Mines of Moria Guide to
Legendary Items

By Darkgolem



Legendary items are probably one of the most exciting parts of the
LotRO (Lord of the Rings Online) Mines of Moria experience.  These
items can dramatically change the effectiveness of your character, and
are available at high end, level 51 and higher content.  However,
one thing legendary items are not, is simple to explain or
understand.  A guide to how legendary items work can save a lot of
time and effort.

The Basics on How Legendary Items Work

To use legendary items, you must complete the Volume 2, Book 1 to gain
access to the title which allows you to work with legendary
items.  However, the vendors who work with legendary items, and
the treasure drops associated with legendary items are found before you
gain access to legendary items, throughout all of the content that
comes with the Mines of Moria expansion.



1.  Identify the Item



When you get a legendary item, you first have to identify it.  It
is obvious it is a legendary item, this just allows you to work with
the item.  They are identified by Forge Masters.  There are
three qualities of legendary items, rare,
incomparable and style="font-weight: bold;">epic.  Rare items have a
maximum of level 30, incomparable of 40 and epic level 50. href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album100&id=Forge_Master&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Identified Item"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album100/Forge_Master.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px; height: 139px;" align="right">



2. Sell It, Keep It or Deconstruct It



Once you have identified a legendary item, you can use it, break
it down to it’s component parts (called deconstructing), or sell
it.  Note that since all legendary items will bind to you once
equipped, you cannot sell or trade legendary items once you have
equipped them.



3. Legendary Items Gain Experience
Levels



If you should use a legendary item, they get experience, either
from bonuses you get from quests or items, or from being equipped when
you gain experience from combat.  A legendary item gains levels
from experience, and each level grants legacy points to the item. 
Legendary items provide buffs to skills of the wielder, and gain
different buffs as the items increase in level.  Legacy points can
be used to increase the bonus or buff a item provides, or increase
damage the weapon does.  href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album100&id=Warmaster&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Warmaster"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album100/Warmaster.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px; height: 324px;" align="left">
At 10th, 20th and 30th level, a weapon is re-forged, which removes all
legacy points and relics (if desired), allowing you to re-allocate
these points.



4. Customize Your Legendary Items
style="font-weight: bold;">


There are three relic slots in legendary items.  These slots are
similar to “pocket” spots a character has, in that they provide bonuses
to the wielder when the slots are filled.   There are three
types of slots; settings, style="font-weight: bold;">runes and style="font-weight: bold;">gems.  You can only place a
relic into the appropriate slot, and you can only remove old relics and
replace them with new relics when a weapon is re-forged.



You can change the title of a weapon, changing type of damage a weapon
does.  You can change a weapon to westernesse or dwarf damage, or
similar.  You also can choose to make a weapon better against a
foe.  To change the title of a weapon, you earn a scroll which
allows you to do this to your legendary weapon by completing
appropriate quests.  These quests are found at different parts of
the Mines of Moria expansion, are repeatable, and are usually soloable.



The end result of your advancing a legendary item is an item which
provides 5 buffs (legacies) to the wielder, these buffs having been
improved using legacy points as you choose, plus threesets of bonuses
from relics.

Getting Started

To get a legendary item, first and foremost, go to the entrance of
Moria at Echad Dunann and complete Volume 1, Book 1.  You will get
a legendary item from that, and the basic mechanics of leveling a
legendary item will be used during book 1 as part of the quests
there.  You also will gain a title scroll for your weapon, as part
of defeating a monster in that book.

href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album100&id=Legendary_Item_Panel&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Legendary Item Panel"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album100/Legendary_Item_Panel.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px; height: 171px;" align="right">

When you are playing, you will find legendary items and heritage
runes.  Hold onto to heritage runes, they are packets of
experience for your legendary items.  When you get a legendary
item, go to a forge master (found in Mirobel, and most of the
settlements in Moria) and identify it.  If you wish to use the
item (if you can use it, since legendary items are class specific) then
equip it, and if not, then bring the item to a relic master and
deconstruct the item into relics.   Relics take no space, so
you can have a large number of them for later use.



You can have up to 6 legendary items.  It would be best to decide
what you want for those slots, and then each time you get a legendary
item, see if the item replaces a legendary item you already have as a
function.  

It is a very good idea to reserve your 6th “test” slot for a legendary
weapon you wish to level, and not nescessarily keep.  If you have
a low level legendary weapon, you will not know all the buffs it will
provide when it gains higher levels.  You won’t know how good it
is compared to the higher level weapons you already have.  As
such, hold on to it until your test slot is empty, then equip the new
weapon into this slot.  That way, you never will need to remove a
tested weapon to find out how good a new weapon.



href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album100&id=Barter_NPC&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Barter Items"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album100/Barter_NPC.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px; height: 143px;" align="left">Another
item you will run into are barter items.  There are two types, and
they can be bartered with special vendors in Moria.  You can go to
a vendor for your class, and choose what type of item you get, allowing
you to guarantee you get what you want, rather than finding a legendary
weapon as a random drop.  Barter items are found occasionally from
drops after defeating an opponent.



Finally, when you use relics make sure not to slot the first relics you
get into your legendary item.  You can only remove relics from a
legendary item when you reforge them, so you want to avoid using relics
unless they are appropriate for a item you have.

Identifying a Weapon

When you get a legendary weapon, and identify it, you will see various
buffs and bonuses (legacies) displayed for the weapon.  
These will do things such as reduce the cost of a skill, increase the
damage from a weapon, or make a skill recharge faster.  Whether
these are good or bad will depend upon your play style and the intent
you have for this weapon.  If I want a weapon for soloing, and my
character class has trouble with damage per second, then I might look
for a weapon that does more damage.  If I want a weapon for use in
a fellowship, and need to save power for other skills, I might have a
weapon that reduces my power costs.



The biggest problem you will find here is that the legendary weapons
you already have are much better than a new legendary weapon you find,
since not all the legacies of a new legendary weapon are unlocked by
leveling at that point.  Balancing the potential of a legendary
weapon to what you already have is key to whether you bother to level a
new weapon, or just deconstruct it for parts.

href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album100&id=Relic_Master&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Deconstruction"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album100/Relic_Master.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px; height: 226px;" align="right">

Deconstructing an item

Relic Masters can take a legendary item that you no longer want and
break them down into a stack of relics.  You also may get a
legendary shard, which are used by tier 6 crafters to make new
legendary items.  Shards take up a spot in your inventory, relics
are not part of your inventory but instead are retained without taking
space.

Combining Relics

There are three types of relics, runes,
settings and style="font-weight: bold;">gems.  There are tiers to
relics, a total of 8.  These are:

1. Bronze (settings only)
2. Copper (settings) and Agates (gems)
3. Iron (settings) and Amethyst (gems)
4. Steel (settings), Garnet (gems) and Early Runes
5. Silver (settings), Sapphire (gems) and Aged Runes
6. Gold (settings), Ruby (gems) and Profound Runes
7. Platinum, Moonstone and Deep Runes
8. Ithildin, Adamant and Ancient Runes

href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album100&id=Relic_Master_2&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Settings and Such"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album100/Relic_Master_2.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px; height: 242px;" align="left">When
you have 5 relics of any tier, you can combine them, which provides you
with a small random selection of relics for higher tiers (less than the
original 5).  Rarely, you get a critical selection of better
relics and a legendary shard.  As such, to get the very high tier
relics (which are better), you need to deconstruct many legendary
items, and combine these relics for higher relics, and build up to the
highest tier relics.

Using Relics

When you wish to slot a relic, open your legendary item panel, choose
the tab for the appropriate legendary item, and you will see the
setting, gem and rune slot on the right hand side.  You will see a
list of your relics in a menu in the panel and what bonus they
give.  Choose the relic you wish and then use the slot relic
button.  Remember that relics are only removed if you reforge an
item, and check the box saying you want relics removed and saved when a
weapon is reforged.

Reforging a Weapon

Then you reforge a weapon, you have three choices.  You can name
(or rename) your weapon, and there are no restrictions on the name
other than the legnth of the name and naming conventions for
LotRO.  You can refund your legacy points gained from leveling (so
you can redesignate them) and unlock your relics (so you can use them).



Every 10 levels, your weapon will need to be reforged.  You gain
no experience for an item once it is in this state, so make sure you
reforge it as soon as possible.  When your weapon reaches 10th,
30th and 50th level, your weapon gains a legacy.  When your weapon
reaches levels 20 and 40, you gain an improvement in a legacy. href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album100&id=Foe_Fang&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Vermin Slayer"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album100/Foe_Fang.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px; height: 218px;" align="right">

Getting Experience for Your Item

When you defeat an opponent while legendary items are equipped, all the
legendary items gain an equal share of half of the experience you gain
for the defeat.  So if you should defeat an opponent and gain 400
experience, and have two legendary items equipped, you end up with each
item getting 100 experience, since the items divide 200 experience
between the two of them.



You also can gain experience from quests as a quest reward.  
You will need to make sure you have the items you want to gain
experience equipped upon quest completion to gain experience for your
item, and remember that if an item is due to be reforged, you gain no
experience.  Note that this experience is designated as for a
legendary item.  The experience you get from just doing a regular
quest does not count toward legendary weapons. 



You will find infused gems as drops, they are needed to start the
quests which gain you experience for your items, and these quests are
repeatable (on a timer).  Each infused gem is rare, and is
expended when you do one of these quests, so do not throw them out.

href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album100&id=Fang&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Orc Weapon"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album100/Fang.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px; height: 208px;" align="left">

Finally, you can gain experience from heritage runes.  Heritage
runes have different levels of bonus experience, depending upon their
name, and you can click them (like a dye) and then click on a legendary
item (that has been bound to you) on a menu that pops up, to give that
weapon the experience.



Since some heritage runes give massive amounts of experience to your
legendary items, if you use a rune on a legendary item and it advances
to the maximum experience it can have before being reforged, the
experience left over will carry over to the item after it is
reforged.   This does not happen to legendary items with
quests that grant experience or with experience from fighting.

Spending Legacy Points

Legacy points improve legacies your weapon has.  There are seven
tiers of improvement for legacies (all weapons have a damage increase
legacy).  Each higher tier for a legacy is more expensive than the
previous.  

You do not gain enough legacy points from level 1 to level 50 with a
legendary weapon to purchase all your legacies to tier 7, so you must
choose what to improve.  You get the most improvement for your
weapon by purchasing all your legacies to mid tier (which you can
afford).  href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=album100&id=NPC_s&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Forge and Relic Master"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album100/NPC_s.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px; height: 139px;" align="right">
However, often some legacies are not such that fit your playstyle, in
which case you can emphasize a different legacies for that item.

Get The Most Out of Legendary Weapons

Legendary Items add a ton of flavor and interest to the LotRO game, and
really give you something fun to look forward to, plan on on, and
enjoy, without unbalancing the game.  Make sure to take your time
with legendary weapons to plan out exactly what you want from them for
your game, so that you can make the most out of your legendary items.



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