New Yule festival cosmetics!

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Today we've learned great news brought by Hymne about cross-class bartering being back (except for Ettenmoors armour). This means we can exchange barter currencies for armour not dedicated to our class once again, and then use it in outfits via wardrobe (here's how).

Except for this, Moraiwë of Arkenstone noticed that there are 4 new cosmetic pieces available at Yule festival quartermaster. She was willing to take screenies for me, as I'm reinstalling my computer and don't have LoTRO client at the moment.

Snowy Tunic and Pants | Snowy Dress

Snowy Hoodless Cloak | Brisk Cloak

So far I'm most intrigued about the Snowy Hoodless Cloak - there could be some very elegant outfits emerging from it! *crossing fingers for good bandwidth while downloading the client*

What do you think of the new cosmetics? Tell us in comments!

Update: Thanks again to Moraiwë I borrowed picture of the new Snowy Steed from @SunGryphon's tweet.

Guest: Fazlee of Landroval

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{[["☆","★"]]}

In desert lands of Lonelands, the sun was slowly setting down and all the critters started to seek warmth and shelter before the cruel night. But for Fazlee Blackmoor, a nomadic captain known as Swift Executioner on Landroval, the fun was only starting. He enjoys the day but thrives at night, fighting the most dangerous enemies and facing all the dark and evil he can find. Fear not Amon Sûl, fear not Middle-earth! Fazlee can save you and amuse himself at the same time!

I simply love how exotic this outfit looks. It could be used as perfect southern ranger garb, as well as true Nomad's hunting attire. By the way, notice how Fazlee matched the ranger star on shoulders to its equivalent on gauntlets :) Fazlee didn't use any cloak to make his great sword stand out, but if you'd prefer one, he recommends Scholar's Cloak in burgundy, which can be crafted by T4 tailor.

Chest: High Herald's Armour, burgundy dye (T6 crafted)
Legs: Lesser Secret of the West Leggings, burgundy dye (Level 65 burglar epic set)
Head: Traveller's Hood, burgundy dye (Store)
Shoulders: Fine Grey Company Wrap, burgundy dye (Quest: Volume III Book 5, Chapter 1: Separate Ways)
Hands: Gloves of Helmingas, default dye (RoI pre-order)
Feet: Hardened Steel Dunlending Boots, default dye (Dunland quest)

Wish: Adorable hobbit in purple

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{[["☆","★"]]}

Some time ago, I received a wish for an outfit from Evlin, cute hobbit minstrel of Crickhollow. She also sent me a picture of her current outfit:

Evlin had a very good idea of what she expected from the outfit. The main idea was "a perfect cosmetic outfit that reflects the personality you want to give your character (beautiful, adventurous, battle-worthy) and you keep it on from level 1 (exaggeration) to level 75 only changing the colors once in a while." Except for this, she had following requirements:

• Outfit either casual, battle-ready, cute and basically designed for a hobbit
• Ceremonial Cloak of the West-tower used in the outfit
• Colours: purple (violet works too, but purple is best), also Evendim blue, any shade of green (for a minstrel) or Ered Luin blue
• No raid gear whatsoever unless it can be bought somewhere else, no store items in the outfit and hopefully no higher level gear

I sent Evvy the first two designs:

In the first design, I tried to combine the cloak and Evvy's favourite purple colour in a way that it's "hobbity" enough. Hobbit lasses look amazing in dresses, and although it's not exactly battle ready type of clothes, minstrel usually keeps her distance, so she doesn't need heavier armour to protect her. And such a nice cleavage forming dress would certainly help her increase morale of her fellows :)

In the second design I went for rich hobbit traveler look - turquoise and gold combination. I included shoes in the design, but barefoot works too.

Evvy didn't like the first outfit very much, because she would feel like she betrayed her characters by making them run around marshes and slimy caves in dresses, and I had no other choice than completely agree :))

She liked the second outfit very much and wanted to wear the same in purple dye. However, there were a lot of Tier 6 crafted items used and Evvy had no access to those. Also, the robe (most widely known as Survivor's Robe) was only acquirable very expensively for skirmish marks, or from the pre-Moria epic questline at that time (it's now available in the store as well). So we tried to come up with something similar and easily acquirable. I sent her the third design:

All of the items used here (except for the cloak) are purchasable from vendors or crafted up to Tier 5, so they are widely available on Auction Hall. Evvy loved the second variant shown in this design and asked for items list. She was so keen to already be wearing the outfit, that she didn't even wait for it and took initiative - she built the outfit herself, using slightly different outfit, but keeping the overall impression, which I value very highly :))

Evlin mentioned she will probably later switch to the Survivor's Robe when she gets it as a quest reward, but until then, Long Fancy Robe purchasable from outfitter vendor is a very decent replacement :) 

Please let us know you opinions on the outfit! :)

Final result:
Chest: Long Fancy Robe, purple dye (Outfitter in Michel Delving)
Shoulders: Guardsman’s Medium Shoulders of Naillan, purple dye (Skirmish medium armour barter)
Boots: Esquire’s Medium Boots of Adlan, purple dye (Skirmish medium armour barter)
Cloak: Ceremonial Cloak of the West-tower (Skirmish classic barter)

Guest: Dwalfor of Snowbourn

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{[["☆","★"]]}

Dwalfor travels a lot more than other dwarves. Since his previous appearance on this blog his adventures have taken him to Dunland, Rohan and Forochel, where he acquired new pieces of armour from the locals as thanks for the aid he has provided for them. And recently a group of adventurers even called for his help to defeat a terrible ancient evil sleeping deep within the land of Angmar: a Balrog of Morgoth. Thanks to his bravery and his deadly skill with an axe, Dwalfor emerged victorious with something to show for it: a pair of beautiful shoulder guards he took from the balrog's hoard.
 

This guest submission is very special for me, because this outfit was originally designed as a wish together by Dwalfor and myself. Only the breastplate, leggings and gauntlets remained until now and obviously, I like this enhanced version so much!

Chest: Chainmail Chestpiece of Fleetness, navy dye (world drop)
Legs: Steel Leggings, navy dye (T3 crafted)
Head: Strong Helmet of Théodred, navy dye (T7 crafted)
Shoulders: Rift-defender's shoulderguards, default dye (Rift level 50 guardian teal set)
Hands: Defender's Gloves, navy dye (T3 crafted)
Feet: Boots of the Charging Stag, navy dye (Dunland quest)
Back: Cloak of the Raven's Claw, default dye (Drop from Sari-Surma)

Winners of the Yule Outfit Contest 2011!

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I am pleased to announce that Hymne, Devonna and me have finished judging this year's Yule Outfit Contest entries and have chosen the winners! :)

(If you're interested only in the winners, please scroll down for details on 1st, 2nd and 3rd place!)

As an opener, let me show you a submission we chosen to award honorary mention of the contest. We have received a submission from a whole kinship, the Lonely Mountain Band of Laurelin, who organized their Yule party wearing wonderful winter costumes. They are absolutely adorable and I'm a little jealous of all the fun these wonderful bunch has had :) We couldn't consider them as ordinary entry competing for the prizes, but they deserve a lot of your attention for their creativity!

Judging the entries was incredibly hard, but also fun job. We received over 150 submissions, most of them very beautiful. Each of us, the outfit bloggers, chose 3 of our favourite outfits to be rated by all of us in the grand finale of TOP 9 entries. These were rated by awarding 1 to 5 points in each category based on following criteria:

• Representative of the Yule or Winter theme and spirit
• Originality of the overall design
• Integration of the various pieces used
• Blending of dye colours
• Overall impression

So each outfit could obtain maximum of 75 points from Hymne, Devonna and myself. The TOP 3 which gained the highest score are our winners.

The only sad point of this contest, at least for me, was having to disqualify entries which did not follow contest rules (most often the screenshot resolution was much less than 1024x768). Two of the entries which would otherwise end up in the TOP 9 had to be disqualified because of this. So people, pretty please, next time we organize a contest, read the rules carefully! :))

And now to the merriest news - these are the 3 winners of our contest! :)

1st prize: 1550 TP code (sponsored by the outfit blogs) goes to Vindrayeth of Snowbourn! His very original and well matched outfit amazed us!

His outfit consists of:

Chest: Hauberk of Rhûn, sea blue dye (Store)
Head: Ceremonial Mammutti Helm, sea blue dye (T5 crafted)
Shoulders: Yule Scarf, white dye (Yule festival)
Hands: Oven Mitts, white dye (Skirmish barter - Rift cosmetics)
Feet: Ceremonial Mammutti Boots, sea bue dye (T5 crafted)
Back: Elk-Hunter's Pack, white dye (Store)

2nd prize: 1000 TP code (sponsored by Turbine) goes to Jerremiah Jamtoes of Laurelin! This outfit proves the beauty lies in simplicity and that a decent hobbit can be well protected against the cold, yet still unbelievably stylish! :)

His outfit consists of:

Chest: Dunlending's Hunting Jacket, burgundy dye (Dunland quest)
Shoulders: Tactical Assault Westfold Shoulder Pads, burgundy dye (T7 crafted)
Hands: Leather Bracers of the Gentle Stag, sienna dye (Dunland quest)
Back: Torahammas' Cloak, burgundy dye (T5 crafted)

3rd prize: 500 TP code (sponsored by Turbine) goes to Elyata of Gladden! Her outfit is one of the most elegant battle-ready outfits I've ever seen and combines very unusual pieces together into demonstration of feminine elegance. Feeling of warmth and star details on the hauberk just add to the festive feeling.

Her outfit consists of:

Chest: Hauberk of the Mirrormere, Rivendell green dye (Store)
Hands: Scorched Ox-Hide Gauntlets, crimson dye (Dunland quest)
Feet: Nightshade Boots, crimson dye (Dunland quest)
Back: Cloak of the Mallorn, Rivendell green dye (Store)

The rest of TOP 9:

Kemendin of Nimrodel
(front view and used items)

Frathluin of Riddermark
(front view and used items)

Ehefkae of Elendilmir
(front view and used items)

Diamint of Vilya
(front view and used items)

Twolegs of Landroval
(front view and used items)

Kiayiren of Evernight
(front view and used items)

Devonna of Lotro Stylist prepared a Flickr slideshow of all entries we've received (including the TOP 9), so feel free to check them all and get heavily inspired for your own winter outfit! :)

Big congratulation to the winners, who have already received their Turbine points codes. Do you like the winning outfits? Please let us (and especially the authors!) know in the comments.

Experience counts

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Maney has already seen many battles. Some call him Champion from the Lonely Mountain, because he has toughness, endurance and hard hit of a dwarf. He only smiles after hearing such remarks, because he is indeed a friend of dwarves and often visits Thorin's Hall for a few lagers with old friends. But however merry, he is never caught off guard and never lets go of his sharp blade and good old plated armour.

It's been quite a few weeks since I wanted to create an outfit for "The Borg Helm", a.k.a. Jeweller's Helm obtained during Treasure Hunt event sneak peek. First, I wanted to create an inspiration of the Borg from Star Trek, as this helm so much resembles their implants, but I've been unsuccessful so far. I wanted my first outfit in this year to be at least decent :), so no Borgs for today, I'm sorry. I experimented a bit anyway, because I've never tried mixing plated chest piece with cloth leggings so far - please let me know if you like the result in comments :)

Chest: Carn Dum Breastplate, black dye (Drop from Carn Dum)
Legs: Tattered Leggings of the Dunland Sage, black dye (Dunland quest)
Head: Jeweller's Helm, black dye (Treasure Hunt event)
Shoulders: Dwarf Leather Shoulder Guards of Might, black dye (world drop)
Hands: Hyrde-folme, black dye (Dunland quest)
Feet: Rusted Boots of the Dunland Berserkers, black dye (Dunland quest)
Back: Warden's Wrap, black dye (Warden's of Annuminas reputation barter)

Guest: Gerbag of Whitywindle

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{[["☆","★"]]}

Gerbag is one tough dwarf. He manages his time perfectly - after handling some business with Uruk-hai and other handsome guys, Gerbag has still time to play around with his outfits and come up with new dangerously looking armour. This one bears Draigoch's mark and is a clear sign of this guardian's dominance over any foe, no matter how dangerous.

Chest: Chestplate of Indomitable Protector, white dye (Level 75 guardian epic set)
Legs: Lesser Ward of The West Leggings, white dye (Ost Dunhoth level 65 guardian epic set)
Head: Workers Helm, white dye (Quest: Opening the Waterways)
Shoulders: Lesser Blade of the West Shoulder Guards, white dye (Ost Dunhoth level 65 guardian epic set)
Hands: Gauntlets of Indomitable Protector, white dye (Level 75 guardian epic set)
Feet: Lesser Blade of The West Boots, white dye (Ost Dunhoth level 65 guardian epic set)