qeltar

Why? Is this a MULTIPLAYER game or just a single player game on shared servers? And if Jagex wanted to force everyone to do everything themselves, why not admit that up front?

Interesting topic, but... These are pretty big negatives. I do most of my melee training via Slayer, so the black mask is important. The defence of the void armor is rubbish, so unless you are only killing low-level monsters, it's going to hurt. All that for a very marginal benefit at best. So no, I don't think it's underrated.

The ess miners were gone weeks ago, and the price already went up from that. Then it went back down a lot, and now it has gone up even more. It's not because of the ess miners this time.

A combination of factors. 1. PvP has been effectively killed (or at least mortally wounded) so more people are skilling, and RC has a reputation of being "easy money". More demand. 2. Fewer bots = fewer pure ess miners (though normal people are starting to fill that role now.) 3. Speculation over Summoning. 4. The Grand Excrement. Its 5% limits, which were intended to "increase stability", have the side effect of causing overshoots in item prices that cause them to go up for many days in a row and then down for many days in a row. It has affected many items, not just ess. I predicted this weeks ago, and it is just allowing smart merchants to make more $ than they ever could before the GE. Impossible to say just how high this bubble will go before it pops, but like all bubbles it *will* pop -- at the very latest when Summoning is released (even if there *is* a new rune -- my prediction).

Here's how it works in full detail. - If you hit 0, you either get nothing or 10 HP and 5 PP (seems about 50/50). - If you hit 1 to 21, you get 10 HP and 5 PP. - If you hit 22 or above, you get 1/2 the damage dealt to HP and 1/4 to Prayer, rounded down.

I don't understand what the problem is with your chart.. tell me and I can probably help. ~q

And yet a couple of days ago I sold 2,000 of them for more than they are going for now. The explanation is rather simple, actually. The 5% price limits are creating "overshoot" distortions in the market. Once prices start going up -- as they did with snapdragon for several days -- they go up 5% every day and tend to go much further up than they should. (I sold about 1k of my snaps for over 9k a piece, a crazy price well above what they were before all the recent changes.) Then when the price starts to drop, everyone jumps off the bandwagon, the price goes down 5% every day until the process reverses. I'm pretty sure that this also explains the bizarre price moves in several other herbs (marrentill, toadflax) and several other commodities: oak logs, gold ore, certain potions, and definitely pure essence right now.

I like your proposals. They will never happen, of course, but I do like them. That said.. I think the current overpricing of pure ess is due to two main factors. First, people are hoarding it due to rumors about a new rune being released for Summoning. Second, the Grand Excrement is not allowing the market price to be freely set, which increases the duration of run-ups in prices (or drops in prices in the other direction). I think prices will go back down once the skill comes out -- probably dramatically so. I consider this a good time to sell essence (and have in fact sold nearly all of mine.) Prices could still go higher but there's not much room for further profits at these levels. And it's obviously a great time for ess mining if you like that sort of thing.

Hate to break it to you.. but that actually means Barrows prices are going to go *down* -- even more than they already are. Most people are going to get more items from the Barrows than they need to buy in order to do it. (That minigame is way too easy and needs an overhaul, but that's a different subject.)

Sorry, but this claim is fundamentally flawed. Everyone keeps saying it, but that doesn't make it any less flawed. The supply is small and won't be increasing, true, but price is dependent on both supply *and* demand. Right now demand for these items is dropping. Since so much of the market for them is built on basically nothing (speculation, bragging rights, merchanting, and players who have now left) there is nothing to suggest that the price will necessarily return to what it once was. When bubbles burst, sometimes they recover to their former highs, but sometimes they do not.

That's the mantra that rare owners keep chanting, but it's not necessarily true. Rares are basically a fad item, their price increases fueled by large amounts of money and "investors" speculating on prices. The economy has just been changed fundamentally, and where they go from here is anyone's guess (though mine is "down a lot more, then maybe back up a bit").

There's going to be a tug-of-war on armor prices. Fewer people getting them but also less demand. In the last few days armor prices are generally down.

I like that other spot.. no mages. And the locust lancers have slightly different drops.

Good concepts, but WAY too complex. Jagex is not going to implement something that prompts their CS department to get 12 million "wtf?" messages. :)

No offense, but your friend seems to have a real problem. It's not Summoning that's to blame.

Even before the nerf the bone crossbow was rubbish. Addy bolts are cheap now... use them. :)

Hmm good idea, I hadn't gone back to look at those. If there are no mages there it could be a good choice. I'll check it out.

The mages are nasty as hell. Avoid at all costs. Quick notes... First, be sure you attach the rope to the rock to get the Agility shortcut. Only need to do once. Be SURE to bring a 4-dose anti and a 4-dose Recilym's balm. Then... 1. Use scepter to get to Agility Pyramid.. go to the shortcut, scamber past mummies and into dungeon. 2. Go west until the area darkens... look for the trap on the floor and get past it. 3. Continue roughly into the middle area... do NOT go into the big room to the south and do NOT continue west to where there's another floor trap. "Lure" the rangers and lancers into places where you can fight them one at a time. Do this and the mages will leave you alone. If a mage zaps you, take your balm and super anti. I recommend super att/str, sara brew/sup restore and Guthans. And a life ring.. saved my [wagon] there once already. Also bring a chisel, a frequent drop is two cut, unnoted emeralds. I believe they can be cannoned as well, but *I* sure am not doing it. :)

GW, I am not impartial and never claimed to be. I do try to separate my attempts at fact-based reporting from my opinion pieces, but I am (obviously) very opinionated and will not try to hide that fact. If there are any good arguments against free markets, I haven't seen them. A certain degree of limitations to prevent abuse is fine, but the current system doesn't work properly. It stifles trade, destroys incentives, makes creativity unworthwhile, and dumbs the game down. For God's sake, this morning I went to the GE and I couldn't even buy *water runes*. How much more basic can you get than that? How can an exchange be considered anything but dysfunctional when even basics can't be purchased due to idiotic price ceilings? This is *exactly* what I predicted would happen in an article published the very day the GE came out, and another one after the 3k trade limit was announced.

You would get 25 hp and 12 p points.

Scabaras are assignable for Slayer after you complete the quest. My slayers are on it to see if they are a good task or not. Will post our decision after enough ppl have received them. However most quest related slayer creatures are worthless and annoying. Many people choose not to do quests so they don't get assigned/have a chance to be a time wasting worthless slayer creature. Fever spiders, warped tortises, terrorbirds, jungle horrors, etc are some examples of monsters Slayer's typically buthorpe and wish they couldnt receive. Slay on, Axe Man Jack Thanks.. yeah someone on my forum got assigned them too. Can you kill any type for the assignment, like kalphites, or do you get assigned a specific type, like the spiritual warriors/mages/rangers? I'll disagree slightly on the quest-specific monsters. Warped tortoises are fast to access, easy to kill and have some decent drops. Jungle horrors stink but cave horrors have great drops (if not the best XP). And so far these seem to have really good drops too.

Not quite. The SGS can only be used 2 times every 5 minutes. And it doesn't always hit. But for "marginal" monsters where before you needed Guthans only once in a while, it can now often replace Guthans. And on monsters where prayer is used, its combination of restoring prayer and giving a +8 prayer bonus makes it very handy.

*nods in agreement* I paid about 70m for my SGS in the first week after the GWD came out. Sold stuff to raise enough $ to get it. During this time period it was easily the rarest of the GSes, because very few people were doing Sara -- most were at Bandos or Zammy and the rangers were doing Armadyl. Despite it being so rare, it was still undervalued because few people recognized the great potential of this weapon. A few weeks later it shot up, getting as high as around 180m before succumbing to the recent slump affecting everything. But it's still an amazing piece of equipment for those who can afford it. There are few places where it is not incredibly useful. Heck, I was even using it at Pyramid Plunder! :) BTW... the minimum of 10 and 5 only applies if you hit.. but that is a bit vague. Sometimes when you hit a 0 the game thinks you "missed" and you get nothing; other times it still gives you your 10 and 5. A couple of other things some people don't realize... - It heals/restores based on what you *would have* hit. So you can use it to full effect even on spiders and rats or big monsters near death. - It even works on things like kurasks and turoths (where Guthans now does NOT work.) - The spec works in food-off duels.

Ginger Warrior, my support of a free market is for several reasons. 1. Jagex *claims* that this is what *they* want. Here's a direct quote: So I am holding their feet to the fire on this. If they really don't want a free market, then they should be honest and say so. 2. Free markets work. Centrally planned markets fail. This is due to simple economic principles and human nature, and has always been true since trading began. 3. Practicality: the GE as currently implemented doesn't let me buy and sell items I want to buy and sell. 4. Adaptability: the current price restrictions mean that every time the game changes, item values will change and we won't be able to buy or sell those items. 5. Fairness: having price restrictions is unfair to people who want to buy and sell for what they consider the value of items to be. 6. Freedom matters. 7. The dynamic nature of the RS economy is a good aspect of the game. Centrally-controlled markets are boring as hell. 8. Restricted markets stifle creativity, by providing a disincentive to those who would choose to develop new uses for products, or new services to help others.

"Heil the Fuhrer"? What the hell is the matter with you? Are you suggesting that someone who has no experience with politics can speak of it with as much relevance and authority as someone who does? No, I specifically did NOT say that. Christ, this place is getting to be as bad as the RSOF.