Should Legendary Progress Be Account Wide?

With all the talk of 6.2 coming up and the additions and changes that are coming along with it we have seen little to no information on if there will be a catch up system for the legendary quest line like there was in mists, with the exception of the notice that garrison follower missions will be giving a few more stones and runes than they currently do when you get the quest.

Just like in mists the first time through the legendary quest line works out kind of smoothly if you are an active player.  Even the time sinks in mists, like the 6 weeks of collecting valor, were no big deal when it was current.  But once it is no longer current that 6 weeks of collecting valor was nothing but an arbitrary gate for no reason other than slowing you down without a real reason for doing so.  They lowered it to three later, but that was still an unnecessary gate for no reason other than to slow you down.

As I mentioned, if you were doing it while current as it came out, things like that are fine, it fits the times, but once something moves to the past it becomes an annoyance to anyone trying to catch up.  It is waiting for the sake of waiting be it six weeks or three, it is still nothing more than wasted time.

For the people that came along late to the legendary line they were forced to run old content to get drops and it was not until SoO came out that they decided to offer those previous drops in more than just their original locations.  This was a step in the right direction but still not perfect.  I still believe it would have been better if anything could drop from anywhere, but the past is the past, and we now wonder if blizzard has learned anything.

Currently there seems to be no indication that you will be able to get stones in BRF instead of just HM or runes in HM instead of just BRF and of course we do not know if they will be dropping either of them in the new raid, hellfire citadel.

The only note we have heard is that once you have completed a step of the legendary quest line the collection process will be sped up on your alts.  I have multiple alts doing it and personally have seen absolutely zero proof of that, but your mileage might vary, drops are still luck based and my luck is most definitely not representative of the entire player base.  All I am saying is to me I get the same amount of stones or runes I always did and see no marked increase in drops.

Reading on the forums I see many people changing mains and going back to get the legendary caught up on another character, or wanting to do it on an alt but not really in the mood to run HM when they are already BRF geared and raiding BRF, so they have no desire to move backwards to catch up. (this is why I think all pieces should drop from all raids, would fix everything if you ask me, no one like to raid old content for pieces they need for current content)

It got me wondering, just as a question, but what would people think of the idea that once you unlocked the legendary ring, at any stage, that the ring would be available for purchase on any of the characters on your account?

If you think about it, in theory at least, all the process of collecting pieces is nothing more than a time sink.  There is no inherent fun to the quest line, and whatever fun there might have been was lived through with the main character you did it on and doing it a second time is nothing more than a boring grind, an annoying grind, or a complete waste of time, depending on the type of player you are.  So maybe once you did it, it should count for all your characters?  What do you think?

My personal opinion is that would be pushing it a little too far.  What would I suggest as a catch up?  I am glad you asked, here goes.

First off, remove the apexis crystal requirements completely.

It served its purpose for those of us that where there on launch day and wanted to get it done as soon as possible.  I remember, fondly even, grinding my little heart out collecting them and getting my ring ASAP.  I know of others that waited the 5 days for 5 dailies before they got the crystals they needed.

In truth waiting 5 days was not so long of a wait at all.  In the grand scheme of things 5 days is nothing.  But that is why it should be removed.  It is nothing more than another arbitrary time sink for no real reason, equivalent to the valor collecting in last expansions quest line. 

Once that stage of the ring collection was outdated the need to have such an arbitrary collection process was also outdated and should have been removed.  Cutting the collection process shorter by 5 days will not kill blizzard, and for those people that do think it is a grind (not sure how any would but to each their own) removing it is a nice gesture for catching up.

Second, have all items drop from all raids.  Meaning that you can collect stones and runes in HM, BRF and HC.  Yes, have all bosses in all raids drop all the older items.  This would be a real boon to people catching up.

Third, increase the drop rate.  Not saying to give people everything in one week, but they can increase the drop rate of stones to be a minimum of 3 or 4 and the drop rate of runes to be a minimum of 15 instead of 9.  Just a little boost to speed it along some.

All in all it is still just nothing more than waste of time, in the minds of many, to redo what you have already done, but I am a believer that while things should be quicker on alts, I don't always believe they should be completely skipped.  So I think the three steps I mentioned would make the catch up for the legendary ring more than acceptable.

Yet it seems, from reading around, that many people in the community would be more than happy with just having to complete it on one character and then all your characters have access to it.  Is that an option you would embrace? 

Personally I would not say no to it if they offered it, but I do think even an alt should have to do something to get it beside just spending some gold to buy it.  What do you think?