Captain's Arm

Exactly as the title says, this outfit was based upon the Captain's Arm, an incredibly rare weapon looted from Castellan Wisdan's chest at the very top of Barad Gúlaran. I farmed for this over a month, running that particular dungeon five times a day, at least three time a week. Even though it's easily soloed at 85, the drop rate is infinitesimal. LOTRO also tends to lock players out of instances if too many are entered within an hour. Given those circumstances, this was, and still is, one of the more painful halberds to acquire.

Silver, gold, and sea blue are the colors of the halberd, and as luck would have it, those colors were easily duplicated in other cosmetic skins. The difficulty, however, was finding the appropriate gear to accompany it. Since it's neither elven nor dwarven in appearance, that provided me with a little leeway. Off the top of my head, I could name three sets that, when dyed sea blue, would match: the Captain's sets from Helegrod (War-captain), Moria (Hall-general), and Lothlórien (Lady's Courage). Sure, you can find similarities in the same zone sets from other heavy classes, but they don't match as well. I ended up settling upon of a mix of armor from the Helegrod and Moria sets, as they shared a delightful balance of color and featured some of the visual nuances of the Captain's Arm. Notice the small bluish gem on the head of the halberd? It also appears on the Hall-general's Breastplate.

I still remember when, despite numerous player requests, the Turbine devs had repeatedly told the players for years that cosmetic weapons weren't possible. Eventually, I gave up hope and tossed many outleveled items away for taking up precious vault space...and then Turbine had an unexpected change of heart. Since then, I've been kicking myself for not keeping my collection of rarities. Off-hand weapons. Pre-Moria main hand weapons. Low-level legendary items. Even now, I still hunt down those skins in the game when I have the time. Sadly, some items I once owned vanished with the game-wide change to dungeon loot tables when the Erebor cluster was released, like the coveted Frothskold shield--the one that used to be bigger than the Hobbit mini that wore it!

At least I now have a renewed drive to collect swords, shields, and the like!

Head: Ceremonial Circlet of Restoration (Sea blue, Lalia's Market)**
Shoulders: Ceremonial War-captain's Shoulders (Sea blue, skirmish camp cosmetics vendor - Helegrod heavy armor)
Chest: Hall-general's Breastplate (Sea blue, Moria Captain class vendor in the Twenty-first Hall)
Legs: Hall-general's Leggings (Sea blue, Moria Captain class vendor in the Twenty-first Hall)
Hands: Ceremonial High-protector's Gloves  (Sea blue, skirmish camp cosmetics vendor - Helegrod heavy armor)
Feet: Hall-general's Boots (Sea blue, Moria Captain class vendor in the Twenty-first Hall)

Main-hand weapon: Captain's Arm (Barad Gúlaran, drops only from Castellan Wisdan's chest)

**Available at Lalia's Market at time of posting. Also shares the same skin as the level 85+ Lore-master PvMP circlet.

_________________________________________________________

As a bit of bonus news, Second Breakfast of Crickhollow is having a Bullroarer Took Day Pub Crawl on Sunday, March 20, 2016. This will be a series of events starting at 12 PM servertime. One of these events will be a cosmetic contest that focuses on a Bullroarer Took Day (or St. Patty's Day) theme. I've been asked by Rosalie of Second Breakfast to join a panel of guest judges. I look forward to seeing everybody in their best attire! As for the rest of the day's events, you can visit the official forums to ask questions, leave comments, and learn about the rest of the fun following the contest.

Image taken from the the official forums