Erebrandir's Horseshoe - What is it good for?

[CmdrMagic]

That's the correct reading. There was an extra space. It should have read any given update as in any given update to the game.

Sapience every day that goes by that you guys don't tell us what the horseshoe actually does in detail a kitten starves...

Think of the kittens...

[Lasagabaster]

The real power of the Horshoe is making people communicate.

The Horshoe has brought more people to the forums and made them talk and read and write and become active around here than any other thing Turbine has ever given us.

Just kidding. ;D

[Amrundir]

The Horshoe has brought more people to the forums and made them talk and read and write and become active around here than any other thing Turbine has ever given us.

What about the hobby horse? (the 5000 TP thread in Bullroarer forum)


My chars (ok, only 2 which own the horseshoe) always use it, when doing "critical" things.

Yesterday my level 72 loremaster opened mail from the lottery. Found lootbox and key. Opened the box and found a Worn Symbol of the Elder King.

[Krysstofur]

My main didn't keep this horseshoe. Does anyone know if I can mirror pool join with someone doing that quest to get a replacement?

[SaltandPepper]

I'm currently taking my burg through RoI region (just started Andreg) and as an experiment (since this is my 4th through the area) I decided to equip the horseshoe and keep it equipped... I have a leveling partner (another burg) who equips the stone to give more xp so we sort of have a baseline.... I also run buffbars so keep a pretty close eye on everything that pops up. So far, I have not seen anything out of the ordinary - if I do, I'll be sure and let you all know.

[Beast_of_War]

I've heard that it can increase drop chance, but I think I've also read that it will be a legendary mount item in the next update with Eastern Rohan.

[Schmidster]

I have equipped it a couple of times when crafting and/or identifying a new LI.
I can't say for certain if it helped, but it always prevented unwanted results like wooden spoons or brooms.

[chompo78]

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.

LOL that song was exact
ly what I though of when I saw the thread title!

[Mord420]

From the Turbinatum Arcana ex Inferis:

The Horseshoe is an ancient artifact, developed in the dark fires of the 1970's binary code.

Its powers reside in helping the younger generations of players to be more inquisitive about games and their content.

Abusing its powers is as dangerous as ignoring them, as both will sink the wearer into an endless pit of despair and curiosity.

It is said that when the last MMO on the Internet launches its very last expansion, the full potential of the horseshoe will become known to mankind, thus heralding a new era of Internet MMO's launching, and pretty much absolutely nothing changing as compared to what was in the past.

(edit: Translated from the original Igpay Indarinsay version)

[Ashrellion]

My main didn't keep this horseshoe. Does anyone know if I can mirror pool join with someone doing that quest to get a replacement?

Pretty certain that quest chain can't be "mirrored".

[Ashrellion]

As a side note to all of this, I've been told on a few occasions in-game "you're and idiot for taking the horseshoe." I've seen pretty similar sentiments expressed on the forums, in this thread and elsewhere.

Oh, really?

News flash #1. Completely aside from what it actually does, I took it because it was the one reward available for that quest that never loses its value. Does nothing? Then it's value never changes. Does even some of what's been implied? Something unique in the entire game? Then it's priceless, so... it's value never changes. Should I have taken some other pocket item offered (I forget the specific other rewards for the quest)? Pfft, I'd have out-leveled the value of that in 10 levels or less. Relics for an LI? I out-level the LI in the same span. Armour? Jewelry? Please, tell me, is there *one damn thing* that would NOT be useless to me in a matter of just a few levels? I'll wait.

Never mind. I lied. I won't wait. I already know your answer. Nothing. If that's what the horseshoe itself is worth, then it's worth exactly one bag or vault slot, which is worth very close to nothing, in the grand scheme of things, no matter *what* some QQers want to think.

Oh, oh, wait... my *pocket* slot. Right. Surely *that's* terribly costly to waste on an item that "does nothing", yes?

News flash #2. I didn't design my character to live or die by the contents of one minor gear slot. I'm amused if *you* did, but that's really your cross to bear, not mine. I don't need to hear about it, any more than I need to hear your opinion on the relative value of a quest item I chose of my own free will. Your opinion, frankly, is worth *less* than nothing to me.

[furtim]

The other rewards from that quest are stat legacies, for what it's worth. IMO, stat legacies aren't worth using for most classes anyway, so I don't see why anyone wouldn't take the mysterious horseshoe that definitely does something (even if we haven't worked out the full list of what "something" is yet -- remember, the snowball fight effect is confirmed, so we know for certain now that it doesn't do nothing).

[Goranith]

There's no empirical data that i have seen that expresses what the horseshoe does. Do i believe it does something? yes. Do i believe it affects the game for a toon that wears it permantely or periodically for loot rolls? No. If it does influence games probabilities, it is at such a small percentage the average user wouldnt even notice. There are also so many unknows if it is an active "buff" item, duration, Cool down just to name a few.
End result, it is what it is, and given the fact that most quest items have such a short applicable use in the game, its not a wrong choice. It is a personal beleif to it usefulness and not worth debate, or argumentaion. You don't have to convince me why u choose it, nor will i ever feel the need to defend my decision.


Thread closed

As a side note to all of this, I've been told on a few occasions in-game "you're and idiot for taking the horseshoe." I've seen pretty similar sentiments expressed on the forums, in this thread and elsewhere.

Oh, really?

News flash #1. Completely aside from what it actually does, I took it because it was the one reward available for that quest that never loses its value. Does nothing? Then it's value never changes. Does even some of what's been implied? Something unique in the entire game? Then it's priceless, so... it's value never changes. Should I have taken some other pocket item offered (I forget the specific other rewards for the quest)? Pfft, I'd have out-leveled the value of that in 10 levels or less. Relics for an LI? I out-level the LI in the same span. Armour? Jewelry? Please, tell me, is there *one damn thing* that would NOT be useless to me in a matter of just a few levels? I'll wait.

Never mind. I lied. I won't wait. I already know your answer. Nothing. If that's what the horseshoe itself is worth, then it's worth exactly one bag or vault slot, which is worth very close to nothing, in the grand scheme of things, no matter *what* some QQers want to think.

Oh, oh, wait... my *pocket* slot. Right. Surely *that's* terribly costly to waste on an item that "does nothing", yes?

News flash #2. I didn't design my character to live or die by the contents of one minor gear slot. I'm amused if *you* did, but that's really your cross to bear, not mine. I don't need to hear about it, any more than I need to hear your opinion on the relative value of a quest item I chose of my own free will. Your opinion, frankly, is worth *less* than nothing to me.

[Rainothon]

Yeah, some people love to make fun of others who 'believe' in 'luck', rather than depend on evidence-based science.

These people seem to make up more than a small subset of those who play MMORPG's.

They're mostly an okay sort though, once you get to know them. They just love to tease. Give 'em their laugh.

And once Lady Fortune smiles upon you (and your horseshoe), let 'em have yours

[Neumi]

There's no empirical data that i have seen that expresses what the horseshoe does. ...

That means you missed the screenshots of the last Yule festival.
People who used the horse shoe could get a short buff that prevented them from being interrupted by snowballs at the snowball fight.
I don't have any data about the chances for this buff (if it was given at every 2nd hit or whatever), but only people with the horse shoe could get it.

[Macroscian]

That means you missed the screenshots of the last Yule festival.
People who used the horse shoe could get a short buff that prevented them from being interrupted by snowballs at the snowball fight.
I don't have any data about the chances for this buff (if it was given at every 2nd hit or whatever), but only people with the horse shoe could get it.

*belated reply after searching for other info*
*blatant bump*

Interesting, never noticed that.

[Torinik]

I know some ppl have made a decision about the horseshoe and cannot be swayed either way as to if it is a boon or just a piece of junk. All I can do is express my observations and experiences with it. Until such a time as the gm's and dev's decide to clearly state the specifics on the horseshoe.

1. I have noticed a far greater chance of getting Shards/flakes/Sigils/crest from resource node while having the horseshoe slotted. One day I received 24 sigils within a 10 hr gaming session while casualy tapping wood/ore nodes while leveling a toon in dunland. This by far is the greatest 1 day haul I have had on them just from resource tapping. And in no way am I stating that you will experience the same or greater, but others in my kin have expressed that they to have seen the rate of getting these ite,ms from nodes increase while wearing the horseshoe.

2. I also have noticed a marked increase in the amount of crit results while crafting, so much so that I wear it whenever I intend to craft on all my toons.

3. I tend to avoid the festivals , as I have never really enjoyed them, but other in my kin have stated they had better results in ones such as the treasure hunt while wearing the horseshoe, compared to alts they had that did not.

All in all I believe in the horseshoe and will until the dev's say otherwise. I encourage all player to at least get it on one alt and just test it out and see if you notice a difference.

[Ferathyr]

Considering the choices of quest reward are the horseshoe or one of four legacies I would take the horseshoe every time. I swap to mine whenever I open a container (corpse, backpack etc), I didn't think of equipping it when breaking legendaries down though.

I like not knowing everything about every little item I pick up or what it is for. I sometimes loot "old arrowhead"s from beast mobs and have a growing collection, maybe they have some use besides vendor trash but probably not.

My point is not everything in the game has to have a reason or use.

[Laweh]

I love my horse shoe, its a permanent fixture in my bags. I pop it on whenever I open loot boxes, wb rewards, relic combine or deconstruct etc. I see it as a slight increase in luck for the RNG , and perhaps I am imagining things but I do see an increase in crits because of it. either way its a win

[groucho42]

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!

Agreed. I have it on around half my toons. I've never seen any difference in using it or not, but it's fun just as a Middle Earth conversation piece.

[Bill_the_Cat]

Hmm, I equip my horseshoe, and two days later servers are still down, coincidence?

[bigsix66]

Hmm, I equip my horseshoe, and two days later servers are still down, coincidence?

As soon as I equipped the horseshoe, it stopped snowing in Boston. Its powers are truly awesome.

[Tuco]

1. I have noticed a far greater chance of getting Shards/flakes/Sigils/crest from resource node while having the horseshoe slotted. One day I received 24 sigils within a 10 hr gaming session while casualy tapping wood/ore nodes while leveling a toon in dunland. This by far is the greatest 1 day haul I have had on them just from resource tapping.

So far as I can tell this is anecdotal - it's easy to be beguiled by a good day that lets you forget the bad ones, as it also is easy to be annoyed by the 10 fails in a row from your 76% crafting tries while forgetting your string of five 25% crits in a row. I did extensive data collection on just this question for both Dunland and Riddermark sigils and crests, and found no difference between "with" and "without" over thousands of nodes. In each case I was seeing about sigil or crest per about 120 ore/wood before U6, none in 575 ore/wood for U6, one per 80 for U6.01, and one per per 160 for U6.1 and later, independent of horseshoe. If you have real data that shows an effect (positive or negative), I'd love to see it. I stopped collecting the data several updates ago, so (as Sapience implied) it could now be having an effect.

I think it *used* to have an effect before it went into the snowball fight: I collected a great deal of data on identifying legendaries when you could still get four legacies to start, and there appeared to be a strong correlation between wearing it and getting four legacies. However, when I published my data here the statisticians did their thing with it and noted that it didn't hit the 95% significance level... if it had stayed at the same rate for only twice as long it would have. Unfortunately the update came along that removed the possibility of a fourth (non-store) legacy, so my data collection ended.

[Worfie]

I'm waiting till we get to Mordor then my horseshoe has a date with Mount Doom!!!*









*not sure if its been mentioned before ..didn't read through all the pages

[Azazelus]

I keep my horseshoe on permanently...

I'd rather do that for an increased chance of luck than have some sort of stat-boosting pocket item that I'd constantly have to switch it out with.

I can survive just fine at 85 vs. multiple mobs of equivalent level...