It’s Summer Holiday and I am being very lazy making outfits, so my blog isn’t getting a lot of updates lately, but today it is time for a new post. Last week the Steed of the Lore-master made it to the Lotro store, and since I have a lore-master that I play almost every day, I got her the horse immediately. The design of this horse is somehow not entirely what I expected. In my humble opinion, it’s not really ugly, but it’s not that great either. It has a lot of scrolls hanging from the saddle and books and feathers and ink attached to it which is all very lore-masterish, but the rest of the tack seems to lack a certain degree of realism (and what’s the deal with that horn on the saddle?). I like the stars on the tack, but the combination with the tan horse and the weird burgundy hems seems a little off. Like some other class steeds, the horse tack doesn’t match any available ingame dye. Some dyes come close, but never exactly (the same problem arises with the Rune-keeper steed for example). On a more positive note, unlike the Steed of the Burglar, this horse does have two different sides, which is very nice. The strange colours make it hard to match the horse with a suitable outfit. More so even, because I don’t usually wear these colours on my lore-master. But hey, I don’t shy away from a cosmetic challenge!
The good news is that as soon as the Riders of Rohan expansion launches, I will automatically get this horse as a cosmetic design for my War-steed, and I will be able to alter colours, mix and match with other pieces, and fashion a Lore-master steed of my own! If you want to see what the Lore-master War-steed cosmetics look like, check out the newly released developer diary video about War-steeds. About halfway the Lore-master Steed comes into view.
As the Riders of Rohan release date is getting closer, we are all aware that soon our high level items and armour will be obsolete. As with the Rise of Isengard expansion I expect my seals to be converted to medallions and the prices of raid pieces lowered. Nevertheless at the moment I still have a lot of excess medallions and seals, which I can use to purchase armour pieces for cosmetic use. The chest piece used in this outfit is actually for Wardens and can be purchased at the Ox-clan Camp near Isengard. And since my warden is hardly likely to ever reach level 75, I purchased it exclusively for the looks. I think the starry design on the chest matches the Lore-master theme quite well. The chest piece has a nice neckline which looks perfectly fine without shoulders too. The Hunter and Burglar class have a similar chest piece, but with a different emblem on the chest, but their matching gloves are all the same. However there is a slight difference when dying those items as the Burglar version seems to be more muted. I couldn’t make up my mind whether or not I should match the steed with a backpack or a cloak, so I used both.
Head: Quilted Hat, Evendim blue dye (Tier 2 crafted, light armour)
Chest : Jacket of the Spear-way, Evendim blue dye (RoI Instance Set Warden)
Shoulders: Pauldrons of the Wandering Bard, sienna dye (Ettenmoors Minstrel set)
Hands: Gloves of the [Quiet Knife], sienna dye (RoI Instance Set Burglar/Warden/Hunter)
Feet: Barrow-scout’s Boots, sienna dye (Classic Vendor, medium armour), also available as T5 medium crafted Westernesse Protector’s Boots.
Back Cloak: Widow’s Drape, sienna dye (Men of Dunland Quartermaster, ally standing) – also available from Dunland quest rewards
Back Pack: Cook’s Pack, Evendim blue dye (Lotro store or lottery, cosmetic)
Horse: Steed of the Lore-master (Lotro store exclusive)
Cosmetic Lotro 
Wow, this is an awesome match for the steed! I think I like the cloaked version best. The star details on the chest and the star/moon/sun on the hat are a perfect touch. I love the shots with the “spyglass” too, great emote-repurposing! 🙂
I’m really looking forward to see what mixing and matching people are going to come up with when the cosmetic horse system goes live. It seems like there are lots of possibilities and flexibility.
Yeah the cloak is the best match, but the backpack is nice with all that stuff on the horse too. I don’t yet fully realize what the War-steed cosmetic system will bring us, but I’m certain it will have an impact on our cosmetic blogging adventures. More matching and mixing opportunities and Rohan is all about horses!
What IS that spyglass emote? Looks neat!
Oh if only we had a real telescope or binoculars emote! But this “spyglass” shows up when performing the /inspectgem emote that is available from the Treasure Hunt event. So far this event has only been available twice, earlier this year.
Very well matched! I envy you your stash of medallions/seals. I’ve been leveling up alts in preparation of RoR and have done very little instance crawling since I got everything i needed on my main.
Thank you for your comment! Minstrels never seem to suffer from a lack of invitations to anywhere, and though I’m tired of doing yet another foundry or Rof, I do help people out, and if that helps me getting more cosmetics, that’s even better. I’m not grinding gear for my alts either because they hardly ever raid, and Lotro is very forgiving in terms of “gear score”. I hope the RoI gear will lower in price, so that later on I can buy a few more pieces that I like!
Nice outfit. Very vivid colours and I love the little ‘gnome’ hat. 😀
I can’ t decide whether I like that LM horse or not. I love the scrolls and books it’s packed with, but did they really have to make it frilly? The front legs look like they’re wearing pantaloons. 😉 My LM is a boy. 😦
I agree, it looks a bit like a horse wearing pyjamas. I don’t know why they didn’t make this one a bit more rugged looking. The loremaster is someone who communes with nature, not with party animals.
You are amazing! The only saving feature of this mount in my opinion were the scrolls and books in the back (i love back packs, pockets, sockets, quivers, etc) but the rest of the mount looked odd like the colors and the wings design.
Of course you made it shine with a brilliant outfit and setting (the night sky helps me understand the mount). Wonderful work!!!
After watching the video i am debating which store steed to purchase. I am a guardian at heart and although the guardian steed does have a shield its a unattractive one to me. The cost doesn’t help me make up my mind =]
Thank you for your kind compliment! I agree with you that the mount has a good and a bad part. The good being the scrolls, sacks, books, quills, the bad part being the pajamas. I wish they would make more natural looking class horses, like the Steed of the Hunter, with more manes and rugged looking features. I really fear for the Minstrel Horse now 😦
Perhaps the horn on the saddle is an inkhorn?
By the way, I don’t like this horse but I love how your outfit matches it.
Very well matched colors. Nice touch pairing hat and hauberk–the detailing on both make it look like they’re part of a set
Hymne, this is great! I love your outfit choice in just about every detail.
And you make an excellent point about how the customizable horse system is really going to breathe life into premium horse cosmetic designs.
Oh, that mount… it’s hard to try and make up one’s mind about it. On one hand, I -love- the stylized stars, the silver/white and blue… on the other… the heck is up with those bags? My LM’s going to war, not sitting down to write love sonnets! :p
As it is, I’m finding myself constantly at disagreement with the Class-steeds; Hunter’s is awesome, and I love it, but Burglar’s, Champion’s and now LM’s… something about them just bugs me. I’d have expected scrolls and inscribing tools from a RK’s steed, for example.
But I digress, badly… 🙂
This outfit is nothing short of amazing: you’ve managed to match all the myriad colours of the steed with your outfit, and still keep the balance. With and without the cloak.
There’s not enough words for how much I adore that chest-piece, the way you’ve combined it with that well-known hat graphic, and the steed.
With the concept of a stargazer, you’ve even made the scrolls and writing implements seem fitting. Of course a stargazer would also need stuff like that to draw star charts and make notes. 🙂
At first I thought you’d used Gardener’s Boots from the Farmer’s Faire; they might be another good fit, at least from a distance. 🙂
And those Wandering Bard’s shoulders…I’ve often bemoaned the fact they’re the closest to a shawl we have in-game.
Thank you for another wonderful outfit, another beautiful set of screenshots and another well-matched set of emotes, steed and gear.
Have to show this to a friend who’s RK is all about Evendim Blue and silver. 🙂
I empathize with your ambiguity towards the different class steeds. I have the same. I didn’t even purchase the Champion steed for that reason, even though I have a level capped champ.
The gardeners boots would match too but I used the Barrow-scouts because they have an undyeable fold at the top that I thought was fitting to the rest of the outfit. Thank you so much for taking the time to write such an elaborate comment and your kind compliments. I enjoy making little “scenes” with my outfits, creating sort of a mini-story. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Thank you!
Can you please clarify about “As with the Rise of Isengard expansion I expect my seals to be converted to medallions”? Is it confirmed? Is it automatic? I don’t recall any auto-conversion of seals to medallions in RoI and I’m a bit puzzled about wording of this phrase.
Last year, with the RoI expansion Turbine announced that they would be simplifying the currency system. The most likely way to do that, and avoid adding yet another type of currency, is by downgrading (converting) everyone’s highest currency type (seals) to an equivalent value in a lower currency type (medallions). That way, nobody will have any seals when new gear is released, no more seals will drop in older instances and everyone will be forced to run new content to obtain those seals again. Older raid gear will then cost only medallions and the newest raid and instance gear will require seals again. Mind you, this may not happen until the end of 2012 when the new instance cluster and raid is released, and it may not happen at all the way I describe it, but it seems the most logical system to me. From my experience of how our 3rd and 4th Marks were converted after RoI, I expect something similar to happen with RoR.
But it isn’t mentioned or confirmed by any official Turbine representatives, correct?
Oh no, none of this is confirmed. Please read my original text quote “As with the Rise of Isengard expansion I expect my seals to be converted to medallions and the prices of raid pieces lowered.” Anything written on this blog is entirely my own expectation and conclusion and I apologize if this has confused you. If my expectation comes to pass, Turbine may or may not announce this beforehand, as they did not warn us in advance either when the 4th Mark conversion rate was suddenly lowered before Patch 5.1.
For more information, speculation and opinions please read the Riders of Rohan Forum Thread: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?454048-Seals-and-Medallions-in-Rohan
Oh no, no-no, I didn’t mean you said that it will be 100% so, I was just wondering if it was said so somewhere by developers and I missed it. Thank you for the clarification 🙂
amazing outfit Hymne! I love how closely you managed to match the steed. I bought the mount for my LM last week and composed an outfit for it, but I couldn’t manage to get this close color-wise. really well done 🙂
Looks great 🙂 But i don´t understand where the Jacket of the Spear-way is coming from….
Rol instance means? Sry for that, my english isn´t the best….
Hello Calypsora, if you go to the Ox-Clan Camp near Isengard you will find all class barterers there. You will find this chestpiece with the Warden barterer. To purchase it, you need both Seals and Medallions at the moment. It is possible -but not guaranteed- that the price for this chest piece will be lowered once a new (higher level) instance cluster is released, so if you don’t have an excess of seals at the moment, you may want to wait and see what happens.