Introduction

Hello there! This is Chris “Hakai” Clay, and I have the pleasure of introducing you to the Legendary Item system.

When Bilbo set out from Bag End, he was but a simple Hobbit with potential. There was no aura of legend surrounding him, yet through his actions and deeds he became a legend of Middle-earth. The Legendary Item system works in much the same way. Each Legendary Item contains the possibility of greatness. While they’re typically less impressive than comparable items of their initial level, they have the potential to grow into the most powerful items in the game. The power of your Legendary Items will depend greatly on the effort you put into them and the story you build around them.

Legendary Items contain more components than any other type of item in The Lord of the Rings Online™: Mines of Moria™. These components (and the multitude of ways in which they interact) allow the players to find and customize unique items that may never be duplicated. In this developer diary, we’ll be going over the various elements that make up a Legendary Item, some of the history behind their development, and the rules that surround them.

Unlike many systems in modern MMOs, there is no common terminology to describe a system like this. To make this diary easier to read we’re going to start off with a list of words used to describe different components in the system.