wow Legendary Upgrades Locked Behind Illidan Questline?

[Starym 3,775]

You should get to gathering Lingering Soul fragments for the Illidan questline asap, as it may be mandatory if you want to upgrade your existing legendaries to 940.

 

There's been a lot of buzz recently about the legendary item upgrades that you'll be able to collect from Nighthold, which bump your "old" aka current legendaries to the new 940 item level (which will be the same item level that new legendaries will drop at).  Apparently, to get Touch of a Titan (Essence of Aman'Thul drops from Nighhold bosses), which rewards you with Distilled Titan Essence, you'll need to have finished Illidan's current questline, which may not sound that bad until you remember the 80 Lingering Soul Fragments you need to get, as well as the 10 fragments per week limit.

It seems likely Blizzard will change the requirement when 7.1.5 goes live, but there are several ways for them to do so: remove the 10 Soul Fragments per week cap (or at least remove it once your main has finished that part, so you don't have to wait for weeks on alts), remove that part of the Illidan quest from the requirement or, simplest and best of all, remove the quest's connection to Distilled Titan Essence completely.

But, as Blizzard works in mysterious ways, if you really want to get started on that Essence of Aman'Thul farming as soon as Nighthold opens, you might want to get Soul Prism of the Illidari (and the followup that has you killing Helya) done before the 17th of January.

Now, even if this Illidan quest issue is fixed and you can immediately proceed to Touch of a Titan, this upgrade system will still add a lot of problems to the already not-so-great legendary system, as it will take a while to gather up all those essences to get the upgrade, each Titan Essence only upgrades one legendary, and a lot of people still don't have their BiS legendary. The whole system hasn't been explained well, or at all (we don't really know the exact drop rates of the essences, this new quest requirement was a bit of a surprise as well) and it's causing a lot of distress to the community, so let's hope Blizzard come out and clarify all the details about it soon.

[Starym 3,775]

As you can imagine, a lot of top guilds are currently tweeting Blizzard about this issue, as they have a lot of alts they need to get ready for Nighthold, and this could put a severe wrench into their plans.

[mathiaslindberg 3]

I don't like that they're ruining Legion's reputation by rewarding people for mindless grinding and severely punishing people for not playing one class, one spec and one character. Legendaries, Artifact Power, Artifact Knowledge, Artifact questline and now the Illidan questline. They've done major overhauls to most if not all classes, and they've made the impact of class greater than ever before, yet they punish people severely for changing class, or playing multiple class, or even just specs.

I think we can all agree the Legendary system should've been scrapped a long time ago, but AP, AK and the Illidan questline (plus more) should've been account-wide from the beginning. There's a lot of content to do without having to repeat the same mindless grinding over and over again and falling behind everyone else to a point where you can't compete.

[Stan 5,018]

2 hours ago, mathiaslindberg said:

I don't like that they're ruining Legion's reputation by rewarding people for mindless grinding and severely punishing people for not playing one class, one spec and one character. Legendaries, Artifact Power, Artifact Knowledge, Artifact questline and now the Illidan questline. They've done major overhauls to most if not all classes, and they've made the impact of class greater than ever before, yet they punish people severely for changing class, or playing multiple class, or even just specs.

I think we can all agree the Legendary system should've been scrapped a long time ago, but AP, AK and the Illidan questline (plus more) should've been account-wide from the beginning. There's a lot of content to do without having to repeat the same mindless grinding over and over again and falling behind everyone else to a point where you can't compete.

The Legendary system has flaws and Blizzard learned from it. They are trying to fix this issue in 7.1.5 to even them out and focus more on utility. AP & AK is being dealt with appropriately - we've got catch-up options available in 7.1.5 and I think this will be addressed throughout the course of the expansion in a similar fashion. As Starym noted in the article, I am curious how they will deal with upgrades, I mean you grind a lot to upgrade the Legendary you want, but then it gets nerfed and you need another upgrade so that's even more grinding. I agree that the quest line should be account-wide and once you unlock one Distilled Titan Essence, you should be able to purchase another one for gold to be able to upgrade all existing Legendary items.

I don't agree with it that existing Legendary items will need to be upgraded whereas new will drop at the upgraded item level. Having acquired many Legendaries, It's too punishing for players who keep playing the game and more rewarding for newcomers / alts / whatever.

Besides that the quest line wasn't tagged as Legendary to let players know ahead. Maybe there will be no gate at all. We'll find out after holidays.

[Corveroth 3]

That's... annoying. I don't like the questline to start with because the redemption story and its reliance on fate is asinine. The weekly limit was the final straw that stopped me from participating at all. I'm not willing to grind with strangers weekly, and I can't build a guild group consistently. These are the same reasons I'm effectively locked out of Mythic+ : there are too many off-weeks where I won't or can't do dungeons.

In light of this, I simply won't upgrade my legendaries.

 

Edited December 27, 2016 by Corveroth

[RainMaker 3]

Oh for crying out loud -.- I'm at 24 Lingering Grind Essences, how am I supposed to get there in time?

[breck 29]

 I love wow, been playing since the beginning but the direction they are going now with all the gating is a step backwards. It reminds me of the huge chart i used to have to consult to get ready to raid at level 70. All the quests i had to do on mains and alts for ssc and the like. Professions gated behind mythics, item appearances you can do the requirements for but not recieve because you dont have the base item unlocked, nighthold with the only true raid set armor with the bonus so far making the rest of the raids feel like filler, all the little things that they are trying to do to make it take longer like no flying and roots in road and having to ride around half a mountain just to get to quest mobs a few yards away and slightly up hill.

 All of those things combined is making it harder and harder for me to log in each day. You should absolutely have to work for your rewards i just dont like the feel of the artificial time barrier and the feel this expansion is taking on. I want to get things done in an efficient manner, i want them to be and feel rewarding. What i dont want is for them to just be handed to me because i just waited much like the feel of legendaries as it stands now. I have 5 legendaries across my main and alts that came from just doing emissary quests. First one i got i wasnt excited, i was relieved, and the rest did not even feel that good, just "great it was about time i got another one" feeling.

[IVaccount 12]

I really can't stand how it's 10 a week. It should increase the cap by ten for every week it's been live, so if someone is behind they can catch up.

[VictorVakaras 80]

It's like it's 2006 with all the locking out, time walls, and various other old resurrected bs.  I've given up on trying to be competitive in PvE and just PvP.  At least it's somewhat easier to be competitive - glaring class imbalance notwithstanding. 

[hDszzT 103]

21 hours ago, mathiaslindberg said:

I don't like that they're ruining Legion's reputation by rewarding people for mindless grinding and severely punishing people for not playing one class, one spec and one character. Legendaries, Artifact Power, Artifact Knowledge, Artifact questline and now the Illidan questline. They've done major overhauls to most if not all classes, and they've made the impact of class greater than ever before, yet they punish people severely for changing class, or playing multiple class, or even just specs.

I think we can all agree the Legendary system should've been scrapped a long time ago, but AP, AK and the Illidan questline (plus more) should've been account-wide from the beginning. There's a lot of content to do without having to repeat the same mindless grinding over and over again and falling behind everyone else to a point where you can't compete.

And then they stubbornly refuse to make WQ rewards adhere to loot spec because "WE WANT TO ENCOURAGE YOU TO TRY YOUR OTHER SPECS GUYS"

[Valks 2,373]

3 minutes ago, Ammako said:

And then they stubbornly refuse to make WQ rewards adhere to loot spec because "WE WANT TO ENCOURAGE YOU TO TRY YOUR OTHER SPECS GUYS"

Already playing 2 of the 3 specs, I just don't like DPSing. Why make me do it? :(

[hDszzT 103]

20 minutes ago, Blainie said:

Already playing 2 of the 3 specs, I just don't like DPSing. Why make me do it? :(

I knowwww

I don't -want- to play SV or BM on this Hunter, world quests with iron and arcane relics are only annoyances, they won't make me change my mind.

It's even worse on classes that have specs that use different primary stats... yay Intellect trinkets all the time from every WQ as a Monk when you know you don't want to play MW.

Edited December 28, 2016 by Ammako

[Rudy199 8]

Yeah baby, can't wait to upgrade my Sephuz's secret to 940 =]]

[Dantalian 20]

I guess its right that it is locked behind the progress. It makes sense. You play you class you have this progression, you have alts fine, its you problem to progress them as well. This equals different people and so on. They lowered CD on Artifact knowledge and this is fine, But this, even why it is a problem especially for those who run PvE races. They already have multiple alts iwth those progressions and so on, so  I hope that, they will leave this gating stay.

[Starym 3,775]

2 hours ago, Dantalian said:

I guess its right that it is locked behind the progress. It makes sense. You play you class you have this progression, you have alts fine, its you problem to progress them as well. This equals different people and so on. They lowered CD on Artifact knowledge and this is fine, But this, even why it is a problem especially for those who run PvE races. They already have multiple alts iwth those progressions and so on, so  I hope that, they will leave this gating stay.

It really is just about the 10 soul fragments per week. Basically you can't really catch up at all, especially since a lot of people ignored the whole quest line on alts as it was completely unimportant for gearing and now it could suddenly be VERY important and they have no way of actually "putting in the work" cos they have to wait 8 weeks from today, no matter how much effort they put in.

[Plergoth 277]

They've put in catch up mechanics for the past couple of expansions' mandatory legendaies, but this expansion has me balk at alting, and I cannot imagine making anymore than one or two raid ready alts as a result.

Not to mention that this questline is some of the cheesiest writing of the entire expansion, which has actually been done fairly decently. Illidan is the new lord and saviour, since when? Before or after he became magically cured of his fel and defeat induced insanity?  He is prophesied to be some sort of destined only hope and destroyer of the Legion, and we look at his earlier life of him being a complete douche -- what are we then with our artifacts? Cheerleaders? We've gotta bring his soul back from the Nether! What, we can do this? Why aren't we doing this for Varian and Vol'jin? The former one shot a freakin' Fel Reaver, and Vol'jin simply deserved better - were they not worth the effort or something? What notable feats of leadership and accomplishment are we going through (almost literal) hell to bring Illidan back for to crown him our only hope? His ineptitude? Dying or being mortally wounded and forced to retreat repeatedly? His lack of basic empathy and compassion, and a self centred interest rooted in a huge ego problem? Does he have access to some sort of super Demon Hunter powers the ones we have don't? Do his glaives brew fresh coffee? 

Do you know who the best option out of him and his brother is? Neither. It's Tyrande. 

Think about it. 

Malfurion has goofed up almost as many times as his brother has in recent years, all the while Tyrande does her duties as not only a faction leader of the Alliance, but also the roles of a warrior general and a Priestess of the Moon - AN ACTUAL GODLIKE ENTITY ON OUR SIDE ALREADY - who has the experience of thousands of years behind her, makes sharp, quick decisions for the situation if it demands it, and has the diplomatic and strategical awareness to come to the aid of a rival if success depends on it, or purely because it is the right thing to do. 

Sure, let's bring Illidan back, because we need his skill, knowledge and whatever else he has when he's not being a colossal failure, but this whole sacrifice foreshadowing is building up to be one lame Matrix style ending where you bring someone back from the dead, only to have them cop it in the next movie that leaves the impact of bringing them back hollow and meaningless. Imagine if Tyrande called on her gift from Elune for the last time at the 'ending' of Warcraft and undid the evil of the Legion at a huge cost of something applicable, since at this point, I am open to any suggestions that are more believable than the current 'Illidan is the new Green Jesus', including the curse of Undeath. Boom, Forsaken redemption, the Stormrage brothers hug it out, the Jedi ghosts smile from the shadows of the Endor moon's forests, roll credits.  

 

[JestersCap 2]

OK...hol' up.  Please correct me if I'm wrong but these Lingering Soul Fragments can only be obtained in dungeons with a higher percentage chance of them dropping in Mythics?  Here's my problem.  I hate dungeons.  Just a personal thing but I don't like 5 man content.  I do however enjoy raiding and am an active member of my team.  I currently have the two BiS legendaries for my DH (ring and bracers) so now what am I suppose to do?  Run content (over and over) that I REALLY don't enjoy because Blizz is introducing new legendaries at a higher ilvl and gating the upgrades of existing behind dungeon content?  If I'm correct, so much for being able to do what you enjoy in-game...

[Starym 3,775]

11 hours ago, JestersCap said:

OK...hol' up.  Please correct me if I'm wrong but these Lingering Soul Fragments can only be obtained in dungeons with a higher percentage chance of them dropping in Mythics?  Here's my problem.  I hate dungeons.  Just a personal thing but I don't like 5 man content.  I do however enjoy raiding and am an active member of my team.  I currently have the two BiS legendaries for my DH (ring and bracers) so now what am I suppose to do?  Run content (over and over) that I REALLY don't enjoy because Blizz is introducing new legendaries at a higher ilvl and gating the upgrades of existing behind dungeon content?  If I'm correct, so much for being able to do what you enjoy in-game...

Basically yea. Blizzard still haven't confirmed or denied that this will be required for the upgrades, but if it is and they at least remove the 10 per week cap you could easily get it all done in one day of mythic+. You wouldn't even need to go to high M+ either, so it would only be a small burst of doing what you don't like.

Personally I think they might just remove this quest requirement entirely, especially after seeing the reactions to it.

[mushu 0]

I have to agree. Legion started out so great, best rollout of any expac, then the legendary system brought it all back down. I have 2 legendaries only, both on my main (a druid). I play resto and have not even started gearing the boomkin. First drop was good for my resto but not BiS, second drop was for my boomkin spec even though I have my thing set to drop loot only for resto. I equipped it because I can wear 2 legendaries finally and it was slightly better than the epic I had even though the special function only works for boomkin spec.   /sad

Thanks a lot blizz! (not...)

[hDszzT 103]

Got my second legendary earlier at 4 days 20 hours /played at 110 ;p

Shadow Hunter's Voodoo Mask, can't even equip it, still have two weeks and a half before I unlock that. Not worth equipping over Zevrim's Hunger but it's definitely going to be nice once I can equip it. I mean heck, 70% of max health heal every 30 seconds? That's pretty good, plus the stats on it are amazing for me (and it brings me to 860 ilv so yay!)

I'm not personally too bothered by the gating, this is something I'll end up doing at my own pace. I don't think there's really anything wrong with requiring 5-man content to upgrade gear you may need for raiding since I believe 5-man content to be a stepping stone towards raiding, but for people who are well into raiding it's kinda shitty to have it time-gated like this with no prior warning, and no catch-up mechanics. I hope they add some way for you to ketchup if you're behind on the Lingering Soul Fragments.

Though I guess removing the 10 per week limit would work well enough, or perhaps removing the Illidan quest line requirement altogether.

[Darkjester79 47]

On ‎12‎/‎28‎/‎2016 at 10:00 AM, VictorVakaras said:

It's like it's 2006 with all the locking out, time walls, and various other old resurrected bs.  I've given up on trying to be competitive in PvE and just PvP.  At least it's somewhat easier to be competitive - glaring class imbalance notwithstanding. 

Agreed.  This is starting to get really annoying.  I don't mind a bit of grinding because after all I don't mind the feeling that I earned something but this, this is starting to feel ultra grinding.  If feel like on one hand Blizzard is telling me to just play one spec and one character but on the other hand they want me to play many characters.  Make up your mind Blizzard!

[Valks 2,373]

On 12/31/2016 at 4:18 PM, Darkjester79 said:

Agreed.  This is starting to get really annoying.  

Was one of people's biggest gripes with Sunwell walling - you'd work hard, push to get that first kill of a boss, then have to wait anyway and people would eventually catch up, so your early kill meant nothing.

[Nelliel 0]

We're not entirely sure how this rumor got started, but it's false - the 7.1.5 Legendary upgrades are not connected to the Illidan chain.

 

This is from the wow dev twitter

[Valks 2,373]

On 1/11/2017 at 2:12 PM, Nelliel said:

This is from the wow dev twitter

Yeah, I believe there was a second news post that went over the confirmation. Thanks for posting it here regardless! :)