With Shadowlands season 1 now in full swing, most players should have already begun thinking about legendary powers. Legendaries in Shadowlands offer more options in the way of borrowed power, similar to Legion. These powers are looted from a variety of content and each one enhances your playstyle differently. 

The Runecarver

The Runecarver is a character with a mysterious backstory introduced through the Torghast storyline. Players will receive a quest to release him from his shackles and in return, he will help them craft powerful armor. If you are a crafter, completing his brief intro quests unlocks the legendary recipes at your profession trainer. His chambers are accessible through a portal just to the right inside of Torghast. The more of his memories you return to him, the more backstory you get out of it. His identity is currently a mystery but there is speculation he may be the missing primus from Maldraxxus.

Memories and Where to Loot Them

Legendaries drop as loot from various activities in the form of memories. These are orange quality drops but they are powerless on their own. They must then be taken to the Runecarver inside Torghast where they will be unlocked for repeated use. Each memory has 2-3 gear slots it can be crafted into and will require a crafted blank to do so. Many of these memories may be recognized from their legion equivalents but there are several new ones for each class. Loot specialization is not a factor in receiving memories for your class. 

Memories can drop from all different types of content ranging from dungeons to Torghast and reputations. Be wary though, without completing enough of the Runecarvers story quests, you will be ineligible for several of the drops including those inside Torghast.

Dungeons:

Memories can drop from various dungeon bosses on any difficulty however higher difficulties yield higher drop rates. 

Torghast:

Each wing of Torghast has a guaranteed legendary drop off the final boss. Completing each wing at a layer 3 or higher is the only requirement. In addition, there is also a generic memory that drops from the final boss the first time you complete a layer 6. This memory is only useful in Torghast and hardly worth the gold to craft but it is account wide!

Raid and World Bosses:

Many raid bosses also have memories on their loot tables. In Castle Nathria, most of these will come from the final three bosses with a few dropping on earlier bosses throughout. These drops are guaranteed when the boss is defeated regardless of difficulty. World boss memories are also guaranteed drops for your class regardless of specialization.

Vendors: 

Each of the four factions in Shadowlands sell a legendary memory at their respective quartermasters after reaching revered. These cost 1100 gold each and are account wide unlocks.

Ve’nari sells a memory as well and requires ambivalent reputation along with 4986 stygia.

The honor vendor in Oribos sells two legendaries per class. One is class specific and the other is generic for everyone (It functions exactly like Sephuz’s Secret from legion and is under a similar name). Each one of these is available for 1500 honor.

For all the alt lovers out there, you will be pleased to note that these memories are account wide unlocks. The class specific ones are usable on all characters of that class on your account without unlocking them a second time. Generic memories obtained from vendors are fully account wide regardless of class.

Crafting Legendaries

Crafting professions finally play a big role in end game content once again in Shadowlands. In addition to being able to craft blue quality starter gear for their respective armor types, they have access to blank pieces that can upgrade into legendaries. Even jewelcrafters can play a part in crafting blank neck and ring pieces. Each of these crafted recipes currently has 4 ranks and must be leveled up individually. This is done by crafting 15 of each slot per rank up, which, thanks to vendor mats, is a little expensive. 

Another necessary evil for crafting legendaries is finding an enchanter. They can make the enchanted heavy callous hides, enchanted elethium bars, and enchanted lightless silks used in every recipe.

You will also need to find a friendly neighborhood scribe to make you the two missives required by the runecarver for each legendary! These missives allow you to hand pick the secondary stats you want on your crafted legendary.

Leatherworking (leather and mail), Blacksmithing (plate), and Tailoring (cloth) can craft the following slots in their respective armor type. 

• Helm
• Shoulder
• Chest
• Wrist
• Gloves
• Waist
• Legs
• Feet

Tailoring can also craft a cloak in addition to the other slots above and Jewelcrafting is responsible for rings and necks.

If you’re not a crafter yourself, don’t worry as each one of these blanks can be purchased on the auction house!

Soul Ash Pricing

Once you have your blank legendary, your desired memory, and your missives, you can pay a visit to the Runecarver. He will then craft the piece for you for a varying amount of soul ash depending on the rank. Each rank determines the item level of the legendary, however, they get more and more expensive per rank. Starting off at a rank 1 will craft an item level 190 legendary for the price of 1250 soul ash. Thankfully, these are fully upgradeable later on so starting with a rank 1 will not hinder you in any way.

Pricing for various ranks are as follows:

• Rank 1 (190ilvl): 1250 Soul ash
• Rank 2 (210ilvl): 2000 Soul ash
• Rank 3 (225ilvl): 3200 Soul ash
• Rank 4 (235ilvl): 5150 Soul ash

Upgrading Legendaries

Upgrading legendaries in shadowlands is a unique feature to keep them in line with player progression. There are currently 4 ranks for each piece, capping out at item level 235. The requirements to upgrade a legendary are to have a blank crafted piece at the appropriate rank and copious amounts of soul ash. Thankfully, you do not need additional missives when upgrading if you have already crafted a previous rank.

If you are upgrading your piece weekly, you only have to pay the difference in soul ash. For example, a rank 3 legendary will cost 3200 soul ash flat out but if you are upgrading from a rank 2, you need only pay the difference of 1200 soul ash. 

If you are just now looking to craft your first legendary and have been doing Torghast since week one, it may be cheaper to purchase a rank 2 or 3 blank off the auction house rather than starting with a rank 1. Doing this will save you the gold of having to purchase any previous rank blanks.