One Year Anniversary!

Today is my one year anniversary of playing LOTRO - I can't believe it! How quickly a year flies! I've made a lot of friends in-game and have even met one of them recently in real life which was super neat.

I am in two kinships on Vilya now, and I like each of them in their own way. The Dawnbreakers is always going to be home to me despite stepping away from being an officer over there. They remain the most helpful and friendly group of people that I've come across. My minstrel is in Phoenix Rising which is filled with some great raiders, and doing runs with them has helped me get a lot of fantastic gear. I've started to make friends there as well, and I'm sure I will continue to. 

My hunter hit 75 earlier today, so soon enough, I'll have another character which I can bring along for raids. It will definitely be a change to dps rather than heal, but for now, the focus will be on getting virtues up and perfecting my LIs.

Also, I never would have imagined that people from roughly 30 countries would have taken the time to check this blog out. Thank you to those of you who check this blog from time to time. It certainly makes my day when I check and see all the new views and the new countries!

<3 Anda

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Everyone in-game calls me Panda, so naturally, when I met up with that friend at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, we had to take a picture of the panda. 

Nightshade

I finally decided to make a violet outfit for myself. Violet reminds me of poison, and well, violet is the color of the poisonous Nightshade plant, so it works. I made another violet outfit a few weeks ago for Antropyne who got his name from the poison in that plant. It's a shame I didn't screenshot it in the dressing room before I sent it over. Also, congratulations to him for making officer in the Dawnbreakers - you deserve it, Antro!

 

If you wish to recreate this look, use the following:

Vibrant Eastemnet Campaign Circlet (Dyed Violet) 
Yes, I know I use this circlet on like every single outfit, but what can I say? It's simple - it's versatile.
Fine Grey Company Wrap (Dyed Violet)
Cloak of the Grey Company (Dyed Violet)
Footman's Armour (Dyed Violet)
Fine Grey Company Gauntlets (Dyed Violet)
Padded Leggings of the Dunland Soothsayer (Dyed Violet)
Boots of the Light Step (Dyed Violet)

Lots of items, lots of dye, but not really difficult to put together. I found the chest piece in the AH, the Grey Company stuff is from epics, and the pants are a Dunland quest reward (and there are identical ones in the AH with different names)..

EDIT:

Antropyne was nice enough to take a moment to send over a screenshot of his hobbit's outfit that I made:

Big Week: BfE T2C, Ranking up, and lots of leveling!

Sorry guys for the long span of time between posts... That's my bad. I've been working full time and raiding a lot as well as leveling my little hunter hobbit. This week was cool. I was able to complete Battle for Erebor T2C last Monday with my kinship that my minstrel is in, The Phoenix Rising. That was pretty awesome and a server first for Vilya.

Here's a screenshot of us in there - click it to make it larger:

And here are screenies of the completed deed:

Completed: The Battle for Erebor - Challenge

Thanks to all my kinnies that were in the run - you guys and ladies are great: 

Rolandeschain, Slownkite, Alshain, Stormhannah, Aravyl, Askir, Ezredle, Ailious, Nonookie, Edrigon, and Impel.

Self-admittedly, I'm not the biggest PvP person, but I do venture out into the Ettenmoors from time to time. One of my kinmates ninja'd me into going to the 'moors the other evening as they needed a healer. I'm glad they did because I was able to go out there and get enough Renown to reach Rank 6 - ignore the fact that I have no audacity as I had no moors gear on when I took the screenshot the next day.

I figured that I should probably have another cap-level character to play and bring to raids. I've slowly leveled my guard, but that character is kind of on pause at the moment as I don't know if I would enjoy tanking. I love my mini, but I've played the crap out of her, and I think I'd like to experience the game from another perspective. I took my sweet old time leveling up Andadrien. Like seriously - it took me months because I was right when I guessed I wouldn't want to take the time to experience all the areas and take time with an alt. With her, I took my time to mozie (sp?) on through the different regions, enjoy the content, and take the story in. Now I'm leveling Dinel, my hobbit hunter. I went from level 18 or 20-ish to level 50 in the span of about 4 days this week, so I've been working hard-core on leveling her up. The good news is that I won a Tarnished Symbol of the Elder King in that BfE T2C run that I did. Since Andadrien has her FA's already, Dinel is set to have a pretty, new, shiny bow waiting for the second she turns level 85 (woohoo!). I'm lucky - I've won all my first age symbols from raiding and haven't had to farm runs over and over to have enough seals to buy them from the skirm camp. I swear that Erebrandir's Horseshoe is lucky. Whether or not it makes a differences on looting, I use it every time. :D All hail the horseshoe!

I've made a couple new outfits, so some new posts should come soon.

Oh and one more thing:

LAND PIRATE!

Greater Erebor Gear

Check out my T2 Greater Erebor gear! I like the look of it... Minus the hat.. the hat is ugly. I like to have the Winged Circlet dyed black showing instead.

She looks sleek while still battle-ready.

Screenie proof! It IS the T2 stuff!

Just for today...

In light of today, this is quite the appropriate post.

Dinel felt like celebrating in her shiny new Patterned You-in-a-Box and Cake-Topper.

Feeling a Wee Bit Orc-ish Today

This started out with me wanting to find an outfit to match the Eriador Horse, but ended up making an outfit that looks a tad "orc-ish" - pretty sure its the antlers and the face-mask. It was suggested that, being a healer,  I was a Defiler, but, alas, I have no staff. :P

 

I may or may not have gotten spam-happy with the ./spin emote...

To recreate this outfit, you will need:

High Officer's Helm

Supple Great River Pauldrons of Vitality (Dyed White)

Vigilant Eastemnet Battle Armour

Resilient Eastemnet War Gauntlets

Well Crafted Boots

The One Fund

Yesterday, LOTRO released The One Fund Cloak. This is in support of The One Fund which was created in the wake of the Boston Marathon's bombing. Turbine is located in Boston, and I know many people were affected by this - even I had a family member who was just seconds over the finish line when the explosion occurred.

The One Fund is a charity to help those most greatly in need after this event. Click on the icon below to go to LOTRO's page about this fund and the cloak and how you can help.

Here is a shot of Andadrien donning the cloak in Bree:

I kept it simple, so the cloak could be the focus.

The dress is the Elf-Queen's Dress dyed Sea Blue.