Last week I asked what the most fabulous class was in Middle-earth with an eye towards guiding the creation of my inevitable alt (or alts) on Nimrodel. The poll, as of this writing, shows the following results:
Minstrel 49 Burglar 11 Hunter 8 Warden 7 Lore-master 7 Heavy Armor classes 3 Rune-keeper 1
The minstrel class was the clear winner, getting an overwhelming percentage of the votes.
So I rolled up a hunter.
You see, I had tried a minstrel before and it wasn’t quite my cup of tea. Plus I picture Reynaldo as more fabulous through deeds than through singing of his deeds. He does not need to advertise his fabulous nature, he just is fabulous.
Plus my wife frowned on any sort of “Tiny Tim” online activity.
So Reynaldo the hunter was born. And the hunter’s garb looked good on him. He was almost fabulous. Almost.
Tight britches? Check.
Well cut tunic? Check.
Well turned boots? Check.
Stylish hat? Umm… no.
The hats he found were just ruining his look and, frankly, character models in Lord of the Rings Online have a tough time going without a hat.
Reynaldo suffered through a series of narrow brimed Alpine models, a couple of the Andean knit variety so popular with the Burning Man crowd, and the inevitable over-turned soup bowl hard hats that made him look like a lineman for the county.
But fortune favors the fabulous. At level 10 he got the drop he was looking for.
He got the wide brimed hat with plume.
Fabulous!
Now with his bow on his back and a dagger on each hip he fights to rid Middle-earth of Sauron’s taint and to collect enough cash to register his last name. No titles for him. It is enough just to be fabulous.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 
I swear I think people try to give us the worst possible results in our polls. Mine was “play a priest” so I leveled the rogue.
Go figure.
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I signed up for the 10 day free trial because my WoW guild just went to pot and I rolled a warden, a burglar, a hunter, lore-master and a champion so far.
I power leveled everything except the lore-master up to level 10 to give it a fair shake.
The warden was the one I liked the best, the champion was the “easy-mode” character. Now you have me wanting to try a minstrel though based on the poll ;)
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Congratualtions! You found one of 6 decent headgear models in the game. It also dyes very nicely, it can go with nearly any outfit.
You will likely be wearing that hat until you are 60. My Loremaster has been wearing that hat since the appearance slots went live a few months post launch (I think that’s 30 solid levels). The earliest you can get the model is by starting a cloth wearing elf. A hat that uses it is one of the quest rewards in the newbie tutorial.
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Six decent headgear models? I think you need to provide screenshots, because that number has to be closer to one. I love many things about LoTRO, but I hate the headgear models. I would leave that gear slot empty is it weren’t for the option to turn off helms and the appearance tab.
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Well, I personally have found the hat above and a metal helmet that I quite like currently equipped on different toons.
The metal helmet my dwarf champ is using isn’t part of any crafted, faction, or dungeon set that I am aware of. It was a random white drop off of a low level mob. Since then I have gotten into the habit of checking every peice of gear i come across for appearance, and have discovered several models I had no idea were in game. A particular oddity was a purple “keiser” style helmet with a big spike in the middle of it (and no, I would never wear it).
In any case, six off the top of my head (and obviously in my opinion, yours may vary):
-the lossoth headgear looks pretty good with a full set of lossoth armor (3),
-there is a crafted leather helm that is boring but at least not stupid looking. The one before you get to the bunny ear models (1).
– the hat above (1)
– the random metal helmet that my dwarf found, and will very likely never take off (1).
You can see all of those at Darzil’s save for the helmet my dwarf is using.
That’s six “decent” models that I am aware of. Note that I didn’t say “awesome,” I just mean “not totally stupid looking.” It’s a pretty sadly small percentage of the overall number of helmets in game when you come to it.
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“Well, I personally have the hat above and a metal helmet that I quite like equipped on different toons.”
English ftw
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Suspect is hatless, repeat, hatless!
What’s the point of hosting a poll if you’re not going to follow it? Or was having a minstrel named Reynaldo Fabulous just too much. The hat is no doubt, absolutely fabulous. Liquid lunch!
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@Yeebo – I set Reynaldo on the scholar’s path as well, so he will be able to make dye and such. I actually remember getting that hat with the elf hunter I rolled back at launch.
@Blue Kae – I was actually actively taking screenshots at one point of people’s hats. I should dredge those up and maybe have a “worst hat/best hat” poll.
@BLB – I did say in the post that I could be swayed beyond result numbers by comments. There was Julie Whitefeather and my wife, one pro-hunter, one anti-Tiny Tim. I think that outweighs mere votes!
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This conversation actually inspired me to make a blog post “How to wear a helmet and not look stupid in LoTRO” complete with screenshots. I haven’t the foggiest idea how to directly link it here. However, at the rate I blog it should be the front post for at least a few days.
Cheers!
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