The Moria price debate

A very warm welcome my friend!

This time it’s a week of good news, so come and share a cup of tea with me. The kettle is already full of warm water. Here, let me pour you some.

   Two weeks ago a friend of mine started sending letters again. It has been long since I heard of him. He is a man from the far south, but north of where Lufere comes from. Rohan, he calls his lands, and he speaks of terrible times approaching his land. He is swift and good with horses, I had never seen such ability with that animal. It seems like in his lands they learn to ride from child on.

   He was one of the friends we met one fateful day in the Prancing Pony, and he was aghast and very wondered when he met us hobbits for the first time, for his lands seems to lack our fair folk. He is a good man, strong willed, and a natural born leader, since his servant and, above all, friend Ererl loves and follows him everywhere he goes.

   What I like about knowing other people is tradition, and it seems like Stilfred Strongaxe has much to tell. And his adventures seem to be very interesting, since he writes with passion.

   Well, I see you have to go. May the Valar protect you on your adventures and I’ll see you again next time you come around here.

 Until then, fare well.

New members of the Separate Fellowship: Stilfred Strongaxe and Ererl

[When it goes to buying in the store, you always will try to spend as few of the hard earned Turbine Points as possible on the specific item you want to get. Some like to buy at full price, but especially F2P players are somewhat limited on the points they get, since they have to grind for each TP to get everything in the game.

   At one point all players that didn’t buy the boxed edition on Mines of Moria will face the question what to buy: if the quest pack is a good idea or if it is worth the wait to get the expansion with the cool extra stuff. It is, after all 1495 vs. 2495 Turbine Points… a whole 1000 points. But Moria is necessary for the character leveling from level 50 to 60, not to count the still useful pieces of armor you can get from running instances like Grand Stairs, Forgotten Treasury and so on.

   Some say it depends on the need you have. I have already met some players who already had bought the warden class, for example, and now grinded for the quest pack. What I will do here is a quick rundown on what you get on the expansion pack, afterwards I will tell my (very personal) opinion about what I think is the best option.

   I bought the Moria expansion when I was F2P, so I pretty much remember the benefits I got from it. What surprised me one day while talking with one of my kinnies is how much value you got from the expansion pack (using the new wiki entry as a help to determine the price):

Moria quest pack: 1495

Lothlorien quest pack: 695

Warden class: 795

Rune Keeper class: 795

Two extra character slots: 595x2= 1190

Skirmish trait maximum rank to 15: 195

---------

Total: 5165

I myself wondered at the total in the number I just calculated for this post (my initial calculations were somewhere above 4000 TP). I think the expansion pack in itself is well worth buying, no matter what needs you might have at the moment. Even if everything else gets a discount (which usually gravitates around the 30% mark), you would still spend 3616 TP over a long time, which means that you would spend too many points on all the stuff you get in the expansion.

   If you are not the altoholic type, then you might argue that you won’t need the character slots, but then again, you would miss out on two (!) quest packs and the skirmish trait. And, who knows, maybe one day you might want to make a third character…

   The free to play system shows that if you want to acquire anything in game, patience pays off. But just don’t have too much patience. It will take you too long and a huge grind to buy everything separate. Besides, if you already bought one or two of the things in the package, it is still better to buy the expansion.

   It may take you longer to enjoy the Moria content, but you will have much more to enjoy the whole game content. Plus, if you say now that you won’t need this and that, then you are probably wrong, since most of the times some players will gravitate to use the stuff in this package at some point. A little accidental foresight will never do wrong.

   So, go ahead, no matter what kind of account you have. The expansion is well worth getting, even if you might not find all useful at the moment. I think that pretty much should settle the discussion on what to buy of the two options. It’s more points for Mirkwood and, later on Isengard (or any other quest pack you might need as an F2P).

   All Hail!]

A cosmetic guide

[At some point we are all confronted with the cosmetic system. It’s not like we all use it or use it’s full functions at least, but seeing a you character looking as if he was made of terrible rags that don’t fit oftentimes pushes you to think why can’t you make her/him look better. Usually, when getting a set together, those fit well. But, as part of our need to personalize things in our game, we usually try to make our avatar unique and special.

   LOTRO fully supports a cosmetic function, in which you can get clothing, use old pieces of armor, win some in festivals or even buy some neat looking clothes on the online store. The system is perfect for f2p, VIP, casual and hardcore gamers.

   But much of the times we have trouble on how to use the system, since it is all but intuitive. So I decided to make a small integral guide on how to use the system, covering here the use of cosmetics, the use of the dressing room provided in-game and the shared wardrobe. Hope it helps you on your quest to look good!

Cosmetic slots

By pressing C and entering into your character information, you will see that the upper part has two tabs. The right one is labeled “cosmetic outfits”. Here you’ll find your character on one side, while on the other you find a series of boxes, of which one is the equipment look and the rest the cosmetic looks. All characters have two more looks, another three are purchasable through the online store. If you are a casual player, the two you have will be more than enough. I usually don’t use more than one of my assigned slots, the second one to test some outfits.

   By double clicking on of the boxes you “equip” that look. From now on, whatever you equip on this box, will be shown as dressed on. Be it known that these cosmetic slots don’t give you the bonuses an armor could give: only the look remains.

   Also, you may have most of the cosmetics (also the equipment) not be shown on your character: on the right lower corner of each box there is a sign of an eye. If it is closed, you can’t see it.

Be it noted that you have an eye open in an outfit slot, but you have no cosmetic item slotted in it, you will see the respective equipment that your character has.

On equipping cosmetic items

Anything you can see on your character can be a cosmetic item. This means that chest pieces, capes, trousers, boots and so on are usable. Jewelry is invisible, and weapons, shields and so on are not usable as a cosmetic. This still gives you a broad chance of possibilities. Also there are some limitations on the use of items:

1)      You must be proficient with the respective armor type. Sorry Loremasters, no heavy armor for you!

2)      You must be of the level and renown to use the cosmetic equipment. Many pieces you have in the Wardrobe though can go over some of these limitations.

Before equipping, try it.

Since you can’t tell how a piece looks like without putting it on first, there is the dressing room available. If you control + left click the object you want to see, a small window will open, with some extra options you may not find on the equipment/cosmetic look panels. First off, you will have your character there, with the current cosmetic look on (A). If you select the first outfit, your character will appear in the dressing room with the first Outfit on, whatever may be on it, plus the item you are checking out.

   Right of it you will have a selection of places and colors (C). By places I am referring that the labels don’t read “helmet” or “armor”, but “head” and “chest” and so on. Each one has a dropdown menu, in which each color available, plus the natural color for the object are shown. This way you can check the look on your character beforehand, avoiding buying the object wrongly. In case of the cosmetics in the store, there is a “Try it on” button.

   Tip: If you leave the window open, you may try different outfits on the same look. This means that you can try on the pants and the shirt at the same time, to see if they match, as long as the Dressing Room window remains open. As soon as you close it, the look resets to the one selected on your character panel/cosmetic look.

   You have the option to zoom to one part of the body (B) or just reset the look to the current selected cosmetic outfit (D). To zoom back to the general view of the character, just click on the same zoom button you just used to get a closer look.

   The dressing room does not only tell you how the item looks like, but also what colors you can use. This helps you also to know what parts of the cosmetic are colored, since not everything on the armor is changed. Take as an example the new outfit of Lufere: Although I have dyed the armor in green (forest green, I think), the chest piece mainly retains its brown coloring, only painting the lines and the emblem:

This means that you should really look into how you want the look of your character to be. I tried a green look on Lufere, but in the end I thought this brown with traces of green look was not bad a t all. All accidentally found while playing with the dressing room.

If you like it, dye it

   Once you have seen how the outfit looks, you’ll have to come by the colors. There are four ways to obtain them: online store, through the Auction House, one of your characters is a scholar (they produce dyes) or a kinmate sends you those. Be reminded that the colors need some materials that sometimes are hard to obtain, so grinding will be the norm of the day. Dyes can be produced anywhere as long as you have the scholar’s glasses in the hand, no matter what tier.

In the image above you see how a dye looks like in your inventory. You shall recognize the pots from the starting ones, but there are also small bottles (the one in the middle).

   Right click on one, left click on the object you want to dye and you’ll have the color on the cosmetic. That simple.

But wait! There is the wardrobe…

For those who are VIP there is also the wardrobe at disposition. It is anywhere you can find a Vault-keeper. This little extra window places copies of your items in it.

 

As you see in the above image, you can select in the wardrobe by type of cosmetic and by color. The special thing about the wardrobe is that, once you dye the cosmetic in there, the color can be re-selected without the need to dye it again. Simply, when selecting one of the items, choose the color on the bottom part of the window:

Just select and drag and drop an you’ll have the item equipped. A little tip here: you don’t have to put it on the exact box to have the cosmetic put on your character, it suffices to drop it in the area of the look of your character.

And… voilà: the new look

Using the cosmetic system is not difficult, you just have to know where everything is and where you can get components. Usually, when I try to configure a look, I visit the following three pages:

• Cosmetic LotRO
• LotRO Stylist
• LotRo Fashion

Usually there you canf i9nd some neat ideas or specific looks/items that may work for you. In any case, let your imagination fly from here. Here’s the look for my new character Stilfred:

   All Hail!]