Wintry Yule Warsteed

 

I mentioned a few days ago (about 9 days ago) that the Wintry Yule Horse had a Warsteed cosmetic available, but it was gated behind a deed that would take about 9 days minimum to achieve, and... here we are! (*The lotro store sells a Festival TICKET to reset one quest, to achieve the deed faster. This is the same ticket used at several of the previous festivals if you happen to have some and want to use them for this festival. Don't confuse it with festival token which is the barter currency of the festival; I've made that wording mistake multiple times.)

 

To get the Horse, you must complete "The More the Merrier" deed, Tier 1, and barter it for 80 Festival tokens and 1 Golden Festival token. It takes 3 days of Yule festivalling to achieve this deed, with no lotro store help.

 

To get the Warsteed cosmetic, you must complete "The More the Merrier" deed, Tier 3, and barter it for 150 Festival tokens and 1 Golden Festival token. It takes 9 days of Yule festivalling to achieve this deed, with no lotro store help.

 

Just for completing the Tier 3 deed, you are awarded the "Yule Festival Frame" custom character portrait and it doesn't cost anything extra. Isn't that nice. Here is what it looks like.

 

I will jump to the good horsey stuff.

 

Here is the Wintry Yule Horse, new for the 2012 yule festival. It will make its way to the All-the-Steeds corral showcased with all the other steeds of lotro. Head over there to see previous festival steeds and every other steed.

 

And, here is the Warsteed, dressed as the Wintry Yule Horse, standard colors and standard WS hide and tail. He is a very close match to the Horse.

Time to play with colors...

 

Warsteed: Wintry Yule in Ered Luin Blue, white hide and hair. You can get a really sharp look of the pattern on the back flank of the caparison.

 

Warsteed: Wintry Yule in Pink, white hide and hair, minus the Head piece.

 

Warsteed: Wintry Yule in Yellow, black hide and hair. This is my bumblebee look, hehe. Ok, it isn't very yule festy, but it is an example of how well the Warsteed dyes. This bumblebee is very fly.

Warsteed: Wintry Yule in Navy, white hide and hair.

 

This is the same Warsteed in Navy. I wanted to show the emblem on the front of the Caparison.

 

Warsteed: Wintry Yule in Crimson, black hide and hair.

If this Warsteed is on your list, there is still time. Enjoy and have a great yule festival!

I believe

On most days, I bring you stories and guides and horses and fun from lotro. Today marks a special time of year and I bring you a story, not from lotro, but one that means something to me. Please enjoy, have a Merry Christmas, and I will see you in a few days. :D
 

　

"In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told."

~~ Luke, Chapter 2, Verses 1-20

See you soon!

 

Steed of the Warden

 

It has been a busy week for horse hunting! Today I bring you the latest steed, the Steed of the Warden! Enjoy visiting every steed of Middle Earth here on the site at All-the-Steeds.

No need for lots of words when pictures will tell the story.

Here is the Steed of the Warden.

And here is the Warsteed of the Warden. He is with standard grey coat, and all Warden pieces exactly as they come. Strangely, the warsteed cosmetic default is Yellow, not the silver grey of the normal horse. lol

The Steed of the Warden Gear has a red shield on one side and grey packs with pink trim on the other.

I experimented with the colors some.

The colors are a bit odd I think. I am no cosmetic expert, but the shield is undyeable bright red (that doesn't match "red"), the blanket under the saddle is undyeable orange, the various trim is yellow, and the packs are grey/pink. Here is the Warsteed with white coat, dyeing all pieces Red; it doesn't really match the "red" shield.

Since the saddle blanket is undyeable orange, I tried dyeing all pieces orange. I left off the gear with the bright red shield. This warsteed has a charcoal coat. That is actually pretty good!

Overall, I am happy the Steed of the Warden is in my corral, and the header picture is probably my favorite (Black coat, crimson dyed pieces, Gear omitted).

Steed of Victory and Steed of Dol Baran

Update 9 is here and it brought a couple of early Christmas presents! She whistled and shouted and called them by name;

"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen... on "Steed of Victory" and "Steed of Dol Barad"...

Yes, two store steeds for the price of ... two store steeds (1995 TP). Ah, well. They are both beautiful steeds! Also, both steeds come with a full set of Warsteed cosmetics. The header picture is a shot of Guldurwen and me on the two steeds.

 

　

As danania.net is your premiere home for "All the Steeds" of Middle Earth, I bring them to you to celebrate and decide if these are the steeds you need in your corral.

Here is the Steed of Victory!

　

And, here is how he looks as a WarSteed of Victory. I left him plain for this shot. Standard coloring, but black hide.

　

Here is the Steed of Dol Baran!

　

And, here is the WarSteed of Dol Baran. Again, I left the Warsteed cosmetics as plain as they come (except I forgot his black hide). However, where these steeds really shine is in their dyeability.

　

Here are a few of my favorite looks though I enjoy them in many different colors!

Steed of Victory, dyed Ered Luin. Coat and Tail in black.

 

　
Steed of Dol Baran, dyed Chrimson. Coat and Tail in white.

Final good to know comment... The Steed of Victory has 5 Warsteed pieces and the Steed of Dol Baran has 4 Warsteed pieces. The Steed of Victory has a gear slot, which is the purplish saddlebags on his back end. It is subtle and matches the set very well. Enjoy your ride!

UPDATE 12/18/12: If you like Warsteed cosmetics, the Yule festival's latest steed offers the option to get it as a Warsteed cosmetic. I will write about it when I get it but wanted to point out that it is "deed-quest" gated. To finish the deed, do all 14 Frostbluff quests on 9 days of the Yule fest. I mention it now because Yule fest is only scheduled to last 17 days so there is not much wiggle room. Yeah, yulegrind... I don't complain much; I just try to optimize the system that is given. Good luck to you!

Rohan: Leofmar found - part 2 of Fangorn

With much thanks to reader friend Aeronwy, my Fangorn is no longer broken!

I was in a kerfuffle a few weeks ago when I reached an impasse in Fangorn. Leofmar just did not seem to be where I thought he should be and I wrote about it, rohan-bad-seed-in-fangorn.

Aeronwy located a forum post that solved all my problems with some advice from players Bloodfists, Exploderator and others. If Leofmar is missing for you, read through it to decipher where you might be in the quest chains; the answer is probably there.

Forum Post = http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?484930-Awake-at-Long-last-where-are-the-quests-in-eaves-of-fangorn

Ok, my 2 quests that were stoppled by Leofmar were “A Plea to Awake” and “Awake at Long Last”.

What is important to realize if you are in the situation is that Leofmar is in two different places for these quest turn-ins. “Awake at long last” would not complete because “A Plea to awake” had not advanced.

So, to unravel it… using the advice from the link above, Leofmar is hiding under some bushes at 39.6S, 72.4W. Here he would take and advance “A Plea to Awake” and offer the rest of the quest chain (A Curse for a Coward, An Empty Quiver, and so on). The quest really gave no indication where to look for Leofmar; in fact, the quest indicator actually points to the fishing camp where he will go eventually, hence the confusion (that is probably the crux of the "bug"). However, between the camp in the forest at 40.1S, 70.7W and finding Leofmar hiding in the bushes, you should be fine.

Like most of the stories, the quest chain is actually quite good.

I met some Ents…

I got a pet tree that followed me in the forest while I flew around…

I met an old man who seemed familiar…

I killed some spiders…

At the end of it all, there was Leofmar, in the fishing camp, right where it had been foretold. Now that he was actually there, he completed the quest “Awake at Long Last”.

Rohan: 85 skirmish solider Herbalist

One of my most visited non-Rohan posts on the site is herbalist-is-my-skirmish-friend in which I detailed the traits of my skirmish soldier, the Herbalist. Now at level 85, I brought my Herbalist up to speed. She is a potent soldier!

Also important though is that I once again used the “Scroll of Skirmish Refund” from the lotro store. It costs 295 TP. If I thought ahead I might have even gotten it with a discount coupon (but I think I paid full price because I wanted it right then). This is the other post I want to reflect on for Skirmish Refund best-295-tp-ever.

Why would I use this scroll, and what did I get for my 295 TP this time?

Let’s start with “why”. The cost of leveling a soldier is directly related to your level. Meaning, at level 85, a rank of a soldier costs less than that same rank would be at level 75. As you get the soldier closer to your level, the cost goes up.

And “What”. From the link, the first time the Scroll of Skirmish Refund arrived in the store, I was level 75 and Dr. Quinn was the equivalent of a level 75 Herbalist. I used the Scroll and had a savings of 29,158 marks on the exact same rebuild to level 75.

But, now I am 85, with the herbalist having been built using my level 75 related costs. Now, it should be cheaper to do the same thing at 85. To the test!

I used the reset scroll… and voila! It returned exactly 9,571 Marks, the same number I spent before (see previous link). To get the Herbalist exactly back to the equivalent of level 75 was a cost of 5,884 Marks. In total, it was a savings of 3,687 Marks at the cost of 295 TP.

If you have never used a skirmish reset scroll, you are possibly in for a big refund (hence the 29k marks I received last time). As for me, having used one before at level 75 and only leveling the soldier as a Herbalist, the gain was not as much for a second use. If you have never done it, and you have points in your soldier, I would recommend doing the reset when you reach level 85.

For interest, I leveled Dr. Quinn to equivalent level 86. The cost to get from level 75 to 86 with the traits I chose was 8,529 Marks. Also of interest, one cannot level a soldier to equivalent level 85; the levels come by twos. She could be equivalent level 84 or 86 (and the next up is 88).

She is da bomb! With a morale of 12,907, she can tank it all, heal through the damage and keep going. In all my days of skirmishing, I have only been threatened a couple of times on my first visits to The Icy Crevasse. Needless to say, I always feel secure with my Herbalist. Someday, I will revisit the Fastest Skirmishes post, fastest-skirmishes-marks-per-minute  (though I suspect the relative time results to be similar, but would find a comparison data set to be interesting).

Rohan: 85 RK Hytbold and Moors Armor

Now at level 85, several gear pieces needs to change. I will go through my thought process and explain why I make the choices I do so that you can benefit from it (or decide you do not agree with me).

First on the list to discuss is new armor. It isn’t all about being the shiniest, but I want to give some perspective on what each set looks like statistically.

For review, I have done this type of evaluation before. For level 75 Moors (ettenmoors-75-rk-armor-audacity) and for level 75 raid gear (lotro-stat-math-rk-gear).

To put the data right up front so we can review it, the first table shows the 13 “best” Runekeeper armor sets in the game. There are other non-set armor pieces that are quite good, but for article focus, I am only presenting the data for the full sets. As indicated before (see links), I am only going to present the four most important RK stats: Morale, Tactical Mastery, Critical, and Mitigation. I picked Tactical Mitigation for the table for simplicity though having good Physical Mitigation and Resistance can be equally important (or moreso depending on the foe).

Table 1: Top 13 RK Armor sets as of November-2012 (after RoR release)

		Morale	Tact Mastery	Critical	Tact Mitigation
Clever counselor	Draigoch 75	366	8904	870	1019
Puignor	ToO 75 fire	789	9101	953	1377
Eglerin	ToO 75 heal	1338	9383	1080	1377
Erebraw	ToO 75 lightning	789	8749	1657	1377
Scalding Wit 75	Moors 75 fire	1275	8820	0	1781
Tranquility 75	Moors 75 heal	1458	9546	0	1781
Thunder-struck 75	Moors 75 lightning	1008	7116	1760	1645
Cleanser	Hytbold 85 fire	1298	11432	1552	1386
Peace-caller	Hytbold 85 heal	1412	12596	1164	1082
Thunder-caller	Hytbold 85 lightning	1298	11432	1552	1386
Scalding wit 85	Moors 85 fire	1454	9920	0	1994
Tranquility 85	Moors 85 heal	1668	10704	0	1994
Thunder-struck 85	Moors 85 lightning	1140	8392	1940	1842

This data leaves out one potentially important piece of the puzzle. Set bonuses have features that are not as easily quantified by stat calcs. There is a minor buff at 3 pieces and the cap buff at 5 pieces worn. Here are the non-quantifiable set features. I highlighted some of my personal favorites in Bold.

Table 2: Set bonus features for the 13 RK sets in Table 1

	3 piece buff	5 piece buff
Clever counselor	-15% writs power cost	Fiery Ridicule Reduces Essay of Fire CD by 3s
Puignor	+2 wrath of fire skills pulse count	Writ of fire deals extra damage at max tier
Eglerin	Writ of Health has 25% chance of +563 armor bonus	Improved "Our Fates Entwined" gives group phys & tact mit bonus
Erebraw	100% power restored from Improved Sustaining Bolt	+10% chance to apply Thunderous Words, +10% chance to apply Harsh Debate
Scalding Wit 75	+10% Smoldering Wrath damage	Fiery Ridicule provides induction knockback immunity for 10s upon critical hit
Tranquility 75	Writ of Health has 25% chance of +563 armor bonus	Mending Verse initial heal applies to both target and caster
Thunder-struck 75	+5% Shocking Words stun chance	Essence of storm removes induction from Essence of winter on critical hit
Cleanser	+10% Smoldering Wrath damage	Fiery Ridicule Reduces Essay of Fire CD by 3s
Peace-caller	Writ of Health has 25% chance of +563 armor bonus	+10% healing
Thunder-caller	+5% Shocking Words stun chance	Epic Conclusion recovers Shocking Words
Scalding wit 85	+10% Smoldering Wrath damage	Fiery Ridicule provides induction knockback immunity for 10s upon critical hit
Tranquility 85	Epic for the Ages removes disabling effects	Mending Verse initial heal applies to both target and caster
Thunder-struck 85	+5% Shocking Words stun chance	Essence of storm removes induction from Essence of winter on critical hit

So, the question becomes do any of these set features in Table 2 outweigh the number sense of Table 1? What is your style, and what are you trying to achieve?

I can make Table 1 a bit simpler. First, let me turn it into a pivot table and show deltas from the “worst” of the 13 sets. Second, I am going to convert each of the features into their corresponding % counterparts. Meaning, instead of tactical mastery, I will use % damage increase, and so on. (For reference, I used 305 mastery per 1% Damage as it is representative of the portion of the curve from 27k to 35k tactical mastery. For someone at less than 27k, the curve is linear at 270 mastery per 1% Damage. Checking this...)

“Clever counselor” (the draigoch armor) focused very heavily on max Will (mastery) at the expense of Morale. Early in RoI, I saw too many RKs that were loaded up on Will and had no balance. Sure, they might hit hard, but they were easily one-shotted even out on the landscape because you can’t build a character with such low Morale and truly expect to not get whacked. So, moving on to the comparisons…

Table 3: Stats comparison vs Clever Counselor for 13 RK sets

Pivot vs Clever Counselor	Morale change	% Damage	% Critical hit chance	% Tact damage reduced
Clever counselor	0	0%	0%	0%
Puignor	423	1%	0%	2%
Eglerin	972	2%	1%	2%
Erebraw	423	-1%	2%	2%
Scalding Wit 75	909	0%	-2%	4%
Tranquility 75	1092	2%	-2%	4%
Thunder-struck 75	642	-6%	2%	3%
Cleanser 85	932	8%	2%	2%
Peace-caller 85	1046	12%	1%	0%
Thunder-caller 85	932	8%	2%	2%
Scalding wit 85	1088	3%	-2%	5%
Tranquility 85	1302	6%	-2%	5%
Thunder-struck 85	774	-2%	3%	4%
DanaMoors 85	1516	3%	0%	5%

Translate Table 3 into more words and less numbers…

Hytbold Comparisons: Of the 3 Hytbold armors, for pure statistics, the Cleanser and the Thunder-caller are identical. The Peace-caller has +114 Morale and does +4% more damage (& healing) output, with 1% less critical chance and you are taking 2% more damage from worse tactical mitigation. So, is Peace-caller the answer?

Reflect back to Table 2. Peace-caller’s buffs were “Writ of Health has 25% chance of +563 armor bonus” and “+10% healing”. This set is the ideal set for a Healing RK and a strong choice for a DPS RK.

However, Thunder-caller’s buffs of “+5% Shocking Words stun chance” and “Epic Conclusion recovers Shocking Words” have my attention. When I saw the bonus that had me use my #1 favorite skill to recover my other #1 favorite skill and allow me to use it more often I decided I could not pass that up. Too bad it cannot be effectively used in the Moors due to the strong incentive to get Moors Audacity from the Moors armor (visions of fried wargs were dancing through my head…).

I chose the Thunder-caller, because that is who I am and I really wanted to try the set buff. I can very much appreciate the advantages of the Peace-caller though. I am really enjoying the “Epic Conclusion recovers Shocking Words” and am using it a lot.

Basically, I see no split-set benefits and the set buffs are good enough that making a full set is actually something RKs will “want” to do for a change.

Moors comparisons: Of the 3 Moors sets for level 85, the Tranquility armor has the best stats. From Table 2, the Tranquility buffs are very “meh”. Really, how often are you casting “Epic for the Ages” in a Moors battle? It happens more now that the induction isn’t so very long, but you are not using it often.

For the Moors at 75, I went with a blend of 2/2/2. I am on course to do the same at level 85. The last row on Table 3 shows how this 2/2/2 set compares. Effectively, I put little value in the Moors set buffs. To know, it does matter which 2 you chose from each set. The 2/2/2 I chose optimized against Morale. It was Tranquility Robe and Hat, Scalding Wit Gloves and Legs, & Thunder-struck Boots and Shoulders.