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canadiandiamondI've once again fallen down on the whole updating thing, oops. Things have been very hectic lately; work has been insane, though that's kinda been oddly satisfying - not so much the being super busy part but getting things accomplished - and my spare time has been once again consumed by the beast that is LOTRO. Not that I'm complaining, because it means getting to spend a lot of time playing with and talking to some great people, including fellow flisters ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
believeitup, girlyduck, and our newest addition onlyonechoice. I've accumulated a ton of screencaps since the last such post I made, and seeing believeitup make a few of these recently reminded me that I should do the same.
This first picture features a former fellow Kinship member Armies (I think that's him!) on the left, Portobella, Aegor, and Vitsippa all standing on a tent in Evendim. I'm not sure why I took it now, hmm. Maybe just to show a pair of hunters and a pair of guardians, available in both large and small sizes. :D
Another picture of Aegor hanging out with the Underfoot twins, this time sitting by the mailbox in Aughaire. There's also a craban perched on the mailbox. Maybe I should title this picture "Counting Crabans: Aughaire and Everything After." ...ok, I've been sitting on that pun for aaaaages and haven't had the chance to use it, so sue me. ;)
Aegor hanging out with Elrond and his crew! I'm not sure about all of the npcs but immediately to his left is Glorfindel, to his immediate right is Elrond, then Gandalf, and then two other npcs. The ring's over Elrond's head to signal I had to talk to him to finish the quest and go, but I felt it was a good time to snap a picture first.
This is lil' Vitsippa dinging 50 inside the big tent at Suri-Kyla, woo! That big cloak looks just adorable on her too, haha, Caleb has the same one but the Hobbit size version is just so cute. XD
This is Amarthiel, one of the npcs in the game. I won't tell her any more about you for fear of spoiling the epic storyline, but suffice it to say she's bad news, heh. She was popping up randomly during a live server event and even though you couldn't actually beat her, you could get some sweet cosmetic items for downing her minions. This was Aegor's first and only run-in with her in Carn Dum. She taunted him later but I was too excited to take any proper caps (note the control panel's still showing and my excited lajsdoawijdai text to Portobella in the lower right XDDDDDD).
And now for something completely different! This is another one of my alts (I have 6 characters now since springing for an extra shared account withbelieveitup >.>), Laen, a little Dwarf Guardian. He's displaying some uncharacteristic Dwarven agility here by leaning against the wall and resting his feet on the tip of the mailbox, all whilst his BFF Leohten, one of believeitup's alts, sits atop a nearby roof and looks on. I really, really love playing this pairing together. They're not what comes to mind when I think of prefect classes to play together, really (Hunter/Guardian, Minstrel/Champ leap to mind) but somehow it just works with them. And it's really, really fun, which is what it's all about after all. Laen just needs to learn to be careful when bending down to pick up things. XD </insidejoke>
Another Amarthiel cap, this time with Caleb having his one and only run-in with her. She marched up the hill to Gath Forthnir and made all kneel before her, powerless to do anything. You can tell by how just about every ability I have is greyed out, heh. She actually killed me with dread after this before I could even really do anything, but I did manage to take down one guy and get a robe out of it. As an aside, the coolest thing about this event was that the devs would actually play as Amarthiel, denoted by the little +~ by her name. So by trash talking her in OOC chat or in game you could get their attention and hopefully get her to show up and get some loot. :D Aside from the loot, it was just fun being a part of the storyline overall and I do hope they add more events like this in the future.
Portobella and Dodric pose for a picture at Esteldin. May I just state the obvious and say how cuuuuuuuuute Porto is, omg. So much love for that character and all the adventures I've been on with her. Then again I'm a liiiittle biased, heh, but it's still true nonetheless! Here Dodric shows off his glow-y minstrel hands and his fancy duds. I imagine he sent this picture back home to his family in the Shire, and possibly got Portobella to sign it. ;) "OMG I MET PORTOBELLA OF THE SHIRE IN MY TRAVELS! TAKE THAT BILBO!!!!!!!111" XD
This was another attempt at a shot of two of my andbelieveitup's characters, but I have no idea what happened in the first one there. Baranbiel is waving and there's some weird graphical glitch in her hand (maybe from using a bow, it looks like a thin black line or something, weird), and Aegor is apparently doing the Robot, lol. I thiiiink he was cheering and his hands were either just going up or coming down, but ahahaha, so funny. The second one's a better one, though there's a dead dwarf at their feet and another soon-to-be-dead one sneaking up behind them.
Ahhhh, the Rift. Such a fun, long, challenging event. This was my second attempt at the same with Caleb, his first having been a very ugly PuG waaaaay back when. This attempt was way more organized and we went pretty far before time constraints forced us to stop. Caleb's also wearing that robe he got from one of Amarthiel's goons, dyed in his trademark green colours. I love the action in this shot; he's about to whomp the Tarkrip Overseer with his mace and dagger combo, and Portobella is tanking him like a pro. ♥ It really was way more fun than I thought it'd be to do more melee with Porto and the others; Hunter in the Rift is kinda like easy mode to me, heh. It's mainly hang back and shoot stuff with the same 2-3 buttons over and over and over until a.) it's dead, or b.) you're dead. Of course there are exceptions, but it's much less engaging than most other classes. I'm just lazy. ;)
More Porto! Her and Aegor were hunting Giants in Evendim (which I have to finish still, hmm) and this is an action shot of her jumping up through one of their corpses post-battle. I like this shot though because even though she's not actually on him, it kinda looks like she's standing on his chest and has her little right foot raised to give him a big stomping. XDDDDD Like I said, ADORABLE.
This is a new picture from earlier this week. The tall blonde with her arm raised in the air is my 6th character, a Captain named Golwyn. And beside her isbelieveitup's newest recruit into the LOTRO fold, a Hobbit Minstrel named Trinquet, played by the lovely onlyonechoice. They're both in the early, early stages of the game here, running around Staddle and helping the locals there with their problems in exchange for sweet XP. Trinquet looks much different now, thanks to both leveling and some new gear I had Caleb make for her, but I will leave it to her (or believeitup!) to add some pics of her newer appearances and adventures. :)
Just out of curiousity, I took a similar shot to the onebelieveitup posted of Portobella standing in Thorin's Hall on The Beast. Of course I knew my own dated PC wouldn't live up to that standard but I was curious just the same. I run the game fairly well, playable for me at least, on medium settings. The shadows are one of the first things you lose when you drift away from ultra high settings, since they need to be calculated and drawn in real time and all that good stuff, so Aegor's is just an amorphous blob at his feet. XD You can see his reflection though which is cool, even if it's not as bright and shineh as it could be.
Finally, these last two pictures are fresh off the server, taken around, oh... 4-5am my time today? XD This is the mighty Thaurlach, the Balrog boss at the end of the Rift. Our group went very, very well last night, cruising through most of the Rift (we skipped the first 2 bosses which speeds it up so, so much, though those first 2 drop the boots I want dammit XD) with no problems and then getting to this last battle. We tried him 4-5 times, the last time being the closest and ironically being with 11/12 possible slots since we lost someone hehe. It's a very challenging fight and because of the way the Rift works (there are locks in place that allow you to leave and come back where you left off, and also prevent you from going back and starting over to get loot over and over again; the locks last for 5-6 days before you can start from scratch again) we're planning to go back tonight after regrouping and to take the SOB down. These pictures were hastily taken midfight, since at this point myself and others, including Portobella, had to wait in the middle for switches to be thrown to release the big guy. I love how in both pics his eyes are focused on Portobella. XD It's great fun and the group we run with has taken him down at least a few times before, though it was Porto's and my first time getting that far into battle with him, so I think after the trial and error and lessons learned last night we'll have an honest to goodness good shot at him tonight, which excites me to no end. :)
Ok, wow, that was way longer than I thought it would be. Other than all the LOTRO and the work, I've been trying to save money and plan for the big NYC trip, which isn't all that far off thankfully. I also picked up season 2 of Heroes this week which was only $28.99, though I've yet to watch any of it. I didn't rewatch s1 when I bought it last summer, so maybe I can re-watch that and then s2 before s3 starts soon, we'll see.
There's not really all that much else to report on other than that. Life = work and LOTRO the last while, and it seems like it will stay that way for the next while at least. I'm pretty happy though which is nice, and here's hoping things stay that way. I hope everyone else is doing well too, and I know I always say this and then fail, but I'll try to get on here more often and actually update once and awhile. For now it's off to make food for Porto and I for tonight's round 2. XD
believeitup, girlyduck, and our newest addition onlyonechoice. I've accumulated a ton of screencaps since the last such post I made, and seeing believeitup make a few of these recently reminded me that I should do the same.This first picture features a former fellow Kinship member Armies (I think that's him!) on the left, Portobella, Aegor, and Vitsippa all standing on a tent in Evendim. I'm not sure why I took it now, hmm. Maybe just to show a pair of hunters and a pair of guardians, available in both large and small sizes. :D
Another picture of Aegor hanging out with the Underfoot twins, this time sitting by the mailbox in Aughaire. There's also a craban perched on the mailbox. Maybe I should title this picture "Counting Crabans: Aughaire and Everything After." ...ok, I've been sitting on that pun for aaaaages and haven't had the chance to use it, so sue me. ;)
Aegor hanging out with Elrond and his crew! I'm not sure about all of the npcs but immediately to his left is Glorfindel, to his immediate right is Elrond, then Gandalf, and then two other npcs. The ring's over Elrond's head to signal I had to talk to him to finish the quest and go, but I felt it was a good time to snap a picture first.
This is lil' Vitsippa dinging 50 inside the big tent at Suri-Kyla, woo! That big cloak looks just adorable on her too, haha, Caleb has the same one but the Hobbit size version is just so cute. XD
This is Amarthiel, one of the npcs in the game. I won't tell her any more about you for fear of spoiling the epic storyline, but suffice it to say she's bad news, heh. She was popping up randomly during a live server event and even though you couldn't actually beat her, you could get some sweet cosmetic items for downing her minions. This was Aegor's first and only run-in with her in Carn Dum. She taunted him later but I was too excited to take any proper caps (note the control panel's still showing and my excited lajsdoawijdai text to Portobella in the lower right XDDDDDD).
And now for something completely different! This is another one of my alts (I have 6 characters now since springing for an extra shared account with
believeitup >.>), Laen, a little Dwarf Guardian. He's displaying some uncharacteristic Dwarven agility here by leaning against the wall and resting his feet on the tip of the mailbox, all whilst his BFF Leohten, one of believeitup's alts, sits atop a nearby roof and looks on. I really, really love playing this pairing together. They're not what comes to mind when I think of prefect classes to play together, really (Hunter/Guardian, Minstrel/Champ leap to mind) but somehow it just works with them. And it's really, really fun, which is what it's all about after all. Laen just needs to learn to be careful when bending down to pick up things. XD </insidejoke>Another Amarthiel cap, this time with Caleb having his one and only run-in with her. She marched up the hill to Gath Forthnir and made all kneel before her, powerless to do anything. You can tell by how just about every ability I have is greyed out, heh. She actually killed me with dread after this before I could even really do anything, but I did manage to take down one guy and get a robe out of it. As an aside, the coolest thing about this event was that the devs would actually play as Amarthiel, denoted by the little +~ by her name. So by trash talking her in OOC chat or in game you could get their attention and hopefully get her to show up and get some loot. :D Aside from the loot, it was just fun being a part of the storyline overall and I do hope they add more events like this in the future.
Portobella and Dodric pose for a picture at Esteldin. May I just state the obvious and say how cuuuuuuuuute Porto is, omg. So much love for that character and all the adventures I've been on with her. Then again I'm a liiiittle biased, heh, but it's still true nonetheless! Here Dodric shows off his glow-y minstrel hands and his fancy duds. I imagine he sent this picture back home to his family in the Shire, and possibly got Portobella to sign it. ;) "OMG I MET PORTOBELLA OF THE SHIRE IN MY TRAVELS! TAKE THAT BILBO!!!!!!!111" XD
This was another attempt at a shot of two of my and
believeitup's characters, but I have no idea what happened in the first one there. Baranbiel is waving and there's some weird graphical glitch in her hand (maybe from using a bow, it looks like a thin black line or something, weird), and Aegor is apparently doing the Robot, lol. I thiiiink he was cheering and his hands were either just going up or coming down, but ahahaha, so funny. The second one's a better one, though there's a dead dwarf at their feet and another soon-to-be-dead one sneaking up behind them.Ahhhh, the Rift. Such a fun, long, challenging event. This was my second attempt at the same with Caleb, his first having been a very ugly PuG waaaaay back when. This attempt was way more organized and we went pretty far before time constraints forced us to stop. Caleb's also wearing that robe he got from one of Amarthiel's goons, dyed in his trademark green colours. I love the action in this shot; he's about to whomp the Tarkrip Overseer with his mace and dagger combo, and Portobella is tanking him like a pro. ♥ It really was way more fun than I thought it'd be to do more melee with Porto and the others; Hunter in the Rift is kinda like easy mode to me, heh. It's mainly hang back and shoot stuff with the same 2-3 buttons over and over and over until a.) it's dead, or b.) you're dead. Of course there are exceptions, but it's much less engaging than most other classes. I'm just lazy. ;)
More Porto! Her and Aegor were hunting Giants in Evendim (which I have to finish still, hmm) and this is an action shot of her jumping up through one of their corpses post-battle. I like this shot though because even though she's not actually on him, it kinda looks like she's standing on his chest and has her little right foot raised to give him a big stomping. XDDDDD Like I said, ADORABLE.
This is a new picture from earlier this week. The tall blonde with her arm raised in the air is my 6th character, a Captain named Golwyn. And beside her is
believeitup's newest recruit into the LOTRO fold, a Hobbit Minstrel named Trinquet, played by the lovely onlyonechoice. They're both in the early, early stages of the game here, running around Staddle and helping the locals there with their problems in exchange for sweet XP. Trinquet looks much different now, thanks to both leveling and some new gear I had Caleb make for her, but I will leave it to her (or believeitup!) to add some pics of her newer appearances and adventures. :)Just out of curiousity, I took a similar shot to the one
believeitup posted of Portobella standing in Thorin's Hall on The Beast. Of course I knew my own dated PC wouldn't live up to that standard but I was curious just the same. I run the game fairly well, playable for me at least, on medium settings. The shadows are one of the first things you lose when you drift away from ultra high settings, since they need to be calculated and drawn in real time and all that good stuff, so Aegor's is just an amorphous blob at his feet. XD You can see his reflection though which is cool, even if it's not as bright and shineh as it could be.Finally, these last two pictures are fresh off the server, taken around, oh... 4-5am my time today? XD This is the mighty Thaurlach, the Balrog boss at the end of the Rift. Our group went very, very well last night, cruising through most of the Rift (we skipped the first 2 bosses which speeds it up so, so much, though those first 2 drop the boots I want dammit XD) with no problems and then getting to this last battle. We tried him 4-5 times, the last time being the closest and ironically being with 11/12 possible slots since we lost someone hehe. It's a very challenging fight and because of the way the Rift works (there are locks in place that allow you to leave and come back where you left off, and also prevent you from going back and starting over to get loot over and over again; the locks last for 5-6 days before you can start from scratch again) we're planning to go back tonight after regrouping and to take the SOB down. These pictures were hastily taken midfight, since at this point myself and others, including Portobella, had to wait in the middle for switches to be thrown to release the big guy. I love how in both pics his eyes are focused on Portobella. XD It's great fun and the group we run with has taken him down at least a few times before, though it was Porto's and my first time getting that far into battle with him, so I think after the trial and error and lessons learned last night we'll have an honest to goodness good shot at him tonight, which excites me to no end. :)
Ok, wow, that was way longer than I thought it would be. Other than all the LOTRO and the work, I've been trying to save money and plan for the big NYC trip, which isn't all that far off thankfully. I also picked up season 2 of Heroes this week which was only $28.99, though I've yet to watch any of it. I didn't rewatch s1 when I bought it last summer, so maybe I can re-watch that and then s2 before s3 starts soon, we'll see.
There's not really all that much else to report on other than that. Life = work and LOTRO the last while, and it seems like it will stay that way for the next while at least. I'm pretty happy though which is nice, and here's hoping things stay that way. I hope everyone else is doing well too, and I know I always say this and then fail, but I'll try to get on here more often and actually update once and awhile. For now it's off to make food for Porto and I for tonight's round 2. XD
