Your first Legacy Point usually arrives when your first character hits level 25, and that point opens the whole Legacy window. Points are shared across your account, but each character spends its own, capped at 16. Early on you will only have one or two to place, so the first five decide which tree opens up for that character. A good split also saves WoW Forever Gold on flights, repairs and vendor runs later.

How the Legacy System Unlocks

The system turns on the moment you earn any Legacy Point. Three things can grant that first point:

• Reaching level 25 on your first character
• Reaching 150 skill in a non-gathering primary profession
• Exploring the entire world map on one character

Once it is open, click the shield icon on the menu bar or press Y.

Where Legacy Points Come From

There are 65 Legacy Challenges, and each one completed is worth one point. Read the table by the category your character is already working on.

Category	Points	What completes a challenge
Classes	27	Reach level 25, 45 and 60 with each class
Tradeskills	18	Reach 150, 225 and 300 skill in each non-gathering primary profession
Player vs. Player	12	PvP ranks 3, 7, 10, 13 and 14, Exalted with each Battleground reputation, and the week 4, 7 and 10 quests in the Field of Honor Season’s Journey
Dungeons	3	Defeat the final boss in every level 15 to 25, 26 to 45 and 46 to 60 dungeon
Raids	3	Defeat Onyxia, all 8 Barrow Deeps bosses and all 13 Hyjal Summit bosses
Adventure	2	Explore the whole world map on one character, and finish the Lord Valthalak dungeon set questline

A single character can earn up to 29 points without any alts: 3 from leveling, 6 from two crafting professions, 12 from PvP, 2 from Adventure and 6 from dungeons and raids. Gathering professions earn nothing here. If your main runs Mining and Herbalism, its tradeskill points will come from a crafting alt instead.

All three raids open on December 9. Until then, 62 of the 65 points are available.

The Spending Rules Behind Every Build

• One point per rank. Every rank of every perk costs one Legacy Point.
• 16 points per character. That is the most one character can spend at launch, even if the account has earned more.
• Columns open by tree spend. In each tree, the left column is open from the start. The middle column opens after 5 points spent in that tree, and the right column after 10.
• One right-column perk per character. A right-column perk costs at least 11 points in its tree. Two of them would need 22, so a 16-point character can only take one.
• Each character spends separately. Your alts draw on the same account total and can build a different tree.
• Respec at a class trainer. Spent points can be reset there if a character changes role.

The column gates are why your first five points matter most. Five points spread across three trees open nothing new. Five points in one tree open its whole middle column.

Your First Five Points by Character Type

Pick the row that matches what this character will spend most of its time doing. 

Character	First 5 points	What those 5 open	Right-column goal
Leveling main or new alt	Well Rested 5/5 (Adventure)	Talented, Field Guide, Field Medicine, High Alert	Frequent Flier
Gatherer or crafter	Bountiful Harvest 5/5 (Professions)	Bartering, Master Chef, Luremaster	Dedicated Study
PvP or max-level character	Reinforce 5/5 (Resourcefulness)	For Great Honor, Diplomat	Reagent Economy

Leveling Characters: Well Rested Into Talented

Well Rested makes rested experience build 20% faster and raises the rested cap by 20% at rank 5. Each rank adds 4% to both. Filling it also clears the 5-point gate in front of Talented.

Talented has five ranks. Each rank moves your first talent point one level earlier, so at rank 5 talent points start at level 5 instead of 10. The 51-point cap stays the same. You reach those 51 points at level 55 instead of 60, which matters most on an alt you are leveling from scratch.

That puts this character at 10 points in Adventure, which opens Frequent Flier. Its single rank cuts every flight path cost by 50% and makes the flight mount 20% faster. With 11 points placed, five remain for Thrill of Adventure, which restores 5% of your maximum health and mana over 10 seconds after each killing blow on a non-trivial enemy. Thrill does not work in dungeons, raids or battlegrounds.

1. Well Rested 5/5 (5 points)

2. Talented 5/5 (10 points)

3. Frequent Flier 1/1 (11 points)

4. Thrill of Adventure 5/5 (16 points)

Crafters and Gatherers: Bountiful Harvest Into Bartering

Bountiful Harvest makes you up to 100% more likely to find Scarce materials from Mining, Herbalism and Skinning, at 20% per rank. Working Overtime is the other left-column choice. It raises your chance of a skill-up by up to 20% in every primary, secondary and class tradeskill, Lockpicking included.

Five Professions points open the middle column, which holds these four perks:

• Bartering (2 ranks): vendor item prices drop by 5%, then 10%.
• Performance Bonus (3 ranks): a 5%, 10% or 15% chance to get 100% more Merchant’s Favor when you turn in a crate to the Azeroth Commerce Authority or Durotar Supply and Logistics.
• Master Chef (5 ranks): cooking recipes gain up to a 50% chance to make an extra result.
• Luremaster (2 ranks): with a lure active, you get up to a 50% chance to catch an extra fish

Bartering only discounts items you buy from vendors. Training and repairs cost the same with it as without it. That holds whether you earn your gold from crate turn-ins and the Auction House or buy WoW Forever Gold, so trainer fees will not shrink from this perk.

Ten points in Professions open Dedicated Study. It is a daily cooldown that adds 1 skill to your lowest primary or secondary tradeskill. Once both primary tradeskills and all three secondary tradeskills sit at 300, it gives 2 to 4 random Elemental Essences instead.

One full 16-point layout for this character:

1. Bountiful Harvest 5/5 (5 points)

2. Working Overtime 5/5 (10 points)

3. Bartering 2/2 and Performance Bonus 3/3 (15 points)

4. Dedicated Study 1/1 (16 points)

PvP and Max-Level Characters: Reinforce Into For Great Honor

Reinforce cuts durability loss on death by 8% per rank, up to 40% at rank 5. Because Bartering never touches repair bills, Reinforce is the Legacy perk that lowers what dying costs you. The other two left-column perks fit around it:

• The Quick and the Dead (2 ranks): up to 10% faster movement while dead, and helpful spells and abilities cost no resources for up to 2 minutes after you are resurrected or until you enter combat.
• Gourmand (3 ranks): food buffs last up to 100% longer.

Five points in Resourcefulness open For Great Honor, which adds up to 10% more Honor at 2% per rank. Diplomat sits in the same column with up to 10% more reputation. Permanence makes your long-duration party and raid buffs last up to 100% longer, along with the benefits from resting at a camp.

Ten points in the tree open Reagent Economy. With it, your class abilities stop needing reagents bought from vendors. Warlock Soul Shards are not a vendor reagent, so Warlocks still need them.

Early Point Mistakes

• Splitting the first five points. Spreading them across trees leaves every middle column locked.
• Planning two right-column perks. Dedicated Study, Frequent Flier and Reagent Economy each need 11 points in their own tree, and a character can spend 16.
• Counting on Bartering for repairs. It only lowers vendor item prices.
• Expecting points from gathering. Only non-gathering primary professions have tradeskill challenges.
• Waiting on raid points before December 9. Onyxia, Barrow Deeps and Hyjal Summit all open that day.

Legacy Rewards and Hardcore

Your account total also fills a reward track. These are the four cosmetics on it:

• Replica Ironforge Air Rifle (toy)
• Spectral Bear Cub (pet)
• Spectral Bear Tabard
• Reins of the Spectral Bear (mount)

Hardcore keeps its Legacy progress apart. Challenges from other rulesets do not carry into Hardcore, but a challenge earned in Hardcore counts on every other ruleset. PvP challenges cannot be completed there, so Hardcore gets 12 challenges of its own.

Choose this character’s tree before it reaches level 25. Put the next four points into that same tree so its middle column opens as soon as you earn them.