The Legacy System, Explained. 16 Points per Character, 65 to Earn at Launch.

The Legacy system is World of Warcraft: Forever's answer to the alt problem: a set of account-level challenges that pay out points, and a set of trees you spend them in. Blizzard's September 13 design panel put the first hard numbers on it. At launch you can earn up to 65 Legacy Points across your account, and any one character can spend 16.

That ratio is the design. You can earn roughly four times what a single character can use, so the choice of where to put points is per character, and it is meant to be.

Earned account-wide, spent per character

This is the part most early coverage got wrong, including the first write-ups on September 12. Points are earned across the account. They are spent individually, on each character, and the perk lives on that character. Blizzard's own example on stage: "your Warrior doesn't need to waste a point in removing reagent costs." The perks are not account-wide. The pool is.

Points come from challenges such as leveling specific classes or professions. Blizzard says there are many of them and "they are pretty natural, so you won't be doing something silly to earn points." The stated purpose is to reward the whole game, not the last level of it.

Three trees

Named on stage as adventurer, professions, and resourcefulness. Two perks have Blizzard's own names attached: Well Rested, which raises rested experience, and Bountiful Harvest, which raises the materials you get from gathering professions. A third, removing the reagent cost of group buffs, was described on stage as a possibility. Blizzard said the existing trees will grow and entirely new trees will be added over time.

The 16-point cap is "to start," framed as keeping things fair. Expect it to move.

A second track for cosmetics

Total points earned, separate from points spent, open up pets, mounts, transmog, and toys. Spending a point does not cost you progress on that track. This is the same rewards track Wowhead described from the show floor on September 12, now with Blizzard behind it.

Hardcore is separate

Collections and Legacy points carry across Normal, PvP and Roleplaying rulesets. Hardcore keeps its own, and Blizzard says Hardcore has its own Legacy challenges and perks, "similar to a rogue-like, where each death will have some bonuses account-wide."

What is still second-hand

Wowhead's September 12 article, written from the BlizzCon gameplay demo and not from a Blizzard post, listed six challenge categories (exploring, leveling classes, raising tradeskills, earning PvP ranks, maxing reputations, clearing dungeons and raids), 14 perks split 5, 4 and 5 across the three trees, and the line that "none of the bonuses appear combat related in any way." Every one of those is a demo-build detail. Useful, plausible, and not yet Blizzard's word. If someone calls Legacy power creep, the no-combat line is the answer, but wait for Blizzard to say it before you put it on a slide.