You upgrade heirlooms at your faction's heirloom vendor: Krom Stoutarm in the Hall of Explorers in Ironforge for Alliance, and Estelle Gendry in Orgrimmar for Horde. They sell upgrade tokens — Armor Casings for gear, Scabbards for weapons — that you buy with gold and right-click to apply. The upgrade is account-wide and shows in your Collections journal.
Where the vendors are
| Faction | Vendor | Location |
| Alliance | Krom Stoutarm | Hall of Explorers, Ironforge |
| Horde | Estelle Gendry | Orgrimmar (she relocated from Undercity after Battle for Azeroth) |
Both are flagged on the city map once you're in the zone, and both sell the heirlooms themselves alongside the upgrade tokens — so it's one stop for buying and upgrading.
How to actually apply the upgrade
- Fly to Ironforge or Orgrimmar and open the heirloom vendor's window.
- Look under the upgrade-token section. You'll only ever be offered the next tier you're eligible for — the vendor won't let you skip ahead.
- Buy an Armor Casing for chest, shoulders, head, legs, cloak and trinkets, or a Scabbard for weapons and off-hands. They are not interchangeable.
- Right-click the token in your bags and pick the heirloom you want to raise. It's consumed on use.
- Check the Heirlooms tab of your Collections journal (Shift+P by default) — the piece will show its new maximum level, on every character on the account.
The token tiers climb in a fixed order — Ancient, then Timeworn, Weathered, Battle-Hardened and up — with each step raising how far that piece keeps scaling, and each step costing noticeably more gold than the last.
Full BiS GearingBest-in-slot across the board for your spec.from 120 EURGet it doneDo I need the heirloom in my bags to upgrade it?
No. Heirlooms live in your Collections journal permanently, so you can create a fresh copy from there at any time, at no cost. Pull the piece out, apply the token, and the upgrade sticks to the collection entry rather than to that one physical item — you can safely destroy or sell the copy afterwards.
Why did my heirloom stop giving stats?
Heirlooms scale only up to the level cap you've paid for. Past that they still show in your bags but stop keeping pace with quest and dungeon drops, so the piece quietly becomes worse than a green from your current zone. That's the signal to buy the next token — or just swap the slot out.
Are heirloom upgrades worth the gold?
They're worth it if you level alts often — the bonus experience and the never-replace-it convenience pay for themselves across several characters. If you're levelling one character once, the higher tiers are hard to justify: modern levelling is already fast, and gear from the zone you're in will keep up on its own.
Does one upgrade cover all my characters?
Yes. Heirlooms and their upgrades are account-wide within a region, so a Scabbard bought on your warrior benefits the mage you roll next month. You do have to upgrade each piece separately, though — there's no bulk upgrade that hits your whole set at once.
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