His & Hers - Riverside Attire

It's been about seven years since I last wrote an entry for a His & Hers set. Perhaps I should have explored that theme more often. Over the years, festivals have offered tunic and dress pairs (sometimes robe and dress) with similar designs. And on the rare occasion, reputation factions have done the same. It's a wonderful thing to have that kind of flexibility in clothing styles. Quite often in the past I've looked at a cosmetic reward, loved the colors and design, and said to myself "It's too bad there isn't a dress alternative, because it would look lovely!"

During the Black Friday sales, I cashed in what LP I had left and purchased the Superior River Hobbit Bundle at a remarkable 75% discount. Aside of housing items, they contained a jacket, dress, and an assortment of other cosmetic pieces for the newest playable race, the River Hobbit. I may not have shown all of the coffer's pieces in these outfits, but the dress and jacket look amazing on all races.

Shoulders: Wildermore Shoulderpads of Tactics (White, crafted from the Wildermore Shoulderpads reputation recipe)*

Chest: Dress of the River-folk (Burgundy, Superior River Hobbit Bundle)

Feet: Westemnet Campaign Shoes of Fate (Burgundy, crafted from the Westemnet Campaign Shoes recipe)

*The Tailor's Guild also offers this recipe, allowing the player to bypass the Wildermore reputation requirement.

Back: Snow-strider's Mantle (Olive, Yule Festival barter reward)

Shoulders: Shoulderpads of the Osgiliath Bowmaster (Grey, Ruined City T2 Hunter class set)**
Chest: Jerkin and Trousers of the River-folk (Burgundy, Superior River Hobbit Bundle)
Feet: Westemnet Campaign Shoes of Fate (Burgundy, crafted from the Westemnet Campaign Shoes recipe)

**Wardens and Burglars can also win this skin from the Osgiliath Ruins Armour box. Must run at level 100 or higher for chance to drop.

Stone-cleaver

 

In honor of purchasing Gundabad, my first impulse was creating another dwarven outfit. Two cosmetic bundles came with the Ultimate tier, the Fateful Gundabad set and the Gundabad Reclaimer set. I didn't particularly like the Reclaimer one, given how bulky and plain it was. Neither did it dye very well. However, the Fateful set offered far more flexibility. Largely a grey colored set, dyes affected the  dwarven patterns etched across the midsection of the chestplate and the central cloth tasset of the leggings. 

I've always been curious as to why, as of Update 23, Where Dragons Dwell, dwarven clothing became characterized by a stylized celtic block pattern. It made it easier to coordinate what other pieces I'd mix with the Fateful set. I drew, mainly, from the Ironfold crafting tier and Grey Mountains reputation vendors.

A Temporary Return to Middle-earth

It's been three years since I made my last entry. Three and a half since I last made a new outfit. I never expected to return to LOTRO or to reopen Material Middle-earth. If it weren't for some stubborn, but well-intentioned friends, I would have been content to let this blog exist as both a wonderful memory and—though sometimes trying—labor of love. Yet, here I am.

I've had the pleasure of joining the Ainuthala kinship, and their progression raiding subcommunity, on Evernight. We've been stopping at each previous level cap, through the use of the Stone of the Tortoise, to experience older LOTRO content as originally intended. Ainuthala has already completed The Rift, Dar Narbugud, Barad Guldur, and Tower of Orthanc and is currently on a leisurely track for the Erebor raiding cluster. Although I'm primarily here to enjoy experiencing LOTRO's classic content, it doesn't mean I haven't been bringing my fashionable best. Between reaching the next scheduled level cap and waiting for the next community event, I've been spending some free time outfitting.

Don't get too excited! There are important things that you, my readers, must know.

I don't have plans to take up a long-term residency here again. As the entry title says, this is only temporary.

I'll at least be around until the raid group reaches level 130. Back in 2021, my interest waned after Minas Morgul's story concluded. I'll be honest, neither my feelings nor my expectations have changed. However, I did decide to pick up Gundabad during the Black Friday sales and give the expansion an honest attempt. If Gundabad doesn't hold my interest and I don't reach level 140, I'll likely not purchase subsequent expansions, and my time raiding will come to an end.

For the time being, I'll also be sharing my content on Bluesky (I'll update the "Follow MME Elsewhere" widget in the future) and on various Discord servers. Twitter is dead and I won't be sharing there, given the recent ToS change. I currently have no intention of joining the updated official LOTRO forums, unless there is good reason.

That being said, I look forward to showing everybody what I've been wearing while on this journey!

Thank you for making me feel welcome once more!

~Nath

A Fond Farewell

(Blog comments and the Contact Me page have been disabled as of 10/31/21 to prevent bot, spam, and phishing abuse.)

It's with a heavy heart that, tonight, I've decided to announce the closing of Material Middle-earth. It's been a wonderful nine and a half years creating content for the LOTRO community, at least in the form of outfits. The journey, despite all of the ups and downs, has been remarkable. I wish I could find the proper words to express my regret for leaving and my gratitude for the near decade of kindness and motivation. As the saying goes, "All good things must come to an end." I was hoping it wouldn't be so after six months away from LOTRO, but that wasn't the case. Given the choice to go back in time knowing how and when it would end, I would do it all over again.

Although I don't need to, I would like to tell you why. 

My feelings, largely, haven't changed since my previous blog entry. The drive to remain cosmetically creative has disappeared entirely. I completely skipped collecting the Anniversary Festival, Summer Festival, and Farmers Faire rewards and feel neither shame nor remorse. Those were major signs that my time blogging and outfitting were likely coming to an end. Just last week, I started bartering for and crafting as many old legendary items as I possibly could, since U30.3 was essentially removing them from the game. I figured they'd come in handy for future outfits, on the chance that I'd continue here. However, I would find myself staring at the screen unmotivated while shuffling through several dozen of them. That was the moment I realized it was time to hang up those outfitter's robes.

That being said, I've been playing LOTRO lately. I just finished prepping my new Legendary Items. I also used the very generous LOTROQUESTS2021, which is still good through November 30, 2021, a few weeks ago to collect my missing quest packs for The Mists of Wilderland, The Wildwood, and The Blood of Azog. To be honest, I've also had great difficulty enjoying the new Dwarven storyline. It feels  very much a stretch of the lore that SSG can legally access. I also felt that LOTRO's story, having played since the game's open beta in 2007, came full circle with Minas Morgul's conclusion. Loose ends with Mordor, Isildur and the One Ring, and Mordirith were tied up after all these years. I felt satisfied. It's for these reasons that I'm hesitant to purchase Fate of Gundabad, the upcoming expansion.

It may also be time to leave LOTRO as well, to set foot, like many of the elves, on one  ships departing Mithlond for Valinor. The thoughts have weighed heavy upon me. As much as I've loved my time in Middle-earth and as much as I'd love to stay, that voice beckoning me away grows stronger by the day. I've told myself to wait until December, when there's a much better look into Gundabad's story and content, but it's unlikely I'll even need that much time to decide.

Whatever happens, my time here has been well spent. I wish the cosmetic community a fond farewell. And, as a heads up, I'll be giving everyone a two week grace period to make their final comments or send their last messages before I disable those as well.

If you're still looking for fresh cosmetic inspiration, please turn your gaze towards the last remaining bastions of Cosmetic LOTRO, Wandering Around Arda, Laurel's LOTRO Den, Valkyrique's LOTRO à la Mode and the cosmetics thread on the old LOTRO forums. And if you're a Twitter user, follow the #LOTROCosmetics hashtag too!

With all my heart,

Nath

Blog Update

Greetings everybody! It's been a few months since my last upload. It's also been several months since I've put any serious work into my content. There are two reasons. 

The first being, where I live, most COVID-19 restrictions and *most* people have been vaccinated. Life has almost returned to normal and my precious free time is in incredibly short supply. My job demands my presence roughly 60 hours a week, at least until more employees are hired. Throw in my non-work and non-gaming daily tasks and I'm exhausted, opting to sleep versus game.

Second, I'm also burnt out regarding LOTRO. Frustrated. Annoyed. Angry. A mixed bag of feelings, really. It's not just about the endless dailies and weeklies. I'm tired of a game that's so focused on endgame grind (virtues, LI scrolls, level cap gear, essences). It's too much work to maintain more than two alts, unlike the pre-Mordor years. I haven't felt joy in recent months. My creative drive for outfits has crashed entirely and I feel like I'm endlessly reusing the same gear combinations or rehashing blog content several years old. Even the latest cosmetics don't reignite that drive. What I loved has now become a job or an endless list of chores. For far too long have I kept these feelings/concerns bottled up...and I can't any longer.

I haven't felt this way since Helm's Deep, the expansion that nearly killed my love for this game. I actually left LOTRO for nearly a full year. Often I find myself enamored, by far, with the simpler LOTRO of old than I do with the modern one. Suffice it to say, my list of grievances has grown longer than the list of things I love and I've come to face the realization that I may be approaching my final days with LOTRO.

Much of my future here is highly dependent on Gundabad and what it brings. I'm not so much concerned about the story, the Brawler or endgame as I am with LIs. The LI system needs to be revamped entirely and turned into a much simpler, alt-friendly system. For two years the community's been told it's coming. It's already been scrapped once, according to Severlin. It's promised to come with Gundabad. If the new system isn't to my liking, I'll be leaving LOTRO. If it gets delayed again, I'll be leaving LOTRO. This will be the sole factor that determines whether I stay or leave. One of my main classes was severely nerfed this past year and the other isn't wanted in non-raid endgame groups. The system, as it currently is, prevents me from leveling other classes without dumping excessive funds into the store (another major grievance).

It's an uncertain time for me. As such, this blog will be on hiatus until Gunabad's release. And at that time, I'll closely monitoring the forums, Bullroarer, and global channels for a few weeks before making my decision.

~Nathrien