I don’t do heirloom items. It’s just not my thing. Maybe if they were a bit more bondage like, but probably not even then. The very idea of taking the same item through 80 different levels is anathema to me. Where is the discovery of new gear, seeing what it looks like when it’s on, seeing if the stats give you something more? There is no need to look at an heirloom items stats, it’s just ticking away as you level up. It’s not boring, it’s more than that. It’s not a game. Heirlooms reduce 80 levels of going up to drudgery. The gear upgrades are the only surprising thing that can happen to you now when you level up, if you know the class that you are levelling well enough that is.
I mention this due to a post by Larisa today, (I know I am linking Larisa a bit lately, but she’s coming up with some interesting stuff that gets me thinking on my long drive down to work in the morning whilst attempting to avoid crazy truck drivers on twisty mountain roads). She blogged about this years brewfest and how it is just a few minutes of doing nothing and getting 20 gold and some frost emblems. She feels that she has been cheated on something important, namely the game.
I haven’t done this event, (I steer well clear of holiday events), but I can feel her pain. And I think a lot of us old time gamers feel it quite a bit. The risk/reward/effort ratio in WoW seems to now be completely imbalanced. There is no risk at all, there is very little effort and there are big rewards. Which makes most things, meaningless. Before you all start jumping to conclusions, please rest assured that I am not crowing to a return of the ‘good old days’, or anything of the sort. But I really think that Blizzard has lost sight of the bigger picture in this expansion, and I am writing this in the hope that they’ve realised this and will get it right for the next one.
It is often said that WoW is all about the end game. And for a while there it was. But is that truly the case now? What is the end game at the present time? If you have just hit 80, and your end game is to be based on PvE raiding, then you a limited to a single option; you must grind heroics for badges. You must run these heroics day after day in order to get the gear that will let you get into an ICC run. That is your end game right there, and it doesn’t seem like much of an end game to me. Naxx is completely out of the equation, as is Ulduar for the most part unless you’re running some specialised hard modes, which means as a new 80 you sure won’t be invited to those anyway. Trial of the whatever it is? Well, you might get in there, but lets be honest, why would you want to?
No, your only choice is to grind heriocs and the weekly raid boss to get emblems to get gear so you can run one single raid, (please don’t mention Ruby Sanctum here. This is a Ruby Sanctum free zone). This is an end game? As compared to the Burning Crusade?
The consequence of Blizzard listening to the cry baby players who wanted the raid rewards without the effort is not limited to the fact that every piece of gear is now an epic, (which just makes it common, my friends). The other big consequence is that there is no end game that is enjoyable. And this goes back to Larisa’s post: they are now limited to having to bribe us. Ruby Sanctum was a bad example of this, as is this latest Brewfest boss situation. And you feel cheated because you have been.
I am back to levelling my priest. I would prefer to be on my rogue, I really would. But the sad fact is that levelling is more rewarding these days than the end game. That is, unless you deck yourself out in heirlooms. Then you will have cheated yourself out of that part of the game as well.
September 27, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Now you got me thinking! You have a point about the heirlooms actually. When I level alts I feel sad whenever for instance the beautiful robe from I think it is SM drops. I have my chest already, so no point. Same goes with the staff. It would have been more fun if I didn’t have those items. Even if the cost is slower xp gain.
On the other hand I CAN understand the urge especially veteran players feel to bring up alts asap through the game. The third or fourth time you do the same content, it’s getting a bit old. It’s not totally out of the blue that they help people to speed it up.
It’s not an easy equation to solve to be honest.
And as you probably know I’m definitely not a back-to-the-old kind of player. It’s just the extremes I complain about. Such as the Brewfest. That was actually a bit of a shock. In a negative way.
September 27, 2010 at 7:00 pm
The heirlooms thing is why i was actually hoping that Blizzard would remove the old heirlooms come cataclysm and add new ones that would only occupy jewelry/trinket slots so that character appearance isn’t affected. I guess they don’t feel the same though.
September 27, 2010 at 7:10 pm
The alt I’ve had the most fun while leveling is the one without heirlooms. I’m glad he’s on another server so I couldn’t send him any. Looking back I wonder why I used them at all, since I know I hate the randoms-based ‘end game’.
Then again, is it Blizzard’s fault if players choose to use items that reduce their fun? Maybe for many heirlooms increase their fun. I suppose weapons for a melee class could be a pretty definite benefit, since it can suck when you get into a dead zone of gear, running 20 levels behind with the weapon. But shoulders and chest, not so fun, especially with the visibility of shoulders.
September 27, 2010 at 7:11 pm
I hope you are also vendoring the LFD reward gear. They don’t last as long as heirlooms, but they’re more powerful when you get them and can easily last you 10 levels if not 20.
September 28, 2010 at 3:49 am
I love heirlooms. They relieved me of some frustration of dungeon ninja looters, especially weapons.
Call it odd that I still have incentive to run those dungeons when I don’t “need” gear from them that much as before, but well, my style of levelling is from dungeon to dungeon, I prefer them to the flow of solo question, every new dungeon in my level range is like a small milestone. There are also quests, experience points, seeing old bosses on a new alt (nostalgia), and some loot, but overall, I prefer to not be fussed about loot.
Same reason why I love badge loot. For some it’s “boring”, but I like my reward to be more like a salary for a job well done than a prize for drawing the longest straw.
There are games and games, some are about luck like slot machines, and some have all cards revealed from the beginning, like chess, you know all the pieces yet the outcome is still unknown.
I don’t like the luck game, long long ago my first character ran Zul’Farrak 12 times for an item I really wanted, it never dropped then I outlevelled the instance. I was sad. It was years ago, yet I still remember it, while I remember much less the “lucky” moments when something drop. Maybe I’m just a pessimist and the typical gamer remembers the good parts more, so the “luck” game appeals to him more?
And even when it drops, you face the dreaded ninjas, Hunters “needing” on shields, Druids on swords, and in level 1-60 instances it’s not even disabled. Not even mentioning “minor” nuisance when you play let’s say a Mage and all those Shamans and Druids roll on “your” cloth.
We all know well you can do nothing against ninjas except going with premade group, which is easier in case of current farm content (daily heroic, Icc raids) but much harder to assemble in case of levelling instances.
All you can do is laugh in their face they rolled on the dress for a measly 20 silver when you have a heirloom already and couldn’t care less.
MMO games went a long way from “at level 31 you grind on yellow scorpions, at level 32 you grind on black scorpions to level up” to invent less dull, less annoying ways to “advance your character”, yet they keep the MMO-stone-age credo “random loot is random” which in my opinion, they should stick you know where.
My current record is 21 kills of a boss in Icc (15 normal 6 heroic says my statistics tab) without the item I want even dropping (not even mentioning what if someone else would like to roll on it as well?), at this stage the “loot game” is void of any excitement, personally I just want Cataclysm to come so I can stick a level 300 green in that slot… some quest reward preferably, not a random drop.
September 28, 2010 at 4:32 am
As a day one WoW veteran, I think heirlooms are pretty great. I definitely can see where you’re coming from though. It all comes down to preference.
For me, the game starts at max level. Everything before that is just boring, mindless running around handing in quests. It’s a pretty narrow mindset, I’m sure, but that’s always how it’s been for me.
It’s kind of like a raid or a dungeon. The first time you go through it, everything is new and unexpected and you’re eager to see how it goes. After a number of times though, you’re bored out of your mind and you just desperately want to get it over with so you can move on.
September 28, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Heirlooms have three main charactéristics :
* auto-upgrade : no need to optimize your equipment
* great look
* experience booster : 10% for chest, 10% for shoulders
You like to keep the equipment discovery / optimization part, simply don’t use heirlooms and that’s it. The only problem I can see is if you want to retain the exp booster without the heirlooms. But then again it’s only two pieces.
September 29, 2010 at 3:10 pm
I’ve loaded up on heirlooms, since there is no other way to get the +20% exp boost or the never-needs-replaced weapon (usually the hardest piece to upgrade). My solution would be to incorporate the XP bonus on an heirloom SHIRT. While the thought of hand-me-down undergarments seems unsanitary, it is a largely-ignored slot on the Character window that simply doesn’t have loot drops. The one hang-up I could see: it wouldn’t be popular on RP servers, or with those individuals who wear tailor-produced shirts to enhance the visual appearance.
“The consequence of Blizzard listening to the cry baby players who wanted the raid rewards without the effort is not limited to the fact that every piece of gear is now an epic, (which just makes it common, my friends).”
This is why I anxiously await the flood of QQ on the forums about how hard the heroics are in Cataclysm. It will actually require effort to make that grind.
January 11, 2011 at 9:36 pm
[...] range of discussion about heirlooms. However, today I read a post by Adam (The Noisy Rogue) called Heirlooms or Endgame? that triggered my written [...]