LotRO's Legendary Items - 6 Most Commonly Asked Questions

A warrior trains with his weapon so that it becomes an extension of
himself, as much a part of his being as his own arm. The more he trains
with it, the more intuitively it enhances his fighting style and adds to
his prowess. When a warrior survives long enough for his name to become
legendary, his weapon of choice becomes legendary also, spoken of in
frightened whispers among his enemies. This was certainly true of the
legendary weapons encountered in the Lord of the Rings books - Orcrist,
Glamdring, Narsil and other such fearsome tools were well-known among
the orcs and goblins, hated perhaps even more than the warriors who
wielded them. This is also true in the
Lord of the Rings Online
, where the Legendary Item
system allows players to forge their own legacies in steel.

The Legendary Item (LI) system is a complex beast and
can be bewildering for newer players, who often end up asking for advice
on regional and global chat channels. These are the questions that come
up most frequently.

Where can I get one?

LotRO Legendary Items - starter LM staff

style="float: right;" />First things first - head to Echad Dunnan in
Eregion at level 45 and do Volume II Book 1. This is the soonest you can
get Legendary Items - the book introduces you to the system and allows
you to use the Forge-masters and Relic-masters throughout Middle Earth
when you complete it. If you start this chain at level 45, the LIs you
get from it will be the best weapons you can have for quite a while. The
un-leveled, starter LIs you get from this chain tend to have excellent
legacies at relatively high tiers, and will be much better than anything
else you can get in that level range. The next leveled LIs you can get
start at level 51, so you'll likely be using your first LI for 6 levels
or so.

After you have completed the book, you can start stockpiling LIs by
killing level 50-plus humanoid mobs (orcs, goblins, trolls, hillmen,
Angmarim, etc.) in Eregion, Moria, Lothlorien, Mirkwood, Enedwaith,
Dunland and in places like Carn Dum. Mobs tend to drop LIs that match
their level, so a level 58 orc in Lothlorien will drop level 58 LIs.

Third Age items are fairly common, and it's easy to build up a huge
stockpile if you go around the higher-level areas completing slayer
deeds. You will likely find loads of LIs for other classes and few for
your own, so you can sell or give away the ones you don't need, or
deconstruct them for relics. Level 60, 65 and 75 Third Age LIs can also
be crafted rather inexpensively by Supreme and Westfold crafters with
high crafting guild standing (Artisan of the Guild for Level 60 &
65, Master of the Guild for Level 75). Low-level LIs can also be
purchased from the LI vendors throughout Middle-earth by exchanging
Rusted Dwarf Tools and Khuzdul Tablets. Higher-level ones can be
purchased from reputation vendors in Mirkwood and Enedwaith, or from
skirmish camps.

LotRO Legendary Items - Level 75 Second Age Crossbow

style="float: right;" />Second Age items are much rarer. Level 53 - 60
Second Age LIs can occasionally be looted from mobs in Moria and
Lothlorien as rare drops. These are usually worth hanging onto for a
while, and good ones can fetch a respectable price on the Auction House.
There is a gap between level 60 and level 65, and level 65 Second Age
LIs can only be crafted by Supreme crafters with Artisan of the Guild
standing, requiring a Symbol of Celebrimbor which can be purchased at
skirmish camps or occasionally found in chest loot in some instances.
There is another level gap between 65 and 75, and level 75 Second Age
LIs are crafted by Westfold crafters with Master of the Guild standing,
requiring a Worn Symbol of Celebrimbor which is a raid drop.

First Age items are even more rare. Currently, there are only level 59,
60 and 65 First Age Legendary Items in the game (level 75 First Age
items will come with Update 5), and can only be earned by raiding. Level
59 & 60 First Age items can be purchased from the LI vendors in
Moria, Lothlorien, Bree and __ by exchanging Bright Emblems of Nimrodel
which drop from the raid instances in Moria. Level 65 First Age items
are crafted by Supreme crafters with Artisan of the Guild standing, and
require a Symbol of the Elder King, which drops in Ost Dunhoth. Crafted
level 75 First Age items will require a Worn Symbol of the Elder King,
which will drop from the Tower of Orthanc raid in Isengard in Update 5.

Is this a good one?

LotRO Legendary Items - Captain's 2-handed axe with 6 major legacies

style="float: right;" />There are a few factors that determine whether
or not a particular Legendary Item is worth using. Ideally, it should
have legacies that match and enhance your play-style. For example, if
you are a solo Guardian who mostly uses Overpower, a belt with lots of
threat generation and shield-based legacies is probably not great, but
if you are a group-tank Guardian, those are precisely the legacies you
want. If you are a DPS-type class, the legacies on your LI should make
you hit harder or more often. If you're a healer, they should make your
healing skills more effective either by reducing the power cost or by
buffing the healing output.

The only way to know whether a specific LI has potential or not is to
get it to level 30 to add the remaining 3 legacies at reforges. If it
gets all Minor legacies, it's probably safe to trash it (unless you find
those particular legacies desirable). If it gets one or two Major
legacies during reforges, even if they are ones you don't particularly
care for, it's probably worth hanging on to. Legacies can always be
replaced later, and if you get more Majors than Minors, you have more
options for building your ideal item. Major legacy scrolls can only
replace Major legacies, but Minor legacy scrolls can replace either, so
if you have more Major legacies, they can be replaced with other,
more-desirable Majors from scrolls. But if you have a lot of Minor
legacies, you're stuck with other junk Minor legacies or stat scrolls.

On the other hand, if it identifies with all weak Major legacies at low
tiers, it's safe to trash it.

Should I upgrade?

Sometimes, what looks like an "upgrade" might not be worth it in the
long run. Consider the case of the Veteran Hunter.

LotRO Legendary Items - Level 65 2nd Age Crossbow

style="float: right; clear: both;" />

alt="LotRO Legendary Items - Level 65 1st Age Crossbow" style="float: right; clear: right;" />

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/207985" alt="LotRO Legendary Items - level 71 Third Age crossbow"

style="float: right; clear: both;" />Long, long ago, when new LIs
could be identified with 2-4 starting legacies (instead of the current
system, which always identifies a new LI with 3), this Veteran Hunter
got himself a level 65 Second Age crossbow. It took a lot of trial and
error - back in those days, you couldn't swap out bad legacies, and if,
after much toil and sweat, you got a 2nd Age item that ID'ed with bad
legacies, you were stuck with them.

At level 30, the Veteran Hunter's crossbow had 7 legacies, 4 of which
were Majors (Pool A back then). With much toil and sweat, the Veteran
Hunter slotted all top-tier relics, upgraded every legacy with Scrolls
of Empowerment and maxed many of them out, and increased the maximum
level to 70 with a Scroll of Delving. It took months of refinement, and
winning a couple of lotteries helped, but in the end, he had what he
felt was The Perfect Crossbow.

Warp ahead a few months. Veteran Hunter wins a Symbol of the Elder King
in Ost Dunhoth, and crafts himself a First Age crossbow. It identifies
with only 3 Major legacies, and gets only 1 more from a reforge - 4/6.
Comparing the two:

  • he loses one important Minor legacy if he switches - either Vitality
    from a stat scroll, or one of the Major legacies.
  • he gets more points to spend on upgrading legacies and can max more
    of them out, but he will still be missing one legacy, and the most
    important ones on the Second Age are already maxed
  • DPS on the First Age is only 4 or 5 points higher than on the Second
    Age, which isn't enough to compensate for the missing legacy.
  • it will take much more toil and sweat to earn enough Scrolls of
    Empowerment to upgrade all the legacies.

In the end, Veteran Hunter decides against making the switch. At best,
it would be a side-grade rather than an upgrade, and would take more
work than it was really worth. He continued using the Second Age.

However, the reverse is also sometimes true - what looks like a
"downgrade" might actually be an "upgrade." Again, consider the case of
the Veteran Hunter.

He has used his level 65 Second Age "perfect" crossbow through Dunland,
and is now level 72. He finds a level 71 Third Age crossbow on an orc in
Gravenwood, which identifies with three good legacies at decent tiers.
He decides to slot the new crossbow and see how it works out, leveling
it up to 51 with some stored runes. Comparing the two:

  • The DPS on the Third Age is significantly higher.
  • he loses one important legacy if he switches...
  • but the DPS on the Third Age is significantly higher.
  • the Third Age will get fewer points to spend on upgrading the
    legacies, and much toil and sweat will be needed to earn Scrolls of
    Greater Empowerment...
  • but the DPS on the Third Age is significantly higher.

This one is a much easier decision. Veteran Hunter makes the switch to
the Third Age, retiring his trusty and beloved Second Age from active
duty. Mobs fall much faster now, and he never looks back. The DPS
increase on the higher-level item far outweighs the lesser qualities.

How do I get Tier 7 relics?

In a word: grind. There are basically two ways to get Tier 7 relics,
and both ways involve a lot of repetitive toil. You can either run a lot
of 12-man level 75 skirmishes and instances and hope to win a roll (or
until you earn enough marks to buy some high-tier sealed relics from a
skirmish camp), or you can hoard a bunch of trash Third Age LIs and
decon them, combining relics until you get Tier 7s.

If you have loads of class-appropriate LIs in your vault, or loads of
Khuzdul Tablets and Rusted Dwarf Tools, you can level them up a bit
before you decon them. You don't need to get them all the way to level
30, or even as high as 10. You get a good selection of relics at level 2
or so - equip them, go out and kill a couple of on-level mobs, go back
to the Relic-master and decon, rinse and repeat as necessary. You earn
slightly more higher-tier relics from higher-level LIs, but on the
time-vs-payout scale, level 2 is more efficient.

When should I decon?

There are a couple of answers to this one, and it depends on why you
want to deconstruct your LI in the first place.

If you are looking to grind it into relics, don't waste a lot of time
leveling it up. You get plenty at level 2 or so. Yes, you can get
higher-tier relics from higher-level decons, but if you're doing "bulk
processing" for relics, don't worry about getting them past level 5 or
so. Getting a Legendary Item all the way to level 30 takes a while, and
the payout isn't much higher.

If you are looking to pull a legacy scroll from the item, get it to 31.
You get a few more relics at 31, plus a legacy scroll.

There's not really any point in getting a LI to max level if you're not
actively using it. For trash you just want to scrap for relics or
scrolls, 31 should be the highest it needs to be. Anything beyond that
is just taking up space and wasting time.

What's the best damage type?

LotRO Legendary Items - Lothlorien Beleriand scroll

style="float: right;" />For current endgame content, Beleriand is the
best damage type. Beleriand damage is strong against half-orcs, which
are plentiful in Isengard, and Ancient Evil, which are plentiful in
skirmishes. Westernesse is a close second - it may prove more valuable
in some skirmishes and instances where there are lots of undead. If you
decide on Westernesse, get one of the Numenorean Uruk-slayer scrolls
from Enedwaith - they do Westernesse damage, plus additional damage to
orc-kind. Beleriand + slayer scrolls can be purchased in Mirkwood at
Thangulhad, and the Beleriand + orc-slayer scroll from the Galadhrim rep
vendor in Caras Galadhon is still one of the best damage scrolls in the
game. You can get a basic Beleriand scroll from the repeatable Midnight
Raid instance in Echad Dunnan in Eregion.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Lord of the Rings Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

Comments