Bane of the False Ring-lord

It’s time for the final instalment in my Tower of Orthanc Inspired outfits or at least what Tuilinel offers for Isengard. Here we have a Tuilinel free of the White Wizards influence an Elf of power revealed in Glory and Wrath to face down the Fallen Istari Saruman of Many Colours.

This outfit is heavily inspired by Material middle-earth’s Shimmering Song (link to page http://materialmiddleearth.blogspot.com/2017/05/shimmering-song.html). It was this outfit formed the base for a problem I had wrestled with a few weeks while designing my Rise of Isengard outfit arch for Tuilinel and that was how best to use the Shimmering cloak’s in this succession obviously it had it be part of the Finale however the Raid gear has a Dark base colour effecting all of its dyes meaning I wouldn’t be able to get a light enough palate to make the Cloak seem like an extension of the outfit not a huge draw for the eye, see while I love the shimmering cloaks too often do I see them as the highlight of a cosmetic a bold statement cloak on an otherwise dark outfit, now undeniably this can look amazing but it’s not what I wanted. So thank you Shimmering Song for showing me the wonder of pastels.

From the aforementioned outfit I took the idea of using the Robe of the Learned Stag in a lovely lavender, now before we go any further, I have a love hate relationship with this dye too often is it baby pink and not the calming Lavender I desire so I rarely find use for it or even think of it honestly so it’s nice to give it purpose here at the very least. But anyway so with a centre chest piece settled and a cloak already predetermined I began one of my favourite pass times accessorising, I wanted spiky so I got the spikiest cosmetics I could find, the finest spiky Mordor had to offer (which dyed light enough). After my Accessorising with most things spiky, it was done, my Tuilinel was ready to beat Saruman with the kin on T2. Which happened about 4 weeks later in which I hid this outfit from my companions to spring on them after Saruman’s defeat, which happened on a raid I wasn’t apart of so I proudly stood on that high rock I Galtrev awaiting their return and once the gazed upon my wondrous visage they said it was nice… I’ve come to the realisation like, Mendel, Galileo and Van Gogh before me I’m a visionary whose work will only be appreciated after my demise. Well at least I’ll look good in the Hall of Mandos.

The pieces used in this outfit are listed below along with where you can find them.

Head: Rune-Maker’s Hat (Classic Vendor at the Skirmish camp, Dark purple)

Shoulders: Fine Camail of the Expeditions Vanguard (Allegiance Vendor in the various Allegiance Halls, White)

Chest: Robe of the Learned Stag (Lavender)

Gloves: Dextrous Gages of the Expeditions Vanguard (Allegiance Vendor in the various Allegiance Halls, White)

Feet: Shoes of the Learned Stag (Violet)

The Chest and feet Gear pieces come from the LM Dunland gear set and so in Lew of giving the Quests they are attainable from here’s a link to the LOTRO wiki page detailing the different Dunland sets and where the items with those skins can be found, https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Dunland_Armor_Sets

Main hand: Amdirolf (Classic Vendor at the Skirmish camp)

Off hand: Shatterbone (Rare drop from Gruglok in Urugarth)

Challenger of the White Wizard

 Here we have a continuation of my raid inspired outfit series with this the ‘Challenger of the White Wizard’ a direct successor to last weeks ‘Tutor of Stags’ marking the second stage of Tuilinel’s Rise of Isengard outfit arch.

The Rise of Isengard expansion brought with it some of the best cosmetic in the game and the raid sets certainly don’t disappoint yeh they don’t have the diversity that previous raids gave, and mark the beginning of the Unique Light, Medium, Heavy, armours set rather than Class unique sets of DN but by no means do the Orthanc sets leave me wanting. Their Aesthetic perfectly personifies the oppressive atmosphere that The Tower of Orthanc raid impresses on the Player, making one fell as though your Character is slowly falling under the Spells of Saruman and yet never losing that uniquely Free Peoples feeling LOTRO is so good at instilling into our Characters. 

For this outfit I was determined to use pieces of the Orthanc gear sets for this outfit, however one slight problem I encounter was/is the fact I only have Lore-masters at 75 or above so  only had access to the LM gear which lead to me wearing only the LM gear for Shoulders, Chest and Feet, however the outfit felt unfinished without a head piece which is honestly a rare thing for me, I’m not a he fan of Head encasing cosmetics on my elves well at least on Tui I’m in no ways adverse to wearing  a delicate tiara or glimmering crown which conveniently hold his long flowing hair out of his face in the heat of battle but for whatever reason my go to crowns and Tiaras didn’t do it for this outfit.

But like it often does inspiration struck me at a inopportune time, while waiting for a kinnie to Log on to do some Tier 2 Dargnákh Unleashed in search of Iúlin the Tact Mit necklace (https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Item%3AI%C3%BAlin) and helping another kinnie with their own Cosmetic Conundrum which just so happened to be finding a head piece I was trolling through my Wardrobe and mind for something to suit them when suddenly I stumbled across the DN Warden helm which I had long considered pretty but temperamental when it came to Dye cover, some colours were fine the purples were not so… I forgot it existed; however in black let’s just say it really came into its own. So fast forward the Server swapping for dyes then to my unused Warden then back to brandy with my Shared Storage in tow where my Kinnies both now online had ‘patiently’ waited to be graced by my masterpiece greeted me with a “that’s nice, open the instance now” I guess they didn’t appreciate my excellent choice of head gear.

The pieces used in this outfit are listed below along with where you can find them.

Head: Helm of the Lady’s Favour (Warden class trader in Caras Galadhon, DN gear, Black)

Shoulders: The Beast-Master's Shoulder Pads (Exchanged for marks by Angwun at the Ox-clan Merchant Camp, Twilight Purple)

Chest: The Ancient Master's Robe (Exchanged for marks by Angwun at the Ox-clan Merchant Camp, Twilight Purple)

Feet: The Ancient Master's Shoes (Exchanged for marks by Angwun at the Ox-clan Merchant Camp, Default)

Main hand: Lv Staff of the Third age (Melded for at a Relic master using Shards)

Off hand: Star Mace (drops in a boss chest in The Rift of Nûrz Ghâshu)

Tutor of Stags

I’m an officer for a progression raiding kin on Brandywine called ‘Play it again’ who aim to recreate the original raiding experience available at each level cap, we do this by only using gear which would have been available at the time of raid release. Currently both my LM Tuilinel and my RK Yaaraen are members of the raid groups so as someone who loves a good cosmetic challenge I create 3 outfits for each character for each raid/area we stop in. now as you can imagine this experience has led to a stockpile of Raid inspired Cosmetics so I suppose it’s time I shared some of them.

Here we have the first of my raid inspired outfits which will be a series on this blog for the foreseeable future. This particular outfit isn’t my best in fact I personally consider it one of my ‘Lazy’ outfits but despite that it does showcase some of the amazing cosmetics which drop in Dunland, every item used in this outfit except the crown are from Dunland quests in fact you can get the some cosmetic skin from multiple quest rewards in Dunland, and even a few drop as teal gear from the Rise of Isengard instance cluster.

The Aim behind this outfit was to make use of the Dunland Quest gear in order to make a simple outfit which wouldn’t look a miss doing the earlier Rise of Isengard quests or within Draigoch. I did toy with some of the Draigoch gear pieces but they didn’t feel right on my LM who I try to keep out of heavy looking armours in favour for more elegant cloth robes. One added bonus of using this robe was that its super close to the Isengard raid set which I use as a centre piece for another outfit which will be a part of this series. I personally really like outfits which flow into one another, which feel like upgrades or more advanced versions of the same concept. This idea is one I try to capture on all my characters but especially for my Raiding Characters.

For this cosmetic I was determined to use Lavender dye, as despite it being one of the purple dyes available to me Purple themed LM I hadn’t really ever used it for a chest piece, but I found that Lavender all over made the outfit seem very well blagh, and a lot of the detail was lost in the sea of slightly faded purple-pink so on a whim I decided to dye all the other pieces, heads shoulder etc Violet and see how it turned out, personally I think it turned out pretty well.

The pieces used in this outfit are listed below along with where you can find them.

Head: Lesser Circlet of Dunnauth (Barterable at Harndirion, Violet)

Shoulders: Shoulderpads of the Learned Stag (Violet)

Chest: Robe of the Learned Stag (Lavender)

Hands: Leather Bracers of the Learned Stag (Violet)

Feet: Shoes of the Learned Stag (Violet)

These Gear pieces come from the LM Dunland gear sets and so in Lew of giving the Quests they are attainable from here’s a link to the LOTRO wiki page detailing the different Dunland sets and where the items with those skins can be found, https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Dunland_Armor_Sets

Main hand: Doronolf (Quest reward, Queen-mother)

Off hand: Precise Warriors sword (Weaponsmith T6, crit success)