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WoW Heirlooms

Are heirlooms worth it in Retail WoW?

If you level more than one character, a few unupgraded pieces are cheap and reused forever, so yes. Full upgrades cost tens of thousands of gold and only pay off if you level alts often. Heirlooms no longer give bonus experience, so the case rests on the set bonus and on not needing to replace gear.

Reviewed October 20, 2026.

What heirlooms still do

  • Grow with you. Stats scale with your level up to 30, or up to 70 with every upgrade.
  • Serve every character. You learn an heirloom once and can create a copy on any character on your account.
  • Never need repairs. Heirlooms have no durability.
  • Activate a set bonus. Two pieces make rested experience last longer; five pieces trigger Burst of Knowledge on every level-up. Set bonuses explained

What they no longer do is add experience directly. That ended with patch 9.0.1.

What it costs

Prices are curator gold prices. Upgrade totals include every token from a new item to the stated level.

SetupBuyUpgradesScales to
Shoulders and chest, no upgrades1,000gNone30
Shoulders and chest, upgraded to 501,000g17,000g50
Shoulders, chest, and a two-hander, fully upgraded1,750g64,750g70

Sources disagree on the Eternal tier price, so the fully upgraded total may be higher. Price your own set

From Warcraft Wiki, retrieved October 20, 2026. Not yet confirmed in game. Sources and method

Worth it if

  • You level alts regularly. Every new character reuses the same items.
  • You log out in inns. The rested-experience bonuses stretch a bar you already have.
  • You have Timewarped Badges to spend. The later upgrade tiers cost far less in badges than in gold.

Probably not worth it if

  • You only play one character. You pay full price for a single use.
  • You level past 70 with them. Even fully upgraded heirlooms stop scaling at 70, so the last levels need ordinary gear anyway.

A sensible way to start

  1. Buy shoulders and a chest for the armor type you level most often.
  2. Add a weapon that suits your usual specialization.
  3. Upgrade armor before weapons, and stop at the level where your alts usually switch to new gear.

Browse the heirloom list or find your vendor.