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Wrath of the Lich King introduced a wonderful new class of gear that makes levelling alts a much more pleasant experience: Heirlooms. Heirlooms are gear with a light yellow text that bind to your account. Their level, stats, and armor type is based on the level of the wearer. Often they mimic a blue of the same level, with some mail evolving to plate at 40 and some leather evolving to mail at the same level. They don’t have durability, and therefore don’t require any money to repair. While all of these things are more of a convenience, they also have one more big thing going for them: many heirlooms grant an increase in experience from quests and monsters. Wearing heirloom shoulders, chest pieces, and rings together grants you a current maximum of +25% extra experience. Nice!

(Author’s Note: there is now a companion article about Heirloom Enchants for those interested!)

So how do you go about getting Heirlooms? Well, there are a few ways. First, Stone Keeper Shards can be redeemed for several pvp-oriented heirlooms. You can acquire Stone Keeper Shards either by running Northrend dungeons while your faction controls Wintergrasp or by doing the weekly Wintergrasp quests. Bosses grant 1-4 Stone Keeper Shards when killed while you control Wintergrasp, and it adds up quickly. While the heirlooms all contain resilience, the shoulder armor still has +10% experience and with most of the weapons it’s the dps you’re looking for anyways. The Stone Keeper Shard heirlooms are as follows:

• Strengthed Stockade Pauldrons
• Prized Beastmaster’s Mantle
• Pristine Lightforge Spaulders
• Lasting Feralheart Spaulders
• Exquisite Sunderseer Mantle
• Exceptional Stormshroud Shoulders
• Aged Pauldrons of the Five Thunders
• Upgraded Dwarven Hand Cannon
• The Blessed Hammer of Grace
• Sharpened Scarlet Kris
• Reforged Truesilver Champion
• Inheritated Insignia of the Alliance
• Grand Staff of Jordan
• Battleworn Thrash Blade

Next up, you can purchase pve-oriented from Emblems of Heroism. Emblems of Heroism are the lowest type of Wrath of the Lich King Emblems, and all other types (such as Frost and Triumph) may be converted to Heroism. You can expect the full gambit of Heirlooms from Emblems — shoulders, chest pieces, a variety of weapons, and trinkets. All of what you can purchase with emblems also shows up at the argent tournament grounds for Crusaders at the Crusader Quartermaster, sold for Champion’s Seals. You can acquire Emblems from running Wrath of the Lich King heroics, running the weekly raid quests, running Frozen Halls (Pit of Saron, Forge of Souls, Halls of Reflection dungeons on normal, and two from your first random Wrath of the Lich King dungeon of the day. Champion Seals can be acquired from the Argent Tournament from the dailies, or also from Trial of the Champion on the heroic setting. The list of heirlooms you can acquire looks something like this:

• Tattered Dreadmist Mantle
• Tattered Dreadmist Robe
• Preened Ironfeather Shoulders
• Preened Ironfeather Breastplate
• Stained Shadowcraft Spaulders
• Stained Shadowcraft Tunic
• Champion Herod’s Shoulder
• Champion’s Deathdealer Breastplate
• Polished Spaulders of Valor
• Polished Breastplate of Valor
• Mystical Vest of the Elements
• Mystical Pauldrons of Elements
• Venerable Dal’Rend’s Sacred Charge
• Venerable Mass of McGowan
• Devout Aurastone Hammer
• Balanced Heartseeker
• Charmed Ancient Bone Bow
• Repurposed Lava Dredger
• Bloodied Arcanite Reaper
• Swift Hand of Justice
• Discerning Eye of the Beast
• Dignified Headmaster’s Charge

You’ll notice that those lists include shoulders, armor, trinkets, and weapons. There’s also a single ring, the Dread Pirate’s Ring, which you can pick up by winning the Kalu’ak Fishing Derby, which happens every Saturday at 2pm Server Time. Around 2pm the Tuskarr will yell to all of Northrend that the derby has begun and that the first person to bring a blacktip shark to him in Dalaran will win. The winner gets a few thousand Kalu’ak reputation and their choice of either the ring or Boots of the Bay.