Yule War Steed

Today was my 10th day of the Yule Festival which meant I finally finished tier 3 of the festival deed and was able to purchase the war steed cosmetics.  I think this is one of the prettier horses that Turbine has designed.

I think it would look even better with a rich dark brown colour, but that’s a few too many TP for me to spend.

I’m not thrilled with what it took to get these cosmetics (more about that in a later post I think), but I’m happy to have them and definitely appreciate the work that went into creating the look. 🙂

Victory at last!

My raiding alliance Innocent has spent many a night trying to defeat Saruman T2 Challenge Mode. (using the rings is one of my most unfavourite parts of the fight.  I always have to concentrate so hard when watching the order, otherwise my mind will wander off :P)

So many hours of easily getting through phases 1-4 easily only to fail a minute or so into phase 5.  There have been good times when we’ve made progress or beat T2, yet there have been some really low times due to it being such a challenging fight.  It was the only part of the Tower of Orthanc raid that we didn’t beat before the level increase.  But never did our determination to beat the old bastard waver.

We’ve kept on trying after RoR was released whilst people were leveling up.  Our gear wasn’t much better and it was still quite the challenge.  Don’t expect to waltz in at 85 and have ToO to be a cakewalk!  Whilst it’s bitter sweet to have done this post 75, Innocent finally prevailed and got Laurelin server’s first Saruman T2 CM kill!

This meant new horsie time!! Shiiiiiiiny! 😀 (though forgetting to turn graphics up to ultra high.. not so shiny, oops)

Impromptu meeting to show off our horses!  It’s a bit funny, they have synchronised colour changing. 😛

We also got a model of Orthanc (kin homes need more enormous yard slots!!)

It’s pretty huge:

The view from the inside is… interesting:

We were all really pleased and proud to have gotten this done.  Next up:  Original Challenger of Saruman title!

Lotro Summer Fest

The Summer Festival began yesterday in Lotro.  Not a lot has changed this year which is a bit disappointing as this is now the one festival that’s remained mostly unchanged in a few years I think.  Though with the added Anniversary and Farmers festivals, we can’t complain too much.  What has changed is the pie and keg races have now been moved into their own instanced area.  The pie race area is quite lovely, but due to a bug with the stable horse to the keg races, I’ve not been able to see that area yet.  Also a consolation box has been added in so that you receive a few tokens instead of walking away empty handed if you bet for the wrong hobbit or dwarf to win.  Gathering tokens is really paltry compared to the Farmers festival but I remember this being the case last year as well.  The only way to get a decent amount of tokens is from the races, but of course that’s completely luck based.  A combination of Lotro burnout and excitement for Guild Wars has left me feeling not so festive, so I’m thankful I got all my deeds done last year!  I’ve also decided to stop being a completionist and only go after things I want and there’s not really anything in this festival that I do.

I think the horse is actually quite pretty though they chose not to give it a proper saddle for some reason.  Turbine has made festival horses redundant for me due to the fact that they aren’t as fast.  62% vs 68% speed doesn’t sound like a big difference, but it’s noticeable.  Though I do wonder, can festival horse skins be put on our warhorses?  I think I’ll perhaps go after this steed just in case:

The new festival cosmetics had potential:

But as you can see in the next picture only the light area can be dyed.  The problem is, not much goes with green.  I tried lots of different dyes and I wasn’t happy with many of them.  I’m not a fan of this deep green colour so I think I’ll give the dress a pass.  My vaults have no room for cosmetics I’m likely not to use. :p

I thought the tunic might be interesting on my hobbit but once I previewed it, I decided against it.  I dunno what it is.. maybe the neckline?  But the hat!  What is up with that hat!? 😛  For some reason Lotro devs love their silly hats and helms! 😛

August Update

So what’s been happening in the world of Lothirieth?  Well, I’ve been renovating a house, finally moving into said house (yay for something newer and more space), went on a holiday to France (oh the lovely sun!) and will be wrapping up my second Dutch language course (maar ik kan nog steeds geen goed Nederlands spreken.    Het is heel moeilijk voor mij.  Maar ik begrijp meer en dat is goed!)

Oh wait, you mean what’s been going on with game stuff? 😉  Well, the backlog of screenshots continues to grow due to some busy months, so I figured I’d do a concise update of some things I’ve won or obtained.  Other than that, I’ve not been playing Lotro all that much.  The combination of bugs, lag, Turbine blatantly displaying its greed and not feeling at all excited about the new expansion has left me with not so much interest.  I’m logging in for raids and a bit for the current festival, but that’s really it.  I feel I mainly want to rant about the state of the game, but I’d rather not have my blog contain mainly that.  So I’m taking the approach of “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all” I guess!

Anyway, stuff! Stuff that’s been going on! Well, I found one super ugly staff!  It just looks a bit too evil…

My warden won the Steed of Bright Days, which means I’m rarely going to see it as I have no intention on playing warden anytime soon. 😛  It lives up to its name of being quite bright, but I like it. 🙂

My loremaster won the loremaster steed.  It’s nice I actually won the class mount for my main, but I have mixed feelings about it.  When I first saw the preview pictures, my thoughts were “Yuck! That’s hideous.”  I wasn’t alone.  It’s been entertaining to read some of the comments on the official forums.  I quite enjoyed something Catburg said:

I can’t decide whether it looks like it’s wearing old lady’s bloomers, busty barmaid’s blouse, or a babygro.

I laughed when I saw I’d won it in a lottery as it seemed so ugly, but it’s not so bad ingame.  The sheer number of scrolls is a bit over the top, the books have poor graphics and your cloak clips with all the stuff on the back (which you can see in the next picture)… but I don’t know.  It’s okay.  I’ll ride it around for a bit, if only for all the stares I get. 😛  It’s entertaining to be sat in Galtrev and see people stop, stare and walk around you. 😀  Oh, you can also see I have a new snazzy cloak. 😉  I got a broken cloak clasp a little while ago but was torn about what to do with it.  The necklaces are clearly the better upgrade, but I’ve gotten the clasp so late ingame that the necklace would be obsolete soon.  The cloak offers a small upgrade but a cool cosmetic that lasts until they pull the plug on the servers.  But my need for my character to be the best it can be is strong.  I finally bit the bullet and just got the darned cloak, even though I feel the need to explain to everyone that yes, I do realise the necklace is better!

Fuzzy books and cloak clippage

I joined an impromptu Barad Guldur run and somehow lucked out and won the chest and leg pieces which happily are now bound to account rather than character.  I’ve lusted after the minstrel armour in the past so went and got that, then immediately slapped it on my runekeeper!

Lastly, I finally got a chestpiece I’ve been looking for!  It dropped in a T1 Saruman and everyone got a chuckle when I had to yell out for the raid leader to just not distribute all the junk as it wasn’t all junk!  My hobbit loves his new outfit.  I think he looks quite dashing! (Though I forgot to put on the matching gloves I have when I took these screenshots. Doh!)

Spring Festival 2012

Turbine finally released the spring festival, so I decided to have a look at the new horse, see if the last maps for the Cartographile deed were there and see if there are any new cosmetics.  I was pleasantly surprised by the cosmetics!  I’ve been on a Lotro hiatus due to dissatisfaction with aspects of the game, but this will be enough to draw me back for a bit. 🙂

They’ve come out with aSimbelmynë theme, which is appropriate as we head towards Rohan.  I’m a bit ambivalent about the horse but am pleased to see a proper saddle back.  The detailing is also quite nice.  Luckily I had some leftover leaf tokens so was able to buy the dress right away:

They also made a new flower circlet which I like quite a bit more than the old one.  I had to use Lotro’s standard dressing room to get a screenshot so the quality isn’t very good. (I really ought to stop being lazy and get a plug in for a larger dressing room window!)  Though taking screenies of cosmetics always makes me want a better computer and a bigger monitor as others out there get some really sharp pictures ingame. 😛  There’s also a matching tunic, cloak and floppy sun hat plus last year’s spring cosmetics.

The final maps are there, so the Eriador Cartographile deed will finally come to an end, yay.  i’ve yet to check out any of the quests and see if there is anything new.  The shrew stomping has returned as well and I shall be spending a fair bit of time there, finishing out my deed.  There do not appear to be any new consumables thankfully so none of those to grind out!

Perlino Steed

 

I checked the Lotro lotteries and noticed that my captain had won a Perlino Steed.  It’s interesting looking and I like the pattern on the blanket, but given that it’s no better than any other reputation horses I’ll probably never use it.  That and my captain is purely a jeweler right now. 😛  I would have rather won it on my main, but having it on one character is enough to satisfy my completionism I think (store horses not included!)

I do wish Turbine would get back to mounts with proper saddles.  When Enedwaith came out, people really loved that change.  The meta deed horses or Prized Grey Company horse are good examples.  The latest rep horses (Dunland, Theoden’s Riders, Stangard and Easterling) don’t have them.  Sorta a pity given we’re getting into quite the horsey area. 😛

Autumn Festival

Well long time, no post. My life has been going through some pretty huge changes that left me little energy for blogging. I obtained British citizenship but have ended up moving to Amsterdam.

Anyway, I wasn’t playing Lotro as much until the release of RoI as it seemed I need a break. I was playing Rift more. I really enjoyed the look of it and the classes, but in the end the game didn’t grab me I think because the story was so incredibly generic fantasy. There just didn’t seem to be much of a story. I might go back to the game now and again, but for now I’ve cancelled my sub since Lotro has been enjoyable again.

A lot has been going on in Lotro again but I thought I’d post about the latest festival. The main thing that happened for me is that I finally got lucky and got the skeleton horse. 🙂 I won’t use it outside of the Autumn festival time most likely, but during it I found it quite cute. I also enjoyed the quest text, as it explains why hobbits would paint up horses.



I also got the newest festival horse as I’m a horse collector. I’ll never ever use it though. I suppose in a way it’s nice, but the Halloween theme isn’t quite for me. A kinnie joked about the moon being over the horse’s rear end… that the horse is always mooning people. 😛


Any of you who have read this blog know I’m big on getting deeds done as well. 😛 Festivals always bring those. So there is always a lot of grinding to get the consumable deeds done.

The fall festival has quite a few consumables. I will only end up completing three. It bugs me that I have to wait until next year to get them all done. I didn’t grind all the quests every day as I just couldn’t face it. I calculated you needed over 1200 tokens just to get the consumables. This doesn’t count the tokens needed for the horse, let alone if you wanted to get anything else (luckily I didn’t as the dress and cloak were the same theme as the new horse). You normally got around 50ish tokens a day so really, it does not seem possible to get everything done. It’s a bit frustrating to have to wait until next year. Also, I feel slightly guilty using these on random strangers all the time. Some aren’t bad like the bugs or coveritol, but the black silk gloves that slap people could be seen as rude. I try to target people on horses as the effect doesn’t show or afk people in order to cause the least amount of annoyance. I’ve only had one person show disdain, but generally people pretend to cry or laugh it off. I always apologise then cheer for their good nature.

I very much like that Turbine has given us the opportunity to get consumables as permanent skills, but I wish they’d execute it a bit better. I’d rather still have to pay the same amount of tokens, but just automatically get the skill. Or make the consumables more expensive and require you to use fewer. Given there’s a thread that’s currently 43 pages long about this, it’s definitely a source of annoyance for some people….hence me targeting mounted or afk people now! Though anyone who was hanging around outside the Haunted Burrow was fair game!

Back again…

Long time, no write. Lots going on in life that has left me with not a lot of extra energy, so some things slip. I’ve still been playing Lotro (escapism, woo!) though not as much. It’s been nearly two years of playing quite a lot, so it’s not surprising I’ve been feeling like cutting down a bit. I’m not quite in the mood to level up yet another character to 65 (even though the little bit I’ve done on guardian has been fun), all my LM has to do is deeds and I was able to quickly uber up my champ with the new stuff that came out with the update. I’ve started to play Rift as well and it’s been highly enjoyable exploring a new world. I don’t think it’s as good as Lotro, but something new and different and having a bit of a break helps me enjoy Lotro when I come back to it.

So, the last time I wrote, I was ranting about the Anniversary GrindFest. Well, the collector in me won out. *sighs and rolls eyes* I got the Stevie Wonder horse. And all the maps. But! People were able to work together to get the maps so I only ground out a few on my own. I got reeeeeeeeeeally sick of running those damned horse races on several toons. 😛

A fellow kinnie and me with Stevie Wonder horses:

Since my last entry, the European servers have been transferred over to Turbine. No more Codemasters for us. Latency has gone up but for the most part, I don’t think it’s been affecting my game. I have had some periods with lots of loss, but I think that was random internet troubles and nothing to do with connecting to the game. On the final day, people gathered in Bree before the plug was pulled.

We also are now getting American adverts. Whenever I see this, for a split second, I think I’m back home. 😛

The migration went smoothly and quickly for most people and it took no longer than what Turbine said, so all in all, things are as normal. We’ve also had the new expansion date released, so now the latest raid gear and first agers seem like something to not bother with anymore. 😛 Whilst new content is always really appreciated, our kin still has quite a bit of work left on the OD raid. It’s looking like we won’t get that done, and most certainly not all the deeds which is going to disappoint the few deed completionist we have in kin.

The deeds go ever on and on

More deed completion. 😉 I’m actually surprised at how doable these are.

With quite a lot of help from my friend Kalantir, I finished Urugarth (those CD deeds are still looking scary though…):

Getting ready to slay some orcs:

Then xhii and I spent a little time farming the last boss of HoM on our LMs. Was quite fun! I highly recommend turning your back to the drop, perform the snow wizard emote, and fall backwards into the boss room. It looks like you’re bungee jumping! 😛 Unfortunately I never caught a good screenshot of it. Lm’s and kitties ready to keel!:

And got my goat!

For a goat it’s very pretty! Though I have to wonder why Lothlorien elves would even go near goats. 😉 But I love the rectangular lamp and the beautiful fabric! ❤

Next goal is the Moria instances. I’m actually fairly close. Just a couple more runs in 16th, Forges and FG…and then more than a few in Skumfil. I’ll get there though!

The Daily Grind

So it seems I’ve turned into one of those crazy people who’d like to get kindred with all factions and also complete every deed in the game. Yes, every! (aside from Ettens… and skirmishes too…not sure :P) I’m not quite sure why I ended up wanting to do this. I do have to say it’s a difficult thing for me to achieve as I joined the game a few months before Mirkwood and also changed mains. Until the end of the summer last year, I considered my first character, my hunter Erunaneth, to be my main. But loremaster ended up being far too much fun, both solo and in groups. My hunter nearly had kindred with everything, so redoing quite a bit of the rep was rather painful.

I think why I’m doing this is for something to do on my loremaster, plus I think I’ll be pretty proud of myself for completing this uber-meta deed. 😉 It is a bit sad that this is really all my LM has left to do. She’s just lacking two BG pieces and the Durchest caster bracelet (she recently won the Mistress bracelet woot!), but since those depend on raids, it’s something that is out of my control. I love playing her and am proud when I finish deeds or rep, but honestly I wish I did have some more fun stuff to do with her. Endless kill deeds is looking a bit depressing.

As of now, my lm has attained kindred with everything but the Eldgang (a side effect of joining the game late!).

At least we have the Rift skirmish now which slowly builds rep (700 points a day). Though I really can’t wait for the revamped Rift instance as I’ve already been doing loads of skirmishes and still have 40 someodd left before I hit kindred. I’m getting quite sick of the skirmish, though thank goodness it’s a quick one. Lothirieth crying out of boredom!:

I also found the Inn League and the Ale Association to be a challenge as well. It was possible to do all the delivery quests in an hour but as the Ale Association quests were timed, I couldn’t slack off and go afk for a bit. Those plus the dailies took a fair bit of time and I was struggling to make myself do them after a bit. But I knew I had to persist given the quests are only available during festivals. To my surprise I was able to achieve kindred with both factions in one festival and was rewarded with some fun new mounts. Woot for a good goat in Moria! The Inn League horse is also slightly drunk! 😛


As far as the zones and instance deeds go, I’ve only completed Mirkwood and The Tower of Dol Guldur. Enedwaith is nearly done (damn wood trolls!). I had my doubts as to if I’d ever complete the Moria instance deeds but after a few decent runs in some instances, it should be doable. Although my lm hasn’t set foot in Skumfil…so we’ll see how it goes. The Carn Dum and Uru deeds look problematic as well. I really wish I would have had my main sorted and been doing these deeds when they first came out and everyone else was doing them!

Ah well, hopefully I’ll get there eventually! 🙂