The Lord of the Rings Online – New LI System Basics

For new or returning players, the barely-modernized tutorial for legendary items included in the unlocking of Moria is not enough to figure out how to do this correctly. Take this. It will help you on your journey.

Introduction

With the new expansion, Fate of Gundabad, one of the oldest and most important systems in the game has been revised for ease of access, reduction of RNG, and improvement of quality of life. That system is the legendary item (LI) system. Legendary items have been a core part of progression and endgame ever since Mines of Moria came out due to their ability to be customized to the user’s needs and spec. The system relied on a lot of RNG, and sometimes you’d get buffs to skills you didn’t even have because they were down another trait tree. They also were “recycled” every 5 levels, broken down and replaced with a new LI, because the LI was inevitably either outpaced or maxed out by that point.

Needless to say, the system was old and not designed to be played from levels 50 to 140, so it was revised to make it easier to get buffs to the skills available to the player. There is still a grind, but it’s a manageable one that was optimized nearly day one of the update. Finding groups for it is relatively easy. So let’s delve into legendary items post-Gundabad.

Where

Once you’re handed your first LI, you can spec it out at this location:

This is inside the Last Homely House, or the main building of Rivendell.

Inside, you’ll see this:

How

On the shelves are traceries. These are what you use to buff your weapon. They come in two flavors: class and heraldric. Heraldries can have duplicates slotted in, class traceries can’t. So for example, if you have a Burglar and want to buff their Backstab, you can only put the Backstab Damage tracery on either the weapon or the class item, not both. Heraldries, on the other hand, reflect your role (tank/DPS/healer) and can be doubled upon.

Then there are Words of Craft and Words of Power. Words of Craft can have duplicates, Words of Power can’t. Words of Power help the player spec more accurately into what they want their character to do, and therefore are both stronger and cannot be doubled upon. Words of Craft, especially those used by Loremasters and Runekeepers, can sometimes have set bonuses that encourage doubling or quadrupling up on one Word of Craft.

If you can’t place a Heraldric tracery in, reforge it. Reforging when needed lets you slot more traceries or words.

Hints

• Take traceries that buff abilities down your trait tree. These are probably going to be stronger than any of the general stuff unless you have specced into those already.
• Don’t buy rare or incomparable traceries early on. They aren’t necessary to clear leveling content unless you are doing instanced content at higher tiers.
• If possible, try to get a LI that lines up with your racial abilities. Hobbits get clubs, Humans get swords, Elves get 1h swords and bows, Dwarves get axes, High Elves get swords, Stout-Axes get axes and daggers, and Beornings get clubs and axes. Some classes also get damage buffs with certain weapons; for example, Burglars get higher damage with daggers, and Captains to get higher damage with halberds. Take this into consideration when buying your weapon.
• Ancient Scripts can be farmed in most instanced content. The most likely place to farm them is the School and Library instances from Eregion. The full names of these are “The School at Tham Mírdain” and “The Library at Tham Mírdain”. These are the fastest and easiest to clear that still provide relevant loot.