Scouting out the Lonelands

So I’m currently running around Middle Earth with my 130 Elf Huntress as I complete the Ballad of Bingo Boffin. As a result, I’m revisiting a bunch of low level areas, and have decided to make outfits to go with it. My last outfit was worn as I quested through the Barrow Downs just outside of Bree, and today I’m sporting a more stealthy outfit as I travel through the Lonelands.

I’m actually having quite a bit of fun with this. Bingo Boffin is a pretty demanding hobbit. He’s lazy, and I’m half-convinced he can’t do anything for himself. But running around as a skilled warrior helping out a curious hobbit does make me feel more immersed in the world of Middle Earth than I have in a long time, and I’m having a lot of fun getting into the experience. Feeling annoyance at Bingo, dressing up in area-appropriate clothing, feeling superior and awesome next to this bumbling hobbit…It’s pretty awesome.

I see you orcs. Prepare to meet your maker.

I really had too much fun with this. But LOTRO is supposed to be fun, so that’s all that really matters. And as much as Bingo annoys me, questing for him really does make me feel like I’m back in Middle Earth.

So you want to dance, do you? Have at me, scum!

Moving on to a different orc camp to wreak more havoc…

Also, it’s really funny remembering that lower level mobs won’t attack you. You can literally run through the middle of an orc camp and they won’t even come near you. It’s like you don’t exist.

I’m supposed to kill you…but…you’re not attacking me…

Look, if I don’t kill you, you promise not to hurt me, right?

Alas, it was time to move on from my new friend. So I remounted my horse, and set off for Weathertop.

Also, I just want to say, it’s moments like this — where I can just stand at a distance and look at the majesty of Weathertop that I’m reminded of how much I love this game. This view is just so cool.

Lol I love how the feathers just float down after you kill a bird.

Outfit:
Head: Lesser Secret of the West Helmet (burgundy)
Shoulders: Pauldrons of the Mark (red)
Lesser Secret of the West Breastplate (crimson)
Gloves: The Bowmaster’s Gloves (crimson)
Legs: Spellweaver’s Leggings (red)
Feet: Lesser Memory of the West Shoes (black)
Bow: Exquisite Black Ash Bow
Sword: Defender of Gwingris
Dagger: Hero’s Dagger

Warsteed
Head: Head-Piece of the Northern Herald (Ccrimson)
Body: Harness of the Harbinger (crimson)
Saddle: Citadel saddle
Legs: Citadel Leggings (red)

Rohirric Ruffian

Here’s another sort of Viking-inspired outfit, this time with a distinctly Rohirric twist. The helm and gloves are both from Rohirrim cosmetic sets. It also gave me a chance to try out the Snowbeast warsteed set, which I’d gotten for myself last Christmas but haven’t really used. The outfit is very much supposed to feel like a scrapped together set.

Try me, outlaw! My baby bear will mess you up!

Ironically (or perhaps unironically if the outfit is supposed to be scrapped together??) it’s actually my high elf modeling this outfit. I think my thought process was supposed to be somewhat along the lines of, “what if my elf huntress went to Rohan and decided to immerse herself in the culture?” I’m not sure the finished product reflects that so much…by the time I finished it I actually had this narrative of a daughter of one of the horse lords who wanted to take up her father’s sword after he died, but had to scrap together her own armor and weapons to do so.

Something slew this orc…we should investigate!

I actually really had fun with this outfit. I don’t know why…It’s just fun. And less “put together” than what I normally strive for.

I like that you can just see my bear cup poking out between my legs. Like it’s ready to attack, but not ready enough to go out in front lol

Outfit:
Head: Helm of the Hornburg Defender
Shoulders: Embroidered Mantle of Bard’s Will (black)
Back: Cloak of the Skin-Changers (black)
Chest: Jacket of the Sunset hills (default)
Legs: none -- for some reason if you wear pants with this tunic, it will change the color of the tunic t the color of the pants. I'm not lying. I don't know why. 
Hands: Gloves of the Isengard Dispeller
Feet: Lithe Boots of Thranduil’s Power (black)
Bow: Arinora’s Bow
Dagger: Bronze Dagger
Sword: Potent Dextrous sword of Finesse

Warsteed:
Complete Snow Beast set (dyed black)

I think going forward I want to make more of these “pieced together” looks. They’re really fun 🙂 It’s like organized chaos. My favorite kind of chaos (and organization, if I’m being honest).

Raven Master

So, I had no intention of making this outfit. Basically, I saw the Raven Mask while randomly browsing the Auction House out of boredom, and uh…approximately 30 seconds after seeing it, I knew exactly what I wanted to do for an outfit.

Honestly, I’m a little surprised I never made this outfit before. It would not be shocking either to find out if someone else has done this exact combination cause it just makes so much sense. Also, I apologize if the pictures are a little weird – my in game personal lantern has completely stopped working, and I wanted to take these pictures at night, so I’ve had to do some brightness correction after the fact

Also, turns out Raven LM pets are not super great to take pictures with. Considering they like to stand INSIDE OF YOU.

Exhibit A. What are you doing sweetie? WHAT are you doing??

That being said, I remember when I first started playing my LM and I got my first Raven pet, I was ecstatic. I didn’t have any cosmetic pets yet, so LM pets were all I knew about, and I LOVE birds. My Frost Raven went with me EVERYWHERE.

Also funny anecdote – I spent about 30 minutes going through all my toons trying to figure out who had the Cloak of the Raven – because I know I’ve had multiple copies of it over the years. Couldn’t find it anywhere, so apparently I’ve deleted them all or sold them, but after all that time looking, turns out I DID have it saved in my wardrobe. So…that was a lot of wasted time.

I also did not realize that summoning your Raven LM pet causes blue/purple mist and feathers to materialize everywhere. It might be because I haven’t used my Raven for a while, like since before I got a computer that could run the game at high res.

Outfit:
Head: Raven Festival Mask (white)
Shoulders: Light Nadhin Shoulders (black)
Back: Cloak of the Raven (grey)
Chest: Light Nadhin Robe (black)
Gloves: Light Nadhin Gauntlets (black)
Feet: Medium Nadhin Boots (default) – don’t really matter as you can’t really see them
Staff: Lainis

Ice Queen

Okay, I think this is my last winter outfit for a while. Especially since today is the last day of Yule Festival! And since I’ve done a Yule Princess and Snowflake post, I figured this time I’d go straight for Ice.

I actually have a couple color variations for this outfit, but this one is probably my favorite. I say probably because I’m really not sure. I just like all of them.

So anyways, this outfit started because I really wanted to use the snowflake gown, but didn’t think it actually went well enough with the cloak of flurries. Mainly because the cloak is extremely iridescent, whereas the dress is only slightly so. Then I remembered the bridal veil from midsummer festival, and thought to myself, “huh…”

Now, to preface some of the night photos, I’ve been having trouble with my in-game personal lantern. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. It worked fine for my ice-flower light blue outfit, but for some reason it didn’t work for this one, even though I took photos at the same place in game at the same time in game.

Luckily the Northern Lights were out in Forochel, so that helped.

Okay, so that’s the first variation. The second one is an all white outfit:

I like this one a lot too. Also, this one pairs really well with a warsteed, so that’s a bonus:

Just ignore how the dress clips through the horse’s belly. Lord knows that’s what I do.

Like it’s just so elegant and beautiful.

No I don’t see any clipping issues. I have no idea what you’re talking about.

I also experimented a bit with different halters/saddles, and found that it was really flexible.

And, whereas the blue version of this outfit looked really good at night with the Northern Lights, I found the golden tint to the white version makes it go really well with sunsets:

Then the last color variation is a black one, mostly because I really wanted to see how the bridal veil would look dyed black. It looks really cool by the way, though this is probably my least favorite outfit of the three:

Actually, I don’t know. This outfit is pretty cool too…

Anywhoooo…..

Outfit:
Head: Ice Flower Crown (moria silver, white, black)
Shoulders: Grimbeorn’s Shouldes (default, white, black)
Back: Bridal Veil (grey, moria silver, black)
Chest: Gala-worthy Gown (steel blue, white, black)

Warsteed:
Head: Head-Piece of the Ice Flower (white, white, black) – head-piece of the Northern Herald is also a good substitute (I used it in some pictures)
Saddle: Yule Gala Saddle, Saddle of the Northern Herald, Yule Gala Saddle
Caparison: Yule Gala Caparison (default, white, black)

Battle Sage

So this outfit was sort of an offshoot of my previous outfit – while I was trying to figure everything out, I happened to pair the Shoulders of the Lady’s Defense with the Isengard Lore Master’s robe. It didn’t give me the look I wanted for a winter outfit, but I immediately knew I wanted to make something from it.

I decided that it was both an elegant and intimidating look, one perfect for a powerful mage who only rarely has to enter the fray herself. And I know LMs aren’t technically magic-wielders according to the game lore, but I’ve already expressed my opinion on the matter and you can fight me on this.

I also decided to change up my LM’s normal hairstyle for this look, opting for a pulled back appearance rather than her long flowing locks. It seemed more appropriate for battle, it looked a bit more regal, and I liked the idea of her wearing some gold on her head to match the outfit and this hair style had just that.

So yeah that’s about it. Trying to mentally prepare myself for going back to school next week. I am excited about my classes, although my schedule won’t be finalized until drop/add has come and gone. I’m planning on taking a computer programming class which has me very excited, particularly since I really want to eventually understand how games work.

Outfit:
Shoulders: Shoulders of the Lady's Defense (ceremonial version available at Lalia's Market) (black)
Chest: The Beast-Keeper's Robe (default)
Hands: The Beast-Keeper's Gloves (Default)
Feet: Potent Battle Boots of the Mark (black)
Staff: Lore Master's Staff of the Third Age (min. level 53)

Warsteed:
Head: Head-Piece of the Unflagging Dragon (black)
Body: Caparison of the Unflagging Dragon (black)
Saddle: Plain Black Saddle
Feet: Light Leggings of the Entwash (black)
Tail: Tail of the Unflagging Dragon (black)
Body/Mane: solid black

Empress of Midnight Chill

I’m gonna be honest, I have no idea why I picked this particular title. All I know is that this is basically a counter-outfit to the Yule Queen one, similar to how I made the two complimentary sage outfits.

I don’t actually have a lot to say about the outfit. It’s basically just black and gold, whereas the other one was white and gold.

In more exciting news I finally got a new computer! I originally got a mac, but I wasn’t thrilled with it, and I couldn’t justify spending that much money on something I wasn’t crazy about so I returned it. Instead I got a PC – it’s actually a gaming PC technically, and it’s the most amazing piece of technology I’ve ever seen. I’m in love. I’m obsessed. Which is good, cause I still over a week left before I go back to school and I am bored out of my mind!!

Um….what else…I watched the new Witcher series! And honestly I really liked it. Don’t get me wrong, it has plenty of issues and some of the choices the show runners made seem excessive at best, gratuitous and unnecessary at worst. BUT, that being said, I think the core casting of Geralt, Yennefer, Ciri, and Dandelion (Jaskier) was extremely well done, and for me that’s what’s most important. I thought the chemistry between the characters was also really well established, except for that between Geralt and Ciri (due to lack of screen time). All in all, it made me want to reread the books, and I think it has a ton of potential for season 2.

I also watched some of HBO’s adaptation of His Dark Materials, so I think I might want to read those books now too. What else…watched the new Star Wars movie, still on the fence about whether I consider the new trilogy to be cannon…um…

I don’t know…I’m bored. But LOTRO looks really good with my new computer’s graphics card. I didn’t realize how much detail LOTRO had…I also didn’t realize how different colors look on modern screens. It’s interesting. Purple is a lot less blue now…

I’m still getting used to the lack of buttons on the laptop’s mouse. But all in all I’m glad I stuck with windows instead of switching to Apple. I love Apple for my phone and iPad and stuff, but I like the feeling of control Windows gives me when it comes to my computer. Also I just hate change and I’ve always used PCs.

So yeah. That’s about it. I’m in stream of consciousness mode right now.

OUTFIT:
Head: Ice Flower Crown (black)
Shoulders: The Beast-Keeper's Shoulder Pads (default)
Chest: Robe of Cleansing Fire (default)
Hands: The Beast Keeper's Gloves (default)
Feet: Threadbare Boots of the Dunland Healer (black)

Warsteed: 
Head: Head-Piece of the Ice Flower (black)
Body: Caparison of the Ice Flower (black)
Saddle: Plain Black Saddle
Coat/Mane/Tail: solid black

The Nights Watch

This is another outfit I’ve had in the works for a while, heavily influenced by Jon Snow from Game of Thrones (Look, I’m not a huge fan, but even I know the last season SUCKED).

Anyways, with Yule Fest in full swing, we have a new cosmetic pet! The white wolf dog. So I figured the time to post this outfit was right considering I now had both Ser You-Know-Nothing and his companion Ghost.

I actually came up with this outfit a couple years ago, and it’s basically been my Champ’s staple winter-wear.

I went with the medium Nadhin jacket, which in my opinion just looks like a padded winter gambeson (if you don’t know what that word means, look it up and you’ll see where I’m coming from – I promise you it’s safe for work – it’s just a medieval garment of clothing).

I also went with a heavy fur mantle because A) it looked cool and felt right, and B) Jon wears a lot of dark fur around his shoulders.

Exhibit A.

I also gave him the cloak of the Raven – I debated using Cloak of the woodsmen or cloak of the autumn wanderer since it looked closer to fur, but ultimately I decided this cloak was a nice nod to the fact that members of the Night’s Watch are often referred to as “crows.” And I know what you’re thinking: But ravens aren’t crows, to which I respond: close enough!

It’s been a favorite outfit of mine for a while, and it was also fun to play around with giving my warsteed a cold-weather, but also functional look.

Admittedly this isn’t really inspired by anything from the books or show, just from my love of horses and my own creative spirit 🙂

Outfit:
Shoulders: Fur Mantle (black)
Chest: Medium Nadhin Jacket (grey)
Hands: Medium Nadhin Gauntlets (black)
Feet: Threadbare Boots of the Dunland Healer (grey)
Back: Cloak of the Raven (grey)

Warsteed: 
Head: Guardian's Halter (white)
Caparison: Caparison of the Yield (black)
Saddle: Light Saddle of the Sutcrofts
Legs: Hunter's Leggings (black)
Mane/tail/body: solid white

So?

How’d I do?

The Wandering Warrior

So I kind of can’t believe I’ve never posted this outfit considering it’s my champs main look. All the cosmetics are available at or before you get to Galtrev, so that means its been his go-to look for a while now.

It’s really a quite simple outfit, which is part of the reason I love it. The wearer is ready for battle considering their covered in leather and chain-mail, but this is clearly an outfit that’s designed to move. Durable, but functional.

It’s always appealed to me because it seems like no matter what you end up getting yourself into, this kind of armor will make you prepared for almost anything. And considering my champ is my main, and he’s the one through whom I struggled to understand how to actually play this game, he’s been through a lot.

With him as always is his trusty steed. I do occasionally have him ride a black stallion, but his white stallion is his go to comrade.

I outfitted the horse similar to his master – in chain-mail and black leather. Together they’ve been through a lot. They’re not as shiny as they once were. But they fearlessly will adventure into even the most remote areas of Middle Earth.

I decided to take my screenshots in the Lone Lands. It just seems like the place where the really hardened people go. Or the really crazy ones…I can never really tell.

Also did anyone besides me never notice that there’s an actual hole in the ceiling in the forsaken inn? No? Just me? Okay…

Outfit:
 Shoulders: lesser secret of the West shoulder guards
 Chest: Scout’s weathered leather jacket (black)
 Hands: Leather gauntlets of the leaping stag (black)
 Feet: reworked boots (Grey)

Warsteed:
 Head: Halter of winter herald (black)
 body: dagorlad caparison (white)
 saddle: osgiliath saddle
 leggings: dagorlad leggings (white)

Victor of the Tourney

In case you were wondering, yes, that is the Hobnanigans field. Do I play Hobnanigans? No. Will I play Hobnanigans? Honestly, probably not. Maybe. Who knows. But, will I occasionally go to the horse fields to grab some awesome screenshots of me riding around on my horsey? Yes. Yes I will.

So basically, I don’t know exactly what I was doing, but apparently at one time I made a Power Point presentation of warsteed outfits I like. And before you ask, yes, I use Power Point. Because I’m a grown-ass woman. Who has never owned a Mac.

Anyways, so I saw a warsteed outfit I really loved, and set about making an outfit to match it. Then of course, along the way, I made another warsteed outfit, and then had to make another outfit to match that. That’s what this is.

Basically, it’s a very classical knight, festival look. It’s almost too flashy for battle in my opinion, but I feel like it would make a great tournament outfit, where the purpose is to show off.

Then I found this cape, which had a similar design on it as the caparison of the Captain, so all that was left was to assemble a flashy, plate-metal look and I was ready to go.

Truthfully I think the outfit would make a stronger impression if I chose to use red or blue as the base color – not black. Unfortunately, I really wanted to pair the halter of the citadel guard with the captain’s caparison, and the only way to make those match was to use yellow and black. Oh well.

Besides, I still think it looks cool, and I like the combination of polished steel armor with the glossy black finish on the chest-piece.

I’m actually very proud of how this turned out. It’s definitely not my Champion’s normal style, but it was very fun.

I also decided not to put a helmet in the outfit, for two reasons: 1) I really am just not a fan of helmets. Or at least I like to think my champ isn’t. Which is an insanely stupid choice if you’re constantly fighting, but movie heroes do it all the time so we can see their gorgeous hair fly around in the wind. And 2) the Captain’s gear that I used on the warsteed actually has a helmet tied onto it, so I figured it would be a little weird for my champ to be carrying around an extra helmet. You only really need one, right?

Maybe I love warsteeds a little too much. Maybe. But also, maybe not?

I’ll fight you on this.

Outfit:
Shoulders: Lesser Enduring Shoulder Guards of Evasion (gold)
Hands: Lesser Valorous Gauntlets of Finesse (gold)
Chest: Westemnet Battle Armour of Srength (black)
Feet: Lesser Valorous Boots of Fate (gold)
Back: Potent Valorous Cloak of Prowess (black)

Warsteed:
Head: Halter of the Citadel Guard (yellow)
Caparison: Captain's Caparison (black)
Saddle: Captain's Saddle
Legs: Dol Baran Leggings (gold - although in retrospect yellow would have been better...)
Gear: Captain's Gear
Mane/tail: black
Body: solid black

Horses for life!

HORSES FOR EVER!!!

Sage of Winters Night

This is a companion outfit to my last post – basically once I finished the previous outfit I just had to make its opposite.

Same location, same basic outfit design, just at night.

This one was actually a LOT easier to take screenshots of than my first one, probably because it’s not a white outfit on a white background…

Seriously though, the Misty Mountains are GORGEOUS at night.

It also gave me the opportunity to showcase my second favorite LM pet, the Ember Eagle! I liked how the accents of red on the wing tips and tail complimented the red of the robe.

Again I also brought out one of my cosmetic birds. In my previous post I used the snowy owl, and in this one I used the raven! (I really like birds, so I’ve decided my LM does too – can you tell?)

Anyways, be prepared for more winter outfits! I go a little crazy when Yule Fest rolls around.

Outfit:
Head: Lesser Memory of the West Hat (black)
Shoulders: Fur Mantle (black)
Chest: Robe of the Lavenhebron 
Hands: Medium Nadhin Gauntlets (black)
Feet: Medium Nadhin Boots (black)
Back: Cloak of the Autumn Wanderer (black)

Warsteed:
Head: Head-Piece of the Northern Herald (white)
Body: Caparison of Rivendell (black)
Saddle: Plain Black Saddle
Tail: Tail of the Gloaming Autumn
Feet: Tattered Feathers of the Harbinger
Body/Tail: black