nightzero

So far all you have listed is ways that Summoning makes the game easier, not better. Everything on your list was done before, it just took longer. So really, Summoning isn't a great skill, it's just a skill that speeds things up, which doesn't necessarily make it a great skill that one can't live without. I don't think you understand the phrase "can't live without." It means that it has to be something that cannot be done with any other method, like lighting pyre logs, or fletching magic longbows, or perhaps even building yourself a house. Summoning is useless in the fact that it doesn't let us do anything we couldn't have done before... it just lets us do it quicker and easier. Construction at least lets us build a home in which we can battle friends in a multitude of ways never seen before. I doubt anybody has seen the pummeling game before, American Gladiators' style. Or even allowing us to store items beyond our bank's normal capacity. Heck, Construction even gave us new ways to spend time with our friends like the dungeon, or just sitting down to the dining table to have a meal made by the cook. Even if it isn't Construction, skills like RuneCraft, which was released due to the horrible effort to get to 99 Magic, has new abilities. The skill itself created a major industry in essence running. It created the viability of alching items for profit. And that was just what it offered at release. Now, years later, there's the Abyss which successfully acts as a transport system to anywhere in the world, just about. You can go from Edgeville to the Digsite in a matter of seconds, or even to Shilo Village. With pure essence, it created a seperate sector for lower level members: the ability to mine these essence, and make millions of gp with no need to be a level 100 or greater. Even something like Firemaking is more useful than Summoning. With Firemaking, you have the ability to explore new areas unaccessible without a light. It makes fishing and cooking a viable f2p staple of life. Without firemaking, people would be constricted to certain areas, with certain requirements. Now, people can feel free to roam about the world, knowing they can do whatever it is that they need to do, because they have the security of a light, or the mobility of a fire. Fishing to the West of Port Sarim isn't a joking matter, simply because of the ability to light a fire right next to you, to allow you to cook on the spot. If that weren't possible, there would be absolutely no reason to fish there, other than solidarity. Any skill is more viable, and more useful, than Summoning. It gives us cool pets that give us cool bonuses, but NONE of them offer us anything we couldn't do before. And I know someone will say "but now a level 80 can kill a level 100 monster, where he/she might not have been able to before." But guess what? That is remedied with this quick solution: Prayer Potions. If a person is able to kill a monster with a minion (assuming that this person has level 43 Prayer), then that person is more than capable of killing that monster. "But that would require Prayer that a person might not have," you say? Then isn't leveling Prayer just as simple as leveling Summoning to a level suitable to summon a significant attack minion? Anything lower than Bronze Minotaur, I'll even say, isn't going to be enough to help a person overcome that difficulty of killing a monster that is a much higher level than him/her. The same goes for Slayer, really. I'd be fine with Slayer if the unique drops weren't able to be traded. An Abyssal Whip, Dragon Boots, or even the Granite Maul would be great rewards for a person of that Slayer level. But it's sad when a person with level 1 Slayer can wield something that requires level 85 Slayer to get. I believe this is the point that most people hate about Slayer: the "rewards" aren't rewards, so much as methods to get money. The fact is, a lot of the newly released skills are useless. Summoning, Slayer, and especially Hunter. Ah Hunter, the skill that everybody levels up for the sake of leveling it up. So you can get Reds that make you gain faster Ranged levels. Again, that's not a unique ability, that's just something that speeds it up. The ONLY unique abilities of this skill are the clothes: Spotted/Spottier Capes, and the Thieving gloves. But lets face it, those could have been added as rewards for quests, minigames, other skills, or just purchasable from a clothing store. The only use that Hunter has right now, in any way, is to help with Ranged, weight, and Summoning (with the Ruby Harvest butterflies). We've taken care of how Summoning is useless, so that gets rid of the butterflies. Ranged can be trained without Reds, so there they go. The items that lower your weight could have been given out with the other methods stated above. To me, it just seems like Hunting is just a filler that Jagex made for the desire to release another skill to let people level. There was no thought behind it, and no follow-through to make it successful. If this post wasn't long enough already, I'll just add one more paragraph to it. People keep saying that Firemaking is pointless, and that it offers no rewards. I fear that people are only clicking on the skill and scrolling through the pages to see what rewards are offered. Little does anybody realize that you need Firemaking to do things such as certain minigames, like the Tears of Guthix. Who doesn't want free experience points? Oh but wait, without Firemaking, there would be no lanterns, which mean you can't go down there to get all of that free experince. As well, Firemaking allows people to be mobile. When fishing, do you really want to go to a crowded area, which makes the fishing spot jump around like it's playing a game of Tag? Or do you want to find a secluded area where you can just relax, fish, cut a log, burn it, and cook your fish? I think that Firemaking allows F2P the ability to train Fishing and Cooking a lot easier, and with many more methods, than otherwise possible. It makes certain areas of the map more readily accessible, and more desirable than other, more popular, areas. Rimmington is a ghost town, but mainly because of the lack of a bank. There are fishing spots, and even willow trees there that nobody visits, because they can't bank, and then sell those items. But bring a woodcutting ax, and a tinderbox, and you have one of the best training areas in all of F2P. Firemaking cannot become part of another skill for the need of diversity. There are so many things that require Firemaking, that would make any other skill completely loaded with rewards, which would turn everybody to that skill. If Firemaking became a part of Crafting, I think you'd find many more people becoming high level Crafters for that reason. Wolfe, most of your post is alright except your last paragraph is what caught my eye. You say that without firemaking there would be no Tears of Guthix....are you really that stupid(no offence)? Are you saying that there needs to be a skill called digging to have coordinate clues in treasure trails? You said many people would become high lvl crafters if fm was combined with crafting, but really how many people plan on getting past lvl 49 crafting/fm which is the requirement for firemaking. How often do you see people burning yews or magics? And if firemaking was part of crafting..then everyone wouldnt really need to lvl crafting in f2p because guess what? you can still burn normal tree logs which require 1 fm/crafting. So it wouldnt really create a huge demand in crafting....I can see it now "Newsflash: As fm has been combined with crafting, millions are cutting gems in hopes of lighting those amazing bulls-eye lanterns and burning magic logs." And Rimmington isnt "one of the best training areas in f2p". Even with fm no one fishes near Rimmington because of the reason stated...there isnt a bank! And really nowadays most lower lvls keep their fish uncooked because its easier to sell raw and it sells for more. Really the only people that cook on fires are the ones in that Rogue place...and that fires not even player made :P. Even in f2p mostly everyone does their cooking on ranges.

Just because most people prefer torso to torag's plate doesn't mean its right : PC is bad for XP, most high levels are smart enough not to go there. Not many players rich enough for bandos train on monsters so low that they never hit. If your praying, initiate is far, far better period. And the +6 strength is far, far overestimated, as I've pointed out several times already. I didnt say it was right, I just said its coveted... as for pc..That's funny because I(lvl 114) went there today to get the void range armour and after a few minutes and talking to a few high lvls, I found a 110+ world. It was extremely packed and boats kept getting full in 5 seconds with lvl 110+'s. Some may think that pc is bad exp but if you have a high lvl team it's not bad and it helps with skills like magic. So either most high levels arent smart according to you....or pc is not that bad. Btw I think you mean proselyte, not initiate :P but yea I know proselyte is better but str IS pretty helpful. So say what you will but +6 strength is still a nice bonus. Besides like many have said, bunyips are more than enough for most slayer tasks these days. For example I was killing dust devils an hour ago and I broguth 15 cakes....they lasted me the whole task and guess what? I was using my bandos :D And what does being rich have to do with training on high-hitting monsters? I dont see the connection...

It's true that barrows defense bonuses are way too strong for such an easy to get armour, not to mention the set bonuses...but like you said 3rd age is a status symbol and dont you think its expensive enough already :P But yea I guess maybe 3rd age and barrows coulda switched but then half of rs wouldnt be able to have any armour past rune D: And also imo bandos is better than barrows because offensive is very helpful imo, especially in places like pc or lower level monsters that you really dont need much defense against or monsters that you would pray against, bandos wins. Str bonus is VERY coveted in rs and to prove that just count how many people you see with fighter torsos. Imo I think 3rd age should have been stronger than barrows but bandos is fine.

You mean you've never used a range? You do realize that most logs(yew/magic) go to fletching and not firemaking right..it wouldnt ruin woodcutting or fishing.

Exactly my point, quest cape is easy to obtain. But only 80k people have 69 smithing, combine that with all the other requirements, lots of time for like at least 100 quests...and you have a not so easy cape.

Other than chinchompas, i find hunter pretty useless as well.

wait..who's complaining? i said it was not easy..as you cant argue that 70 farming is easy. I didnt whine about it :P btw i agree, "slightly darker blue* would be nice.

No i think you need lvl 58 but someone correct me o.o

I was thinking dark blue or black trim.

Ill bet you train your range by cutting down trees, fletching the arrows and bows, then ranging, right? You prolly RC your runes too (all of them). Oh, prayer, cant forget the thousands of house you spent at dragons to get all those bones to bury. No. You buy those skills. No one looks down on magic, range, or prayer; when you usually buy them unless your insane and want to fletch or catch chins or RC your way there. If your going to say summoning is bad, at least get a better fool proof reason. Lol pwned =D>

exactly one of its best uses is total level..now tahts just pathetic when u get a skill up just for total level.

Um actually, without smithing there would be no cannonballs in the game, and most rune items, mainly kites and scimmies are player made, it also gives use to the mining skill aswell... Yes smithing was a good skill back in RSC but now it's useless since rune items are so deflated. If only you could make better armours with smithing....

They cant afford it :P

I have a quest cape too, imo better than alot of 99's

I totally agree. I'm working towards 70 farming to finish my lvl 3 diary as well.

Yea I agree, crafting is pretty useless atm. Other than making furies, whats the point?

that made me lol :D

I'm guessing youre joking but im not sure...

But defense is used in alll 3-magic,range and melee. I agree that attack and strength should be combined. I mean rangers only need 1 skill, magers need 1, why should meleeers need 2? Again im not counting defense because that is similar to hp, used to in all 3

Well as for easy, few people have done the Varrock 3 as it requires 70 farming, so I agree with too few diaries, but not too easy. I think maybe after 5 are released they should release the achievement cape. 31k people have 70 farming or higher, that's quite a lot if you ask me. But over 40k people have 99 fletching and over 42k people have 99 cooking, that's quite a lot if you ask me

Lol me too, so many lvl 50+ monsters that dont attack me now :D

Well as for easy, few people have done the Varrock 3 as it requires 70 farming, so I agree with too few diaries, but not too easy. I think maybe after 5 are released they should release the achievement cape.

Oh yes, "firecrafting", I'd love to see that. You can make fires in all sorts of shapes and even numbers! What an awesome update! [end sarcasim] It's the idea that Crafting and Firemaking are two separate things... Side note: you kinda screwed up the quote section... Yea, you're really taking my post out of proportion...I just said that firemaking would be part of crafting, instead of being it's own skill. As for the argument that crafting is crafting and firemaking is firemaking just look at smithing. You can smelt AND smith with smithing and theres no skill called smelting :P. Of coruse if there was you would say there's no way to combine those two :roll: Yea I kinda butchered that last post.

Why would people not waste runes for a "light puck" fire runes are almost the same price and willows and for fires as good as yews we could use astrals, which are smilar prices. Also crafting has everything to do with lightning fires, you're getting way too practical "firemaking" isnt anything in real life, it can easily be a subskill to crafting as you could "craft" a fire (rofl). And also you're being way too nitpicky about crafting and firemaking combining..remember this is a game where you kill three headed dragons..anything's possible.

Must agree here. People always say to get rid of Firemaking when they always overlook everything but the "lighting fire to cook fish on is stupid" part. Most people forget that Firemaking is vital to questing (Contact!, anyone?), and that it ironicly helps Prayer. (which some people deem useless anyway.) I guess you didnt read my post, but ah well. I explained that you could change the small parts, like the "vital to questing" part, etc. We could make lightning lanterns part of crafting or magic or something.