Selecting a spec determines what gear the character is initially equipped with, but they’ll get extras for other specs as well.
Upon logging in, the character will find themselves in their faction capital of Orgrimmar or Stormwind, which could be a little awkward if you had a pre-squish character still in the middle of the Death Knight or Demon Hunter intro scenarios, but otherwise shouldn’t cause too many problems due to the Level 10 character requirement. They’ll also be wearing all new gear – item level 90 in the case of our Level 39 Demon Hunter and around item level 53 for our Level 27 Shaman – as well a full loadout of 22-slot Embersilk Bags.
While the Gear Update doesn’t give any extra gold, the character’s inventory will be cleared out of everything except a Hearthstone and Adventurer’s Footlocker, though all of your old items and gear will still be mailed back to you – even the grey trash items, which is a great time to try out that new Sell All Junk button, also coming in Patch 10.1.5!
Still beat out by Heirlooms, the gear isn’t particularly impressive, but the suite of 22-slot bags are a nice touch.
One interesting quirk that we’ve found is a popup warning for Allied Race characters, noting that they will become ineligible to complete heritage armor questlines, classifying it as a “boost” despite the feature not actually granting any levels or experience. This seems somewhat arbitrary, but may not necessarily be final either.
Unfortunately the gear change also removes your carefully crafted transmog, but that can be fixed as soon as you log back in.
This Welcome Back Gift may still be a bit buggy, due to continuing to show the Gear Update prompt on the log-in screen even after using it, but for a work-in-progress PTR feature, it’s a nice touch to help low level characters catch up to the rest of their friends in Azeroth and beyond.
