Every Legendary Set In Middle-Earth: Shadow Of War, Ranked

Legendary Sets are an interesting feature in Middle-Earth: Shadow Of War. These powerful artifacts grant a variety of perks, abilities, and special bonuses that are suited for a range of playstyles ensuring everyone can find something they like as Talion seeks vengeance for his family.

But while each playstyle will determine what the best Legendary set is for that playthrough, some are inherently better than others on a general level. Whether it’s passive abilities that trigger without thought, massive damage bonuses, or the fact that some sets require pieces of others to even work, here are all of the Legendary Sets ranked in terms of usefulness.

Updated on November 26, 2024, by Jon Eakin: Shadow of War remains an excellent game even years after its release, calling fans back again and again thanks to the unique stories offered on each playthrough with the Nemesis system. To help you best battle your Uruk Nemesis, we’ve given this list an update, adding new features and information.

12 Feral

Go Wild

The Feral set is all about beast domination. A partial set will let you Shadow Mount unbroken Graugs and a full set allows Shadow Mounting of unbroken Drakes. For those who like to ride beasts this is very convenient, but that’s about it.

There are plenty of abilities that allow you to mount beasts already, many Captains have Beast-Slayer making them useless, and many boss fights don’t even give you access to beasts. The Feral set is fun, but not very useful.

Obtaining the Legendary Feral set requires you to go hunting for a number of Legendary Orcs in the Feral tribe:

11 Outlaw

No Rules

The Outlaw set when partially worn grants a 25 percent chance to inflict Fire, Poison, Frost, or Curse on a hit. A full set will give the same ability to Followers but with a 20 percent chance.

This has some uses but causes as many problems as it solves. The Frost and Fire can cancel each other out, the elements don’t stack, and you risk enraging a Captain you’re trying to Dominate.

The Outlaw set can only be obtained by purchasing the Outlaw Tribe DLC. In addition to adding new content, it gives you the Legendary Outlaw set.

10 Machine

Feed The Machine

The Machine set allows you to summon Sappers and Iron Guards which will summon more Sappers. The full set will cause Elven Light to scatter explosives around Talion.

This is a very dangerous set for you to use, as the explosions can easily kill you if you aren’t careful. Having a few pieces of the Warmonger set will negate this, but by itself the Machine set is very risky.

The Machine set can only be obtained by killing certain members of the Machine clan of Orcs:

9 Mystic

Channel Your Power

A partial Mystic set will cause Dominated Grunts to take 50 percent less damage. A full set will also give them Cursed weapons.

This is very handy in battles like sieges with lots of Grunts running around and essentially lets you build a small army with damage reduction and strong weapons. This doesn’t offer any bonuses in 1v1 though which is why it doesn’t rank higher.

This Legendary set can be earned by killing various Mystic Orcs:

8 Slaughter

It’s In The Name

The Slaughter, when partially worn, will slowly drain the character’s health but increase your damage by 40 percent after a successful Drain or Dominate. A full set will give followers a 40 percent boost to damage and cause their health to steadily drop.

This set requires combat to end quickly or have a vampiric-type build to keep health topped off throughout the fight. This health loss also occurs outside of fights which can be annoying. Some of you will love this set, most will be annoyed by it.

The Slaughter Legendary set is obtained after purchasing the Slaughter Tribe Nemesis DLC.

7 Vendetta

Bear A Grudge

A partial Vendetta set causes you to consume 40 percent of your health in place of using Might. A full set will let you consume 25 percent of your health to perform ranged attacks if they’re out of arrows.

This is like the Slaughter set in that health is a resource that must be managed. Some will find the tradeoff worth it for free Might attacks, but many won’t. Having arrows recover health and performing Drain Skills mitigate the health loss, but it’s still flirting with death, especially on higher difficulties.

The Vendetta set can only be obtained by going after Vendetta targets online in various ways:

6 Terror

Incite Fear

The Terror set when worn partially will let you insta-kill fleeing Grunts with Quick Throw. A full set will cause those kills to recover 100 health each time.

This is a very strong set that’s great at crowd control. You can send Grunts running, pick off a few, and wade into battle against the next batch. If you’re clever, you can clear out an entire squad leaving the Captain by himself and ensuring they never receive backup.

In order to get the Legendary Terror set you will need to kill members of the Terror tribe:

5 Warmonger

Fires Of War

A partial set of Warmonger will recover 50 health when killing an enemy on fire and a full set causes you to deliver a blast of flames periodically while on fire. Another perk of this armor is the health recovery that occurs while ablaze.

With specific runes and clever use of exploding barrels, campfires, and other fire sources this can ensure you and your enemies are continually ablaze and health is almost constantly regenerating. This does require catching on fire which can be tricky in many fights, but it’s a powerful set when the flames start rising. For the best effect, combine this with a few pieces of Machine as the explosions from sappers cause you to burn.

To get the Warmonger set you will need to take down various Warmonger Tribe Orcs:

4 Marauder

It’s A Rich Orcs World

Two items from the Marauder set will cause a two percent increase in damage per Mirian picked for 20 seconds. Four items will cause those same Mirian coins to regenerate two health per coin.

This is by far the most powerful set when you down a treasure Olog with 1,000 coins as this gives a 2,000 percent increase to damage for 20 seconds. Aside from these rare moments you will enjoy steady damage boosts and heals as the set will also grant increased Mirian drops, with the added coin being a nice perk by itself.

To get the Marauder set you will need to take down various Marauder Orcs:

3 Dark

Poison Power

A partial Dark set gives you one point of Might when the enemy takes damage from their poison. A full set causes all attacks to have a 15 percent chance to inflict explosive poison on grunts for group poisoning.

Basically load up on poison runes, stealth attack whenever possible, and when the enemy is poisoned, kite them letting the poison do its damage and letting Might build. Trigger Might for a brutal attack or stun with Elven Light, poison more enemies, and start the whole process over again.

There are different tasks that must be completed to obtain each piece of the set:

2 Ringwraith

From The Barrows

Two items of the Ringwraith set will allow the wearer to Call Followers, summoning Iron Guards which will summon Revenants. With a full set, you will receive 20 health whenever an undead follower dies in battle nearby.

This set allows you to quickly build an army of undead to slaughter enemies. Whether in a siege or a standard fight, this set is very helpful for causing damage and recovering a bit of health.

To acquire the Ringwraith set you simply need to complete the main storyline. Once Act III is completed you will receive all six items in the Ringwraith set.

The Ringwraith set is unique in that it has more than one cloak option, giving you some ability to customize your loadout.

1 Bright Lord

The Light Burns

The Bright Lord set when worn partially will cause Wrath to build 50 percent faster but cut Elven Rage duration in half. A full set gives the ability to regenerate a full set of Elven arrows whenever an enemy is killed during the effects of Elven rage.

The pieces themselves provide tremendous boosts to Elven Rage, frost attacks, and ranged attacks in general. Give the character Bow of Horrors and this set is absurd. Fire arrows indiscriminately, freeze a group of enemies when running low, slap them around to charge Elven Rage, use Elven Rage to kill an enemy and recover arrows, rinse and repeat until everything is dead.

To get the Bright Lord set you will need to find and access various Ithildin Doors in the game: