How the Legacy system works
Legacy is account-wide progression that sits next to your character’s own power. It has three parts:
- Legacy challenges. Goals such as reaching level 25 on a new class or 300 skill in a profession. Each one gives your account one Legacy point, and there are 65 at launch. See the full list of Legacy challenges.
- Legacy perks. Every character spends the account’s points in three trees: Professions, Adventure and Resourcefulness. Each character can spend 16 points, and each character picks its own perks, so a gathering alt and a raiding main can use the same points differently.
- Legacy rewards. The total points on your account also unlock cosmetic rewards. Blizzard announced four for launch: the Replica Ironforge Air Rifle toy, the Spectral Bear Cub pet, the Spectral Bear Tabard and the Reins of the Spectral Bear mount. They give no power.
The panel opens with your first Legacy point (shield icon in the menu bar, default key Y).
Unlock rules in the Legacy trees
These rules come straight from the game files, and the calculator above follows them:
- One point per rank. Every rank of every perk costs one Legacy point.
- Column gates. The first column of each tree is open from the start. The second column needs 5 points in the tree, the third column needs 10.
- Linked perks. Some perks need at least one rank in the perk next to them: Talented needs Well Rested, Frequent Flier needs Field Guide, Dedicated Study needs Bartering, Performance Bonus needs Bountiful Harvest, Permanence needs Gourmand and Reagent Economy needs The Quick and the Dead.
- Future slots. Each tree has two locked slots that the game marks “to be added in a future update”. Blizzard plans new perks with new content.
With 16 points and a 10-point gate, you can reach the third column in only one tree. That is the main decision for each character: which tree gets the 10 points.
Which Legacy perks to take first
For leveling characters
Well Rested and Talented are the core. Well Rested adds up to 20% to rested XP gain and to the rested cap, which matters most on alts you play in short sessions. Talented at rank 5 gives your first talent point at level 5 instead of 10: five extra talent points for most of the leveling, which is a big jump in power early on. Thrill of Adventure returns up to 5% of health and mana over 10 seconds after each kill, so you rest less between pulls. None of it works in dungeons, raids or battlegrounds.
Frequent Flier halves flight path costs and speeds up the flight by 20%, but it sits in the third column, so it costs 10 points in Adventure plus a rank of Field Guide.
For professions and gold
Working Overtime (up to +20% skill-up chance) and Bountiful Harvest (up to twice as many scarce materials) fill the first column. Bountiful Harvest leads to Performance Bonus, a chance at double Merchant’s Favor when you turn in supply crates to the Azeroth Commerce Authority or Durotar Supply and Logistics. Dedicated Study is an active ability with a 23-hour cooldown: it raises your lowest profession by one point, and once all your professions are at 300 it gives 2–4 random Elemental Essences instead. Master Chef and Luremaster are worth it on a cooking and fishing character.
For a level 60 main
The Resourcefulness tree pays off every day. Gourmand doubles the duration of food buffs at rank 3, Permanence doubles your party and raid buffs and camp rest bonuses at rank 2, and Reinforce cuts durability loss on death by up to 40%. Reagent Economy removes vendor reagents from your class spells (and makes tier 1 camp features free to build), which saves gold for every class with reagent spells. Diplomat (up to +10% reputation) and For Great Honor (up to +10% honor) are good for reputation grinds and PvP.
For PvP
For Great Honor, Reinforce and The Quick and the Dead fit together: faster ranking, cheaper deaths and free resources for a minute after a resurrection. High Alert improves stealth detection in the open world, but not in battlegrounds.
You can load all of these as ready-made builds above and change them to fit your character.
How to earn Legacy points fastest
Leveling new classes is the biggest source: 27 points for reaching 25, 45 and 60 with all nine classes, and the level 25 milestone of a new class comes quickly. Crafting professions add 18 more (150, 225 and 300 in each of the six). The rest comes from clearing every dungeon in a level band (three challenges), the raids, PvP ranks and reputations, exploring the world map and the Lord Valthalak questline. The Legacy challenges list shows all 65 with a tracker.
Hardcore
Hardcore is not live yet. When it opens, challenges completed on normal realms will not count there, but a challenge completed in Hardcore will count on every realm. Blizzard plans 12 Hardcore-only challenges to replace the PvP ones.
Perk values, ranks, unlock rules and challenges come from the WoW Forever game client (build 1.60.1.70790) with its server hotfixes. Blizzard can still change them. · Guide updated 11 November 2026