Valiant

The Rohan expansion so far has been everything I hoped for, except for the most important part: the armour appearances. Rohan has only two-and-a-half new armour appearances per weight: 1) the quest reward and barter gear, which is a rework of old world model armour designs and thus counts for half only, 2) the level 80 crafted armour and 3) the level 85 crafted armour.  I really like some of the crafted armour pieces but because of the deformation bugs, many pieces cannot be used. I just got my champion through the first Rohan quests and I wanted to use the level 80 crafted heavy chest piece for an outfit, but it has such terrible deformations on the chest (looks like somebody punched him really hard on his ribs) that I cannot use it as it is. In stead I had to come up with something a bit more old worldly.

A nice heavy armour outfit is always problematic for me. There aren’t really any full plate pieces in the game, which is a shame. Most of it is half plate with chain mail or even leather. Heavy leggings are the hardest part. I like the heavy Rift leggings but they all have an undyeable sienna detail on front and back and that just irritates the hell out of me. I have this manic need to match colours and details on every outfit, and having to either match or ignore the sienna gets old quickly. The Ost Dunhoth gear is a bit more flexible in that regard, but still has a lot of chain mail and very little plate. So for this outfit I had to find a compromise again. I keep wondering if we’ll ever see full plate gear. Maybe when we march to Gondor?

Head: Tarchar, white dye (barter in Ost Galadh, heavy armour)
Shoulders: Pauldrons of the Galadhrim, white dye (crafted Tier 6 Lothlórien, heavy armour, also available as skirmish cosmetic)
Chest: Ríanham, gold dye (Vol.I Bk8 reward, heavy armour, appearance also available as world drop)
Hands: Gauntlets of the Galadhrim, white dye (crafted Tier 6 Lothlórien, heavy armour, also available as skirmish cosmetic)
Legs: Lesser Defender of the West Leggings, white dye (barter in Ost Dunhoth, warden set, medallions of the north-men can be soloed)
Feet: Berserker’s Boots, white dye (trainer in Ost Galadh, champion only)
Back: Festive Azure Cloak, white dye (5th Anniversary veteran gift cosmetic)