How to upgrade your Legendaries to rank 5 and 6 in patch 9.1

We’ve spent a lot of Shadowlands dealing with the Runecarver and getting ourselves legendary items. Prior to patch 9.1, these items could go up to rank 4 for an ilevel 235 legendary. But in Chains of Domination, we’ll be able to improve our legendary items to ranks 5 and 6 using a new currency from the higher levels of the revamped Torghast.

And now that patch 9.1 is here, you’ll probably want to know: What is this currency? How do I get it? And how can I upgrade my legendaries? Let’s talk about everything you need to upgrade your legendaries to rank 5 and 6 in patch 9.1.

Soul Cinders are the new Legendary currency

Patch 9.1 adds a new resource, Soul Cinders, which we’ll get by clearing levels 9 through 12 of Torghast. This resource will be used in upgrading our legendary items to rank 5 — ilevel 249 — and rank 6 — ilevel 262. Soul Cinders will not be replacing Soul Ash — you’ll still get Soul Ash for progressing through Torghast, but you’ll also get Soul Cinders for clearing level past level 8, as each level from 9 to 12 will reward Soul Cinders.

I’m not sure how I feel about having to keep track of two currencies in one Torghast run, but that’s how it’s currently set up to work.

Crafting and upgrading Legendaries will also require both Soul Ash and Soul Cinders. Legendaries through rank 4 will continue to cost Soul Ash, while Legendaries at rank 5 or 6 will also cost Soul Cinders. Here are the total currency costs you’ll need to craft or upgrade Legendaries in patch 9.1:

• Rank 1 (ilevel 190): 1,250 Soul Ash
• Rank 2 (ilevel 210): 2,000 Soul Ash
• Rank 3 (ilevel 225): 3,200 Soul Ash
• Rank 4 (ilevel 235): 5,150 Soul Ash
• Rank 5 (ilevel 249): 5,150 Soul Ash and 1,100 Soul Cinders
• Rank 6 (ilevel 262) 5,150 Soul Ash and 1,650 Soul Cinders

As with previous Legendaries, if you’re upgrading from one rank to another, you can subtract what you’ve already paid — so if you’re upgrading from rank 4 to rank 5, it will just cost 1,100 Soul Cinders.

When speaking to Preach gaming, Game Director Ion Hazzikostas mentioned that this was so that players didn’t feel the need to save their Soul Ash to upgrade to rank 5 or 6 instead of making a new Legendary. This makes it slightly more feasible that players will be able to switch to a different Legendary since they can focus their Soul Ash on ranks 1 through 4 of a new one, instead of on rank 5 or 6 of an existing one, which will be entirely upgraded via Soul Cinders. It will cost you 1,100 Soul Cinders to craft a rank 5 legendary, and an additional 550 to go from rank 5 to rank 6.

Rank 5 and 6 base items will be hard to obtain (for now)

The base items you need to upgrade your Legendaries to these new ranks won’t be available immediately — it will take crafters some time to be able to make them, similar to the process for crafting rank 1 through 4 Legendaries. These base items are made by crafters in much the same way as previous base items, with the addition of a Vestige of Origins.

Getting the Vestige will take time: it’s a crafted item that Jewelcrafters, Blacksmiths, Leatherworkers, and Tailors can learn from Duchess Mynx of the Death’s Advance at Honored reputation for 2,000 Stygia. Making one requires a variety of materials, depending on which profession you use to craft it, but all require 40 Korthite Crystals per Vestige, a material that you can get from quests, rare mobs, and lootable chests throughout Korthia itself. Since the Vestige of Origins adds 2 ranks to a base item, using it on a rank 3 base will create a rank 5 one for an ilevel 249 legendary, and using it on a rank 4 base item will grant you the coveted rank 6 base at ilevel 262.

However, you don’t necessarily need to do any of this, because rank 5 and 6 bases will be tradeable on the Auction House once they are made. However, this means you’ll be buying them for likely a lot of gold, as the amount of time it takes to get Honored with the Death’s Advance and farm up the substantial material costs including those 40 Korthite crystals means there will be a lot of demand for those bases. The prices aren’t likely to be reasonable for a while, so if you have a crafting profession, you may want to get to work on learning this recipe yourself.

Not everything is changing about Legendaries

Though we’re getting new ranks, the core Legendary system isn’t changing a lot. We aren’t getting anything like legendary item reforging or the ability to wear two Legendaries at once — though that is something Blizzard may consider for the future, near the end of the expansion.

The new Shards of Domination system may actually be driving the biggest change to Legendaries. It’s caused a lot of worry amongst raiders, because the upcoming Sanctum of Domination raid has special gear that can be socketed with Shards that provide powerful effects. Players can only equip five items for these Shards, but if they’re wearing a Legendary in a slot they could put a Shard in, they may need to craft a new Legendary for a different, non-Shard slot so they can equip as many Shards as possible. To help with this, Blizzard is adding gem slots to Legendaries in the helm, neck, bracer, belt, and ring slots, so when you craft or upgrade a Legendary for these slots they’ll automatically have a gem socket. (Note that sockets weren’t showing up for upgraded Legendaries on the PTR, but will be there when the patch goes live.)

That’s a pretty nice change, but I have to say, I really think we need to get to double up on Legendaries in a future patch.

Originally published 5/6/2021, updated 8/4/2021