Dadi’s Guide To Imbuing

-Donations:

If you have found this information to be helpful, please consider an in game donation to Dadi (on Arkenstone) or better yet a couple of dollars to buy me a beer.

With Update 16.0 comes the advent of Imbuement, a process of changing your existing Legendary Weapon / Item (static) to ones that will grow with you. These newly Imbued Legendaries will eventually replace the existing system of leveling/deconning.

No need to panic, it is not an automatic thing; you have to speak to the Forge Master to Imbue an existing LI.

BEFORE YOU IMBUE

It would be advisable to do the following prior to imbuing your LI (and I will explain why later);

1) Use a Crystal of Remembrance to unlock a 7th legacy slot (if you do not already have it).

2) Make sure that your Legendary Weapon/Item has all the legacies on it that you want; do not wait to do this after Imbuing. Doing so after will cost you 79 Mithril Coins or a Imbued Legacy Replacement Scroll (to be introduced) per change.  Look at the chart below to see the changes

LEGACY CHANGES POST IMBUEMENT

This is an awesome resource:  https://lotrotools.pw/legacies.php

Suggestions for those with EXISTING level 100 FA Weapons / Items:

a) If you have not already done so, use an Anfalas Crystal of Remembrance to unlock a 7th legacy on your LI. Choose your legacy carefully (see chart above) as they may change after imbuement

b) Get all of the Legacies that you want on your Legendary, but keep in mind that after Imbuement some will be auto-swapped out for new ones (See chart above). For example, on my Guard, Challenge Targets will become Reactive Parry Damage. I really do not want the Reactive Parry Damage Legacy for my tank setup so I could change Challenge Targets for Guardian’s Pledge Magnitude Up.  This will save you an Imbued Legendary Replacement Scroll.

HOWEVER; if the legacy that you want to replace is higher than tier 2, you may want to wait until after imbuing.  Example; on my guard I have + Challenge Targets at T6.  I want to change this as the new legacy is Reactive Parry Damage (that I do not want).  I have two options;

i) I replace it before I imbue.  In doing so, the new legacy that I want to add is Charge Duration (which will become Shield Swipe Crit Rating.  It will start at T2 when I swap.  The result when I imbue is a soft cap of 27.  Essentially this has cost me 4 Anfalas Scrolls of Empowerment.

ii) Do not change anything before imbuing.  My T6 Challenge Targets will become Reactive Parry Damage with a soft cap of 31.  I then would need to use an Imbued Legacy Replacement Scroll (or Mithril Coins) to change the legacy to Shield Swipe Crit Rating with a soft cap of 31.  This has cost me an Imbued Legacy Replacement Scroll.

c) If all of your Legacies are not maxed (Tier 6) you have 2 choices;

– Focus hard on the key Legacies to get them to T6 prior to Imbuing (either via the re-forging process or applying Anfalas Scrolls of Empowerment). It will allow you to focus your IXP where you want it, after imbuing it is automatically spread equally amongst all Legacies.

– Imbue as is and then spread the IXP evenly amongst all legacies.

d) Get all of the Legacies that you want on your Legendary, but keep in mind that after Imbuement some will be auto-swapped out for new ones (See chart above). For example, on my Guard, Challenge Targets will become Reactive Parry Damage. I really do not want the Reactive Parry Damage Legacy for my tank setup so I could change Challenge Targets for Guardian’s Pledge Magnitude Up.  This will save you an Imbued Legendary Replacement Scroll.

e) Imbue your Weapon / Item

f) Use a Scroll of Delving

Suggestions for those creating NEW level 100 FA Weapons / Items:

The cost of First Age Symbols via the AH has significantly dropped since U17.  In addition, the drop rate for FA Symbols has significantly increased.  For these reasons you should continue to craft LIs until you get the exact passive skills you want (this is the only part of the LI that cannot be changed later).

i) After level 30 and before level 40, get all of the Legacies that you want on your Legendary, but keep in mind that after Imbuement some will be auto-swapped out for new ones (See chart above). For example, on my Guard, Challenge Targets will become Reactive Parry Damage. I really do not want the Reactive Parry Damage Legacy for my tank setup so I could change Challenge Targets for Guardian’s Pledge Magnitude Up.

HOWEVER; if the legacy that you want to replace is higher than tier 2, you may want to wait until after imbuing.  Example; on my guard I have + Challenge Targets at T6.  I want to change this as the new legacy is Reactive Parry Damage (that I do not want).  I have two options;

a) I replace it before I imbue.  In doing so, the new legacy that I want to add is Charge Duration (which will become Shield Swipe Crit Rating.  It will start at T2 when I swap.  The result when I imbue is a soft cap of 27.  Essentially this has cost me 4 Anfalas Scrolls of Empowerment.

b) Do not change anything before imbuing.  My T6 Challenge Targets will become Reactive Parry Damage with a soft cap of 31.  I then would need to use an Imbued Legacy Replacement Scroll (or Mithril Coins) to change the legacy to Shield Swipe Crit Rating with a soft cap of 31.  This has cost me an Imbued Legacy Replacement Scroll

ii) Use an Anfalas Crystal of Remembrance to unlock a 7th legacy on your LI as soon as your LI hits level 31. Choose your legacy carefully (see chart above).  Pre-imbue you can tier up the newly added Legacy via reforging at the expense of another. You also gain the benefit of using this Legacy while you level up your LI.

iii) All of your Legacies will not be maxed (Tier 6) so you have 2 choices;

– Focus hard on the key Legacies to get them to T6 prior to Imbuing (either via the reforging process or applying Anfalas Scrolls of Empowerment). It will allow you to focus your IXP where you want it, after imbuing it is automatically spread equally amongst all Legacies.

– Imbue as is and spread the IXP evenly amongst all legacies.

iv) Imbue your Weapon / Item

v) Add a Scroll of Delving

IMBUED LEGACY REPLACEMENT SCROLL

Using one of these scrolls (post imbuing) will replace any legacy on your LI with any available legacy for your class (no duplicates allowed).  There are no more “major” or “minor” classifications.  The legacy that you choose will have the same cap as the one you replaced.  Example; your Vexing Blow legacy is at a cap of 32 (you leveled it and used Scrolls of Empowerment) and you replace it with Overwhelm Damage, the Overwhelm Damage starts at 1/32.  You lose all IXP of the previous legacy, but not the tier level.

So should you get all your legacies before imbue, or wait until after? 

If your LI is already at max level (70) then it does not matter.

If your LI is not at max level (70) then choosing before could allow you to tier it up via leveling your LI.  This could result in that specific legacy being a higher tier post-imbue.  However, the net cost is the same.

WHAT ABOUT THE AGE OF THE LI (Third, Second, First)?

You can imbue any level 100 Legendary Item, regardless of the age.  However, a First Age costs the least currency (Anfalas Star-lit Crystals, Anfalas Scrolls of Empowerment, and IXP).  Essentially a Third Age can equal a First Age with the new system.  The only caveat to this is the LI passive stats will never equal each other (FA>SA>TA); and this can be enough for some to choose a FA over a TA.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU IMBUE A LEGENDARY?

NOTE:  All Soft Caps and Hard Caps referred to in this guide are those that were in place at the launch of the Imbuement System.  Subsequent updates have changed these, but the concept remains the same.

By visiting any Forge-master you can select the Imbue Legendary option which will bring up a screen like this:

Use the arrows to the left and right of the Legendary Item to scroll through your inventory. Once you find the one you want to Imbue, click the Imbue Item button. WARNING: THERE IS NO TURNING BACK !!!

This is a BEFORE and AFTER of a Legendary with no points spent in to any Legacy Tiers. Notice that most legacy stats are better after imbuing.

By pressing SHIFT + I you can bring up the Legendary Item Panel:

1) The name of the Legendary Item. This is the name you gave your LI during the ID process.

2) The Title of your LI (assuming you applied one pre-imbue)

3) The IXP progress bar of the LI (in this case 12/206).

4) The Main Legacy and IXP progress bar.

5) The list of all the Legacies on the LI and their current stats. Below each is an IXP progress bar.

6) The current tier (level) of the main Legacy and the cap. In this case, Tier 5 of 19.

7) The current tier (level) of the other Legacies and their caps. In this case, all are Tier 1 and have a soft cap of 31.

8) There is an option to use Mithril Coins to unlock more Tiers (raise the hard cap).

9) If you did not use an Anfalas Crystal of Remembrance on your weapon to unlock an LI slot before you imbued, you will only have 6 Legacies. Using a Crystal of Remembrance or 99 Mithril Coins on an imbued LI you can unlock a 7th Legacy. You will have a choice of all available legacies and stats to choose from. NOTE: As stated above in the advice section, you should use the Crystal before you imbue.  For the purposes of this guide, I did not use it before imbuing.

10) If you want to replace a Legacy, press this button and it will bring up a new screen (see below). You can use Mithril Coins (79) or Imbued Legacy Replacement Scrolls.

11) If you would like to stop the LI from gaining IXP, press this button.  To resume, press it again.  This allows you to focus earned IXP (via quests, kills, tasks, etc.) on specific LIs.

I have chosen to add the Vexing Blow Damage legacy. Note that it starts at a soft cap of Tier 25.

As your Legendary Item gains IXP (either via kills, quests, deeds, or IXP Runes) the IXP is evenly distributed amongst all Legacies not at the cap. The current soft cap is Tier 19 for the Main Legacy and Tier 31 for all other Legacies. I have applied one 938,000 IXP rune to the LI in the screenshot below. As you can see all legacies progressed equally to T4. The main legacy (DPS) progressed to 8 (increased 4 tiers). The level of the LI is now 36 out of 230.

Adding another 938,000 IXP rune we get the following progressions:

Adding two more 938,000 IXP runes we get a progression to T16 for legacies and the DPS is now capped at 19:

I chose to not unlock the main legacy cap (DPS) which means that effectively I have paused the IXP on it allowing all IXP to go to the other legacies. Applying 2 more 938,000 IXP rune we end up with T24s. Notice that Vexing Blow is not approaching the soft cap of T25. We have a choice to make, we can unlock the soft cap of Vexing Blow so that IXP continues to be shared amongst all 7 legacies, or we can leave it and it will max at 25 and all further IXP will be split between the remaining 6 legacies.

For the sake of this guide I have chosen to unlock the soft cap of Vexing Blow to T31 by applying 6 Anfalas Scrolls of Empowerment (you could also use 210 Mithril Coins [35 per Tier] or a combo of coins and scrolls). I then applied another 938,000 IXP rune:

Applying one more 938,000 IXP rune caps out all the legacies at T31 except Vexing Blow. We are now at the soft cap.

The soft cap is T31. If your 100 FA was maxed out (all legacies at T6) prior to imbuing then to reach the soft cap of 31 the only resource you need to use is IXP.

Let’s compare a maxed out FA (all legacies T6) pre-imbuing with a FA at the soft cap of T31 post imbuing. As you can see the LI is significantly better with just having added IXP.

Once you reach the Soft Cap you have three options to unlock more Tiers to reach the Hard Cap (35);

1) Use Mithril Coins (cost is 35 per Tier per Legacy)

2) Use Anfalas Scrolls of Empowerment (1 scroll per Tier unlocked per Legacy).

3) Use a combination of Scrolls and Mithril Coins.

You can choose how you level the Tiers of your Legacies;

a) Unlock one Legacy at a time and use all IXP toward leveling it to max.

b) Unlock a few key Legacies at a time and use all IXP toward leveling them equally until max.

c) Unlock all Legacies at once and use all IXP toward leveling them equally until max.

Which you choose will be highly dependent on your ability to gain Anfalas Scrolls of Empowerment and/or Mithril Coins. I think most will choose Option b.

Keep in mind the following;

i) You cannot disable leveling a Legacy once it is unlocked.

ii) If you use too much IXP (i.e. via applying a 50,000 IXP Rune to a Legacy that only needs 20,000 IXP) the excess is lost.

For the sake of this guide I have chosen to selectively level Whirling Retaliation Damage, Sweeping Cut Damage, and Vexing Blow Damage by unlocking the soft cap. I have applied 12 Anfalas Scrolls of Empowerment (1 for each of the 3 legacies per tier); could also use Mithril Coins or a combination of scrolls and coins. These 3 legacies are now unlocked to the hard cap of 35. Now all IXP earned (or applied) will only go to progressing these 3 legacies.

IXP Added:

I continued to work on this LI and eventually unlocked all tiers to the hard cap of 35 and then maxed them out via IXP.

Let’s compare the pre-imbued LI with the post imbued (apples to apples), a significant improvement:

You will notice that the Main Legacy Tier (in this case DPS) can still be unlocked. This can be accomplished by using;

1) Anfalas Star-lit Crystals

2) Mithril Coins (35 per Tier)

3) A combination of Anfalas Star-lit Crystals and Mithril Coins.

I used 6 Anfalas Star-lit Crystals to get this to a max cap of 25 and then used IXP Runes to max it out.

Let’s look at the before and after of the finished product:

-Donations:

If you have found this information to be helpful, please consider an in game donation to Dadi (on Arkenstone) or better yet a couple of dollars to buy me a beer.