Legacy

How it works

Blizzard's Legacy article (23 September) calls it horizontal progression: rewards for exploring everything the game offers rather than raw power. Points belong to your Battle.net account and are shared by all your non-Hardcore characters, but each character spends them in its own trees. Alts are encouraged, not required: Blizzard says one character can earn up to 29 points on its own.

Besides reaching level 25, you can unlock the system by reaching 150 in a non-gathering primary profession or by exploring the whole world map. You reset your perks at a class trainer; that cost 10 gold in the beta, and the final price isn't known (Method, Wowhead).

The challenges

The dungeon brackets in the client (ForeverDB, Warcraft Tavern):

• Novice Spelunker: Ragefire Chasm or Hall of Thanes, Ruins of Lordaeron, Wailing Caverns, the Deadmines, Shadowfang Keep and Excavation Site: Wetlands.
• Experienced Spelunker: City of Dalaran, Blackfathom Deeps, Gnomeregan, the Drowned City, all four Scarlet Monastery wings, Razorfen Kraul and Krol'dok Stronghold.
• Master Spelunker: Razorfen Downs, Uldaman, Zul'Farrak, Maraudon, Alcaz Prison, the Temple of Atal'Hakkar, Blackrock Depths, Blackmaw Hold, both Blackrock Spires, Scholomance, both sides of Stratholme, the three Dire Maul wings and the Shaper's Terrace.

The Stockade isn't on any of the lists. ForeverDB counts 81 challenges rather than 65 because the client's Adventure tab also holds zone-exploration achievements; Warcraft Tavern says those give no points, only the full Explore Azeroth one does. The client also has a "Played in the WoW: Forever Beta" challenge. During the beta Blizzard granted every tester 16 points so the trees could be tested (forum post); nothing says whether any of that carries into the live game.

The perk trees

Ranks and numbers below are from the client via ForeverDB. "5 in tree" means you must first spend five points in that tree.

The sources don't all agree. Wowhead lists Performance Bonus and Luremaster at five ranks each. Icy Veins says Master Chef and Luremaster need ten points in the tree. Blizzard's article says Reagent Economy also makes tier 1 camp features free to craft, which the client tooltip doesn't mention. Warcraft Tavern reports that the beta hid two perks in each tree, so the launch trees may hold more.

The reward track

Rewards depend on total points earned, not spent. Claim them from Innkeeper Wiley in Ratchet (Wowhead gives 62.0, 39.4).

Planning your first 16

Method suggests this as the quickest account-wide route to 16: one character to 60 (3 points), two alts of other classes to 25 (2), PvP rank 3 (1), four crafting professions to 225 (8) and the first two dungeon brackets (2). For a single character: level 60 (3), PvP rank 7 (2), two professions to 300 (6), all three dungeon brackets (3) and two more from raids or the Adventure challenges. Method expects 55 points to take several hundred hours, since it needs almost every challenge.

Hardcore and the future

Hardcore arrives after launch with 12 challenges of its own in place of the PvP ones; anything earned there also counts on other rulesets (Blizzard). Blizzard plans new challenges with each content update, more perks, new trees and a higher spending cap over time. Calculators: ForeverDB, Wowhead and Method.