What is your favourite style of legendary?

[Deleted]

First off, a little disclaimer to anyone who's thinking about taking the topic in this direction.

This is NOT a discussion about how easy/hard legendaries are to get.
This is NOT a discussion on the requirements of obtaining legendaries, whether it be by drop rate or quest completion rate.
This is NOT a discussion designed to bash specific legendaries.
This IS a discussion on the central lore, mechanics and themes of legendaries.



Since classic and every expansion onwards, there has been more than one legendary to obtain during the course of that period. Upon reflection of these legendaries it is safe to say that they can be split into two slightly blurry but still easily distinguishable categories.

1. The Lore Legend: This style of legendary is basically a player-obtainable version of a very important item that iconic heroes have once possessed. A very obvious example would be the Twin Blades of Azzinoth and Atiesh. These were very commonly seen until halfway through WotLK, with Val'anyr arguably being the last style of legendary in this chain.

2. The Crafted Legend: This style of legendary centers around the idea of creating it as events unfold. The most famous example would be Shadowmourne and the recent legendary cloaks. Since ICC this has been the main style of legendaries as most if not all of them are based around the idea of heroes creating a weapon or tool powerful enough to defeat a great evil.


So I ask this: Out of these two choices, what is your personal favourite style of legendary? For me, it's The Crafted Legend. The idea of progressing the story and having new legends born out of that progression is much much more satisfying than clinging on to old, established examples.

[Denkou]

I prefer the crafted legend, simply because I feel some lore items are too important or powerful for players to obtain.

[Sal the Shieldhog]

I like both, though I prefer the crafted version.

Even then, the older legendaries are more a mixture of both. In Thunderfury's (yes, I said it) and Sulfuras' cases, we don't wield the item themselves. Rather, we craft a miniature replica of the original and imbue our copies with something significant enough to make them extremely powerful (Thunderaan's essence and Sulfuras' eye). Blizzard even nods to this later; when we take Sulfuras from Ragnaros in the Firelands, Sulfuras has flavor text that says, "Within the heart of the hammer, a single ember flickers," making it seem like we weakened both and hammer and Ragnaros through doing so.

In any case, I prefer the versions with crafting, rather than drops. It makes the weapon more significant, and helps with immersion in the game itself.

[echoSAW]

I personally think the lore legendary stuff is more fun, but I'm also not a big "immersion" or lore guy. It just seems cool to wield the weapon(s) of a vanquished boss, such as the warglaives or Sulfuras.

[MMKing]

A weakened ''replica'' with the essence of the Firelord is a good one imo. It allows for lore items without the question why you cannot one shot anything in sight as lore sometimes dictates. Massive reagent requirements that almost demand a guild for the reagents, though i do think they should be trade able. The ingots that drop in MC is a good example, it forces some weeks of farming. But it also allows players to buy them from guilds, albeit this is a long shot for everyone but the most hardcore goblins. BOP items is bad, instead of dropping a reagent that upgrades the epic item or is demanded for crafting. Place some source of power at the end boss and have players finish the crafting at that boss.

[tru]

Wait how is the uld mace (crafted collect this bs) any diff than icc ( crafted collect this bs)

Your comparison differentiation seems off. Should compare raw drop chance vs having to do quests collect/craft
WoW hasnt seen any drops oranges since BC. LK/Cata/MoP were all quested gather blah blah

My fav style of legendary is the one that isnt mandatory for a half serious raid group.
My fav style of legendary is the one that not every single player in the raid has.

But lore wise for sure in the aspect of wielding the main story heroes/villains weapons. WEAPONS... not a gem...meta gem....cloak lameeeeeee

[Deleted]

Wait how is the uld mace (crafted collect this bs) any diff than icc ( crafted collect this bs)

Val'anyr is collecting fragments of an already once-existing item.
Shadowmourne is creating a new item out of crafting materials.

[Wyrt]

A mix of both really.

Having something like the glaives works since they hold no real significance to the night elves. Something like Frostmourne wouldn't work because of it's corrupting nature, so Shadowmourne made more sense.

I'd also be against things like Ashbringer or ata'mal crystals becoming legendaries. Those items should belong to lore characters.

So, I guess, some lore weapons I'd be ok with getting as legendaries, both others I wouldn't be and would prefer crafted things over those.

[Evilfish]

The crafted legendary.

People should go through a series of things to get something special. And by special I don't mean that makes you feel special cause very few others have it.

[Deleted]

Lore-types are more interesting to me, but what matters most is how exactly it's done. The lore behind Thunderfury was interesting, but it was basically all told to you in blocks of text in a conversation with Demitrian, then it was off to farm many many many many many arcane crystals.

[Thelxi]

Ideally I'd like 3-5% drop chance from last bosses like Sinestra and Ra-den.

[Lochton]

I would say the Crafted is quite the popular for me but I voted for the lore one more.

Though, my views are depending on the legendary items. The lore legendary for me would be a weapon, hard to find, work your butt off to prepare and so on. While the crafted in my view would have to be lesser things, legendary cloak maybe? A mantle... or such.

[Nohara]

Crafted! And especially the ones with the more 'difficult' tasks in raid. I like the way Shadowmourne, Dragonwrath and Fangs of the Feather were done. It requires more then just farm low chance drops, and some raid tasks demand you have at least a tiny bit of brain. The solo scenarios of the last 2 were fun, with the cloak they felt a bit to easy, with a Legendary, you should fail a few times in order to get what you want. Also, I feel a Legendary item should not be obtainable by everyone in your guild. It should be one long path to obtain that one Legendary for that one lucky guildy.

I also dislike drop Legendary's, the matter of farming bosses each week, just to hope and see it drop in week 104 is not much fun. It should be build up, it also should cost you something, for example, a certain debuff on you as long as you are on the quest, or a vast amount of gold. Getting the Legendary should be some kind of burden, as in keeping the one ring to rule them all.

[Arbs]

Quel'Dalar is the type of how I would like a Legendary to be, Not only you craft it. It a Lore Object aswell.

Now I feel instead of just 1 person having it, only a certain number of players can have it per server.

I would prefer Legendary were not RNG drops like the Glaives or Thori'dal.

[Deleted]

Definitely the lore legendaries. I love feeling that I am carrying the legacy of an important character. Also, lore legendaries are usually more difficult to get (less drop likelihood as opposed to just long quests that anyone can do), so they make me feel that much more special for obtaining a rare item. Seeing someone with that Atiesh fills me with pure awe, as opposed to seeing someone with the more recent legendaries. Think legendary cape: it's so common that having it doesn't make you feel particularly awesome, whereas not having it can give you the impression that you are late progression-wise.

I'm actually very surprised at the results. I thought many more players felt the way that I do. In a sense I am glad that Blizzard is satisfying a majority of the playerbase with the direction they are taking regarding legendaries.

[Deleted]

Legendaries aren't legendaries when everyone has one. Just make it a low % drop... à la Thori'dal, who cares if there is lore behind the item or not.

I agree with Caitlyn here, although I do prefer when there is lore, my reasoning behing preferring the lore ones (more rarity) is similar.

[Tradu]

I prefer the crafted legendary that not everybody gets. So something like Shadowmourne with 3 classes that had access to it or the daggers where only rogues could get them. The cloaks(and arguably Dragonwrath) are/were way too widespread and mandatory, and didn't feel very "legendary". In terms of crafting the legendary(the quests required), Dragonwrath and the daggers were probably the best so far.
And I really don't think the best weapon in the history of ever should be a random drop, that just seems wrong.

[Yunru]

I prefer legendary to be repaired than crafted.

If you craft it...then what does it made legendary?

When it comes to legendary it must exist before we are born. Warglave and bow work like this (- repairing).
Or the staff, wich is the best way created (geting back shattered pieces of a weapon).

[Deleted]

Lore legendary. It's hard to craft legendary before doing anything awesome with it.

[Deleted]

I prefer legendary to be repaired than crafted.

If you craft it...then what does it made legendary?

When it comes to legendary it must exist before we are born. Warglave and bow work like this (- repairing).
Or the staff, wich is the best way created (geting back shattered pieces of a weapon).

Every weapon started off somewhere, what if the items we create will be truly legendary for the nubs that play aeons later and find them?