The Ideal legendary system was in Firelands, and it can be improved, with a caveat.

[Talon8669]

You practically had to do it with a guild and the more skilled your guild was: the faster you got it. Not only that but you couldn't just weasel your way into a guild and then get it in a few days. The 1st to get it was always the most important character to get it and in big-enough guilds that was never the carry or the new guy.
That had the gigantic advantage of combining both skill and community; it was no longer an RNG shitfest; it wasn't enough to pay a guild and carry you if you wanted to be the 1st to get it.

And it can be easily improved, by not restricting it only to a few specs. That can even be done by stretching it across an expansion to multiple raids.

The caveat? People need to play actually an MMO. It's not welfare; it's not carrying; it's not RNG.

preferred MoP personally

[Eosia]

Shadowlands Legendary system was fine. It just needs to be adjusted to more in-line with MoP/WoD/BfA legendary quests.

Just needs to be a single legendary per class/spec, don't gate it behind time-limited content, make it guaranteed drop, put it on a more universal slot (Neck, Back, Wrist, Boots, Rings, maybe even a trinket), and have it be something earned through a system like Torghast/LFD/LFR.

That way you don't have to rely on RNG to get the "memory" or whatever to kick it off, the process to build it can be done either with a guild, a set group, or random PUGs which covers the vast majority of players, And there's no need to worry about missing out on the ability to make one because your alts and such were not able to do content that's already been deprecated (e.g. the Castlevania legendary drops) necessitating a vendor or other "catch-up" system. There's not guild drama to be had because everything should be individual, universal drops.

If they want to keep the crafter aspect of it in, then make the "leveling" portion much more easier. Like craft 5 or any Level 1 items and you can now craft all Level 2 items. Not this craft 10 of every single item BS that we had in the beginning. It's only 3 now, but still individual item.

[Caprias]

The genre is moving away from guilds and big raids for a reason, nobody got time for that anymore.

[Deferionus]

You practically had to do it with a guild and the more skilled your guild was: the faster you got it. Not only that but you couldn't just weasel your way into a guild and then get it in a few days. The 1st to get it was always the most important character to get it and in big-enough guilds that was never the carry or the new guy.
That had the gigantic advantage of combining both skill and community; it was no longer an RNG shitfest; it wasn't enough to pay a guild and carry you if you wanted to be the 1st to get it.

And it can be easily improved, by not restricting it only to a few specs. That can even be done by stretching it across an expansion to multiple raids.

The caveat? People need to play actually an MMO. It's not welfare; it's not carrying; it's not RNG.

Sure, it's great if you raid. However, in an MMO, you should account for play styles different than your own. What of PvP players? Those who prefer to do open world content? Raiding is only a portion of the game, and your suggestion locks legendaries away from other players, and even to the detriment of a PvP player who would then have a disadvantage in PvP to someone who raids.

[ro9ue]

The best legendary system is in Guild Wars 2.

Genuinely curious what's the TLDR from anyone who has played GW2 enough to get a legendary there?

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Just a mega rare drop. No time gate, no gold investment, nothing for people to sit around and complain about. Just its so rare that no one thinks to hard about it and when it does drop its just a bit better than some of the of tier weapons but just looks cool as fuck. Have one for each role in each tier. Again so rare people actually expect to never see it. The few that do got something cool but its not so powerful that suddenly that person is so desired by others that they can dip and fuck a guild.

[Hynch]

Pandaria was my favorite legendary system, followed by the revamped Legion crafting.

[loras]

Just a mega rare drop. No time gate, no gold investment, nothing for people to sit around and complain about. Just its so rare that no one thinks to hard about it and when it does drop its just a bit better than some of the of tier weapons but just looks cool as fuck. Have one for each role in each tier. Again so rare people actually expect to never see it. The few that do got something cool but its not so powerful that suddenly that person is so desired by others that they can dip and fuck a guild.

This sounds pretty nice.
Maybe add some text, maybe some environmental interactions (i.e. random npc going "Omg is that the Assbringer!? I thought it was a legend!"). Could also make it so that statwise it's equal to the rest of the weapons from its tier, it just has a distinctive use or effect with limited application.

[Goatfish]

So you want to flex on people and brag about your epeen-validating legendary while forcing adults with jobs and kids to commit to dozens of hours a week of raiding so you can have a simulated social experience and never leave the house.

Might I reccomend WoW Classic?

Wow... hyperbolic much? If you ever spent "dozens of hours a week" in firelands then you were horrifically bad at raiding or you were doing it on multiple alts. Firelands wasn't even that big a raid.

My guild at the time had 3 people doing more dps than the GM, who'd all been in the guild for a couple years. Who got it first? That's right, the GM.
Who got it second? That's right, one of the officers.
Who got it third? The person doing the most dps

It was an awful system because you could only work on one person's staff at a time, and guilds will want to reward, not necessarily the best players, but the most "loyal."
And also, you know, it forced the "raid or die" mentality.

Sometimes the best players are the most loyal. The player who does the most damage in my current guild only shows up whenever he feels up to it, rage quits if things ever go poorly, and talks shit about how we're never going to kill a boss during prog after only 5 pulls. The choice of who to give the legendary to was made based off how it would best benefit the guild in the future and reward current players for past and present service.

This is the kind of shit I see from new workers who complain that even though they work SOOO MUCH HARDER than the guy who's been with the company for 20 years that it's SOOO UNFAIR that he gets paid more or gets some special privileges. I used to think it was unfair when I was a dumb kid too, so I get it. Now I get to be old and wise enough to recognize it's fucking stupid to think that.

I lean towards that legendaries should actually be legendary. I don't think it should be something the game is balanced around, or that everyone should have them. If I were to rework them, they would probably be more like special transmog skins with special effects but very limited to no extra power. Blizzard instead keeps going the Diablo route and it makes legendary items just feel expected and commonplace while simultaneously shaping gameplay around them.

[Triceron]

I think Legendaries should be detached from raids in general. Just make really challenging solo content for it, while having it accessible to group methods of farming or accomplishing certain tasks. Otherwise there's no reason to have to lock progress to raids to get what is really a Story-based new weapon.

Once most people have the raid on farm, they're gonna end up selling spots for people to get freebie Legendary access anyways. I'd rather it be a meaningful solo reward instead of being able to be gamed through boosts.

It should be Mage Tower+ level of accomplishment. Epic quest style reward, like the Sandstone Drake.

[shade3891]

Just a mega rare drop. No time gate, no gold investment, nothing for people to sit around and complain about. Just its so rare that no one thinks to hard about it and when it does drop its just a bit better than some of the of tier weapons but just looks cool as fuck. Have one for each role in each tier. Again so rare people actually expect to never see it. The few that do got something cool but its not so powerful that suddenly that person is so desired by others that they can dip and fuck a guild.

This 100% the way it should be!

[Exkrementor]

I once had a Wotlk Guild where the guild leader, a disc priest, got the first Val'anyr. Funny how coincidences work.

The best legendary System was the end of Legion. You can just buy what you need. No loot Drama like in Classic, TBC, Wotlk, Cata and no stupid grinding where you just get excluded from raids if you didnt have the Item like MoP and WoD.

[Aydinx2]

nope,the old system was pure garbage,i would be here all day writing up the reasons,a few others have mentioned

no,a better legendery system is one similary difficult to craft,but be personal,and far more customizable,so its not significantly better for one spec like the staff was

You want the Azerite necklace back? Why?

[Tenlo]

I'd argue MoP/WoD was the best. You leveled it up throughout the whole xpac so when it finally became orange you felt like you accomplished something

[deenman]

You want the Azerite necklace back? Why?

the neck wasnt hard to get,but the issue with the neck was the content you had to do for it that you didnt want to do to be good in the content you wanted to do

[Unholyground]

Genuinely curious what's the TLDR from anyone who has played GW2 enough to get a legendary there?

Takes a good amount of time to get the materials to craft them including world content, and map completions. They don't raise the level cap each expasion so legendaries are a permanent fixture in progression.

[Coldkil]

Yep, and they could change it but hubris gets the best of them.

I think it would be too much of a revolution and probably hurt the game. But working on more horizontal progression paired wit what we have would be really good.

[A Chozo]

Genuinely curious what's the TLDR from anyone who has played GW2 enough to get a legendary there?

Aside from what was already explained, there's lots of timegating and most of the grind can be skipped by buying gold from their cash shop and then buying the mats on the AH.

It is not a good acquisition model for World of Warcraft, but the sheer cosmetic variety of legendary weapons there is neat.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Don't get too attached to the color of the text.
The "legendary" system we have today is not related to the one from the old days. Those items are essentially gone because they cause major drama and social disparities.
It was not a good system then, and its an even worse system now.

The "ideal" system is what we had in Sanctum of Domination. A legendary that was mostly for bragging rights with very little power attached.
Raiding has gotten too hard and too many people are hopelessly min-maxing every thing they can to allow the previous legendary system to ever exist again.

[Dejiko]

Nah the ideal legendary system was for it to just drop off a boss, and for someone to receive it.
No crafting needed, no overpriced reagents, no cumbersome and unappealing grind for dust or cinders or what have you.