Thread: Erebrandir's Horseshoe - What is it good for?

As promised, the full text of the message regarding Erebrandir's horseshoe...

It’s time to pull the veil back just a bit on the mysterious Erebrandir's horseshoe and what it does.

For starters, it does do something. Some may think it doesn’t, but it does! In fact, it does more now than when it was first introduced. This is why we’ve kept its effects a closely guarded secret. As time goes on, it grows more powerful! So when should you be using it? Some portions of the Epic story and certain festival events benefit from having this lucky horseshoe. In fact, the winter festival would be a good time to dust it off!

Oh noes.....

Originally Posted by Sapience

As promised, the full text of the message regarding Erebrandir's horseshoe...

I knew it....on slow days, Turbine DOES troll their own fora.

When I click "Report Post" to report you for trolling, does it go into a general queue or can I request Celestrata or Ornaith specifically?

Gratz on hitting $6k for the ExtraLife campaign! And yay for info about Erebrandir's Horseshoe!!

Originally Posted by Ailedra

I knew it....on slow days, Turbine DOES troll their own fora.

Not trolling- he's posting it in response to meeting a goal to raise so much money for kids with the 24 hour gaming marathon. The notes supposedly come from the dev that knows in full what the horseshoe does.

So what I'm trying to figure out is, what is there in the winter festival that might involve a random drop or something it could influence...

Well it explains the "Lucky" aspect of it. I've often wondered if it affected instance loot from chests...

Anecdotally, I was have a conversations with a PuG, about whether or not it affected the loot, one of the guys in the groups said there was no way. When I equipped it and opened the chest there was a Worn Symbol of Celebrimbor.

I guess I will be wearing it during all the Epic Quest stuff from now on...

Originally Posted by sirwillow

Not trolling- he's posting it in response to meeting a goal to raise so much money for kids with the 24 hour gaming marathon. The notes supposedly come from the dev that knows in full what the horseshoe does.

I was unaware of the connection with the Extra Life campaign. That's a cool little community tie-in, and whoever had the idea should get an extra pat on the back.

However, now that I DO know....I stand by what I said...obvious troll is obvious

Interesting. I do believe it is the reason my main finally got the skeletal horse out of that chest in the haunted burrow. I also think it helps during the treasure hunt. That or I'm just lucky with that event.

Originally Posted by Ailedra

I was unaware of the connection with the Extra Life campaign. That's a cool little community tie-in, and whoever had the idea should get an extra pat on the back.

However, now that I DO know....I stand by what I said...obvious troll is obvious

Not trolling. I made it very clear what it would and would not include in the post stating the goal.

And it does reveal several things. And with a little thought it should actually tell you quite a bit about both what it does now and will do in the future (that's another tip off BTW).

I bring it out of my vault for the treasure hunting festival thing...one of the dwarves, if you notice, suggests to take something lucky into the fields. So thats when I bring mine out, thank goodness I kept it! I wonder what other hidden powers it has

Very cool info!

Gratz on hitting another goal!

I'm pushing my kin and friends to donate as well!

GREAT JOB AND KEEP IT GOING!

Originally Posted by sirwillow

Not trolling- he's posting it in response to meeting a goal to raise so much money for kids with the 24 hour gaming marathon. The notes supposedly come from the dev that knows in full what the horseshoe does.

So what I'm trying to figure out is, what is there in the winter festival that might involve a random drop or something it could influence...

Chance of getting on stage in the theater comes to mind. It could also make the wood trolls drop more wood for that quest, I suppose. Oh, and it could affect the gift boxes as well.

And, well... I guess I'm trading my Great River bauble out for the horseshoe until I complete the new Epics. :P

What in the world could it effect in the Epic Story??

Some many new questions!!

Winter Festival gift boxes seem a likely candidate

Originally Posted by Sapience

Not trolling. I made it very clear what it would and would not include in the post stating the goal.

And it does reveal several things. And with a little thought it should actually tell you quite a bit about both what it does now and will do in the future (that's another tip off BTW).

I suppose it depends on your definition of trolling....in my book, dropping something vaguely concrete, yet still intentionally opaque enough to incite wild speculation, conversation, and the occasional fisticuffs, knowing full well the consequences, qualifies.

(In all seriousness, grats on hitting your (escalating) goals for a worthy cause, and thank you for the effort you and the other community folks put in....I was just reading that thread while you posted. I missed the whole Extra Life thing, and I'm sorry that I did. It was a cool give back in all directions, both to the charity and to the community.)

Oh no! I've chosen that as a reward on both my mini and guard, but finally chose another reward on my rk (my now main), thinking it didn't actually do much good bah, humbug!

Now I just need to figure out what it does for the Epic quests... can we reveal that when we hit $8 or $10k? :P

Originally Posted by Sapience

And with a little thought it should actually tell you quite a bit about both what it does now and will do in the future (that's another tip off BTW).

Come to think of it...

- A: It was introduced at the start of Volume III. Well, in Book 2 of Volume III.
(Thus, one would think it effects that Volume and forwards).

- B: It's a horseshoe. Where are we headed? To Rohan. Which is full of? Horses.

That said, I can't think of any points in particular where the Epic had anything relying on luck, aside from maybe the drop chances on quest items. The vast majority of Volume III is travelogue with an occasional bit of combat...

Some food for thought:

One of the NPC's at the Treasure Hunt event said something to the effect of "one should always carry a lucky item in their pocket, like a horse shoe."

I kept my horse shoe pocket item equipped nearly the entire event. In total I'd estimate I found over 60 huge dig sites (no life, treasure hunted non stop - and I stopped counting when I got over 50)

This however did not seem to have any bearing on getting a mount out of the huge site, as I was at huge site #55 or so when a cave claw steed finally appeared. My character that got a treasure laden mount is a level 7 who obviously does not have the horse shoe.

My guess is it has something to do with horses. Reduced chance of getting hit by mobs? 1% faster? with Rohan being based upon horses, the epic storyline involves horses no doubt. Probably the horse goes faster during the festival horse races?

Originally Posted by Ailedra

I suppose it depends on your definition of trolling....in my book, dropping something vaguely concrete, yet still intentionally opaque enough to incite wild speculation, conversation, and the occasional fisticuffs, knowing full well the consequences, qualifies.

(In all seriousness, grats on hitting your (escalating) goals for a worthy cause, and thank you for the effort you and the other community folks put in....I was just reading that thread while you posted. I missed the whole Extra Life thing, and I'm sorry that I did. It was a cool give back in all directions, both to the charity and to the community.)

Haven't missed it, yet! The event takes place on Oct 20th. You've still got time to get a donation in and pick up the titles and a shot at the other incentives up for grabs.

If the horseshoe actually does do something, you guys are total jerks for making it a one-time only quest reward that you have the choice of not even getting in the first place.

Congratulations on reaching the $6,000 goal! And thank you for making good on the reveal. That's more information that I ever expected to hear about the horseshoe in any sort of official capacity. As you said, it's not a point by point reveal, but it does imply some interesting things. Of course, it also creates lots of new questions.

Still, I'm just happy to learn that it definitely does something! Now we have a better idea where to look for effects. Consider me re-intrigued! And thanks again for the info - very interesting!

Originally Posted by GodzillaX8

If the horseshoe actually does do something, you guys are total jerks for making it a one-time only quest reward that you have the choice of not even getting in the first place.

It's no different than any other quests that offer reward choices you only get one shot at.

Originally Posted by Sigram

It's no different than any other quests that offer reward choices you only get one shot at.

Except that it has in-game effects that you can't achieve by any other means.

It would be silly for anyone NOT to take the horseshoe. I still feel like it's really just the largest psychological test ever created.


*shrug* I guess I should be equipping it throughout Rohan though. It's not like the pocket item matters that much.

Originally Posted by Lenton

It would be silly for anyone NOT to take the horseshoe. I still feel like it's really just the largest psychological test ever created.


*shrug* I guess I should be equipping it throughout Rohan though. It's not like the pocket item matters that much.

It's been equipped on my guardian ever since he got it...

Edit: I might be a liar, apparently I swapped it out for something else. Do not remember doing this. LOL He had it equipped for over a year at least, anyway.

Originally Posted by GodzillaX8

Except that it has in-game effects that you can't achieve by any other means.

Choices have consequence is my point. It is this way in every aspect of life. Some consequences may be large or small, monumental or of no meaning at all.

This is something that has very little effect on a small part of the game. If it were anything majorly important, the playerbase would have figured it out by now.

I'm afraid I have a low tolerance for items with 'mystery powers' so I think I've actually trashed it on several toons already. Learning now that it benefits "something" during "parts" of the epic quest line really doesn't make me regret my decision.

I think the fundraising effort you guys are doing is epic btw. Great to see it exceeding your own expectations!

Originally Posted by Sigram

Choices have consequence is my point. It is this way in every aspect of life. Some consequences may be large or small, monumental or of no meaning at all.

This is something that has very little effect on a small part of the game. If it were anything majorly important, the playerbase would have figured it out by now.

That quest gives you the choice of "actually useful item" and "seemingly useless flavor item". Why would anyone pick an item that appears to serve no real purpose?

Sapience - Thanks for your persistence with this and getting us a little info.

Horseshoe Dev - Thanks for your willingness to reveal some of the details relating to the horseshoe

Community - Thanks for all the donations that have been made to help the children @ Boston Children's Hospital! Keep the donations coming!

Originally Posted by GodzillaX8

That quest gives you the choice of "actually useful item" and "seemingly useless flavor item". Why would anyone pick an item that appears to serve no real purpose?

Sit back and think about it: why would they take the time to create an item that is useless? Everything has a purpose.

That quest gives you a choice between the shoe and one of four Legacy of $stat scrolls which CAN be obtained by other methods. Why would anyone NOT pick up the one time item?

I'm still imagining that there is a devoted Horseshoe Developer, whose cubicle is literally shrouded in mystery and spider-webs and whatnot. Perhaps an intern got this lucky project. I can also imagine the assault a bunch of the team made on the cubicle to retrieve this information. Hopefully some in LARP costumes.

Thanks for the hints, though - there will no doubt be many whipping out their lucky pocket items come Winter Festival, and hopefully a chunky thread of testing and further theories here on the forum.

Oh, and of course congratulations on reaching out to the community, and having the response that you have so far in the Extra Life charity event. Best of luck to all of Team Turbine for all their respective charities!

First thing that went though my head when I saw the thread title was

"Horseshoe!!!

What is it good for??

Absolutely nuthin'! Sing it again y'all!"

(sorry...showing my age here...)

PS congrats on the fundraising goal!

Edited to add: I do think there's some use for it, I just did an Isenguard Epic quest today that mentioned the horseshoe again. I don't think it would keep cropping up like that if it was completely useless. I might start carrying it around with me just in case.

Thanks for releasing information on that.

As for me, I'm not even going to bother with this item as I don't believe it actually does anything useful.

Originally Posted by Sigram

Sit back and think about it: why would they take the time to create an item that is useless? Everything has a purpose.

That quest gives you a choice between the shoe and one of four Legacy of $stat scrolls which CAN be obtained by other methods. Why would anyone NOT pick up the one time item?

I think the dev wanted to create an in-game enigma, not unlike Tom Bombadil.

Originally Posted by Ravyrn

I think the dev wanted to create an in-game enigma, not unlike Tom Bombadil.

That very well could be true, but even an enigma - Tom Bombadil is far from useless.

The Horseshoe may well have a small effect in the Epics and some Festival events, but one significant thing it does now, and does even _better_ now than it did when it was first introduced is obvious - it creates speculation amongst the LOTRO community!

Originally Posted by Boskone08

The Horseshoe may well have a small effect in the Epics and some Festival events, but one significant thing it does now, and does even _better_ now than it did when it was first introduced is obvious - it creates speculation amongst the LOTRO community!

Yes, exactly! And if there does turn out to be some specific use for it down the road, it'll be posted all over the place right away and the mystery will be gone. That'll be a little sad, I think.

If "it does more now than when it was first introduced","as time goes on it grows more powerful" and that's "a tip off for what it will do in the future" suggests whatever it does is linked to level, how precisely that relates to festivals and epic quests ........ erm dunno, yet