One of the new features in World of Warcraft: Forever is the Legacy system, an account-wide horizontal progression mechanic. You complete challenges, earn Legacy points and buy perks and rewards with them. Every benefit can be unlocked on a single character, so alts are not required.
You get access with your first Legacy point, which for most players is level 25 on their first character. Alternatively, skill 150 in a non-gathering primary profession or exploring the whole world map is enough. Open the system via the Legacy icon in the menu or the hotkey Y.
This text summarizes the Wowhead report and was checked against the Blizzard original: https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/en-us/news/24307383/get-to-know-the-world-of-warcraft-forever-legacy-system
Legacy challenges
The challenges work like achievements but focus on character progression. There are 65 of them in six categories, and each completed challenge earns one Legacy point. Points are Battle.net account-wide and available to all non-Hardcore characters.
- Classes: 27 points (level 25, 45 and 60 for each class)
- Tradeskills: 18 points (skill 150, 225 and 300 for each non-gathering primary profession)
- PvP: 12 points (ranks, Exalted with the Battleground factions, weekly PvP season quests)
- Adventure: 2 points (explore the whole world map, Lord Valthalak dungeon set questline)
- Dungeons: 3 points (final bosses of all level 15-25, 26-45 and 46-60 dungeons)
- Raids: 3 points (Onyxia, Hyjal Summit, Barrow Deeps)
Legacy points and perks
Legacy points are account-wide, but they are spent per character: each character buys advantages for itself in three trees called Professions, Adventure and Resourcefulness. Characters are completely independent of each other, so you can specialize them differently.
There is a cap at launch: you can spend at most 16 points on each character. This keeps newcomers within reach, and 16 is achievable on a single character, which can earn up to 29 points (3 from classes, 6 from tradeskills, 12 from PvP, 2 from Adventure, 6 from dungeons and raids).
Example perks
| Category | Perk | Effect |
|---|---|---|
Professions | Working Overtime | Raises the chance of skill gains in all tradeskills, including class-specific ones like Lockpicking. |
Professions | Master Chef | Gives a chance for cooking recipes to produce extra results. |
Professions | Luremaster | Gives a chance to fish up extra fish. |
Adventure | Well Rested | Raises the rested experience cap and lets it accumulate faster. |
Adventure | Talented | Unlocks talent points up to 5 levels earlier. |
Resourcefulness | Diplomat | Increases reputation gains. |
Resourcefulness | For Great Honor | Increases Honor gained from PvP. |
Resourcefulness | Reinforce | Reduces durability damage from death. |
Legacy rewards
Besides perks, Legacy points accumulate across your whole account and unlock toys and cosmetics. Four rewards are available at launch, with more planned for each content update:
- Replica Ironforge Air Rifle: a toy for shootouts with other players that stuns hit players and keeps score.
- Spectral Bear Cub: an exclusive pet inspired by the Dwarven hunter and his companion from the Forever cinematic.
- Spectral Bear Tabard: an exclusive tabard.
- Reins of the Spectral Bear: an exclusive spectral mount.
Hardcore is not available at launch. When it arrives: challenges completed in other rulesets do not show up in Hardcore, but challenges earned in Hardcore count in all rulesets. Since PvP challenges cannot be done in Hardcore, there will be 12 Hardcore-specific challenges instead. Blizzard also plans new challenges and perks with every content update, first in the existing trees and later in new ones.
Original report: Wowhead