A Casual Stroll to Mordor

The Legendary Item System: Reforged

Posted on 06. Oct, 2009 by Merric in LotRO News, Seige of Mirkwood, Turbine

A Developer Diary posted today on the Legendary Item System states that there will be a “reforging” (aka an update) to the system (hopefully) with the release of Siege of Mirkwood.  Since the release of the system in Mines of Moria, there has been a lot of contention over the system.  Although most agree that the system can result in good rewards, the process itself is quite frustrating.  Turbine agrees with this and has gone ahead and outlined the following changes in the system which are quite extensive.  Here is an outline of what was said:

• In order to keep players from having to invest a large portion of time into knowing if a Legendary Item is good, the initial legacies placed on a Legendary Item from only the “best” legacies
• The first three reforges at item levels 10, 20, and 30 will “…now add a legacy primarily from a second group (Group B) of legacies not in the identification (Group A) pool, though there is a small chance of picking a legacy from Group A.  Players still get two randomly selected legacies to choose from to add to their Legendary Item.”  What this seems to mean is:
  • That there will be an initial pool of legacies (the aforementioned “Group A”) which are “the best” legacies and these will be assigned to the item upon it’s identification. 
  • At each of the first 3 reforges the legacies chosen will most likely come from a second pool of legacies (“Group B”) with a small chance of them coming from “Group A” instead.
• The experience from item level 30 – 60 (all weapons will be able to level to 60) will depend on the “Age” of the item.  This experience will be a flat rate.
  • Third Age items will need 20,000 experience per level (lowering the current overall experience needed to reach maximum level by 2/3)
  • Second Age items will need 40,000 experience per level (lowering the current overall experience needed to reach maximum level by 1/3)
  • First Age items will need 80,000 experience per level (raising the current overall experience needed to reach maximum level by “just a little more”)
• Reforges at 40, 50, and 60 will grant an upgrade to the Tier of one of the item’s legacies.  The player will still get to choose one of two randomly selected legacies can be upgraded.

• Each class’s set of legacies has been updated
  • The weakest legacies have been removed and will no longer be added to the new legendary items
  • Weaker legacies have been improved.
  • Each class has gained new legacies
• Champions are the only exception
  • The stance-based legacies have been replaced with:
    • individual skill damage bonuses
    • more general damage legacies
  • Other Glory and Ardour-based legacies have been combined
• All legendary points on items will be reset
• Each item will be converted to the new experience tables
  • Resulting in some items becoming higher level
  • Some might have multiple reforges
• New item scrolls will be found in loot and during deconstruction
  • Scrolls of Empowerment
    • Allows the player to upgrade the tier of any Legacy of their choice on one item
    • No limits to the use on these other than availability and having a Legacy to be upgraded
  • Legacy Exchange Scrolls
    • Allow the player to exchange an existing Legacy for the Legacy on the scroll
    • “So far the Wise have only been able to decipher scrolls that grant Legacies that increase basic Statistics, Might, Vitality etc.”
  • Scrolls of Delving
    • Increase a Legendary’s possible maximum advancement by 10 levels
    • A Legendary Item can only be upgraded to level 70
    • These levels will need to be gained through gaining Item XP once the scroll is applied
    • The item will be treated as being at “maximum level” from levels 60-70 for deconstruction purposes
  • Scrolls of Renewal
    • Reset the legendary points on an item to 0 (it refunds your spent legendary points)
    • You may then re-spend the points at your leisure
• Every legendary item will now have a fourth relic slot
  • The slot will only hold a new type of relic that are created by Crafters
  • Each craft will be able to make a relic that will grant a bonus to a particular stat
  • All crafters will be able to make “Greater Crafted” relics once they reach Supreme Master
    • These relics can only be used by the crafter that made them
    • The relic will grant a small bonus to Melee, Ranged, Tactical, or Healing skills
• A new Tier (Tier 9) of relics has been added to the relic combining system.  They give the same style of bonuses as the other relics

I have to say that overall these changes look to be quite promising and hopefully will answer a lot of players complaints to the current system.  My only worry comes with the drawing of Legacies from “pools”.  While this has the potential to greatly enhance items, in the end they depend on Turbine agreeing with the public on which Legacies are “Better” than others.  If history is any indicator though, they’ll do a good job on choosing and make any changes as needed.

As someone who has recently started looking into the Legendary Item system, I think that this should help a lot.

Tags: legendary items, LotRO News, Siege of Mirkwood, Turbine