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)

Snowflake

So I have been STRUGGLING to put together an outfit around the Cloak of Flurries. Like, REALLY struggling. This is…what I have come up with?

I have mixed feelings about it, tbh. From some angles, it looks amazing. From other angles, I feel kind of…meh.

And then some things about it are simultaneously great and awful. Like the shoulders I ended up using have this star-like metallic design on them, which is amazing. And in the center there’s a gem which can be dyed blue. Again, amazing. But they also have this flap of fabric that’s an undyable yellow color. Not so amazing.

The yellowish actually does sort of match the yellow tint to the tunic when dyed white, and I think thematically it works in that snow sometimes gets stained with dirt or whatever. But personally? I wish it was pure white. But I also LOVE the tunic, because it has these iridescent(ish) blue designs that really resemble the design of the cloak.

Also, I generally don’t like outfits with a lot of harsh lines, and this outfit is chalk-full of them. BUT, snowflakes are also frozen water crystals. If you’ve ever googled a snowflake up close, you know they’re not these smooth, curved things. They’re angular and full of lines and shapes. You can even see this on the Cloak of Flurries. So again, that works, it’s just a personal thing.

The shoulder designs also do really go with the tunic.

So yeah, in some ways I LOVE the outfit, and in others it’s just not QUITE right. It really comes down to the fact that I think the shoulders and the tunic are the perfect design, they just have some issues with dye. I did try dying the tunic belegaer blue to see if that would fix it, but it didn’t look quite right in my opinion.

Although, I don’t know…maybe it definitely looks cool…just maybe less like a snowflake?

It also doesn’t fix the problem of the yellow on the shoulders…I don’t know. Which do you prefer?

Anyways, I ended up choosing the boots because (whether dyed blue or white) there’s a leaf design on them that kind of shines, and looks a bit like a snowflake. Also the flurry cloak has leaves on it as well as snowflakes so it seemed to work.

Outfit:
Head: Mask of the Golden Forest Defender (white)
Shoulders: Shoulders of the Lady’s Foresight (belegaer blue)
Back: Cloak of Flurries
Chest: Heavy Hauberk of the Doomfold (white/belegaer blue)
Gloves: Shield-Master’s Gauntlets (white/belegaer blue)
Feet: Boots of the Shadow-Walker (white/belegaer)

Winter Winds

Another outfit I had sitting around for a while – I actually have used it since my very first Yule Fest back in 2015.

The warsteed outfit is new – I finally used some saved up mithril coins to get the caparison of winter winds. Unfortunately, it has the same shading issues that the hunter warsteed outfit has. It’s not a huge deal; there are just a few rectangular patches that don’t reflect light properly.

Outfit:
Head: Rune-Maker’s Hat (steel blue)
Shoulders: Mathom-Hunter’s Mantle (navy)
Back: Fancy Winter Cloak (ered luin blue)
Chest: Robe of Winter Winds (white)
Gloves: Heavy Plated Dunlending Gauntlets (steel blue)
Feet: Medium Nadhin Boots (steel blue)

Warsteed:
Head: Head-Piece of the Northern Herald (default)
Body: Winter Winds Caparison (white)
Saddle: Saddle of the Harbinger

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

Yule Queen

I’m in finals hell. Officially. I spent 6 hours today studying philosophy, and I had a three hour physics exam last night that killed me. I’m dead now. I’m a ghost typing at a computer. That still needs to study for more tests…

That’s why in all honesty it was probably good that LOTRO was down today, because I really needed to study. On the other hand, I got so absorbed in making note cards for my next exam that I didn’t realize the gym closed at 7 until about 5:30. I hauled ass and got to the gym, which is probably good cause otherwise I would have started to vegetize right where I sat, but it was a rush.

Admittedly I’m a lot more confident in the material than I was a few hours ago, but I also feel ready to crawl into a hole and die. Again. Because in case you forgot, I’m already dead.

Also are we gonna get an extra day of Yule Fest? Because we basically lost an entire day today. Just saying.

I mean, for some of us this is literally all we’ve got going for us right now.

So anyways, the outfit. When I saw the new cosmetics for Yule Fest, I knew I wanted to do something with the crown.

Yeah, I’m too dead to write about creative stuff. I will say this though: the autumn leafmail dress is NOT flattering on most body shapes in game. High Elf worked, but seriously. Grrr…

Yeah. I don’t have much to say. As I’ve already told you, I’m dead.

Outfit:
Head: Ice flower crown (Default/white)
Body: Autumn Leafmail dress (default/white)
Shoulders: The Beast-Keeper's Shoulder Pads (white)
Feet: doesn't matter cause apparently the dress comes with shoes.

Oh yeah and here’s a horse:

And another:

Warsteed:
Head: Head-Piece of the Ice Flower (white/default)
Caparison: Caparison of Eldar Autumn (white)
Saddle: Saddle of Rivendell
Body/Mane: whatevs.

Defender of the Mallorns

Okay so this was a fun outfit, and it was one of those that existed as a vague idea until I found the perfect piece and everything fell together.

The piece in question that ended up making the outfit was the chest piece. I was in the middle of the planning stages of this outfit when, while running Moria instances for deeds, I got this shirt as a drop, already the perfect dye.

I already had the legs and the shoulders, but with the chest piece everything just came together.

I have to say having an elf huntress has been super fun, especially for outfitting purposes. A lot of the outfits that I could never really make sense of before fit her perfectly. And since my head-cannon for my high elf is that she chose to serve Galadriel after reawakening in the Third Age, I was very excited to put her in Lothlorien.

Shooting in Lothlorien ended up being rather difficult, though, because it turns out I made my outfit a little too well. And by this I mean it’s kind of the perfect camouflage amidst the gold and silver Mallorn trees. Which is admittedly what I was going for, but it’s not super helpful if you’re trying to highlight the outfits in your photos.

I love this outfit though, and there’s a perfect matching warsteed outfit:

Unfortunately I don’t have the warsteed armor on my huntress, which is why its my RK and her steed modeling here instead.

Ah, well. I persevere.

Outfit: 
Head: Hooded Mask of the Golden Forest Defender (gold)
Shoulders: Lore-Keeper's Shoulders (gold)
Chest: Zaghal-Zudur (ranger green)
Hands: Gloves of the Forest Bounder (white)
Legs: Rune-Maker's Trousers (white)
Feet: Lore-Keeper's Shoes (gold)
Bow: Exquisite Black Ash Bow
Sword: Defender of Gwingris

Warsteed:
Head: Head-Piece of Elder Autumn (default)
Caparison: Caparison of Elder Autumn (default)
Mane/Tail: Steel Grey
Body: Tobiano Charcoal

Sage of Winters Light

Winter is here! And while I hate the cold IRL, I love dressing up my toons in warm outfits in preparation for Yule Fest!

This first one is actually one I’ve had in the words for a long time, it just took a bit for everything to come together.

Ever since I got the Vestments of the Northern Sky last year I’ve wanted to use it in an outfit, but I just wasn’t sure how. I figured out pretty early on that I wanted to pair it with the cloak of the wise wanderer, but everything else was up in the air.

Anyways, I was playing around with ideas and finally decided to go completely bird-like with the outfit, and voila! Here we are 🙂

The real challenge actually ended up being getting good screenshots – I figured out I wanted to use the Misty Mountains pretty quickly, but the first few times I went there the weather was really too bad to shoot.

Eventually though the weather cleared, and I got the chance to show off my beautiful white Tundra-Eagle which has been my favorite LM pet ever since I first got it in game (admittedly eagles aren’t the most useful pet, but come on they’re so dang majestic!)

Although she did find a bit of competition 🙂

Still, it’s hard to say no to her, which is why I’m posting a bunch of pics with her because she just looks so pretty with ultra high graphics.

Outfit:
Head: Winged Circlet (default)
Shoulders: Shoulders of the Precise Bowmaster (umber)
Chest: Vestments of the Northern Sky (white)
Hands: Gloves of the Great Alliance (default)
Back: Cloak of the Wise Wanderer
Feet: Apparently I had Medium  Nadhin Boots on but since you can't really see the feet with this outfit, it doesn't really matter??

Warsteed:
Body: Trappings of the Northern Herald (white)
Saddle: Saddle of the Northern Herald
Feet: Tattered Feathers of the Harbinger
Mane/Tail: white

I had fun.

That’s what really matters, right?

Thank you GMs!

So I feel like the game masters in lotro and the devs and everybody etc. get a really bad rap from the players – or at least that’s what world chat is constantly telling me.

Anyways, I wanted to take this as my opportunity to personally express my gratitude to everyone who works on LOTRO and makes this awesome game possible. A lot of people complain about tickets and GMs, but in my experience they’re just really busy people who also really want to help you, something that isn’t always as easily accomplished as it is said.

For instance, a while ago I was running moria instances on my champ for deeds and LPs, and I ended up completing the mega moria deed or whatever that gives you the black nimble goat (or something…it’s a goat – that much I know). Anyways, I hadn’t realized I’d completed the deed until I got a message in chat saying “removing black nimble goat from your pending loot list.”

I’m not gonna say it was a strictly easy process – I submitted a ticket that kept getting closed everytime I logged off because “your character has to be online to process this ticket,” but eventually after a few back and forths I got a response from a GM saying they had verified my completion of the deed and had sent me the goat in the mail.

And this brings me to the topic of this post: when the ered mithrin expansion was first launched, I bartered for the cloak of the wise wanderer using figments of splendor. And then, of course, as we all know, the Curator (the NPC who sold cosmetic stuff for figments of splendor) was announced to be a temporary fixture in the game and was removed. That then brings me to this fall, where I took a couple months away from LOTRO to focus on the transition to school, and when I logged in, alas, the cloak was missing! Now, after diligently searching for it, I figured I must have just messed up somewhere – accidentally deleted it, or, more likely, I mailed it to one of my alts and the mail expired while I was away. I was upset, but figured nothing could be done.

And then I was actually going to submit a ticket for something else, when I chanced upon the drop-down panel regarding missing/lost items, and I figured why not give it a shot? So I sent in a ticket. Turns out, of course, I had to submit the ticket with the character who had actually acquired the item – which I didn’t do. Then of course there were the other roadblocks of “your character needs to be online so we closed the ticket.” Eventually though, I got a response saying “we’re happy to inform you we were able to restore the item to your account,” and I got the cloak back! Now keep in mind that this item was almost DEFINITELY lost because of something I did. But they gave me another one! And honestly I was at the point where I thought I was just pestering them and was about to give up, because with the new update now live they’ve probably got tickets up to wazoo.

So all I’m saying is, let’s cut the GMs some slack. They’re getting tickets all the time, and still they’ll take the time to help you with your own trivial matters. I don’t think it’s actually as straightforward for them to help us as we might think, but they still give it their best shot. It think like all interactions, you’ve got to be willing to be persistent but also respectful of the fact that other people are dealing with other things.

I know the devs aren’t perfect, I know the GMs sometimes make mistakes. But come on guys, they’re working hard to give us this game we love, and I’m pretty sure they do really want to help us. So maybe we can all just try to have a bit more patience and be a bit more thankful for what they do for us? I’m sure we must annoy the heck out of them at times, like when I sent in approximately 5 tickets over one cloak 🙂


OUTFIT:
Head: Winged Circlet (default)
Shoulders: Heavy Nadhin Shoulders (default)
Chest: Far-Arrow's Jacket (white)
Hands: Heavy Nadhin Gauntlets (Default)
Legs: Far-Arrow's Leggings (white)
Feet: Threadbare Boots of the Dunland Healer (white/default)
Back: Cloak of the Wise Wanderer
Bow: Bow of the Khazad-Dum Vaults

Warsteed:
Head: Head-Piece of the Great Alliance (white)
Body: Caparison of the Great Alliance (white)
Saddle: Saddle of Rivendell
Mane/tail: white
Coat: white brindle

Wrath of Nature

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.

Just look at all the leaf details on this thing.

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.

I’m honestly not a huge fan of this caparison, but the look DEMANDED a war steed.

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

Silver Birch – featuring outfit by Cosmetic Lotro (https://cosmeticlotro.com/2019/02/06/misty-forest/)

Hey! I’m still here! I took a brief break from outfitting for a while to focus on the new region and questing – as well as all the festivals! I also finally invested in the high elf race and I have to say I’m loving it! It’s really not all that different from the regular elf race, but I’m always jumping at the chance to explore new cosmetics!

This is my first high elf – a hunter! My human hunter I leveled up using an aria of the valar, so I never really got the experience of leveling it up. I’m really having fun with this toon though. Now, before I go into the details of the outfit, I want to make one thing abundantly clear: this is NOT an original outfit. It was created by Hymne from Cosmetic LOTRO (you can find their outfit here: https://cosmeticlotro.com/2019/02/06/misty-forest/). I made a couple alterations, but I in NO WAY take credit for this outfit. I truly consider it to be a masterpiece and want it to be known by EVERYONE who reads it that it is Hymne’s intellectual property. That’s why I linked it in the title – I didn’t want anyone to see this page without also seeing it’s actual creator!

With that out of the way, I think this is a PERFECT look for an elf and decided to feature it on my hunter. I had to wait for this year’s anniversary fest to get the shoulders, but the second I did I set about assembling the outfit. Another thing about it is that it looks amazing in almost any color (keep in mind that the shoulders dye slightly differently than the chest and leggings, so you might have to play around with hues.)

Here’s the white version of the outfit (paired with the majestic silver stag – reward for completing all 10 years of anniversary scavenger hunt).

Head: Time worn helmet (moria silver)
Shoulders: Shoulders of the waking wood (moria silver)
Chest: Robe of the Hopeful Melody (white)
Legs: Trousers of the Hopeful Melody (white)
Hands: Shield Master's Gauntlets (Lorien Gold)
Feet: Lithe Boots of the Last Alliance (default)
Back: Woven light cloak of the towers (grey)

Grey:

Head: black
Shoulders: black
chest: grey
leg: grey
hands: lorien gold
feet: default
back: quiver of the waking wood

Light Grey

head: grey
shoulders: grey
chest: moria silver
legs: moria silver
gloves: lorien gold
feet: default

Green

Head: dark green
shoulders: rivendell green
chest/legs: dark green
gloves: lorien gold
feet: loremaster's shoes (I think? This is an old pic): dark green

belegaer blue – you get it. the combinations are pretty much endless with this ensemble.