Table of Contents

Damned Biscuit Cookbook

Legendary Weapon

Legendary Items
by Gromkil

Tuesday, 31-August-2010

Legendary Items (LI) are what every LOTRO players aspires to regarding weapons and class items, and they come in 3 flavours:

So what does it look like when you open the tooltip?

icon Valaril
Hero of Caras Galahon
+ 3 Damage to Orc-kind
Bind on Equip
One-handed Sword Main-hand
Durability 100/100 Tough
Minimum Level 60 Class: Champion
90 - 150 Beleriand Damage
Wield: Your Hit-chance is slightly increased.
.......note.......
An example of a Champion's First Age Weapon

As we discover, however, that is only half of the battle, so to speak. You get your weapon then - BEHOLD - legacies, or LEGS if you prefer, and let's not forget those other little gems - affectionately known as RELICS. Together these little tweaks are the result of hours of grinding/debating/mathematical formulae/trials - it is a whole new subgame in itself. Thankfully a lot of the more obscure/arcane LEGS have disappeared and the choices have been trimed down to "pools", A and B respectively, for both weapon and class slots. You will still have choices and decisions to take into account.

LEGACIES decoration AVAILABLE: XX decoration SPENT: XXX
Legacy Coin  9  +7.5% Fervour Damage Bonus
Legacy Coin  1  +1% Horn Damage
Legacy Coin  5  +16 Hedge Duration
Legacy Coin  9  +5 Combat-only Effect Removal Delay
Legacy Coin  1  +283 Blocking Blades Parry Rating
.......note.......
An example of a Champion's First Age Weapon
Fervour Damage Bonus has been retired.

Relics remain unchanged since their inclusion into the game and, as far as I can tell, compared to LEGS they are fairly straight forward in their application.

RELICS
Silver Setting of Longevity
icon  +216 Melee Critical Rating
 +2.5% Devastate Magnitude
 +15 Vitality
Sapphire Gem of the Sage
icon  +216 Tactical Critical Rating
 +72 in-Combat Power Regen
 +15 Fate
Deep Rune of the Forest
icon  +150 Maximum Power
 +100 Maximum Morale
 -2.5% Attack Duration
Minor Symbol of Fate
icon  +10 Fate

There has been much debate on the best/quickest way to get that Tier 9 relic but whatever way you choose there is no getting away from the fact that it is a GRIND. Thankfully there are a few ways to reduce that grind slightly. The easiest way would be to have an unlimited supply of:

Also, do not ignore the opportunity of using the TRADE channel to broadcast swaps for those LI's that you cannot use. I've found this quite useful as every player needs LI's for DC'ing (DeConstructing). Exchange these for the appropriate LI, apply the 650 XP Rune which will raise the weapon to level 3 and DC. This will result in you getting at minimum of thee Tier 1 relics, but more often than not, (more). Especially if you get a CS (Critical Sucess) where it's possible to get combination of relics from Tier 4, perhaps a couple of Tier 3, and a few Tier 2's and Tier 1's - all from that simple level 3 DC. In my experience there is NO advantage in taking an item any higher when you are only grinding relics, HOWEVER, if you also want to level a weapon FASTER, then level your LI's to level 11, which requires about 20,000 XP. However, I'm getting ahead of myself.

When I started with my first Character I made wrong choices/mistakes in just about every aspect of LOTRO - and I continue to do so, though hopefully not as often. This is a player that had DC'd not once but twice two level 70 items that were maxed out and my MAIN one-handed weapons on my Guardian - sick/gutted does not describe how I felt the first time I did this, second time - not so bad. That was because I had all the "tools" in place to quickly get a new 2-Hander levelled up. So if you make a mistake, don't panic - it can be fixed, especially now that we have scrolls that can reset out XP points and re-apply them. More on this later.

Back to the grind.

As soon as you get your first LI's from the Walls of Moria quests, oh, and by the way as soon as you enter Eregion and are the correct character level (which is level 46-47) get to the Walls right away - do not do any quests in Eregion until you get your first LI. That way, when you start doing the quests in Eregion you will also start levelling your first Legendary Weapon.

Ok! You have your shiny new LI's and are enjoying them because it is very unlikely you will ever see a better set of LEGS on a third age weapon again, and no - I am not joking. Take a visit to the Auction House (AH) and buy appropirate weapons to fill your other LI slots.

icon tooltip  The most EFFICENT way to level weapons is to level all 6 slots together. HOWEVER, it is the slowest. My preferred way to level LI's in the beginning is to have 2 weapons taken to level 11 and the other 2 being constantly DC'd. After getting my LI's I made my way to Echad Mirobel and picked up the stable there, thus allowing relatively fast travel for both reforging and DC'ing. It is also worthwhile making your way to Dolven View inside of Moria. That way you can start on the daily instance quests which will not only give LI XP (experience ppoints) but also scrolls Legendary Item Scroll for damage type and reputation with the Dwarf Factions - Guards and Miners. It is well to remember that levelling your LI's in the beginning is slower than when your character reaches the higher levels because of the XP gained from killing mobs.

As you DC LI's your relics, naturally, will increase. I'd recommend waiting until you have at least a minimum of 25 Tier 1 Relics before combining. The reason for this is that there is a better chance of getting CS's.

icon tooltip

From the above you can see right away the advantage of getting a Tier 4 or even a Tier 3 from a CS. For the record, as a level 65 Character, the best results I've had have always come from conbining large numbers of Tier 1's, most recently 236 Tier 1's resutlted in 2 Tier 7's and 2 Tier 6's. Those 236 came from a day of grinding weapons in Gathburz, Lorthlorien and Doven View. I'd just finished night shift so my mind was pretty numb when I started anyway. *smile* Bear in mind, that DC'ing every time an LI hits level 3 involves a lot of travelling so having the swift rides are CRUCIAL for your sanity if nothing else. The only exception to the quick rides advice seems to be the Hunter Class, which is yet another reason not to like Hunters. Again, I am getting ahead of myself.

Throughout Moria there are numerous quests that offer LI XP and open up "Dailies" which you can do as you progress thro' the mines. I suggest you get into the habit of doing these. That way you can reduce the relic grind when mixed in with your quests.

At every x0 level you have the opportunity to REFORGE. What this means is that you have the chance to choose a randomly selected legacy that will be applied to your weapon. This can either be a new legacy or one already applied, but with a higher rank. Legacies have 2 components: Ranks and Tiers.

Rank refers to the level of the legacy - higher equates to how poweRful the legacy.

Tier refers to the 'ease of levelling' abiity - Higher equates to less poinTs required to level.

There is NO difference to the buff applied from a Tier 3 legacy at maximum rank than a Tier 6 legacy also at the same maximum rank - the difference comes from the amount of points spent to acquire that rank.

e.g. it may take the Tier 3 250 points as opposed to the Tier 6 which may only require 175 points.

It is worth mentioning that when reforging you have the choice of refunding all your points and relics or not. This is the ONLY occassion when you can unslot relics without destroying them where as there are scrolls available which can refund points anytime. Using scrolls can be useful, expecially when you've applied points wrongly, or you just want to experiment. I also use them just before I reforge to try and influence my chances of increasing the tier of a legacy. It APPEARS to work half of the time. What I do is increase the legacy that I want a rank increase in to its maximum then reforge. This is because as you level a weapon the points required to max out a legacy can be great, but another legacy which will give you a useful buff in combat can be very effective at fewer points, e.g.

For example:

An increase in shield damage from one level to the next may require 54 points for a 1% increase in damage however those 54 points spent on sweeping cut may increase damage to 10%. So it is a better choice AT THAT POINT to increase sweeping cut.

So I try to spend my points on legacies between reforges on whatever is going to be most the beneficial AT THE TIME.

One fact I have not mentioned so far is that of the crafted relics, which adds another variable into the mix. As you are probably already aware, crafting in LOTRO is called a profession. Each profession is able to make only certain relics of the lower tiers.

Fortunately, crafted minor relics (+10) and crafted relics (+20) are not Bind On Acquire. If you don't have a character that is able to craft the one you want you will be able to ask a friend or even buy one at the Auction House. The minor +10 relic can be slotted into a Legendary Item up to level 60. The +20 relic can be slotted into a Legendary Item of level 61 on up. You won't be that lucky with final tier of crafted relics though. Those are bind on acquire which translates to being bound to the character who made them. These final tier of crafter relics require either Legendary Shard or Fragment respectively and these are acquired randomly when a critical DC occurs. These are acquired randomly from DC'ing. It is these that can be slotted only into a Legendary Item that is level 65 and up.

The two most obvious places to grind are Lothlórien for level 57 - 60 and Mirkwood for higher level Legendary Items; specifically the areas around Gathbûrz and south between taur Morvith and Ashenglades.

Again, in Lothlórien resist the urge to go to Caras Caladhon immediately instead do the dailies available from Cerin Amroth and Talan Fanuidhol. Not only do they give LI xp, but they add the incentive of Lórien reputation and iconGolden Leaves/iconSilver Branches - both required for the most often scrolls applied to weapons: Beleriand damage and Orc damaged combined. Not to mention some of the best recipes and trinkets available! The same applies to Gathbûrz in Mirkwood, get there as soon as you can for the same reasons as given for Lothlórien.

next up:
Daily Quests for Legendary Leveling

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