimmar. Players will finally be able to mail account-bound items to characters on different realms. At the moment, the official list of patch notes is pretty short. Follow after the break for the list, which will likely get more updates as the patch nears completion.
Patch 5.4.2 PTR: Cross-realm Account-Bound mail being tested
Cross-realm zones have been in place for quite some time now, but players have been consistently requesting that the ability to mail cross-realm heirlooms and account-bound items be added as well. While Warlords of Draenor's feature list includes an heirloom tab that should negate the need for mailing heirlooms between servers, that does little to address the feature as it stands right now -- and with many players leveling alts, it's still something players would like to see. Today Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas announced that the patch 5.4.2 PTR is beginning testing for exactly that feature. This process should allow players to move heirlooms between servers, in advance of the changes already planned for Warlords. The feature should work like any other cross-server communication, in that instead of simply mailing to a character name, you would be mailing to "Charactername-Servername." Note that this feature is only for account-bound items like heirlooms -- mailing gold or other items won't work. Players wanting to test this feature should hop on the patch 5.4.2 PTR and mail account-bound items across servers, reporting any hiccups by bug reports or feedback. For more information, check out the official thread on the forums -- and look forward to being able to chuck your heirlooms to your alts in patch 5.4.2.
How heirlooms will work in Warlords of Draenor
We learned from BlizzCon that heirlooms will become truly Bind on Account. What we didn't learn was how that would be accomplished. Bashiok took to the forums to explain. Bashiok It's a new UI of (essentially) buttons that will "light up" when you obtain one (or have obtained one) of the heirlooms. Click the button and an item of that type will be generated and put into your bags. source Questions from the forum that he didn't answer were What will happen with heirlooms you can wear two of, such as weapons? Will the heirlooms keep their enchants? Will we get a refund for having more than one of each heirloom? My speculation is that it will let us generate more than one of the item so that we can dual wield heirloom weapons if we like. I also expect that the heirlooms will not be generated with enchants but that the gear that is already on characters or in bags will remain enchanted. And I expect that just like mounts and pets, we will not get refunded for having more than one of any heirloom. But all of this is just what I infer from the information given, and we'll need to wait and see what Blizzard's exact system is.
Inventory fixes being worked on
WoW Insider's Adam Koebel posted just a few days ago about his inventory woes, and the trials and tribulations of having to keep up with his huge toy collection from the Timeless Isle. And as if by magic, Blizzard Community Rep Bashiok has responded in kind with a blue post on the official forums: Bashiok We've talked a bit more about our plans in recent interviews. We're working on some ideas to get things like tabards and heirlooms out of inventory slots, as well as "toy-like" items, in a way that's similar to pets and mounts. Soooooo, yup! source This is great news for collectors everywhere, getting tabards, heirlooms and toy items moved to something like a pet or mount interface would be amazing, and free up a ton of bag space. Bashiok's response was actually in a thread discussing cross-realm heirlooms, so perhaps this is a system which would move heirlooms to a battle.net account level, like mounts and pets, where they would be universally accessible from any character, regardless of server. If the same were true for toys, I think a few collectors would be a little sad, but nonetheless it would make it a lot easier to remember where your puntable marmot had gone. As Adam said in our work chat, "I'll immediately have 100+ free bag slots if they do that"! Just having an heirloom interface that was genuinely account-wide rather than server based would be amazing.
Features that have changed the World of Warcraft
Time to be blunt. World of Warcraft is way better now than it was in vanilla. Before you gasp and get a case of the vapors, let's get real here. I'm me, it's true, you know it's true. The talent system? Leaps and bounds better than the last minute Diablo II clone we got in classic. Raiding? Raids today are more accessible, better designed, and far more varied then the resistapaloozas we got back in the day. I say this as a dude who farmed UBRS for the Draconian Deflector and who tanked Princess Huhuran in cloth freaking booties because they had nature resistance on them. Throughout its near-decade long run, World of Warcraft has constantly changed, iterated and improved on the experience it provides. Every patch, every expansion has made adjustments and tweaks, and while nothing is perfect and not all changes were good (We all know that any change to warriors that didn't make them invincible supergods wasn't a good one, am I right? Why are there so many crickets here?) the game has moved forward with new systems and features. For me, it's interesting to look back over the history of the game at those changes that really improved the player experience or changed it in a fundamental way, that altered how we play. And so, now I'll do exactly that. With Flex Raids on the horizon for patch 5.4, what else can we look back on?
Weekly news roundup with Panser of TradeChat
Panser of TradeChat fame is back once more with the WoW Insider weekly news recap, and this week is all excitement as she speculates about the upcoming Siege of Orgrimmar raid complete with BoA heirloom drops from Garrosh and dreams of a level cap set to three digits. These weeks topics are heavily focused on patch 5.4 and include: Pet collection cap raised to 1000 Warlock class mounts get green fire Garrosh drops level 90-100 heirlooms Hearthstone state of the beta Discussion topic: Will you be playing Hearthstone? If you like the show, make sure to subscribe to TradeChat, leave comments, and tune in next week for a new episode!
Patch 5.4 PTR: Hellscream's weapon drops are 90-100 heirlooms
The latest PTR build has revealed some interesting new details about the Garrosh Hellscream weapon drops we covered last week. You'll note they have had something of a color change and are now L90-100 heirlooms. This is rather interesting, given that we didn't actually know (and still may not know) that the next expansion would take us to level 100 as opposed to level 95, for example. What's more, these items appear, from the dungeon journal at least, to drop from heroic mode raids, as well as normal mode and flexible raiding, but not from LFR. It's possible that these are the brand new rewards that Blizzard were hinting at dropping from Flex and above but not from LFR. They only appear to drop from from Garrosh himself, but an heirloom that takes you all the way to the next expansion's max level and perhaps beyond has to be an improvement on the Dragon Soul "hey, replace your epic drop off the last boss with a green" syndrome. Certainly, however, many people will be upset that this isn't dropping from LFR.
Patch 5.4 PTR: Item enhancement changes for low-level players
In patch 5.4, it's going to be a little easier to deck your character out in some pretty fantastic gear. According to the patch notes, all item enhancements from Enchanting, Engineering, Leatherworking, Tailoring, and various vendors and quests will be able to be applied to any piece of gear, regardless of item level. What does that mean for an aspiring alt? It means that all that wonderful heirloom gear you've managed to acquire over the years can finally be enchanted. There are limits to these enchantments, however, so don't bust out the Mongoose for your max-level character just yet. Although high-level enchantments applied to items equipped by low-level players will have their power scaled down to be more appropriate for that level range, low level enhancements will not scale up beyond their intended level range. In other words, it appears as though the enhancements aren't exactly scalable. From what can be gathered so far from the patch notes, it appears as though you'll be able to simply enchant your gear as you go. If you use a high-level enchant, it'll be scaled down to you. Players looking for a way to improve their heirloom quality gear now have a method of doing so. Although the patch notes aren't 100% clear on this mechanic, we'll know more once patch 5.4 hits the PTR servers.
Bringing the SW:TOR legacy system to WoW
I had a lot of fun during my brief stint as a Sith Inquisitor in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The leveling was great, the storylines were compelling, the instances were interesting, but I eventually went back to World of Warcraft in the end. SW:TOR didn't feel very unique, it didn't have enough to grab me and hold me, to suffocate me with its content and keep me away from Blizzard. Even so, there were a few differences between Bioware's entry into the MMO space and our site's namesake, one of them being the concept of a server-wide legacy. SW:TOR's legacy system, if incorporated into WoW, could be a great way of introducing leveling bonuses and the like, something WoW has historically done via heirlooms and guild perks. Personally, heirlooms have always left me feeling a bit too overpowered and take some of the fun out of the leveling process -- I've even leveled characters without heirlooms, just because it's more challenging and, thus, rewarding.
