Lhassie WIP

Bluuuurgh first time in a year or more that I'm actually drawing(/painting) something. So rusty! Thought I'd start with something easy, like a superboring portrait :p. Let's see if I ever have the time and energy to finish this.

On another note, Laurelin Archives, a RP portal for Laurelin, opened yesterday. I've played 1½ years on a RP server and haven't really done any RP at all there, but I felt curious so I registered to see what the site is like (I love the idea of Argent Archives, the similar WoW RP collective, and have long wished Laurelin would get something similar). My issue with RP in LotRO, and Middle-Earth in general, is that character options are so limited and you can't really be that original when coming up with a backstory for your character.

Besides I'm rather picky about quality - in my version of ME elves don't spend nights getting drunk in the Prancing Pony and not every Man is a direct descendant of the Dúnedain or a mad serial killer. All those Gil-Galad's heralds, Elrond's apprentices and Aragorn's illegitimate daughters just make me die a little inside. How hard is it to make a character with no relation to existing canon characters?

I'm sort of interested in elf-RP, but I'm not sure I'd be able to pull it off that well, and frankly I've no idea what people even do when RPing elves. Compose bad poetry about stars and moonlight? Angst? The thing is, I'm severely allergic to purple prose writing, which seems to be rather prevalent among elf role-players. I'm not a native English speaker (durr hurr), but I just hate cheesy verbose character backgrounds (why do so many players try to come up with the most ridiculous and pompous descriptions for their character's looks?!) and how some role-players feel the need to write a 200-word paragraph about their intimate feelings while picking up a fallen coin.

Rrrrrrrage.

And now off to the countryside for four days of relaxation-->

Galadriel's problems

I really like the design of Lady Galadriel in LotRO, but her model irks me so much!


This is something that struck my eye the very first time I met Galadriel at the end of Book 6: SHE HAS NO HIPS. Sure there's a nice amount of T, but where's the A? Especially the left side just looks.. wrong. And what's with the huge pointy jaw?


I think she was described as tall, but she doesn't look nearly as imposing as my hunter. I don't know really, but I sort of expected Galadriel to be tall and slender and elegant, and not standing in that stupid 'hey I'm about to relieve myself' pose that all the NPCs in the game have (even when walking!!). Can't they make even just one or two other default poses for NPCs so they wouldn't all look like, uh, they're just waiting there for the player to click on them?

Update

I need to fish more, I'm still just halfway through the hobby. Too bad there aren't too many good spots in Moria. Besides, I always get distracted by The Shiny, or as in this case, a nice colour contrast.

I'm sorry I've been a bit quiet lately, there's just been a lot going on at work, personal life and, of course, in the game. I'll just post some highlights from the last few weeks:


I got myself a Nanu! And some First-Agers and Second-Agers! I just had a funny realization: all my max-level toons have one or more Second-Age Legendary Items now - no need for me to stress over Lórien Gift Boxes or, oh the horror, the AH. My hunter got a really nice 1st Age crossbow, and now her dps is as good as it was before the nerfs of Book 7.


Did Halls of Crafting with six Lore-Masters (five of whom had a 1st Age Staff - insane damage as always). This blog is on the verge of becoming a Lore-Master Fangirl Diary, but I don't mind. The class really, really deserves all the love.


Almost got the Watcher down last time. BY MYSELF. (okay, I did have 11 minions helping out with the heavy lifting)


I noticed I'd had a really embarrassing note in the kin roster. I'M PRETTY SURE I DIDN'T PUT IT THERE. HONEST.


Did HoC with a hunter who ran around in circles without a weapon.


And completely unrelated to any posts in a long time, I've actually had a small urge to draw again...

EXCEPT THE DEADLINE FOR THE HORSE-DESIGNING CONTEST WAS AT NOON TODAY WHEN I'M SURE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE TOMORROW. Oh well, gotta start keeping a calendar about these things, seriously.

Postcards from Book 8

Giving a Morroval-Mistress a decent spanking in the Hall of Mirrors

The new Epic Book arrived to LotRO EU a week ago, with new instances, quest revamps and the summer festival. Out of those I've only checked out the new instances, which are... brilliant! There's now two new three-man instances, one six-man and also a 12-man raid (which I probably won't be visiting anytime soon, because my kin doesn't appear too motivated). The smaller instances are relatively short and feature lots of puzzles - and what's interesting is that as a Lore-Master I'm once again able to feel useful as a crowd-controller (as opposed to my dps role in pretty much every part of Moria). Though of course going all-out dps in there is also very fun and rewarding.



Hard Mode in the Water-Wheels: killing a dozen Caerogs. Gaah, how I hate the sound they make!

I love doing the 3-man instances, they're so short and don't require that much preparation - grabbing two random people is so much easier than asking for a tank&healer and then checking that everyone's ready and prepared, knows what a corruption effect looks like, spends more time hitting skill buttons than picking their nose, etc.


Not relevant to the post, but we cleared the entire kitchen of Fil Gashan today, after that did the real boss fight there AND the Captain class quest. Talk about tons of adds..

Rage

Book8 is here. I'm loving it. But this thread makes me RAGE.

Seriously. I love reading dramu on the interwebz.

RAAAAAGE.

On another note: this one makes me giggle out loud.