Yule Warsteed

Okay, so the Yule Festival is long over, but in my defence, this post has been half written for weeks now! I thought I’d share a screenshot of my own Yule Warsteed. I could only face grinding the Frostbluff quests on one toon, Barandis, my Cappy of Rohan, to get the warsteed cosmetic appearance. And that was only because babies think it acceptable to wake up for milk at 5am, leaving me a little time to play before Baby Dwarf woke up and demanded coco-pops. I didn’t really mind the deed system brought in for this festival, or the gating of the warsteed cosmetics, but 120 quests was a bit too many in my opinion. Also it was nice being able to buy a reset token in the store if needed, but really, to reset one quest? I didn’t buy any of them, at 100 TP’s per quest that was a bit too steep, but I might have paid 250-350 TP’s to reset the days limit, like a task reset.

Here Barandis models the full cosmetic festival set, dyed burgundy.

This shows only the saddle and leg parts of the outfit slotted, again dyed burgundy. I wanted to show these two pieces on their own, as these are probably the most generic and non-festival specific pieces. Granted, the saddle is decorated with a holly motif, but it looks fairly inconspicuous, and is actually a very useable item on its own. As you can see, the legs have no motifs on them, and can be used to add an interesting flash of colour as part of any outfit.

I like these cosmetics a lot, and am looking forward to seeing the ones associated with the other festivals as and when they come up. With the current system though, I’d be lucky to acquire them on multiple alts, although with the updated quest XP for festivals, doing the festival quests is an alternate way of levelling alts, which does give a bit more of an incentive.

Emma

Anglo-Saxon and Viking designs in LOTRO

I was recently intrigued by a post on the forums, where someone had spotted the fact that the famous Gotlandic picture stone depicting Sleipnir and a Valkyrie had been used, very cleverly, as the new superior scholars craft object. I had noticed this with the Great River expansion, but hadn’t, incorrectly, actually considered it of much interest to other people. For those of you who don’t know, my real life profession is an Archaeologist, and like many archaeologists the world in which I work sadly has far more to do with cold wet muddy fields in Yorkshire than expeditions to the Congo and Egypt, and more trawling through computer files and boxes of dull 19th century pottery than meticulous work under microscopes on ancient artefacts… however it does have its moments, and does have some uses in Pub quizzes and geeking out in computer games like LOTRO.

A period I have always loved, and been fortunate enough to work on sites from, is the Early medieval period in Britain, often called the Anglo-Saxon or Viking period. This era stretched from just after the Romans relinquished control of the lands they occupied in the British Isles around the beginning of the 5th century, to the 11th century following the conquest of Britain by the Normans (themselves actually descended from Vikings) over a period of years after 1066. It was a period dominated by the Pagan originated cultures of Norway, Denmarks, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Northern Germany, and is a period from which in Britain, and abroad, many of the historic texts Tolkien loved originated, and many of the cultures he designed had their roots.

Working on any period in archaeology means you build up a mental collage of designs and objects from the period of study.This is especially true when you have a finds specialism as I do, where over time you build up a mental reference library of information and images from which you draw parallels, and avenues of research, and comparison, to the current objects you may be studying. I have often recognised designs in LOTRO clearly influenced by actual historical styles and designs, and the Rohan expansion is no exception, drawing on Saxon and Viking age imagery more than ever, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to point a few of the more tangible and recognisable ones to you.

The below image is taken from the Cliving mead hall, and the dark design on the pillars is a texture used in Rohan, and is immediately recognisable as a piece of Urnes style art from the late viking period (11th-12th century), usually found on stave churches.

Compare it with the below panel from the actual stave chruch at Urnes

I am fairly certain that the texture is actually a Photoshop manipulated version of this carving, as I can see the same tendrils and terminals as on the above examples, though it has been carefully Photoshopped to form a closed figure of eight, more suitable for game textures (I sure hope they paid their usage fees if they got it off the web!). You will see this texture tweaked and reworked, again and again, in Rohan, from small details and architectural features, to chunks of barge boards on building eaves, but especially in Cliving where it forms a large percentage of the textures used.

Another nice touch are the following carvings, found even more commonly. You can see the largest unmanipulated chunks on the large pillar to the right of the door, and the diagonal beams in the roof, and more heavily manipulated on the pillars and other surfaces.

Theses are clearly derived from a beautiful series of acanthus scroll carvings (a sample image of them below), also from a Norwegian stave church, and particularly these examples from Heddal stave church in Norway (also below). As before there has been a lot of manipulation and Photoshop work to stitch these together and adapt to a usable pattern, but there are still large and readily identifiable portions, and they can be seen on many elements from beams and eaves boards, to the Rohan milestone.

Carving around Heddal stave church door, identical to that at cliving.

Cliving Door frame

Next up we have some rather odd, but perfectly period appropriate designs, though perhaps a little less more clumsily added to the objects in the virtual world. Obviously the below image from Meduseld itself has some more Urnes artwork manipulated for its top border, but it is the circular and oval motifs forming the border below that most interest me.

As you can see below, the central oval portion with the green ‘gem’, is simply this image below of a 9th-10th century viking oval brass brooch, worn by women in pairs to hold up their dress, possibly named a Smokkr… though often called slightly erroneously a hangerok by reenactors. Indeed, I think it is literally just this image with the central portion turned green.

The two circular designs flanking are extracted from the next object, which also adorns many surfaces in Meduseld, from the gate, the fixtures, to the king’s throne itself. Again you can see the Urnes designs worked into the walls, but what I ask you to look at here is the metal work and hinges on the doors.

Here you can see similar designs on the top edge of the king’s throne, with red and green highlighted gems

And finally, on the main pillars in Meduseld, the full object is visible, with highlighted bosses, again with our Petersen P51 oval brooch behind it.

This is, of course, the fabulous belt buckle set from the Sutton Hoo burial (below), buried in the 7th century, and probably belonging to Raedwald, the King of the East Anglians and High King of Britain, who was, interestingly enough, actually from a Swedish dynasty called the Wuffingas.

If you keep your eyes open you will see these designs again, and again. You will also spot that many of the building in Rohan are remarkably similar to Norwegian Stave churches and Saxon buildings. One of the great strengths of Peter Jackson’s adaptations of Tolkiens works, is his art departments ability to look carefully at historic cultures that influenced Tolkiens writing, and use these as an inspiration for their designs, and it seems Turbine is doing similar, which I can only applaud… only next time guys, please try to make it look a little less like you cut and pasted a belt buckle onto things!

For those of you wondering if this is a new method by Turbines art department, please take a look at the following screen shot taken many moons ago of the floor in Mordiriths room in Angmar, specificallythe circular thing we are stood on:

… Heres a closer pic under our feet

Finally, here is an image of the 9th century Anglo-Saxon Strickland brooch …familiar at all?

What to do with our Warsteeds!

So for some people, this is a non issue. They either have one/multiple characters and are happy to spend money, or simply couldn’t care less about cosmetics. That is fair enough, but for folks like us that love messing about with cosmetics, and have a lot of alts, the Warsteed cosmetic system was both a source of interest and excitement, and a huge disappointment.

There have been a number of post on the major blogs around about this issue, Ketani at CSTM, Hymne at Cosmetic LOTRO, and Sig at the excellent new (ish) Warsteeds site to name a few. I won’t go over the fine details here, as they do a better job of it that we will, so we will just look at how we are deciding to deal with it, in our specific circumstances.

The items; saddles, tails, gear, armour/cosmetic sets, and hides I am sort of O.K with. I mean, they are expensive, but they are in line with the sorts of things the LOTRO store has been retailing so far, and there are for the most part in-game alternatives, or options.

The hides and horse colour dyes other than the default grey were something that, if they were cheaper or account wide, we could have splurged more on, but as it is they are a bit steep at 595 Turbine points per character. As a result, I have decided when I hit 80 with a character to choose them A horse each, and that will be it.

Yes, I’ve gone all soft and given it a name, chosen it a colour, and the characters will have to live with that horse for good. One or two may get a hide skin at an extra 595 TP (though oddly in the store the ‘hides’ button on the MC tab seem to be linked to the colours which dye the body slot item, and the ‘body’ button is linked to the hide skins… weird.)

Ganin and Azaghar on their two steeds: Horsa and Hengest. Can you spot the resemblance?

Having resigned ourselves to this limitation because of the excessive cost, I actually quite like how this has altered my thinking about the warsteed. It has done what the Legendary Item system set out to do, but accidentally, through over pricing.

For us, it has given the horses a character, actually makes it a ‘permanent companion’ so to speak, a part of my character and their advancement experience. Hengest is Azaghars horse, and is a dark grey dappled horse with a black mane, Ganin has chosen a mid brown horse with a blond mane called Horsa (yes, from English Anglo-Saxon history). As you can see above, we bascially made the horse version on our dwarf characters, it made us chuckle and gave us an half hour of fun anyway! Now I grant you, our horses may wear barding, or different saddles and gear, they may even miraculously get larger and smaller if we re-trait them down light or heavy trait lines, but it will still be their horses, looking as they do in that picture, a permanent steed with them from now on, as legendary weapons should have been.

Already we are having fun, deciding what our other characters horses might look like, and what they might be called, how they might represent or complement their riders characters. Obviously not everyone will be into this, but for us, it has been fun, and after all thats what hobbies are about right?

We are Lifetime account holders, so the game holds no running cost for us outside of expansions, and about £40ish a year in Turbine points for stuff we fancy, so in many ways we are able to take this stance, as the high cost impacts us less that subscribers. Given the rate we level and play, realistically the monthly allowances we get from our lifetime VIP will basically pay for these steed colours and hides for everyone oertime if we pace our purchases.

Perhaps we are deluding ourselves, perhaps we should take a harder stance with regard to this, as I wouldn’t disagree that they are too expensive, and prohibitive of the sort of splurge purchasing I thought I would indulge in. However,we have taken the active decision to not get too het up about it, or back ourselves into an ideological corner from which there is no retreat. We have registered our complaint on the forums and within the wider LOTRO community, but we are not going to get overly annoyed or embroiled in the issue as this is our hobby and it is easily tarnished when you set off on a, often futile, crusade to change things. We are taking what we have been dealt by Turbine, and choosing what we feel are appropriate purchases, and what we consider to be cheeky and too much, and thus Turbine will not be getting money off us for, which brings us onto the warsteed dye situation…

Azbarak is pleased she wears purple and won a steed of the guardian in the lottery, because she is one of the few people on the server not wearing variations on the same theme! Indigo makes a good purple match!

To be fair there are some free colours which you can use to dye your horses outfits and barding; Orange, yellow, green, rust, indigo, and rose. So… yeah, ones that would sell well then… not. It is however good news for Dutch or Brazilian football fans. For access to the other colours you have to pay TP to unlock them for use, so far, I am fairly comfortable with this.

595 Turbine Points is far, far, too much for a pack of four predetermined colours, randomly mixed, that is bound per character. For people like me with 5-6+ level cap alts, 2K+ TP per character, just to parp around with dyes is ridiculous. We are part of the LOTRO community that likes cosmetics, naturally fan boy and girls disposed often, and we are a natural target for the F2P marketing, and are pretty comfortable with that, but we are not total idiots.

Two options would have been acceptable to us personally, If they had announced it was 595 TP to unlock the colours for the whole account or server, this still would have netted turbine 2K+ of points for a full access unlock, though admittedly people with alts would have got more benefit than those with just one character, who would still be in the same boat.

The other option is choice, often Turbines favourite word when it comes to trying to flog things. In this instance 100ish points per colour, hell even 150 TP per colour, would have at least given us a choice of what colours to buy and use, but as it stands if you are after black, then you get lumped with a number of other insipid colours, basically just so they could justify sticking the 595 price tag on it, then claiming ‘but it is for four colours‘! I am sure if they could have got away with charging 595 for individual colour of black, red, Rivendell green, Ered Luin blue, and crimson,  and branded them ‘premium colours‘, i.e. the colours the bulk of folks want, then they would, and then stick the rest on for 100 points each, to fill up the corners. I suppose this shows us they still have some shame.

As it stands, we have decided to not buy any dyes, and do our best with plain horses, or greens. If and when we have used our monthly allowances and bought our steeds some hide colours, then we may consider using our monthly allowance for these, but I am not using Turbine points I paid money for, for this unlock. Once again, I have a lot of sympathy for folks who are subscribing, as this is a bit beyond the pale.

Either way they will get their monthly points back for some of this stuff, but it will take a long while to accrue, still, we are in no rush. If Turbine had wanted our actual money, they went the wrong way about it. But, as always, we shall remain irritatingly cheerfully optimistic, and have fun with the new game mechanic that, I have slowly been creeping through rounds of Beta to live from being suspiciously uncomfortable with, to really enjoying.

Don’t fancy yours much

Outfitting the Khazad Guard

We have finally got round to creating a page about our kin uniform. We were a mottley bunch when we started and it didn’t half smarten us all up! As with everything we do, we think far too much about thing like this, and take it to the ends of the earth, but if you are still not put off, you can read all about it here, or just access it from the ‘The Khazad Guard’ Menu above.

cheers

Adam and Emma

Some of our New Outfits- Cebelia

Cebelia was the second character that I ever created, but in four years she is still little played and is languishing at level 35. I plan to level her up at some point, honest! As yet, she is not a priority project, but I made a point of bringing her out for the Anniversary Festival. I’m glad that I did because she won a Lossoth Steed in the envelope quest. Just because she is not currently being levelled doesn’t mean that she can’t look good.

Power Ranger

Most Hunters seem to try to emulate some sort of Ranger type outfit, and Cebelia is no different. However, as a Hobbit lady with attitude, she sees no reason to blend into the background. I love the Grey Company cosmetic rewards you get for various stages of the Epic Book, and use some of the pieces a lot. The boots really do not work on a Dwarf, there is too much stretching and the dagger in the boot becomes strangely distorted.

Head – Fine Grey Company Hood (Epic Book Cosmetic Reward, Vol 3 Book 5 Chapt 1) Sea blue dye.

Armour – Reinforced Leather Dunlending Jacket (Medium Armour Dunland Quest Reward) Sea blue dye.

Shoulders – Fine Grey Company Wrap (Epic Book Cosmetic Reward, Vol 3 Book 5 Chapt 1) Sea blue dye.

Gloves – Fine Grey Company Gauntlets (Epic Book Cosmetic Reward, Vol 3 Book 5 Chapt 1) Sea blue dye.

Boots – Fine Grey Company Boots (Epic Book Cosmetic Reward, Vol 3 Book 5 Chapt 1) Sea blue dye.

Steed of the Guardian

I was lucky enough to win a Steed of the Guardian on Cebelia in one of the lotteries, so of course I had to make a suitable outfit to go with it, but at the same time make one different to the one I previously made for Emsibelle, my little Hobbit Tank. Again the Rangers cosmetics make an appearance. I needed to stick to the same colour scheme of reds, whites and greys to match the horse, but in a different ratio to Emsibelle’s outfit. I didn’t want this outfit to look too much like a heavy armour set

Armour – Forged Iron Dunlending Hauberk (Heavy Armour Dunland Quest Reward) White dye.

Shoulders – Fine Grey Company Wrap (Epic Book Cosmetic Reward, Vol 3 Book 5 Chapt 1) Crimson Dye.

Gloves – Fine Grey Company Gauntlets (Epic Book Cosmetic Reward, Vol 3 Book 5 Chapt 1) Crimson Dye.

Boots – Shield Bearers Boots (Guardian Moria Class Armour) Crimson dye.

Steed – Steed of the Guardian (Limited Store Exclusive)

Thanks for looking! The next Hobbit lady to get a makeover will be Dandilyon.

Emma

Some of our New Outfits: Gilforniel

(Emma) While we have taken a small break from blogging, we have still been more or less active on LoTRO, and I have been taking a little time to work on some of my outfits. I bought some extra wardrobe slots when they were on sale, and have been playing around with it. One thing I have noticed is that it is very hard to be a girl who primarily plays a Dwarf. My three main characters are all Dwarves, and as such I think I have missed out on some pretty sweet quest reward cosmetics, because a lot of stuff just looks downright hideous on a Dwarf but very nice on an Elf maiden. So my wardrobe has to cater for a load of Dwarves and some ladies. Some cosmetics change in appearance completely depending on the gender of the character, but I’m pretty pleased with what I have so far, and have an idea of what quest rewards to get next time round.

Gilforniel had been having a little extra playtime recently, As Adam has been using her to help me level my Cappy Barandis, on our second account. Having been taken off the shelf, albeit temporarily most likely, she has had a bit of a makeover.

Moria Outfit

(Emma) As we were playing in Moria at the time, I made her a suitable outfit for traversing those deep and dark Dwarven halls, with a suitable injection of colour.

I  went for a Sea Blue and Yellow colour combo here, mainly because I realised that I had never used yellow dye before, and when the Cloak of Shadow and Flame is dyed sea blue, you are left with some interesting yellows and greens where the flames are portrayed.As you will notice for the most part I tend to try to leave the head bare. This is purely personal preference, as I like to see my characters.

Armour – Forged Iron Dunlending Hauberk (Heavy Armour Dunland Quest Reward) Sea Blue dye.

Shoulders -Ornate Pauldrons of the Dunland Swordsman (Heavy Armour Dunland Quest Reward) Yellow dye.

Gloves – Burnished Dunlending Gauntlets (Heavy Armour Dunland Quest Reward) Yellow dye

Boots – Boots of Durin’s Guard (Guardian Moria Class Armour) Sea Blue dye

Cloak – Cloak of Shadow and Flame (Vol 2 Book 6 Chapter 8 New Devilry rare drop quest reward) Sea blue dye.

Rich Elven Warrior

(Emma) Adam created this outfit in rich crimson colours, to portray a wealthy and noble Elf Warrior-Maid. He made this outfit to wear while he levels her for me, a fair exchange as far as I can see! The mixture of utilitarian leather and chain mail with furs and richly enamelled details really works here we think. ((Adam) : I like red outfits, so if I was going to play Emmas champ for a bit, I fancied having a cool outfit. I love these gloves from the Great River, and thought they’d bring out the rich reds and golds of the cloak, and the fur and chain mail would make it still a warrior and utility based set.)

Armour – Trappers Leather Jacket (Medium Armour Nan Curunir Quest Reward) Crimson dye.

Shoulders – Potent Calenard War Pauldrons (Westfold Crafted Heavy Armour) Crimson dye.

Gloves – Gloves of Forbidden Love (Medium Armour Great River Quest Reward) Crimson dye.

Boots – Reinforced Leather Dunlending Boots (Medium Armour Dunland Quest Reward) Default dye.

Cloak – Swan Cloak (Store only cosmetic) Crimson dye.

White Warrior

(Adam) Whilst playing Emmas champ, I must admit I got quite involved in outfitting. Its nice to have an elegant torso to fit outfits too sometimes, especially when you are used to playing a male and more often than not a dwarf! So I made another outfit. This time I wanted to use a cool chest piece I picked up from a world drop, and thought it would be another great oportunity to use the gloves and boots I had above, and a great way to get the yule cloak incorporated in a non christmassy way! Anyway I have reached my goal of hitting level 60 for Emma, so I am now finished levelling and outfitting Gilforniel, and am handing her officially back to Emma, which is a shame because I had a lot of fun cross dressing… hmm, perhaps thats too much information!

I think this last shot shows just how versatile and awesome those gloves are!

Armour – Shining Elven Leather Jacket (Medium Armour Evendim/Lonelands/North Downs Landscape drop) White dye.

Leggings – Elven Hunters Leggings (Medium Armour Level 35 Crafted item) White dye

Shoulders – Padded Mantle of the Dunland Soothsayer (Light Armour Dunland Quest Reward) Crimson dye.

Gloves – Gloves of Forbidden Love (Medium Armour Great River Quest Reward) White dye.

Boots – Reinforced Leather Dunlending Boots (Medium Armour Dunland Quest Reward) Default dye.

Cloak – Snowy hoodless cloak (winter festival cosmetic) White dye.

There is going to be a lot more outfit offerings in this little series, so keep looking!

Adam and Emma

We Want More Beards!

With Turbines announcements of armour reaching the Store, and the whole ants nest that ensued on the forums, it got me thinking of what I actually use the store for, and what I would willingly pay hard earned cash for to enhance my game play.

I have bought a few cosmetics in there, when they are on sale. I have bought shared storage and wardrobe space, and a couple of character slots. I’ve bought relic removal scrolls, skirmish mark reset scrolls and enhaced Reputation. Think I may have got a few jewellers recipes on there when I wanted to make a Sabretooth Cat, when we first made our Loremasters.

The thing which sets Lord of thhe Rings Online apart from many of the other MMOs out there is its elaborate cosmetic system. Especially now after several updates, you can wear pretty much anything that comes your way and dye it in a myriad of colours. Your characters can start to be really unique. And cosmetics sell.

Festivals are essentially a way of gaining new outfits and maybe a matching mount, and they are always busy. Cosmetic items always seem to do well on the auction, the store has some nice exclusive cosmetics, and there are a number of great blogs out there dedicated to making some awesome outfits with everything available. People like cosmetics. How many players paid top whack for the Isengard expansion preorder, just for the extra outfits and horses? I know I did.

And yet, there is still room for Turbine to make a boat load of cash from the store and make alot of altoholics and fashionistas really happy, and still not upset the players who are convinced its only a matter of time until you can pay to win.

Haki's Beard...

Ganin's Beard, Look Familiar?

Adam recently decided to create a new Man of Rohan, (getting excited with the expansion announcement) and something of a solo project. Baby Dwarf was asleep so I went and had a look at the character creation process, which always interests me. He was struggling to find a hairstyle that wasn’t ridiculous or reminiscent of a boy band, and a beard he could live with, something between Lemmy and Gandalf. And there wasn’t that many. I have the same problem with my legion of Dwarves. I seem to use the same few beards and hairstyles. Some of the Dwarf hair again looks like a boy band haircut, and one that makes me think of a LEGO brick, but generally they are okay, although many of them end up different shades of colour with the beards and don’t look right. As for the beards, the ones without a moustache put me in mind of Planet of the Apes, and are to be avoided at all costs, and some are almost there, but look blurred, and some only work with the hair if they are black, and just don’t look right in the other colours. Other players must feel the same about some of the choices, because after four years of playing this game I have never seen some of the combinations used.

And that’s it right there – I would buy new hair and beards in the store.

If anyone has checked out the free to play MMO Champions Online, they will know that they have a system like this. For those of you who don’t know this game, it’s a cartoon/comic book superhero game. You make a superhero, and fight crime with super powers. It’s that simple and immense fun. Granted, Superheroes are not lore restricted, and can pretty much look like and wear anything, have wings or snake skin or whatever. But in the character creation panel you are faced with a whole lot of options that you can use, but some of them are either unlocked in the store or by competing deeds. I really liked that, and its something which could work in LoTRO.

Grimbold

In Star Wars the Old Republic, there is a fairly detailed character creation panel (although there is no cosmetic

Frodo

system available), but the thing that I liked most about it was that all the NPC’s are made using combinations of all characteristics available to players. In LoTRO, many of the NPC’s have beards or hairstyles that are not available to the player. Grimbold has a nice simple no frills stubbly beard that players cannot replicate, and Frodo has curls which does not look like he has a small cloud attached to his head. This could be utilised by Turbine. Account hair packs – even if they were sold separately by race and gender. This is all fluff, and no different from buying a cloak or a helmet in there. It won’t give anyone an advantage, but it could make a lot of people very happy, and keep the money rolling in to Turbine’s coffers, funding the game we all love.

Emma

Current Cosmetic Outfits: Part 4

Inspired by a couple of the new cosmetic pieces in Isengard, I have been outfitting a few of my characters with a different cosmetic appearance utilising some of these new pieces. One of the first was my Dwarf Hunter; Tyri, in an attempt to revitalise my interest in a class I have always found a bit dull. So armed with a wardrobe full of items and a head full of ideas I set to work.

The intention here was to create a heaving looking skirmisher. Whilst Dwarves were not all plate mail, then were still a doughty and hardy race, well armoured in battle. Sadly outfitting dwarves can be very tough, many players who do make cosmetic outfits are into otherworldly elves, or cute hobbits, and this means cosmetics are often geared towards those body forms, particularly the light and medium armours. There are many many issues of clipping or distorition of designs due to stretchin with armour on dwarves, clipping particularly on gloves, cloaks, and helmets that completely remove their beards, and in addition to this the light and medium armour are often very unflattering. It often takes some time bugging all the faults. However we are getting a bit of an eye for finding something appropriate that will work, and I think in this I have a very nice compromise.

I decided green would be the theme, and Rivendell Green is a very rich dark colour, and I set about making him look armoured, but not plated and heavily set like a tank. Given the above issues with leather armour, this is a pretty tough job, but was great fun and here are the results.

The chest piece is the Forged Iron Dunlending Hauberk, in Rivendell Green, a Heavy Armour ROI quest reward placed in the wardrobe to allow Tyri to wear it. The chain mail underneath and the overcoat make him look suitably armoured for war, but with more of a focus on being light weight and agile.

The Boots are Reinforced Leather Dunlending Boots, dyed Gold, Medium Armour ROI quest reward. These have a slighly armour plated look to them, adding to the armoured feel.

The Gloves are the Marchwardens level 58 medium armour gloves, dyed Rivendell Green. These add a little more hunters flair, and some nice highlights.

Shoulders are the heavy armour engraved iron pauldrons ROI quest reward dyed Rivendell Green, again add to the armoured appearance without being over bearing.

Hood is the travellers hood from the LOTRO store dyed Rivendell Green. Hoods are something I always associate with dwarves, more so even than rangers, due to having read the hobbit first when I was very young. So if any head gear is worn it has to be a heavy helmet, or a hood!

Back/Quiver is the Fancy Elven Quiver from the Anniversary Gift-Box, again dyed Rivendell Green. Cloaks I always imagine could impinge on a woodsman (having run through a wood in a cloak myself I can confirms they catch on anything and everything and often unblanace you).

The quiver and the gloves have the undyable yellow portions on them, and when this is the case I think it’s often better to use that as an accent colour and make a feature of it, rather than ignore it, hence Tyri’s yellow boots!  I think they are quite fun too, they remind me of Tom Bombadill!

So there he is fully armoured and tooled up. It did help revive my interest in Hunters, I have played him a little more, and he is now 61, and ready to start the assault on Mirkwood. I think I caught the balance right between armour, and utility, and I have to say I think with the combination of the races form andn outfits available, and the ethos of a dwarf hunter, outfitting one surely has to be the toughest job in LOTRO!

thanks for reading

Adam

The Fleet Footed Goat

I have been particularly lucky in the lotteries lately and was very excited to see that I had won the new store exclusive mount on one of my main characters, Haki. And if I do say so myself, the Fleet Footed Goat is absolutely stunning. I know that I have said in the past that I objected to the 2k Turbine Points for the store exclusive mounts, but with this one I could have been seriously tempted. I could still be persuaded to treat some of my other alts to it. It’s very eye-catching in its simplicity – all over bright, pure white, with elegant metal wings and spiral motif, accentuated with what appears to be turquoise gemstones. Just the ticket for the heir to the Khazad Guard, descended from the Broadbeam Dwarf Lords of old. Adam was extremely jealous when he saw it, especially as he entered me in the lotteries when I was having a late sleep on Sunday morning. First I knew of it was when I checked the lotteries at lunchtime and saw that Haki had won. I know for a fact that if Adam doesn’t win it in a lottery he will be purchasing this for Izbaruk. Like the other store exclusives it is one of the fastest and sturdiest mounts in-game, with 68% run speed and 250 morale, and like all store exclusives, this goat will only be available for a limited time. I’m not sure when this will be going live in the store, but my guess would be soon. My advice is to keep checking those lotteries, and in the meantime go grind some TP’s, because this would make a perfect christmas present for all your favourite alts!

I could stretch this out a bit more, but I’m sure you all want to see some screenshots, so here goes!

As you can see it is truly gorgeous!

Good Luck!

Emma

A Whole Lotto Horses

Got to say that I love the lotteries! As an EU player they still have the novelty value, and both  myself and Adam check them regularly on all our accounts. So far we have been pretty lucky, but this last weekend Adam came away with a Worn Symbol, and I got a shiny new horse on two of my alts. The lucky ladies were Emsibelle, my little Hobbit Tank, who won the Steed of the Guardian in a Guardian only lottery, and Fearien, my Elf Loremaster, who won the Cremello Steed. I was pretty excited, and had to rush off and design new outfits to match.

When I first saw the Cremello Steed on A Casual Stroll to Mordor back in March, I wasn’t sure that I liked it. But when I saw it come up in the lottery, I entered it anyway. It is actually quite a difficult horse to outfit with I thought, as it has quite a busy pattern on it and the reds and blues on it can be difficult to replicate on some items. Cosmetic LoTRO have recently done their excellent version of a matching outfit for this horse, so I decided to do my own something simple and elegant suitable for a noble Elf lady.

Fearien on her Cremello Steed

Dress : Elegant Dress, Store Cosmetic, undyed

Cloak: Widows Drape, Dunlending Reputation Vendor, dyed red.

Now, for Emsibelle, she is a tomboy, no-frills Tank, and so I needed something suitably heavy armoured, and yet looks fairly comfortable to be riding in. Her usual attire is the Durins Guard moria set, dyed rose, but I needed a whole new colour scheme. The Steed of the Guardian is quite dark, mainly made up of what looks like a worn mid grey leather armour with various red and white shield motifs and a couple of weapons and saddle bags. Because of the leather on the horse, I looked mainly at what I had collected in the way of medium armour and went from there. Fortunately for me, the Isengard expansion came with alot of very nice looking pieces, which I have been hoarding.

Emsibelle on her Steed of the Guardian

Chest: Reinforced Leather Dunlending Jacket, Medium Armour quest reward, burgundy dye

Shoulders: Ornate Pauldrons of the Dunland Swordsman, Heavy Armour quest reward, default dye

Gloves: Burnished Dunlending Gauntlets, Heavy Arour quest reward, default dye

Boots: Reinforced leather Dunlending Boots, Medium Armour quest reward, default dye

Incidentally, today is the first day that the Steed of the Guardian is openly available. It is a Store only mount, and only available until 8th December, although it may crop up in further sales and lotteries. At 1995 TP’s per character its pretty pricey, although its run speed is 68% and has 250 morale, putting it stat wise up there with the Steed of Eriador (world renowned) and suchlike. I will say that like the Steed of the Hunter, these horses are inspired by the classes only, and do not come equipped with any other skills. They can be ridden by any character, regardless of class.

If you do feel like you have a pile of Turbine Points burning a hole in your pockets, have a look at the Mounted emotes. These are emotes that you command your horse to do, and look pretty impressive. They were also available in some of the lotteries recently, and it may be that they are in lotteries around the same times that horses are available. Currently there are three mounted emotes available in the Store – Bow, Rear, and Kick. They come in at 195 TP’s each, and again it is per character. I was lucky enough to win one of them on my little Hobbit Hunter, Cebelia.

Cebelia demonstrating the Bow emote

Happy Riding!

Emma