Midsummer Festival 2022

Myndariel finally joined in the Midsummer Festival celebrations, and it was so worthwhile and enjoyable!

Aragorn and Arwen's wedding

She went through all the quests for the epic quest chain Vol. V. Book 1: A Time of Celebration which tells the story of Aragorn (also known as Elessar) and Arwen's wedding in Minas Tirith. After completing Chapter 7: A Wedding at Midsummer, she earned Gondor's Steed which looks awesome.

Gondor's Steed

There are lots of repeatable quests in the Midsummer Festival version of Minas Tirith, plus additional quests in Bree-land, the Shire and Ered Luin, so players of all levels can take part. The rewards are cheap so it was easy to collect all the mounts and some nice new outfits. If I wanted, I could also earn some cosmetic pets and housing items.

Apart from Gondor's Steed, there are several other mounts available this year:

• Steed of Entwining Blossoms
• Blackroot Steed
  
• Lamedon Steed
• Lebennin Steed
• Lossarnarch Steed

You can check these out on my Mounts Gallery page.

I love the main outfit for this year! The Robe of Entwining Blossoms is very pretty, especially when combined with the accessories, and it dyes well, with a slight colour gradient that adds a nice effect.

Steed of Entwining Blossoms and matching dress

Robe of Entwining Blossoms (left: default, right: dyed rose)

Also shown are the Circlet of Entwining Blossoms (head), Mantle of Entwined Blossoms (shoulders) and Boots of the Entwining Blossoms (feet). Instead of using the matching cloak, I really liked the delicate lace-like Bridal Veil (it can also be dyed various colours). 

There are also bride and groom sets of outfits, but they didn't appeal as much so I didn't collect them. I did buy Galadriel's dress (which is the same as what she wore to the wedding) and Arwen's Dinner Dress (which also has a lovely colour gradient effect).

Galadriel's Dress (left: default, right: dyed gold in honour of Lothlórien)

Arwen's Dinner Dress (default, dyed rust, dyed sky blue, dyed turquoise)

There's still a few more days to enjoy the festival, so now that Myndariel is all set, some of my characters on my Free Account would like new mounts and outfits too.

Tunic of Entwining Blossoms

Mynimuso, my hobbit minstrel, discovered that the dresses don't look so good on hobbits, but the tunics fit nicely.

Scenic Tour: The Wildwood (Bree-land)

The Wildwood was added to Bree-land in Update 29, in March 2021. I was keen to visit this area because I saw you could earn some mounts, and I hoped it would be a nice alternative to questing in Angmar.

Trestlebridge (West Alley)

You start off in a new part of Trestlebridge where the Woodcutter's Brotherhood want to rebuild Trestlebridge. You'll need resources from the Wildwood, but you meet Thornmane who needs your help to restore the balance in the woods; there are many corrupted trees, orcs, bandits and predators to be pruned. 

Thornmane near Cotfast

Trader's Wharf

Eventually you meet the League of the Axe down at Trader's Wharf and they seem to just want to establish their own safe haven in the Wildwood and want your help gathering resources and eliminating threats.

That sums up the story-line and the rest is doing lots of repeatable quests to earn notoriety and complete deeds. The quests don't reward you with equipment so this zone won't help you gear up for Moria. It does give quite a lot of XP and there are tons of Master level resources and recipe drops available. Some of the deeds also give cool titles - my Warden is happy to be a "Scout of the Forest", although she also earned "Warden of the Wildwood".

There are also a number of missions available from the Trestlebridge quest hub. These are short, repeatable quests and after doing 15 missions, I am at about 60/200 Bree-land Wood-marks towards getting one of those mounts I wanted (Wild Trader's Steed). The other mount (Wild Trestlebridge Steed) is from completing all the deeds in the zone, including the Slayer deeds. Looks like I'll be level 50 before I'm finished here.

Overall, I think this is a zone I'd do once and then skip for most characters because it's just not worth it. There's not much story or rewards. It's a laid-back grind-fest, running all over the forest, killing everything you see, over and over again. Not my idea of fun. It reminds me a bit of the Hytbold grind but without the sense of progression. But, maybe if you just want to relax and do something else while you're playing, this might be a good place to do that while earning some gold, XP and LOTRO points. 

Writhenset

PS. If you're just chilling out in the woods, don't go down into the depths of Writhenset - I got lost in the spiderwebs for half an hour and it was not a relaxing time trying to find my way out while being ambushed every few seconds.