Punitive_D

I agree with you -- that's exactly the right spirit! We should do what seems fun! I think some of us spend too much time trying to figure out "efficient" training methods so that we forget that we're supposed to be having fun! I've never had a whip drop. Maybe I'll join you at some point!

I fully support this project and am anxious to see your results, but you'll get your dfs faster at spiritual mages.

I suppose I agree that nechs deserve a better drop. It's nice to look forward to the ability to kill new slayer monsters, but that's not the case with nechs right now. There really isn't anything good about the assignment. But I like the idea of improving their drops in general rather than giving them a drop that will encourage people to camp. Perhaps noted mith bars? I'd hate to see people farming d scimitars. Of course, 80 is a pretty high slayer level, so maybe the d scimitar or b axe would be ok. In general, though, I agree with your point.

Oh! Oh! I know this one! The answer is "no."

You're definitely right that they drop water orbs -- a ton of them! I thought they dropped uncharged orbs as well. Something that I kill drops noted uncharged orbs because they build up in my bank. When I get enough, I make a few air orb runs. Anybody know what drops noted uncharged orbs?

Well, he certainly used to, but, now that you mention it, I haven't had a brine rat assignment from him in quite some time. I would hate to think that I will never get them again!

No, unless they put the Monastery in. That means your only options are prayer potions, Super Restore potions, SGS spec, the Chaos Altar, and the Zamorak Altar. They put the Monastery in. :P Plus, there are place in wildy to recharge prayer.

Maybe this thread has been here before, but the DIY thread made me think of this. Like some who posted there, I am a cheapskate. Pretty much the only things I buy on the GE are things that are way beyond my level to make or things that are extremely rare drops. This means that I gather a lot of my own raw materials. Over the years, some of my material gathering methods have evolved. For example, pure ess. In the beginning, I mined it. Wow, was that a drag. Then I discovered temple trekking, and for quite some time, I temple trekked for all my pure ess. Then I switched to gargoyles. Now I camp abby demons for pure ess. Sure beats mining it. Another problem for me was raw sharks for bunyip pouches. I hate fishing, so getting the level to fish sharks is out of the question in the short run. Then Duradel was kind enough to assign brine rats to me -- noted raw sharks as a fairly common drop from a very easy monster to kill. Even newbs can camp brine rats all day. I may never get the level to fish sharks now! A third an final example is waterfiends. Those little guys provide a lot of raw materials for me -- just a few are noted snapegrass, noted water filled vials, noted mith bars, and, most importantly, noted uncharged orbs. Sure, you have to pray against them, but it's not too bad, and take an sgs, and you can camp there for a very, very long time. Now I wonder whether I might be missing other opportunities to gather raw materials through combat?

Not sure what my official join date is, but I've been reading for a couple years. On the negative side, I have to agree that the discussions do not seem quite as creative, thorough and intelligent as they used to be. If I were to try to pinpoint when I saw the dip, I would say about the time of the sabotage. It seems we lost some important contributors about that time, and I think the forum still is recovering. On the positive side, try spending an hour perusing any other Runescape forum -- Tip.it still is the best, and it's not close.

This good point is frequently overlooked. For me, a skill cape would simply be something to put in my cape slot. Fire cape is better, I know, but a skill cape actually would be easier for me to get. I play one hour at a time, so a skill cape is possible given enough years, but I find it very hard to do the concentrated playing that would be necessary to get the fire cape. So I wouldn't belittle someone who grinds an easy skill just to get a good cape. Why not? I spent a week getting bones to peaches, and I see no shame in that. What's the difference?

I'm not high level yet, but maybe a bit higher than you so far, and my experience is that the game is fun at every level. There's always another challenge around the corner. Something new to try. Something new to buy. Another boss to solo. Another mini-game to master. I'd say it's more fun now than when I started, but not that much more. The fun's just different.

I looked at the graphs for bunyip pouches, and it does look like someone has been manipulating. But notice that they could keep it up only for a couple weeks. There are so many people like me sitting on thousands of green charms (and bloodveld are a ready supply anytime you need more), that any price [bleep]e has to be very short-lived. I'm watching it now, and if they go above 3k again, I'm dumping thousands of pouches into the market (and I'll buy them back cheaper later on). And I'll bet some of you are one step ahead of me -- calling all shark fishers.

The vast majority of things cannot be effectively price manipulated in runescape (not in the long run, anyway). Price manipulation works for those items that cannot easily be produced in response to increased demand. (For you economists, the term is "inelasticity of supply.") For most things in runescape, if someone tries to drive up the price by buying it out, then people will be induced by the higher price to produce more of it, thus driving the price back down. That's why rares can be price manipulated. When the price is driven up, there's no way to produce more. The price just keeps going up. Somebody may be trying to manipulate bunyip pouches, but I think it's just as likely that people are stocking up in anticipation of major training this summer. Things like super set and bunyip pouches will be in great demand. I don't blame the merchers for price manipulation -- I blame the ge. Jagex set up a system to control the market, but the market cannot be controlled. Any system can be gamed, and the merchers are doing what always will be done (particularly in a game) -- they're gaming the system. But don't blame merchers every time something gets bought out -- sometimes things are simply in high demand. Remember, only things for which supply is relatively inelastic (e.g., rares, treasure trail items and uncommon drops) can be price manipulated in the long run. If I see that some fool is trying to price manipulate something that I can make any time I want, I'll produce all that I can of it and sell it to him all the way up the price climb. In fact, I'm gonna take a look at bunyip pouches right now -- might be time for some profit.

Only a newb would walk up to someone and insult their cape, and only a newb would be bothered by it.

Your constant and shameless pumping of partyhats is becoming pretty transparent.

I don't want to cause you to melt into a puddle of tears or anything, but do you think maybe you're taking this a little too seriously?

Make no mistake -- 99 defense would save you a lot of food.

Maybe, but keep in mind that slayer is desireable only to level 83 (max money comes from spiritual mages). After that, people are training it because they like it, not because it's desireable for some other reason.

Really? It seems I don't see half as many 99 slayers as 99 combat, cooking, firemaking, fletching or woodcutting.

Spoken like a partyhat owner.

Well what are people putting their money in then? If the spirit shields, 3rd age and partyhats all are dropping, that money has to be going somewhere.

I was just thinking the other day that one of the nice things irl is its rhythm. The variety of the changing seasons really adds a lot of beauty and interest to life. I was also thinking that runescape ought to incorporate more of this. I was thinking of this in the context of holiday events. The 2008 halloween event was very nice for me largely because of the unique look of the trick or treating areas. I was thinking that, now that they've written the code, they should bring that back every year. Others have mentioned the 2005? Christmas event with a huge tree in Varrock. Why not decorate for the holidays every year? I think these spring flowers are a very nice touch. I'm glad that they're temporary, and I hope that they bring them back every year. I would like to see other seasonal additions. For example, there could be a summer "water hole" where players could swim (kind of like playing in the snow in Christmas 2007, which I think they should bring back every year). Trees could change color in the fall. You get the idea.

I'm no expert, but I don't think 84 attack, 80 defense and 99 strength adds up with "usually" using your whip -- you're practically a strength pure.

Should you feel proud? No, dude, you played a game for a long time. Should you feel happy? Sure. Hey, I'd like to have 99 strength! Gratz!

Granting the point that no skill in Runescape is "hard" like training for a sport is hard or digging a ditch is hard, I interpret the question to imply a relative standard. In other words, is it hard compared to other skills in Runescape? I think the best way to answer this is to look at how many people have done it. Not very many have 85 slayer. I have not checked, but I'll bet that there are more combat related skillcapes out there than there are players with 85 slayer. It may be "easy" in some sense, but relatively few get 85 slayer. I call that "hard," probably not as hard as 85 runecrafting, but still relatively hard. My slayer is only 86, but my rank in slayer is a lot higher than my rank in my higher level combat skills. One thing I've learned in going on three years of playing runescape is that if something is easy, lots of people do it. Not a lot (relatively speaking) of people have 85 slayer.