Heirloom gear in Cataclysm will be seeing some changes.  Not sure I’m a huge fan, but at the same time, I understand the logic behind it.  The current heirloom gear in WotLK will NOT be beneficial or useful past level 80.  It will not scale with level 81-85, and will not grant the XP bonuses.  This is according to several sources on the Cataclysm forums, but has not been officially confirmed by Blizzard yet.

They can still be used to level from 1-80, but will become non-factors from level 81 on.  To replace the heirloom gear, there are plans to have a full set of heirloom gear available as rewards through the guild achievement system.  How obtainable these pieces of gear will be remains to be seen, and of course, nothing official has been released.

So, if you are making plans to use your current heirloom gear in Cataclysm, like I was, it is probably best to start scheming on how to go forth without it, as it does appear they will not provide the XP benefits past level 80.

This is to create a fair advantage when leveling from 81 to 85, with world firsts at stake, it would appear Blizzard is trying to level the playing field, at least at the beginning.  I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point down the road they go ahead and make the current heirloom gear viable past level 80, when Cataclysm is well underway, and yet it wouldn’t surprise me if they don’t either.

My plans are to now get my sets ready for the following characters to play during Cataclysm:

• Tauren Paladin (with leveling guide on this site)
• Gnome Priest (will provide Priest leveling guide here)
• Goblin Rogue (more than likely, also with a guide)

It would appear Blizzard is re-tooling the leveling process to be much quicker this time around, as Azeroth is getting a make-over from the ground up.  Making new classes will be easier than ever, so it’s hard to tell how much of a factor the heirloom changes will be.