Okay, so I have been wanting to use this chest piece for a VERY long time. It’s called the Ancient Inlaid Breastplate, and it’s a heavy armor piece available from questing in the Great River. It’s a beautiful plated robe, with amazing detail and a distinct elvish vibe. The only problem? I couldn’t for the life of me find a shoulder piece to go with it.
That is, I should say, until a couple days ago, when I finally got my hands on the Isengard Minstrel raid shoulders. Well, to be fair, it’s really a cosmetic version acquired as part of the Grammarian set (an outfit purchasable via mithril coins in game and originally created by the Starry Mantle https://starrymantle.wordpress.com/2013/08/07/grammarian-of-gondor/).
I’m not generally a fan of using LPs or Mithril coins to buy items that you can earn in game, but I will admit that the thought of leveling my minstrel up to level 80 was kind of a daunting thought, and I had some extra LPs so I went ahead and bought the set.
I was really uncertain when assembling this outfit, but I have to say it’s probably become one of my favorites? I’m not exactly sure, there’s just something so elegant about it. Also, for any of you Witcher fans (if you get a chance you should seriously read the books by the way – they’re even better than the games which, to be fair, I’ve never actually played but they seem really cool in their own right) this ensemble gives me some serious Yennefer of Vangerberg vibes, which I am totally here for.
I didn’t do Great River quests my first time through the game on my champ, so the first time I saw this hauberk/robe I thought it was just a reskinned version of the light Nadhin robe. Eventually of course I realized that this one must have been introduced to the game first since Dol Amroth is a higher level region, but that didn’t stop me from trying to make a black swan outfit out of it.
I was actually already working on an outfit for that purpose when I finally realized that this item was decorated in leaves not feathers, so I switched directions. I’m still trying to put together a black swan ensemble, but I’ve picked a more appropriate chest-piece.
For this one I decided on elvish forest warrior (whatever the heck that means) so I traveled to Mirkwood and went with a distinctly more nature-y theme. The shoulders can’t be dyed though (although with the Grammarian version you can change the color of the embroidery, just not the black background) so I decided to go with black as my dye of choice for the other items.
Since I was going for a clear battle-ready theme I felt I had to include a warsteed. I’m still on the fence about whether I like the combination of the horse and rider, but I figured no combination was worse. I really didn’t have a lot of options that would compliment the outfit, at least not on my LM. I’ve acquired a bunch of different war steed sets for my champion, but that’s because he’s my main and I’ve been playing him for years. Unfortunately war-steed armors from the LOTRO store are SUPER expensive, so I won’t go buying them for all my toons, and I felt this outfit HAD to be modeled by my LM.
I still think they pair pretty well. If you tilt your head and squint the dragon wings on the caparison even kind of look like leaves.
Outfit:
Head: Rune-Maker's Hat (default)
Shoulders: Grmmarian's Shoulder Pads (white) (or default version for Minstrel ROI raid set)
Chest: Ancient Inlaid Breastplate (black)
Hands: Shield-Master's Gauntlets (black)
Feet: Boots of the Cudor (default)
Back: Legolas' Cloak (black)
Staff: Reshaped LM staff of the 1st age
Warsteed:
Body: Caparison of the Reminiscing Dragon (black)
Head: Head-Piece of the Northern Herald (white)
Saddle: Basic Black Saddle
LOTRO Adventurer 