Whispers of Yávië

Shortly after the Abyss of Mordath released, I decided to pick up my long retired Hunter. For four years, he'd been sitting at level 85, having never crossed the Entwade and into the Westemnet. When the class trait trees first dropped and the time consuming Epic Battles were the only way to obtain top tier jewellery, I was forced to heavily cut back on the number of active alts. Unfortunately, after those four years, I'd forgotten how to play my inactive classes. I was having a terrible time with my Hunter, which had been fundamentally altered by those trees, and decided it'd be easier to roll a new one. The class just wasn't what I remembered it to be.

Anyway, having made a new alt means (and you probably guessed it) having seven new outfit setups. I may or may not have filled all seven before I started Ered Luin quests!

Lore-master's Staff Skin Collection Pt. 2

It brings me great joy to say that the LOTRO community has been absolutely wonderful this past week. It hadn't been my intent to post the second half of my staff collection, but with all the information regarding skins and weapon names coming at me over Twitter, Facebook, my blog's e-mail, and game chat, I figured uploading this sooner than later would be a good thing to do.

Without further ado, I present to you another assortment of staff skins!

Areneth's Staff - Reward from the quest The Keeper Garthamendir 

Lore-master's Staff Skin Collection Pt. 1

As cosmetic weapons have appearing with increasing frequency on this blog, I thought it's time I started sharing the skins I've collected. Having played LOTRO for almost eight years now, I've assembled quite the library. For this entry, I've chosen staves. Unlike other weapons, like swords, axes, bows, and daggers, which are shared among multiple classes, staves are exclusive to Lore-masters. I've found many of them to be wonderfully designed! Most can be crafted. Some can be bartered. As for the rest? You may have guessed it...lots and lots of landscape and instance grinding.

Some of these staves pictured below can come from several sources. I don't remember the exact locations, but I can give you a general idea on the landscape drops based upon their level. If you know of other methods to obtaining these skins, please let me know in the comments below.

This is by no means a comprehensive guide...just a taste of what LOTRO has offered over the years!

 Amarthis - Reward from the level 30 Lore-master class quest, A Lore-master's Will
Bregmor's Bane - Reward from the Epic quest 1.14.12

Silver Dawn

This outfit brought me back to 2011, when my Lore-master was capped at level 65. I had forgotten that this character once wore this. If it weren't for an old, low-quality picture found on my external hard drive, it would have never occurred to revive and update this set. With the new dyes and addition of cosmetic weapons, I was able to make it look more complete. This was one of my LM's first cosmetic sets. One that I had taken quite seriously, as I had to be a hardcore raider back then just for the weekly 1-in-12 chance at the elf-stone needed for the robe. Nowadays, DN can be soloed on some classes. Duoed on most, due to mechanics in the final fight.