LOTRO Legendarium: Six ways you can prepare for the new legendary servers

With brand-new legendary servers coming soon to Lord of the Rings Online, the allure of a fresh start, lower lag, and the Ringwraith ruleset may pull in many old, new, and returning players. Considering that this is the first new server (more or less) since 2021, I think it should prove to be a significant event.

While we don’t know the exact start date for the EU and NA servers, it doesn’t mean that we can’t start planning right now for this eventuality! In this week’s column, I want to share six ways that you can lay the foundation for a strong start in these progression worlds.

Make sure your subscription is active

I know this first item is a gimme, but it still needs to be said because it’s going to catch someone off-guard. As with previous legendary worlds, you’ll need to be a VIP member to access them. That means either a monthly or lifetime subscription. Otherwise you’ll be barred from entry.

SSG has been sweetening the subscription package over the past few years, and it’s something that I can highly recommend. You get weekly gold presents, a monthly stipend, lots of unlocks, a potion that keeps your items from experiencing any wear, and access to a vendor, bank, auction hall, and outfitter from anywhere on the map.

If you are completely new to the game, one advantage of the legendary server is that you don’t have to worry about buying any expansions for a good long while. So a subscription is the only starter cost you need to worry about in the beginning!

Settle on a class and race

Here’s where a lot of nail-biting and strategic planning happens. A new character (or characters, plural) represents a significant future time investment, so picking one that suits or excites you (or both!) is essential.

A racial pick is less impactful upon your gameplay, although it does matter in terms of your own representation to this virtual world. If there’s a race or class you’ve yet to unlock that you’d like to play, you could go ahead and buy it now.

Personally, I’m viewing a fresh server as an opportunity to try something I’ve hardly played before, so I’ll be rolling up a Rune-keeper. Or a Warden. Ugh, I can’t pick! But if you’re still deciding, here’s a quick guide:

• The tank life: Guardian, Captain, Champion, Beorning
• The healing life: Minstrel, Beorning, Rune-keeper
• Long-ranged DPS: Rune-keeper, Minstrel, Hunter, Lore-master
• Melee DPS: Mariner, Brawler, Beorning, Champion, Burglar
• Pets: Lore-master, Captain
• Lots of travel options: Mariner, Hunter, Warden
• Complex mechanics: Mariner, Warden, Lore-master
• Unique mechanics: Burglar (stealth), Mariner (shanties and tools), Beorning (shapeshifting)
• Most popular: Hunter, Champion, Minstrel
• Least popular: Beorning, Brawler, Mariner, Burglar

Premake your avatar

OK, if you want to get super nerdy and also save yourself a bit of time on Day One, you can premake your avatar. By this, I mean going onto any current server and customizing a character — and then taking a screenshot of the settings or writing them down so that you can re-create them quickly when the servers go live.

As I said, super nerdy. But I’ve done this several times because I don’t want to feel rushed when opening day hits, and this really does help.

Find a kinship

It’s going to be crazy during those first few days when everyone is swarming the servers and trying to set up social groups. To take some of that stress of kinship shopping off your plate when that happens, you could start looking now.

Some existing kinships may be rolling up on Angmar and Mordor, but I know that plenty of brand-new ones will come into being as well. You can cruise through the LOTRO Reddit, the Legendary Worlds forum, and the Kinships forum to see if anyone is working on this already.

Map out a leveling strategy

When Angmar and Mordor open, it’ll be strictly Shadows of Angmar content for a good while (we don’t have an exact timeframe yet, but expect perhaps six months). That means we’ll be confined to Eriador with a level cap of 50.

Part of your planning could include figuring out how you want to navigate those levels. There are a lot of options here, from speed-leveling to the cap to doing a completionist run in every zone to everything in between.

Do you want to start out in Swanfleet or do the older beginner zones? Do you want to spend more time checking out the newer areas that SSG added over the past few years? Are missions going to be part of your leveling process? Will you be selecting one of the higher difficulty levels? Those are all good questions to answer.

Stock up on LOTRO Points (and decide on store purchases)

The final thing that you can do right now is very practical: Stock up on LOTRO Points by doing deeds on the existing servers. It’s always nice to have a nest egg of LP for a brand-new character — and to decide what store purchases you’re going to make.

Some suggestions that I have include:

• Carryall bags for crafting
• Additional milestones and milestone cooldown reductions
• The account-wide 78% riding speed buff
• A premium house
• More inventory/wardrobe slots and cosmetic outfit slots
• Stone of the Tortoise (if you want to do a full run while staying on-level)
• Mithril coins in general

That’s all I have for you today! Let me know in the comments if you’ll be joining one of these new servers and what you’re doing to prepare for them!