Shadowlands Patch 9.1 – How to Craft and Upgrade Legendaries

Legendaries can be crafted and upgraded up to two higher ranks in Shadowlands 9.1, but the new Shards of Domination system puts a bit of a damper on things. Crafting and upgrading Legendaries in Shadowlands hasn’t changed all that much, but you’ll want to know about the wrinkles in this update before you press forward with your Legendaries. I mean, unless you like throwing money into the wind. If so, you do you.

Newly crafted Shadowlands Legendaries have Prismatic Sockets, and can reach rank 5 and 6.

Crafting a Legendary up to rank 4 works the exact same way in Patch 9.1 as it did prior. You’ll need a Legendary power, two stat missives, and the appropriate base item from a crafter. You’ll then visit the Runecarver within Torghast and pay him the requisite amount of Soul Ash (which is much easier to farm now, since Torghast is repeatable).

Here’s the rub: per Blizzard all, “newly created Helm, Neck, Bracer, Belt and Ring Runecarving armor pieces will now always be created with a socket.” Bear in mind this this socket is a standard Prismatic socket, and not one of the new Domination sockets introduced in Shadowlands Patch 9.1. To make this all the more confusing, all newly crafted base items for these slots will have a socket.

You cannot upgrade an existing Legendary with a socketed base item to gain a socket. You can use the socketed base item to fuel the upgrade, but its socket won’t transfer over to the Legendary. If you want a socket on your Legendary you need to use a Season 1 or Season 2 socket item to add a socket to your Legendary (so long as it’s one of the listed equipment types). That said, any brand new Legendaries crafted in those equipment slots will have a Prismatic socket.

Per the updated Patch Notes, you can indeed upgrade these slots with a socketed base item to add a socket to the Legendary.

Finally, you can upgrade your Shadowlands Legendaries to ranks 5 and 6, but you’ll need a new material found within the Maw and Korthia to craft the base item. Korthite Crystals can be found from killing Rare creatures, by completing Daily Quests and Covenant Assaults, and sometimes within treasures across the Maw and Korthia.

These do not drop frequently, and you’ll need 40 of them to craft a Vestige of Origins via a Jewelcrafter, Blacksmith, Leatherworker, or Tailor. Additionally, that crafter will have to buy “Tome of Origins” from the Death’s Advance quartermaster at Honored reputation for 2000 Stygia to even craft the Vestige. This item is then used as an optional reagent while crafting your Legendary base item, boosting the rank by 2.

So, if you craft a rank 3 Legendary in Shadowlands and mix in a Vestige of Origins you’ll get a rank 5 base item. To get a rank 6 Legendary you’d simply use the Vestige as an optional reagent in a rank 4 craft. This means crafters won’t have to rank up their recipes another two ranks, but the low drop-rate of Korthite Crystals will ensure these higher ranked Legendaries remain expensive to put together. There’s also a new Souls Cinders currency used to finish the crafting or upgrading of Legendaries at rank 5 or 6, and it is earned from Torghast layers 9 through 12 (though it can be found as a quest reward in the weekly Korthian quest).

Below is the total cost for each Legendary rank you can craft or upgrade to in Shadowlands Patch 9.1. Again, this is the total cost at each stage, so you can substract anything you’ve already paid if jumping up a single rank or two (say from Rank 4 to Rank 5: that jump will only cost 1950 Soul Ash).

• Rank 1 (iLvL 190)
  • 1250 Soul Ash
• Rank 2 (iLvL 210)
  • 2000 Soul Ash
• Rank 3 (iLvL 225)
  • 3200 Soul Ash
• Rank 4 (iLvL 235)
  • 5150 Soul Ash
• Rank 5 (iLvL 249)
  • 1100 Soul Cinders
• Rank 6 (iLvL 262)
  • 1650 Soul Cinders

Keep in mind the new Shards of Domination system may conflict with your Legendary. This new raid armor and gem system provides minor set bonuses players will ultimately take advantage of, but those sockets only appear on specific armor slots. If there’s a silver-lining to all of this: if you plan to recraft a Legendary to rank 5 or rank 6 it will take you the same time as it would to upgrade an existing Legendary. If it’s looking like you may have to recraft a Legendary check out this comprehensive guide from WoWHead.com, where the experts there can better assist you with the more advanced Shadowlands details.

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Patch 9.1, Chains of Domination launches June 29th (NA) and June 30th (EU).