Yoko Kurama

There's where your reasons break down. It's not supposed to be high end-game content at all. This is supposed to be a world-changing event that affects everybody everywhere. By it's very nature, you should only be able to get to this juncture in the history/plotline of RS after you have already went through certain events (which are clearly a requirement for this). Every quest affects the world of the player but thus far they have had rational structure. Explain to me again what Azzandra is doing running around, free and rejuvinated when you haven't done Desert Treasure? It makes absolutely no sense. Jagex clearly doesn't respect its own body of work to treat it seriously. If they wanted to make this quest accessible to everyone, they should have a) not made it GM, and b) have it follow some narrative path that doesn't require quests (logically) which are not in its official requirements. It's like saying J.K. Rowling wanted Voldemort's return to be accessible to all her readers, so she never bothered writing books 1-4 (or whatever) and just skipped to the Goblet of Fire. It's nonsense.

Quantity has a quality all of its own. In certain circumstances, it matters. Indeed, those were the "great" traces that I talked about. It matters that RS actually have a rational and sensible form and structure. That's why quest requirements matter. Jagex should take their work and narrative seriously. This was, to me, obviously an effort on Jagex's part to dumb it down so that they could make it as accessible to as many kiddies as possible, in order to make $. There's no other way why they'd make the quest have no requirements, have such awesome rewards, and even make the slayer monster at the end have pitifully low requirements. Like I said, it makes no sense whatsoever to make available Chapter 5 of a book to its readers without first there being Chapters 1-4. Especially for a GM quest. There's no excuse. This is theoretically supposed to be high-end game content, not "anyone and everyone, just walk in whenever you want". If I had showed this to a friend from any other MMORPG, they'd probably dismiss the whole quest as a laughable joke, on the grounds that you just get plot regardless of whether you did the previous quests necessary to get to that plot. That's been the whole point of Quests from the start, especially GM ones, it's like reading a book. That you can have the bit about Sliske with his staff in this quest without doing the ROTM/WGS is a slap in the face of ROTM and undermining the whole point of quests.

[hide]I preferred Guthix in the old days, but then I grew equally fond of Azzandra, and Zaros. Sliske is merely too treacherous to admire. I had wanted to side with Azzandra & Co. but I couldn't betray Juna & Co. [/hide]

I agree entirely, Kimberly. It certainly had traces that were great, enough to make me happy but not satisfied. But the next quest had better a) come quick, b) be far longer and difficult, and c) have some real resolution to at least some of the stuff.

Are you sure these things happen if you don't have the requirements? I cannot confirm every single event, it is very much possible some elements are cut out if you don't have the requirements, but certain elements I can be sure of: for instance I am pretty sure that [hide]Sliske has the staff[/hide] in all versions. That's a major part of the plot that cannot logically happen without ROTM.

It obviously should have been a sequel to the other quests; it clearly had plot elements that would not logically be allowed to happen unless you have completed certain other quests. You can do this quest without having done Desert Treasure, despite the the fact that this quest features Azzandra. This makes no sense. It makes a reference to Zemouregal having lost Arrav. Again doesn't make sense without the Arrav series. Sliske has the Staff of Armadyl -- this, again, makes no sense without ROTM. Same goes for the presence of Char which makes no sense without the Firemaker's Curse. And so on. I will repeat it again, I really enjoyed doing the quest, but it was not up to standard and certain elements were poorly thought out.

Most of the lore offered there was already known to us, except the cutscene with Guthix of course.

Basically the entire quest was as follows: A) Super-duper Hype as the "most important quest ever" and a GM quest. B) Strip all requirements, and all the requirements that would make the narrative self-consistent and logical. C) Pitifully short quest. D) Add in some cool looking guys for a few fights, that always works! E) Minimal lore. F) Throw in some of the best rewards ever on a quest whose difficulty clearly does not warrant it. That will always shut up the naysayers: more rewards! Forget the delay of last week, this could have been released in place of that Kharshai teaser -- the effort there was not such that it would require all this time. Also, why wasn't Kharshai involved; they completely forgot about him. I enjoyed the quest, but the effort there was clearly not to standard. Edit: This was the latest offering in Jagex's crusade to basically make everything ridiculously easy and serve it on a platter for the kiddies.

It was good in terms of lore, sort of, but that's about it. In terms of length, it was pitifully short. It doesn't even meet the standard set by ROTM (which, in my lonesome view, was as good as WGS). Also, it makes no sense from a narrative perspective. If you haven't done DT, then WTF is Azzandra doing there? Same for Enakra and her Zarosian rival. If you haven't done ROTM, then you have no history with Sliske. That's why quest requirements made sense, and they could have tied it with the other quests directly, and actually fleshed out the whole theme. Instead, since there were no quest requirements, it was an incredibly watered down quest designed to be an abridged version of all the rich lore that came before it for a newb audience. That's why requirements make sense. And it most certainly was not at the GM level, whatsoever.

A few thoughts: Awesome quest, awesome rewards, but this quest was *not* a Grand Master quest, by any measure: length, difficulty or what have you. It was even less worthy of a GM quest than Brink of Extinction, the only thing that really saves it is the lore. I still enjoyed doing it though, but it should have been a Master quest at best. I guess I was right about the lack of requirements. [hide] I was a fanboy of the Mahjarrat all the way through but ultimately I could do not betray the Guthixians. So I sided with them. Hopefully this does not mean that my allegiance with the Zarosians is over, I really like them. I always thought a Zarosian/Guthixian alliance might work. I still like Azzandra and it seems he was true to his word while Sliske was not. For all of Sliske's intelligence and cunning, apparently he seems oblivious to the fact that he walked right into Guthix's trap. [/hide]

Though my prediction came true that, unfortunately, it was not like RFD, I'm more than happy with it, I have yet to complete it though. [hide] Interestingly enough someone on the RSOF predicted that Guthix would die based on some leak. [/hide]

A bit dramatic, don't ya think? :wink:

I believe all the Gods have that power. But it's not explicitly stated anywhere, just sort of implied - strongly in the case of Guthix. Also, Mod Emile has confirmed that the quest will be today. Cheers. It is confirmed Guthix can shape-shift; it said so in the old god letters and was discussed earlier in this thread - Even in the BTS video they mention the butterfly artefact we find being shaped like 'one of guthix's forms' Yeah, I was 99% sure in the case of the Guthix, but I am unsure with regards to the others. I sort of assume that they can.

I believe all the Gods have that power. But it's not explicitly stated anywhere, just sort of implied - strongly in the case of Guthix. Also, Mod Emile has confirmed that the quest will be today. Cheers.

Sorry, I had meant to reply to you earlier but it slipped my mind: So can they use it to find another Mahjarrat or not? Or only in certain cases? Makes sense, particularly #3. I was referring to after Azzandra's release. If he was such a feared and powerful whose loyalty to Zaros was unwavering, why wouldn't Zemourgoul and Co. sense his release and try to deal with him right away (especially since Zemourgoul seems to be contemplating doing that already) rather than letting Azzandra scheme away in the desert/digsite and what not? While I do think that's plausible logically that they would abstain from fighting one another given that they are dependent, biologically, upon one other for survival, it's also true that the race as a whole is quite bloodthirsty, warlike, and split between the factions of Zaros and Zammy. But even if we accept this theory, it's known from Zemourgoul's notes that there times when he was looking for other Mahjarrats as sacrifices who were hiding from him. If he has the ability to search for them, why wouldn't he do that rather than leaving it to luck/chance that he might find Lamistard? Where is it implied that this tactic has been successful? Interesting. RS wikia, unreliable though it is, suggests that his weakness (having skipped the last few rituals) makes him "exposed".

Make the Superior. Not only do trade goods take a long time to get, but the tradeable versions have crashed hard. The Superior version > some cheap cash.

I have finished Sea Singer and Tetsu as well, and am working on Death Lotus at the moment.

Nerfing Randoms was the worst PoP update thus far. It was the only thing that made PoP bearable once you reach the Pincers. At least you could farm Adventurer rerolls and farm scrolls/trade goods that way.

There's an unavoidable element of grinding that is there, as it is in all skills; however, Dungeoneering has far more variety, from just the basic fact that every dungeon is different (as are themes), and of course there are different playing styles as to how to complete dungeons (rushing vs non-rushing). That alone makes it extremely variable and exciting. Admittedly, though, by the time I got to level 116ish it got very boring. Still, it's far more dynamic and exciting than virtually any other skill out there, which don't seem to progress much further than "Choose spot, stay there till 99", or "Choose training method and repeat till 99". Dungeoneering sort of has those principles but it extends them and is more flexible with them.

I was under the impression that the EoC value for 07 had settled down. I was unable to find any reliable channels for these sorts of trust-trades or any potential buyers, otherwise I'd totally do that. As for the original OP, I think as long as 07 doesn't get shot down, at least one person will most certainly get 99 all; there's quite a few zealous rank-chasers (much like in the main game, hell some of the top ranks are the same people who top ranks in EoC). Barring the game getting shut down, or some sort of catastrophic nuke (like RSC where after all the bots got nuked it became a ghost town), someone will get the job done. I have noticed that in some of the buyable skills highscores, some of the top names are recognizably famous, wealthy players who probaby are doing inter-server trades with mainscape in order to get ahead.

I accidentally ran over a Oxhead today; by that I mean I rerolled it. Not I had any intention of changing my crew (I currently have 2 Oxheads). Oh well. Also, I am at 25 scroll pieces (all armours, naturally). I had 2 scroll pieces last night which I got thanks to an adventurer reroll. Today I had no scroll missions, it seems that despite having 4 scroll totems, the pattern is I get a scroll mission one day, then none for 1-2 days, then another scroll mission. Meh. I also had my first trio-storyline the other day (finally!) but I opted for the scroll instead. No trio today. I also get regular days where I only get 1 adventurer. I still need plenty more trade-goods, and the missions need to be made far more frequent (the standard ones for 5 each). It's ridiculous thinking how many months it's going to take me in the end. Also, now that I have gotten my crew all settled, and all the port upgrades and ship upgrades, there's literally nothing to do there. There are days I get no standard trade goods, no scrolls, no storylines, or adventurer trade goods missions. Why the [bleep] am I getting people like the Occult/Convict/Whaler with 700 steel?I don't need that, I need plates/chis/lacquers. Other days I get joint missions for Experience/steel. My 'Ports luck is awful. It's very dull.

How could that possibly become a skill? It's going to be a mini-game, much like the Duel Arena. The same way Dungeoneering is a skill. Hardly. I've never got the dislike of Dungeoneering that is rampant everywhere. Why can't the navigation/raiding of dungeons be a skill in a fantasy world like RS? Seems perfectly natural to me. People have been harping on about Archaeology for years, and I think Dungeoneering is no less legitimate than that. Rather than excavating digsites and temples and what not, in Dungeoneering you're raiding dungeons. Also, I particularly like how Dungeoneering, the 25th skill, incorporates all the others before it rather nicely.

I still think Skull-Guthix was the best. For some reason I can't put up pictures anymore, it says "image display blocked". I would have liked to link the old Guthix picture.

I agree that TWW will most likely be a very good update, but it isn't really part of March. I also am excited for the new abilities, though in my view Range is pretty OP in EoC, whereas Mage badly needed something like this.

This month certainly seems lackluster and relatively uneventful. I guess The World Wakes will serve (intentionally or perhaps unintentionally) as a cover-up, as all the excitement, the buzz, and the new unlocked slayer monsters will probably make the month seem eventful.