50% Sale on Warsteed Colors
There’s an unannounced sale going on for Warsteed color packs at 50% off now. No idea when it will end. There’s also a double bonus point sale going on, ending on the 26th. Source: Casual Stroll to Mordor.
I haven’t been making outfits much lately–partly a lack of inspiration, partly getting busy with real-life goings on. But this sale is encouraging; I still wish the colors were account wide, but I’ve bought some and will have more variety in my warsteed outfits. Hurrah!
Wild, Wild Wold
I have finally put together a warsteed outfit I can be proud of. It’s inspired by the spotted steed hide, which I won off a warband a few days ago! I think warbands are one of my favorite parts of Rohan. I love rushing to Bugud at reset to take him down along with 20 other random people. It’s so chaotic! It took me many warbands to find the spotted hide for my steed. I suspect the orcs and trolls and such knew how badly I wanted it, and hid it from me. They gave me two of their heads on a pike before I got the hide. Silly orcs. (more…)
Silver Bell, Silver Birch
My first post-Rohan post was supposed to be a warsteed outfit, of course, but after earning just about every warsteed cosmetic that comes with the expansion, I’ve yet to come up with something I truly like. I have reached 85, done every quest–I think–and there are perhaps 2-4 options per equipment slot that aren’t from the Store. Sadly, I suspect this aspect of LOTRO will be too costly for me without some deep sales. I am a girl on a budget, after all. I won’t harp on this further, but if you’re just tuning in to the warsteed color controversy, there’s a petition on the forums to lower the cost.
But! I still have my stable of regular horses! (more…)
Petition: Lower the cost of warsteed colors
Rohan is here! And it’s great, and wonderful, and fun, and I’m having a blast. The landscape is beautiful, the story is engaging (for the first time, I actually care about Turbine-made characters), the music is moving, and mounted combat is exhilarating.
There’s been some hiccups, some serious bugs (my game crashes several times an hour, several of my kinmates can’t even get into the game still), but overall, I love Riders of Rohan.
However, there’s one thing that’s really.. disappointing.
See, in beta I knew that the warsteed colors would be in the store, but we didn’t know how much. I was worried, and said as much, but I reserved final judgment for when the price was known. It’s known now. It’s 595 per pack, for four colors, and there’s 10 packs if my memory serves me (6 warsteed color packs, 4 tack color packs). That means, if you’re like me and you want flexibility in customizing your warsteed, you’d be out 5950 TP, which is nearly $60 worth of TP. But wait! There’s more! The packs are per character! That means, if you’re like me and have, say, 4 characters running around Rohan, you’d have to shell out 23800 TP to be able to use all the colors on those alts.
What a punch in the gut to an altoholic like me! I believe that’s about as much TP as I’ve ever spent in two years of playing! To go from the wonderfully flexible regular cosmetic system, with the variety of dyes available from scholars, to this–well. It’s just a bit disappointing.
What especially sticks in my craw is that, when I bought the expansion, I was under the impression that I’d be able to customize my warsteed. That’s what I thought I was paying for. Instead, I guess I paid for a plain grey steed and the privilege of paying more to customize him.
What could make this more palatable?
- Make the colors accountwide.
- Lower the cost.
- Break the color packs up into individual colors.
- Or, make the system more like the regular cosmetic system–let scholars make warsteed dyes!
So! If you, too, think the price of warsteed colors needs to be lowered, there’s a petition on the forums. Please sign!
Haunted Derby & Rippling Manes and Tailfeathers
This weekend there are two wonderful horse-related events going on!
The first is a race and costume contest hosted by Kiralynn of Windy Acres Ranch on the Landroval server.
The Haunted Derby – Landroval
Date: Saturday, October 13 at 1:00pm ST
Place: The party tent at the Buckland Faire.* Costume Contest – The theme of the contest is Halloween costumes. This is not a mounted contest; participants will be walking across the stage. Bring roleplay items and perform emotes to highlight your costume. The audience votes for the winners!
* Horse Race – A challenging, perilous race through the Old Forest and Barrow-downs. Fast (+68%) horses and ponies will be allowed.
Prizes
* First Place – 750 Turbine Points and an account-wide Perlino steed.
* Second Place – 4 gold + Perlino
* Third Place – 2 gold + Perlino
The second is on my old home server of Gladden: Rippling Manes and Tailfeathers, hosted by Lilyrose of the Rangers of the West.
Rippling Manes and Tailfeathers — Gladden
Date: Sunday, October 14th, at 3:00 pm ST
Place: Bree West Gate
We will charge from Bree West Gate to the Methel Stage in the Shire, and afterwards hold a cosmetic contest. Nathrien of Material Middle-Earth and I have the honor of being your judges! Here’s some more info from the forums:
Our judges will be looking for winners in the following categories:
- Best use of color and integration
- Rohan Style-best coordination between rider and mount.
In addition, we will be having on audience judged category-Crowd Pleaser. So be sure to practice your moves, and bring your posse along.
Prizes for the judged categories are as follows (Courtesy of Nathrien, we have enriched the prize packages. Thank you, Nathrien!):
3rd place, 2 gold, 1 dye of choice (stack of 3) and 5 level appropriate hope tokens.
2nd place 3 gold, and 2 dyes of choice (stack of 3), and 5 level appropriate hope tokens.
1st place 4 gold, and 3 dyes of choice (stack of 3) and 5 level appropriate hope tokens.
Contact Lilyrose of Gladden on the LOTRO forums or in-game to pre-register or volunteer to help out.
I Believe I Can Fly
I just met a Supergirl! I asked her if she’d teach me and my goats to fly, and she told me, but it wasn’t working. So I blamed the goat and tried one of my ponies (one with no tack so he’s as aerodynamic as possible.) And it worked!! I flew all the way over Rohan!!
The Big Folk look like ants from here!
Hey, I can see my Smial! I think. No, I’m kidding. The Misty Mountains are in the way.
Oh dear. It’s getting rather cold. How do I get down? Hey, is that speck a Nazgul?
HALP
~Elyita
(In all seriousness, this was an adventure I had a couple months ago in the Rohan beta. There was a very unfinished city that would fling you out of it, and sometimes up in the air. It was awesome.) Full size of screenshots 1, 2, 3, 4.
Autumn’s Breath
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
Far From Home
The Lossoth (“snow-horde” loss – snow, hoth – horde, crowd) were a remnant of the Forodwaith (“north-men,” forod – north, gwaith – men, people). Their name implies to me that they were a faded civilization compared to their predecessors, which is in keeping with the retrogression of other peoples–the fading of the elves, the diminished lifespans of men. Their territory once stretched across the Northern Waste, but is now much smaller. The details on them are very scarce; they gave aid to King Arvedui, the last king of Arnor, whose ghost we visit in the Volume I epic, and.. that’s about it.
Come Back to Me
When Spring unfolds the beechen leaf, and sap is in the bough;
When light is on the wild-wood stream, and wind is on the brow;
When stride is long, and breath is deep, and keen the mountain-air,
Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is fair!
Pony Lovers Anonymous 
