Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Heirlooms? Never again.

Back before 4.01 dropped and changed all our Emblems to Points I sat down with a notebook, pen, Wowhead, and my bank alt and started working out what it would cost me to stock up on heirloom gear.

A lot of it I already had. The entire cloth caster set (shoulder, chest, staff, trinket) and the entire "hunter" set (sword, mace, bow, shoulder, chest, trinket).

So I calculated costs for all the other pieces I didn't have, started prioritizing (when do I think I'm going to level another Plate class, anyway?), making all kinds of crazy value judgments and assumptions...

...and then I stopped. And I realized how stupid I was being.

I have 4 80's. And if I break them down, I can cover any role more than once over.
2 Tanks (Druid, DK)
3 Melee DPS (Druid, DK, Shaman)
3 Ranged DPS (Druid, Shaman, Priest)
3 Healers (Druid, Shaman, Priest)

Granted, San will never be rDPS or Heals. And I don't really plan on using my DK for anything more than picking Herbs from this point forward. But the options are still technically there.

The point is, I'm never, ever going to have to rush to bring another toon up to max level. There is absolutely 0 functional reason for me to ever roll another toon again.

Azeroth has changed. It's shattered and shiny and new. Tons of things to see and do that I didn't before. I want to be able to experience them.

And leveling is already so damn fast. Do I really need to speed it up?

Plus I've found out that when I have 4 (or 6) pieces of gear that I never need to replace...it's kinda boring. Half the fun of leveling is going "ooh! That's an upgrade!"

So I decided that I'm going to keep the pieces I have in the bank (since I did purchase them), but unless some crazy circumstance comes along where I need leveling gear nao!, I'm done with heirlooms.

6 comments:

  1. This.

    I feel exactly the same way. I used chest/shoulder heirlooms to quickly level my hunter recently, but he was only my third 80, and I did that with a purpose. Heirlooms are good when you want/need to level something like that. However, I will not use heirlooms in the future - at this point, it seems pointless. Especially now, when there is so much NEW to see.

    I defended heirlooms a couple of months ago, and I stand by that defense. Used thoughtfully, they can be very useful. I was able to use those heirlooms for a purpose, and have had a lot of fun with that hunter. But using heirlooms on a toon that you play for fun, intentionally skipping THE GAME, seems to be counter-productive. My new mage, baby hunter, and whatever else I decide to roll will level more organically - because, among other things, it's definitely neat to see the different gear that you get to wear in the process.

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  2. No pet classes. Level a hunter or warlock.

    I completely agree, though. When I leveled my last character using heirloom pieces I went from level to level too quickly. I'd do a couple of quests, or run an instance and then DING! on to the next zone.

    I currently have zero heirloom gear for my future worgen warrior. I may get one item - a weapon, since they are often hard to come by. However, the heirloom gear that gives bonus XP is right out.

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  3. My Worgen is going to be a Hunter, which is why my Dwarf has been halted at 47 for the last year and only pulled out for our random guild events.

    I'm probably going to roll an Orc Warlock sometime in the future once my Tauren gets level capped (whenever that happens...)

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  4. Right. You had a reason for wanting to get your Hunter to the level cap quickly, so that's perfectly alright.

    I just think, short of my guild saying "San, we have too many tanks better than you and desperately need a Warlock in our raids," I'm never going to be in that position again.

    And I think you have a better shot of looting both the Swift Zulian Tiger and Swift Razzashi Raptor after today than you do of that being said.

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  5. Lol! I think you're probably correct! And the same goes for me.

    As you said, playing a druid makes you viable for all four general playstyles, so I'm sure nobody's going to nudge out a good tank (you) and make you power-level a lock instead of letting you play one of your other casters. :D

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  6. I started a BE mage a couple of weeks ago because some of my Alliance guildies were bored and wanted to try playing Horde side. After 48 hours of play with a full set of heirlooms, she has hit lvl46 already and pretty much outraced everyone else. I have done very little questing because by the time she travels to a zone she has done one or two instances while in transit and is just about ready to level past it. That being said, I don't really mind because I really didn't intend to explore all the new zones yet. I have a couple of other alts that I want to do that on. I really think at this point it is easy to level any class you want to play with or without heirlooms - but I am going to keep wearing using them when I have them.

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