Heirloom

Heirloom is an item type that was introduced with Wrath of the Lich King. The items have a golden hue in their text color, and their attributes scale with the character's level. Nearly all heirloom items are named after popular items from the early days of Classic WoW, and share the look of these items.

Once purchased, heirlooms bind to the account, as opposed to an individual character. This means they can be mailed to any character that shares the same account and server, including those of opposing faction (patch 3.3). Heirloom items can be returned for a refund within the normal two-hour grace period, but only if the item was not yet mailed to a different character.

Heirloom items do not have a durability stat, and do not need to be repaired. This saves money when leveling your character.

For classes that can wear mail and plate items, while the character is under level 40, heirlooms will appear as leather or mail armor types until that character is able to wear the mail or plate armor type. For example, when purchasing an heirloom for a level 12 shaman, you want to buy a mail heirloom item, which will scale down to leather when equipped on the shaman until the shaman reaches level 40, when it will become mail again.

Heirloom shoulders, chestpieces, cloaks, helms and the ring grant greater experience gains while wearing them. The experience bonuses stack with each other and with the rested bonus, and affect experience gains from quests, but do not stack with Essence of Wintergrasp. The maximum possible experience bonus from heirlooms alone is 40%. The experience bonus on shoulders, chestpieces and rings stop at level 80.

Heirloom item restrictions are skill based and not class based. For example, any class could wear the cloth shoulders and chest for the 20% experience boost, but classes such as warriors and rogues would not benefit from the item's casting stats.

Stat values
An heirloom's stats correspond to the item level of a blue quality item requiring its wearer's level, except that for cloak and helm heirlooms, the stats stop increasing at level 80. However, heirlooms give bonuses to four different stats from a far lower level than blue items start doing so. At level 80, heirlooms are approximately equivalent to an item level 187 item, and will ultimately be replaced by questing, instancing, and PvP at the maximum level.

On reaching levels 58 and 68, players will notice unusually large stat increases to heirlooms, because these are the lowest required levels for blues introduced in, respectively, Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King. The same is true at level 81 for Cataclysm heirloom cloaks. However, while blue items introduced in Cataclysm all require at least level 81, uncommon items of level 272 only require level 77.

For almost any given justice-point heirloom weapon or armor item, as well as for each of the heirloom cloaks at level 80, there exist four uncommon replacements that:
 * Occur as world drops.
 * Bind when equipped.
 * Have the same stats as the heirloom with higher values.
 * Have required levels of 77, 78, 79 and 80.
 * Have item levels of 272, 278, 283 and 289.
 * Have four consecutive item IDs (see ItemString).
 * Have the item suffix "of the Earthfall" (for Strength items), "of the Windflurry" (for Agility items), or "of the Fireflash" (for Intellect items).

Tips for Early Purchasing
If you're thrifty and plan to level several alts, aim for gear many different classes can use even if the gear might be not be optimal for all of them. This is especially important since enchants for such gear tend to go for high prices on auction houses. For example, spell shoulders and spell staffs are popular heirlooms since nearly all classes that use mana can find some use for them compared to stuff like paladin-specific spellplate. Similarly, shoulders of any kind should take preference over weapons, the former for their experience boost (even if it creates suboptimal stats) while the latter are mostly a convenience to the player with the exception of gear-dependent tanks.

Enchanting your Heirlooms
Heirlooms can be enchanted only with enhancements that will not bind the item to the character. The items are treated as item level 1, and as such can not use most Burning Crusade or higher enhancements; however, Death Knight runes are allowed on heirloom weapons. Also worth considering is the fact that some of the enhancements that can be used will not actually take effect unless the character using them is of the appropriate level (primarily shoulder and head enchants).

Head
Heirloom heads have a 10% experience boost from quests and kills and stack with all other Heirloom items.

These items are sold by Guild vendors for after completing the achievement. You will also need to purchase these items.

Below, classes in square brackets are not in the proper armor class, but will still get the stat benefit from the listed heirloom. Classes in brackets will find the heirloom significantly weaker than another one, but will still benefit. Keep this in mind if buying an heirloom for several alts to use.

Helm Enchants
The head enchants available at revered with certain factions are also heirloom-quality items, but are only useable by level 80 characters. This is to allow for the use of these powerful enchants without having to grind through the reputations with another character.

Shoulders
The heirloom shoulders were originally sold only in Wintergrasp or Dalaran. In Patch 3.2.0, the shoulders sold in Dalaran are also purchasable from Dame Evniki Kapsalis at the Argent Tournament Grounds in Icecrown for Champion's Seals once the title has been earned. .

Note that these Heirloom items are only the highest level version of the item the faction vendor carries. For example, Lesser Inscription of the Axe is not an Heirloom and the name will not appear in a brown color in the vendor's trade window.

Shoulder Enchants
Shoulder enchants, available at exalted with the Sons of Hodir, are also heirloom-quality items, but are only usable by level 80 characters. This is to allow for the use of these powerful enchants without having to grind through the reputations (particularly Sons of Hodir) with another character. If your character has the ability to craft or purchase shoulder enchants of their own, they can be applied to the heirloom shoulders.

The shoulder enchants from the Inscription profession will work on Heirlooms shoulders at any level, however you will require Inscription for the enchant to take effect. This means minimum level required is 65 (to have 400 skill). The pvp shoulder enchant will only work when your character reaches level 70.

Chestpieces
Heirloom chestpieces have a 10% experience boost from quests and kills, and this boost stacks with the 10% from the shoulders (thus making leveling for the lower-levels much easier).

These can be purchased from Dame Evniki Kapsalis once the title has been earned, at the Argent Tournament Grounds in Icecrown costing 60 Champion's Seal, or from Enchanter Erodin (Horde) / Enchanter Isian (Alliance) in Dalaran costing.

Below, classes in square brackets are not in the proper armor class, but will still get the full benefit from the listed heirloom. Classes in brackets will find the heirloom significantly weaker than another one, but will still benefit. Keep this in mind if buying an heirloom for several alts to use.

Weapons
Like the shoulders, many of these weapons and other heirlooms were originally sold either in Dalaran or in Wintergrasp. Some were added as available only at the Argent Tournament, but currently both the Dalaran and Argent Tournament vendors offer the same selection of items.

Cloaks
Heirloom Cloaks have a 5% experience boost from quests and kills and stack with all other Heirloom items.

These items are sold by Guild vendors for after completing the achievement. You will also need to purchase these items.

Classes in brackets will find the heirloom significantly weaker than another one, but will still benefit. Keep this in mind if buying an heirloom for several alts to use. Since all the cloaks have Stamina, Crit and Haste along with the experience bonus, they can benefit any class despite not being ideal.

Trinkets
As with other heirlooms, many were originally sold either in Dalaran or in Wintergrasp. Some were added as available only at the Argent Tournament, but currently both the Dalaran and Argent Tournament vendors offer the same selection of items.

Rings
A quest reward ring grants players an additional 5% XP bonus. There are more rings that are slated for release sometime in Cataclysm

Pants
Heirloom pants have not yet been released, though they are included in game files.

Known issues
As of patch 4.2.0, heirloom items name appears in white like common items, rather than their golden color.