*Updated for Mordor: 21.3*

Prologue

Greetings fellow kin! This goal of this guide is to provide some guidance around the optimal progression path, from start to finish, for your Legendary Items in LOTRO. I will preface this by stating my opinion that the Legendary system in LOTRO is extremely convoluted in its current state (patch 21.3), so this guide is intended to bring some clarity into how to handle this process. As a player returning to the game after a hiatus since launch, it was very overwhelming for me at first – so I genuinely hope this helps folks in the community digest this “Legendary” adventure.

* Please note, this guide is not the only way to handle LI progression, but intended as a recommendation for an optimal path. For the sake of simplicity, this guide begins the journey at level 100 *

Notable Terms

Before we start, let’s go over some terms we’ll use throughout the guide – just to brush up on our LOTRO verbiage!

LI – Legendary Items. These are items (weapons, class items, and saddles) which are intended to grow in strength with your character as they level.

– Legendary Items. These are items (weapons, class items, and saddles) which are intended to grow in strength with your character as they level. FA – First Age. The rarest and most powerful type of LIs. These are the items you will be long-term investing in for usage!

– First Age. The rarest and most powerful type of LIs. These are the items you will be long-term investing in for usage! SA – Second Age. Uncommon LIs which are more powerful than TAs, but not as strong as FAs.

– Second Age. Uncommon LIs which are more powerful than TAs, but not as strong as FAs. TA – Third Age. The most common and least powerful type of LIs. These are what you will use to help level your FA LIs.

– Third Age. The most common and least powerful type of LIs. These are what you will use to help level your FA LIs. Legacies – Abilities you can add to your LI and level up individually to increase their effectiveness. There is a large selection of Legacies, providing considerable flexibility in how you build your LIs.

– Abilities you can add to your LI and level up individually to increase their effectiveness. There is a large selection of Legacies, providing considerable flexibility in how you build your LIs. Relics – Bonuses which are applied to your LIs. There are multiple types of Relics, each with options to select from, allowing you to tweak your LIs to your liking.

– Bonuses which are applied to your LIs. There are multiple types of Relics, each with options to select from, allowing you to tweak your LIs to your liking. Deconstruct – An action available at the Rune-master in which you break down a LI and in return, receive a selection of options – the most important of all, a single Legacy after level 30. We’ll talk more about what to Deconstruct later.

– An action available at the Rune-master in which you break down a LI and in return, receive a selection of options – the most important of all, a single Legacy after level 30. We’ll talk more about what to Deconstruct later. Imbuement – An action available at the Rune-master in which you Imbue a LI, increasing its potency and convert its leveling process to an updated, more usable one. We’ll talk more about when to Imbue later.

Optimal Legendary Item Progression

As a quick primer, have a quick read through LOTRO Wiki’s Legendary Items page. At level 100, craft or find someone to craft your desired level 100 FA LIs. Consider if you need multiple weapons for different builds (single target / AOE, DPS / support).

If really wanting to min / max, some people repeat crafting until the FA LI rolls their desired initial values in its main attributes. Unlike Legacies, you can’t modify its attributes. This could get quite expensive. Plan ahead for which Legacies you want for each FA LI. LOTRO Tools has a nice chart which shows the available pre-imbued Legacies, as well as what they are changed to after imbuing.

You can have 4 Major Legacies and 3 Minor Legacies per LI. Slot all FA LIs and apply a Legendary Title to each. Place Relics in each FA LI and keep these up to date as you level them. Use an [Anfalas Scroll of Delving] on each FA LI to raise its cap to level 70. Level your FA LIs to level 70. Ensuring all FA LIs are slotted, continue leveling your character to 115.

Note that you don’t have to have LIs equipped to gain experience, but they must be slotted. In the remaining slots, equip TA LIs and level each to 30, selecting the Legacies you planned for your FA LIs in step 2. Once level 30, Deconstruct each TA LI to acquire a Legacy Replacement Scroll which you’ll use on your FA LIs to work towards your planned FA LI Legacies.

Repeat this TA LI leveling/Deconstructing until you’ve replaced all your FA LI Legacies. Use an [Anfalas Crystal of Remembrance] on each FA LI to add the 7th, and final, Legacy. Use 3x [Anfalas Star-lit Crystal] on each FA LI to increase their DPS and empower their Legacies. Imbue your FA LI to enhance its power and unlock the perks of Imbuement. Make sure you double check that you’ve completed your planned Legacies and all previous steps before Imbuing each FA LI. Use a lot of [Anfalas Star-lit Crystals] on each Imbued FA LI until you reach its base Legacy cap (53). Use a lot of [Anfalas Scrolls of Empowerment] on each Imbued FA LI until you reach each Legacy’s cap (69). Take a deep breathe, because you just nailed it with a Best in Slot First Age Legendary Item. Congrats, kin!

Epilogue

So I know this was quite a long-winded Guide. I generally try to keep these simple and straight-forward, but the LI system in LOTRO is quite honestly not that. I hope this recommended optimal path on how to handle LI progression helped you wrap your head around how to approach this.

If it has, please consider sharing this guide with your friends and maybe even toss me a follow on Twitter or sub on Twitch! As always, if you have recommendations for future guides or any topic you’d like me to write about, let me know in the comments. Please leave your feedback in a comment below and I’ll see you all in Mordor!

Credit to Bludborn and /u/_v0k for providing feedback and direction with this guide! For a more detailed walkthrough, check out Dadi’s Guide.

