How to get & upgrade Heirlooms in WoW: The War Within

Heirlooms have been in World of Warcraft ever since Wrath of the Lich King, and they’re still just as relevant to this day with The War Within. 

Having access to Heirlooms can make leveling up a breeze, especially if you’re trying to speedily max out an army of alts. They can be a little pricey to pick up all in one go, but they’re useful for both completing collections and removing leveling obstacles. 

Here’s a complete guide on how to get and upgrade Heirlooms in World of Warcraft: The War Within, including NPC locations for both Alliance and Horde. 

Contents

• What are Heirlooms?
• How to upgrade Heirlooms
• Heirloom Vendor location: Alliance
• Heirloom Vendor location: Horde
• The War Within Heirloom set bonuses

What are Heirlooms?

Heirlooms are special armor, weapons, and trinkets that scale with your character and provide unique buffs that can help to make leveling up a breeze. 

Every class has access to Heirlooms, and they only need to be purchased once in your World of Warcraft journey, as they’re account-wide. 

Some Heirlooms can be purchased from the Guild vendor in your respective Capital City, while others must be picked up from Heirloom Curators. 

How to upgrade Heirlooms

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If you have Heirlooms in your inventory, you may have noticed that they have levels – like 0/4, for example. This is because Heirlooms need to be upgraded in order to scale with your level.

Items to upgrade Heirlooms, like Heirloom Armor Casings, can be purchased from Heirloom Curators or alternative sources like the Darkmoon Faire. These can be purchased with gold or Darkmoon Faire Tickets respectively. 

The leveling system goes as follows:

• Upgrade 1 – scales to level 35.
• Upgrade 2 – scales to level 40.
• Upgrade 3 – scales to level 45.
• Upgrade 4 – scales to level 50.

Some items do scale to Level 44 immediately, however, you will still need to buy the fourth upgrade to get them to Level 50.

Where is the Alliance Heirloom Curator?

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Alliance players will need to head to the Hall of Explorers in Ironforge to find Krom Stoutarm if they want to buy Heirlooms and upgrade items. 

The location of this NPC can be seen on the map below. Krom can be found inside the library in the Hall of Explorers, and there’s a mailbox in the immediate area too, which can make sending Heirlooms to your low-level toons easy. 

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Where is the Horde Heirloom Curator?

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Horde players will need to go to the top of the front gates of Orgrimmar to find Estelle Gendry in order to buy Heirlooms. 

You can see the location of Estelle on the map below. It’s a convenient spot for an NPC, as you can portal to Orgrimmar and simply hop up on top with your flying mount.

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The War Within Heirloom set bonuses

Players now receive bonuses for rocking a full set of Heirloom items in The War Within. In order to activate these bonuses, you’ll need to be wearing an Heirloom item in at least six of the following slots:

• Head
• Neck
• Shoulders
• Cloak
• Chest
• Legs
• Ring

The bonuses for wearing two or more items can be found below:

Number of Items	Bonus
2	Rested XP consumption gets a 30% reduction.
4	Health regeneration gets a boost outside of combat in the overworld, Battlegrounds, and Dungeons.
5	Leveling up triggers a Burst of Knowledge, dealing Holy damage to nearby enemies and giving you  a 40% primary stat boost for 2 minutes. Killing extra mobs can extend this for up to 2 minutes extra.
6	Rested XP consumption gets a 30% reduction.

Rested XP refers to the XP bonus that players receive when they’re offline. A standard 5% bonus is applied for Capital Cities and Inns, while 1.25% applies elsewhere. 

Heirlooms can make leveling up an army of alts a breeze, and they’re worth picking up if you’re a completionist too, as they have their own tab in the Collections journal.

If you’re setting out to level up a new character but you’re not sure what to roll, make sure to check out our tier lists of the best DPS, Tanks, and Healers. The War Within has shaken up the meta significantly, so set yourself up for success with the best class and Hero Talents.