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).

Music in the Mountains

So I did this outfit in two colors – one in steel blue to match the original color of the cloak, and the other in dark red. Funny enough, the red outfit formed first, and adding the cloak was a last minute decision. Once I decided to add it though, I decided I also had to do another color scheme that matched the cloak’s original version. I honestly don’t know which I prefer. I love them both.

I really like the way the white/silver of the shoulders matches the white designs on the arms of the tunic. It goes well with the snowflake design on the cloak.

Additionally, I decided to pick the medium Nadhin gauntlets and boots, since they have a sort of quilt-like texture that matches the tunic. It’s kind of amazing that they’re from different sets, actually (Although I guess both armor sets that they come from are from Gondor?)

So yeah, that’s it! I just really like this outfit 🙂

Red Outfit:
Shoulders: Shoulders of the Precise Bowmaster (default)
Chest: Lesser-Coat of the Fury Wielder (crimson)
Hands: Medium Nadhin Gauntlets (burgundy)
Back: Wintertide Cloak (crimson)
Feet: Medium Nadhin Boots (burgundy)

Blue Outfit:
Shoulders: Shoulders of the Precise Bowmaster (steel blue)
Chest: Lesser-Coat of the Fury Wielder (steel blue)
Hands: Medium Nadhin Gauntlets (steel blue)
Back: Wintertide Cloak (default)
Feet: Medium Nadhin Boots (steel blue)

Happy Holidays!

Winter Huntress

Ahh…it’s been a while since I last posted. But with Yule Festival underway, I got to revisit a bunch of old outfits I’d been working on. So I figured I’d post some of the winter-themed ones (Also I tend to reserve outfit slots for unfinished/unposted outfits, and I was beginning to run out of new slots for new outfits…).

So this is just another sort of rugged look for my hunter. I wanted one that was more brown and neutral, with a “fur and leather” look to it.

Also I finally got the spotted warsteed skin to drop from warbands in East Rohan! I think this time it dropped off of the Warg Pack south of Harding – but in the past there doesn’t seem to be any pattern to which war band drops it most frequently. So sorry to anyone who was looking for advice

Also, I don’t know if this is happening to anyone else, but I’ve been noticing some shadow issues with the warsteed armor. There are rectangular patches where the in-game lighting isn’t reflected/absorbed properly, so they appear either super light, or – in the case of the warsteed of the hunter – just show up as black patches. You can see this on the front legs in the picture below:

Anyways. I did send a bug report in, but it’s probably not high on the priority list of things that need to be addressed lol.

Outfit:
Shoulders: Embroidered Mantle of Bard’s Will (black)
Back: Quiver of the Waking Wood
Hands: Gauntlets of the Hidden Blade (black)
Chest: Lesser Claw of the West Breastplate (umber)
Legs: Huneric Hundred-Slayer’s Garb (umber)
Feet: Lithe Boots of Thrandruil’s Power (walnut brown)

Horse:
Body: Hunter’s Caparison (default)
Legs: Hunter’s Leggings (default)
Head: Head-piece of Lamedon
Saddle: Shimmering Breeze Saddle

Robin Hood

I’ve decided it’s time I get around to more of the outfits I tend to use as default looks for my characters. So here’s one I use for my hunter, which may or may not be but definitely IS heavily inspired by the tale of Robin Hood lol 🙂

So this outfit ended up being REALLY hard to take pictures of because it blended in way too well with the surroundings. Which I guess is the point? But I knew from the get go that I wanted to take the pictures in North Mirkwood/Dalelands…and it just…it worked too well lol.

The warsteed was really fun though. After recently opening some lootboxes I’ve gotten a lot of new cosmetics, including the warsteed set of the wild hills. I really like how it looks on my hunter’s steed.

Um…so…yeah. Not much to say! Not a particularly interesting outfit, just fun and ranger-y!

Outfit:
Head: Worn Ranger’s Hood (Grey)
Shoulders: Potent Skirmish Pauldrons of the Mark (Olive)
Back: Fancy Quiver (Sienna)
Body: Potent Battle Armour of the Mark (Olive)
Hands: Enduring Gauntlets of the Traveler (Black)
Feet: Reworked Boots (Grey)
Bow: Polished Lebethron Bow of Precision

Warsteed:
Head: Head-piece of the Northern Herald (olive)
Body: Caparison of the Wild Hills (default)
Saddle: Saddle of the Wild Hills
Gear: Hunter’s Gear

Dragonfly 2

This started as an alternate version of the original dragonfly outfit I made, when I was still trying to figure out all the pieces. Eventually though I revisited the concept, and this outfit has been sitting in one of my RK’s outfit panels for the past couple years. I’ve loved it so much.

I like both versions of the outfit tbh, and they both revolve around the same cloak and similar shoulder pieces. This outfit favors a slightly lighter aesthetic as well as more prominent gold accents…um…I just like it.

I also really liked how this outfit paired with the default summer night’s warsteed appearance, which imo always had a very dragonfly-like look to it.

Outfit:
Head: Ceremonial Hat of the Written Word (navy)
Shoulders: Boulstered Pauldrons of the Doomfold (default)
Back: Cloak of the Dragonfly (navy)
Chest: Expeditionary's Heavy Hauberk (Belegaer Blue)
Gloves: Gauntlets of the Gallant Commander (black)
Boots: Potent Battle Boots of the Mark (Evendim Blue)

Warsteed:
Head: Yule Gala Head-Piece (default)
Body: Caparison of Summer's Night (default)
Saddle: Saddle of Lebennin

Swan Knight

Been a while since I posted! This outfit was actually sitting in my wips folder – I think one day I’d been trying random combinations and found that the level 85 far-arrow jacket looked really good paired with the lesser defender of the west leggings. Anyways, apparently I took a screenshot, and after finding it I decided I had to complete the outfit.

Partner that up with some Nadhim cosmetics, and the rest kind of just fell into place (If you’re into LOTRO cosmetics you probably know that there’s a whole host of “bird/wing” related pieces out there that you can sort of fall back to when needed).

The warsteed outfit was also something that I was sort of working on. My only grudge against it is that the turquoise dye is slightly lighter for warsteed cosmetics than for character cosmetics, and given the nature of the two pieces this outfit was built around, I couldn’t really get away with using any other color.

So yeah, that’s about it. I wasn’t sure whether to feature this on my high elf champ or my high elf hunter, but ultimately my champ had the better warsteed cosmetics. Kind of sealed the deal. And since I can use my hunter’s Legendary bow as a cosmetic via the wardrobe, it was an easy decision.

Outfit:
Head: Heavy Nadhim Mask (white)
Shoulders: Shoulders of the Armoury (white)
Back: Swan Cloak (Turquoise)
Chest: Far-Arrow’s Jacket (Default/white)
Hands: Heavy Nadhin Gauntlets (white)
Legs: Lesser Defender of the West Leggings (Turquoise)
Feet: Hero’s Boots (Turquoise)

Warsteed:
Head: Sea-ward Head-piece (Turquoise)
Body: Sea-ward caparison (turquoise)
Legs: Sea-ward legs
Accessory: Accessory of regal revalry
Saddle: Saddle of remembrance

Scout from Rivendell

This is another outfit I’ve had for awhile, just never got around to taking photos of. I was hoping to take pictures in daylight, but it turns out twilight and evening suited the outfit well.

I’ve really enjoyed my high elf huntress. She’s been so fun to play and make outfits for, and I’ve really embraced the nature vibes when it comes to her style 🙂

This outfit was really centered around the shoulders and the cloak. It’s a pretty fun outfit in my opinion – although it probably works best for the autumn. I’ll probably wear it come harvestfest and fall festival.

Outfit: 
Back: Cloak of the Gloaming Autumn (Rivendell Green)
Shoulders: Mantle of the Gloaming Autumn (default/washed)
Chest: Jacket of the Wall-Warden (default)
Legs: Leggings of the Wall-Warden (default)
Feet: Boots of the Wall-Warden (default)
Hands: Bow-Master's Gloves (rivendell green)
Bow: Exquisite Black Ash Bow

War Steed:
Head: Head-Piece of the Northern Herald (Forest Green)
Body: Citadel Caparison (Forest Green)
Saddle: Citadel Saddle
Gear: Hunter's Gear

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?

Dragonfly

So this is an outfit I initially set out to create back in July, and for some reason I could just never get it right.

Then, I logged back in after taking a couple months off. It took a little bit longer before I actually logged my RK and remembered all the iterations of this outfit that I had created. It was also then that almost immediately the outfit finally assembled itself.

A lot actually went into this outfit in terms of thought. I chose the boots and the gauntlets because they’re pieces of armor related to dragons (Draigoch), which I thought was appropriate given the theme here.

I also decided on the shoulders because (at least in my mind) they resemble dragon fly wings, with the double layer and longer, oval form.

The chest and legs I picked for multiple reasons. First of all, I really love how they’re covered in scales, adding to the dragon motif. They also have dark green, white, and gold accents, all of which are also included on the cloak. Plus, if you dye the dragonfly cloak black, it will match even better. And, thirdly, I thought that when dyed a lighter color the piece provided some nice contrast.

So, yeah! I’m proud to finally be presenting this outfit to you. It took a while to get here, but I think I like the final product.

Outfit:
Head: Rune-Maker's Hat (black)
Shoulders: Bolstered Pauldrons of the Pathfinder's Artifice (black)
Chest: Westemnet Combat Assault Armour of Precision (Belegaer blue)
Hands: Gauntlets of the Gallant Commander (black)
Legs: Westemnet Combat Leggings of Precision (Belegaer blue)
Feet: Boots of the Gallant Commander (black)
Back: Cloak of the Dragonfly (black)

Warsteed:
Head: Head-Piece of the Northern Herald (sea blue)
Caparison: Caparison of Summer's Night (sea blue)
Saddle: Saddle of Rivendell
Mane/tail/body: solid black