Steel Waylayer - Cirilyn of Gladden

Steel blue, LOTRO's most recent dye color, has been creating mixed feelings with the playerbase since Update 13. Some think it's too dark or too black, some think it's too close to navy, and some think it's too steely to be considered blue. Personally, I've liked it. I've liked it so much that I dragged myself though the terrible U13 grind for the dye and nothing else. To me, it's been a color of depth and expertise, of seriousness and stability. Depending on how dark it dyes, I've even affiliated it with aggressiveness. I've even surprised myself with how often I'll associate emotions with color and then incorporate those feelings into my outfits. That's exactly what I did. I built a combat outfit, which has been a rarity here at Material Middle-earth.

Lately, I feel as if I'm starting to run out of ideas, at least in terms of gear combinations. I've been tinkering with outfits the past four years and I feel as if the pool of skins has grown somewhat stagnant. The cosmetic collection of LOTRO is finite, after all.  Besides, I only have so much space available for my characters and will never have immediate access to every piece in the game. It's gotten to the point where I discard skins that I can craft shortly after adding them to my wardrobe. Most of the skins I have are either bartered by a specific class, unique quest rewards, or bound and no longer available in-game. I've even condensed all four of my player houses and my cosmetic vault toons, separating bound from unbound gear. Heck, I've even discarded anything I can get back with the /reclaim command just to make space. It's been a major undertaking to inventory everything. I've gotten a few ideas from rearranging my collection, so I'll count that as a good sign.

On an entierly different note, I learned a rather surprising thing while taking screenshots of this outfit. See that picture above and to the right with my warden walking backwards? Originally, it was a forward motion screenshot. Little do players know that beneath dresses or armored skirts that the model is missing the part of the leg between the hip and the knee. If I had used the original picture, you'd have noticed that she was missing the upper half of her left leg. It was visible only when the right leg was fully extended, opening the plated skirt as wide as possible, and the left leg bent backwards. I can understand this with dresses, as they don't open like the skirts do, but wouldn't it have made sense to include the entire leg for gear like this? It was just an observation of mine. If I hadn't been outfitting, I would have been completely unaware of this!

And now that I've thought about it, I'll include the picture with the "missing" half of the leg at the very bottom of the post.

Shoulders: Ceremonial War-captain's Shoulders (Steel blue, cosmetic skirm camp vendor, heavy Helegrod armor)
Back: Cloak of the Boar Clan Warrior (Steel blue, Dunland quest reward)
Chest: Hall-general's Breastplate (Steel blue, Moria Medallion reward barter, Captain class vendor in 21st Hall)
Legs: Hall-general's Leggings (Steel blue, Moria Medallion reward barter, Captain class vendor in 21st Hall)
Hands: Ceremonial War-captain's Gloves (Steel blue, cosmetic skirm camp vendor, heavy Helegrod armor)
Feet: Ceremonial War-captain's Boots (Steel blue, cosmetic skirm camp vendor, heavy Helegrod armor)

And here's the bug with the model's legs and skirt-like gear. The leg stops at the knee.