Lord of the Rings Online Legendary Servers Revealed for Those with a Nostalgic Bent

Starting next month, Lord of the Rings Online VIP and Lifetime VIP players will have an opportunity to play on the new "Legendary" server. Those joining up will enjoy LOTRO where it began and all players will start the journey on even footing. Content on the Legendary World server will start with the Shadows of Angmar story, with further content rolling out over time.

The Legendary World is more than "just a rollback" as it will retain some of the vast number of improvements to the game over the years. Races and classes that have been added since "vanilla" such as the High-elf race, the Rune-keeper, Warden, and Beorning classes will be playable on the Legendary server. In addition, "all the bug fixes, gameplay and UX/UI improvements made to LOTRO over the years will be kept".  Expanded content is expected to roll out about every four months.

Other facts about the Legendary World:

• VIP or Lifetime VIP subscriptions are required
• Trait trees will be included
• no PvMP at launch
• Legendary Weapons will not be available until Mines of Moria story arrives
• One world server only for all regions
• festivals and anniversary events will be present
• previously purchased expansions & quest packs will be "honored and allow you access on Legendary once the server reaches that point in the story"

Developers also clarified the difference between "vanilla" and "classic" servers:

By most descriptions, a “Classic” server is an attempt to recreate LOTRO exactly as it was at launch, using only assets and content that was available in 2007.

A Legendary server runs alongside existing servers, and therefore contains many of the changes that have been made to the game over the years, such as UI improvements, bug fixes, changes to game systems, etc. In cases where we have updated or changed the layout of regions, the Legendary server uses the updated version of the regions. In cases where we have changed items or player abilities, the Legendary server uses those updated abilities. Some content or gameplay that isn’t appropriate to the Legendary server’s current level cap may be restricted, until that portion of the story unlocks with level cap increases (one does not simply walk into Mordor on Legendary until the time comes).

You can learn more on the Lord of the Rings Online Legendary site.