89 combat and WHAT total? - No, you can't REALLY be going for 200m...

Most of you probably don't remember me. I haven't had an active thread here in a year. It's been over 3 years since I first made a thread here. However, I'm back to keep a sort of running journal of my ongoing goal - to stay 89 combat while raising my skills.

For reference: Stats on September 22, 2010 (Version 7 of this thread)

I have now remained at 89 combat for: 875 consecutive levels and 2042 consecutive days. (Reached 89 at 1319 total on June 17th 2005)

The Backstory:

I've been a skiller for a while now, as you can see. This was not always the case, though. When I first reached 89 combat, I was a lowly (by my standards) 1319 total.

Click below for a full lengthy explanation of my journey to 2000+ total:

[hide=]89, Farming, and The Start of Insanity

It was a dark and stormy night. Actually, it wasn't, but we don't need to worry about that. I had never ever been somebody that was big on combat, and I liked to balance my skills as much as I could. (Tears of Guthix remains my favorite minigame, even though my noncombat stats are now mostly all ten times higher than my combat stats, which means I haven't been able to play since 2006.) I was still training combat regularly up until July, with the release of the Farming skill.

In preparation for farming, Jagex had released the master farmer pickpocket, which I consequently used to quickly jump from roughly 50 thieving to approximately 68. The seeds that I procured, and then later bought once I started to run out, got me quickly to 68 farming as well. I immediately proclaimed myself a skiller '4 lyfe' or something similar, and went on my merry way. During this time, I had several goals which were outrageous and quickly abandoned (cutting 2000 magic logs with a black hatchet, fletching and alching 10000 yew bows from scratch), although this set a precedent for later goals...

The Construction Mistake, The First 99, and a #8 Rank

Through devotion to aggressive fletching as well as a few stints of casual merching, I had amassed roughly 39m in net worth by late May of 2006. At this point, the first of three horrid ingame decisions occurred. With the release of construction, I poured over 20m into the skill, and reached level 76 very quickly (I was rank 250 in the skill at the time, and reached my all-time highest overall rank of 5.982 at this point as well). However, I had decided to hold onto my santa hat (worth 12.9m the day before the skill release) for an extra two weeks (had plummeted to 7.6m and was not done falling at that point). All in all, I used up 28.5m in getting 1-76 construction using a method that now would likely cost me no more than 5m.

I was not unfazed at this realization, and quickly retreated to relative solitude in agility, one of my favorite skills at the time. With the recent release of the Ape Atoll course, I decided to train there until I got sick of it. I was 74 at the time, and didn't even leave the course until after I was 94 agility. Through the summer of 2006, I did get 74-99 agility almost continuously (I was the 69th person to reach 99 agility), and didn't stop at that point. I had noticed that (at the time) rank 21 in agility, and therefore the front page, was at a mere 14.400.000 experience, so I reached 14.500k, and kept going all the way up to 17.000.000xp (rank 8 at the time, see my signature). At the point when I got to 17 million xp, I was the player who had completed the most laps on the Ape Atoll course (approximately 29.300 at the time). In addition to 99 agility, that milestone coincided perfectly with 1700 total level. The skill capes were released late that year, leading to me hearing 'do emote plzzzzzz' at least 1500 times over the past several years.

Hunter, More 99s, and the Fletching Mistake

With the release of hunter that fall, I got back into actually gaining levels, and quickly reached 70, which was good for 1796 total. I noticed that I could, just as at 1700, get 1800 total, my original skill goal from 2005, to coincide with my original two favorite skills, woodcutting and fletching, getting to 99. This was a no-brainer, I got 1800 in early 2007 at a large party with over 100 people in attendance, the way I had imagined it over a year prior, and decided that I would continue on to 2000 total, and enter the pantheon of extremely good skillers.

This brings me to the second of three critical career mistakes. While alching the remainder of the bows from 99 fletching, I was asked by a good friend to help block Desert Treasure bosses for his pure. I decided that I could still alch while doing so, and didn't think to bank the majority of the bows/natures. I attempted to heal myself by eating, but misclicked and died holding approximately 8700 alchs, or 6.700k, approximately 2/3 of my net worth at the time.

This led to an attempt to remake quick money, mortgaging nearly my entire bank on a mud staff (which cost 4.6m at the time) to earn full infinity at the magic training arena, which was new at the time. I successfully was able to earn the full infinity, going from 71 to 84 magic doing so, and selling the entire set for approximately 14.500k.

Balance, and More Insanity

Since this point, as I have had a fascination with Guthix since my free-play days in RS Classic, I have been attempting to balance my noncombat skills, and have been measuring myself on the lowest ones. At that point, my lowest was 58 herblore, but I pledged that I could get all of them above 73 (including slayer), or 1 million xp in each skill (a number still not reached by any of my melee combat stats). This meant only one thing: going to the cannon.

Since I was still relatively poor, I financed the cannonballs by doing three things: making the cannonballs myself and buying only coal, getting as much coal as I could from Miscellania, and hunting red chins. All in all, I ended up mining approximately 70.200 iron, and making 280.900 cannonballs. Yes, 281 thousand cannonballs. In the process of using them, I reached 83 slayer. Although I could have sold the cannonballs for over 60 million, this is not considered my third large mistake. What happened next is even worse.

The Third Mistake, and a Farming Break

I was looking through different ways to raise some of the more difficult buyable skills, since my sources of income were rather limited with the skills I had (and the recent institution of string-x, in my opinion the worst thing Jagex had done to a stat to that point, although I consider the proliferation of skill-x since then an equal travesty). I settled on a potential moneymaker: Dorgeshuun lightorbs. They were 1050 firemaking xp each and could be sold on the forums for 1k each at the time. Considering the molten glass required to make these was somewhat less than 1k at the time, I immediately jumped on board and bought 52000 molten glass. Two days later, the Grand Exchange and the removal of unbalanced trades was announced. Lightorbs were one of the largest fallers from day one, starting at 1950gp and ending up well under 50gp at the present time. 48.100 lightorbs still sit in my bank, blown into form but unfinished due to the scarcity and expense of cave goblin wires.

Through the power of my second favorite minigame, Vinesweeper, I was persuaded to stay for a while longer in the game, while getting all but two of my noncombats (slayer and runecrafting) to 80 (double of 73, so 2 million xp). I managed to go from 74 to 81 farming all in one go (I was officially the first person to gain 1.000.000 farming xp in one day, since I turned in 1.000.000 points at once). However, due to school and other concerns, I was forced to give the game up in May of 2008 for what I figured was for good.

The Return: Finishing Up

However, in mid-May 2009, I felt that my 2000/89 goal, as I had pledged to do like I had told the partygoers at 1800 total, was woefully unfinished, and I returned again to make the final push from 1946 to 2000. In the process of reaching 2000 total, I finally finished several long-overdue 99s: firemaking, thieving, fishing, and cooking. This leaves me with only nine noncombat skills that are not 99. Soon after I reached 2000 total, though, the results of the Runescape Machinima Contest were announced, and my video did not even make the top 50. (It's at the bottom of this post - you can make your own judgments.) This made me fairly angry, and once again, I quit the game for what I hoped would be for good (I was also entering the busiest school semester of my life, which was another major factor.)

Past 2000: The Unlikely And the Inevitable

Once that semester ended, I once again checked into the game in January of 2010. To my great surprise, the extreme potion update had spiraled the herblore market out of control, and my 600 lantadyme seeds, bought for a pittance the previous summer (1.2k each), were now worth over 20m. I decided to use this newfound wealth to quickly dispose of high-investment skills like smithing and crafting. Hunter, which also went quickly to 99 after butterfly barehanding was released, brought my 99 total to 11, leaving only four more pure noncombats. Construction, admittedly a favorite of mine, followed quickly, and immediately afterward, Dungeoneering was released. Thanks to a decent group of friends, I managed to get 80 dungeoneering within a couple weeks, and have been occasionally training floors since then.

Using farming and mining to finance 99 herblore, I realized that I was less than 15 levels away from reaching all 15 noncombat 99s at 89 combat, something that I was sure had not been done yet. Although it required much patience, since my least favorite skill by far, runecrafting, made up the vast majority of the remaining xp, I managed on September 19 to reach 99 farming and runecrafting (mining had come the previous week), giving me the fifteen 99s I had been headed for really since 1319 total.

Sorry, I talk a TON, I know.[/hide]

Fifteen 99s. What do I do now? Well, I go to Disney W take a break from my less favorite skills *coughrunecrafting* and move on to something I really want to do.

~Yes, you heard correctly - 200 million xp~

My favorite skill in the game is agility - but I haven't trained it almost at all since the gigantic binge of 2006. As such, I plan to go back and train it until I'm blue in the face.

I will never be able to reclaim my #8 rank, but I'm going to come as close as I can to it. The only way to ensure that I don't fall behind again is to get to 200 million xp.

I realize that relative to my current xp this is a lot, BUT my agility training was done at Ape Atoll, which means that 200m will only take 5x the time instead of 9x like it might from 20m xp.

I will need roughly 244,000 laps to get to 200m xp.

Current xp: 19.0m/74.2m/200.0m

Laps: 74500 (30.6%)

Rank: 221/23/??

(Last update: 20 January 2011)

Projected date of 200m at current rates: 1 October 2011

I am going into this fully knowing that this is a much longer and more difficult goal than I have ever had in the past, and that I might not even come close to completing it. However, it won't be for lack of trying.

I won't reveal all my longterm plans at once, because I find I have trouble sticking to plans that are made way too far in advance. However, I will start hinting as to what I plan to do in the near future.

If I am successful with 200m agility xp, I have three more skills lined up in which I would like to achieve 200m xp. Two of them are on the easier side, while one other is also somewhat rare like agility is.

In addition, I will keep trying for 99 slayer and 120 dungeoneering at 89 combat. Both of these will take a long time, but are definitely possible.

And I know you guys like pictures to be posted in blogs, so:

HERE IS MY ORIGINAL MACHINIMA ENTRY

I didn't win anything, not even an honorable mention

And another one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IQbYX3sSLw

Good to see you back here :P

Good luck on the crafting goal, the shop on the lunar isle is good for buyin battlestaffs :D

Also first post once again :wink:

Hehe, thanks.

Now hopefully getting first post here will actually start to mean something...=P

Nice stats :shock:

Gl with goals and one thing I was NOT expecting was the 77 slayer at 89 combat.... thats pretty goood.... like really good :

Thanks. =P

I just got done burning 152k cannonballs to get to 77 slayer, actually - it used to be by far my lowest skill.

Thats alot of cballs :shock:

Yeah - a few too many for me :wall:

I guess that's why I'm moving on, though (originally planned to get 80).

99 agil owns swamp :P

O_o 7.2K Battlestaffs Good Luck! Btw..Mind if I help out with the buckets of sand? :-k

Are orbs actually good xp? I've tried them but they are annoying

Piman (1st time): Heh, hopefully soon I'll pass his total.

Scooby, I was actually going to post for buying some seaweed/sand - how much would you charge per bucket?

As for the xp on orbs, they're not great just by themselves (72.5 if you include the molten glass xp), but charge air and (66 crafting for this next step) attach to a battlestaff, each battlestaff is 137.5 xp. The staves sell for ~7100-7200ea, while they alch for 9300ea. It's a pretty decent profit along the way, rather than the loss you get from hides.

Well, seeing as it's only a few clicks for me..Free if you wanted >.<

I can get 84 Buckets a Day..Hand in Sand Ftw..I've 137 So far, there yours if you want 'em :thumbsup:

Wow, thanks.

So I guess I should get working on that seaweed, then...

Good luck!

Hehe, thanks.

EDIT: 75 runecrafting snuck up on me.

~Sorry about this^~

Up.

Nice stats. You remind me of Moridin, which can only be a good thing.

683 days with 89 combat? get 90 and start skilling again

numbers with 0s at the end ftw

EDIT: Post on my blog :thumbsup: , URL is at my siggy

Nice stats. You remind me of Moridin, which can only be a good thing.

That is definitely a good thing. =P One can only imagine where he'd be now if he were still playing like he was...

J35u5, I've actually become attached to the 9 at the end of my combat level - so I can say I'm <90. Besides, there's more good skillers at 90 who are higher than me! More competition? :anxious: :anxious:

I feel at home not gaining combat levels, anyway. =P

Thanks.

Mr Ph3r is my idol. :XD:

That's also a good thing. =P

Wow that is some SUPER stats! :shock:

Spare me 4m agility exp plz, :wall: I want that 99 agility too :P

I'll sell it to you - 2.6gp per xp - deal? :thumbsup:

Thanks. =P

Loving the stats. 89 combat for life :D Been 89 for about 3 years :P

Get 99 fm and cooking 8-)

Hehe, thanks - 99 cooking I'll get once I fish, and 99 firemaking I'll fit in somewhere soon, hopefully. :D