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Friday, August 17, 2012

Ghost rider


He rides the plains of Eriador, always accompanied by gruesome shriek, and yet he is not a Nazgûl. People say he sold his soul to the power of evil to acquire superhuman strength and fear resistance, but the wise know different. Maney was once an ordinary warrior, champion of his unit, but he felt so powerless. When he was seventeen years old and saw his dear brother and fellow die at the hands of remorseless barrow-wight, he has made his decision.


Maney started training really hard, spending every waken hour practicing his skills with a sword, endurance and courage. He sought challenges and was always there where people needed a savior, especially against undead servants of the worst evil. Soon, however, people started to fear him for his unnatural skill and introversion, caused by deep grief. They started calling him a Ghost rider, and he gratefully assumed this role. And so he rides and rides, knowing only in his heart who is on the side of good or evil.

I love dark outfits. Sometimes I miss the "evil" part of gaming in LOTRO (don't get me wrong, I don't torture young players in other MMOs ;)) and so I try to simulate this side in Middle-earth too. That's why my personal favorite in Yule Outfit Contest 2011 was Kemendin with his Herne the Hunter. Coincidentally, my today's outfit is also a dark-themed rider, inspired by Marvel's Ghost Rider series. It might resemble the Loki inspired outfit we created more than a year ago together with my fiancé, because the goat mask is very unique :), but the theme is different.

On Saturday night I spent a few hours leveling my champion from level 11 to 18, just to get Cleave. This skill looks so amazing on screenshots that I knew my ghost rider should be able to perform it. Then I spent an hour trying to retouch the mobs' names out of screenshots (you can see the very unprofessional result on the first and third screenshot - I just hope not at the first sight :)). However, I hope I have managed to capture the atmosphere I wanted for this outfit.

Please let me know what do you think about the outfit in comments, or simply rate below the post's title :)

Chest: Dwarf Steel Breastplate of Might, black dye (world drop; same skin is available from heavy armoursmith in Thorin's Hall)
Legs: Tattered Leggings of the Dunland Sage, black dye (Dunland quest)
Head: Visage of the Goat, black dye (Store)
Shoulders: Noriel's Folly, black dye (Great River quest)
Hands: Snow-dusted Travelling Gloves, black dye (Yule festival)
Feet: Boots of the Great Bow, black dye (Moria level 60 hunter teal set)
Back: Flames of the Deep, black dye (Skirmish trader - cosmetic items)

Mount: Steed of Night (Store)

Emotes:
./mountrearup (Store)
./lookaround
./smoke
Cleave (Champion level 18 skill)

17 comments:

  1. Wow this is awesome. Very evil indeed! Ivy posted an "evil" outfit using the same mask the other day, it's a really good item for creepy stuff!! The match to the steed of night is outstanding. Love it!

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    1. yup, I saw Ivy's one (http://theivylotro.squarespace.com/home/2012/8/12/title-week-foe-of-night.html) - it's very nice and especially the screenshots are chillin' :) last week has been probably evilish all way round - I created this outfit last weekend and I have another one in mind to bring it to reality this weekend - unfortunately during the work week I can also let my imagination work :(

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  2. I love this! Dark characters usually get the coolest outfits... and this guy is no exception.

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    1. thank you, Maney does not express it by words, but he's very flattered by your comment :))

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  3. Great outfit and great story with it. The animation fighting the skeleton is brilliant!

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    1. thank you Brrokk, nice to hear from you! and I'm happy you like the outfit :)

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  4. Wow, I was taken with this immediately. The colors are amazing and yay for Visage of the Goat! I love that headpiece and this outfit looks so great with it.

    Eerie story, too. Love this one. :D

    --Ivy

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    1. thanks Ivy! about the colors - I've always loved this chest piece's sleeves and their deep rust color, but couldn't find anything truly good looking to match with it. until I was searching for a match for this cloak :) for the Visage of the Goat I'm just sorry that the front part isn't black - it would add to the feeling much more...

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  5. The screenshot with combat vs. skeleton just blew me away. You're so talented! Great stuff.

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    1. yayy thanks so much! ^^ but I don't think it's about talent for the biggest part - it's just about thinking of some scene and then hitting PrtSc so many times that the object (character and skeleton in this case) get so bored that they pose :D sometimes I'm a bit worried about printscreen key on my laptop - its lifespan is coming to an end soon I guess :)

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  6. Wow, very effective colour scheme! That chest piece is one of my favourite old-school breastplates in the game. If you can find something to work with the orange, as you did beautifully in this outfit, it always looks so amazing! :D

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  7. Very nice. I certainly didn't notice that you'd allegedly edited the names out of the pics. Good job!

    Did you buy that mount from the store? Hopefully you'll get to use that warhorse cosmetic and outfit one of your high level once Rohan drops :)

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    1. thank you! :)) yup, I bought the mount from the store. I haven't read much about war mounts cosmetics yet (although I should do that soon, I'd like to make a guide for my readers once Rohan comes out :). I've seen info about class mounts outfits being reusable for the war mounts, does it apply to other store exclusive mounts as well?

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