Spring Festival and Update 20

I love Spring Festival in LOTRO! There's so many activities and there are usually some very nice rewards. This year does not disappoint!

One of my little hunters was delighted to see the Steed of the (Moon) Moth has pretty green and brown decorations and the Cloak of the Moth is amazing how it shimmers and changes colour as it moves!

Steed of the (Moon) Moth - Spring Festival 2017

Cloak of the Moth (green/purple)

Cloak of the Moth (yellow/orange)

The dresses are nice too, but not in the same league as the cloak. I've got what I want from Spring Festival so now it's time to check out the new zone in Mordor ...

Update 20: Battle of the Black Gate includes a new zone The Wastes (Camp of the Host is now in The Wastes instead of North Ithilien), plus two new resource dungeons (Carchost, the Towers of the Teeth and Skoironk, the Maggot-holes) with solo and group options. The Epic story has a new episode, the raid gear from the Throne of the Dread Tower can be upgraded further, there are a couple of new recipes for each profession and there are new rewards for helping the Host of the West prepare for the Battle of the Black Gate.

The barren Wastes

Ruins dot the landscape

Looking towards the Black Gate

There are many ruins scattered across The Wastes, different types of flowers such as Bonemallow and Mournweed that yield phials of violet or golden extracts, and new resource nodes that yield scraps of Dagorlad weapons and armour, wood, cloth, onyx, artifacts, edible plants and occasionally Rangers' crafting journals that are used in new crafting recipes with a cooldown that make items to barter for reputation tokens which can be used to increase reputation with The Host of the West beyond kindred level or traded for new items and gear (including epic jewellery, shields and off-hand weapons).

I tried the Carchost resource instance but couldn't find any resources, only orcs and bats. There were a couple of items that seemed to be part of a quest but I couldn't interact with them or find any quest-givers. Maybe I didn't explore far enough, but my initial impression is confusion as it wasn't what I expected based on previous resource instances.

I don't really like how the zone revolves around collecting items and converting them into other items then converting those into other items that you can then use to get the items you want in the first place. It seems very convoluted and more complicated than it needs to be - there's not many quests in the zone so instead you have to grind items for something to do. I also don't really like the idea of having to earn rep beyond Kindred status - that also just increases the grindiness of the zone. Ah well, maybe they couldn't devote too much creative effort to this Update because they're working on making the Mordor expansion really good. One can hope.