What legendary system iteration do you want in Dragonflight?

[Calimon-ZJ]

In order of preference

1) Vanilla/BC
2) Wrath/Cataclysm
3) If neither of the above, take them out completely

Everything after cataclysm, they were just another chore to upkeep by doing trivial content. Bosses were tuned around everyone having them, so they may as well not exist at all. I'm more of a fan of ultra rare powerful pieces of equipment. They aren't special otherwise.

[ro9ue]

I don't think any existing Legendary system is totally perfect. Each one had advantages and disadvantages but there are certainly ones that are better than others.

Shadowlands gold sink and TBC RNG were probably the worst. WoD and MoP where everyone gets the same item were boring as hell.

I think my favorites have been Vanilla (Sulfuras), Wrath (Shadowmourne), Cata (Dragonwrath and Fangs) and 7.3 Legion. Also, not a legendary, but Rhok'delar.

So I would split it into 2 groups:

1. Sulfuras, Rhok'delar, Shadowmourne, Dragonwrath and Fangs - I find these weapons super memorable. First of all, they're weapons and not a cape or ring. They look awesome and have incredible effects. They have extremely unique questlines, feel epic, and in some cases have pretty fun and occasionally challenging fights involved. When I did demons for Rhok'delar it was like perfect kiting required. The wait for the spawn wasn't a good aspect, but like I said, none of these systems are perfect. The grinds were brutal and probably unnecessary. I liked with Sulfuras you could get the help of your guild to get the materials to craft the base hammer, so instead of one person having to collect stuff every week from bosses like SM, DW and Fangs, everyone could pitch in to help. The other issue with this set up was... basically only a few people got a legendary, and in the case of Fangs... it was for one class. But as a rogue I can tell you the stealth mission and the questing involved was just such a great rogue experience, I don't think they could pull that off with a more generic legendary.

2. 7.3 Legion - I liked that this made doing anything in the game exciting. There were so many options for each class you could mix and match pretty easily for the gameplay you wanted, especially after the vendor was implemented. However, because they just popped into your inventory and there were so many, most of which weren't even visible or had a common look, they didn't feel as epic as the above ones. But as a gameplay system they were really enjoyable and best of all, every class got legendaries. I think 7.3 might be the best system so far but I would make a few changes.

Ideal system (imo):
In game you are presented with 3 lost relics or unforged weapons or something where you can directly target a cool item, very similar to Artifacts. You have to do a unique quest and experience some lore to acquire pieces or the location of something to get the backstory. Then... there would be a generic material of great power, that would drop with the frequency of Legion legendaries, or can be purchased with a currency like wakening essences. It's just 1 material, everyone gets it. Then you use this material to unlock the item you've decided to pursue.

Here is my example:
The new expansion involves a mysterious magic called Ether. Ether randomly coalesces into crystals. Ether Crystal is a legendary item that can drop from anything in the entire game, just like Legion Legendaries, and it can also be bought with 1000 Ether dust. The dust can be found from World Quests, chests, rares, etc sort of like Wakening Essences.

The other piece of this is, each class is given the heads up, like Artifacts, of a handful of relics that exist in the game. Each one has a different story and different unlock, but I would set it up in a way where the final piece you need is 1 Ether Crystal.

So...

Warriors, if they want the 2h Fire axe, need to find a bunch of materials, win over a legendary blacksmith to get their aid, and forge the base piece (like sulfuras). Then just need to apply 1 Ether Crystal to a gem slot in the Axe to empower it.

Rogues have to track down a secretive weapons dealer, do a few assassination missions for him, then he's willing to trade his very rare, shiny pair of vampiric daggers for 1 Ether Crystal.

Mages are after a staff and need to find out its location, collect some rare books and decipher a runic code. They find out it was hidden away in a pocket dimension by its last user, so after pin pointing the location they can set up a ritual. They just need 1 Ether Crystal as the last reagent to open up a portal to walk in and claim their staff.

These are off the top of my head, but the goal is to a) target a specific item b) have it be memorable with lore significance but c) make the entire game exciting with the random legendary crystal that can drop from anywhere while d) keeping in place the wakening essence style system as a supplementary deterministic track that makes sure everyone will get one eventually.

[kansor]

Why are legendaries necessary?

Let's do away with legendaries and instead make more 'ordinary' gear with interesting and unique powers. For that matter get rid of the trinket slot, and allow all items to have interesting trinket-like effects. WOW gear design is some of the most boring of all CRPGs.

[Boricha]

I think the Thundefury questline/crafting method with a big guild effort is the best for weapons, or any expansion where legendaries are actually rare and few. For armor, I like the end of Legion system--random drops, no cap or throttling on how fast you get them, and a currency vendor for bad luck protection.

[Kithelle]

I'd take almost anything over legiondaries...infinitesimal chance to drop and you were likely to get a crappy one that you may not even use

[KayRule]

No legendaries.

The design space for this item quality has constantly been a major source of disappointing class and system designs.

[Toby451]

Literally anything except RNG drops is fine with me.

[Usagi Senshi]

I voted for Legion as I didn't really mind the RNG drops personally (even though it took 9 legendaries before my BiS dropped), but I think more people would be okay with the system they added in 7.3.5 where you could buy them from a vendor.

Same, but if I had to choose an alternative, I'd go with the legendary cloak system from MoP. I liked that one enough to grind it on four separate characters.

[froschhure]

Legion, because nothing is worse than raidquestlines for legendaries... Although i liked bfa best HoA, azerite armor and corruptions were a lot of fun to play with.

[Toby451]

TBC > wotlk/vanilla/cata >>>> mop/wod >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> SL/Legion


Mage "Legendary" items "Legendary" again.
Yes, I believe it should make 1 class/spec OP for that very season/exp. Make it memorable for that very set of gameplay/effect/look.

I can't believe how many people voted for RNG slot/chore-machine which was SL and Legion. FOR REAL?!


I will remind you that Legion artifacts/"legendaries", BFA azerite/essences and SL conduits/"legendaries" are NOTHING MORE BUT pre-WOD glyphs. Which we used to change for 20-200g (which equals to 200-2.000g today) and almost in an instant. I miss pre-WOD glyph system sooooo much

Please for the love of god say HELLLL NOOOOOOOO to RNG drops. There is literally nothing fun about Guild A getting 4 complete wargliave sets due to RNG and Guild B only looting 7 offhands. Worst possible system ever. If they did RNG power spikes like that in 2022 for non classic content people would riot. They already cried about LFR Johnny getting a 2% boost from a titanforge trinket proc. Just wait until another guild does 10% more dps because legendary drop luck.

[Narzok]

if possible, none at all.
if i HAD to choose one, BfA cloak or WoD ring style. free for everyone, numbers get bigger for effort.
that way, everyone gets the effect, and your effort dictates how big the numbers are.

i think the ideal form of legendaries would be like the WoD ring in its final form:
- everything it can do is unlocked when you get it.
- the only grind involved happens naturally as you do your content.
(this would need to be changed to include rated PvP and m+ for the upgrades as opposed to pnly drop from current raid endboss)
- the story can be written around everyone having a lorewise powerful item that needs to be forged/enhanced
- by putting it on the same equipment slot across all classes, we avoid the pain of sets/patch gimmicks coliding with it. see dom sockets and tier sets right now.
- no one would feel like not having the legendary cripples their gameplay.

i agree that if you take the old legendaries as the base, "being really rare" can be an appeal to some people, and seeing the guy with Thunderfury sitting in town was special (to some)
but that was 15 years ago. does the same mentality still hold true? and has it enough value to outweight the problems?

[Pandragon]

Mop/WoD. One strong legendary you level up through the entire expansion. Not 800 different ones where you use just 1 for the entire expansion cause its so much stronger than the others. It's the same freaking thing, we dont need so much bloat of legendary powers that are useless.

[Rusken]

I'm a much bigger fan of the Vanilla/WotLK versions. Legendary items should be just that, Legendary. They shouldn't be something everyone has access to, even Cata legendaries felt too easy to get, there was a decent amount of time where it was very hard to be in SW/Org without the bloody Dragons being all over the place. MoP/WoD/BfA were okay, but felt like a chore for alts and was just another grind you had to do to be relevant.

Shadowmourne is probably the best iteration of Legendary acquisition, great quest line that required actual commitment and wasn't so wide spread that it didn't mean anything. I think I saw less people using Shadowmourne during WotLK than any other Legendary while it was current. You knew those who had it were badasses.

[Coolascancer]

I like a boss dropping its cool ass weapon or piece of armor and that being legendary- that will never happen. The mop system would be okay if they simply changed the name of the items youre collecting into something that is cooler lorewise. So SL without the base piece for ilvl is my vote. Multiple legendaries for each class is cool even if they aren't bis or even good but add gameplay in some form or fashion, think double heroic leap for warriors.

[UndedoKoleda]

I want the Legendary to actually feel legendary. The free-access legendaries in Legion and SL felt more like glorified epics. Let us either get one legendary and work on improving it throughout the expansion(MoP, WoD), or different quest chain legendary for different classes in different tiers(Cata, WotLK).

[ClassicPeon]

Legendary items should not have a gold cost associated with them. its already expensive enough to get consumables for raiding and dungeons.

This is why SL has the worst iteration of legendary items we have ever seen in the game. Having to spend 100k+ for each legendary for alts, offspecs and so on is absolutely moronic.

I'm also not too keen on the "everyone gets a legendary" questlines. I think legendaries should be tied mostly to raiding(not lfr).

I voted legion because i sort of liked that system - but i think those items should have been some passives tied to our artifact weapons instead of legendaries.

[Pendragon]

Vanilla-Cata. Anything else is lazy content.

[Gaidax]

Shadowlands one was the best so far, they just need to tweak the crafting part and expand slots allowed and it would easily be the best so far.

[Accendor]

Legion system, but before 7.3.5
That one completely ruined it
7.0 however was also not ok because of hidden 4-legendary-cap

[ClassicPeon]

Shadowlands one was the best so far, they just need to tweak the crafting part and expand slots allowed and it would easily be the best so far.

Not much legendary about everyone having several legendaries.

The system could work just fine as a passive/imbue/enchant like system with no gold cost.

But it doesnt really make sense for legendary items imo.