Monday, May 03, 2010

WoW: Food for thought

Raid-geared players spend their downtime running Heroics on their Mains so they can get Badges to buy Heirloom gear for their Alts so they don't have to spend as much time playing their Alts. I know, I know. Leveling their Alts, it's the same thing.

Here are some questions to ponder.

How many Heroics do you need to run to obtain enough Badges to buy the Heirloom +XP pieces? How long does that take? Factor in not being a Tank (or being able to queue with one) and spending time in queues.

If your Alt changes Armor at 40 (Leather to Mail, or Mail to Plate), factor in enough Runs to buy multiple sets. Actually I just read that Mail Heirloom Gear apparently reverts to Leather when worn by sub-40 Hunters and Shamans, while Plate Heirloom gear does the same for sub-40 Warriors and Paladins. That's a nice touch but you'll want to buy a set of Leather Heirloom gear anyway for your Rogue and Druid (two Sets if you're leveling a Caster Druid), and don't forget a set of Cloth Heirloom gear for your Squishies. How many Badges is that? 8-10 pieces at 40 each, or 320-400 Badges. And don't forget Weapons for everyone. At 65 Badges per weapon that's another 300+ Badges.

How many Runs will it take to acquire 600-700 (or more) Badges?

What about one Alt? How many Runs will it take to collect just 145 Badges?

And how much time does Heirloom gear really save while leveling Alts?

A level 1 character needs 24,067,200 XP to get to level 80. Whether you run to the nearest Mailbox at level 1 or just complete the starting area quests and get there in due time is a moot point. You need 7600xp to get from level 1 to level 5 (the average point at which a character reaches their first Inn & mailbox) and so a 20% bonus to XP by that point has netted you just 1520 extra XP, or a little more than 1/3 of the 3600 needed to get from level 5 to level 6. It takes approx. 20-30 minutes to get from level 5 to 6 so taking 5 minutes (or so) to run to the nearest Mailbox to get your Heirloom gear at level 1 saves you about 10 minutes.

But we're looking at The Big Picture® and in the grand scheme of things a 20% bonus to XP means you don't need the full 24,067,200XP to go from 1 to 80 but rather 83.3% (recurring decimal) of that. That's 20,056,000 XP, an amount which would put you a little over halfway into 77 if you didn't have Heirloom gear. That's what your 20% Heirloom gear really saves you: that last grind from 77 to 80 which would probably take an experienced Player (and if you have Heirloom gear, that's you) about 2-3 days/evenings questing, running PUGs, etc. Naturally a more casual-paced player is going to take longer to do that last 77-80 grind, but they'll also take longer to gather the 80 Badges for the Heirloom gear, so it all evens out in the end.

3 comments:

Dammerung said...

Dunno about all that. I do know that the over powered feeling you get from heirlooms is crazy fun.

Also if you do bg's heirloom pvp gear is a HUGE difference maker.

Unknown said...

I was going to echo Dammerung's thoughts. I bought a full set of heirloom gear for leveling a rogue and while the bonus exp is great, the heirloom gear scales so no only do you bulldoze early content, you dont have to buy gear for these slots until you reach near max level.

Back when we were raiding ToC 25 regularly, I amassed an obscene amount of triumph emblems that I had no use for other than to buy gems and stuff with. At one point I had something like 350 triumph emblems, so I blew a chunk of them on some heirloom gear.

Also keep in mind that if you do the tournament dailies, you can earn like 10 champion seals a day ( and some great money too ). These can buy heirloom gear.

Also, there are the stone keeper's shards. Even if you don't do the Wintergrasp weekly quests, you will amass a ton of these over time. They can buy certain PvP heirloom gear ( mostly useful for weapons if you are focused on PvE).

I guess my point here is that heirloom gear comes more quickly than you think. Hell, I haven't run ToC 25 or 10 in months and I am sitting on something like 200 triumph just from running my daily random and the occasional romp through an old raid for the raid weekly. ... and my play style is considered pretty casual by my guild mates ( I would beg to differ, but to each their own).

Cap'n John said...

That is a thought. Having the Heirloom gear doesn't just get you more XP faster, it's allegedly the equivalent of Blue gear for your level, so it's like always having the best gear (apart from those low level Epics) for your level. I guess we also need to consider that having Heirloom Gear doesn't just mean you get 20% more XP, it makes you more powerful than the average Mob your own level, so you kill things faster, complete quests faster, and thus you get 20% more XP faster.

And I'll admit it, my 20s Hunter and teen Rogue are sharing the Leather Chestpiece and Shoulders ;)

Perhaps I'll use my Stone Keeper's Shards to buy the Upgraded Dwarven Hand Cannon, as that would benefit them both, too >:)