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I recently got my first level 80 toon and am excited to purchase my first piece of Heirloom gear. My current alts are a level 68 Hunter and a level 15 Druid. Should I bother to buy a piece of Heirloom for the Hunter? Or should I get something for the Druid instead?

Regardless of who I buy it for, which piece should I get first? It looks like weapons are the most expensive, does that mean they are the best?

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5 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

Once you're in Outlands, the gear earned from quests is much more prevalent, so the Heirloom gear gets less relevant at that point. That said, also keep in mind other characters you might play that could use the same heirloom gear.

As far as which piece to choose first, there are mainly two ways to go. The shoulders and chest are a popular choice overall due to the XP bonus built in. However, for a very gear dependent class like a Warrior or Rogue, an heirloom weapon would be a great help in the leveling process.

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Less relevant? 10% is 10% no matter how much it is for. – corsiKa Jul 19 '10 at 21:40
@glowcoder I think he means that he's only 12 levels to cap at 68 vs. 65 to cap at 15. He'll get more bang for his buck by purchasing the upgrades for his druid. Additionally, later on, you're less dependent on the individual pieces of gear and have more options available, whereas early on you'll be very limited in choice and those extra stats add a lot. – TheQ Jul 23 '10 at 12:34
up vote 8 down vote

In general, shoulders and chest should be the first two items you pick up, due to their 10% stacking xp bonus.

The next item you pick up should be dependant on your class/spec. If you're leveling as a caster, the two trinkets are a smart buy (Spell Power / % mana restored on kill, Haste Rating / % hp restored on kill), followed by weapons. Conversely, class/specs that depend on your weapons should pick up the weapons second and the trinkets last.

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After getting the Shoulders, picking up the the more helpful of the two trinkets isnt a bad idea, considering it is pretty difficult to get your hands on any as a lowbie. – mfg Jul 23 '10 at 12:25
@mfg From a purely numbers standpoint, 10% exp will trump an empty slot unless it's a weapon. 20% extra exp from EVERYTHING will counter any downtime accumulated from having to drink / eat / bandage slightly more often that you'd lose from trinket procs, or the speed at which you kill from their passive bonuses. I say this with the understanding that heirloom gear is purchased to make leveling alt easier/quicker. – TheQ Jul 23 '10 at 12:31
if you only have enough gold (or tokens) to buy one chest and one shoulder, buy the cloth version. The stats might be useless, but it can be used by all your (future) alts. If you're up to it, you could even mail them back and forth if you level your alts at the same time. – Sjoerd Nov 22 '11 at 0:33
up vote 4 down vote

I would definitely go for items for the Druid. The Hunter is too far along to have any real use for it (granted, there will be some, but the druid will have much better use for it).

In regards to the actual items, I would indeed choose the shoulders first, for their XP-bonus. Naturally, which one of those to choose, would rely on what spec you'd level as, but I would go with "Stained Shadowcraft Spaulders" for Feral and "Preened Ironfeather Shoulders" for Balance/Restoration. Again, there's also the resilience ones.

The weapon isn't that important, but will indeed make it all better. Here, I'd go with either "Repurposed Lava Dredger" or "Dignified Headmaster's Charge" (same order as before, naturally).

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Thank you for your very specific answer! – pcg79 Jul 16 '10 at 21:08
also, although it wont be a perfect match, if you get the "Stained Shadowcraft Spaulders" for the druid you can swap them on/off with the hunter who will be able to use the stats to an extent (i dont know if that one will convert to mail). – mfg Jul 23 '10 at 12:27
@mfg They wont. When you purchase them at 80, that is their "final form", so to speak. Plate items will be mail pre-40, and mail items will be leather pre-40, but that's it. – TheQ Jul 23 '10 at 12:36
up vote 2 down vote

I would not bother buying anything for the hunter because he is so close to level cap, unless you have other toons that can use it. For the Druid I would suggest the head piece first because many toons don't get that piece for a long time, next i would go with shoulders and chest piece, because these are vital pieces of gear to have and the 10% stack also helps a lot. Weapons are next for sure because having heirloom weapons helps with gold because weapon quest rewards and loot drops tend to sell for as much or more than any armor. Hope this helps

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up vote 1 down vote

Shoulders are often the best start because it's one of the last slots you will get drops for.

The experience bonus is also incredibly valuable in (1-60) Azeroth, because each zone only has a few good quests per level. You end up having to hit multiple zones in the same level range which wastes a huge amount of time. (e.g. you can't go 18-30 with just Duskwood quests, you'll be off to Redridge, Ashenvale...) Once you hit Outland, you can just about never leave a zone and gain 2-4 levels which makes things incredibly fast.

Feral druids don't rely as heavily on weapons compared to other melee classes, but don't forget it entirely. If you buy blue weapons just as you can use them, it takes 5 more levels before heirloom weapons are as good.

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about your last sentence, do you mean the fresh new blue weapons are better than heirloom? as a newbie myself, that's big news to me! o_O – Cawas Aug 5 '10 at 20:14
@Cawas For only a few levels; the heirloom items are equal to blue at your character level, but you can typically use drops 5 levels before their item level would correspond to character level. On checking, I'm not sure if this is true anymore; but I do recall comparing a blue sword on my 40-ish leveling warrior to the Bloodied Arcanite Reaper and noticing that the blue was better for a while. – Nick T Aug 6 '10 at 14:26
well, sure it could only be for a few levels... but still... it's just whenever I see someone using heirloom, they do get the weapon too and never change because it's a fucking awesome piece of item. – Cawas Aug 6 '10 at 17:46

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