Squash this statement now so I can slap my friend and tell him to quit being a fool:

Heirloom items are not going to be usable for Cataclysm Leveling. Period.

He is adamant about this. And yet...I"m the one with the active account, reading up on these forums and other sites every day, and I haven't heard this at all.

I can understand maybe you can't used them until you have an 85? The only thing I can think of is that it'd "hinder" Worgen/Goblin First to 85, but I imagine they'd just disqualify Heirloom characters or something.

Anyway. I'm posting this in the hope I'll get the proof to shame him.

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Q u o t e:
Read somewhere that current heirlooms will only go to 80, and that there will be new heirlooms that go to 85.

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It's been awhile, but I believe this is the plan, yes. So for the most part, if you have heirlooms right now they will work fine for most new characters, then when you get to Cataclysm zones you will start using the quest rewards for 81-85. At 85 you can get new heirlooms that will probably fit the 81-85 experience better. Yes, all of this could change too.

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Q u o t e:
Why not just make it so Heirloom items are only effective up to the level of your highest level character? If your highest level Character is level 83, then Heirloom items are effective for your account from levels 1-82.

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What would be the motivation then to buy new ones? :)

And just in case this starts to get out of hand, I've had this type of discussion in the past, it tends to boil down to a bit of a disagreement between us and players along the lines of - just because you did it once, doesn't mean you won't ever have to do it again.