LOTRO Legendarium: Nine Lord of the Rings Online items with fun and helpful abilities

One of my favorite acquisitions in any RPG or MMO is an item that grants a special ability that adds a fun effect or useful boost. It seems to me that these sorts of items are more commonplace in tabletop games than online ones, as I’m sure devs are worried about players building up too large of a stash of reusable magical items.

While these are somewhat rare in Lord of the Rings Online, there are a few items that can be activated repeatedly for some sort of special ability or effect. I’ve noticed a couple of them over the years, and so I thought I’d share some of the more useful — or entertaining! — ones that you can acquire in your travels.

Portents

Since we’re in the middle of the Ill Omens event as I’m writing this, portents are very much on my mind. These are powerful items that can be earned through this event that can be used every 10 minutes for a strong effect: more DPS, a heal, or more defense. The portents are bound to character and have a minimum and maximum level that they can be used, but they’re still quite nice to have around during that window.

Racial books

Volume 3 Book 4 of the epic storyline features four racial quests — one for each of the main races — that pay out in a special book item that can be activated for a nice little buff. Hobbits get a hope and might buff, Man gets a will and incoming healing buff, Dwarves get fate, morale, and power regen, and Elves get fate, power, and morale regen. Even though there are diminishing returns with these, I still keep and use them to buff my characters every day.

Jeweled Bell

Want to annoy the living snot out of everyone around you? Then fight Thrâng during the Farmer’s Faire instances to get the Jewelled Bell Reforged. The item text says, “Use Jeweled Bell to go jingle, jangle!” Now you’re bugging Mordor on your own terms!

Trade Secrets

Volume 1, Book 10, Chapter 9 of the epic has a nice little reward that I feel goes overlooked. Players can select an item called Trade Secrets which is a pocket item that bumps your stealth level up by two. While this isn’t an activatable ability, I still wanted to include it because it’s quite handy. Obviously, Burglars benefit from this, but so do all Hobbits using their usually weak stealth ability. Swap this in, and suddenly those little pint-sized adventurers are stealthing all over the place.

Reputation Maps

If you’re the type of player (like me!) who keeps forgetting to spend tokens from certain areas at reputation vendors, you might want to get in the habit of looking these up. Especially in the back half of the game, many of these vendors sell travel skills that can help you zip around the game world. A free port is a free port!

Matti’s Clothes

It’s incredibly easy to overlook the odd piece of gear that actually has an on-use effect, such as the case with Matti’s clothes. In a level 48 Forochel quest called “Under Attack,” players can pick one of three pieces of gear that can be toggled to increase will or agility for 10 minutes with a 30-minute cooldown.

Repair Anvils

While VIP players get a nifty item to access all sorts of services from anywhere in the game, other players have to contend with regular trips to towns to repair gear. That is, unless you buy or make a repair anvil, which offers a use-anywhere item that can be taken out once a day.

Ronald Dwale’s Pipe

In a small Hobbit camp in Evendim, you can bump into Ronald Dwale — the thinly veiled counterpart to the real-world J.R.R. Tolkien (“Ronald” being one of those Rs). If you complete a short three-part series that alludes to the real-world Inklings group that Tolkien belonged to, you’ll be gifted with a reusable pipe that puffs out a smoke bird. I am partial to this item for the fact that you don’t have to use up any pipeweed when you pull it out.

Elrond’s Gift

While Volume 1 is incredibly long and meandering, there are a few nice rewards you can get out of it. These rewards include Elrond’s Gift: a necklace that gives a 2,880 morale heal once an hour on use as an “emergency potion.” Obviously, this item has a limited lifespan, but it may come in useful during your leveling journey.