A DEARTH OF FIRST AGE LEGENDARIES?

Just before Book 7 arrived, the forums were buzzing with rumours that the much sought-after First Age Legendaries would suddenly become relatively more common, what with drops from the new 12-man raid and from Lothlórien elven gift boxes as well as from the Watcher.

Well, in practice the opposite seems to have happened, at least on the European servers. How can one tell? Simply by the fact that for the last seven days, not a single First Age legendary has been on offer on the Laurelin Auction House - not even those relatively unpopular, or at least not much in demand, Runecaster and Warden items which had been most in evidence earlier.

This confirms the widely remarked fact that the (very expensive) gift boxes usually, if not nearly always, prove a disappointment. They do, however, sometimes come across; I recently witnessed the jubilant discovery of a l.60 Captain's greatsword by one lucky player. But a poor drop rate from the new gift boxes doesn't explain why fewer items overall should be turning up compared to pre-Book 7 days. The answer, I think, must lie in the fact that the Watcher raid has been modified and made considerably harder - the result being that Watcher (Mark II) kills are still extremely rare, resulting in few if any First Age legendaries from that source.